Matthew Robb – History Before It Happens: Album Review

By John Barlass on 6th February 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

As news from around the world gets more ominous with each day that passes, Matthew Robb captures the zeitgeist on his new album.

Release Date: 28^th January 2024

Label: Self Release

Formats: CD, Digital

He’s got the title right, that’s for sure. At a time when news from around the world gets more ominous by the day, Matthew Cobb has taken the opportunity to express the hopelessness of the situation that we find ourselves in – the situation that we’ve made for ourselves, as he points out on more than one occasion. History will record how the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and anywhere else you may care to look eventually turned out; Matthew’s telling us now how it all ends.

UK born and now resident in Cologne, Germany, Matthew Robb is no stranger to these pages. On his third album, 2021’s War Without Witness, he confronted a range of the emotional and social concerns that face us all; populist, self-serving governments, big business, the financial institutions and industrial deterioration all took a hammering. Now, on History Before It Happens, he’s turned his attention to an altogether darker topic – the futility and apparent inevitability of war. If you’re looking for comfort and reassurance, you certainly won’t find it here.

Recorded, once again, at his favoured Musikkollektiv studio in his adopted city of Cologne, Matthew has stuck with the core of the musicians that he used for War Without Witness. With good reason, too, because it’s those musicians – and the sound they combine to make – that provide the positive relief to counteract Matthew’s deep, dystopian lyrics on History Before It Happens. Matthew takes centre stage on vocals and acoustic guitar, Tobias Hoffmann is back, playing some thoroughly magical electric guitar, Marcus Rieck returns to the drum stool, whilst Frank Schönhofer has been drafted in to provide a rich, solid, foundation on bass. Ekki Maas, bassist on War Without Witness is still around, but this time around his focus is mainly upon production and keyboardist Wolfgang Proppe has also stuck around to add organ, harmonium and piano whenever it’s needed.

The contrast between lyrical dystopia and musical epiphany is evident right from the outset, on opening track The Greatest Danger to Man. With lyrics that confront a host of issues, including corrupt government, public apathy, bureaucracy and authoritarianism, and a soothing backing of strummed acoustic guitar, topped by spacy electric guitar licks and anchored by swirls of Wolfgang’s organ, it’s a song that manages to be both biting and laconic at the same time.

Unique amongst the almost universal dystopia that characterises History Before It Happens, the contemplative love song Sacred Heart offers a glimpse of hope – that the human spirit will light the path forward, as lines like “Sacred heart shine your light this way, as the sun that breaks at the start of every day” demonstrate. That optimistic message doesn’t last, though and, with the dark, bluesy, broody, The Devil Drives, we’re back to considering the error of our collective way. Matthew’s voice is upfront as he sings lines like: “Create addiction by design, the slow sadistic rape of mind/ Psychic numbing, cracking whips, everyday slaves to state worship,” whilst, behind, the band are up to all sorts of interesting things. Tobias pulls some incredible stunts on his electric guitar, Frank’s bass is deep and respectful and Matthew throws in rolls and crashes in all the right places to add emphasis to the drama of the song.

And things don’t get any lighter for Tower Of Babel, a song which, once again, contemplates how the combination of human action and inaction is dragging us steadily closer to our day of reckoning. The sparse backing – sprinkles of electric guitar and Frank’s thoughtful, plodding bass – is highly effective in bringing out the despair in Matthew’s lyrics.

I might be missing the point, but things seem to take a brighter turn for folky American ballad, The Wanderer And His Shadow. Matthew accompanies his enigmatic-yet-evocative lyrics with fingerpicked acoustic guitar, whilst Frank and Marcus combine to provide an enjoyable, shuffling rhythm and, like several other songs on the album, the instrumental playout is a delight. A psychedelic guitar intro leads into the jerky blues (Snake Oil Blues, as the lyrics have it..) of Throne of Blood. Tobias turns in what is perhaps his best performance on the album with a wonderful guitar figure for the verses and a couple of spine-tingling solos. Lyrics like: “Straw man fallacies, corporate spin/ Eating the vampire state from within” are characteristically bitter, but the song isn’t without a dash of humour, and the whole thing reminds me of Captain Beefheart’s early work – in structure, sound and sentiment.

The country rock of Little Black Train was almost a surprise when it struck up. Tobias plays some tasty Clarence White licks and Matthew sweetens his dark messages with black humour with lines like: “Some say passed on, some say plain dead, some say six foot under, some say brown bread,” as he issues his timely reminder that, no matter what we get up to in life, we all end up in the same place, sooner or later.

It’s guest vocalists Sussan de Bollier and Dolores Hidalgo who provide the sweetening for solemn anti-war song, War is the Father of All Things. On an album that offers little in the way of hope for a bright future, it’s perhaps here that Matthew delivers his most sombre message.

It was a couple of years ago when UNCUT magazine made the observation that “…[Matthew] Robb occupies the borderland between the talking blues of Townes Van Zandt and the folk excursions of early Dylan.” Whilst those comparisons certainly cropped up throughout War Without Witness, I feel that they’re less evident on History Before It Happens; that is, until we get to Let It Go, the album’s closing track. Here, the influence of Dylan is clear, as Matthew, accompanied only by his acoustic guitar, offers a final reflection on the current state of the world. And, whilst with lines like “…longing is beautiful and child is the father of man” make a token attempt at offering a strand of hope, it’s the final lines of the song: “…any minute of the day just might be our last” that reflect the sombre mood of the song, the album and – let’s face it – the world that we live in.

The music is comfortable; the lyrics most certainly aren’t; but Matthew Robb captures the zeitgeist on History Before It Happens.

Watch the official video to The Devil Drives – a track from the album – here: