Dystopian reality

 Over the years I've read a lot of dystopian science fiction, I've watched the movies and I've read the comics.  I never dreamt that I would be living the reality in 2021.  This morning I was out in the freezing cold queuing to get my first shot of the COVID vaccine, wearing a face mask.  I got on buses that were near empty and saw crazy people hanging around central station.

It's fucked.  On top of this, Donald fucking Trump continues to be the president of the united states of america, at least for the next couple of weeks and he basically incited an attempted coup that involved the storming of the capitol building in Washington D.C. by a bunch of freaks including fucking Ariel Pink.  In the UK we have an evil Tory government with Boris Johnston as out prime minister and cunts like Jacob Rees Mogg causing as much badshit as they can.

10,000 people in the UK have died with COVID-19 since Christmas leading to a grand total of 80,000 deaths related to a new disease in under a year.  Shit is majorly fucked up.

I miss my dad and some of my friends who are dead but in a way I'm glad they don't have to live through this shit.  I'm ok, I have a comfortable middle class existence but Scotland right now is fifty shades of bleak thanks to idiots voting for things like Brexit and the Tory party.

I hope the vaccine works at least a bit.  Not sure if anything will fix the damage to the UK after Brexit and COVID.  Hoping for Scottish independence but suspect that is unlikely.

Beastie Boys Book

I've been digesting the Beastie Boys Book for the last month or so.  It's amazing, disjointed and brilliant just like the band.  I've been listening to the audiobook due to my lack of free reading time.  It's one of the best audiobooks I've ever encountered.  They have invited a stellar cast of narrators including Snoop Doggy Dogg, Kim Gordon, Chuck D, Will Ferrell, Bette Midler and Steve Buscemi as well as many many others.

The narrative jumps about from their childhood, through early punk adventures, Bad Brains and Black Flag concerts, New York Discos, career low-points (Def Jam), clothing labels, recording with Lee Scratch Perry and lists of equipment, recipes and mix tapes.  Everything is in this book.

Much of the book is a tribute to Adam Yauch, MCA, who died in 2012 from parotid cancer.  His fellow Beastie Boys clearly and understandably miss him.  In some ways he appears to have been a pathfinder for the band and is credited as being the Beastie who made things happen.

The physical release is beautifully illustrated with photos and comics strips reminiscent of the old Grand Royale magazine from the 90s.  It's a thing of beauty but the audiobook is worth your time too.

A fitting legacy for a great band.  Sadly, I never saw them and I deeply regret it.  I am glad I had their music (and their music videos).

The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America’s Secret Government by David Talbot

This is an unflattering biography of a man I had never heard of; Allen Dulles.  He was an influential figure in American intelligence and subsequently the head of the CIA.  According to this book, he did a lot of bad stuff.  He was fond of Nazi's, very anti-communist and at one point he apparently tried to arrange the assassination of Charles De Gaulle.

Dulles may have helped arrange the assassination of John F Kennedy.  Dulles was certainly influential on the Warren Commission which investigated the JFK assassination.  The Warren Commission should perhaps have been called the Dulles Commission.

This is a good read.

Podcasts

Over the past few years I've started listening to a lot of Podcasts.  I always liked listening to the radio although I didn't always find the broadcast shows to be very exciting.  Podcasts are homemade radio shows that you can download and listen to at a time that suits you.  They also often cover more offbeat or esoteric subjects that appeal to me.

Mostly I listen to real life mystery podcasts, American political podcasts (mainly ones about Trump), Twin Peaks related podcasts and comic book podcasts.  And the Private Eye podcasts.

One of the first mystery style I started to listen to was Thinking Sideways - in this podcast three presenters take turns to present a mystery every week and discuss various theories on what went on.  The first episode that I listened to was on the 'Glasgow effect'.

Another slightly more fantastical podcast that I enjoy is Astonishing Legends - this podcast goes into strange tales in a great degree of detail.  They exude an X-Files type vibe and they are often rather credulous but the production values are good and I enjoy the shows.

From a comic book point of view Fatman on Batman produced by Clerks director Kevin Smith as part of his Smodcast empire is a good starting point (if you like Batman).  The early episodes in the archive are great, often focusing on individual comic book writers or artists and Batman related stuff. More recently the podcast has developed into a general forum for discussion of sic-fi, superheroes and anything Smith wants to talk about.

