SOUNDTRACK: FIRE-TOOLZ-“mailto:spasm@swamp.god?subject=Mind-Body Parallels” (2019).
Every year Lars Gotrich publishes his list of favorite music in an NPR podcast called Viking’s Choice: The Year In The Loud And The Weird. I always listen to these songs because I’ll never hear them anywhere else (he mostly seems to scour bandcamp for unknown music.
One that he especially liked was by this band Fire-Toolz. He says:
When I try to describe the simultaneously fantastical and obliterating sounds of Fire-Toolz to folks, I usually throw my hands up — not out of frustration, but from awe. Angel Marcloid has clashed New Age synthscapes, clubby raves, jazz fusion and metal shrieks for a few years now, but Field Whispers (Into the Crystal Palace) goes beyond the mash-up, into an idiosyncratic master’s pure creation.
The album credits indicate: Angel Marcloid: voice, drums, electric & acoustic guitar, fretless bass, virtual studio technology, field recordings, circuit-bent junk, composition, lyrics, recording, production, mixing, mastering.
The only other musician is Ian Smith: who plays what can only be described as a smooth-jazz saxophone solo. Oh, and her cat, Breakfast, gets a vocal turn.
I have listened to some of the whole record, (a lot of tape manipulation on track 2), but nothing sums up the project like the first song, “mailto:spasm@swamp.god?subject=Mind-Body Parallels” (yes, that’s the title). In 2 minutes and 11 seconds, she includes more genres than I can name. And the amazing thing is that unlike other artists who squeeze many genres into one song (there are those who do this well and those who do not), these shifts feel at once hairpin but also natural.
The song starts with a skittery electric melody that almost sounds like digital pipe organ. It’s very new-agey, but with heavier drums than you might expect. The quiet death metal growling is certainly unexpected, but somehow it doesn’t feel out of place (and is low enough in the mix to feel more like another sound than vocals–I have no idea what she’s saying).
After the first verse the music shifts to a kind of jazzy new age followed by a punishingly fast electronic drum and a scorching heavy metal solo and the song devolves or crescendos with inhuman growls.
Welcome to 2020!
[READ: May 2019] The Long Mars
I found the first book in this series rather compelling–almost surprisingly so given that it’s not a fast-paced book and, to be honest, not a lot happens.
But it was really well written and the things that do happen are compelling and fascinating. And I couldn’t wait to read more.
In the first book:
A man creates an invention (The Stepper) which allows one to step into a parallel world that is next to ours. There are a possibly infinite numbers of parallel worlds in each direction (East or West). The worlds that are closer to ours are almost identical to our Earth (known as Datum Earth). The further you go, the greater the differences. But none of them have experienced humanity before Step Day (aside from earlier hominids).
The main character is Joshua Valienté. Joshua is a natural “Stepper.” He doesn’t need the device to Step from one word to the next, nor does he feel the nausea and other side effects that most people feel as they travel. Most of the book follows his exploits.
The Black corporate has a ship with an entity known as Lobsang who claims that he was a human reincarnated as artificial intelligence. Joshua is sure that Lobsang is a computer, but Lobsang’s human skills are uncanny. This ship has managed to Step as an entity, meaning everything in the ship can go with them. Normally you can only bring what you can carry (aside from metal).
The novel more or less is an exploratory one with Joshua and Lobsang Stepping through millions of Earths. Not a lot happens, but the novel never grows boring. The interactions between Joshua and Lobsang are often funny. And the writers have infused the Earths that they stop in with just enough differences to make each stop strangely compelling (this must be Baxter’s hard science leanings).
I found the second book less compelling on a story level, but no less compelling on a conceptual level. There was still some cool stuff going on.
Joshua Valienté has settled down in a town called Hell-Knows-Where. He has a wife, Helen, and a child, Daniel, and lots of regrets about what happened at the end of book one. He is embedded with the rest of the community. They show off what a successful community can be way out in the Long Earth. It is more or less cut off from Datum Earth, which means that everyone needs to work for the community to survive. Since trust and companionship are key to survival, people don’t really try to take advantage of others and crime is pretty much nonexistent.
This independence is a major concern for the governments of Datum Earth. In fact, some of the more thriving distant communities (like Valhalla) want to declare independence from Datum Earth altogether.
Another issue is human (or alien) rights. The trolls from the first book have become a part of most communities at this point. And yet, the way they are treated seems largely dependent on who they are with. Some are welcomed like family members, other are treated like animals, slaves or worse. And the mistreatment of a mother and son troll are what set a series of events in motion. Maggie Kauffman is a new character introduced to speak on behalf of the trolls. Before their otherwise peaceful nature gets pushed too far.
Another plot line (and there are quite a few) concerns Roberta Golding, a young genius who goes on an exploratory mission with the Chinese. The Chinese are exploring the “East Earths” (most of the other travelers went West). Roberta is an odd child, who anticipated jokes and therefore finds nothing funny. She is cold and emotionless. Her story remains unresolved by the end of the book. But her crew managed to get to Earth East 20,000,000 with the crew.
When Sally tries to get Joshua involved in an adventure once again, he is reluctant, but Helen is the one who spurs him on–as long as she and Dan go with him. This adventure is a bit of backtracking, though–an attempt to use Joshua’s name and status back on Datum Earth–where he is not welcomed by everyone. He tries to prevent the government from harming trolls–because he knows what is at stake if the trolls grow angry.
In their adventure, they also encounter a race of beings known as Beagles. It is a pretty dark and disturbing world, with Joshua getting tortured and Sally and Monica being the only things keeping him from a brutal death. There’s a lot of brutality now, which is not unexpected given the reality of the situation, but it does often seem rather harsh
That’s a lot of summary to prepare for Book Three. But book three does continue the saga, just another twenty years or so later.
(more…)
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SOUNDTRACK: ORQUESTA AKOKÁN-“Mambo Rapidito” (2019).
Since this story is about something shameful in Cuba, I thought I’d tie it to something that is wonderful in Cuba: Orquesta Akokán
I feel like I’ve heard of Daniel Norgren, but I really don’t know anything about him. In fact, when I first started playing this Tiny Desk Concert I was surprised at the kind of music this Swedish musician played because it was steeped in American roots music.
I Just Read About That... 