Broken Chanter - Album Launch

"This future is bright and I don't want it..." So begins David MacGregor's powerful 4th album as Broken Chanter: a collection of muscular, visceral compositions that challenge the encroaching alienation of the modern socio- political landscape. Elucidated over 10 songs fuelled by an uncanny empathy and devotion to the human spirit, This Could be Us, You, or Anybody Else builds on 2024's Scottish Album of the Year-Longlisted Chorus Of Doubt's agitprop ecstasy to delirious effect. Recorded as ever at Chemikal Underground's studio Chem19 with producer Paul Savage and with regular collaborators Charlotte Printer, Bartholomew Owl, and Martin Johnston, This Could be Us... is rock music as revelation, protest, community in action. Harking back to the activist post-punk of the early 80s to approach the future, Broken Chanter here sound vital and immediate.

Inspired by Arpita Singh's etching of the same name, This Could be Us, You, Or Anybody Else feels polemical, radical even, while centring the human stories at the heart of the oppression of the global neo-feudalist hegemony. Recorded immediately after the Chorus Of Doubt tour, throughout summer and autumn 2025, Broken Chanter here are fully locked-in, fleshing out MacGregor's songs with a widescreen palette. If Chorus Of Doubt was fuelled by defiant vitriol, its partner record here is as angry, though more overt in finding a solace in community and people. Principally here with the musicians involved: Johnston's thundering drums, umbilically linked to Printer's elastic and forceful bass work are the springboard for MacGregor and fellow guitarist Bart Owl to dovetail and crisscross across the stereofield. At the centre, MacGregor's songs bristle with cinematic detail; compassionate and still, in the face of a dystopian future edging closer, full of fiery defiance.