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Tranquil Trucking Company Theme For Life 3 track 12inch 1999

Image of Tranquil Trucking Company Theme For Life 3 track 12inch 1999

£7.99 - On Sale

Theme For Life was the solitary 12" release by the anonymous Tranquil Trucking Company. The Company's principal shareholders were Renegade Soundwave/Rema-Rema frontman Gary Asquith and Dave Curtis, best known as a guitarist in much-missed 4AD group Dif Juz an occasional member of The Wolfgang Press;Theme For Life was the second release on the Le Coq Musique label run by Asquith and former Adam & The Ants bassist Kevin Mooney, following the rework of RSW's Cocaine Sex by Asquith's DragonBass collective, whose line-up also featured another Wolfgang Press member, Andrew Grey, in its ranks.Theme For Life is an instrumental track drenched in cinematic ambiance - washes of dreamy Eno-does-sci-fi synth textures, elegiac circular piano motifs, delicate melodies and a dense pulsing rhythm complete with sludgy dub bass. Midway through, Curtis weighs in with some searing white hot guitar fuzz layers that increase the intensity of the track several-fold. In part it's introverted tinkling and musing and on the other a defiant fuck you statement toward the concept of conformity; don't ask me why, but that's how it feels to me. In the Asquith back catalogue there are few - if any - tracks like this, highlighting a distinct musical dexterity on his part, as well as pointing to a possible career change into soundtrack composition, much like Soundwave contemporaries Pop Will Eat It itself Clint Mansel's post-PWEI gear change. Over on the B-side, the the Optical Implant mix of Theme For Life opts for greater deployment of Curtis's guitar and features vocals from Asquith. The lyrics here are essentially hopeful, Asquith singing ;She said it's gonna be alright, which an insistence and slight wobble in his delivery, as if suggesting these are the platitudes proffered reflexively in an effort to sooth and calm, with the wavering in his voice suggesting he doesn't quite believe it. Judicious use of echo, on both Asquith's drifting musings and the more prominent beat gives this a dub sensibility, particularly with the guitar stuttering through the mix.Low-Fi Oceanic Beauty, created by Asquith and DragonBass accomplice Drostan Madden, would later evolve into the vocal track ocean with Lee Simeone. Here the track is an instrumental, complete with washes of deep ambiance, pulsing but not intrusive basslines, delicate piano notes and the kind of oceanic, immersive effects beloved of early 808 State. A thin, reedy melody runs through the piece, a relaxed, serene cluster of notes that shimmers beautifully like sunlight on a calm, gently-rippling sea.