Put your minds back, if you will, to that wild and crazy year of 2022. We were all young fools, grooving to hip new tunes like Running Up that Hill and sending a lot of Tweets in the format “She’s a 10 but she pronounces ‘Uncut Gems’ like that“. America was still led by the 143 year old Joe Biden, as his mushed brains slowly seeped out of his ears, while the glorious UK was more ably managed by the strong and stable government of Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss and then Rishi Sunak. Oh, and, erm, A coup d’état in Burkina Faso removed Roch Kaboré from power and the prime minister of Peru, Aníbal Torres, resigned. I hate how I only ever mention politics in the UK and US as well, don’t worry. Heidi Klum dressed as a worm.
Russia invaded Ukraine, an obviously horrendously violent act that luckily the rest of the world were dedicated to end as quickly as possible in order to save untold innocent lives, and to ensure that the skyrocketing energy prices wouldn’t harm working class people worldwide for long. Russia were also banned from all international sports competitions and – most damningly – disqualified from Eurovision. That was only fair enough, as any state partaking in similarly violent actions would undoubtedly be treated the same. Nick Cave even cancelled gigs in Russia, because he is a man of strong and consistent principles. Incredibly, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars and the Queen died in the same fucking year!! Maybe you’re too young to remember, but the internet just could not with all that shit! We all had so much fun, that the owner’s of capital obviously couldn’t let that happen, and by the end of the year Elon Musk had bought Twitter for a laughably inflated $44 billion. Because he is, never forget and incredibly thick cunt.
It was during these wild and carefree times that And So I Watch You From Afar announced ‘Jettison’. Apparently a “multimedia long form ensemble piece… a counterweight to the tense social climate—a way to “jettison” the anger and strife of the times”. It would essentially be a reverse film soundtrack, where the music would be composed and produced first, before film visuals would be added to create some sort of visible narrative.
And I was like, aight, sounds like some arty farty dicking about. I’ll let you get this all out of your system and see you all on the next proper album comes out.
And then the pretty fabulous ‘Megafauna‘ came out last year, and I was delighted to listen to the band’s first album since 2018’s killer ‘The Endless Shimmering‘. And the band themselves seemed to be very excited about releasing their first record since… 2022??
Fuck! That ‘Jettison’ shit was fucking canonical?! I thought it was, like, some Marvel Zombies shit?! I assumed it was just some avant-garde fucking about so the band could basically do something with their hands before their next proper album?! I was supposed to listen to that?? This was a massive fuck up. By And So I Watch You From Afar. Why on God’s green Earth wasn’t this album explicitly sold as cannon?? Why isn’t it titled ‘Jettison [proper album]‘ on all streaming sites and online stores?? Listen, they have my details!! They once offered me a place in the band!! Would it have killed them to send me a quick “Yo, Franchise, this one counts, yes?”. Being from the six occupied counties, they could have made some hilarious jokes abut the queen dying. But no, nothing. I’m sorry, ASIWYFA, you fucked up.
But, holy shit, all is forgiven as soon as the record plays. Probably the greatest music I’ve ever heard ASIWYFA produce, born of an insane ambition but still always cognisant of the overriding objective of crafting impossibly beautiful music. It’s predictably cinematic in scope, but never overburdened by any epic pretentions and still based around the band’s long proven songcraft. The concept and the one half an hour suite of music may sound a little intimidating (it certainly scared me off), but ‘Jettison’ is yet another example of an album that I honestly can’t imagine anybody not liking. That’s pretty much what I said about their last album. It’s kinda what they do.
And it could be argued that I’m only experiencing half of the intended effect. The whole ‘Jettison’ project was actually finalised back in early 2020, but the band couldn’t justify releasing it during lockdown because the live, visual element was such an important factor in the record’s presentation. The rough, fan recorded videos I’ve found still make the show seem incredible, despite the ropey footage. Why… why didn’t ASIWYFA contact me personally and…? Why didn’t send an invite to me and…?
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah shit. I fucked up.
2024 #35 (+7. Although, technically, since this was released before ‘Megafauna’… should it be a retrospective -7…?? Fuck my life)2018 #45
Those dumb fans only gave it 71. Definitely haven’t seen it live.
OK, JoopK, let us know how that goes
Necessary Evil 
One thought on “28 And So I Watch You From Afar: Jettison”