Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Nevermind The Myrrh! or Dust Devil vs. Mirror Man

No.178, aired July 18, 2012. Reading from french poet Stephan Mallarme’s Herodiade, as translated by C.F. MacIntyre.

This episode engaged in a debate with Out To Lunch on the Butthole Surfers, using Dust Devil and Captain Beefheart’s Mirror Man as discussion points. At the last minute I realized (1) that the idea of a “mirror” was more central to OTL’s argument than I originally had realized, and (2) that mirrors, and reflections in general, are prominant in the poetry I was reading by Mallarme.


On May 12, 2010 Lunch, on his radio program "Late Lunch With Out To Lunch," said that “the problem with the butthole surfers is that they pretend to grate your petty-bourgoise sensibilities, but actually gratify them. Their spoiled-kid tantrums lack the self-reflective objectitude of musical art. No mirror objectifies their plaintive in-your-face music as a series of theatrical effects. Expression as ceasing to care what a listener might think - whereas that care is actually the self you are trying to express. At Leeds in 1993 Butthole Surfers got very boring, evidently thinking that if they hammered away long enough they would achieve mirror man or something - the Greatful Dead of punk – who needs that?”

When OTL talks about a listener’s petty bourgoise sensibilities, he means your sense of self as an abstract individual, not a product of a particular society, but a free consumer with an identity attached to a job, possessions, personal acheivements that would look good on your resume, and musical objects that gratify that sense of identity.

Lunch opposes that sensibility with the idea of art as a mirror, not in the naturalist sense where art reflects exterior reality, but a self-reflective objectitude where the artist has a sense of themself as a member of society, and wants to communicate with its audience, provoke a response, a dialogue – and he does not think the Butthole Surfers do this.

I think I understand OTL’s concepts, but it is not perfectly clear how these two tendencies manifest themselves in music. So my response was to play the Butthole Surfers’ “Dust Devil” against Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band’s “Mirror Man” and see if those tracks would reveal anything. I found that the Beefheart track does contain more internal dialogue amongst musicians and in that sense communicates more, but the Butthole Surfers’ studio work had a more visceral effect on my listening mind. Perhaps the BHs are a decent studio band but dull in concert? My age also plays a role, as I was born at the tail-end of the rock generation, weened on 1980s heavy metal, and only discovered blues and jazz as an adult.

A simple reading of OTL’s critique is that the BHS’s music is decadent in the way of many rock bands whose critical andor commercial success blocks reflection or self-critique. They don’t have to try because they have an identity, a reputation. Commercial success in particular filters to the metaphysics of individual bank accounts – it does not provide a reflective image for art to see itself. But what, then, are the BHS gratifying? The metaphysical individual’s need for boredom? Or does the bourgoise individual possess its own pleasure centre?

Then, when I was reading from Chapter 1 of Karl Marx’s Capital at lunch, the following footnote leaped up: “In a certain sense, man is in the position of a commodity. As he neither enters into the world in possession of a mirror ...a man first sees and recognizes himself in another man” [fn 19 on pg.144 in the Penguin Classics ed.]. The referencing text states: “By means of the value relation ... the physical body of commodity B becomes a mirror for the value of commodity A”


According to Marx’s value theory, value is the amount of human labour contained inside a commodity, measured in relation to a second commodity. Any work of music, whether recorded or live, is a commodity, as is the human body. So the listening/dancing body reflects the “value” of the music, or lack thereof. But music is a cultural commodity, so its value is not assessed only in how long the band rehearsed (although that’s part of it), but in how well the music reflects the social labour that supports it. 

Here is a quote from the Mallarme text I read:
“O mirror!
cold water frozen by ennui in your frame,
how many times and through what hours, distressed
by dreams and searching my memories, like leaves
under your ice in the deep hole, have I
appeared in you like a shadow far away,
but, horror! in the dusk, in your austere pool
I have known the nakedness of my scattered dreams!”


In this speech, Herodias has two responses to her mirror. In the first she sees her self as a distant shadow, alienated from her own dreams. In the final two lines, she see something else, the nakedness of her scattered dreams. This second reflection is the real image, not a complete image of an abstracted individual frozen in boredom, but naked life as something broken, partial, scattered. And this is what the listener under capitalism craves, the disintigration of their abstract identity, a break in boredom and alienation, to see their own labour as an actual force, even if stolen from them, shattered into pieces, channeled through an industry called “culture” and delivered through amplifiers.

