Transcript: Are Synthesizers Political? (Patreon)

Transcript and sources for this video: https://youtu.be/inoQYzzuIgM



Hi everyone, my name is Jeremy, and this is Red Means Recording. 

Recently I got a real humdinger of a DM on a bad website from someone who claimed that the reason I wasn’t included in a certain product launch of a certain groovebox was because I was “being political” on social media. This isn’t the first time I’ve been told “being political” is a bad idea for my “career” and that “politics don’t belong in music”. I’ve been told to shut up and do videos about synthesizers and leave the politics out of it because “politics have no place” in electronic music. Or something, honestly it’s hard to tell what these people are talking about half the time.

I’m motivated by a lot of things, but the number one thing I’m motivated by is righteous indignation, so I thought, hey, it’s pride month: being gay is political. I’m gay. I’m political. I play synthesizers which means I get gay on the synthesizers which makes them political by proxy. I wonder if anyone else ever politically used a synthesizer? 

Today we’re going to go through a list of some of the most notable uses of synthesizers to make a political message, or times a band that uses synthesizers has made overt political statements. I’ve decided to soften the blow of this for the non-political by doing it as a fox because I’m pretty sure there’s nothing political about foxes right? RIGHT?

Anyways, let's begin.

1985 - Paul Hardcastle ("19" extenden version)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hardcastle

Paul Louis Hardcastle is a British composer, musician, producer, songwriter, radio presenter and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known for his song "19", which went to number 1 in the UK Singles Chart in 1985.

The song has a strong anti-war message, focusing on the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War and the effect it had on the soldiers who served. 

"19" features sampled narration (voiced by Peter Thomas), out-of-context interview dialogue ("I wasn't sure what was going on"), and news reports from Vietnam Requiem[3] the ABC television documentary about the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) suffered by Vietnam veterans. In 2009, the song placed at 73 on VH1's 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders of the 80s.[4]

"19" had huge international success in the charts; it went to No. 1 in the UK for five weeks, as well as several other countries worldwide. "19" became the top-selling single in 13 countries for 1985. 

Hardcastle was inspired to create the song after watching Vietnam Requiem,[3] and comparing his own life at 19 to those of the soldiers featured: "...what struck me was how young the soldiers were: the documentary said their average age was 19. I was out having fun in pubs and clubs when I was 19, not being shoved into jungles and shot at.”

1989 - Underground Resistance

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_Resistance

Back in 1989, techno legends "Mad" Mike Banks and Jeff Mills formed this techno collective called Underground Resistance. They wanted the raw, industrial sound of early Detroit techno to reflect the harsh social, political, and economic realities facing inner-city communities after Reagan's policies. Their uncompromising music was meant to raise awareness and push for change.

Underground Resistance took a firm stance against the party/drug image that techno was associated with at the time. They didn't want their music reduced to just hedonistic beats. There was also a conscious rejection of the emerging "superstar DJ" culture. The members performed anonymously in balaclavas, using just the simple "UR" logo. This was their way of pushing back against the profiling and celebrity worship of DJs.

The idea was for the music to be a communal effort, not about individual stardom. So while core figures like Gerald Mitchell, DJ Rolando, and James Stinson of Drexciya were involved, Underground Resistance had a rotating cast of contributors behind the anonymity. The focus was solely on the message and the music itself.

1992 - Atari Teenage Riot

Atari Teenage Riot (ATR) is a German band formed in Berlin in 1992. Highly political, they fuse left-wing, anarchist, and anti-fascist views with punk vocals and a techno sound called digital hardcore, which is a term band member Alec Empire used as the name of his record label Digital Hardcore Recordings.

https://berkeleybside.com/why-we-still-need-atari-teenage-riot/

Beginning in the early 90s in Berlin, the German band’s music has always been deeply connected to the collective members’ staunch leftist political beliefs and in a Germany that was so divided by the Berlin Wall, Atari Teenage Riot had much to say that earlier 80s punk bands just hadn’t. Perhaps the failings that they saw in the German political scene—the perceived centrism and conformity of the left, the frightening rise of nationalism and conservatism on the right—could only be adequately addressed through music. 

Because these movements didn’t grow out of thin air, they were informed not only by the politics of the era but by different cultural scenes and how better to combat a nationalist, conservative culture than by creating an anarchistic left-wing one—and combat it they did. One of their very first singles, a Breakbeat mass of futuristic computer noises and punk-like scream shouting, was entitled “Hetzjagd auf Nazis,” (in  English: “Hunting for Nazis”) a clear message to the nationalists of the time. 

And today.

1999 - Massive Attack

Massive Attack is an English trip-hop collective formed in 1988 in Bristol. They released 5 albums, scored movies, and shaped the face of music permanently with their sound. Their Wikipedia has a surprisingly deep section on their activism and politics, including being anti-war, enforcing the human rights of prisoners, donating profits of a show to a Lebanese refuge camp, and, during a concert, naming those who died in anti-government protests on the screen at their back with the sentences “their killers are still out there”, and “we won’t forget some”.

