posted by Ben Hogwood, with text from the press release

Releasing under his own name for the first time, Bristol-based dubstep legend Kahn, aka Joseph McGann, reveals a different side on Old Wounds. Revisiting a shelved project from his earliest days as an artist, the album reveals a softer hue and sees McGann step forward as a singer for the first time. Drifting across a slow, smudged and hazy atmospheric backdrop that harks back the opiated sound-world of David Sylvian’s Japan or classic trip-hop, the record features contributions from Natalia Escobar (Poison Arrow),Bogues and Amos Childs (both Jabu / Young Echo)

McGann writes: “At times, it felt like Old Wounds was destined never to see the light of day. This is a body of work that began in the throes of youth but would remain unfinished until life had moved on, and enough distance existed to grant the necessary perspective to complete it. The core ideas for several songs on this record were conceived back in the early 2010s. The title track itself contains vocal performances originally recorded during one of my very first studio sessions with Amos Childs and Alex Rendall (Bogues), new-found comrades in the then fledgling Young Echo collective. The music made in those sessions was dear to us, but never found a home.

Years later, and with a mind to breathe new life into those early pieces we’d written, I reached out to the incredible Colombian artist Natalia Escobar (Poison Arrow) and it was through this crucial collaboration that Old Wounds truly began to reveal itself. Natalia’s voice and the story she told through her lyrics lent an aching intimacy that took the music to a whole new emotional dimension. She understood the heart and intention of the songs, and I’m eternally grateful to her for giving so much of herself to this album and for helping me to realise what it was meant to be.

To put it plainly; this is a record about longing. Not simply for a person, but for a peace. An attempt to navigate the unique grief of a love unrealised. And, as such, a life unrealised. The waking purgatory one exists in when there is an absence of love, and the agonising want to experience it.

A crying out to someone who isn’t there. 

Resigning yourself to bitter fantasy and dejection. 

Bereft to a point of self-sabotage. 

The sound of accepting your fate. 

This is music inspired by a period in my life I hope never to return to. 

It’s also my hope that, in completing this record and sharing it with you, I can honour these songs for what they are and finally let them go.”

With gratitude, Joseph McGann

Published post no.3,047 – Wednesday 14 October 2026