Then maybe the fault of the Butthole Surfers is that they attempt to gratify the grey shadow of the fictional whole person rather than the fractional reality?

Then I realized that I incorrectly transcribed Out To Lunch - the concert he attended was in 1983, not 1993, which changes everything - we are now talking about a band in its early creative flush, but then playing in a druggier, dronier style - which helps the explanation that they were frozen in ennui in their frame, but goes against the explanation that they are spoiled and decadent.

To be continued on August 1 (there was no program on July 26), in which I will play some early Butthole Surfers against the one Frank Zappa song that mentions a mirror prominantly.

Part 1

1. Summertime – Booker T & The MGs
2. Winged Assassins – Anvil
3. The Damned Don’t Cry – John Coltrane
4. Led Eye – Sailboats Don’t Cry
5. The Proximity Of Mars – Rodney Sharman
6. School Love – Anvil

Part 2

1. Dust Devil – Butthole Surfers
2. Mirror Man – Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
3. Favourite Settings – Burro
4. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa

Sunday, July 15, 2012

With Lips From End To End

No.177, aired July 11, 2012, featuring readings from two poets from the 1960s: bpNichol and Maggie O’Sullivan. Began as a “search for the origin of breath” theme, but “Lips” became the dominant motif when it was realized that (1) “Lips” is the lead singer/guitarist of Anvil, (2) O’Sullivan’s poem has a “lips” theme, including red lipstick marks that were performed on air, and (3) “Lips” are mentioned twice in Nichol’s oddysey of Saint Reat.

Part 1

1. Inner Constellation (final 6 minutes) – Bruce Eisenbel Sextet
2. Mothra – Anvil
3. Reliefs (II) – Iancu Dumitrescu -- Saint Reat & The Four Winds Of The World (from Book 1 of The Martyrology – bpNichol
4. 666 – Anvil

Part 2

1. Bonus Track – Strange Magic
2. Mythology Metamorphosis – Sun Ra -- Saint Reat & The Four Winds Of The World (con’t) – bpNichol
3. Twelve In The Mirror – Strange Magic
4. Lift Off – Secret Saucer -- WHAT IS BEHIND THAT WHERE THE CURTAINS THAT CCCCC URTAIN GENTLY BLOWING? – Maggie O’Sullivan
5. Common Blood – Jungle
6. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
7. Harbour Freeway Blues – Off!
8. Mr. Highwayman – Howlin’ Wolf

America Must Be Destroyed

No.176, aired July 4, 2012, celebrating American Independence Day, featuring readings of two poems by Amiri Baraka (A.K.A. Leroi Jones) written around 1966, the entire second side of the Mothers Of Inventions’ 1966 LP Absolutely Free, and two tracks from Bobby Hutcherson’s 1966 album Happenings – the chronological congruity was of course unplanned.

Part 1

1. Wake Up America – Dayglo Abortions
2. 5 Americans, 6 Canadians – Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet
3. America Must Be Destroyed – GWAR
4. When You Are Near – Bobby Hutcherson -- The Destruction Of America (from The System Of Dante’s Hell) – Leroi Jones
5. The Morality Squad – GWAR
6. The Omen – Bobby Hutcherson -- A Contract For The Destruction And Rebuilding Of Patterson – Leroi Jones
7. A Real Letter From  A Real Yahoo / Wouldn’t It Be Great If Everybody Had A Gun – Arogant Worms
8. Gasoline – American Flame Whip

Part 2

1. America The Beautiful – D.O.A.
2. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
3. "The M.O.I. American Pageant" (2nd in a Series of Underground Oratorios): America Drinks / Status Back Baby / Uncle Bernie's Farm / Son of Suzy Creamcheese / Brown Shoes Don't Make It / America Drinks and Goes Home – The Mothers Of Invention
4. Americanized – GWAR
5. The Better Half – American Flame Whip
6. Je Declare – D.O.A.

Very Vicarious: AMM4

No.175, aired June 20, 2012. Featuring proceedings from the fourth meeting of the Association Of Musical Marxists.

