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Deserter’s Songs: A Place Where Nothing Ever Happens
By Dave Bell A friend who shares my enthusiasm for Talking Heads recently expressed surprise that Heaven is my favourite of their songs. “I always skip it”, she said, “I find it really boring”. And in...
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Deserter’s Songs – Looking Backwards: In Defence of Nostalgia
By Dave Bell In a symposium on ‘the meaning of Hauntology’ organised by The Wire back in April, Mark Fisher made the point that the concept refers to more than simple nostalgia; it’s a pining for a...
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Deserter’s Songs – Hang on to Each Other: The Critical Dystopianism of Silver...
By David Bell A couple of weeks back I provided an analysis of Talking Heads’ Heaven as a song about utopia: a place so ‘perfect’ that it’s a place where ‘nothing ever happens’. Yet, of course, such a...
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Deserter’s Songs – The Shape of Utopia to Come
By David Bell Free Improvisation as Nomadic Utopianism In last week’s column I argued that the music of Silver Mt.Zion pierces the dystopian realities we currently face and offers hope for more utopian...
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Deserter’s Songs: The shape of education to come?
By David Bell The Shape of Education to Come? Improvisation and Critical Pedagogy Last week I argued that the practice of improvising music constitutes what I call a ‘nomadic utopia’: a space in which...
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Deserter’s Songs – Bye Bye Binaries (Music and Żal)
By David Bell As a child, I was a huge fan of Simon & Garfunkel, but one song of theirs bothered me to the point where I could barely bring myself to listen to it. It was their cover of Felice and...
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Deserter’s Songs A Funny Bird That Never Lands
By David Bell I realise that despite writing this column for a while I have not yet written about the album which gave it its name: Mercury Rev’s 1998 masterpiece Deserter’s Songs. It’s hovered there...
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Deserter’s Songs Free Music: A Price Worth Paying?
By David Bell During the Ceasefire sessions last week, Michael Albert- the man behind Paraecon and a co-founder of the radical website Z-net- expressed his frustration with the idea that information...
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Deserter’s Songs The Apocalyptic Landscapes of Godspeed You! Black Emepror
alt=”” width=”618″ height=”309″ />By David Bell Next month sees the much anticipated return of Godspeed You! Black Emperor- one of the most vital and thrilling bands of late nineties and early...
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Deserter’s Songs I Hear That Train A-Comin’
By David Bell There’s a long history of trains in popular music. They’ve represented freedom, inspired dances, carried loved ones away and heralded utopian futures. But the sounds of trains themselves...
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