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Saturday 16 November 2019

Transmission


There's an article about 808 State in the latest issue of Electronic Sound which opens with a paragraph about the enduring appeal of their breakthrough song Pacific State, a genuine crossover tune and hit record in 1989. The writer describes the song as 'plucked from that golden age between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11' (adding that it is something we need 'to embrace more tightly now in the age of austerity, Brexit and the divide and conquer politics of populism').

It's interesting to see the 1990s described as a golden period. Politically the collapse of the Soviet Union was famously declared by US historian Francis Fukuyama as 'the end of history', the triumph of western liberal democracy meant that little could prevent it from being the only desirable form of government and the only way to structure society. Fukuyama has rowed back on that since- as you might expect given the War on Terror, the Arab Spring, the financial collapse of the global economy, the right wing populism of Trump and Farage and the swing to authoritarian regimes from Hungary to Turkey. I found myself wondering whether the 1990s really was a golden age. I was 19 when the decade started and 30 when it ended. Your twenties should be a golden period in your life, old enough to do what you want as an adult, young enough not to be weighed down by it all. I remember various attempts to brand the 90s as 'the 60s upside down' and there was a tendency at the cusp of 1990 to promote a more spiritual, optimistic spirit for the forthcoming decade. Positivity was much mentioned. Bands went dance, loosened up, wore white, the music was filled with a sense of openness. The Poll Tax was defeated. Thatcher went. Bush followed. The Labour Party and the Democrats were resurgent.

But much of what's wrong now can be dated to the 90s. Liberal, centre left governments seduced by the power of the market, the blending of public and private in state provision, the sale of assets like the railways to the private sector, the destruction of the social housing stock, the idea that 'we're all middle class now', the belief that commerce would solve all problems, all date from the 90s. The first Gulf War too and the horrors in the Balkans. Balance it up with the freedoms gained by the people of Eastern Europe in 1989 and 1990, not to mention what was happening in South Africa at the same time. In the UK there was a genuine sense that music and youth culture were capable of creating community. Many people commented that acid house/rave was partly a response to Thatcher's declaration that 'there is no such thing as society'. Where am I going with this? I'm not sure. I don't necessarily disagree with the 808 State article and it's author (Ben Willmott), I like the idea of golden ages, they're seductive, and I like the idea of one that I lived through and was part of, but the truth is always more complex. Maybe for Ben Willmott and the people he describes responding to Pacific State in 2017, it's more about nostalgia, memories of youth. For the record, he says it isn't just nostalgia but something else- futuristic optimism plucked from that time and re-purposed in the present. I think I'm going round in circles now.

You can't wrong this can you? Wildlife noises, blissed out synths, synapse busting toplines, the rattle and thump of the drum machine and that sax part.

Pacific 202

808 State's new album Transmission Suite was recorded in the transmission suite at the old Granada Studios building at the bottom of Quay Street in town, the room filled with consoles and equipment and a wall with eighty television screens and the lingering presence of Tony Wilson. The album is fifteen tracks of finely tuned, precision engineered electronic Mancunian dance music, Detroit techno clearly part of its DNA but with an eye on the future and the next step. Futuristic optimism.

7 comments:

acidted said...

superb piece of writing. touches lots of chords with me. yes, a bit of nostalgia. but more than that. in the early 90s that's certainly how I remember it felt. especially after the economic brutalism of the 80s

Michael Doherty said...

Fantastic piece Adam. The thing you said about the 90s being the 60s upside down got me thinking that although there was indeed a sense of positivity connected with the 60s it was also an incredible decade for strife, war and general discontent. I think we still tend to grasp for the more positive aspects of decades but they are all always filled with a mixture of both. By the way, I absolutely love the new 808 State album despite hating it on the first 2 listens. Their best since 90 for me.

Guarin said...

Britpop. That's to blame, along with New Labour, destroyed all the optimism I had at the beginning of the decade. First half was great fun.

Adam Turner said...

I started a paragraph along those lines Guarin but deleted it.

drew said...

Great thought provoking article Adam but I certainly don't consider the 90s a Golden Age, musically I think 86 - 92 was amazing but then you had all that dreadful fucking grunge followed by the little Englander mentality of Brit Pop which I am sure helped sow the seeds of the Brexit pish that we are reaping now.

With regards to further society I was working on building sites and completed my apprenticeship in 1992 just in time for the recession and working self-employed, there was no other option, saw the prices offered for jobs reduce dramatically, conditions on building sites were atrocious and I was on two separate sites when somebody died due to lack of health and safety. Politics in Scotland was grim, enduring that last 7 years of 18 with a government Scotland didn't vote for ,we were a Tory free zone for much of the period but we got the poll tax first and our industry decimated. The self-off of the housing started way before 1990, I think by that time most of the desirable property had been hoovered up and the early 90s saw the rise and rise of the private landlord and very little social housing being built.

I don't agree about New Labour, New Labour delivered so much, devolution, the minimum wage, child trust fund, remember that? Gordon Brown gave every kid born £500 and then a further £250. New hospitals, investment in the NHS, schools that weren't freezing, leaking and magnolia, not to mention enough textbooks, jotters and supplies to go round. SureStart, I could go on.Okay they did fuck up big time with the Iraq War but up until that point they were doing well a fucking k=hell of a lot better than under Thatcher and Major.

Even the drugs by the early 90s were becoming shit. Granted the weekends were fucking brilliant but most of us couldn't live our lives in fields and the glaring reality of a Monday on a roof earning less than you did 6 months previously because the prices were cut by subbies who had bought into the Tory ideal and having poll tax fines and arrears to pay off was worse than any drug comedown.

Adam Turner said...

I'll take your point about New Labour. Their social policies especially in their first term were far reaching. They blew it though. Not just Iraq.

londonlee said...

The golden age is always when you’re young, no matter when it was