"“Cossacks Are” sets the tone. A two chord twang, a desperate rhythm, and a series of implored phrases that seem to evade narrative: “A moving aria for a vanishing style of mind”; “You could easily picture this in the current top ten”; “Medieval savagery, calculated cruelty.” This last, you might remember, was Chief Prosecutor Carla De Ponte’s summation of Slobodan Milosevic’s crimes in the former Yugoslavia, crimes that haunt the whole record. One aspect of this Drift is continental: Europe’s sleepwalk back to fascism.
With a few hunches and a thorough afternoon on Google, you could trace other phrases back to book reviews, George Bush’s entreaties to Jacques Chirac, eulogies for Pope John Paul II. The collage effect, splicing the world historical with tabloid tittle tattle, is reminiscent of John Berger, years ago, flicking through the Sunday Times Magazine, from the spectacle of Bangladeshi refugees to aftershave ads, and declaring, “The culture that produced this incoherence… is insane”."
"“Cossacks Are” sets the tone. A two chord twang, a desperate rhythm, and a series of implored phrases that seem to evade narrative: “A moving aria for a vanishing style of mind”; “You could easily picture this in the current top ten”; “Medieval savagery, calculated cruelty.” This last, you might remember, was Chief Prosecutor Carla De Ponte’s summation of Slobodan Milosevic’s crimes in the former Yugoslavia, crimes that haunt the whole record. One aspect of this Drift is continental: Europe’s sleepwalk back to fascism.
With a few hunches and a thorough afternoon on Google, you could trace other phrases back to book reviews, George Bush’s entreaties to Jacques Chirac, eulogies for Pope John Paul II. The collage effect, splicing the world historical with tabloid tittle tattle, is reminiscent of John Berger, years ago, flicking through the Sunday Times Magazine, from the spectacle of Bangladeshi refugees to aftershave ads, and declaring, “The culture that produced this incoherence… is insane”."
From here: http://www.uncut.net/music/uncut/reviews/8759