"Identity" by Zee

Well, I did promise bizarre collaborations, and “Identity” by Zee may be the amongst the most bizarre I own.

In 1984, after spending his first few years away from Pink Floyd sailing around the Mediterranean sea, keyboardist Rick Wright teamed up with Dave Harris from the new romantic band Fashion to form an unlikely synth pop duo. And heavy on the synths it certainly is, predominantly the good old Fairlight, as heard on a million and one 80's chart hits.

'Confusion' (which was released as a single) is the pick of the bunch, although it sounds suspiciously like the music that would go with a montage in a 1980's B-movie. Probably one about good ol' American teenage boys Billy and Bob and their attempts to hack their High Schools' computer to change their grades in History:

Bob: “I need an A or I'll have to spend the summer in school instead of riding my BMX over some hastily assembled wooden ramps and irretrievably damaging my bollocks forever. Let's make a computer that we can use to hack the school”

Billy: “I've got a better idea! Lets build a computer which we can use to hack the Pentagon! Then we can make tanks run over that old bloke who lives at the street who our parents tell us not to go near, but stop short of telling us he's a child molester even though we suspect he probably is.”

Bob: “Yeah! Come on Billy, I've got all the bits in my dad's basement!”

'Confusion' by Zee plays over a 4 minute montage of Billy and Bob making a super computer from an Atari 2600, some sticky tape and a copy of Penthouse, intercut with them doing flying kung fu kicks on a hillside and wheelies in a supermarket car park.

And at the end of all that:

Bob: “Fuck it, let's just design a woman with really big breasts and stare at them!”

High fives all round and everyone laughs, even the old paedo who lives at the end of the street.

Fade out...

I think I've got away from the point. Anyways, if you're expecting a Pink Floyd style album then you won't be in luck, as only 'Cuts like a Diamond' gets close. It's not dated well, but hey, BBC news reckons (er...three weeks ago – but I never promised cutting edge satire here, did I?) that 80's power dressing is back, so surely there's room once again for the Fairlight? And if you see a copy of the album on ebay for 50p like I did then it's worth a go.

By the way, if anyone has an MP3 of “Eyes of a Gypsy (Dub Mix)” then let me know!

The obligatory MP3. Get ready for your montage:

"Confusion" by Zee

Pete