Is Jamie xx’s "All Under One Roof Raving" a Scottish Referendum Anthem?

The last time tens of thousands people were publicly arguing about something this passionately either side of the Scottish border, it was because breakbeat hardcore was dominating the rave scenes of early 90s England, whilst bouncy techno and gabber were thriving in Scotland and the North. Eventually, they set aside their differences to join, and happy hardcore was one of their many children. Listen to the below and ask yourself: were they better together?

Fast-forward twenty years and there is, potentially, an even bigger debate happening either side of the border: Scottish independence, an issue of great political significance but musically dire. To be honest the best chance this Scottish Referendum has of a tune is if the Better Together campaign got McCartney and Jagger to volunteer “We Can Work It Out” or “Miss You”. Then again, I hear Alistair Darling is pretty obsessed with Plan B these days. On the other side, we’re one SNP brainstorm meeting away from the “Yes” campaign using something cack-handedly chosen for typical Scottish values of shouting and art rock, like Franz Ferdinand’s “You Could Have It So Much Better”.

I can only imagine that the vague assumptions I’ve just made are what drove Jamie xx to make “All Under One Roof Raving” – a song that shrewdly repurposes Mark Leckey’s 1999 short film Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore, and various other snippets, into Jamie’s own UK hardcore inspired steel drum beat exposition on 2014’s Scottish Referendum. Bear with this…

We’ll start with the title, “All Under One Roof Raving”, which is most definitely a metaphor: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are the ravers, and United Kingdom is the roof. Raving is the key word, because it’s a semantic enigma that can be positive and negative. You can be raving, raving beautiful or a raving nutcase. So, the fact we’re all under one roof raving, doesn’t necessarily mean we’re happy about it. We could be anything from dancing ecstatically and looking tidy, to daubing shit on the walls and disempowering ourselves in the kitchen (like the woman in this Better Together campaign advert).

Of all the heavily politicised electronic producers out there, Jamie xx’s intellectual and studied referendum dialectic is unique in that he never really lets you know which way he’s swinging. “And we kept it UK” is a frequently used clip, but the past tense doesn’t mean he’s still pro-union. Then come reverbed mutterings about the British Isles: “it’s just the big one” mutters one female voice, and “we’re keeping it going the same way.” It’s all textured to give an atmosphere that harks back to a time when people were intensely proud to be part of the UK.

A brazen ‘Yes’ campaign voice joins the party at 2.20: “This is for the champagne crew” begins the voice, probably a well-researched literary nod to the Bullingdon Club, and in turn: David Cameron, Boris Johnson and the rest of the Tories in Westminster. It references Evelyn Waugh’s novel Decline and Fall, in which the champagne boys of the Bullingdon Club have a fox brought out in a cage so they can stone it to death with bottles of Brut. The MC clip culminates in self explanatory fashion – “We do not need anybody! We are independent!” – and is backed by the looping of another independent Scotland statement at 3.30: “we’re doing what WE like.”

If this doesn’t have you fantasising about currency unions, then what about the video? With its red, white and blue palette, it just looks like a Union Jack constantly reshaping itself until, eventually, it just shatters and smashes into tiny pieces.

On the final build of the track, with the swung garage beats kicking harder than a thermonuclear Trident warhead, the vocal clips are pitted against each other and things get real debate-y. “It’s not going away” chimes in a ‘no’ voter, “it’s here to stay”. Before the pro-Independence voice bites back: “It’s just one of those things. It’s just progression!”

There are plenty of other comparisons to be drawn. Like the use of the clip “hardcore will never die”, which simultaneously references the UK hardcore scene and the seventh album title of pro-independence Glasgow band Mogwai, who are performing at a referendum pre-party on September 18th. Alright, that one’s a bit tenuous, but I feel like I’ve already made my point.

I have absolutely no doubt that when I look into the eyes of Jamie xx, I am looking into those of a man who has devoted sleepless nights to the SNP’s White Paper, gubbed Pro Plus whilst researching Sterlingisation and worn calculators to their very circuit boards, so he could ascertain his own projections for the North Sea oil reserves. And anyone who has met him will agree – that’s Jamie.

But even if Jamie xx didn’t make this for the Scottish referendum – does that matter? “Things Can Only Get Better” wasn’t written for New Labour, ‘Respect’ wasn’t originally meant to be about civil rights and women’s liberation, and “Dancing In The Street” wasn’t supposed to be an anti-war song. So, why can’t “All Under One Roof Raving” mark one of the UK’s most exciting political moments in decades, regardless of the result? And if I don’t see it used on a news montage, I’ll be really fucking upset.

Follow Joe on Twitter: @Cide_Benengeli

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