The Stuff You Should Know network has several good podcasts including Stuff They Don't Want You To Know and Stuff to Blow Your Mind (both of which have a sort of counterculture vibe) as well as the more mainstream, flagship Stuff You Should Know series.  All of these are fairly interesting.

In terms of Trump bashing Trumpcast is fairly funny and a good place to start.  The Pod Save America team have more White House connections and often have serious guests on to interview although they are often pretty funny too.

No Such Thing As A Fish  was one of the first podcasts I listened to, a spin off from the BBC QI series, where strange facts are discussed in an amusing manner every week.  It's good for a smile every now and again.

There are many more podcasts to check out - a few more are below
Page 94 - The Private Eye Podcast
The 2000AD Progcast - some great 2000AD chat
The Politico Nerdcast
A Twin Peaks Podcast

Enjoy

Twin Peaks - The Return

The revival of Twin Peaks has been rather exciting for me.  I've gone to fairly extreme lengths to try and see it on a weekly basis and overall it has been pretty satisfying.  As a teenager I watched the original Twin Peaks as it was broadcast on BBC2.  It fascinated me back then.  I think I'd already seen a couple of Lynch films by then and I did my best to see a lot of his other work after that.

The original Twin Peaks finished on a cliff hanger, with Agent Cooper trapped in another detention while his evil doppelgänger, possessed by the evil BOB entity, smashing his head into a mirror.

The show finished and was followed by the Fire Walk With Me film that was a bit of a box office flop.  Last year Mark Frost released a great book called 'The Secret History of Twin Peaks' that added a lot of colour and richness to the Twin Peaks universe without giving away much about the new series.  The book served to whet my appetite for new Twin Peaks.  I was not disappointed.

Lynch is a pretty unique film maker.  His work, from Eraserhead on, is different.  He views the world in a different ways and he expresses himself differently.  In Twin Peak - The Return (TPTR from now on) he has been able to run riot with his creative urges.  The initial 2 hours of the series had little relevance to what had happened before although TPTR is a direct continuation of the original storyline.  Lynch will let scenes run for longer than many film makers would tolerate, creating new and different rhythms in his work.  His use of sound is creative and his solutions for replacing actors who are no longer available (for a variety of reasons) are novel to say the least.  One actor he has fallen out with has been replaced with a talking silver christmas tree and the character of Philip Jeffries, played in the Fire Walk With Me (FWWM) film by David Bowie, was portrayed by a giant talking kettle (with the approval of Bowie before he died).

Kyle Maclachlan, Agent Dale Cooper and alumnus of many Lynch works plays 3 characters in TPTR.  Agent Cooper appears only sparingly although the malevolent doppelgänger, Mr C is a more regular oppressive presence throughout the series.  Maclachlan also supplies comedy relief in the form of a third Cooper variant, Dougie E, thought the series.

Many of the original cast return and the cult status of Twin Peaks has ensured the presence of many talented actors as well as an excellent soundtrack with performances from Nine Inch Nails and Eddie Vedder amongst others.  Lynch himself appears as FBI director Gordon Cole supplying additional comedy.

TPTR made me laugh and cry.  It contains genuinely disturbing scenes as well as amazingly heartwarming moments.  Lynch does not take prisoners and he does not explain his work.  A lot is left open to interpretation and many questions are left unanswered.  Overall I was satisfied but greedily I want more.  The are endings, one good heroic ending and another bleak, potentially apocalyptic ending.  We may have seen the end of the Agent Cooper/Laura Palmer story but there is room for more tales from the Twin Peaks universe.  We would all like to know what has happened to Audrey.

I want to watch this again and see if my understanding changes.  I feel lucky to have seen this and I can't wait for Mark Frost's next Twin Peaks book 'The Final Dossier' which may answer some stuff.

Lynch and Frost have created a masterpiece that people will struggle to understand for years.  Some folk with think it is pretentious bullshit.  I'm not sure what it is but I enjoyed the ride.

For an interesting interpretation of the ending look at https://www.waggish.org/2017/twin-peaks-finale/

living in a science fiction present

My grandfather didn't have a television until 1980.  My father grew up in a house without electricity, heated by coal fires, in a remote costal area in Scotland.  They lived 200 metres from the sea and they saw seals every day.  They didn't always see other people on a daily basis.  A lot of time was spent reading books or out living a rural life.  And shooting stuff.