Part 1

1. Blood On The Floor – Ripcordz
2. Partner – Lungbutter
3. Heliocentric Worlds – Sun Ra -- Sean Bonney’s critique of Ben Watson’s Blake In Cambridge at AMM4
4. Eye Of The Vortex – Helios Creed -- Sean Bonney at AMM4 (con’t)
5. Circle With Tangents no.1 – John Beckwith -- Sean Bonney at AMM4 (con’t)
6. Veto – Sailboats Are White
7. World Worlds – Sun Ra -- Nina Powers’ critique of AMM’s stance on academia at AMM4

Part 2

1. Interplanetary Travellers -- Ben Watson’s reply to Sean Bonney and Nina Powers at AMM4
2. Discussion and a performance by Oscillatory Binnage at AMM4
3. Room For Rent – Lungbutter

Part 3

1. Fuck Or Fight – Red Hot Lovers
2. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
3. Intercosmosis – Sun Ra -- Dave Black’s talk on the Chartist Insurrection at AMM4
4. Favourite Settings – Burrow -- live reading from Plate 25 of William Blake’s Milton

Part 4

1. Congratulations On The Goddamn Cherries – Sailboats Are White
2. Academic Anguish At AMM4 (OTL’s 10m remix) – Out To Lunch / Oscillatory Binnage
3. Here’s To The Punks – Ripcordz
4. AMM4 Improvization – Oscillatory Binnage
5. Rob The Dead – Red Hot Lovers
6. AMM4 Improvization – Gwilly Edmondez Quintet

"The Wine-press on the Rhine groans loud, but all its central beams
Act more terrific in the central Cities of the Nations
Where Human Thought is crushd beneath the iron hand of Power.
There Los puts all into the Press, the Opressor & the Opressed
Together, ripe for the Harvest & Vintage & ready for the Loom."
                                   - William Blake, Milton

Anthony Braxton vs. Vaginal Itch

No.174 – this is the two-hour episode I ran from 9 to 11pm on June 13, immediately after No.173 below. Zappa tracks were from Make A Jazz Noise Here. Anthony Braxton's ersatzi cosmic profundity was delicately balanced with Shrimp's cunt-in-your-face girl-group profanity.

Part 1

1. Mister Pink – Glueleg
2. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
3. Lot Lizard – Shrimp
4. Composition No.173 (Opening Music – Introduction) – Anthony Braxton
5. Wiped Out – Off!
6. I Saw You Joja – Glueleg

Part 2

1. One Thousand Hands – Tangiers
2. Composition No.173 (Scene One – Interlude Duo) – Anthony Braxton
3. I Got News For You – Off!
4. Black Napkins – Frank Zappa
5. Meditation I – Pericardium

Part 3

1. Crackwhore – Shrimp
2. Composition No.173 (Scene Two (A) – Interlude Ensemble) – Anthony Braxton
3. Show Me On The Doll – Shrimp
4. Big Swifty – Frank Zappa

Part 4

1. Bitchslut – Shrimp
2. Composition No.173 (Scene Two (B)) – Anthony Braxton
3. Vaginal Itch – Shrimp
4. King Kong – Frank Zappa
5. King Kong Brigade – Off!
6. Composition No.173 (Closing Music) – Anthony Braxton

Notes made during Braxton’s “Opening Music” from Comp.173: See-saw season wrenches slack ink from free-fall stone position, jagged effort affect slantwise receding intricate amplitude oiling artifact, pen-poise upfront for calamitous telling. Toil, boil, bother, stagger, wither, fail. Bells climb down climb up folded towers, moaning, moon and might, solicitous scramble among cheese-traps, how they flounder. They found you too in there, at spun landing flung vertigo measure compiling uniform direction measureless flailing. But I am absent, perplexed in mock abyssinia but floating chaotic squirm, bleeding rapid scripture assembly, in voluntary compact bible-contraption for inventing inverted utility, unscreened at solar entry but grit-soaked & settling for sentimental compilation as moist oyster rolling in rich silt.

Notes made during Braxton’s Scene One from Comp.173: They are trying to find sonic solutions, sonic utility. I first thot they were in a utopic communal space trying to find solutions to some cozmik puzzle using sonic structures ... The sinister thing happens about 7 minutes in, and now they seem confined, paranoid, trying to pick a sonic lock, a way out of their audio prison. The environment they are in is forcing them to act this way – the voices are enacting Braxton’s thot process in composing, Braxton’s compositional thots are dramatized – and are thus revealed as having far-reaching historical significance, his music is a model of political planning, a science fiction movie set in the present-day psyche, society shrunken to a neurological anti-opera.

