Novas 2: Solid State Revolution
Act 2: Crash
09 This Final Frame – Take No Prisoners (1985, England) THE NOVAS
There's a message from our leaders, to the columns of the waiting world
In secrets they hide us, for tomorrow's wiser world
And I can't stop the way I'm feeling
(I can't stop the way I'm feeling)
We can change the world (we can change the world)
We can change the world
And we will take no prisoners
And we'll take no bribes
And we will take no prisoners
To make the wrong seem right
We're breaking in silence, but our voices need no cry
And the waiting in our exile, chase a dragon lest we die
Events have come to a breaking point. Astradyne and the Novas both launch their revolutions.
This 80s band only managed two singles but they’ve come back in the late 2000s.
What I love about this sequence of songs is how they build and flow together in increasing intensity.
10 The Sound – Resistance (1980, England) JACK
Caught in the comfort of my trap
Where it's easier to die than to fight back
Half dead but I hope it's not too late
To take some action and change my fate
Hold on, hold out
Resistance!
Lost in the whiteout I'm under the snow
The more I struggle the further down I go
Down I go
Half dead but I hope it's not too late
To take some action and change my fate
Hold on, hold out
Resistance!
Resistance!
Resist! Resist! Resist! Resist! Resist! Resist!
Resistance!
While Jack was hacking SYSTEM, it was hacking him. He struggles with his implanted personality and fails. Due to his betrayal, Susan is captured by Astradyne forces.
The Sound again.
11 Drinking Electricity – Breakout (1982, Scotland) SUSAN
(.. we have lost power... all .. systems are failing... we will no longer be able to maintain control... situation critical... status overload )
Keep on pushing
Keep on moving
Always searching
Keep on watching
Never trusting
Future facing
No protection
No restriction
No convention
No temptation
No illusion
No confusion
(.. computer failure... critical...)
Keep on hoping
Always dreaming
Stop believing
No more waiting
Time is driving
Pressure building
No temptation
No illusion
No confusion
No sedation
No corruption
No restriction
(... energy drain increasing...)
Keep on shouting in the heat of the silence
Keep on laughing in the face of the night
Breakout!
Breakout!
Breakout!
Breakout!
Breakout!
In an Astradyne detention facility, Susan attempts escape as the Novas storm the building.
Yep, this whole album, and the band name, that’s kind of the distilled essence of cyberpunk right there.
12 Crown of Thorns – World Radio (1984, England) THE NOVAS
Go! Go! Go! Go! You let your mind go And at the disco You're moving fast but you're dancing slow Spend a lifetime On the straight line But the light in your eyes still shows That it's (? ) a rolling stone Turning on world radio See the budding flower grow Don't wait for tomorrow Turning on world radio I want you everywhere I go I want you everywhere I go Now your luck turns When the night burns In the heart of a chosen few Simple questions simple answers Wasted time a forgotten clue Whatever happened to this place I knew? Turning on world radio See the budding flower grow Don't want for tomorrow Turning on world radio I want you everywhere I go I want you everywhere I go World radio (let your mind go) World radio (let your mind go) World radio (let your mind go) World radio (let your mind)
Jack breaks his programming and the Novas begin unleashing their hidden secret weapon: telepathic abilities. It’s pretty effective! But they are facing a megacorporation. Will it be enough?
I don’t know where that art on the single sleeve came from but that’s what always gave me the impression this was a song about teenagers with superpowers and so, (gestures at everything).
13 B-Movie – Remembrance Day (1981, England) JACK
In the forest, in the snow
All those many years ago
Hailstones and epitaphs
Mourning bells and half mast flags
In the cemetery where they fell
All those many years ago
But now it's just a memory
Eroded by the years
Forgotten heroes underground
Wrinkled faces gathered round
Hailstones and epitaphs
Roses on a barbed-wire fence
Winter landscapes never change
Oh it must have been the same
In the forest, in the snow
All those many years ago
Remembrance Day
All they have is memories
From photographs in silver frames
Remembrance Day
Lost forever in the fields
Of foreign lands many miles away
In the forest, in the snow
All those many years ago
Bombs and victims blown sky high
Buried where they lie
A generation underground
Wrinkled faces gather round
Songs will never bring them back
Never bring them back
Remembrance Day
The Novas once again stand on the brink of a third world war, this time a brutal, conventional one against a brainwashed population. Jack realises that SYSTEM has engineered a no-win situation. But is it too late to abort the operation? Will the world be destroyed, this time for real?
