Brand New Ancients

Product Information

Tempest is an accomplished musician as well as a poet, and this short book has a lyrical, musical quality. Winner of the Ted Hughes Prize for innovation in poetry, Kae Tempest’s Brand New Ancients plays with mythology to tell the story of young people in modern times as their lives spiral out of control.

Mostly, in that it does not live up to its premise of finding the godlike in quotidian contemporary life. Tempest sings of the extraordinary contained within the ordinary in language that is sometimes elevated but more often the vernacular used by the characters she has created.Tempest uses rhythm, rhymes, different lyrical styles (including rap) and other stylistic devices to great effect. This studio production of her acclaimed stage show captures her unique blend of street poetry, rap and storytelling. I got this and a 'Slam poetry' audio CD at the same time, and its been a brilliant combination of the ancient and the modern.

This is a very short read, with stanzas musing on the constancy of the human condition and how we really haven’t come so far from the days when Zeus and Hera might have walked among us.Her poetry flows in a way that translates to the page extremely well but works even better when spoken aloud (as the poem should be, the title page advises). It is entirely possible that this issue is one I only noticed because I read the poem instead of listening to it being performed; I might not have paid so much attention to the narrative structure otherwise.

I really wanted to like this idea but couldn’t help being a bit disappointed in the end because I felt that the two sides of it – the ancient myths and the variations of modern-day heroism – were only loosely connected.

I could have done without the first four pages ("The myths in this city have always said the same thing - /about how all we need is a place to belong", etc.

Here, Tempest shows how the old myths still live on in our everyday acts of violence, bravery, sacrifice and love – and that our lives make tales no less dramatic and powerful than those of the old gods. Frankly, it would be easy to dismiss some of her message, to be cynical or guarded, but I tried not to be, and I found a lot of wisdom and love in what she was saying. The story of Mary and Brian, Jane and Kevin, and their two sons is dramatic enough to carry the reader through the poem, but it is, in the end, a superficial one. They received Mercury Music Prize nominations for both of the albums Everybody Down and Let Them Eat Chaos , and two Ivor Novello nominations for their song-writing on The Book of Traps and Lessons .It tells the story of normal people the reader could easily identify with, their stories contrasted against the idea that they have the importance of Gods and are more than the roles they’ve been given by society. You would never know, reading this, that London was an international city; the prospect of multiple cultures never darkens this doorstep. I can’t really say that I’m that fond of the plot, it’s not bad in any way but after the appraisal that it was given by friends I was expecting more. Brand New Ancients", their self-performed epic poem to a live score, won the Ted Hughes Award 2012 and the Herald Angel at Edinburgh Fringe.