Review Summary: -
It was 12:30 on a cold October night in central Oxford. After parting ways with a friend, I was left to make the journey home alone. Quick stop, ipod out, headphones on, continue... The interesting thing about a city at night is that all social constraints are put on hold. It's perfectly normal to, say, hurl abuse at the person beside you for no reason or lie down in the middle of the street. In essence, society is reduced to a primitive state. Having singled me out as a teenager on his own, a drunk student approached me, attempted to say something on the way and proceeded to fall over himself. None of his friends noticed, and he cut a sorry figure: sprawled out on the cobbles, not yet attempting to get up, so I moved on - these things happen. But my mind had just been reminded of the true, pathetic nature of humanity, and that's not something it likes to dwell on. I dropped a 10 pound note to the homeless woman, didn't receive much in the way of a thank you apart from a worried look. I guess she had reached the conclusion that this act of charity was a moment of spiritual cleansing before I jumped off a bridge.
Further up the street, there was a man clutching a bible like it was his only child; screaming chants of redemption and salvation. He stood right outside the mcdonalds, recently refurbished after being set on fire during the riots - more of an act of anti-corporate expression than simple vandalism.
"We have sinned" he shouted,
"we will be judged for what we have done". I don't know why he thought that combating one violent ideology with another one would improve things, but he seemed content to draw attention to himself and his small bubble of self-righteousness - completely oblivious that he was probably doing more harm than good.
After a drawn out wait for the bus, I have to wait for some idiot to fumble around with his ticket. I do not know why this angered me as much as it did, but for that one moment I swear I could have happily murdered him. My turn, no fumbling from my end and I move to sit down. Attempts to "accidentally" catch eyes with the cute girl drowning herself in literature failed, I sat down on the opposite side of the bus - just a little bit further back - and another drunk stumbled in, tripping over himself before crashing on to the back row of seats. I shared a quick smile with the girl, a brief moment of connectivity in a hostile place, before folding inwards, volume turned up a bit.
For an album with only a handful of vocal samples,
F#A#∞ manages to say more than it appears at first hand. Perhaps this is because words cannot describe the true depth of what the album stands for. It's dark, barren and lonely; a sentiment so far-reaching that what is so often interpreted as a post- apocalyptic scene can just as easily describe the nature of our society as a whole. In that nocturnal stroll, I engrossed myself in
F#A#∞, and found not only a haunting, beautiful soundtrack, but also a truth so tangible that it acted as an educational experience for emotional intelligence.
