Last
year’s ‘The War Room’ EP had already introduced me to the possibilities of what
might happen when you combine a firm indie rock aesthetic with a keen sense of
history and access to a massive archive of BBC radio samples, but there was an
unfulfilling brevity about that World War-themed EP.
However,
the full-length album has enabled PSB to expand its horizons a little, and that
ultimately makes for a far more rewarding (if more intense) listening
experience.
Inform
- Educate - Entertain is a retro-futurist journey through
several generations worth of radio samples, presenting soundbites to act as
markers which identify and document just how far it is we’ve actually come.
And
back in the day, when the world was still black and white, those radio announcements,
emergency broadcasts, and news features – formal or otherwise – usually meant a
thing or two. Something that’s relatively easy to forget in these
ultra-connected, heavily-networked, supposedly far more enlightened times.
Inform
- Educate - Entertain essentially does exactly what it says on the tin (or in
its title). The album works as a reminder that life wasn’t always as easy as we
have it today. A reminder of just how hard our forefathers had to work to
become informed, and of the limited choices they had in terms of how that news
was consumed. And as a chance to appreciate just how much our world has changed …
not only in the UK but also across the globe – although the themes presented
are generally specific to Britain, back when it was still prefixed by the word “great”.
‘Spitfire’
is the only track from the EP to be carried forward to the album proper and it
remains a fascinating insight into the general mindset of the pre, mid, and
post-war British public. Other highlights include ‘Signal 30’, ‘Night Mail’, ‘Lit
Up’, and ‘Everest’ (clip below) …
... and
here’s a track from the ‘The War Room’ EP of 2012:
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