Number # – Pendulum’s ABC News Theme Remix

Note: this isn’t strictly a ‘song’, so I’ve decided I can include it alongside my top 10. (My game, my rules!)

The opening music for the ABC News is one my defining aural memories. It ushered in the serious business of the day. With his softly frayed baritone, his authoritative moustache and kind eyes, Peter Holland would speak of many important things that I didn’t have to fully understand to know that they were important. Once done, he moved over for Drew Morphett, who spoke excitedly of the things that I did understand. That opening music was written by Peter Wall and Tony Ansell, and it was used for almost two decades, from 1986 to 2005.

That brass fanfare was a heralding call. And then in 2010, a band called Pendulum – a band that originated in Perth that combined drum n bass with more conventional rock – re-imagined and remixed the theme for their own enjoyment. In point of fact, its original purpose was for it to be nothing more significant than a ringtone for one of the band members. But when people heard it, it took off, eventually earning the song a semi-official release that saw it finish at number 11 in that year’s hottest 100.

Put simply, it’s one of the most innovative and exciting remixes you’ll ever hear. Repurposing a fanfare has been done before; if you used to watch Channel 7 Sport in the late 80’s you’ll have heard the music of Aaron Copeland – specifically his Fanfare of the Common Man – in imaginatively arranged by the English progressive rock trio, the unimaginatively named Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

What Pendulum added to the ABC news theme’s gravitas was the pulse of excitement. There’s an authenticity to that addition, I think, in that the news has always carried a sense of occasion; partly self-evident, partly the self-aggrandising one came to expect from an increasingly commodified Fourth Estate. The age of the remix wasn’t exactly new in 2010, but the idea of making new from old had currency at the time, a currency that’s only grown in value as time’s gone on.

That kick drum and deeply-fuzzed keyboard riff provides a gripping counterpoint, especially when the opening three notes of the fanfare are looped, creating a genuinely thrilling sense of anticipation. Subtle additions and flourishes – digital tintinnabulations – complement and sparkle without ever overwhelming or detracting. It’s simple, repetitive, hypnotic, and would still be all too short at twice the length.

The news has become increasingly commodified, politicised, diversified and bastardised, but the ABC news of my youth was as authentically credible as a leather-bound encyclopaedia. You could trust it, unlike the commercial rubbish that I was encouraged (ok, instructed) from an early age to regard with contempt. (Thanks, Dad.) What this remix does is remind me of something that Australia has that many nations do not; an empirically trustworthy national broadcaster.

As much as many bemoan what they perceive as its biases, agendas or the extent to which it’s been compromised by governmental interference or pressure from powerful lobby groups, it’s important to note that it gets attacked from both sides. Say what one might about the ABC in 2025, I can promise you it wasn’t said in 1985. That’s how far back I need to go for my connection to this music, and Pendulum dragged into a time and place that made it urgent, vital, and propulsive.