Julian Cope
John Balance Enters Valhalla + Self Civil War
By Chris Tosic
Part 1 — The Albums
John Balance Enters Valhalla (HH34) 2019
Two LPs in the space of six months is pretty prolific. John Balance Enters Valhalla (2019, HH34) and Self Civil War (2020, HH37) both released under Cope’s Head Heritage label, each with a different focus.
I’m not going to beat about the bush here — for those with a Krautrock mindset, a passion for motorik beats combined with psychedelic grooves, John Balance Enters Valhalla is probably for you. If, on the other hand, you’re keen on the Cope sound (and humour) then Self Civil War is your best bet.
Cope is an interesting mix of maverick and academic. With high respect for Odin, stone circles and earth burial mounds. He could probably hold court in any historical institution on all things pagan and pre-Christian and with the right amount of chemical stimulus, would evangelise for days.
Self Civil War (HH37) 2020
That said, Cope still manages to keep his sound raw, almost like a half baked demo, and I think that’s how Cope glues all this stuff together. He doesn’t let academia smother any of his ideas and he keeps the musicianship just behind the skilful curve and this, undoubtedly, is what lets the light in.
Do I have any reservations with this material? With John Balance Enters Valhalla I have none. This for me is a perfect record. Self Civil War is more complicated. Unfortunately Self Civil War likes to crack jokes and poke fun. It’s out for a good time. It wants to make me laugh or get angry. But alas, I struggle with this. John Balance is a mystery to me, Self Civil War is too transparent and knowing. John Balance Enters Valhalla isn’t bound by time or convention. Self Civil War is a collection of 3 minute pop songs. The bottom line is John Balance Enters Valhalla takes risks and that’s why it’s the better album of the two.
Part 2 — The Gig (Barbican, 8 Feb, 2020)
Cope came on punctually at 9pm. The Barbican is a classy venue so he was playin’ by the rules. With army hat, shades, black sweat shirt and shorts plus knee high military boots, he appeared stage left. He has a certain style that might put you on edge but he quickly puts us all at ease with confident rhythm guitar playing and humorous anecdotes between songs. He runs through a mixture of old Tear Drop Explodes tracks and more recent solo work. With the aid of guitar pedals he managed to manipulate his acoustic guitar between heavy over-driven howls to sweet sounding protest singer/songwriter style arrangements. Cope is an excellent singer and he works his guitar effortlessly for an hour and a half, just breaking the program with one keyboard driven The Tear Drop Explodes track, before heading straight back to guitar. A stand out track was the playful They Were on Hard Drugs.
Nice pedal action from the Arch druid himself Mr Julian Cope
This is a solo Cope show, no drummer, no bass players, no bombastic lead guitarists. Just the tunes straight from the horses mouth, unplugged and direct. The only downside ... nothing from John Balance Enters Valhalla. That’s ok, this maybe wasn’t the right time or place to sound out ideas about the 13 month solar calendar, or recreate “John’s journey out of the Earthly Realm, its final musical moments enacting a conversation between two air-force pilots mistaking John’s Shamanic Spectral Body for a distant UFO”. I think you get the picture as to how different these new works are. So my final thoughts are: turn down the comedy turn up the drone.
