[continued from last post…]

I had previously encountered “The Ground Belongs To Me” on the “Mutant Electro: Generation Blitz Volume 4” compilation that came out earlier this year but the heavy Discofunk rework that Sons Of Ken remixed had done the song no favors for those who wanted to know what it was actually about. The potent lyrics there were subsumed in popping basses and scratching that all but obliterated the song’s message. Here on the Nostalgia Deathstar album proper, the music bed was kinetic and full of shimmering synths and tightly syncopated eighth notes that were decidedly lower key than on the remix. Here we could make out the lyrics, and they were a dank portrait of unchecked and entitled avarice as the point of view in the song imagined earth, sea, and air under the control of a single agency. I loved the “la-la-la-las” that closed out the song; a callback to the similar climax on Heaven 17’s “Geisha Boys + Temple Girls.”

The notion of the war on facts themselves was at the heart of “Pneumotic.” It was a tightly arpeggiated track decrying the manner in which lies and deliberate misinformation from the tongues of “influencers” and specious experts using the electronic tools at their disposal to challenge the validity of education and truth itself. There ended the intense, first half of the album full of buzzing, stochastic energy discharge.

The transition to the second half [Martin James of the group intended the album to play like “Bowie’s “Low” and it absolutely will on LP] was shepherded by the loaded conceit of “ART v STEM” wherein the quantifiable “hard” sciences which are easy to translate into economic gain were seen as dominant in the current educational market where humanities are derided as valueless. Their only value in that they enrich individuals for multifaceted roles in society which are no longer valued in an environment where specialization; the emulation of a machine by biological entities, is seen as the prima value of a person. The was a musical transition via an electronic prayer borne aloft on gentle, sustained synth chords and a melodic rondo abetted in the conclusion by the first obvious guitars to be found on this album. While Mr. James recited the dense lyrics in a hushed whisper.

“The Sooner You Begin” opened with a rhythm free first minute where the synthesizers loomed large on the horizon like a dawn’s rays piercing the veil of night. Then at the first minute, the methodical rhythm track began cycling around the song as Martin unleashed articulate invective against the trend for increased power flowing to the managerial side of education as it finds itself hobbled further and further by the use of increased structure limitations and the dampening of academic freedoms under a bureaucratic hegemony. The lyrical content here was so overpowering that the track’s long, nearly seven minute running time was viewed as a shock by me on my third or fourth playback of the album. There had been a constant flow of ideas here. Also noteworthy was how James was singing and reciting the lyrics in his own voice instead of assuming a role, as most of the songs up to this point had proceeded. This helped to cast the song as the shellshocked flip side to the more inflammatory “Human Resources” on the first half of the album.

The chittering insect rhythms of “Helioseismic” were shot through with ethereal choral patches as James crooned the lyric enumerating the lies used to sell the commodity of education to a consumer base lacking the cognitive tools to ascertain their veracity. The gentle machine rhythms served to effectively move the song forward in a deceptively laid-back fashion as once more the lyric was not taking any prisoners. And the vibe here was unmistakably redolent of one of my very favorite unsung Bowie songs; “Untitled No. 1” from the “Buddha Of Suburbia” soundtrack. That it also took an expansive 6:30 to play out was ideal for my smitten ears.

The tightly riffing rhythm guitars gave an almost INXS feel to the new version of the 2023 Nostalgia Deathstar single “Oath Of Allegiance [No Kings]” here as the fantasy lyrics posited a singularly selfless monarch dedicated to the dismantling of the monarchy itself. The climax of the song seemed to have been inspired by the left wing Synth Funk classic, “[We Don’t Need This] Fascist Groove Thang” thought the vibe couldn’t be more different, as this was also the album taking a rare step into actual Rock music for once.

The concluding “ZU [Night Of The Claustrozombies]” closed the album with a revisit to the intensity of its opening. This time with far more soundbites from Professors Tara Brabazon and Steve Redhead among the vocals and lyrics from Mr. James this time filling the song. The vibe was more downcast and less aggressive, though the tempo was just as agitated and frantic. The words decrying the anti-intellectual forces putting the pinch on society and taking command of all the reins of society didn’t exactly fill me with hope and confidence in these, the end times, though the end quote from Dr. Brabazon tries gamely to sound a warning that we still have a chance.

This album was an amazing deep dive into concepts and concerns of mine that have dogged my heels for the last 35 years; over half of my life as I’ve moved from being decidedly apolitical to absolutely left wing. Because I’ve been paying attention to the man behind the curtain. I’ve watched the war on education progress from polite maneuvers into a life or death struggle to insure a wider population without the tools to properly analyze the data they are being presented with on a daily basis. Coupled with an all-out assault on the very notion of education; inspired by America’s intrinsic deep-seated anti-intellectual streak that’s vast miles wide. It’s thrilling to hear a group responding to my existential sociopolitical concerns with this combination of intellectual depth and intensity. Especially in this year where America decisively became an Authoritarian nation whose Executive power is used as a blunt weapon by to eliminate all of the advances in egalitarianism and anti-poverty infrastructure that were made in the 20th century as a correct response to the excesses of the Gilded Age and the Great Depression.

This is the album I’ve been waiting for the entire 21st century. I’ve gotten glimpses, here and there, but nothing that seemed to rise up to the threat levels I was seeing escalate beyond my wildest negative imaginings. Until now. Nostalgia Deathstar aren’t just talking the talk, they are walking the walk and are the Post-Punk canaries in a collapsing coal mine that threatens to engulf us all as the gilded elite, who can pay for the finest in privatized education for their offspring are preparing their doomsday bunkers [cost is no object] or worse yet, their private space force as they cast their eye off planet to own the planet Mars. What was once the province of fantastical James Bond villains is now commonplace in the Late-Stage Capitalism charnel house that awaits us.

It says volumes that the Bandcamp page for this release contains an overweeningly large and complete research bibliography [with links] for anyone wishing to explore these themes in a more academic form. Obviously, I fully endorse owning copies of this amazing album, which is so far ahead of the pack for album of the year I might as well give the award right now. And it is available in the three formats.

POPULAR FORMATS

• DL – £7.00
• CD – £10.00
• LP – £27.90/$31.90

The LP contains just the first nine tracks, and is available from ElasticStage which is an on-demand platform and will be available from October 22nd. The limited edition CD is available now from Bandcamp as well as the 24/44.1 DL – which they never run out of. I don’t care how you partake, just do yourself a favor and listen. Then begin to act. As Dr. Tara Brabzon says in the final track [on the CD only] “This is not going to end well, is it?”

CD + DL – BANDCAMP

LP – ELASTICSTAGE

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