Murkage Dave - Brut Thoughts Murkage Dave

One of the UK’s most singular voices, Murkage Dave has spent the last decade crafting a body of work that refuses to fit neatly into any genre box. His music, loosely pop but informed by indie, outsider art, and an instinct for storytelling, is built on honesty, empathy, and fearless social commentary. Across his career, he has earned a cult following and praise from Pharre Williams, Iggy Pop, BBC Radio 6 Music, The Guardian, Ro ling Stone, Pitchfork, Clash, Complex, Highsnobiety, and Vogue. His debut album Murkage Dave Changed My Life (2018) amassed over 12 million Spotify streams, while follow-up The City Needs A Hero (2022) reached #10 on the UK iTunes Chart and #15 on the UK Independent Chart.

With his forthcoming album Brut Thoughts, Dave connects the inner turbulence of modern life with the fractured world around him, reflecting on internet culture, overstimulation, immigrant experience, political extremism and the power of community. The album channels present day anger and disillusionment while refusing to lose sight of hope. “It’s millennial meme culture music,” he explains. “The cacophony of what’s going on in my head spiling out into song. Living in the shadow of 80s Thatcherite/Reaganite economic policy, the broken social contract, the unkept promise of a life we were supposed to get if we did our bit.”

A cathartic soundtrack for life in late capitalism, the album draws inspiration from Talking Heads, Sampha, The Smiths, and The Streets. It came together in an unorthodox, nomadic way, across living rooms and borrowed studios in London, Manchester, Berlin, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, and the Danish countryside. “Like most musicians in London I can’t afford a studio,” says Dave. “So I put a ca l out to see who’d let me crash and write. I ended up in right-wing and left-wing parts of the country - Bristol, Margate, Cardiff, Leicester, Manchester, and the Reform stronghold of Ashfield.”

The record’s collaborative spirit is central to its DNA, featuring contributions from James from Yard Act, Kayus from Young Fathers, Elery from WU LYF, and Lauren Auder. Touring with Yard Act in 2024 also served as a creative catalyst. “A l the music being played on the tour bus opened up avenues for me,” says Dave. “It inspired me to start my radio show The Outlet on Refuge Worldwide, and al of this bled into the music.” Beyond his songwriting, Dave continues to shape UK culture through curation - from Manchester’s Murkage Club to Tonga, the touring party co-founded with Mike Skinner, and his ongoing radio work.

Standout track ‘Generation Left On Read’ captures millennial disillusionment and the numbing effects of irony-as-coping-mechanism. With an affecting contribution from James Smith of Yard Act - his first under new solo moniker Konopinsky - the track crystalises the album’s exploration of lost promises and the determination to sti l care in a world that encourages detachment.

Meanwhile, ‘Swordfight In A Chicken Shop’ serves as a chaotic centrepiece, a vivid depiction of information overload produced by Tim London and featuring Kayus Bankole, Elery James Roberts, Lauren Auder and Bournemouth Hope Youth Choir. In contrast, ‘RNA’ is one of the record’s most intimate moments. An unguarded meditation on masculinity, grief and spiritual ambivalence, coproduced by Kiddus with backing vocals from Young Fathers. For Dave, the record is also a reckoning with his past. “I’ve come to the realisation lately that the church my family attended during the early portion of my life was a cult,” he shares. “It was in the church that I first witnessed abuse of power and physical abuse, and where the idea that white Europeans were superior to other races was first introduced to me.” These experiences shaped his mistrust of institutions, echoing throughout Brut Thoughts, a record that dissects narcissism, personal, political, and digital, and questions how compassion is being eroded in the algorithm age. The title Brut Thoughts draws from Jean Dubuffet’s Art Brut movement - an embrace of outsider art and raw, untrained creativity. “Brut” also means both “raw” in French and “unsweetened” in English, reflecting the album’s spirit of unfiltered honesty. The title references the classic Brut fragrance too, tied to the working-class masculinity of his grandad’s and dad’s generation. “In a way,” Dave says, “this album is a l the things my dad would have said if he wasn’t hemmed in by the socioeconomic factors of the 80s, being chased by the National Front and being a parent.” Made during the period of his father’s passing in early 2024, the record holds onto a quiet belief that things can change - a thread of hope running beneath its heaviness.