My grandfather died in 1987/1988.  I don't think he ever saw a computer (although I'm not entirely sure).  He was born in a croft in 1903.  I'm writing this on a fancy laptop.  I'm streaming music onto my iPad beside me.  Technology like this only existed on Star Trek and in the science fiction novels and comics my father read.

My grandfather left the UK twice (as far as I know).  In the late '70s/early '80s my parents brought him to Lanzarote and Malta with us for family holidays.  Until then he had never been in a plane.  He did live in London where he worked as a servant in the 1920's and 30's so I guess it is possible that he may have travelled abroad at that time.  I don't know and I guess I never will.

As a kid I never imagined that I would at some point own something like an iPad or a smartphone.  I could could conceptualise a mobile phone as I had seen walkie talkies.  Early chunky mobile phones were available in the '80s but only for the very rich.

Possibly the most amazing thing now is the internet.  Vast amounts of knowledge, science, music, media and art are available free, instantly at the touch of a button.  I did my first degree before scientific papers existed as PDFs.  I had not used the internet or sent an email before I went to university.  I spent years looking for books, comics and music.  Now it's all there.

Our ability to communicate has improved too.  I play scrabble and chat with someone in Hong Kong every day.  I know and care about someone in Hong Kong.  As a child in the West of Scotland I would never have imagined such a thing.  I dreamt of America in movies and comic books and later in records.  I was lucky enough to visit Europe and I knew about World War 2.  Beyond that I knew that other cultures existed but I didn't really believe that I would ever interact with these distant places in any meaningful way.

When I was a kid for a while I wanted to be a spaceman.  When I was very young I wanted to be a soldier but thankfully I got over that idea very early.  Most of the time I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to write comics and novels.  As a teenager I wanted to be a rock star or a journalist.  I had a vague childhood idea of being a scientist but only in a sort of very vague science fiction/spaceman way.

I never thought I would be a doctor.  Doctors were the people my mother worked for, a class apart. Twenty, twenty-five, thirty years later, here I am.  How the fuck did this happen?

I sit in a posh flat in Glasgow living in a science fiction present, parts of which echo the William Gibson books I read when I was 10.  Parts of this are so much better than I ever thought would be possible.  When I watch the television news and hear borderline racist, anti-immigration political beasts from UKIP talk, I hear echoes of Mosely and Enoch Powell and it's all gone a bit dystopian.

What would my grandad think if he was alive today?  His generation fought the nazi's and gave us the Scotland we have today.

Neutral Milk Hotel - Live at the Glasgow Barrowlands

I've been neglecting this blog again.  Lots of work stuff has been keeping me busy recently.  However Neutral Milk Hotel at the Barrowlands has to be one of the most anticipated gigs I've been to in ages.

I'm not exactly a Neutral Milk novice, having seen Jeff Mangum play at the ATP festival but this is the first time that I've seen him play with the band that created his legend.  The tickets sold out within seconds and the Barras was packed with lucky fans.

Support was supplied by Francis McKee of the Vaselines who played a selection of new material before battering out 'Jesus doesn't want me for a sunbeam' with Eugene Kelly.

The main event kicked off at 915 with Mangum taking the stage alone and starting 'the king of carrot flowers' before being joined by the rest of the band.  They assaulted the songs with a loose punky fury that was a good bit louder than the recorded versions from 'in the aeroplane over the sea'.  'Holland, 1945' was deployed as a quick follow up.

The band played material from all of their recorded output.  This wasn't a strict reading of the classic album.  I've been listening to NMH for many years and they played a couple of songs that I'm not too familiar with.

The rough setlist was -

• 1. The King of Carrot Flowers, Part One 
  2. The King of Carrot Flowers, Parts Two & Three 
  3. Holland, 1945 
  4. A Baby for Pree / Glow Into You 
  5. On Avery Island / April 1st 
  6. Gardenhead / Leave Me Alone 
  7. Everything Is 
  8. Two-Headed Boy 
  9. The Fool 
  10. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea 
  11. Naomi 
  12. Ferris Wheel on Fire 
  13. Oh Comely 
  14. Song Against Sex 
  15. Ruby Bulbs 
  16. Snow Song, Part One 
  17. Encore:
  17. Ghost 
  18. [untitled] 
      (first released until this title, later became known as 'The Penny Arcade in California')
  19. Two-Headed Boy, Part Two 
  20. Engine 

The crowd seemed to really enjoy the show although there was a clear rush for the toilet/bar during less familiar songs.  It was a great night of psychedelic punk noise and I'm glad I was there.  I may have preferred the Mangum solo readings at ATP but this was very very good. 

