Iggy Pop, Tarwater and alva noto (the latter assisted with The Revenant soundtrack) have teamed up to record some of Walt Whitman’s poetry. Iggy Pop reads while Tarwater and alva noto provide the music.

The 12″ is limited to 500 copies and no digital release is planned so pre-order now if you need this. Grab it in the UK here, along with checking out some samples, while the U.S. pre-order can be found here.

“Here, Iggy Pop lends his distinctive voice to seven poems by Walt Whitman, while Tarwater and alva noto create a vibrant and ever-pulsating score, sometimes calm, sometimes plodding and monolithic. Describing Whitman’s significance, Iggy Pop reflects, “You know, I think he had something like Elvis. Like Elvis ahead of his time, one of the first manic American populists. You know you’re looking at pictures of him, and he was obviously someone who was very much involved with his own physical appearance. His poetry is always about motion and rushing ahead, and crazy love and blood pushing through the body. He would have been the perfect gangster rapper. Whitman says, even the most beautiful face is not as beautiful as the body. And to say that in the middle of the 19th century is outrageous. It’s a slap in the face. Look at the popular, well-educated poets of the time, those sensitive noblemen. But Whitman writes: ‘Fuck ass.'”

Tags: Iggy Pop