I’m digging this all-electronica album, big time.
Bart Trotman is the guy behind Workday/Schoolnight, as well as the beats guys for the Greensboro-based band, Invisible. He dropped this compilation of primarily electronic and vocal samples the other day. Check out one of my favorite tracks so far:
The Children
Pay no attention, to the children
the world they live in, is unreal til
we shake them of it, or they become us
hold this off til the very last minute
cynical and pessimistic
the children of tomorrow don’t stand a chance in it
cause the people in power are powerless to the system
cause the system runs itself now, and we’re the victims
you can’t plan for the future
if they didn’t in the past
the way we’ve lived our lives was not designed to last
everything’s corrupted
everything’s a mess
it’s hard to change the world when you’re living oppressed
so keep
working and dreaming
working and dreaming
working and dreaming
[...]
The Jimmy Carter sample at the end (from ‘79, not ‘81, but I dig the intro sample) grounds this layered synth track squarely within the zeitgeist of the early 80’s — a period steeped in shaky times and experimental music, which was exposed to suburban kids like myself through the crossover mainstreaming of experimental music videos on MTV (think Devo, Talking Heads, Herbie Hancock)
The textured samples, lyrics and quotes throughout the entire track brought me back to a time when me and my classmates were lectured on a seemingly daily basis about the realities of a potential nuclear war with the USSR. We’d gather around and listen to our Social Studies teacher profess about the dangerous times we lived in, as if he were the authority returning from the front lines of a Cold War that had no front lines.
I actually remember having a half-day class meeting prior to and following the airing of the made for TV movie, The Day After. Remember, cable was just barely in it’s infant stages at that point with no internet. A made for TV movie on one of the big 3 networks caught everyone’s attention.
Here’s a clip:
After watching that bit of propaganda and having “lessons learned” drilled into my skull at school, I’d race home to catch this:
I guess that was the brilliance of the early 80’s — we lived in this culture of fear, while at the same time innovation, repression, exploitation and American Pie co-existed harmoniously.
The timeliness of this music by Trotman is spot on — not much is different in our society, just a new enemy to curse and blame.
A few other 80’s references come to mind while listening to the track — everything from the content of Pink Floyd to the changes/voice overs of The Beastie Boys.
Electronic Trash is anything but trash.
