Sunday 4 October 2020

Silicone Values - Utopian Futures

  


  Silicone Values are a lo-fi post punk band from Bristol that I came across a few months ago when I played their very fine single, I Hate Fascist Rock And Roll, on the Just Some Punk Songs show and stuck it on Youtube ready to post on here. As often happens, I didn't get round to writing about it and it's still languishing in the "to do" pile. Or it was till they released a follow up single which I'll feature instead. 

  I don't know much about the band other than they're a D.I.Y. collective headed by Brin Davies. The debut single saw him collaborating with various members of The Moles, Yamasuki667 & Kobayushi Tape Counter.  I also know they're now two for two when it comes to great releases. 

  Of the 2 tracks on offer on this sophomore release (this time we get various members of White Owl and The Anomalies "dipping in and making a bit of a noise") Nuclear Sun is about growing up during the Cold War dreaming about the coming apocalypse, total nuclear destruction and radiation poisoning. "Every Night I Dreamt about the end of the bloody world, every night I dreamt about the end of everything and everyone. Every night I dreamt about getting the shit kicked out of me." Grim and worrying times, thankfully there's nothing around nowadays to keep us awake fearing for our health! 


  The other track, the one featured below, is a little more up tempo though still in the same dystopian vein (I don't want to live in society"...  I can't even stand another day"). The single is accompanied with the quote "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be" which is taken from the Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. novel Mother Night. He's an author famed for his wryly satirical novels which frequently used postmodern techniques as well as elements of fantasy and science fiction to highlight the horrors and ironies of 20th-century civilization. Much of his work is marked by an essentially fatalistic worldview that nonetheless embraces modern humanist beliefs. A pretty good summation of the themes on the single. His first novel, Player Piano, "spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. Paul’s rebellion is vintage Vonnegut—wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality." It was also published under the title Utopia 14 and I'm pretty sure it's an inspiration for Utopian Futures.  


  This is Utopian Futures... 

1 comment:

  1. The Great Brin Davies!!! Also waiting for new White Owl recordings!

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