(previously in release time: Novas 0.02, last module of Program Eleven/II) (but years in the past in story time)
(previously in story time: Novas 2.2)
The story was over, but the music wasn’t done yet.
Novas is built out of “modules” (concept playlists) which group together into natural sets I’m going to call “programs”. To recap, the programs so far have been:
Program Zero: Novas 0, the Overture (Tomorrow)
Program One: Novas 1 (Radiant Energy)
Program Two: Novas 2 (Solid State Revolution
Program Three: Novas 3 (Harmony Of The Spheres)
I think of these as the ‘movies’. They’re the base story, with a cinematic widescreen kind of feel. They go in chronological sequence from 1982 through 1986, and they tell a continued story with a different musical and thematic feel and ‘location’ for each one. I started to feel by the end of One that there were two main characters evident, a ‘Singer’ and a ‘Soldier’.
Program Four: Novas 4.x
These are four pieces of ‘incidental music’, two of which are set inside the universe of Novas and two outside as ‘dream sequences’. I found a place for them all inside the main timeline, before Novas 1.
Program Five: Novas 5.x
This is where it started to get complicated. Five began as a meditation on weird uses of the James Bond theme I’d discovered – from “James and the Cold Gun” to “Shadows of the Night” to “Ashes Are Burning”, turned into the characters of ‘Gloria’ and ‘the Agent’, who I eventually discovered were previous incarnations of the Singer and the Soldier, and eventually got the names of ‘Susan’ and ‘Jack’… and from there the Five project followed that direction into establishing a backstory for Susan/Gloria and how she and Jack ended up inside a computer simulation in the first place. Five ended by taking the story into the future past Susan’s transcendence at the end of Three, because all that backstory felt like it needed a conclusion.
I eventually decided that 5.1 was really telling the story of Susan’s confrontation with Jack just before the start of Three. 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4 then can be thought of as the flashbacks that Susan is telling Jack to try to wake him out of SYSTEM’s grip.
Program Six: Novas 6
Six just sort of slipped out as a riff on that strange sideways beat of ‘Solsbury Hill’, and ended up becoming something I knew was very different, and eventually decided was an alternate timeline. The music mostly wanted to be about that decade shift into of the 1990s and its Millennium fixation, the imagery was Afro-Futurist/Celtic/Chinese with ecological rather than machine overtones, and eventually (much later) it seemed to fit that the main conflict in this universe was the absence of Susan’s father (a shadowy figure who kind of symbolises the 1980s in all its dark and light sides).
Program Eleven Part One: Novas 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6
At this point I had a complete story. But as “Shadows of the Night” had pulled me into Five, I found myself pulled back into spy music. This time it was the idea of a musical palindrome that drew me, because I’d found odd pairs of songs that seemed to match up. Stranger Things Season 3 reminded me of “ROCK in the USA” and how I’d always thought that should match with “Back in the USSR”; Animotion’s “Strange Behaviour” had a riff that exactly matched “Goodnight Moon”; and “Dance Dance Dance” seemed to echo “Squares And Triangles”. Add “Leipzig” as the pivot and there seemed to be something exciting there about inversions and parallelism and digital spy games. And this became “The Clouds Run Parallel”. Naturally it needed a Cold War setting and there was Susan’s “Gloria” phase right there as a location… and this could serve as Jack and Susan’s real first meeting.
So why is it Program Eleven rather than Program Seven? Well, because the internal series code is 11, I found I needed exactly 11 songs to make it work, and then I discovered it was a the 50 year anniversary of Apollo 11. And it’s set before One, chronologically, so the “Novas” number of each module is no longer linked to a chronological sequence. So Eleven it is.
The Eleven project developed into what I think of as a “TV series” compared to the “movies” of One through Six. Shorter episodes, weaving in and out of the movie storyline, and focusing more on the characters and relationship between Jack and Susan.
Program Eleven Part Two: Novas 1.1, 2.2, 3.3, 0.01, 0.02
I’d thought of Eleven as being set ‘inside the Simulation’ and that’s how it’s designed. But again, after completing the first six parts, I found another song drawing me back. This time, it was discovering the Spoons movie “Listen To The City” and the song “Sundown” in the haunting early months of 2020 when COVID was creeping over China. And the idea grew that here was a story to expand on that awkward transition between One and Two, to try to develop more what’s happening in the “Real World” of 1982 vs the Simulation of 1982, and why Jack and Susan appear to be separated at the start of Two.
