No stars? Is this two-disc set that bad?
The answer is no, this is actually a very good set, but grading it is thoroughly inappropriate. Separated into two discs, The Fire This Time is actually a piece of investigative journalism married to an electronic / ambient / techno soundtrack (found intact, without narration, on disc two), and is a controversial one at that.
Now, I must qualify that I am not an investigative journalist. I’m a CD reviewer and will approach this release as such. The statements alleged on disc one are often backed by sound-bites and quotes, but a quote can be taken many ways when dropped from original context. That said, the information presented on Fire’s disc one is infuriating, damning, disheartening.
Grant Wakefield’s calm, succinct BBC World News styled voice lays out the points over a bed of synth and percolating rhythm, about the UK and US interest in Iraq long before the Iranian tensions in the 70s, how both nations wrangled influence to install Saddam Hussein to power to fight the rising Iranian instability, how both nations supplied weaponry to both parties of that conflict, how we arrived at Gulf War One, the terrible price paid in Iraqi civilian lives due to strangulating sanctions… Understand that this set was pre-Saddam capture, pre-Abu Ghraib and pre-Nick Berg & Fallujah. It may even be pre-‘shock and awe’, making it even more frustrating.
All of the information is focused before the second onslaught, up to UN inspections collapsing, before the “final straw” was broken. All the parts were there to be found by anyone who chose to look. Instead, if assertions are correct, the US and
UK
decided not to because a last confrontation was the only desired conclusion. Listening to the clips, voiced by generals, politicians, Madeleine Albright, Oliver North and others instills in the listener a helpless sense of a foregone conclusion, like watching people in power steering a tornado toward the center of town, not away from it.
The most powerful track, “Say Hello To Allah”, is backed by a remix of the Aphex Twin track “Come To Daddy”, already a disturbing piece of electronic music. War sounds rage, programmed beats thunder, feedback quantitized and tuned to screech and the quotes fall like a rain of mortar. Once more I will stress that calling this the best track, as opposed to the worst track, cannot work this time out. This is not about good music or bad music, just as a distressing report on Frontline or 60 Minutes defies terms like ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
I write this on Memorial Day, 2004, a day set aside to remember our fallen dead, our nation’s representatives in times of utmost crisis. Their sacrifice is not lost on me, nor is their importance. I find that, as I speak to friends, family, co-workers and colleagues, support for our troops is unprecedented, even in the face of recently uncovered atrocities. In the big picture, we still feel our soldiers are spread around the world with intentions of incontrovertible good, and that is unlikely to change. However, we are also increasingly beginning to feel that those who wield the power and command over them are not as benevolent, not as trustworthy and possibly not as competent as we once believed. We just don’t know, but there is a hint of it in the air now.
If the claims made by this release are 100% true, not only are we complicit in today’s crisis, but the originators of that same crisis. The
US
public has kept the faith in our armed forces, but our leaders never had it to begin with, and lives were never more than pawns in a bloody game of desert chess. I can’t recommend this release as a keepsake or an entertainment, but I do recommend everyone to listen to it. It will get you thinking, wondering and, possibly, worrying about the future and how we’ve shaped it.
Recommended, no stars and all.
Track Listing:
Disc One:
From The Cradle (Michael Stearns) / The Playground (Ashra) / Lines in the Sand (Higher Intelligence Agency) / Get Thee Behind Me (Soma) / Counting on New Friends (Orbital) / The Whore of Babylon (Pan Sonic) / We're Doing Well Now (Barbed) / Nails in the Wall (Speedy J) / Say Hello to Allah (Aphex Twins) / Church Bells (Higher Intelligence Agency) / No News is Good News (Naseer Shamma/Bass Communion) / Dog in America (Bola) / ...to the Grave (Amba)
Disc Two:
From the Cradle... (Michael Stearns) / Lines in the Sand (Higher Intelligence Agency) / Get Thee Behind Me (Soma) / The Box (Orbital) / Oud Improvisation (Naseer Shamma) / We're Doing Well Now (Barbed) / Nails in the Wall (Speedy J) / Come to Daddy (Aphex Twins) / Call to Prayer / Conoid Tones (Higher Intelligence Agency) / No News is Good News (Naseer Shamma/Bass Communion) / Dog in America (Bola) / Black Mountains (Amba) .
Various Artists:
Ashra
Michael Stearns
Higher Intelligence Agency
Pan Sonic
Speedy J
Naseer Shamma
Bass Communion
Bola
Amba
Barbed
Soma
Orbital
Aphex Twins
