Negativeland - Dispepsi

I've never known much about Negativeland other than their name, but Rob Bell and I have been social-distance-trading a few things back and forth and he gave me copies of a couple of their albums to check out as we have both been wallowing in some noize bands lately.

A concept record about the rivalry between Pepsi and Coca-Cola, the title is a play on the word dyspepsia, a term for indigestion. Negativeland works with sound collages and montages more than music, although there are musical elements throughout, especially when they create their own, slightly twisted, jingles. Mostly, though, there are manipulated samples layered on top of each other to the point where you really just pick out certain phrases with each listen and other things will jump out at other times.

Of course, it is really a statement on the manipulative evils of mass advertising - with snippets of ad execs talking about their trade combined with bits of actual commercials joined with much more. Oddly, in a way it makes me wish for simpler times when people actually argued about the differences between Pepsi and Coke and Classic Coke and whatever other offshoot rather than whether it was acceptable to forcibly separate children from their parents, and put people into concentration camps, and that school shootings need to simply be accepted and it's ok that a president colludes with Russia and pays off porn stars...This all seems fairly innocent in comparison to today's world.

Regardless, it is a creative and innovative release and while it's not a record to put on for background music (I think it probably should be "enjoyed" with headphones in order to pick out the numerous layers), it sure beats today's news while making your daily commute!