New album from White Panthers leader and MC5 manager John Sinclair due next week

The Guardian, which on many days is the best daily source for all manner of news about the U.S., recently spoke with beloved, infamous radical/activist John Sinclair, who spends half the year in the Detroit area and the other half in Amsterdam. In the piece, it's revealed that Sinclair has a new album called Mohawk which is due next week on the Iron Man label.

It turns out the label has also produced an hour-long documentary about the man, and the album. Check it out below!


The label writes that the record was "first conceived of in Detroit City, spring 1982, and developed throughout the 1980s with streaks of fresh edits leading right up to the session itself, John navigates some of these texts for the first time in over twenty years, free-styling his energized sincerity and attention to every word, transforming the text on the page into his unique unmistakable spoken word. The music was written and arranged by Steve Fly who mirrored John's poems in the music by initially combing the tempo of the original songs recorded by John 'Dizzy' Gillespie, Charlie 'Bird' Parker and Thelonious Monk. These songs are further utilized by John's poetic method so that each title and the rhythm of his poetry can piggy-back upon the same song title, and rhythm, of an original composition set in history, for extra rooting. Steve put down drums, turntables, cello-bass, flute, and glockenspiel, shooting to play around the vocal lead lines and diverse expressions from John."

"The album was recorded diligently by Tim Egmond at Ei Studios, Amsterdam and passed along to Simon Reeves at Framework Studios, Birmingham for mastering. The album is to be released by Birmingham based Iron Man Records whose releases have included The Nightingales, Howard Marks, P.A.I.N (Propaganda And Information Network), and Police Bastard, among others. The album will be beautifully packaged in a double gatefold cd wallet with artwork by CHU in full colour and a ten page booklet. John Sinclair will be appearing in November through to March to promote the new album. Mohawk illustrates the kind of care and attention a John Sinclair record deserves. After all, he kinda helped start this underground art explosion."