U.X.O.

About 14 months ago I got back from an overseas holiday.

I had an old fashioned ipod on the holiday and as we were travelling in old fashioned buses around Loas and Cambodia I could only listen to a limited number of songs. Like 4 gig worth.

When I was preparing to leave on this holiday, i spent more time sorting through MP3's for my trip than any other part of the preparation to go away. When you've got a limited amount of space then you have to be really selective about what you pack. So I packed boxer shorts, a sleeping bag, insect repelent, singlets, pants, toiletries and MP3's.

there's a few songs and albums that I got kind of obsessed with on that trip... i still associate them with that holiday. the ones that stick in my head were incredibly beautiful songs that were a perfect soundtrack to a beautiful but tragic lanscape rolling by. I went home and anylised the music (like i would do when I studied music at uni, chord progressions, orchestration, rhythmic intricasies etc. It was music nerd heaven...) I wanted to know why these songs stuck in my head so bad. Why they still make me gasp a little to this day?

I loved this one among many...



But 1 piece of musik reminds me of that Holiday more than anything else...

It reminds me of an area in Lao where you can't even walk out of a village without risking your life because you may just step on a bomb.

The USA dropped 3 million tonnes of bombs on Laos in order to stop the Vietcong using it as a safehaven. That's 1 tonne for every person currently living in Laos. Almost 2 thirds of it didn't explode when it hit the ground and has remained active and lethal ever since.

The people of Laos were inspiring and beautiful (one of the best holidays of my life, relaxing, beautiful, fun, educational, cultural and partiful). It was strange listening to songs off Yanqui UXO by Godspeed you! Black Emperor while traversing through the most heavily bombed country in the world... The album is about weapons. About unexploded ordinance. It felt so right while i was in that area of the world.

Check it out... It was inspiring... And Sad...



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