blisters on my brain

It was the year nineteen ***** and I was a lot younger than I am now. On the TV screen was the Wrekked Train, in the standard issue bomber jacket and wasp glasses, sneering his way through Vision Incision as the beats tripped and slipped around his distorted stream of consciousness lyrics. Like some cracked up stacked up urban poet from the future painting pictures of the big smoke, whether that be London, Manchester or New York, or indeed, Brighton.

This was my first exposure to the gritty twisted world of the Lo Fidelity Allstars, once bitten, never to recover. The seedy slimy inner city dioramas lyrically splattered against the back of my eyes by Dave Randall, vocodered, sliced, cut up and layered over almost but not quite trip hop, the dark under belly of the Brighton big beat scene. While the rest of the world were bopping about to Norman Cook and his skanerfella ranks and tripping gangstas, those of us in the know were locked up in dark rooms learning quite literally, how to operate with a blown mind.

The sample laden beats breaks and filth of the Lo Fi’s is a noise like no other, a rich audio mixture, always pioneering, never prosaic, never run of the mill, these shady characters knew what they were doing, and they did it with style. High octane rants about lunar dust, hardcore punk paste & disco machine guns while the effects swirl and twist around the Wrekked Trains vocal, slower songs like the tragically beautiful “I used to fall in love” and the book end to the album, the stunning will I get out of jail – I never knew it would end in such tragedy.

Its no wonder books like Slow Chocolate Autopsy and Perdido Street Station mean so much to me as an adult, having been infected with a deep love for the inner city lifestyle as a youngster, the good the bad and the plainly twisted, the filth the fury & the bright lights, tramps, needles, superstars, the back alley that skirts even the most exclusive stores & restaurants. This is the Lo Fidelity Allstars, they are the sound of your city, and they will teach you how to operate with a blown mind.