Notes made during Braxton’s Scene Two (A) from Comp.173: The embellishments become more elaborate as it goes, more urgent, more ridiculous, break decorum. As the predicament becomes seriouser, the search for solutions gets rediculouser. Further & further committed to the lengthening of their descensions, do they falter in their comments? Never. Lost in the swirl? No, there is a force that brings things back to the central axis – the sound is raining on us every day, swirls the experience into the wall of the experience. Scientists & engineers, or prisoners? I can’t decide, and is there a difference in Braxton’s universe?

Notes made during Braxton’s Scene Two (B) from Comp.173: Nonsensical scatting with horns with technical description, astronomers describing a star from the inside, an updated paradiso, sort of, minus the moralism, upped the vortex contemplation. Then cosmic awareness segues into Shrimp’s Vaginal Itch ...

The Day Nothing Became Something

No.173. On June 13, 2012 I arrived at the station a few minutes before 8pm and there was no live programming so I decided to take that hour (since the station prefers live programming to “Phil”). As this was an improvized episode with little creative connection to the planned two-hour bonanza I ran from 9 to 11, I decided to count it as a separate episode.

Part 1

1. Sailing – Ripcordz
2. No Hits – Black Mountain
3. Mole Machine – Simply Saucer
4. The Day Everything Became Nothing – Nomeansno
5. ‘Cross The Breeze – Sonic Youth
6. Kick It – American Flame Whip

Part 2

1. Blindman – D.O.A.
2. Sleep – Godspeed! You Black Emperor
3. Silver Rocket – Sonic Youth

Hard & Covered In Scales

No.172, aired June 6, 2012. Passages from Ovid’s Metamorphoses were played with instrumental tracks. The title comes from a line in Ovid which seemed to perfectly describe the music (especially Bo!).

Part 1

1. You Don’t Love Me (You Don’t Care) – Bo Diddley
2. Comp. No.110A – Anthony Braxton
3. Weekly Relapse – Kroovy Roookers
4. Comp. No.110D – Anthony Braxton
5. Who Do You Love – Bo Diddley
6. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
7. Willie And Lillie – Bo Diddley
8. Stagnation – Kroovy Rookers
9. Burnt Sonic Toast – Burro
10. Shut Down – Kroovy Rookers

Part 2

1. Doom’s Only Wounded – Digital Doomzday
2. Comp. No.110C – Anthony Braxton
3. Evil Invaders – Final Darkness
4. Comp. No.116 – Anthony Braxton
5. Sailing - Ripcordz

Rob Doherty

No.171, aired May 30, 2012. A tribute to Regina heavy metal impressario Rob Doherty (December 21, 1970 – May 4, 2012), who played in Metallist (1980s), Pericardium (1990s), Into Eternity (c.2004 – 2006?), Digital Doomzday (c.2010), and Final Darkness (2011-2012). In Pericardium and Final Darkness, Rob was the prime creative force, providing lead guitar and lead vocals. In Digital Doomzday he collaborated with vocalist Roman Corkery. In Into Eternity he played guitar and collaborated on songs. Seeing him play live around Regina in the mid-90s was always a special thrill. Rob, I was your one-man mosh-pit - Rest In Peace.

Spoken word portion was some readings from William Blake’s Milton, because it’s totally fuckin’ metal.

Part 1

1. Final Darkness – Final Darkness
2. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
3. The Opportunist – Pericardium
4. Monsters In The Airlock – Digital Doomzday
5. Meditation I – Pericardium
6. The Scattering Of Ashes – Rob Doherty
7. Analogue A + B – Iannis Xenakis -- reading from William Blake’s Milton, Plates 6,7
8. Disfigured With Hatred – Rob Doherty

Part 2

1. Aurora Falling Down – Final Darkness
2. Aroura – Iannis Xenakis -- reading from William Blake’s Milton, Plates 7,8,9
3. Darkness Falls – Final Darkness
4. Meditation II – Pericardium
5. Cock-Hungry Whore – Pericardium (I suspect this song goes back to the band Metallist)
6. Meditation III / The Dead Speak From Beyond – Pericardium

Thru Realms Of Terror And Mild Moony Lustre

No.170, aired May 23, 2012. Read the first 5 plates of William Blake’s Milton.

