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/