They have refused to perform in Isreal since 1999 “ "as a form of non-violent pressure on Israel to end its brutal occupation of Palestine".[87] They have described this as "not an action of aggression towards the Israeli people" but "towards the [Israeli] government and its policies", arguing that "the Palestinians [in Gaza and the West Bank] have no access to the same fundamental benefits that the Israelis do."[88] In May 2020, Massive Attack urged Israel to end the blockade of the Gaza Strip.[89]”

https://crackmagazine.net/article/long-reads/robert-del-naja/

2000 - Radiohead - Idioteque - Kid A album: 

Radiohead is a multi-genre band from England. Throughout their 30-year career, they've released 9 studio albums and won 42 international awards for their music and videos. The lead singer, Thom Yorke, has woven politics into his lyrics in several songs, but since this is about synthesizers, we can look at the almost completely electronic Idioteque off of 2000’s Kid A. In it, Thom ponders the end of the world through climate change and the politics that profit off ignoring it: 

Who's in a bunker? Who's in a bunker?

Women and children first

Ice Age coming, Ice Age coming

Let me hear both sides

Mobiles skwerking, mobiles chirping

Take the money and run

Take our money and run, take our money

2006 - Matmos - The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth of The Beast

Matmos is an experimental electronic music duo formed in San Francisco and currently based in Baltimore. M. C. (Martin) Schmidt and Drew Daniel are the core members, but they frequently include other artists on their records and in their performances. Matmos is also well known for their collaboration with Icelandic singer and musician Björk, both on studio recordings and live tours. They’re a gay couple, have one of the most amazing Butt Magazine interviews I’ve ever read, and Drew’s side project The Soft Pink Truth is one of my favorite weird electronic music pleasures. 

Since they’re gay and that’s political, we can talk about their 2006 album The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast. Each song on this 10-track album is dedicated to a notable gay or lesbian person who influenced the duo. From Larry Levan to William S. Burroughs, the album contains sonic homages to the subjects throughout, like in the case of Burroughs: the sound of a typewriter, and a gun.

2007 - Year Zero by Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails is a band that loves synths. Or hates them depending on how you feel about Trent’s treatment of a yamaha dx7 during this show. Lead singer and writer Trent Reznor has never been shy about expressing anything he sets his mind to, and Year Zero was a very distinct political statement. 

I’m going to quote from this Riot Fest article which puts it very well
https://riotfest.org/2022/06/06/nine-inch-nails-year-zero-tried-to-predict-2022-what-did-they-get-right/

In 2000, human sock puppet George W. Bush was essentially installed as President by the Supreme Court after losing the popular vote. He was re-elected in 2004, coasting on a post-9/11 wave of jingoism, racism, and xenophobia 

That administration lied its way into two wars, encouraged the world to turn a blind eye as their military tortured detainees, and introduced the Patriot Act to further surveil citizens and quash dissent. Americans who questioned any of this faced rallying cries of “freedom isn’t free” and a wall of country singers promising a boot up their ass.

It was under these ominous shadows that Reznor developed Year Zero, Nine Inch Nails’ 2007 dystopian sci-fi concept album and alternate reality game that turned 15 this year (in 2022).

The title Year Zero comes from the notion that, after 15 years of traumatic terrorist attacks, the United States in 2022 would start again from scratch as a totalitarian fundamentalist Christian theocacy; 2022 marked the first year of a “new dawn”. An organization called the Bureau of Morality has cracked down on civil rights and grassroots dissent. The water is spiked with Parepin, a psychoactive substance whose use is justified as an anti-bioterrorism measure, but which makes its consumers sick and docile.

There’s more to the album’s story that I encourage you to check out for yourself, but there was no question Trent was making a political statement, and if Trent bringing politics into his music is wrong, I don’t want to be right. 

2016 - Nicolas Jaar - Sirens

Nicolas Jaar is a Chilean-American composer and recording artist based in New York.  He’s released 6 albums, including the politically charged “Sirens” in 2016. He’s won the BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix of the Year Award and has been nominated for others.

https://www.thefader.com/2016/10/07/nicolas-jaar-sirens-interview

“For at least the past few years it has felt like the world is reaching something of a boiling point,” Jaar said. “Things just continue to get more and more insane.” It was the rise of Donald Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric that pushed Jaar to explore the political aspects of his own life on Sirens. Jaar is Chilean, and seeing a bona-fide tyrant gain ground in American polls brought to mind Augusto Pinochet, Chile’s brutal, CIA-backed president whose 16-year tenure saw 3,200 citizens killed and tens of thousands more tortured. The album’s cover art features the lyrics from the record’s most overtly political track, “No”:  , which translates to, We already said no but the yes is in everything. The text is laid over a still from a controversial visual installation by Jaar’s father — the renowned Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar — titled This is Not America. The line is a reference to the Chilean national plebiscite, a 1988 referendum that gave the citizenry the chance to vote “yes” or “no” to re-elect Pinochet. With the help of activists and artists, the “no” vote won, but as Jaar’s lyric suggests, the lingering effect of Pinochet’s reign — the “yes” — lives on.