Part 1

1. B.O.R.N. – Facepuller
2. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
3. Ham On The Bone – GWAR
4. Birth – Max Roach & Anthony Braxton
5. Cry Of The Banshee – Exciter
6. Dance Griot – Max Roach & Anthony Braxton
7. Prime Miss – Facepuller

Part 2

1. Crack In The Egg – GWAR
2. Rebirth – Max Roach & Anthony Braxton
3. Rising Of The Dead – Exciter
4. Spirit Possession – Max Roach & Anthony Braxton
5. Gor-Gor – GWAR
6. Soft Shoe – Max Roach & Anthony Braxton
7. Sailing – Ripcordz

Angry Beat Of Oysterpiling

No.169, aired May 16, 2012. Content from 1970s & 1980s, with readings from Maggie O’Sullivan’s ALTO: London Poems 1975-1984, music from Last Call: Vancouver Independent Music 1977-1988, and Anthony Braxton’s Complete Remastered Recordings, an 8-CD box set from Black Saint records including spanning the years 1978-1989.

Part 1

1. Talk To The Birds – Bob’s Your Uncle
2. Composition No.69M – Anthony Braxton -- After Lady Nijo – Maggie O’Sullivan
3. Have Not Been The Same – Slow
4. Composition No.69O – Anthony Braxton -- At This Moment / Goldenrod / Towards Engagement – Maggie O’Sullivan
5. King Blood – Rhythm Mission

Part 2

1. 1 + 1 Is 3 – Oversoul Seven
2. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
3. Composition No.105A – Anthony Braxton -- 1 + 1 = 3 / ALTO – Maggie O’Sullivan
4. When All Is Said And Done – Napalm Death

Meat Metamorphosis


No.168, aired May 2, 2012. A double episode featuring a double album: Zappa & the Mothers’ 1968 monster Uncle Meat. More passages from Ovid’s Metamorphoses were played with instrumental tracks. Sublime serendipitous moment was Narcisus staring at his reflection to the tune of “The Legend Of The Golden Arches.”

Part 1

1. Uncle Meat: Main Title Theme – Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention
2. Bandstand – Tandoori Knights
3. The Voice Of Cheese – Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention
4. Here Today, Guano Tomorrow – Dayglo Abortions
5. Nine Types Of Industrial Pollution – Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention
6. Jacques And Madeleine – Run Chico Run
7. Zolar Czakl – Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention
8. Celebration I – Harry Freedman

Part 2

1. Dog Breath, In The Year Of The Plague – Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention
2. King Queen – GWAR
3. Celebration II – Harry Freedman
4. Tandoori Party – Tandoori Knights
5. Black And Huge – GWAR
6. The Legend Of The Golden Arches– Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention

Part 3

1. Louie Louie (At The Royal Albert Hall In London)
2. The Spawn Of Yog Sothoth – Dayglo Abortions
3. Celebration III – Harry Freedman
4. Dog Breath Variations – Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention
5. Constant Lover – Magneta Lane
6. Sleeping In A Jar / Our Bizarre Relationship – Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention
7. Sexecutioner – GWAR
8. The Uncle Meat Variations – Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention

Part 4

1. Electric Aunt Jemima – Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention
2. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
3. Toccata For Voice & Flute – Harry Freedman
4. Prelude To King Kong – Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention
5. Easy Street – Ernie Klinger
6. A Pound For A Brown On The Bus – Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention
7. Fuck My Shit Stinks – Dayglo Abortions
8. Ian Underwood Whips It Out (Live On Stage In Copenhagen) – Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention
9. Books & Ribs – Tandoori Knights

Opaque, Unbreathable, Fallacious Paradise

No.167, aired April 25, 2012. Read Theses 15 – 21 of Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle.

Part 1

1. Inner Constellation – Bruce Eisenbeil Sextet
2. We’re Turning Again – Frank Zappa
3. The Prisoner – D.O.A.
4. I Don’t Even Care – Frank Zappa
5. Inner Constellation (con’t) – Bruce Eisenbeil Sextet
6. Weeping Widow – April Wine
7. Berlin Butcher – Emetics
8. Alien Oriface – Frank Zappa

Part 2

1. Red-Checkered Stretcher – Emetics
2. Inner Constellation (con’t) – Bruce Eisenbeil Sextet
3. Electric Jewels – April Wine
4. Inner Constellation (con’t) – Bruce Eisenbeil Sextet
5. Casey’s Wake – Emetics
6. Inner Constellation (con’t) – Bruce Eisenbeil Sextet
7. Dominion Of Deceipt – 3 Inches Of Blood
8. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
9. Inner Constellation (con’t) – Bruce Eisenbeil Sextet
10. Unknown – D.O.A.

