Serving as the album's opener, GRANDPRIX unfurls as a lush chordal landscape, twinkling with uplifted, shimmering chords, floating above the mountainous sunrise like clouds, the air filling your nostrils, healing your lungs, enriching your capillaries with petrichor and the faint aroma of gasoline. The distant city's skyline becomes less and less far as you float above the uninhabited mountain range, approaching new adventures as the day breaks. You abruptly exit the clinical blue glaze of a late night SoundCloud session and gracefully return to your home among the grapefruit and cherry blossom sunset within the sky.
The second track of SDD2012, APATHI, has you exiting your headphones and computer screen, as you are filled with... apathy. Shaking off the dust of the external, the internal haze persists. The anxieties of the day are made aware as you get up for work, you forget to brush your teeth, you neglect your shower. Haste and anxiety swirl as you gather your bus pass, your wallet, your bright pocket rectangle. It is time, again, to begin the other day. Taking a deep breath, you center yourself before opening the door, unaware that you are fully prepared.
The third track of SDD2012, CHEWTOY, is the song you have stuck in your head at work. As you sit down at your sanctioned battlestation, you internally exit again into your world of dance music made for clubs. You picture the passion exuding from the hand sign you saw in a dramatically well-lit photo or video of people having more fun than you are right now. You almost miss the drop when your superior asks how your day is going. Damn these epic wubs are epic win my good friend.
The fourth track of SDD2012, VIGILANTE, is a realization. As you continue to listen to EDM on your Bluetooth headphones, you are filled with a sense of urgency and directionless energy. A passionate cause for which you know not the origin of, but fully support with all your being. Your mind filled with profound poetry, you slowly, fearfully, courageously stand up on your chair, then your desk, then your cubicle wall, balanced like the forces that constantly battle to keep this world intact. You raise your fist, you look around, your glasses falling off your face, and with a refusal to articulate your emotions, and a decided scream of LONG LIVE THE FREEDOM REVOLUTION (your favorite quote from Akira) you are escorted out, efficiently and forcefully, by a rotund security guard, whose round, comfortable gut is juxtaposed only by his sheer strength and solidity of muscle.
The fifth track of SDD2012, DAMAGE, begins with just that, some mild knee damage. As the rest of you hits the pavement, accidentally waving the security guard goodbye, your heart rate quickens with his apologetic yet deeply romantic wink. With a slam of the steel-plated doors, you scream a "FUCK YOU" to your manufactured boss, taking care not to let the bubble letters hit the security guard on the way up the elevator shaft. You realize you left your bus pass in the office. You also had your entry card confiscated as well, leaving no immediate means of transportation. You begin to run without hesitation, because luckily, you remembered to bring your Zero Impact Fall Damage Neutralizer Shoes which allow you to run at extremely high speeds for an extremely long time. As you run, you realize that today is Friday--AI Sentience Monster Evasion Drill Day--And you have been targeted. Hope you were as prepared as you are legally encouraged to be. With your breath of internal calm, you return to your vision of grapefruit-and-mango-flavored skies, more than prepared to deal with what's ahead.
More than prepared for what's ahead, you stride right into track 6 of SDD2012, BADINX. Subtly reminded of your travels and adventures controlling a pixelated blue hedgehog, you are astonished by the level of detail contained in this AI-generated malefactor. Glistening with chrome and tarnish, the sweltering heat radiating from the maw of the creature almost causes you to complain--but you came prepared. It's funny, you pass the realization that there is not less danger in the planned drill than there is in the real event of an AI machining takeover every day, but you never seem to fully realize it until it's actually there. It's just one of those things I guess. Anyway you fight the monster and win or destroy it or whatever.
Marc Mac, of 4Hero, uses vintage gear to conjure up irresistible, futuristic, jazz n'boogie flavored electronic music. Bandcamp New & Notable May 3, 2013
Stain, from New Delhi, combines regional melodies with jumpy drum & bass rhythms on an EP that confounds & inspires. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 12, 2020
Created in Goa, India, without the benefit of a studio, “Serpentine” is an adrenaline shot to the heart—relentlessly joyous dance music. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 12, 2022