Eleven Part Two has three linking modules, and two prequels (which I think of as “young adult novels”) about Susan’s early life and the crises that bring her to where she is as “Gloria” in 5.2.
Program Twelve: Novas 2.8, 2.8, 2.9, 3.4, 3.9, 6.6
And so that was eleven modules for Eleven and I thought I was done there. But again, the music wasn’t.
It began with “Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)” and then “Computer Age” and I found my thoughts circling back to Susan and her climactic battle in space against SYSTEM to free Jack, which didn’t seem to have quite resolved climactically enough ‘on-camera’.
So here’s Program Twelve which is kind of a ‘remaster’ of that period between the ‘movies’ of Two and Three (and later, after Three). It’s still all in the same continuity… but like Eleven, it’s an expansion of that story.
BEGIN PROGRAM TWELVE MODULE ONE.
Her name is Debbie, or Cathy, or Sue…
Novas 2.7: In Tapes We Leave Behind
01 IBM 7094 -Daisy Bell (1961, USA) JACK/SYSTEM
Daisy, Daisy Give me your answer do I'm half crazy All for the love of you It won't be a stylish marriage I can't afford a carriage But you'll look sweet Upon the seat Of a bicycle built for two
Jack/SYSTEM runs the corporate Satellite.
The original reference for the infamous “Daisy, Daisy” scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey was this 1961 experiment in software voice and music synthesis at Bell Labs, Murray Hill, New Jersey. Programmed by John L Kelly Jr, Carol Lockbaum, and Max Matthews.
02 Sweet Comfort Band – Computer Age (1984, USA) SUSAN OF 1978/SKYWATCH
She does aerobics to start the day But you can find her playing video games On her home computer screen She's the best you've ever seen She keeps appointments, she's never late Only goes out on computer dates Made on answering machines She's the all-American teen She's growing up In the computer age Her mind's in gear Her heart's been disengaged The future's clear It's all been prearranged She's growing up In the computer age She's a product of society Completely lacking personality She was brought into the world As a test-tube baby girl Her name is Debbie, or Cathy, or Sue Maybe you know her, or maybe she's you She's become like all the rest Who've been programmed for success She's growing up In the computer age Her mind's in gear Her heart's been disengaged The future's clear It's all been prearranged She's growing up In the computer age Hey hey She's got American Bandstand To show her how to dance She's got the cable movies To tell her about romance But she won't dream of Mr Right Electric blankets keep her warm tonight She's growing up In the computer age Her mind's in gear Her heart's been disengaged The future's clear It's all been prearranged She's growing up In the computer age Hey hey Growing up Growing up She's got an IBM That's the apple of her eye She doesn't think for herself Leads an automated life Growing up
Susan remembers her childhood at SKYWATCH / the Center for Scientific Progress...
Fear over the potential dehumanising effect of computers and in-vitro fertilization on young people was a typical mainstream sentiment in the early 1980s, although it’s funny now to think that the expected outcome of mass computer adoption was an excess of unemotional order and efficiency rather than chaos.
Also amusing to see a 1980s Christian rock band worrying that American teenagers were not getting enough romantic relationships in their lives.
03 Pat Benatar – Pictures of a Gone World / Everybody Lay Down (1993, USA) SUSAN OF 1986
Everybody go round go round go round Everybody lay down lay down lay down Don't nobody make a sound Everybody lay down Everybody give up give up give up Nobody hang tough hang tough hang though Life a little too rough Everybody lay down Everybody say hey Don't nobody say no Everybody say wait Don't nobody say go Everybody lay down Everybody cry loud cry loud cry loud Nobody too proud too proud too proud To tell you what they're all about Everybody lay down Everybody don't care don't care don't care Nobody play fair play fair play fair Maybe everybody too scared Everybody lay down Everybody say hey Don't nobody say no Everybody say wait Don't nobody say go Everybody lay down Yeah Everybody soaring higher Everybody wanna touch the fire Nobody willing To lay it all down Everybody want Heaven Everybody say Amen One thing is certain You gotta lay it all down Everybody say hey Don't nobody say no Everybody say wait Don't nobody say go Everybody lay down Huh Everybody go round go round go round Everybody lay down lay down lay down Don't nobody make a sound Everybody lay down Everybody give up give up give up Nobody hang tough hang tough hang though Maybe just a little rough Everybody lay down Everybody say hey Don't nobody say no Everybody say wait Don't nobody say go Everybody lay down Everybody say hey Don't nobody say no Everybody say wait Don't nobody say go Everybody lay down
… but those days were long ago, now. Two secret corporate wars, a hundred virtual lives, a shattered love and a (failed?) revolution ago.