Young Bear, Young Spirit

No.166, aired April 18, 2012, featuring two of the drum bands who played at the 34th annual Spring Celebration Pow Wow at Regina’s Brandt Center.

Part 1

1. Necklace Breaker – Young Bear
2. Ley de Vida – Cerebros Exprimodos
3. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
4. Severe – Young Bear
5. Roots Bloody Roots - Sepultura
6. Stan The Man – Young Bear
7. Bad Luck Blues – Guitar Slim
8. YB Style – Young Bear
9. Choke – Sepultura
10. Young Bear Family – Young Bear

Part 2

1. Contest – Young Spirit
2. Kairos – Sepultura
3. Intertribal – Young Spirit
4. Trouble Don’t Last – Guitar Slim
5. Intertribal – Young Spirit
6. Romper la Red – Cerebros Exprimodos
7. Jingle Side-Step
8. Relentless – Sepultura
9. Contest – Young Spirit
10. Yukatan – Sun Ra

Sepultura & Metamorphoses

No.165, aired April 11, 2012. Primarily a primer for the Sepultura concert at the Exchange. Included some more passages from Ovid’s Metamorphoses on audiobook.

Part 1

1. CAKE! – A Band
2. Ratamahatta – Sepultura
3. 4 Songs For Voice & Piano, op.12, no.1 – Anton Webern
4. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
5. Skulls In The Closet – Les Georges Leningrad
6. Arise – Sepultura
7. 4 Songs For Voice & Piano, op.12, no.2 – Anton Webern
8. Scissorhands - Les Georges Leningrad
9. 4 Songs For Voice & Piano, op.12, no.3 – Anton Webern
10. Septicschizo – Sepultura
11. 4 Songs For Voice & Piano, op.12, no.4 – Anton Webern
12. Deathboy – Kill Cheerleader

Part 2

1. RefuseResist – Sepultura
2. Fast – John Weinsweig
3. Attitude – Sepultura
4. They Think They’re Packing Up, But They’re Not – A Band
5. Escape To The Void – Sepultura

Apprehension Of The Unfolding

No.164, aired March 28, 2012.

This episode had readings of the “Time and History” chapter of Guy Debord’s Society of The Spectacle alongside passages from H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine audiobook.

The key to interpreting Wells was found in Debord’s 125th thesis: “Man’s appropriation of his own nature is at the same time the apprehension of the unfolding of the universe.”

In The Time Machine, the universe unfolds humanity into two different species, one permanently childish, naive, indolent & sensual, and the second nocturnal, calculating, pragmatic & predatory. No doubt this text was an admirable nod to Darwinism when first published in the 1890s, but with the help of Debord’s Thesis no.125, the real meaning of Wells’ two-species humanity becomes plain. Wells has apprehended a two-fold nature in his own humanity, a passive consumer on the one hand and a joyless labourer on the other. He unfolds his futuristic world according to this bipolar vision – the light of enlightenment apart from the darkness of industry.

And in case it needs to be said, the class system in The Time Machine has little or no relation to existing class relations in late capitalist society, it more resembles the twilight of the aristocracy, when the kings & queens & dukes & knights became increasingly like helpless, caged animals. In the modern world, division of labour is the determinate factor in class relations. Labour, productivity is the most basic human quality, therefore Wells’ passive pastoral species is not human at all but a breed of post-human cattle. And the meaning of the Sex Pistols' “God save the Queen / She ain’t no human being” was thus revealed.

Featured album was Ornette Coleman’s The Shape Of Jazz To Come

Part 1

1. Organic Space – Guerilla Funk Monster
2. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
3. Fuera de Control – Cerebros Exprimidos
4. Eventually – Ornette Coleman
5. puddle pants / Savages – Guerilla Funk Monster
6. Lonely Woman – Ornette Coleman
7. interligeridoo / How Long ‘Til We Get There – Guerilla Funk Monster

Part 2

1. No Sabes Que Existo – Cerebros Exprimidos
2. Bent Time – Burro
3. Wake Today – Guerilla Funk Monster
4. Chronology – Ornette Coleman
5. Introduce The Metric System In Time – The Hives
6. March Of The Crabs – Anvil