One of the spookiest little anti-war songs for me.
B-movies, like film noir, were kind of a running theme among the New Wave set and some of the other 80s pop art stuff. David Lynch’s The Fly (1986) for example, leaning heavily into both.
14 The Terminals – Chinatown (1982, USA) SUSAN
I will meet you down in Chinatown
Meet you there tonight at a place I've found
There's some words that are forbidden
There's some things not too well hidden
Down in Chinatown
And I would long to know you down in Chinatown
I've got one more night before the place I'm bound
I see them waiting on that waltz for me
Shivering under the last chance marquee
Down in Chinatown
And come the dawn you'll hear my heart pound
If I'm not there at this place
Then please don't ask around
My heart pounds
Please don't ask around
And come the dawn
If I'm not there
Please don't ask
And if the moon don't shine tonight
Then everything will be all right
And I will meet you there tonight
In Chinatown
Meet me down in Chinatown
Meet me down in Chinatown
Meet me down in Chinatown
Down, down in Chinatown
In the tech-noir streets of San Francisco, Susan has an urgent message for Jack and one last chance at reconciliation. But it is not clear yet whether she will ever trust him again.
Each ‘album’ has maybe one song that’s the master key to its mood and feel and sense of ‘story’ for me. A song that asks questions and leaves them unanswered. This is it for Novas 2. For Tomorrow, it was Danseparc (Martha and the Muffins), for Radiant Energy it was Nova Heart (Spoons). For Novas 3 (coming up) I think it’s probably It’s Alright, Baby’s Coming Back (Eurythmics).
But who even were The Terminals? Discogs doesn’t know. They’ve vanished into history just as effectively as the protagonist of this song. That’s kind of nice really.
15 The Buggles – Elstree (1980, England) JACK
Action!
I had a dream on a backlot
I saw my life like a longshot
Of smiling faces in a picture parade
Of all the stills from the films that you made
That we would see in the ?
After drinking coffee at the
Elstree
Remember me
I had a part in a B-movie
I played a man from history
I took no dives in the fight scene
I had a stuntman keep my suit clean
There's no technology to make up a song
They stop the orchestra if you get it wrong
Elstree
Remember me
I had a part in a B-movie
I played a man from history
Elstree
Now look at me
Now I work for the BBC
Life is not what it used to be
Elstree
They made a field into a warzone
I beat the enemy on my own
All the bullets just went over my head
There's no reality and no one's dead in
Elstree
Remember me
I had a part in a B-movie
I played a man from history
Elstree
Oh, oh
Elstree
Oh, oh
Elstree
Cut!
Jack calls off the attack and is trapped. He surrenders to Astradyne agents and is recaptured by SYSTEM’s simulation. Or did he even ever leave it? Was there even a Susan? He falls into despair.
But at least the world has not been destroyed this time around. That feels like progress. Even if only a tiny rebellion.
The mandatory Buggles song. It just seemed to pair well with Chinatown and an inversion of Solid State Logic to me. Jacking in, jacking back out.
16 Hi-Techs – Pompeii (1979, USA) SUSAN
I thought that I was in Pompeii
But it was just to play
In the middle of its heyday I threw it all away
It seemed so real it seemed so nice
Drinking (rosé?) and throwing dice
Madame Curie may have discovered radium
But we were there in the midst of delirium
Life was fast rhythms pounded
Bands played hard their music sounded
Each local singer, man alive
And just as good as in '65
Teenage idols, marginal lovers
Keeping some things under cover
I thought that I was in Pompeii
But it was just to play
In the middle of its heyday I threw it all away
I thought that I was in Pompeii
And there is one vital piece missing from SYSTEM’s conquest. Susan is very real and has escaped. She doesn’t seem defeated. It seems as if she has a plan.
A beautiful little song. and look! a webpage!
I don’t know what they were drinking either. I don’t think it was rosé. What drink in 1979 sounded like ‘rosary’?