Review: Adam Stone & Dead Sea Apes - In The Year 2039

The punk explosion in the UK in the 1970s is now regarded a defining moment in the cultural history of these isles. It brought together a disaffected and disenfranchised youth and politicised music as no other movement had. It was a reaction to the prevailing socio-economic and political climate at the time and it did what no other cultural movement had done to that point - it affected a cultural paradigm shift - Musicians/authors/performers became spokespeople for a generation, to an extent taking the power from the corrupted political and business elite and giving it back to the people. It was music that fought back against the rise of the shameful National front and its insidious racist message, not the politicians. What, you may ask, has this got to do with this record?

In short, everything...it is an example of how culture reflects the collective worldview of the populace. This leads me nicely onto dystopian fiction...the great dystopian works of literature have, like punk rock, reflected what is going on in the world - Orwell's masterful '1984', surely the banner waving work of dystopian fiction, was written in response to the growing threat of the totalitarian Soviet Union, Margaret Atwood wrote 'The Handmaiden's Tale' following the elections of Thatcher and Reagan..an era that sociologists will acknowledge as one of the most pessimistic in the 20th Century. At the same time televison series like 'Threads' scared people stupid with its graphic portrayal of a nuclear attack on the UK. People move towards narratives that reinforce their own worldview. The 'rise' of Donald Trump in the United States both cleverly and cynically used this but is now being bitten by it. His election campaign used strong images of an existing political elite and a corrupt 'shadow' government...all his talk of 'draining the swamp'....that reflected and preyed upon the then current insecurities of the American people. Now, of course, he is, rightly, paying the price as he shown to be a liar, a schemer and, above all, a possibly very dangerous man (as a side note...my boss at work, when asked about future plans, always replies with a 'it doesn't matter, next year we'll all be dust'..a tad dramatic but proves a point.) It is no surprise then that there has been another marked rise in dystopian cultural works..and they don't get any more powerful than this 20 minute monologue from artist and writer Adam Stone.

This all came about in September of last year when Stone was asked to provide something as a prelude to a Dead Sea Apes gig in Derbyshire. The crowd who gathered to see one of the best bands around were treated to this fictional report on the state of planet Earth in 2039 AD, written from the perspective of a sentient alien researcher. It is powerful stuff indeed working from a premise that, in the year 2039, Earth has been ravaged for ten years from the effects of a nuclear war. It portrays the scrabbling survival of less than half the global population ("This period is now referred to by existing humans as The Great Decimation") . I'm not going to outline every point that Stone makes except to say 'a' president Trump is namechecked. It is a sombre and sobering post-apocalyptic vision of the future. However, unlike some glitzy Hollywood production, or even some low budget 'B' movie, this all seems very real. There is something in Stone's northern tones that adds authority and realism and makes this a very feasible outcome to the current parlous state of this lump of earth we call home. As dystopian works of culture go...this goes beyond entertainment and into the arena of salutory lessons that need to be learned before 'this' happens. I will go so far as to say that this should be studied at school - both as a sociological tract and also as an example of the power of words. Another factor that makes this so potent is the musical accompaniment by Dead Sea Apes...the drones and the hauntological electronica provide an atmosphere that compliments Stone's words to a 'T'. It is part seventies soundtrack fare and part dark ambient. The pairing of Stone and DSA is an inspired and, as already mentioned, potent force. This is an important cultural document and goes beyond simple entertainment......it is darkly brilliant and brilliantly dark.

If there are any left, this one-sided 12" can be got via the Cardinal Fuzz webstore here, or if you are in the US, via Sky lantern records here.