It came to me first when I was in the backseat of Baz's car. Ben put Tarantulla on as an interlude to the tomfoolery. We were on a wildman weekend in Scotland. We climbed a 900 metro peak in Cairn Gorm national park, had a swim in Loch Ness in the raw, and drank deeply of the whisky flagon.
But it was in the backseat of the Ford Focus that I realized that Faithless' Outrespective was a classic, especially Tarantulla and We come one. My fist listening of these was in a living room in London. Before I moved to London I thought that dance music was for junkies and poofs. In London dance music emanates from every car and every open window. But this isn't dance music per se: there's something more destabilised about it. Like the photo on the front cover the album echoes the riots in Göteborg and the civil disobedience and terror of a new century.
These songs, like great dramatic opera, meld into biting and comings of one. Like the fado sung in Gerd Nygaardshaug's Mengeles Zoo, or any fado sung for that matter, a 'hyllning', that remarkable Swedish word that encompasses both tribute and glorifying song, to things that make you want to cry because for the few minutes that they last, you live.
Then I took over as navigator from Ben and found myself in the front seat and trying to steer the music choices on a wildman weekend towards Outrespective and these two songs. A navigators life is never easy.
