Friday 2 October 2009

Sitting on a Virgin train is horrible. Two-tone announcements ruin my fitful dozing, ugly augmented 5ths, is it really a G sharp followed by a C, who can tell with these tired ears, but what philistine came up with this torture?

In mainland Europe, steeped in the Romantic tradition , a dream of democratic pluralism and joy is embedded in the mellifluous beeps and bongs of public announcements ; even Mussolini wouldn't mess with it; concordant thirds , sweet memories of Beethoven seducing us as we optimistically careen through the night toward the Mediterranean sun, life enhancing bings and tings doppler effecting by.

Not on Virgin , with its vicious neo-Schoenbergian frequencies haplessly knocked out to remind us that modern life doesn't deliver Le Corbusier but high rise slums built on the cheap by lump labour . It says : the misery of private equity will grind your dreams of happiness into the dust. Outside the trains don't run on time. True!

2 comments:

  1. Neo-Schoenbergian ? Ha ! You're giving Virgin far too much kudos there ! Why don't they go the whole hog on frequency torture and do it in the vein of Xenakis... or better still, Merzbow !!

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  2. Good point. Let's go with Xenakis as his cadence scale would deliver an unforgettably paradign shifting in-train experience i.e make it even more crap

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