Grant Wakefield ‘The Fire This Time’
March 25th, 2002 by freddie96
GRANT WAKEFIELD
The Fire This Time
(Timefire / Third Stone)
Remember the Gulf War? Are you sure? I thought I did until I heard this extraordinary album. Meticulously compiled by Grant Wakefield out of innumerable media sources, and soundtracked by a wide range of electronic artists, ‘The Fire Next Time’ tells the story of how the West came to rain destruction on their former allies, the Iraqi people. Obviously this does not make easy listening – and I’m not talking about the Orbital and Aphex Twin remixes included here. It’s a sordid and shame-making tale that lays bare the utter hypocrisy of the West in its quest to ensure that the Middle East remains an underdeveloped and war-torn region… so that we can enjoy the benefits of their oil. And with a warmonger oilman in the White House, it couldn’t be more timely.
What ‘The Fire Next Time’ also shames is the mass media. It’s a curious fact of our times that the increased reach, range and sophistication of our news sources has been accompanied with a diminution of their actual power to inform and educate. On the contrary, the sheer weight of media would now seem to block our eyes and ears with just so much eye candy and white noise.
By listening instead to this kind ‘musical history’ – with no images and anchormen at all to distract you – the mind is able to engage imaginatively with what otherwise might be dismissed as just another news story. In other words, it makes you think.
In particular, it made me think of Timothy McVeigh. It was what he saw in the Gulf, on his tour of duty there after the war had ended, which initially turned him against the US Government. When you hear the details – a country left $190 billion in debt, with around 1.5 million dead, and 1 in 4 children now suffering (and dying) of malnutrition – you can’t help wondering in what other ways the US is eventually going to find itself paying for its disgraceful overseas policies. For history is never going to forgive cold-blooded genocide easily, however many dissenters are silenced and put to death.
The whole project has obviously been a massive labour of love, from the sourcing of archive news material and vocal samples to their careful compilation and editing. Indeed, the way in which the musical soundtrack – which also includes Tom Middleton’s Amba, Soma and Pan Sonic – is used to soundtrack and counterpoint the verbal material is quite masterful. The question now is, are you listening? FB
