Antony Szmierek – The Great Pyramid of Stockport Review

Whether there is or is not a world wonder in the outskirts of Manchester is not the point. As a former Egyptologist-adjacent reporter, it comes as a great thrill to see Antony Szmierek consider whether the great plains of Stockport could have a Great Pyramid. The Great Pyramid of Stockport is the burning “what if” of a town with a dream, a dream of buildings. There are pyramids in Stockport, the glass and steel of the place like an entrance to The Louvre and not the place for anything but a steady, thumping club beat, which Szmierek applies with slick particulars to this recent effort. Bask in the glories of the co-operative sponsored monolith. Listen in well to this, The Great Pyramid of Stockport, Szmierek’s single ahead of Service Station at the End of the World.  

Is Stockport the end? No, that is reserved for Bishop Auckland and the service station found before the dip in the road where radio and phone signals are lost. However briefly it is a fascinating no man’s land of industrial complexities casting a shadow over a once natural beauty. The same goes for Stockport and its glass horror, the looming, angular piece which becomes a fascinating part of Szmierek’s work. Brutalist-adjacent buildings, where the benevolent and fearsome nature of the buildings is replaced by what feels like stock options for materials used in its build, are all part of the fascination Szmierek has. He displays it well on The Great Pyramid of Stockport, a bouncing and bold song. It feels like it is ripped from the quieter moments of the club, but the attitude it presents is brought to the front with a sharp, spoken-word style of vocal delivery.  

Childhood imagination runs wild. Memories of the past made good on through the stock style of living life to the fullest remind of those early secondary school days and the mantras they used to repeat. Vague quips made up to tell us we should keep on pushing on. But to do so is to need a warmer slogan, and that is what Szmierek provides with his cultural commentaries, both reflective and ambitious. It is not enough to sit in the past and The Great Pyramid of Stockport knows it, for all those interior charms and moments of impact which feel like everyday experiences on reflection, Szmierek makes good on the past as a tool to learn from. Abandonment and the minute cultural pedestals which form smaller areas of the country are, in some ways, a source of strange inspiration.  

Those who lived in a town where their dad fitted the statue of Stan Laurel will know what The Great Pyramid of Stockport is all about. Little arrangements mean nothing to the people who live outside its sphere of influence. Stockport’s glass pyramid may be an ugly sight but for those who lived in its range of influence, it becomes an important launchpad. Szmierek makes a decent go of it, the motivational thoughts found throughout and the club-like beat are welcome experiences and their hook is the odd place of origin it comes from. A glass pyramid may feel like an unlikely spot of influence but for Szmierek, this song is as much about making a go of it wherever you are as it is about finding a strange, ugly spot to inspire.