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<\/a>Continued from yesterday<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nMcDonald\u2019s employees allegedly assaulted human cyborg Steve Mann in Paris, France on July 17, 2012. When this news item appeared in my Twitter feed, it marked the first time I had seen the word \u201ccyborg\u201d outside the realm of science fiction.<\/p>\n
Two weeks after this incident, singer-songwriter Derek Webb released his latest album, Ctrl<\/em>. In writing about the album on Twitter, Webb described it as an exploration of \u201cthe tenuous relationship between culture and technology.\u201d<\/p>\n When I read about Steve Mann, I pictured him as a freewheeling, Happy Meal-eating renegade of the human race\u2014one who lives at the topical intersection Webb describes as the heart of Ctrl<\/em>.<\/p>\n When I interviewed Webb about the record prior to his concert in Leawood, Kansas, I asked him about the origins of the album.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone is walking around staring into screens and bumping into each other like lemmings, and increasingly so,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I wanted to write about\u2014that condition, and that concern.\u201d<\/p>\n On his blog, he states the importance of \u201chaving meaningful conversations about placing guardrails around the technology in our lives.\u201d If we heed Webb\u2019s call and establish a modicum of self-control with our gadgets now, perhaps we will fare better in the future if cyborgs become as commonplace as smartphones.<\/p>\n Webb\u2019s Ctrl <\/em>LP follows on the heels of the Sola-Mi<\/em> EP, which was released a month prior to Mann\u2019s assault. The EP provided a first-person account of a machine named Sola-Mi attaining something like human consciousness.<\/p>\n Ctrl<\/em>\u2019s protagonist is the converse of Sola-Mi\u2014a man who attempts to realize his inmost fantasies through immersion in technology. He may not be a cyborg like Mann, but he may be less human than Sola-Mi.<\/p>\n \u201cHe falls in love with the reality of his subconscious dream life, and turns reluctantly to technology to try to have and inhabit and sustain that,\u201d Webb explains. \u201cIn doing so\u2014this is where it kind of turns into a magical situation with no scientific explanation\u2014he accomplishes it. But it\u2019s completely overwhelming, and it destroys him. At the end of song seven (\u2018I Feel Everything\u2019), he thinks he\u2019s dying in the virtual world. In song eight (\u2018Reanimate\u2019), he wakes up and can\u2019t believe he survived it, and he\u2019s grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI Feel Everything\u201d ends with the sound of a flatline on a heart monitor. The sound carries over into \u201cReanimate,\u201d and then the heartbeat begins anew, as if unseen defibrillation paddles have revived the album\u2019s dead dreamer.<\/p>\n Of all the sounds Webb uses on the album, however, the use of Sacred Harp music from previously existing recordings stands out the most. It opens the album, and breaks through elsewhere like sunlight through cloud cover, with voices as sharp as barbers\u2019 shears.<\/p>\n \u201cSacred Harp music may be the most primitive form of American folk music,\u201d Webb says. \u201cTo hear a hundred people of all ages singing at the very top of their lungs in four-part harmony with no other accompaniment is just a terrifying sound. I decided to combine that with the most modern techniques of sampling, editing, and programming in terms of drums.\u201d<\/p>\n The result is a strange synthesis of the organic and the technological, and what Webb describes as an intentional \u201cjuxtaposition of the ancient and the futuristic.\u201d<\/p>\n When I note that Sola-Mi<\/em> and Ctrl<\/em> both seem to focus on the spiritual chafing that results from humanity\u2019s increasing reliance on technology, Webb goes one step further.<\/p>\n \u201cThese records were crafted to connect,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you take the entire Sola-Mi<\/em> (EP) and drop it into the Ctrl<\/em> album between songs seven and eight, it\u2019s crafted to go seamlessly into it and back out again. If you listen, song seven on Ctrl<\/em> ends with a flatline. Sola-Mi<\/em> begins with a flatline. It also ends with a flatline. The beginning of song eight on Ctrl<\/em> picks that flatline up and continues.\u201d<\/p>\n Webb made this information public in a blog entry titled \u201cWhat is the Nexus: The Hidden Meaning Behind Ctrl<\/em>,\u201d including a screen capture that rightly removes the opening track (\u201cKeynote\u201d) from the Sola-Mi<\/em> EP in the playlist<\/a>. Song two (\u201cMother Mother\u201d) is where the flatline begins.<\/p>\n Of course, this new playlist configuration substantially alters the album\u2019s narrative.<\/p>\n \u201cThe male character on Ctrl <\/em>does not wake up,\u201d Webb says. \u201cHe\u2019s dead. But what he doesn\u2019t realize is, his actions have given way to something he doesn\u2019t totally understand. Sola-Mi basically comes in and picks up his life where he left off.\u201d<\/p>\n Situated in the context of Ctrl<\/em>, the Sola-Mi narrative resembles the story of Pinocchio. Sola-Mi is not satisfied with mere consciousness; she wants to be real. As the EP gives way to the remaining songs on Ctrl<\/em>, she becomes a living, breathing, organic being.<\/p>\n \u201cAll three of the last songs on Ctrl<\/em> have lyrics that mean two things,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you notice, Latifah Phillips\u2019s vocals double mine on those songs, too.\u201d Phillips, who fronts hymn revisionists-slash-revivalists Page CXVI, performs the part of Sola-Mi on the EP, so her presence on the last three songs on Ctrl <\/em>is a clever continuation of her narrative.<\/p>\n The song \u201cAround Every Corner\u201d closes Ctrl<\/em>, and offers the parting words, \u201cDon\u2019t you follow me.\u201d In the context of the Ctrl<\/em> album as a freestanding work, the words are cautionary. With Sola-Mi\u2019s narrative spliced into the story, the words are a plea for discretion.<\/p>\n \u201cSola-Mi is around every corner, saying \u2018I don\u2019t ever want to be found out,\u2019\u201d Webb explains. \u201c\u2018I\u2019m going to live this organic life. I don\u2019t know how this happened. I don\u2019t know how he was connected and dead and I was able to step in. But I\u2019m going to live this life.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n While neither Ctrl<\/em>\u2019s character nor Sola-Mi wish to be followed, Mr. Webb does. Follow him on Twitter (@derekwebb), and experience his constructive disruption firsthand.<\/p>\n Continuing the gift of free music:<\/p>\n Download<\/a> the acoustic version of Ctrl<\/em> at NoiseTrade.com.<\/p>\n Page CXVI, which opened for Webb, is offering its nine-song \u201cB-Sides\u201d collection<\/a>. The band\u2019s name is a reference to page 116 of C. S. Lewis\u2019s The Magician\u2019s Nephew<\/em>. Read more about its meaning via the above link.<\/p>\n \u201cGood Letters\u201d blogger Chad Thomas Johnston\u2019s ten-song 2004 Christmas album<\/a>, All is Calm, All is Bright<\/em>, is available via SoundCloud. The expanded, remastered reissue of the album, Stalking Stuffers: Coal for the Stocking in Your Soul<\/em><\/a>, is available at NoiseTrade.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Continued from yesterday.\u00a0 McDonald\u2019s employees allegedly assaulted human cyborg Steve Mann in Paris, France on July 17, 2012. When this news item appeared in my Twitter feed, it marked the first time I had seen the word \u201ccyborg\u201d outside the realm of science fiction. Two weeks after this incident, singer-songwriter Derek Webb released his latest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1054,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[223,221,3577,224],"class_list":["post-2003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chad-thomas-johnston","tag-ctrl","tag-derek-webb","tag-music","tag-steve-mann"],"yoast_head":"\n