Tuesday 28 November 2017

Mark Shreeve ‎– "Thoughts Of War" (Uniton Records ‎– Uniton 001) 1981



Mark even had vinyl out in 1981, courtesy of a Norwegian label, as you do.

Here, our Mark ruminates on the sticky subject of 'War'.Pretty nasty stuff is 'War'......lots of killing, mass executions, maimed children, Genocide, its no fun at all......or so I was led to believe.
Listening to Mr Shreeves' 'Thoughts' on the subject one would be inclined to think that these unwelcome violent episodes were quite relaxing, floaty escapades.As if mass destruction was an open gateway to paradise. 
This is a concept of 'war' more akin to that imagined by those stone-age morons in the Islamic State.Of course to get round the fact that it is written in their holy book that they should not kill,they call themselves 'Martyrs'rather than muderers.A fast track to the side of God,and rewarded with, and I quote, "A Sensual Paradise". This consists of being wed to 72(?!) 'perpetual Virgins' called the 'Houri'......women, of course, don't get 72 musculus blokes in paradise, only one,"...and they will be satisfied with him"!!!!???....Have you ever heard such a pile of misogynistic neanderthal bullshit in your life before......well, yes if you're a devout Muslim.......I could go on, but might risk some kind of Fatwa from some suicide-bearded nutjob modern caveman in Birmingham.
I digress.
As pictured on the rear of the Shreeve sleeve, one will notice that Mark could have easily been pictured in 1971 rather than 1981, but his beard is absolutely NOT that of a radical Muslim; so his vision of War is probably not that perverted skidmark of anti-intellectualism that is radical Islam......don't worry the American Taliban are just as fucking bad to balance it up.
These 'Thoughts' on War ironically, or maybe purposefully turn out to be great stuff for Meditations for Peace.Like those Buddhist chaps do.....now wait.....isn't it those Buddhist chaps who are currently performing Genocide on the Rohingya (muslims) people in Myanmar? And wasn't it Buddhists who invented Suicide Bombing in WW2?.....the kamikaze.
So no-one is innocent is the conclusion to this digression.
But Mark Shreeve is innocent of taking the obvious route in this beautifully warm analogue, Berlin School of Electronics style, portrayal of War......this record is really 'Thoughts On Peace', and who could possibly disagree with that?.......yeah yeah I know, there's a huge list, topped by our chums from the three main monotheistic religions.
Good album by the way, even if a conceptually vague one.

Tracklist:

Thoughts Of War - Part One (15:15)
A1.1 Escalation
A1.2 Cold Emotion
A2 Nightmare Of Reality 14:25
B1 Dream Sequence 11:01
Thoughts Of War - Part Two (18:41)
B2.1 Funeral In Desolation
B2.2 Remembrance
B2.3 "...Ashes To Dust..."




8 comments:

northfieldhat said...

I think the kamikazi may have practiced Shinto.

Jonny Zchivago said...

Of course shinto had its roots in buddhism, then there was 'state shinto', then there were the buddhist majority in the jap populous,including the air force.....if that ain't enuff to taint our buddhist pals with the invention of suicide bombing then we've always got the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka to fall back on.

Ian said...

Curiously smiling, beaming image of the author for an album with this title. "Hey, hello everyone! Really glad you made it today. There's tea on. Let's talk about war, shall we?"

Jonny Zchivago said...

Yeah, its a bit like one of those patronising kids TV programmes Version of 'War'....."Today we're going to talk about Waaaaaar.....does anybody know what that is?".....the sad thing is the moronic majority do actually need to be spoken to like that....especially Trump and the morons who follow the Twat!

Toyman Blood said...

Just out of curiosity, but do you have Mark Shreeve's 1983 album Assassin by any chance?

Jonny Zchivago said...

Hi Toyman.
Yes i have a CD reissue with bonus track of Assassin......i've upload it and put the link here later today.

Jonny Zchivago said...

Assassin link:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/laozddkhauhkhom/Assassin.rar/file

Toyman Blood said...

Thank you so much for the link brother! I have been looking for the album for a long time, and I'm pleased it's available again. Much appreciated! 🙂