Danger in the Past

'The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.'

L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between.

*

There’s a new Fall album out soon, even though singer Mark E. Smith died eight years ago. A collection of random, unused vocal recordings from the latter years of his life have been stitched together with music from one of the many incarnations of his backing bands. It all feels a bit unseemly, with claims from some that this is not a real Fall album and that the project has not been authorised by those who were closest to the singer, while counter claims point to the approval of Mark’s estate for the release of the album.

This all comes in the same month as a 14 CD box set forensically examines all extant recordings of fellow Manchester band Joy Division’s live concerts.

We are restlessly digging up the past it seems, piece by piece, but to what end? The Fall released countless albums and if you delve into their full discography you can find any number of strange and incomprehensible compilations, odd live recordings, spoken word albums and more. One more non-essential addition may in the grand scheme of things be neither here nor there.

It’s an odd place, the past … the past that seems to want to live on beyond its time. While this Fall Post Script seems rather tawdry, Leonard Cohen’s son Adam oversaw a similar project three years after his dad’s passing in 2016. Here were fragments laid down specifically by the singer in the knowledge he would not live to see them completed, but he was able to provide notes for their completion and he had already engaged his son to work on the previous album completed just before his passing.

Thanks for the Dance is not an essential artefact either, but it was put together with careful and loving attention and the musicians who were invited to help in its realisation were well chosen and played their roles (by requirement understated) to the hilt.

The Joy Division release is a different case. It is 46 years since singer Ian Curtis passed away and the band regrouped themselves as New Order. The scrapings are of a different order. File these under historical artefacts. If Martin Hannett played a key role in shaping the sound of the two classic albums released during the band’s lifetime, then here is a counter claim to their power when shorn of that studio gloss.

This is not in essence new material – all these recordings have existed and been available in some form for decades (mostly as bootlegs of variable quality). It makes sense to curate them and polish them up for the new age. Ordered chronologically there is even a throughline, a plot, that sheds light on the development of the band as a unit, as their abilities to play improve and the catalogue of songs grows richer.

The sheer scale of the content, does perhaps leave you yearning for a Cliff Notes version to spare listening through, say, all 11 live recordings of ‘Insight’. But I guess in this digital age you can make your own choices as to how deeply or not you want to delve into this collection.

*

Of course everything must pass eventually. I wonder if it is Abba’s intention for their avatars to continue performing shows long past the time all their constituent members have died? Have they found the hack – get there first before others can exploit their legacy. It’s a neat trick and something technology will doubtless only foster upon us in ever greater numbers.

Long after we have wiped ourselves out – due to wars, overpopulation, climate change, meteor impact (pick your preferred doomsday scenario) – will aliens arrive to a planet populated only by avatars of our past selves? Empty trains and peopleless cars will endlessly parade through deserted towns and cities, while the sounds of Abba, The Beatles and others ring out from abandoned venues as strobe lighting picks out the movement of these uncannily realistic recreations of the artists that spawned them.

It might’ve made for a neat science fiction story when I was growing up, but now such things feel much less farfetched.

Welcome to the future, which perhaps it will turn out, is also the past.