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about

I’ll be honest – much as I’m a fan of the book and the film ‘1984’, I was mostly inspired to write this track by the twin calamities of Brexit and Trump getting elected. Suddenly, the idea of a totalitarian state on both sides of the Atlantic were fomenting into something more palpable and frightening than any work of fiction.

As in the novel, history was being re-written in very real ‘Ministries Of Truth’…maybe only to a small degree, but most wedges have a very thin end. I was (and still am) very concerned for my own country, with its government being led by a puppet who was being worked from behind the scenes by unelected and unknown forces.

Looking across the Atlantic, I was horrified by Trump’s stated moves to a) limit the output of the media to minimise the truth being written about him, while b) creating his own reality to be gobbled up by the people his words had empowered.

Anyone at all familiar with Orwell’s story could not but help draw very stark comparisons with what was unfolding in the real world.

In ‘1984’, the UK is renamed “Airstrip One’, as it’s known for being a strategic area for a war that may or may not be real. The idea was based on the comments of an actual American military official, who described Britain as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier”.

In those years surrounding the real 1984, that wasn’t too far from the truth – and we’re still a strategic airbase for the USAF as I type.


(Still from MGM’s ‘1984’ – cinematography by Roger Deakins)

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from Phantoms Of The Northern Line, released April 23, 2021

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Shards Of Reason Birmingham, UK

West Midlands-based duo creating a melting pot of contemporary jazz vibes, downtempo electronica and dreamy ambient landscapes.

Coming to iTunes and Spotify soon!

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