(First published in Electronic Sound magazine #93, September 2022)
BURIED TREASURE
ZERO ZERO
Mike Batt
Epic, 1982
“Long long ago, far into the distant future and after the Seventh War, there is a civilisation called System 605. Where the diseases of love and emotion no longer exist to complicate our busy lives…”
How did you spend your 1981? Staring longingly through a classroom window and praying for the bell? Forlornly inspecting the cards in an orange-fronted Job Centre? Repeatedly rolling your eyes at ‘Shaddap You Face’? Don’t worry, Mike Batt did the hard work for you. He was circumnavigating the globe in a yacht called Braemer, jamming ‘On Ilkla Moor Baht’at’ with Paul McCartney in Montserrat and – on the Pacific leg – devising a brilliant Orwellian synth-pop fantasy about a dystopian society that has genetically eradicated human feeling for the sake of autocratic efficiency.
Is it possible the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, on commissioning Batt to write a celebratory piece for their 50th anniversary, expected a few winsome ballads about Uluru and the Sydney Harbour Bridge? If so, they showed commendable sang-froid when Batt docked on Antipodean shores and threw himself into a startling realisation of his concept: a rock opera comprising an avant-garde 40-minute TV special and an album that weaves experimental synth wig-outs into ambitious scores for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
“I was born Number 17 Romeo Delta 59,” sings Batt in the vaguely Beatley ‘System 605’. “But you can call me Ralph… my friends do”. The televisual setting? An infinite landscape of oppressive chequerboards with the downtrodden populace attired in similarly utilitarian jumpsuits. Ralph, of course, bucks the trend by falling in love with Number 36, a surgeon at his local correctional facility. And the Numan-esque ‘Love Makes You Crazy’, released as a single, is surely one of synthpop’s bleakest expositions on the turmoil of romantic longing: “Maybe evolution wiped it out / Just the strong survived / And no-one with that feeling could exist / In the race to stay alive”.
Was Batt making metaphorical comment on the troubled politics of the early 1980s? “Sons of the state resigned to their fate / They follow their orders, they don’t break the law,” he shrugs on ‘Whispering Fools’, a plaintive anthem with whiffs of Kraftwerk. If so, his outlook was decidedly glass-half-empty. “Don’t touch me again / There’s no smile on my face for you,” he sings on the closing ‘No Lights In My Eyes’, the inevitable, heartbreaking result of the experimental ‘Dance Of The Neurosurgeons’. Although the tears on the cheeks of the rueful Number 36 – played by Batt’s longterm partner, Julianne White – suggest at least a glimmer of hope for System 605.
It’s all a staggering gear change from ‘Wombling Merry Christmas’, and the British media seemed unsure how to react to Batt’s new direction. On the 1982 Christmas edition of BBC1 lunchtime show Pebble Mill At One, in full Number 17 jumpsuit and make-up, he introduced ‘Love Makes You Crazy’ to a studio audience that included The Krankies. But it’s testament to Batt’s versatility and passion for music that, even with commercial commissions, he goes about his job with maximum gusto, unfettered imagination and an irresistible sense of mischievous good humour. Long may he continue to complicate our busy lives.
The entire Zero Zero TV special is available here:
Official Mike Batt website:
https://www.mikebatt.com/
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The Haunted Generation 
Mike recorded two albums of instrumental music on the Pye label, created on his Arp Odyssey using the pseudonym Synthesonic Sounds. One was Moog at the Movies – famous movie themes; the other was Ye Old Moog – English folk songs. You can find some of the tracks on youTube.
What gets overlooked is Mike’s use of the Arp Odyssey on the Wombles albums, best heard on the tracks “Tobermory’s Music Machine”, “Womble of the Universe”, “The Jungle Is Jumping”, “Hall of the Mountain Womble” and “Look Out For the Giant” from the Keep On Wombling album and “Wellington Goes To Waterloo” (specifically the train noises which were done on the Arp) on the Remember You’re A Womble” album. “The Wombles’ Warning” on the Wombling Songs album also features the synth.
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