"Televised Genocide (Gospel of Gaza)" by Ace Ambrose
Review
Despite the considerable enthusiasm (mine right up there on the list) for the cumulative build-up of tracks on her ‘Doomsday Was Yesterday' EP, this is still a glinting speck on the horizon for Ace Ambrose fans.
I guess most of them will be all to aware of the chronic health issues she has been battling with & rein in any impatience to hear the follow-up to "A Town Called Love".
Signs of getting back into the fray have slowly & discreetly been appearing: rebuilding her Oddity band, managing to make YNES' recent gigs etc and now we have something more tangible.
No: not the latest instalment of the EP (which we continue devoutly to await), but a standalone track, a howl of righteous outrage which alone tells you that her body might have been fragile and consequently her mental strength too, but her spirit not at all.
Frankly this is as about as explicit as a song title can get: do you really require me to explain the theme of "Televised Genocide (Gospel of Gaza)"?
That all proceeds go to aiding the Palestinian people in this prolonged hour of need can scarcely be a surprise either.
Made with Swashbuckler & Yovsaf, the song in some ways is unique in her oeuvre gone is any trace of romance even in the harshest circumstances. Gone too is singing: this is a declamation: a clear and stringent polemic. Ace has no desire for her meaning to get lost within even the mildest & artistic of ambiguities. So music in the conventional sense makes way for a musique concrete accompaniment to her words.
To a large extent, (and I'm sure this will be a major theme of the EP), in her usual work Ace acknowledges the real pain in the world but tends to offer a fantasy avatar of herself to step in & save the day: a mythic gunslinger bringing love, a figure transcending time & space. There is a little tip of her hat to this Eternal Champion self in an accompanying photo (number two in the ones on this review) which features her in her customary mask: but this is modelled on that of real guerilla fighters. Superheroes are not going to materialise to save Gaza or turn the IDF away from genocide in Rafah or Jabalia: only we can contribute by expressing opposition & it is this she is calling for in a detailed and informed demand for salvation for those still alive.
This may not, on the surface, sound like the Ace Ambrose we've been accustomed to: but is that really true? The form is a surprise: which is part of her artistic identity. It's passionate: ditto. It's totally value based: again that's always applied.
Much as I've been looking forwards to her ‘Doomsday Was Yesterday' (admittedly within the context of her recent limitations), this song is essential today and so takes priority: the rest can wait (hopefully not for too long though).
Will it have the effects her efforts have aspired towards? Well those who could stop it have seemed deaf to every single reasoned and compassionate argument so I can't see it falling on their ears in a receptive fashion. However mass public opinion can force the hands of the powerful & if this track wins even a few more hearts and minds, Ace and her friends will not have made it in vain. It would be nice too if those in Gaza could hear it & realise that not everyone in the UK, USA etc was complicit in their ordeal and instead totally opposed it. To know that you do not stand alone offers a tiny glimpse of hope.
