Novas 5.3: The Wire Full Of Light
Act 2: Games
09 Ann Steel and Roberto Cacciapaglia – Measurable Joys (1979, Italy/USA) SYSTEM
Tell me now, don't you think, artificial is great?
Don't you feel near to it, light, euphoric and bright?
Don't you agree that, it's like spray-air,
We can't do without its wonderful flair
While nature makes you feel sad?
Nature always leaves you that one only thought
There is something missing in its earthy taste
Tell me now don't you think, punk is just out of style?
Don't you feel it's as old as a medieval trunk
Don't you agree that this is just true,
Vain is rebellion and so stupid too?
Moans creak like broken TVs
Complaint and riots we should leave to cats
Check emotions output, bear an open grin
Joy is measurable, this is glad art
And emotions are distilled
Joy's measurable, this is glad art
Hide behind an open smile
Joy is measurable, this is glad art
And emotions are distilled
Joy is measurable, this is glad art
Hide behind an open smile
Tell me now, don't you think that precision is great?
The degree you should know of humidity flaw
Don't you ever measure intensity of light?
The Eiffel tower has a height you should know
Can't you tell volumes exact?
Don't you reckon the diametre of apples?
Don't you want to know the size of streaked bananas?
Tell me now, don't you think that technology's great?
Through feedback we control all our thoughts and actions Screens are alluring, like mermaid songs
Electronic beeps scan a graceful rhythm
Romantic poems just lack
Stained glass windows never glow as our TVs
Time and space are lovely and simultaneous
Joy is measurable, this is glad art
And emotions are distilled
Joy is measurable, this is glad art
Hide behind an open smile
Susan woke up in an unfamiliar bed, surrounded by technology. Not ours. She still didn’t know what that meant, but she knew it was true.
I think this one is the best, or at least the most approachable, track from the ridiculously influential Ann Steel album, and yet… it was very hard to find the right setting for it, being such a not… straightforward song. (I think anyone who thinks this song is praising technology is completely ignoring the bleak and cynical undertones in it. Much like OMD’s ‘Genetic Engineering’.) But I think as the voice of SYSTEM it works perfectly. Welcome to your perfect designer future!
10 Thompson Twins – Perfect Game (1981, England) JACK
Somebody's crying now, his head is full of pain
Taken to the building, where they're playing the perfect game
Perfect game
Perfect game
He's staring at the window to watch the falling rain
No matter how he sees it the view remains the same
Perfect game
Perfect game
They don't know what to call him
Doesn't have a name
But they still know how to force him
To keep playing the perfect game
A set of perfect criminals is hard to criticise
When you're watching the perfect crime through a pair of perfect eyes
Perfect eyes
Perfect eyes
Everybody else is simply wondering why we came
Maybe it's because we're all playing the perfect game
Perfect game
Perfect game
They don't know what to call us
Cause we don't have a name
But they still know how to force us
To keep playing the perfect game
So if you want to find out why you call someone insane
Just sit inside the building where they're playing the perfect game
Perfect game
Perfect game
They won't know what to call you
Cause you don't have a name
But they still know how to force you
To keep playing the perfect game
Perfect game
Perfect game
Perfect game
Perfect game
Astradyne had come for Jack, but he’d guessed wrong: they wanted to recruit him. And they had Arcadium to hold over him as leverage. Well, he’d been in worse positions.
At the Facility, though, he was startled to see just how advanced their neural interface technology was. They were literally playing a game with human lives. Each one a reprogrammable pawn.
Some of this had to be SKYWATCH technology. Was the missing girl, Susan, also among their assets?
11 Nine Circles – Twinkling Stars (1982, Netherlands) SUSAN
Twinkling stars far above me
prove me there must be more than this
Strength what is coming down
I feel and I just receive
We got the message from far away
This spirit I can feel close to the other world
But not far enough to reach
Twinkling stars far above me
prove me there must be more than this
There must be more than this
There must be more than this
In my dreams I reach to the other world
Clear erotic with a band of heroes
No one to say you are a zero
This spirit I can feel close to the other world
But not far enough to reach
Twinkling stars far above me
prove me there must be more than this
There must be more than this
There must be more than this
Somewhere
Between positron tomography sessions they let her take walks at night in the Facility’s garden. The night sky left a deep impression on Susan. Something was calling her.
What had happened to her, in those months she couldn’t remember?
What was happening to her now?
All of this was wrong.
Lydia Fiala’s story seems to be a symbol of the whole lost punk / New Wave era, and its ongoing rediscovery thanks to the Internet from around 2010 on. Such a strangely moving song, and I only know it thanks to Youtube.
12 The Warlord – The Ultimate Warlord (1978, England) THE ALIENS
I am the ultimate warlord
So kneel before my sword of light
I am the ultimate warlord
So burn or put your planet to right
People down on Earth
Don't you realise what your life is worth
I can see you clear
Time is growing short
I am getting near
I am the ultimate warlord
So kneel before my sword of light
I am the ultimate warlord
So burn or put your planet to right
Again came the nightmares. They weren’t getting better, they were only starting to fade.
