Monday 18 February 2013

The War Room - Public Service Broadcasting


I love it when you come across a band, album or just a song that grabs you and won’t let you go.  I recently came across Public Service Broadcastings EP The War Room and have found myself listening to it a few times a day ever since.  The EP evokes a real sense of history during World War II in Britain.  The use of the samples from old public information films and propaganda work with the bands music to create the sense of anticipation, fear and national pride experienced during this horrific period in history.  


If War Should Come, the first track on the EP, creates a brilliant sense of anticipation and fear at the prospect of war.  I admire the bravery shown through the old speeches and the way the music builds up brilliantly evokes how I think Britain must have felt, on the brink of war.

“No-one in this country wants war, but if war should come don’t be alarmed, keep of good heart, whatever happens, Britain is a nation prepared”

The track ends with the recognisable quote from Prime Minister Chamberlain, “I have to tell you now, this country is at war” The whole sense of the build up, the fighting spirit and then the melancholic tones stating that the war has started is so moving and stirs emotions that no text book could ever evoke.

London Can Take It begins with the haunting sound of the air raid siren, I can’t imagine the fear that must of struck upon hearing this and having to put your life on hold until the night was over.  The sample used in this track really evokes the bravery of Londoners during this time.

 “These are not Hollywood sound effects, this is the music they play every night in London, the symphony of war”

London is personified throughout the track, and even compared to a boxer; “The sign of a great fighter is can he get up from the floor after being knocked down. London does this every morning”. As a Londoner with so much passion for my home city, this track creates a sense of pride for the cities ancestors who lived through this terrible time with such strength, as the track repeatedly states, “London can take it”.

Spitfire comes as a welcome relief from the intensely moving tracks previously and the music really evokes the excitement of the planes that were used, which is still felt by thousands of families who attend air shows every summer! I used to love running into the garden on a really hot summers day to watch the warplanes fly over on their way to or from an air show.  However the samples used demonstrate the horror of these machines (which I think we can easily forget).

 “It isn’t exactly a bird I’m creating is it, at least its a curious sort of bird, a bird that breathes fire and spits out death and destruction, a spitfire bird”.

Dig For Victory is the penultimate track, much calmer than Spitfire however still with the driving force powering through it demonstrating the power of civilians, “Young men, young woman, children, old men: they know that food is just an important weapon of war as guns.”. Dig For Victory is a phrase most people must be familiar with and this track brilliantly evokes the sense of powering together to support troops overseas and to support each other. The driving rhythms really evoke this sense of camaraderie.

The most moving and evocative track on the EP is Waltz for George, with significantly less instrumentation and a near continuous sample telling of the horrors at the end of the war, with soldiers "tired .. blood stained" with "boots that hadn't been off for five days".  

The EP ends with a sentence that I find truly haunting as the music fades to nothing, “It was outstanding to walk along carriage after carriage full of soldiers and to find in each one … silence. And so the men of the BEF came home” The simplicity of this track makes it one of the most beautiful and evocative tracks on the EP.

I love this EP; I love how it makes me cry and feel such pride for my ancestors and what they did for Britain.  I’m going to see the band live in March and can’t wait to see how their live shows are put together, and if you haven’t heard the EP yet, what are you doing? 
Listen to it here - http://publicservicebroadcasting.net/music/ 

Thursday 7 February 2013

5 Goals for 22!


With just a few days until I turn the big 22 I’ve found myself reflecting on my year as a 21 year old and what I hope to achieve when 22.  I couldn’t wait to be 22 when I was little, mainly because it is the door number of the house I have lived in for my whole life and, as embarrassing as it sounds, I always thought it would be amazing to be the age which is also my door number. I feel for people who live in numbers they are unlikely to reach …
Anyway, moving on from that revelation, I thought 22 would be an age where you’re pretty sorted – how naïve I was! Most people make lists of things to do before they are 30, but as that’s still 8 years off I’ll make a slightly more realistic and hopefully feasible list of things to do before I’m 23.

1.     Get a job – sounds simple but have a feeling it won’t be. I have started applying to a few positions so we’ll see. Dream situation in a year would be to be settled in a job I love with enough money to sustain my shopping and Café Nero fudge cake habits

Heaven on a plate!

2.      Live in London (and not Croydon) – also sounds simple but probably won’t be, it is somewhat reliant on number 1 working out. Also preferably live in a really cute quirky place, Hugh Grants house with the blue door in Notting Hill would be quite nice … I can dream.

3.     Keep practising the violin – now that I have decided I do want a job rather than just trying to wing it as a musician for a bit I’m determined to keep practising a little bit every few days (it’s surprising how quickly you start to loose it!)

4.     Go on an amazing holiday again! 2012 saw me visiting New York and Dublin so I want 2013 to bring me another great adventure.  Somewhere hot would be nice, especially if a heat wave that lasts longer than 2 days fails to appear yet again here in sunny Britain

5.     Learn to walk in heels. I love the way heels look and the way they can bring a whole outfit together yet, at a fairly tall 5ft10ish, I am yet to master the art of walking in them without looking like a penguin stuck in a desert.
Aiming too high??
http://eu.christianlouboutin.com/uk_en/shop/women/very-prive-patent-9.html

I’ll stick to five, seems fairly reasonable. Let’s see how I do over the next 12 months!