If I was to try and make linked, curated compilation albums out of the tracks I’ve selected from John Peel shows over the last 9 years, I think I would have two themes from the early 90s that I could base them around so far:
1) Celtic techno dance music as exemplified by the likes of Bumble, Aphex Twin and Astralasia/Suns of Arqa
Just as I was reflecting that it had been some time since I had heard any of the latter genre on a Peel show - the three examples cited above were all posted during 2017 - I came upon a repeat of a Peel Session by Breed, the second of four which they recorded for him between 1991 & 1994.
If I was to try and summarise the mood of the three tracks selected here, it would be through the phrase A Storm is Coming. There are links running through each of them, binded together as they are by loss and death. Session opener, Phantom Limb audibly conjures the stormclouds into being as it reflects on wider themes of loss, while relating the dark deeds which took place “across the water” one terrible November 9th. Frustratingly, it doesn’t go into great depth on either subject, but as Simon Breed admitted in this 2008 interview, he sometimes used narrative structures more as a way to try and get a song on to its feet rather than as wish to tell comprehensive stories through song.
However, the second track, the unpromisingly titled Woah, Woah, Woah takes Phantom Limb’s theme of loss and over 6 superb minutes spins a tale that shows the human face and cost of loss. Imagine if a remorseful Pied Piper, burnt by his demonic gift and lovesick, went back to Hamelin to throw himself on the mercy or otherwise of the mothers of the town. However, the townswomen want neither to kill him or forgive him, but instead have him drawn into the dance of grief and loss which they have gone through since he led their children away. As an example of a song in which someone has to confront the consequence of their actions for life, I can think of few better.
As suggested by its title, Wonderful Blade, is a song about a knife, which seems to be both literal and hallucinatory, a la Macbeth. Lovers of McGonagall-esque writing will find much to enjoy with Simon Breed’s fruity delivery of an ongoing set of couplets which all end with different “-ust” rhymes, but what distinguishes Wonderful Blade from the intensity of the other two tracks is the delightfully decadent feel to the performance. Whether the knife is going to be used on himself or someone else, it conjures an inversion of similar debauchery from a scene in The Man Who Fell to Earth. There, David Bowie used a revolver; here I can picture Breed stirring his martini with a knife and then lasciviously sucking the blade dry of alcohol. So seductive is the vibe of Wonderful Blade, it feels positively irresponsible. Almost an erotic anthem for self-harmers.
There was a fourth track in Breed’s session, but while Shaking the Bone pulsed with a higher level of energy than the other tracks, it somehow felt inessential compared to them.
Videos courtesy of Vibracobra23 Redux.
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