CHAPTER 31

 

 

#70: STEREOLAB

"French Disko"

from the single "Jenny Ondioline/French Disko"

Released: March 1994

 

 

We know the world is shit. More specifically, human beings are shit. Even more specifically than that, men are shit. But you can't hide away behind your dusty portal thinking yourself both above and below things. You have to come out and fight, to show you're one of humanity. Howard Beale articulated much the same urge in Network. For Christ, don't just sit there and take it. Stand up, come out, shout out and, if you're unafraid of the potential for violent death, fight.

Howard Beale ended up shot for the crime of not being radical enough to please the conservatives. The renewed smashing of the social contract got played to hell on the radio and even appeared, complete with asinine accompanying dance troupe routine, on television, but the band which made the record thought humanity wasn't good enough to press up enough copies for the record to be bought, become a hit and make a difference, or simply delay the end by a nanosecond or four (more likely, being charitable, they couldn't afford to press up any more). So the decline continued and the premature celebration of its arresting agent went heard through a generation, albeit with a severely dimmed light. The bubble and squeak synthesiser fords a stream running from the Tornados' "Telstar" to the Sugababes' "Freak Like Me." The lead voice bears an unruffled adventurous prudence reminiscent of early seventies Norma Winstone. Imagine Original Peter handstanding atop the Matterhorn.