Susan on the inter-orbital shuttle, rising to the Satellite.
Pat Benatar (here in her brief 1993 cyberpunk phase) seems to have become a bit of a motif for the Susan-and-Jack-on-the-Satellite subplot. I’ll allow it.
Benatar trilogy: We Belong (2.2), Everybody Lay Down (2.7), Shadows Of The Night (5.1)
04 Telex – Soul Waves (1980, Belgium) JACK/SYSTEM
Got you talking on my mind Seems I can't forget you There's always something which reminds Though I tore your picture Suddenly flashback Maddening feedback I feel a backlash I need a brainwash Soul waves Soul waves (stop sending me) Soul waves Soul waves Got you talking on my head You're a nasty habit Every little thing you said I wish I could wipe it Suddenly flashback Maddening feedback I feel a backlash I need a brainwash Soul waves Soul waves (stop sending me) Soul waves Soul waves Got you talking on my brain Really blowing it out And just like this smash hit refrain Played me up and played out Suddenly flashback Maddening feedback I feel a backlash I need a brainwash Soul waves Soul waves (stop sending me) Soul waves Soul waves Soul waves Soul waves (stop sending me) Soul waves Soul waves
Jack/SYSTEM is receiving Susan’s transmissions.
Been trying to work in some Telex for a long time now, ever since their cover of “My Time” led me to rediscover Ann Steel.
05 Annie Herring – Here On This Sphere (1989, USA) SUSAN
Here On this wheel of a sphere Looking upward we gaze As the beauty amazes the mind There's not one of a kind Not a mark is the same And they each have a name Giving light All through the night Giving sight Of constant flight Here beneath the stars Beneath the moon Under the sun Everybody wants a pot of gold They're searching Everybody wants the streets of gold Right now Beauty is in the beholder's eyes They're saying Where's the maker of the universe? Where's my star? My star? Here In the dance of the skies Twirling planets arise Making music that flies without sound Barely touching the ground Living silence resounds Bringing to the earthbound Living light All through the night Giving sight Of constant flight Here Beneath the stars Beneath the moon Under the sun Everybody wants a pot of gold They're searching Everybody wants the streets of gold Right now Beauty is in the beholder's eyes They're saying Where's the maker of the universe? Where's my star? My star? Everyone knows there comes A time to laugh A time to cry Everyone knows the seasons change I'm chipping away the stones At the heart I will start Starting by turning around the corner And I won't look back I won't look back Morning scenes Around the bend It's not an end But a new start I won't look back
Susan feels oddly at home in space.
06 Sky – Vivaldi (1980, England/Australia)
Instrumental
Docking sequence.
07 Neon – Communication Without Sound (1981, England) JACK/SYSTEM
Turn off your radio Come paint your pictures in my mind Don't talk the night away You know I ain't the talking kind I don't want long discussions right into the night I don't want words We ain't got time to play around I don't want words Communication without sound Communication without sound Communication without sound Don't pass the time away Explaining all the lives you lead Speak only with your eyes Just visualise Cause there is nothing more you need I don't want long discussions right into the night I don't want words We ain't got time to play around I don't want words Communication without sound Communication without sound Communication without sound I don't want words We ain't got time to play around I don't want words Communication without sound Communication without sound Communication Communication without sound
Jack/SYSTEM wants (does not want) a chat.
Members of the British band Neon went on to (separately) form Naked Eyes and Tears For Fears. As near as I can figure, this is the Neon version of this song, though it’s labelled as Naked Eyes.
