Here is the soundtrack commissioned by The Vinyl Factory and 180 The Strand for the Clockwork Jerusalem party at the Venice Biennale. Mixed by JD Twitch and JG Wilkes aka Optimo the mix brings together such seemingly disparate music sources as Wendy Carlos’ soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange, Mark Stewart’s dubbed-out remix of William Blake’s Jerusalem, Andrew Weatherall’s Sabres of Paradise classic ‘Smokebelch’ and tracks by The Fall, Joy Division, Steel Pulse and even Bronski Beat(!) into a brilliant and powerful comment on the complexity of modern Britain.
Get ready to throw some shapes and dance about architecture.
Earlier this month, The Vinyl Factory and 180 The Strand partnered with the British Council to present the British Pavilion at the 14th International Architecture Biennale in Venice. As part of the celebrations, The Vinyl Factory commissioned JD Twitch and JG Wilkes aka Optimo to create the soundtrack for the launch event, and their incredible selection didn’t disappoint.
Responding to this year’s British theme A Clockwork Jerusalem, an exploration of the unique and contradictory history of British Modernism, the Glaswegian duo’s mix brings together such seemingly disparate music sources as Wendy Carlos’ soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange, Mark Stewart’s dubbed-out remix of William Blake’s Jerusalem, Andrew Weatherall’s Sabres of Paradise classic ‘Smokebelch’ and tracks by The Fall, Joy Division, Steel Pulse and even Bronski Beat(!) into a brilliant and powerful comment on the complexity of modern Britain.
Ranging from Stonehenge to council estates, Ebenezer Howard to Cliff Richard, ruins and destruction to back-to-the-land rural fantasies through architecture, records and books, A Clockwork Jerusalem explores the culture and products of British modernity as an architectural project and as a wider cultural experience.
Given images from the exhibition to work from, JD Twitch says that the theme “conjured up fresh, new concrete and green spaces” in his mind, before alighting on “that almost utopian idea of what new towns would be and achieve but as is so often the case turned out to be a very false utopia.”
In choosing the tracks, JD Twitch says that, “a lot of them sprang to mind fairly quickly when thinking about new towns and a lot of them came about from a brainstorming session where we tried to think as laterally as possible. Luckily a lot of the music we love was relevant to the subject so we didn’t have to go too far from our comfort zone and as one track was thought of, it would often lead to another coming to mind.”
Presented under the stars at Venice’s Music Conservatory on 5th June 2014, the mix and accompanying short film by Anoushka Siegler and Kamil Dymek (above) formed the audio-visual backdrop to opening of the exhibition produced in collaboration between The Vinyl Factory and the British Council and to launch The Vinyl Factory-published A Clockwork Jerusalem – a book that lays out the visual and theoretical framework for the exhibition.
Full tracklist:
Wendy Carlos – Title music from A Clockwork Orange
The Slits – New Town
Carsten Jost & Katze – In Every Dream Home A Heartache (loop)
Hawkwind – High Rise
John Cooper Clarke – Evidently Chickentown
ELP – Jerusalem
XTC – Like A New Town Animal In a Furnished Cage
Joy Division – Atmosphere
Edward Elgar – Pomp and Circumstance
Einsturzende Neubauten – Armenia (loop)
What’s it called? Cumbernauld!
Duran Duran – Planet Earth
Steel Pulse – Handsworth Revolution
Mark Stewart – Jerusalem
Linton Kwesi Johnson – Inglan Is A Bitch
The Fall – Hit The North
Fad Gadget – Back To Nature
Anne Clark – Sleeper In Metropolis
John Foxx – Underpass
Killing Joke – Change
Sabres Of Paradise – Smokebelch
Bronski Beat – Smalltown Boy
Wendy Carlos – William Tell Overture
The South Wales Striking Miners Choir – Take Me Home