Alive and kicking. Screaming and shagging. Pissing and puking. This was Britain; captured so menacingly and accurately in 1996 with the release of Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting. If there was a song to instantly take you back; to the film, to the time, to the nostalgia, the gross romance, it was and still is Born Slippy by Underworld. On screen the imagery, vision and aural delights were perfectly married into a dance of death, life, love, friendship and sex. What a tune.
How perfectly apt then, that Parallax Universe, aka David Ferris, decides to wrap up this year – 2020 – the year of weird, by relaying to us his own synth soaked version of the scuzz by (excuse the pun) injecting into the original, his own brand of sentimentality. Sounding like a heroin spiked odyssey through Bladerunner, with a healthy dose of John Carpenter thrown in for the ride; David blends filth, emotion, guitar and soul into a mix brimming with energy and warmth. His reworking hits all the right stuff, from the instantly recognisable and blissful opening chords through to the adrenaline fuelled rush of his sublime synth sounds. It’s his own mixtape of techno and pop, that soars heroically from the speakers and into our world, proving beyond a shadow of doubt how brilliantly this song resonates in describing the madness and sadness of modern life.
Bright and shiny, cold and forlorn, the listener can almost hear the indifferent winds of 2020, blowing through a neon soaked metal cityscape; perhaps that of our impending global dystopia?
Adding David’s signature guitar sounds into an electronically chilling classic, lifts this version further into the stratosphere, embellishing when needed and straddling hints of the original, thus allowing for our memories of the 90’s and another time, to surface and fade inside our skulls like ghosts. His guitar works, for the haunting soundscape of textures and whispered subtext that murmurs so delicately in his musicianship. Hats of to the chef too that it is easy to picture the man himself making this sonic painting at home, with his guitar, a few pedals, a midi keyboard and his trusty scarlet 2i2 (would highly recommend a watch).
In a year we have continually seen glimpses of the light from the dark and darkness in the light, this remake is the bleakness, stirred with the shot of euphoria we all need right now. Take this one and feel it in your plastic, hollowed out hearts and wish for a better day.
