Sock Free Hideaway

BEATS OF LOVE 

73. The Banger Dictionary compiled by Finn McCorry

I FIRST met Annabel back in 2018, when she and Adam looked after me so brilliantly. Sadly, my arrival home came with a sharp ultimatum from the missus: either stay out indefinitely, or stay married. I haven’t had a "lost weekend" since.

Beyond being an ace DJ, Annabel co-owns 20k and a Dead Sheep, my absolute go-to online zine store. They regularly ship me copies of Dance Policy and Faith, even throwing in old E-Bloc pamphlets and acid smiley inserts I’d long since lost. These zines have become my main portals back into a culture that shaped my life. The writing is always sharp and illuminating, particularly a powerful, passionate piece by Kareina Daswani in the latest Dance Policy.

Reading it prompted me to dig out some immersive, sultry, dark techno and lose myself in the music as dusk fell. It strikes me how the digital age has rewound us. While we aren't fighting a physical war, we are a far cry from the post-war era that focused on building a better Britain with collective well-being at its heart. Today, our culture is about cutting costs, dehumanizing people, and dumbing everything down. The political class sounds uncannily like Arthur Daley, using seedy sales pitches to fight vacuous conflicts, defending insane greed, and selling us absolute rubbish.

Thank God, then, for zine sellers who inject truth and heart back into the marketplace. And thank God for Finn McCorry’s massive contribution to the literary canon: a tactile, A5 dictionary of synonyms for "banger" to elevate our dance music banter. It’s the kind of booklet you never knew you needed until it’s cradled in your hand. Unsurprisingly, the word sultry didn't make the cut.

https://20kandadeadsheep.com/products/the-banger-dictionary

•