I’m sorry it’s been a while since you’ve heard from me, folks. It’s been a peculiar six days. A project I was working on came to an abrupt halt, leaving me feeling disoriented and sad. My dad almost choked to death. I’ve spent hours trying to craft bones into a crown for a photoshoot, and I’ve been crawling around in sea caves with a sickle and a flaming torch.
I landed on this excellent feature from The New Yorker about the Dyatlov Pass Incident (something I’ve had an almost obsessive interest in for some time). As I was reading it, experimental band Oh Boy Les Mecs’s song Unrest quietly thumped away in my head. Unrest played during the end credits of the pretty decent Devil’s Pass, a film about a group of American students who trek into the Northern Urals to investigate the strange and deeply unsettling fates of nine Russian hikers in 1959.
While it was, as I said, a pretty decent film, it was Unrest which I found myself returning to for several months. It’s strange and delicate (at times) and entrancing. Oh Boy Les Mecs definitely shares a spirit with the Swedish electronic duo The Knife. Bizarrely, I haven’t listened to anything else by the project, despite really enjoying Unrest. Changing that today, though. I really hope it isn’t one of those instances where I only enjoy one songs.
Unrest in the streets
Unrest (Oh Boy Les Mecs)
Unrest in your mind
Unrest in the constellations
We were always the restless kindUnrest this restless heart
With stellar circuitry
There are no accidents
There are no friendly firesSo pull out all the wiresUnrest this restless heart
With stellar circuitry
The nights are getting longer
The days are getting colder
Remember when you told her
The time for growing older
Was not tonight or ever
So hush the signifierAnd pull out all the wires
Pull out all the wires
Pull out all the wiresDisobey the future whispers only
Harm the ones
Who listen
We can stop the oxidation
Disobey the future whispers
Only harm the ones who listen
We can stop the oxidationOne task to remove the lines
Another to erase the signs
So many ways to kill the time
We have to kill the timeAnd pull out all the wires
Pull out all the wires
Pull out all the wiresElectric currents plan to
Outsmart mother natureDisobey the future whispers only
Harm the ones
Who listen
We can stop the oxidation
Disobey the future whispers
Only harm the ones who listen
We can stop the oxidation
– Katie
Journey On