Baby Got an Atom Bomb

Baby got a satellite
Baby got second sight
Baby got a masterplan
A foolproof master plan

Baby got purple hair
Baby got a secret lair
Baby got an army there
I ain't ever seen baby scared

I loved the idea that my re-introduction to techno was going to come from the soundtrack of a video game. I don't really like or play video games, but back in 1996 or 1997 I purchased the soundtrack to Wipeout XL, a record that introduced me to The Future Sound of London, Fluke, Prodigy, and Daft Punk. I already knew The Chemical Brothers, Oribtal, and The Prodigy.

Tonight while out exercising I dialed up "Atom Bomb" from the record Risotto by Fluke. I love that record--got it soon afterward in 1997. Listening to the whole thing now--a rare thing for an electronica record. This one hangs together like 1980's Computer World, which is one of the best records ever, and probably the most important electronic record of all time (in a possible tie with 1968's Switched-On Bach).

Back to Wipeout XL--the Daft Punk track on this thing is great. It's a remix from Homework called "Musique." Lots of low-fi beats and distortion. Thinking of this CD reminds me of a Chemical Bros. CD single I bought of Block Rockin' Beats, which reminds me of this great passage by Nick Hornby from his great little Songbook.

The thing I like most about rediscovering Led Zeppelin--and listening to the Chemical Brothers and The Bends--is that they can no longer be comfortably accommodated into my life. So much of what you consume when you get older is about accommodation: I have kids, and neighbours, and a partner who could quite happily never hear another blues-metal riff or a block-rockin' beat in her life. I have less time, less tolerance for bullshit, more interest in good taste, more confidence in my own judgement. The culture with which I surround myself is a reflection of my personality and the circumstances of my life, which is in part how it should be. In learning to do that, however, things get lost, too, and one of the things that got lost - along with a taste for, I don't know, hospital dramas involving sick children, and experimental films, was Jimmy Page. The noise he makes is not who I am any more, but it's still a noise worth listening to; it's also a reminder that the attempt to grow up smart comes at a cost.

Man, that guy can write! I don't feel the way he does, though. First off, I was never hip enough to have my favorite music be "accomodated into my life" ever. For example, all this cool electronica I am waxing nostalgic over is part of some rave/drug culture scene that I would never be accepted into, no matter how many glowsticks and pacifiers I hung around my neck. Same goes for all the jazz, African, punk, classical, old time, whatever... with the possible exception of the old-time. I actually got into an old-time scene for quite a while, a scene that by it's nature is full of misfits.