Novas 5.4: In The Land Of Angels
Act 2: Break
09 Mainframe – Machine Beside Machine (1983, England) JACK
From the random lines a room began to form
So much stranger than before
All around I saw machine beside machine
And I fear there could be more
Hold on, we must explain
Changes are all around
Hold on, this world's not true
Changes surrounding you
And in the silent room the air began to glow
Shadows cast a human form
Someone turned to me, someone called my name
And they told me I was wrong
Hold on, we must explain
Changes are all around
Hold on, this world's not true
Changes surrounding you
And all they whispered to me I could not believe
I had to shout to hold my course
The truth they talked about I could not receive
This must be a dream
Hold on, we must explain
Changes are all around
Hold on, this world's not true
Changes surrounding you
Susan and Jack both realise that they are living inside a computer simulation.
I finally get to use a track from Tenants of the Lattice-Work, the album that kind of underlies this whole thing.
10 Living Links – You And The Unknown (1983, USA) SUSAN
I didn't plant my feet on solid ground
Your body's here beside me but we're not really bound
As we search beyond all that we have found
Is the unknown
A living link has just intensified
I try to analyze is there something to guide
Is there anything that's as deep and wide
As the unknown?
When you look at me now tell me what do you think?
Will we climb to the top and then stop at the brink?
Cause we're not quite sure if we want to drink
Of the unknown
Oh I want to believe
That we can venture forth and still come back reprieved
To what we had before, I hope we're glad we've
Chosen the unknown
You and the unknown
You and the unknown
You and the unknown
You and the unknown
Something tentative is happening between Susan and Jack as they set out to explore the backstage of the System.
Living Links are one of those little duo bands that I love dearly. Deeply nerdy and aware of it (I’m Not Streetwise), too white to be proto-rap, too nice to be punk, not quite avant-garde enough to be Talking Heads or the Techno Twins. I miss when songs could have words and didn’t have to be about partying, you know?
11 Tandy Morgan – The Third Planet (1986, England) SKYWATCH
I come from the third planet, my sky is blue
All around is great confusion, I don't know what to do
My master knows no way of stopping all that is wrong
I work his maths, I do his shopping, I build his bombs
I come from the third planet, my sky is blue
All around is great confusion, I'm calling to you
If you can hear me oh please answer, vision or sound
Or stars that twinkle like the dancer on synthetic ground
I come from the third planet, my sky is blue
All around is great confusion, but what can I do
Should I speak in words of danger or should I watch
A traveller upon a station that can't get off
I come from the third planet, my sky is blue
All around me is confusion, I don't know what to do
Deep in the shadows of this lifetime I feel a glow
Maybe I'll find the thing that breathes me, maybe I'll know
Susan and Jack discover that one of the System’s AI subsystems has gained sentience and, following its original programming from the military UFO project, is trying to contact alien life.
I’ve had my eyes on this track from Earthrise for a while now.
12 Animotion – I Engineer (1986, USA) SUSAN and JACK
Don't count on me, I engineer
On every move we make from here
I'll take the lead, you take the pain
You see I engineer this game
Who do you think you fool when you talk about us
Why do you walk on glass when you know it cuts
There must be a reason why
you put my life in overdrive
I'm up to here with push and shove
From here on in I've had enough
Don't count on me, I engineer
On every move we make from here
I'll take the lead, you take the pain
You see I engineer this game
I'll leave it all behind in a cloud of dust
There's an even chance I'll shine or rust
On my own I've got the time
There's a light ahead at the end of the line
Seeing you leaves me no doubt
I'll take the wheel from here on out
Don't count on me, I engineer
On every move we make from here
I'll take the lead, you take the pain
You see I engineer this game
Susan and Jack recover their memories and each awakens to their real motivation: Jack, that he’s a security agent for the Company. Susan… that she is an original programmer for SYSTEM, who fled into the city underground after she discovered the Company’s wider plans for world domination and has been pursued by the SYSTEM AI ever since. (And has also been contacted by one of the aliens the rogue AI has been transmitting to). Shocked by this unexpected self-knowledge, they argue and fight, each trying to take control of the other.
