Soundtrack to the Apocalypse – Episode 1 : Home Counties – Redevelopment

Words by Oliver Burton | Header Image by Rowan Allen

Happy pandemic season everyone! As the British people simultaneously recline backwards their sun loungers of naivety, a rare opportunity begins to emerge. At CLUNK we like to think that we provide the most up to date content in these uncertain, ambiguous times, and so we’ve taken it upon ourselves to share with you all what will be our very own soundtrack to the apocalypse. Kicking things off, Bristol five piece Home Counties have us spinning out into a haze (sorry) of violent syncopation, knocking on death’s door in 18/4, clutching our hand sanitser like it’s a ticket to heaven.

The aptly titled ‘Redevelopment’ instils into our psyche a romanticisation of building blocks and progress, almost as if our collective cabin fever had led us to forget about our old friend Mr Capitalism. “Redevelopments has been long in the making, we recorded the track back last November when the crisis was just beginning to unfold in China, unbeknown to us”.

Although not consciously written to exist during Pandemic Blighty, through the shit stained lens that is 2020, ‘Redevelopment’ becomes a ever-confrontational lullaby.

The song itself is a cacophonous highlight reel of everything contemporary post punk has come to achieve. In celebrating the infused percussion and off-grid time signatures characterised by the best guitar music of recent – Home Counties have retained contemporary relevance without abandoning the uniqueness that first put them on the map. The distant indulgences of lyrics such as “concrete anonymity” allow us to hark back to a time when our priorities were in a very different order, and you could walk out your front door without the constant threat of an invisible killer patrolling under the guise of a popular Mexican beer. Lines such as “luxury apartments” – formerly music to the ears of the wall street warriors and time share tyrants of yesteryear, hits in a different way now that the size of your off-shore condo doesn’t matter if you’re life is at stake whilst trying to buy eggs.

Although much more sarcastic when applied to these fateful times we’re living, the boys themselves are far from paradise…“We are not functioning to put it bluntly. All gigs – cancelled. We’re isolating in different parts of the country but do occasionally meet in the virtual pub”. Perhaps in order to really appreciate the apocalypse, the only saviour is to look back at the ugliness of progress and convince ourselves that this is somehow better?“

All in all, ‘Redevelopments’ makes you yearn for the time when we can leave the house without the approval of others. In their own words…“sit at a window and stare longingly into the spring sun whilst listening to Marvin Gaye, dreaming of what you could be doing… stay safe world”.