Review
Genre and Mood
Belako take Sinnerman, the spiritual Nina Simone made her own, and run it through post-punk and electronics. Their version is tight, dark and defiant, three and a half minutes of energy where the most famous recording takes more than ten. It belongs to the most electronic stretch of their 2016 album Hamen, and it is meant to move a room.
Song Summary
The song is old: its lyric follows a sinner trying to hide from divine justice on Judgment Day, with no hiding place to be found. The first recording, credited to Les Baxter and Will Holt, appeared in 1956; Nina Simone’s 1965 version on Pastel Blues, learned in her childhood at her mother’s revival meetings, became the definitive one. Belako keep the chase and drop the length. Reviewers heard a surprising, extremely original electronic version that leans back into disco, and the band had already played it live for a long time before they recorded it.
Musical Breakdown
The recording is short enough to follow in one sitting with full attention.
Intro
Listen to how fast the band reaches the song: with three and a half minutes in hand, there is no room for the slow gospel build of a ten-minute version.
Verse 1
The verses carry the flight story. All four members of Belako sing, so listen for how the voices share the weight of the old lyric.
Main Section
Listen for the electronic, danceable side, the disco feel that El Cadillac Negro heard, and for how it sits against the guitar and the bass of the band’s post-punk roots.
Outro
A song about running needs an ending that does not settle. Listen for how the band stops it.
Concepts in Focus
A cover version can be faithful or can change a song’s genre and meaning. This one changes the genre and keeps the meaning: the panic of the sinner survives the move from jazz and gospel to post-punk. Set it next to Nina Simone – Sinnerman (Felix Da Housecat’s Heavenly House Mix), which takes Simone’s own voice to a house floor, and you have two answers to the same song.
post-punk is the band’s home: Muzikalia’s review named Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Bauhaus as reference points for Hamen. What post-punk lends a cover is tension, a nervous drive that suits a song about having nowhere to hide.
The synthesizer side is the turn. Madafackismo Underground placed this track with Aarean Bez as the album’s most electronic part, and it is that electronic edge that lets the song become danceable without going soft.
Artistic Context
Belako formed in 2011 in Mungia, Biscay, in the Basque Country: Josu Billelabeitia on guitar, Lore Billelabeitia on bass, Lander Zalakain on drums and Cris Lizarraga on keyboards, all four singing, mostly in English. After winning the EITB demo contest in 2012 and playing festivals from BBK Live to Primavera Sound, they released Hamen, their second album, on 22 January 2016 on Mushroom Pillow with their own Belako Rekords. The band wrote and produced it, with help from James Morgan.
Impact and Reception
Hamen drew strong reviews in the Spanish music press, and Sinnerman was singled out again and again: bold, surprising, made their own with ease, one of the most celebrated moments of their concerts. A 2015 live video from Gazteszena shows how long it had been in the set. It is here because it proves an old spiritual can still run. Play Simone first, then Belako.
