The Fire This Time

Not often do we see such confrontational political work in the electronic music industry networks.
This a documentary in audio format, a tribute to the people of Iraq and a reminder of the destruction (continuing to be) caused by the direct aggressive intervention of certain western countries. If you feel the war on Iraq is a fair one, avoid this record at all costs. It may make you feel bad. Or sad, but that's normal.
For information on this project start from the surviving homepage, the Discogs link or this release reference, sadly most other links are deactivated (it's been six years...). Some current info on the Iraq situation overall here.

On the first disc you'll find the original creation of Grant Wakefield (text, narration & mix), on the second the underlying soundtrack. Mostly unreleased tracks or remixes by artists like AFX, Higher Intelligence Agency, Pan sonic, Bola, even the great AshRa, construct an dark ambient background with industrial and breakcore explosions, spiced by moments of extreme beauty (especially the work of Nareem Shamma, of whom I know nothing more than his name, or the field recordings treated by Wakefield himself). The project went out on Hidden Art, a label associated with side projects of Steve Wilson, head of neo-prog rock icons Porcupine Tree.

I had forgotten this one for years, found it very recently. Sadly, tracks #3 & #4 of CD2 are not included (scratched disc). On the other hand, I included the original booklet that was not included the CD release, found in the project's homepage above. I don't know if it's a rare piece, I know it's surely not talked about a lot and very few people have it, so listen to it here and then go buy it. For british electronica fans it's essential.

Grant Wakefield & VA - 2002, The Fire This Time
CD1: Part 1 - Part 2
CD2: Part 1 - Part 2
Info here.


P.S. The past-homepage of this project now shelters this project.