2016 - ANOHNI - HOPELESSNESS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anohni

Anohni Hegarty (formerly Antony Hegarty, born 1971), styled as ANOHNI,[4] is an English-born singer, songwriter, and visual artist. She has presented solo work and as the lead singer of the band Anohni and the Johnsons, formerly known as Antony and the Johnsons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopelessness_(album)#:~:text=Hopelessness%20is%20an%20electropop%2C%20dance,capital%20punishment%20and%20environmental%20crisis.

Hopelessness is an electropop, dance, experimental, and synth-pop album that lyrically addresses issues such as surveillance, drone warfare, capital punishment and environmental crisis.[5] She explained to Pitchfork that she drew influence from 80's dance music during the AIDS epidemic, stating that "rage is a really fun place to dance from—expressions of anger sublimated into something beautiful are invigorating, especially if you feel like you’re telling the truth."[9] The song "Obama" depicts disillusionment with the tenure of US President Barack Obama., and in the opening track “Drone Bomb Me” she sings: 

“Blow me from the mountains, and into the sea

Blow me from the side of the mountain

Blow my head off, explode my crystal guts

Lay my purple on the grass”

2017 - Fever Ray - This Country

Karin Elisabeth Dreijer (born 7 April 1975) is a Swedish singer-songwriter and record producer. Dreijer was one half of the electronic music duo the Knife, formed with their brother Olof Dreijer. Dreijer released their debut solo album under the alias Fever Ray in January 2009 and their second album Plunge in 2017. No stranger at all to political themes, the lyrics from This Country are as overt as it gets: 

Free Abortions and clean water

Destroy Nuclear

This country makes it hard to fuck

2022 - Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul

Two Belgian musicians collaborated on what might be my favorite new album that i missed when it came out in 2022. This quote from gigs in Scotland sums up why it’s here: 

https://www.gigsinscotland.com/artist/charlotte-adigry--bolis-pupul/bio

Cultural appropriation. Misogyny and racism. Social media vanity. Post-colonialism and political correctness. These are not talking points that you’d ordinarily hear on the dancefloor but Charlotte Adigéryand Bolis Pupul are ripping up the rulebook with their music. The Ghent-based duo, who broke out with their 2019 Zandoli EP on Soulwax’s record label DEEWEE, are rare storytellers in electronic music: they take the temperature of the time and funnel them into their playful synth concoctions –never didactic and always with a knowing wink.

A few tracks from their amazing Topical Dancer show off how they approach politics in their lyrics: 

Esperanto

Don’t say “But where are you really from?”

Say “I don’t see colour”

Don’t say “Nice pair”

Say “I love the symmetry of you”

Don’t say “But I’m allowed to say that because I grew up in a black neighborhood”

Say “My n......eighbour”

Don’t say “You speak my language surprisingly well”

Say “Do you speak Esperanto?”

Don’t say “Only a man is fit for this job”

Say “At least you tried, Karen”

Don’t say “I would like a black Americano”

Say “I’ll have an African American please”

Don’t say “White people can’t dance”

Say “Tom marches to the beat of a different drum”

Don’t say “So you’re from China, do you know my friend Hiro?”

Say “You must be blind not to see the difference”

Don’t say “We need to build a wall”

Say “I’m a world citizen, I don’t believe in borders”

Blenda
Go back to your country where you belong

Siri, can you tell me where I belong?

Go back to the country where you belong

Siri, can you tell if the road is long?

This is a small sample of suggestions I received from people in my discord when I asked them for suggestions on this topic a month ago. I want to thank them for the help in researching this topic, and know that if your favorite political synthesizer artist isn’t on this list, it’s not because they’re not important: it’s because nuance doesn’t work when you’re dealing with bigots and you have you make the biggest, most irrefutable statements when making your points or else they get real squirrely. 

To those of you making music and feeling marginalized or seeing the injustices of the world, never be afraid to make art about what you see and feel. Art is one of the few places that still celebrates dissidence, and artists can say things in ways nobody else can, and affect people in ways simple words and facts can’t.

As we celebrate Pride month here in the US, don’t forget that protest matters, your voice matters, and you shouldn’t go chasing and shooting at foxes unless you’re ready to get turned into a fox yourself. DON’T TRY AND TELL ME THAT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE.