Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Life was simpler once.
Not the cry of the technophobe lamenting the surge in technology, but the nostalgia of a truth that whispers that humanity has lost its ability to understand the complex arrangements of social cohesion, that we talk a big game, we commend ourselves on our defining character of peace, love and understanding and lifting up ones neighbour, but that we truly are devoid in the large percentage of being truly empathetic, that we have lost touch with our essence because we have embraced a more tactile relationship with the space in between true physical and emotional conduct.
The constant need to be entertained, the drive to hear and fuel gossip, can be seen to go hand in hand, and both lead to isolation of a sort, one which is self-imposed as we hunt down in packs the elusive channel of choice to find that there is nothing to stimulate, and the gossip which becomes the accommodating amusement.
Daytime TV’s debut album Nothing’s On But Everyone’s Watching is the epitome of music beating down the doors of mediocrity and punishing the silence we allow to masquerade as interest. It is in the highly addictive sound that explores relationships, disconnection, interaction with the divested, and the plain human savagery that comes from admitting that we are on occasion more interested in shutting ourselves down than ever focusing on the attention of building a bond with more than just the mechanics and loneliness of our existence, that the listener understands that we have built a wall of technology that has replaced that of flesh and bone, of blood and thought.
Across tracks such as the superb opener of Side Effects, which in itself is to music as arguably A Scanner Darkly is to literature and film, its frightening realisation that we have become manipulated by the constant injection of dopamine that our gadgets give us, Hush, Communication, the truth of Zombie, Learning To Talk, and the bitter open policy of Ugly, Daytime TV’s album is a running commentary of how affected we have become by this incessant need for validation across the multiplex of wires, we have become slaves to the happiness provided by singularity comfort.
For Will Irvine, Gareth Thompson, Chris Clark, and John Caddick there is arguably nothing on, but they refuse to be enthralled by the constant need for visual stimulation being force fed into our system, instead they take the more productive route, enjoying the resonance for what it is, but not being a slave to every emotion pushed by programme schedule and corrosive sentimental detachment. It is a way of life that more should be eager to embrace; television, the gadget is all well and good in the right moment, and in the right frame of mind, but art, physical and exacting art will always be more useful to the human spirit.
An album of sublime responsibility, of heavy lyrics, of dynamic rock sound. Turn off the set, tune in to the beat that thrills instead, for Daytime TV is accessed by embracing more than the remote feel, it is a way of life.
Daytime TV’s Nothing’s On But Everyone’s Watching is out now.
Ian D. Hall