Digital photograph, 2020
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Images produced to illustrate poems by Alex Niven, published in Newcastle, Endless by Canalside Press
Audio guided walk. 35 mins. 2020.
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Commissioned as part of The NewBridge Project’s Staking Claims On The Distance.
This is the site of Brierdene Station in Whitley Bay. Construction began in 1913, but was halted by the outbreak of WWI in 1914, and the project was ultimately abandoned, leaving the unused embankment and bridge abutments as the only evidence of the unfinished plan. Had it been completed, this area would have been redeveloped to provide houses for the station to serve. However, today the remains of the station still lie amongst the fields it was built to replace, the ghost of a possible future that never was.
Digital photograph, text. 2020.
Audio, 5:55 mins, 2021.
Produced as part of the electronic duo NOVYI LEF, with Tom Reah. Funded by The NewBridge Project as part of their Blazing New Worlds programme.
Newcastle electronic duo NOVYI LEF return with their blistering new single ‘Value’. Their politics are to the fore in this acid-tinged synth-punk polemic. Beginning with a polyrhythmic, arpeggiated synthesiser, bubbling underneath the band’s trademark heavy analogue synth bass, Euan’s detached, near-spoken lyrics are more political than ever. Quoting, cut-up-style, from job descriptions and economics textbooks, the song rails against the present state of precarious employment across the country, before it finally descends into pure acid house TB-303 mayhem.
This is the band’s second single to come out of remote recording sessions conducted in home studios over lockdown, after the release of ‘Part Of The Bigger Thing’ in December 2020.
Speaking on the single, the band said: ‘Value is all about our relationship with work and how it dominates how we see ourselves - low-paid, insecure jobs which we’re told reflect our worth as people. It’s about pushing back against that, saying that you’re not only worth what your job says you are or how much profit you make for a boss who doesn’t pay you enough. Especially in the aftermath of the pandemic, our dysfunctional relationship with work has been shown more clearly than ever, so this is a song for anybody who feels undervalued, underpaid and overworked.
We’re always expanding our influences and equipment, and so it was really fun to take this song off on an acid house tangent - we think it’s a total banger and can’t wait for people to hear it!’