A Film Canon

 

 

Welcome To The Pleasuredome defined an entire nightclub topography, mainly by virtue of the title track and a few iconic, if comparatively underwhelming, singles ("Relax", "Two Tribes", "The Power Of Love"); or, rather, by virtue of Trevor Horn's extraordinary production, of which this is one of the most canonical examples, rather than any particularly strong compositional, instrumental, lyrical or vocal ingenuity on the part of the band. Horn's innovation consists in conflating Coleridge's lush, exotic, mysterious topography with that of the nightclub, such that its co-ordinates become ciphers for a sublime, cosmic ejaculation (light-rays are shooting stars, smoke-machines supernovas), or the perversions that enable it: "Hit me with your laser-beam!" Even the "message" numbers expand this ejaculatory panorama, as if to reinforce that the celebration of hedonism can itself be form of social protest, as evinced in the cover of "War", which reduces all battles to "love...and a man's pride". That said, Pleasuredome is ultimately about experiencing, rather than interrogating, pleasure, and its sheer sonic variety and discrimination comes closer to articulating a specifically sexual wonder than anything I have heard to date, as if the synthesiser were a giant body discovering an unbelievable wealth of pleasure points and erogenous zones, with Horn as caressing, masterful teacher.