all horse force

Squarepusher: A Journey To Reedham (7 A.M. Mix)
from Big Loada (Warp 1997)

Today I’d like to talk about what makes a “Song of Hope for the New Millennium”. That’s the title IK awarded to this track, way back in the halcyon days of high school. The world was a brighter, happier place then, and while we had plenty of excess angst to stew in, deep down we knew that it was just a phase. We would go on to college and big things, navigating the Information Superhighway at full speed, stopping only to collect our rewards for being so cool and doing such interesting stuff.
I don’t think I can really sum up my feeling about the track any better than with a video treatment I’ve been carrying around in my head ever since I first heard it. It begins with a shot of an open manhole cover on a New York street. Slowly rising out of it is a life-size Super Mario, rendered in old school 8-bit glory. He begins to walk through the city, which is almost completely empty, like early on a Saturday morning. Along the way he finds other beloved Nintendo characters, who start following him around, until finally they form a huge pyramidal procession down Fifth Avenue. I wasn’t even that huge a gamer when I was younger, but there’s still a lot of nostalgia bound up in those characters for me, and I think their triumphal parade through the real world speaks of the optimism a lot of us felt about the merging of the virtual and the physical in those wild pre-millennial days.

Blockhead: Insomniac Olympics
from Music By Cavelight (Ninja Tune 2003)

Alas, the actual new millennium leaves a little bit to be desired. Even if 9/11 and its ensuing conflicts did not, in fact, change math and Jesus, it did change a lot about how much hope we had for this brave new era we had entered. Things weren’t going to be shiny and awesome all the time. For me, this Blockhead track captures perfectly the slight menace bred by the fear and uncertainty we all feel a bit of now. It’s not terrifying, nor is it angry or indignant; it’s just vaguely creepy, in the most beautiful way. It’s also a march, like the Squarepusher track, but this parade can’t be attended by anything so unserious as videogame characters. It’s got a be a brotherhood of broken but hopeful people finding their way through the urban canyons, kept going by the sunlight that peeks through the clouds.
The beat here is of course undeniable, but it’s the primal, warbling vocal sample of the chorus that carries the day. It stirs you from complacency and demands that you see the good in the world, and do some good of your own. That makes it my new official Song of Hope for the (still) New Millennium. If anyone else wants to hope along with me, feel free.

evan :: Oct.24.2005 :: The Roll :: 2 Comments »

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