The Full Story
About Covid 19
TOWARD THE AVANT GARDE:
They Know Everything, When the Sickness Seeps in, Oh Children! Why are you Here?, & 2020
THEY KNOW EVERYTHING is a deep deconstruction of the Big Brother idea, that the dystopia is already here. Stylistically it is fashioned from a trippy drum and bass, punctuated by piano and tuba, and a clanging bell, building to a string section climax. The verses are delivered in a droning rap, the voice of the Big Brother himself, the chorus being the voice of the enlightened people bleeting out a warning, and in this sense the song derives from Greek theatre tradition. The song was a poignant echo of the general malaise of Covid confinement where it really seemed that even the most democratic governments were practising total control.
WHEN THE SICKNESS SEEPS IN is obviously a Covid song, a dramatic 'telling' of the pandemic. A low bass drone underlies a jazzy drum beat, punctuated by some of Adriana's most haunting improvisations, building dramatically with low string sections, organ and electric guitar.
OH CHILDREN! WHY ARE YOU HERE? The narrative is allegorical, almost Biblical, analysing the pandemic in a much more poetic way. Staccato instrumentation runs throughout, cutting rather than beating the rhythm. The final result is a Dantesque step into Hell.
2020: is a spoken narration over a throbbing, grey, synth pad ambience. It describes the state of the world in 2020. Miserable.
We Don't Want to go Back
About climate change denialists and how to respond to their positive-negativity.
FROM TALKING TO THE TRAIN (1):
Dead Dodoes (Long Version), No-one's Gonna Help You, Progress Happens, & Tired
DEAD DODOES was a new version of a song that originally appeared on Talking to the Train, but a longer version with two new bridges. These were originally written in Spanish and were included to make it more interesting for the Spanish audience at the concerts in Madrid. The message, of course, is a warning of the dangers of consumerism and its role in the climate emergency.
"What do you care if the world is dying? What do you care if the dodo is dead?"
NO-ONE'S GONNA HELP YOU was another song lifted from the Talking to the Train album and remastered. The theme, a ballad, is concerned with human alienation from the brutal economic system that pervades. The rhythm is first established with some nylon string fingerpicking, as in the original version, sinking into the more dramatic electric riffs of Adkin's Retro PRS Santana.
PROGRESS HAPPENS: A more folky song remastered from the Talking to the Train album. Progress happens, or does it?
TIRED: a remix from Talking to the Train. Narrating the depressing effects of reading the morning paper.
PURELY POLITICAL
U.B.I. & 2020
U.B.I. stands for the Universal Basic Income, a radical idea in which everyone would receive a basic living allowance from the State. Adkin sees that as a very viable economic idea that would create a world of two economies: one which guarantees the aquisition of basic needs like health, housing and food and water in a free way for all, with a second economy for unnecessary aquisitions. Adkin saw this as a first step towards creating the money-free society that would be necessary for authentic human progress. Included in this message is also Adkin's idea that robots are also a positive element for the freeing of true human potential and creativity.
THE PANDEMIC:
Covid-19 & Wuhan
The title song of the album COVID-19 outlines Madadkin’s post-pandemic philosophy, describing the tremendous horror of the pandemic but also announcing the positive future that should have dawned after the disaster. Like the Orange Goblin on the Abominable Preachers album it is taken from a future perspective, even though it was conceived and produced during confinement when Covid was decimating the Spanish health service. Musically it is performed by an electric guitar with lots of flanging over a jazz organ, a virtual muted trumpet, and a very simple steady drum.
WUHAN was released before the album as a single. It is a throbbing, head bashing rock song that quite simply narrates the story of the pandemics origins, but with the Madakin post-pandemic philosophical twist, in which the pandemic is being praised rather than lamented. The video that Paul put together for this tune is recommendable. Especially Ariadna’s dead-chicken dance.