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Oct 11, 2023 Web Exclusive By Michael James Hall

In a pairing that could not be more apt, London’s Public Service Broadcasting here mark the centenary of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), the first and last bastion of errr…public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom.

Led by conductor Jules Buckley and performed live alongside the mighty BBC Symphony Orchestra, This New Noise was commissioned for the 2022 Proms, a longstanding summer season of classical performances which take place at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Somewhat inevitably, a piece created with such pomp and circumstance in mind, and with the duty of exploring a hundred years of broadcasting history, is decidedly grandiose. Public Service Broadcasting have tackled huge subjects before, particularly with regards the self-explanatory “The Space Race” and “Every Valley,” an equally derided and celebrated delve into the fall of the mining industry in South Wales during the 1980s.

Here, though, as the band shifts through interpretations of the first BBC radio broadcast (the stirring “Ripples in the Ether”), celebrations of key figures in the success of the company (the strangely truncated “An Unusual Man”), and latterly the questionable future of the cultural institution (the beguiling, almost otherworldly “What of the Future?”), the stream of spoken word soundbites, inevitably delivered in specific, staid received pronunciation, string swells, and dramatic interludes feel a little less than inspired, a little more predictable than powerful.

There is beauty to be found on This New Noise; Seth Lakeman’s appearance on “A Cello Sings in Daventry” provides a pleasing live vocal rare to the Public Service Broadcasting playbook, while on “A Candle Which Will Not Be Put Out” a minimalist, percussive approach proves refreshing; when it climbs to rousing orchestral thunder, it really feels earned.

What’s strange here is that while Public Service Broadcasting have delivered inspiring moments aplenty in the past, when tasked with illustrating perhaps the subject that best suits them, This New Noise feels more an intellectual exercise than a bold musical adventure. It conforms, as it should, to the event for which it was created, and pays fitting tribute to one of the most far-reaching and important institutions in the country, but ultimately, while in a live setting this material really would (and did) resonate, it rings somewhat hollow as an album release. (www.publicservicebroadcasting.net)

Author rating: 6.5/10