Maxine's Dream (feat. Maxine Peake)

The Eccentronic Research Council Maxine's Dream (feat. Maxine Peake)

(Desolate Spools)

In 1964, Delia Derbyshire, arguably the inventor of modern electronic music, created a piece called The Dreams, where she - in collaboration with Barry Bermange - married ring modulation with fragments of various people recalling their dreams. Nearly half a century on, The Eccentronic Research Council have recorded a tribute with Boltonian actress Maxine Peake. Maxine's Dream tells the tale of a bizarre and disjointed night-time imagining about an unexpected holiday to Ibiza. As is often the way in dreams, Peake's recollection gets bogged down in minutiae such as an actor with a beard who she had a crush on a couple of years previously, and whether the barm cakes she has actually are barm cakes (ask a British friend if you're not sure). Peake's distinctive tones provide a counterpoint to the sound effects and the gentle, lilting, cheap-sounding electronica of The ERC. Like an Alan Bennett monologue soundtracked by a Casio keyboard, and precisely ten times better than that description makes it sound.