Municipal Dreams, by Low End Activist

Municipal Dreams

by Low End Activist

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Includes:

- 2 x 12" Black vinyl in 6mm Full Colour Sleeve in a Screenprinted PVC Cover
- Cassette Tape
- 20-page Photo Booklet

** VAT added at checkout for UK & EU Customers

** All orders are packed in Eco-friendly packaging. Plastic Free, made from sustainable and compostable FSC® certified paper & cardboard and printed using vegetable based inks

Includes unlimited streaming of Municipal Dreams via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.

ships out within 3 days

Purchasable with gift card

£33 GBP or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
2 x 12" Black vinyl in 6mm Full Colour Sleeve in a Screenprinted PVC Cover

Includes special 20-page picture booklet by Low End Activist.
Photography by Rich Roberts. Design by Alfie Allen.

** VAT added at checkout for UK & EU Customers

** All orders are packed in Eco-friendly packaging. Plastic Free, made from sustainable and compostable FSC® certified paper & cardboard and printed using vegetable based inks

Includes unlimited streaming of Municipal Dreams via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.

ships out within 3 days

Purchasable with gift card

£23 GBP or more
Cassette + Digital Album
** VAT added at checkout for UK & EU Customers

** All orders are packed in Eco-friendly packaging. Plastic Free, made from sustainable and compostable FSC® certified paper & cardboard and printed using vegetable based inks

Includes unlimited streaming of Municipal Dreams via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.

ships out within 2 days

Purchasable with gift card

£10 GBP or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.

£8 GBP or more

1.	Lies & Deceit 02:13	buy track
2.	Climbing the Walls 03:25	buy track
3.	Self Destruction 04:44	buy track
4.	Hope I (Interlude) 02:24	buy track
5.	Wrong Turn, Dead End 05:07	buy track
6.	They Only Come Out at Night 04:23	buy track
7.	Hope III (Interlude) 02:57	buy track
8.	Rush 04:25	buy track
9.	Violence 04:32	buy track
10.	Broke 05:04	buy track
11.	TWOC 04:43	buy track
12.	Just a Number (Institutionalised) 04:57	buy track
13.	Innocence 04:02	buy track
14.	Hope II (Interlude) 02:38	buy track

about

On his latest full-length, Low End Activist swerves towards weightless grime and suspended hardcore miniatures to tell a very personal story. The UK-rooted producer continues his habit of zeroing in on a distinct approach for each release, leaving a logical breadcrumb trail of soundsystem science in his wake as he channels decades of bass absorption into 14 atmospheric cuts that prize patience and precision over obvious club functionality.

Municipal Dreams plays out as a semi-autobiographical tour through the Blackbird Leys estate that the Activist grew up on. It’s a lived reflection on inequality and the ripple effect it has in working class communities, using the sonic palette to set the mood and scattering pointed samples throughout to spell out the story.

In sampling the exhaust of a stolen Subaru Impreza, ‘TWOC’ looks back to the recreational car theft which was standard entertainment for the kids in his community. There’s an underlying idea that this ‘council estate sport’ wouldn’t have been so prevalent if there were public services and opportunities presented to the scores of disaffected youth looking for somewhere to direct their energy and frustration.

In ‘Just A Number (Institutionalised)’ LEA alludes to the shattered juvenile detention system, growing up seeing friends and family members locked up at ease with little to no support on being released back into society, just meant that the same cycles of behaviour would play out over and over.

‘Violence’ samples from a short film shot by the drama division of the Blackbird Leys Youth Club to evoke the physical threat which formed a background hum to life on the estate. The industrial mechanics of the local car factory, which served an integral role as a workplace for many in the community, gets sampled in ‘They Only Come Out At Night’ while the ‘Everyone I look up to are either junkies or criminals’ sample in ‘Broke’ looks to a lack of positive role models.

Municipal Dreams isn’t a one-note indictment of life on the estate, ‘Innocence’ captures the simplicity of a child at birth before their environment has time to shape them. The Hope interludes cut through the grim honesty of the longer tracks while a subtle thread of wry humour finds its way into some of the talking heads cutting through the signature LEA murk.

But honesty is the operative word here, and the message feels all the more meaningful at a time when the UK’s social divisions are laid bare in the wake of a devastating stretch of austerity. Returning to Blackbird Leys to shoot images for the photo-zine and album cover, the Activist found the local community centre being demolished. The local pub stands derelict, its faded Welcome sign a grimly ironic portent of the options facing children of the estate in the wider world.

Funnelling his memories, hopes and fears into a singular twist on the bass weight tradition, LEA captures evocative scenes that land somewhere between kitchen sink realism and rave futurism.

credits

released October 18, 2024

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Low End Activist Bristol, UK

Cold cuts of mutant grime and dubby UK rave pressure

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