Fantagraphics Kickstarter Project

Fantagraphics are one of the best comic book publishers in the world.  They publish intelligent books by intelligent people.  They make comic books that are art.  Their books are often beautiful.

The first Fantagraphics comic that I remember buying was Hate number 1 by Pete Bagge.  I actually bought it from Bagge himself at the Glasgow Comic Convention in 1989 (or around then).  He signed it for me.  I was really too young for the comic at the time.  I must have been 12 or 13 but I became a massive fan.

Fantagraphics also publish Robert Crumb, Love & Rockets, Castle Waiting, The Comics Journal, beautiful reprint collections of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge, English language translations of the works of Tardi, collections of Pogo by Walt Kelly.  All amazing comic art that fights for space on my cramped book shelves.  They don't really publish potboiler superhero rubbish.  I am glad that they exist and I hope they continue to exist.

So, I've pledged for a couple of things on their Kickstarter and I hope that some other people do the same.  They have had a bad year in 2013 with the death of Kim Thompson, Fantagraphics co-founder, and the subsequent disruption of their publishing schedule.  They are raising money to stay independent and stay afloat.  I'm happy to give them cash directly instead of buying from Amazon.  I see it as a donation to an art gallery or a museum. It's just that I get to have this art at home with me.

Anyway, check it out.

Autobiography - Morrissey

I made myself finish the Morrissey Autobiography today.  I think much of it is an elaborate practical joke.  It's written in a stream of consciousness splurge that does not appear to have been edited in any way.  He has a very breathless voice and he seems to recount every negative encounter that he has ever had.  He has a special amount of anger reserved for an ex-band member and a Judge who labelled him as 'devious, truculent and unreliable'.

He also spends a lot of time with dying birds.  I suspect that the dying birds sections are elaborate parodies.

I would have liked some chapters.  It is nice to hear that Morrissey has had sex with a few people.

I like the records more than the book.

Adventures in bin-raking

I'm staying at my parents house for a couple of days.  I haven't been out here since Christmase so it's noce to catch up with them a bit.  I've also been tidying out my old room at their house and getting rid of some of the crap that's still cluttering the place.

I went to the local dump with my mother this afternoon.  My mother likes a bargin and keeps her eyes open for useful things whenever she goes to the dump.  We were fairly lucky today.  At the top of the dump was a pile of about 30 CDs and DVDs.  It looked as if somebody had thrown out someone elses possessions.  The collection looked rather female in origin and contained a lot of stuff by the likes of Michael Buble and Jess Stone.  There was also a few Beatles CDs and stuff by Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, Miles Davis and BoB Dylan.  Randomly there was also a copy of 'the last time I did acid I went insane' by Jeffrey Lewis.  I promptly jumped into the dump and salvaged all this booty.  As a family we are not proud.  I even found a copy of Johnny Cash 'American 5' for my Dad (I own this one already but my Dad is a Cash fan too).  We also picked up the first series of the Wire and a couple of books.

At the end of the day we figured out that the collection of stuff was probably worth about £150.  Not bad for stuff that was due to be landfill.  The stuff that we don't want for ourselves will be donated to charity shops with some of the other stuff we were getting rid of.

My parents and I are not poor.  I have a good job and they have decent pensions.  However it does sicken me to see useful stuff condemed to landfill when it could be used by someone else.  My Dad will enjoy watching Finding Nemo and the Wire and my Mum will enjoy listening to Elton John (hopefully when I'm out of earshot).  I'm happy with my free stuff too.

So, if you go to the dump - keep your eyes open.  And if you are going to dump stuff maybe think if someone else could use it.  We suspect that all this stuff was thrown out by an idiot in a fit of anger which is sort of sad but hopefully the charity shop may be able to do something useful with it.