“don’t pass the time away explaining all the lives you lead” she’s going to, though
(Novas is constructed out of pluggable modules so you can listen in episodes and switch up the listening order. You can consider 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4 to be part of Susan’s confrontation with Jack, as she reactivates his memories of their past history. They were written in this order as flashbacks and flow naturally. Or you can switch 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4 into the previous timeline of 1984, 1980 and 1981. Either way, the end of 5.1 or the end of 5.4 should flow into 2.8.)
08 Melanie – Lay Down (Candles In The Rain) (1970, USA) SUSAN
Lay down, lay down Lay it all down Let your white bird smile up At the ones who stand and frown Lay down, lay down Lay it all down Let your white bird smile up At the ones who stand and frown We were too close, there was no room We bled inside each other's wounds We all had caught the same disease And we all sang the songs of peace Lay down, lay down Lay it all down Let your white bird smile up At the ones who stand and frown Lay down, lay down Lay it all down Let your white bird smile up At the ones who stand and frown So raise the candles high Cause if you don't we could stay black against the night Raise them brighter again And if you do we could stay dry against the rain Lay down, lay down Lay it all down Let your white bird smile up At the ones who stand and frown Lay down, lay down Lay it all down Let your white bird smile up At the ones who stand and frown We were too close, there was no room We bled inside each other's wounds We all had caught the same disease And we all sang the songs of peace Some came to sing Some came to pray Some came to keep The dark away So raise the candles high Cause if you don't we could stay black against the night Raise them higher again And if you do we could stay dry against the rain Lay down, lay down Lay it all down Let your white bird smile up At the ones who stand and frown You gotta Lay down, lay down Lay it all down Let your white bird smile up At the ones who stand and frown You gotta Lay down, lay down Lay it all down Let your white bird smile up At the ones who stand and frown
Susan prepares to enter SYSTEM’s cyberspace, as events continue to spiral back on Earth.
Melanie Safka recorded this song about her experiences at Woodstock with the Edwin Hawkins Singers, who had just scored a massive funk-gospel hit with “Oh Happy Day” (1968).
I stumbled on this song and it began circulating in my head about a day after the death of George Floyd, but before I had heard any news of the resulting protests. I wondered what it meant.
09 Ultravox – All Stood Still (1981, England) JACK/SYSTEM
The lights went out (the last fuse blew) The clocks all stopped (it can't be true) The program's wrong (what can we do) The printout's blocked (it relied on you) The turbines cracked up The buildings froze up The system choked up What can we do? Please remember to mention me In tapes you leave behind We stood still We all stood still Still stood still We're standing still The screens shut down (there's no reply) The lifts all fall (a siren cries) And the radar fades (a pilot sighs) As the countdowns stall (the readout lies) The turbines cracked up The buildings froze up The system choked up What can we do? Please remember to mention me In tapes you leave behind We stood still We all stood still Still stood still We're standing still The black box failed (the codes got crossed) And the jails decayed (the keys got lossed) Everyone kissed (we breathe exhaust) In the new arcade (of the holocaust) The turbines cracked up The buildings froze up The system choked up What can we do? Please remember to mention me In tapes you might leave behind We stood still We all stood still Still stood still We're standing still We stood still We all stood still Still stood still We're standing still
Susan has SYSTEM’s full attention.
10 Thomas Rhett – Be A Light (2020, USA) JACK (A MEMORY)
In a time full of war, be peace In a time full of doubt, just believe Yeah there ain't that much difference between you and me In a time full of war, be peace In a world full of hate, be a light When you do somebody wrong, make it right Don't hide in the dark You were born to shine In a world full of hate, be a light In a place that needs a change, make a difference In a time full of noise, just listen Cause life is but a breeze, better live it In a place that needs a change, make a difference In a world full of hate, be a light When you do somebody wrong, make it right Don't hide in the dark You were born to shine In a world full of hate, be a light In a race that you can't win, slow it down Yeah you only get one go round Cause the finish line is six feet in the ground In a race that you can't win just slow it down In a world full of hate, be a light When you do somebody wrong, make it right Don't hide in the dark You were born to shine In a world full of hate, be a light Yeah it's hard to live in color When you just see black and white In a world full of hate, be a light
Connection established to holographic core. Lights, camera, action.