The initial Warlord single – presumably triggered, like so much else in late 1970s pop culture, by post-Star Wars space fever, as well as the heating up of the Cold War. The Warlord was David Garrick from Uriah Heep and Peter Green from… I dunno.
13 Brain – D.I.X.O. (1982, France) SKYWATCH
All my life I've been alone
Plugged in like a telephone
Placed for safety on a shelf
They question me, "Well, can it help?"
No one talks, they come and go
It's like I wasn't there at all
Atomic chip, a programmed brain
Crying at this growing pain
Call me D - I - X - O
My name is D - I - X - O
Breakdown on one
The lighting is out
The temperature's rising
The program's in doubt
Nothing wrong, I'm not insane
Electric heart, electric brain
Please understand this programmed thing
Just like you I feel and think
Call me D - I - X - O
My name is D - I - X - O
Oh what a drag
Turn off the switch
The damn thing's not working
There's always a hitch
Breakdown on one
The lighting is out
The temperature's rising
The program's in doubt
All my life I've been alone
Plugged in like a telephone
Placed for safety on a shelf
They question me, "Well, can it help?"
No one talks, they come and go
It's like I wasn't there at all
Atomic chip, a programmed brain
Calling out this glorious name
Call me D - I - X - O
My name is D - I - X - O
Call out the boss
Short circuit on four
Machine's going crazy
Need help on this floor
Call me D - I - X - O
My name is D - I - X - O
There was something else in the system with her, Susan realised. There wasn’t just one…. there were two…
I know you, she whispered. And you know me.
but even as she thought it, the waves slipped away from her brain.
A weird French one-off dance band and yet somehow I managed to come across this in the 1980s and thought it was amazing. It is, actually.
14 The Seekers – When The Stars Begin To Fall (1963, Australia) SUSAN
My Lord, what a morning
My Lord, what a morning
My Lord, what a morning
When the stars begin to fall
My Lord, what a morning
My Lord, what a morning
My Lord, what a morning
When the stars begin to fall
You will weep for the rocks and mountains
You will weep for the rocks and mountains
You will weep for the rocks and mountains
When the stars begin to fall
My Lord, what a morning
My Lord, what a morning
My Lord, what a morning
When the stars begin to fall
You will hear the shout of victory
You will hear the shout of victory
You will hear the shout of victory
When the stars begin to fall
My Lord, what a morning
My Lord, what a morning
My Lord, what a morning
When the stars begin to fall
My Lord, what a morning
My Lord, what a morning
My Lord, what a morning
When the stars begin to fall
When the stars begin to fall
When the stars begin to fall
And there was more, she knew. Behind the nightmares. Things the System all around her couldn’t feel, couldn’t see.
Perhaps it would come back to her in time.
The obligatory 1960s anthem, this was on The Seekers’ first album. Why do I like it so much? I think just because of Judith Durham’s voice.
15 The Warlord – I Shall Return (1978, England) THE ALIENS
Humanoids of Earth
I shall return
Put your planet to right
Or you will burn
Humanoids of Earth
I shall return
Put your planet to right
Or you will burn
The nightmares had almost gone but they still made her shiver. Susan could only guess what the System made of them. Perhaps nothing.
Something told her to file that memory before it could be deleted. It told her how to do it, what the codes were. Lines of light and colour in the grid. It wasn’t hard.
She obeyed and immediately forgot.
The B-side of the Warlord single. Was it just cut for time, I guess?
16 Strange Advance – Till The Stars (1988, Canada) JACK
We'd sit and dream of other days
Before she took our breath away
With hope and faith and other lies
Winter called and summer cried
You came to me one starry night
Through the wire, full of light
With a thing called love, I'd searched in vain
And I'll never be the same again
Till the stars fall from the sky
I'll want you till I die
Baby's called a thousand names
Now I've got a heart in flames
Till the stars fall from the sky
I'll love you till I die
Baby's called a thousand names
Now I've got a heart in flames
In danceland our souls are ice
But in our minds it's paradise
We lost the world the other night
But we tried
Baby, lady, hold me
The message reads: enfold me
You make me strong when I am weak
But you, you don't save one dance, lady
Till the stars fall from the sky
I'll want you till I die
Baby's called a thousand names
Now I've got a heart in flames
Till the stars fall from the sky
Nothing's what it seems
I'll want you till I die
In post atomic dreams
Baby's called a thousand names
Now I've got a heart in flames
Now I've got a heart in flames
Till the stars fall from the sky
Till the stars fall
I'll want you till I die
I'll want you
Jack stared at the face in the Agent database for a long time.
It was definitely Susan.
He was going to get her out of there if he had to burn every last atom of Astradyne’s from the sky.
Strange Advance have had a bit of a revival in the last decade with ‘Worlds Away’ from 1982 seemingly being everywhere on US TV, but it’s the 1988 ‘The Distance Between’ album that really oozes cyberpunk for me.
End of Act 2