Guns 'n' Roses - Live at the SECC Glasgow

I have to admit that I've never been a Guns 'n' Roses fan.  I was about 11 when they first became popular with 'Appetite for Destruction' and I just didn't  like them.  Initially it was because I thought they were too poppy and later because I thought Axl was a twat.  As I grew older I could appreciate some of their songs.  They do have a few good songs but Axl continued to be a twat.

One of my friends wanted to see them.  He had a spare ticket so he asked me to go with him.  I agreed with some trepidation.  At least I would be able to tick another big name off the list of bands to see.  I was also interested in seeing Thin Lizzy (or at least a band that uses the name and songs of Thin Lizzy).

It was a hot day in Glasgow on Friday.  My friend and I went to the SECC at around 6ish to get parked.  A sign on the doors warned that Thin Lizzy would be on at GNR would take the stage at 9:30PM and play for a very long time.  We went for a meal before returning to see Thin Lizzy.  Phil Lynott is irreplaceable and probably embodied Thin Lizzy for most people.  He was missed tonight.  Ricky Warwick made a decent attempt but it really felt like a tribute band. 

Axl and band finally arrived on stage at 1035PM.  By that time the crowd was drunk and tired.  I saw a few very young children who were clearly out well past their bedtimes.  People drifted off at an accelerating rate throughout the 3 hour show. 

Guns 'n' Roses had a strange habit of spoiling their best songs with loud fireworks.  It's a bit stupid to let off a firework that is twice as loud as the band during your most famous song.  It sort of spoils the impact of the music.  It was really annoying. 

Axl had several costume changes and grand pianos were moved around the stage.  A number of models (?strippers) danced at the side of the stage.  Axl disappeared for a bit and the other guys played their own songs.  It was all very boring.

After 33 songs it finished at 1:30AM.  People were running out of the venue by then.  Many fans would have been unable to stay till the end because of a reliance on public transport.  I was just glad to get to my bed.  This could have been a great 80 minute show.  It was an overblown 3 hours.

Legion - DVD review

Legion is a mental film.  It's like some sort of Fundamentalist Christian gun nut porn.  A baby has been born and the world is about to end because God has given up on humanity.  A renegade angel decides to save the human race with lots of guns. 

I am worried that a certain type of nutjob may regard this film as a documentary.  It's ok if you regard it as a bit of throwaway nonsense but I think some people believe shit like this.

Supergods by Grant Morrison

Grant Morrison is a Glasweigan comic book writer.  He's been writing comics for about 33 years.  He has written a lot of good comic books and a  lot of crazy comic books.  The crazy comic books may be partly due to his other career as a Chaos Magician which involves some drug use.  He has apparently left the Chaos Magic behind in recent years.

Morrison use to write the Starblazer comic libraries that DC Thompson produced in the '80s as well as toy tie-in Zoids and Zenith.  At different points in my childhood I loved all of those books as well as his later work for DC comics and Marvel. 

In Supergods Morrison starts with a history of comic books superheroes, initially focusing on Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman before moving on to lesser character such as Green Lantern or the Flash.  He also looks at Captain America and the early Marvel characters.  He follows the genre through the '50s and the '60s as Lee, Kirby and Ditko created the big Marvel characters like Spiderman before moving on to the darker comics of the '80s and '90s.

Morrison knows his stuff and he is clearly a fan.  For the first part of the book he gives us a decent critical history of the evolution of superheroes.  An autobiographical element enters the story from the '70s onwards and in a few chapters he is the focal point of the narrative.  I enjoy hearing about his life in familiar parts of Glasgow and some of his 'cosmic experiences' and 'rituals' are fairly amusing.  I'm not sure that these passages will appeal to everyone.

It is also good to hear what he was trying to achieve in some of his own work.  His rivalries with Alan Moore and Mark Millar are also given space.  He is also critical of some of the editorial constraints that were put on him at Marvel. 

Worth a read if you like comic books.  Some of it needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.

For more go to his recently updated website.

search terms that bring you to this blog

There are some really weird people out there. Blogger gives you a list of search terms that bring people to your page. It seems that some weirdo searched the term '3d animal fucking' on google and ended up on my blog.

Seriously fucking odd.

Anyhow, I'll just try and avoid even thinking about that one.

Strange internet traffic.

Randomly I posted a list of top rated tracks from my new iPod last night and the page has now been viewed by 27 people from all over the world. Odd. Probaly people trying to download stuff.

Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday

Planetary was a 27 issue comic book series by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday. It tells the story of Elijah Snow, a superhuman recruited to the mysterious Planetary organisation. The Planetary organisation are 'archaeologists of the unknown'. The 3 person Planetary team travel around the world to investigate unusual happenings.

Planetary is a great comic book. Warren Ellis is an excellent writer and John Cassaday produces wonderful cinematic art. Ellis has the Planetary team investigate various fantastical and supernatural incidents often involving literary characters like Sherlock Holmes or disguised versions of characters that are still under copyright. Ellis tops this off with scientific sounding jargon and strange theories about time travel. This is brilliant science fiction.

The entire series is available in two hardback Absolute volumes and four paperback volumes. Read it.

James Le Fanu - how the mighty have fallen

So, after being disappointed by 'why us?', a book that I took to be essentially hocus-pocus I learn that James Le Fanu has been supporting homeopathy.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tomchivers/100044706/a-response-to-dr-james-le-fanu-on-homeopathy/

I really loved 'the rise and fall of modern medicine' but I guess I just have to accept that he got lucky and generally he's a bit 'mystical'.

Bummer

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffitti live at Captain's Rest, Glasgow

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti are a legendary underground band that I first heard of two weeks ago. Weird that.

Ariel Pink have had great write ups for their latest album in the heavyweight music press. Apparently Ariel Pink (the singer) has been making music for the past 15 years and is a big influence on many of the present generation of American alternative bands. Some Ariel Pink material has been released on the Animal Collective Paw Tracks record label.

It's fairly easy to hear Ariel Pink music if you want to. Several songs are available on youtube and you can hear the new album on Spotify. The stuff has an interesting sound so I decided to check them out.

There were two support bands tonight. The first were called 'we were only afraid of NYC' and sounded a bit like snowplay or coldpatrol.

http://www.myspace.com/wereonlyafraidofnyc

The second band, Paws were much better although they were clearly indebted to Nirvana. They were loud and fairly interesting. I'd happily watch them again or give some of their recordings a listen.

http://www.myspace.com/pawspawspawspaws

By the time Ariel Pink took the stage the basement at The Captains Rest was stuffed. The heat was causing sweat to drip from the ceiling and people were packed in so tightly that I was almost forced into some unintended frottage. The errant band of misfits that make up the Haunted Graffitti band took the stage and after some careful soundchecking they exploded into some psychadelic '80s infused rock.

They were rather good. They played a lot of the newer songs as well as some less familiar material. The harmonies were tight and Ariel Pink has a great voice (even if he looks like he could do with a shower). We probably got about 60 minutes of music and the crowd was left wanting more. I'd watch them again.

THEM: adventures with extremists by Jon Ronson

I picked up THEM after enjoying another Ronson book, The men who stare at goats. THEM deals with different groups of extremists scattered around the world. Ronson met them between 1995 and 2001 while working on different journalist projects.

The various extremists sketched in the book are all very human and faintly ridiculous. Muslim extremists, racists and other militants all seem equally bizarre. A lot of these people seem to be a bit dim.

Sadly, dim people have strong beliefs and they end up killing other people. The book is entertaining but the universal paranoia and hate that it showcases provokes a sense of unease. Human nature is fairly unpleasant at times.

A good read.

Dark Side of the moon by The Flaming Lips (and friends)

I hate pink floyd. I've tried to like them and I just can't. Several years ago (maybe 10) I bought 'Dark side of the moon' but I jst don't like it for some ill-defined reason.

I like the Flaming Lips. I own most of their CDs and I've seen them live several times.

So, does the greatness of the Flaming Lips outweigh the shitness of Pink Floyd? Yes, thankfully. The Lips win out by bringing along Henry Rollins, Peaches and 'baby brother' band Stardeath and the White Dwarves for their version of 'dark side of the moon' which rocks. Freak out guitar, angry Rollins speak and distorted vocals mush together to eradicate the memory of a million 'hi-fideltiy' CD demonstrations using the Pink Floyd version. It's rather good, more than just a curiosity. I've been listening to it on spotify all week and I've listened to it twice since I picked it up in Monorail this morning.

The copy I picked up in Monorail is rather nice. It's on clear 'seafoam green' vinyl with a beautiful sleeve and comes with a free CD copy. An amazing artefact and sadly one of only 500 copies. A more available comercial release is coming out next month.