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

08[138]MIXRDELICUNIVERSE08[139]'We have taken control so as to bring you this special show': bycommandeering the communications system, Star Child automaticallygains access to the midbrain: 'We will return it to you as soon as you aregroovy.' P'Funk is the p'honogenic infiltration of the recordingapparatus and by extension the perceptual system. Star Child identifiesthe fatal human weakness: humans have no earl ids, and are helplessbefore aural invasion. Star Child's voice is so excessively p#honogenicthat it becomes queasy and gloating. It is magnified, a manic, mockingcloseup that nestles itself right inside your ear, insinuates itself throughyour hearing, sped up and reverbed until it secretes sense. It scans allthe recording systems available and decides to cross into the auditorycanal through the mike filter: an assault on all parts of the big brain bythe universal invaders of funk.We Are in Your System: ParliamentAccording to Trad media folklore, funk eases you into the groove; it putsyou in touch with your body, it humanizes you. With Parliament, funkbecomes P'aranormalized, the prize and the stake in an ongoing battlebetween the alien and the adapted human, between abduction by audioand possession by phono. In the Parliament MythSystems, funk - likeovaries, sperm or the sandworm spice in Dune - is the vital force, theelan vital that visiting aliens want to extract and extort. The P'Funktrack always demands that you 'Give up the funk'.Perceptual InfiltrationP#Funk is an encounter with the alien: 'Good evening. Do not attempt toadjust your radio. There is nothing wrong. ' '75'S P Funk [Wants to GetFunked Up] is the P'honoFiction of the nonhuman system that capturesthe frequencies , rides in on the radiowaves, seeps into your senses. Ittakes advantage of the 'fearful medium' of radio to manifest the alienpower of broadcasting. P#Funk personifies the nonhuman force of mediathat releases what Schafer defines as 'an invisible excitement for thenerves because we cannot see who or what is producing the sound.'The SpacelinkRadio opens up the spacelink, the channel between offworld andonworld. For Parliament, radio connects the human to the alien:'Welcome to the Station WEFUNK, better known as WE FUNK or deeperstill the Mothership Connection, home of the extraterrestrial brothers.'Listening to Station WEFUNK turns you into the medium through whichthe Unidentified Audio Object arrives on Earth. Broadcasting is theumbilical system which delivers the human listener into the comfortingaudio environment of the Mothership. Inside the Mothership you feel athome in the alien, enwombed in audio: 'Coming to you directly from theMothership Connection.'Extract/ExtortI'll funk with your mind: to funk is to threaten and promise, to exhort andextract, to funkatize the psyche through a logic of the pun which couplesconcepts while fucking you in the head. When Dr Funkenstein emergesfrom the Mothership, writhing down its silver steps in Madison SquareGarden '78 , it's the audio lifeform come alive. The Parliament fan cravesthe synthetic. The world of the track expands to devour the eageraudience. Overton Lloyd, Parliament's sleeve artist, designs Funkensteinaccording to Clinton's specification: 'Draw a spaceman, put a cloak on him,put diamonds on the cloak, make him like a pimp spaceman.' He is theSpacepimp with spiderweb shades. The cartoon crosses from the Parliamentuniverse into yours. The P#honoFictional personification captures theaudience, drags it happily into the Parliament P#ossibility Space.