13 Splash – Hypnotised (1982, England) SYSTEM
We can make you laugh
We can make you cry
All you do is what we tell you
You are hypnotised
We control the seas
We control the skies
You cannot escape our presence
You are hypnotised
Feel your body sway
Feel it melt away
Memories erased forever
Lost in time and space
SYSTEM automated AI routines discover Susan and Jack and begin erasing their memory.
I guess that’s Carol Stocker on vocals, from Manfred Mann’s Earth Band.
14 Argent – Be Free (1969, England) SKYWATCH
I said you'd be free, didn't I
I said you'd climb high, didn't I
I took you out to the sky
Told you one day you'd fly
You didn't believe me, did you then
You didn't look up, did you then
Didn't look to the sky
Didn't believe you'd fly
Didn't believe you'd fly
If you're gonna spread your wings
And hear the song that freedom sings
Remember that I told you to be free
If you're gonna sweep the sky
And feel the wind come rushing by
Remember that I told you to be free
Remember that I told you to be free
The rogue AI subsystem intervenes, trying to preserve Susan and Jack’s subconscious memories despite the memory wipe. It promises to help them escape in the future.
The obligatory 1960s anthem! Argent was Rod Argent and Russ Ballard, who together wrote ‘God Gave Rock And Roll To You’, later covered by both Kiss and the Christian band Petra. Russ Ballard features in Novas 5.1 ‘Voices’.
That album cover art, with what looks like an amber vector-graphics VDU character from a military computer system (whether it was intended to be or not), impressed me deeply when I first saw it sometime in the 1980s.
15 Aupheus – Stay With Me (1986, England) SYSTEM
Promise life some time to run
Today's the start
Live each day with locks and guns
Stay with me
No need to say goodbye
You leave, I see no reason why
Stand beside those who betray
true common sense
leaving one who never failed
Stay with me
No need to say goodbye
You leave, I see no reason why
Easy to be fooled with words
but words that trust
listen, look me in the eyes
Stay with me
No need to say goodbye
You leave, I see no reason why
Susan and Jack face off against SYSTEM, which is unsympathetic. They fight and nearly break free, but fail.
I’ve loved this song since I first saw it (early 1990s, I think, CD or cassette), but like ‘Measurable Joys’ it’s a difficult one to get a handle on as to whether the lyrics are sincere or ironic. Like Measurable Joys I think it works best as the voice of a deluded computer. It’s just so cinematic and bombastic that I see it as Boss Fight Music.
Aupheus is Mark Elvidge, who now has a career as a paranormal investigator.
16 Cassie – The Light Shines on (1984, England) SUSAN
Looking for a different type of living
Searching for the start of something new
Pristine that always ends up giving
Gotta do the things I gotta do
There's no need to worry if you find it's getting tough
before your life gets better you will
But the light's shining on
Life has just begun
Look before you run
Baby the light shines on
Shine on and on
Find I want to be more independent
Finally rebelled against the State
Realised there's more than I've been getting
Hope that I've not left it all too late
Ditched the boys who laughed at all the dreams that I had planned
Trapped by indecision I have finally made a stand
And the light's shining on
Life has just begun
Look before you run
Baby the light shines on
Shine on and on
And the light's shining on
Life has just begun
Look before you run
Baby the light shines on
Shine on and on
Baby the light shines on
Shine on and on
Baby the light shines oh-oh-oh-oh
Baby the light shines oh-oh-oh-oh
Baby the light shines on
Back under SYSTEM’s control, Susan is once again just a musician but now she feels a strange new sense of urgency and rebellion.
A local band from the Isle of Wight, apparently! How did I come across this in the early 1990s in New Zealand? Because I’m sure I did, on cassette. I recognise that cover image (oddly enough, the colour-shifted yellow and brown one, not the original magenta).
End of Act 2
Now play on: Novas 1, Novas 2, Novas 3
to be concluded in: Novas 5.5