On 8 May 1992, John Peel closed his Radio 1 programme by playing Blood Rush by Bark Psychosis, an austere, elegiac, delicately powerful piece of music built around crystalline guitar lines and sound loops (there’s that squeaky chair again) which built out of hushed beginnings into something which felt like dawn breaking into hazy sunshine. It was a terrific piece of music: haunting, euphoric and very grown up. It made my Comedy of Errors mixtape though it was a bubbling under when it came to my 1992 Festive Fifty. On 24 January 1993, nearly 9 months after playing Blood Rush, Peel closed this edition of his BFBS programme with a track that sounds to me like its excitable, younger brother. Dinosaurs, though, was not a Bark Psychosis song but was instead recorded by the short-lived Submarine.
With its opening flourish of music box, the younger brother metaphor is entirely appropriate for Dinosaurs given its child-eye centred lyrics, with its references to game playing, pretence, finding hideaways, escaping to under the sea and through it all, the key line Hope your mum doesn’t come. Because when you’re a child and fully engaged in your game, the words you really don’t want to hear are “Dinner’s ready.” The other line of interest is the follow up to Hope your mum doesn’t come, namely Something good is going to happen soon, which could relate either to the nature of the game itself or further ahead to burgeoning puberty.
Like an excitable child, it starts massive and then gets bigger, the music finding seemingly inexhaustible supplies of fresh energy and ideas all of which eventually cohere into a mammoth locked groove which underpins the last 90 seconds of the track. I can’t help but wonder whether if singer Neil Haydock had had a stronger voice, it might have pushed Dinosaurs into a mainstream hit. If it had come out circa 1997/98, it would have fit right in alongside hits of the period by the likes of Embrace or Hurricane No.1.
Looked at objectively, Dinosaurs isn’t as good as Blood Rush, but I find it much more enjoyable to listen to. I need to be in a particular state of mind or mood to listen to Blood Rush, whereas Dinosaurs can be listened to at any time and is always guaranteed to lift me out of despondency.
Video courtesy of JOSEPPPPHHHH
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