Aeternal Flux II

  The high rise block depicted on the cover of Mules’ new EP Illusions of Joy could be the apex of Brutalist excess. Situated in monochromatic parkland, this hexagonal example of ‘high’ modernism seems to be sitting on a rotational base like a playground carousel. The curtains that cover its front-facing side accentuate an oppressive infantilisation; they could be on the verge of parting to reveal a puppet show of multiple domestic discontents. Is this structure really a bin photographed at a severe angle to look like a towering public housing edifice and whose steel grid design only resembles myriad balcony windows? Either way, this Photoshopped illusion serves well as symbolic counterpoint to singer Tommy Vincent’s lyrical concerns: hegemony, social control, technological addiction, the neoliberal race to the bottom (which, in Vincent’s wordplay, ends in a tie).   The stark image also offers the opposing paradigm to Constant Nieuwenhuys’ concept of ‘New Babylon’ which Vincent re