Ian Mathias-Baker

Release Notes

Dissident Sound Lab's first album-length release Terms and Conditions Apply builds on themes fans will be familiar with: critiques of late-stage capitalism, calls for social justice, concerns over environmental destruction – all set to radio-friendly dance grooves. 'Subversive disco' one commentator has called it.

In this new release the uptempo singles are still there ("That Option is Not Available", "To Greta With Love", "Objects of Desire") but given the broader scope of an album, these are now interspersed with more expansive and reflective pieces which lower the tempo and cast them into relief.

The music ranges from ambient electronica, funk, pop through to cinematic. The tone sweeps from deadly serious (the climate catastophe, poverty) to slightly tongue-in-cheek (an absurd automated answering system). Running through it all is a seriousness that asks what happens when human beings come to understand themselves, one another, and the natural world primarily through the language of markets, technology and consumption.

"It's a Beautiful Day Here in New York City" juxtaposes the shallow platitude of a radio DJ and the cynical language of stock market analysts in an ambient soundscape of New York City. Amongst the wailing sirens, car horns, rumbling subway trains and buskers we hear a financial analyst cheerily proclaiming that the destruction of the ecosystem is priced into their forecasts.

"That Option Is Not Available" sets a surreal automated telephone answering service to a disco funk accompaniment. Its absurd menu of choices promises agency while withholding any meaningful possibility of human contact.

"To Greta With Love" recasts Greta Thunberg as a secret agent infiltrating nefarious organisations hell-bent on destroying the world. Evoking the musical language of James Bond films (John Barry, Monty Norman – the title is a play on From Russia With Love) the track is an affectionate tribute to the heroic activist. The incongruity of casting her as a super spy is absurd – but no more so than a teenager having to skip school to berate world leaders for their lack of response to the climate emergency.

"Miserere Mei" is a litany-like lament for a damaged planet facing consequences that are frankly biblical – throwing the barbarity of the secular world into sharp relief against the overtly sacred reference. In a similarly liturgical vein, the Morse code signal that opens the album carries the hidden invocation 'Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee'.

Dissident Sound Lab has always been political. Terms and Conditions Apply goes further in illuminating the ethical basis that informs that politics. Among moments of absurd humour and infectious beats we hear voices seeking mercy, calling for justice, or bearing witness to suffering. The album invites the listener to inhabit a space which exposes and challenges the banality, cruelty, and ecological illiteracy of our society. It asks only that we listen.