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kodwo-eshun-more-brilliant-than-the-sun-adventures-in-sonic-fiction

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06[088]06[089]jo<strong>in</strong>ts <strong>in</strong> a syn<strong>the</strong>tic seizure that's every which way but loose.Zapp turns <strong>the</strong> human <strong>in</strong>to a symbiounit. 'When you pop,' Shrimpelucidates, your bodymap alters and 'you become this th<strong>in</strong>g. You go toano<strong>the</strong>r planet. I got <strong>in</strong>to this th<strong>in</strong>g where I wanted to be an alien. 'Liquefy <strong>the</strong> Menschmasch<strong>in</strong>eZapp's '86 Computer Love opens with a bewitch<strong>in</strong>g choir - identified bySimon Reynolds as android doowop - announc<strong>in</strong>g 'ComputerIlIZE', like agenie grant<strong>in</strong>g a robot's wish. Kraftwerk's vocoder chorale is w<strong>in</strong>somewhile Zapp's vocoder chorale is liquefied. Zapp is <strong>the</strong> menschmasch<strong>in</strong>egone gooey. 'We are beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g to see,' chaos-<strong>the</strong>orist Manuel De Landaargues, 'that <strong>the</strong> really advanced high technology is liquidy and drippyand self organiz<strong>in</strong>g and not at all rigid.' In More Bounce to <strong>the</strong> Ounce,<strong>the</strong> syn<strong>the</strong>tic bass doesn't drop; <strong>in</strong>stead it bounces off <strong>the</strong> bottom.Where <strong>the</strong> Bootsy Coll<strong>in</strong>s bass is a rhythmelodic ectoplasm, glut<strong>in</strong>ousand rubbery, <strong>the</strong> Zapp bass is Spandex stretchy.phonoGlutamateLarry Graham sent <strong>the</strong> bass through fuzz until it yawned and slurred likea baby mammoth. With Zapp, Roger Troutman's voice is all vowel, aneesysquezy squidge of phonoglutamate, voco-concentrate. Thesyn<strong>the</strong>sizer passes through his vocal tract. On I Play <strong>the</strong> Talkbox, <strong>the</strong>Roger voice is tubular treble squeezed from a talkbox.For Parliament, <strong>the</strong> soundeffect immediately implies an audioIifeform, a universe <strong>in</strong> which a processed sound takes on an animatronicnonhuman profile. With Zapp, you're <strong>in</strong>side <strong>the</strong> impact, ba<strong>the</strong>d <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>full effect of <strong>the</strong> S Ray gun, <strong>in</strong> what Techno producer Kev<strong>in</strong> Saundersonlater terms Essr'ays.Mach<strong>in</strong>e Tones for Psychic Therapy: The Jungle Bro<strong>the</strong>rsFor a very long time everybody refuses and <strong>the</strong>nalmost without a pause almost everybody acceptsGertrude ste<strong>in</strong>Mut<strong>in</strong>y on <strong>the</strong> Mo<strong>the</strong>rshipYou reserve your nausea for <strong>the</strong> timeless classic, for <strong>the</strong> an<strong>the</strong>ms thatsum up an epoch. But The jungle Bro<strong>the</strong>rs, George Russell, Tricky: <strong>the</strong>seare producers who don't synchronize you <strong>in</strong>to those docile ranks-andfilesknown as generations. In fact <strong>the</strong>y shatter you <strong>in</strong>to sensoryparticles, travell<strong>in</strong>g at <strong>the</strong> speed of thought, break consensual history<strong>in</strong>to dust. Instead of ris<strong>in</strong>g above <strong>the</strong>ir time, <strong>the</strong> jungle Bro<strong>the</strong>rs - AfrikaBaby Bam bass and vocals, dj Sammy B, Mike G guitar and vocals, Torturedrums and vocals - runs HipHop through a particle accelerator, charg<strong>in</strong>greality with <strong>the</strong> syn<strong>the</strong>tic sensation you crave at all costs.Their 3rd album, '93 'S J Beez Wit <strong>the</strong> Remedy, is to <strong>the</strong> 90S what TheVelvet Underground's White Light/ White Heat was to <strong>the</strong> 60S: <strong>the</strong>decade's great lost album, a colossal epic salvaged from <strong>the</strong> wreckage of<strong>the</strong> unreleased Crazy Wisdom , acknowledged by a few , reviled by TradHipHop fanatics on both sides of <strong>the</strong> Atlantic.Derail <strong>the</strong> RhythmotorIn an era of headnodd<strong>in</strong>' 120bpm grooves, Remedy returns to <strong>the</strong> rigidrhythmatics of rhythmsyn<strong>the</strong>sis. The security of <strong>the</strong> Trad jazzbreak issmashed, left beh<strong>in</strong>d for <strong>the</strong> drastically unmusical pulsations and bleeps,that flagrantly mekanikal rhythmanipulation that HipHop thought itbanished back <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> 80S . Manmade Material abandons <strong>the</strong> lope of 70SBreakbeats altoge<strong>the</strong>r, push<strong>in</strong>g robotic irregularity <strong>in</strong>to mach<strong>in</strong>epsychedelia. 'It wasn't loop<strong>in</strong>g one bar, 4 beats, but loop<strong>in</strong>g 6 beats,' <strong>the</strong>jungle Bro<strong>the</strong>rs declared. 'Arhythmic, asymmetrical, al<strong>in</strong>ea r. So whatwe 've been do<strong>in</strong>g consistently is <strong>in</strong>tentionally derail<strong>in</strong>g your bra<strong>in</strong>.' Theloop function entra<strong>in</strong>s <strong>the</strong> body, programm<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> head until it nods likea dog. HipHop habituates <strong>the</strong> m<strong>in</strong>d until it runs along <strong>the</strong> same groovesbut <strong>the</strong> arhythmic loop underm<strong>in</strong>es <strong>the</strong> stepper, derails <strong>the</strong> rhythmotor,with its unresolved dissonance, not arrangements but derangements,wrong-footed, dysfunktional.

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