British hip-hop post-punk poet, poor effort, reveals City Of Hope from upcoming debut EP

poor effort – City Of Hope – Out Now

From the upcoming poor effort EP

Released in October 2025 on Home Taping

After enjoying critical and broadcast attention for a run of singles under the embryonic poor effort moniker last year, Salford-based poet and musician, Matty Dagger reveals City Of Hope, the first single from the debut poor effort EP, after signing to emergent new music label Home Taping – in partnership with EMI North.

Landing airplay from BBC 6 Music and noteworthy praise from press including DIY Magazine around a short run of powerful and pithy singles, You’re Wrong, I’m Right (Symphony) and HMRC, in 2024, poor effort reached out from under a cloud of digital civil war and unsuitable employment to wryly document (barely) living on a fractured island. The first in a run of singles that show the way around the potholes and unlit alleyways of that same punctured vessel, City Of Hope is released as a tracer for further singles and a full, six-track EP due in October this year.

Deadpan and undeadly serious, poor effort has been well-received as a prosaic barrage against total surrender to bleakness, inviting ‘if you know, you know’ relatable humour into a musical sphere of trippy beats, pencil-sketch guitars and machine percussion. Dagger, originally from a mill town 15 miles from Salford and Manchester, sets his scene over City Of Hope’s distorted, disorientating instrumental: “Where if you have a high rise you’ll be set in life/Living life up above the slums ‘n’ dives”

Reflecting on metropolitan life on the track, Dagger says:

“Obviously a lot of people flock to cities to chase opportunities. Whether that’s careers, relationships, status, luxury or wealth, they become these concrete melting pots for hunger and for hope. ‘City Of Hope’ explores that but also the irony of it too. How it takes place amongst this gentrified backdrop where the short end of the stick is dealt to some in order for others to thrive.

“On a personal level, it also taps into the appeal of moving closer to a city that holds a lot of cultural weight and more opportunities to pursue music. It might sound like I despise the place, I don't. It’s an observation of the type of city which has been pretty good to me. Having moved here myself, I can’t help but see the hypocrisy in that, and maybe that’s the greatest irony of all.”

poor effort’s timely wordplay, growing imperfectly from the seeds of social disintegration and resistant aspiration, much like Benefits, Sleaford Mods and Kae Tempest, grew green shoots during lengthy lockdowns, putting self-learnt production techniques and poetry to tape. Dipping in and out of alternative hip-hop, post-punk and electronica, the self-taught box room producer, recording in view of skyscrapers by day and tangling with nocturnal employment after night falls, completed the poor effort EP in collaboration with producer Dean Glover (credits including Rootz Manuva, Anthony Szmierek) in vibrant outer-city suburb, Cheetham Hill.

poor effort’s pupation from outline concept to tangibility was hastened by Dagger and his rotating roll call of musicians performing as a live unit for the first time in spring 2024. Since performing at venues including Colours Hoxton, taste making Manchester nights with Akoustik Anarkhy and Thump! plus poor effort’s own shandy and crisps showcase at The Eagle Inn, Salford, more appearances and self-originated events are set to follow through the rest of 2025.