What There Is
“Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller what there is.” ― William S. Burroughs**
Artist: Homeostasis Release: 2011 File under: psychedelic, electronic, synthpop, electro-industrial
What There Is is a product of a time both terrible and beautiful. In 2010, then in my early thirties, I had recently experienced the complete collapse of most aspects of my life up to that point – a 15-year relationship had unexpectedly ended, the bookshop where I had done part-time work had closed it's doors and I had become homeless. This, all within the space of six months. So, it was a pretty dark time to say the least.
On the other hand, I had spent the past ten years increasingly developing a world-view that was extremely anti-capitalist and anti-corporate, so this was the opportunity that I was craving to try a social experiment that I had long thought over. What if one were to live without money? Or at least, how far could one divorce oneself from the capitalist system? I had no illusions that one could be completely free of the financial system, at the very least money-adjacent so to speak, but it was a very illuminating experiment to see exactly how far the tendrils of Control / Social Management / The Machine had worked their way into Western life. I'd like to write in more depth about this at another point – I compiled the initial makings of a book about my experiences at the time ... but back to What There Is.
At the time of The Great Collapse, Daevid Allen (the musician and poet – you know, of Gong, Soft Machine and so on) emailed me saying I must come and stay with him immediately. Ostensibly, I came down from Brisbane to Daevid's place near the beach at New Brighton, north of Byron Bay, “for the weekend” – a weekend that lasted more than fifteen years, since I never left the Northern Rivers.
Almost immediately after arriving I started cooking up the idea of a Record Label with Daevid's son Orlando, one of the initial releases was to be What There Is, the material for which cam from a combination of tracks that were in progress when I shut up the studio in Brisbane, and new material that was flowering from the new friendships and deepening of others, as well as just by osmosis from hanging out with amazing musicians and artists.
So! What There Is really is an album of light and shade. Yes, there is quite a bit of depression and anger, but there is equally a great deal of love and a sense of resolution. Musically, I feel that it was really where Homeostasis really found it's feet as a musical project – while I like quite a bit of the previous material released under the name, I'm equally embarrassed by the haphazard production values, and er “first thought best thought” philosophy. I think the production techniques for WTI finally caught up to my album-writing ambitions on this album.
I began a follow-up album to WTI soon after it's release – entitled Black Sun – this one a concept album about mental illness – a really light-hearted bubbly album as you'd imagine – which was more or less completed but never released due to ... well that's a story for a late time. I plan to release it soon, though, as it's now part of a trilogy. But enough about that.
So there you go, a little backstory about the album. Check it out, I think it's got some pretty good songs on it.
You can check out and grab the album for “pay what you want” (including free) from Tryptophonic Records, or you can get a copy from Mirlo.
Done! Thirty songs hath Synthtember. Behold the behemoth.
More heat, more smoke, just more – as I stagger to the finish line tomorrow. Another 2am special, with all the wobbly bits that that entails.
Hot and bothered. Urg.
Hot, dry and smoky, echoes of the 2019 bushfire season.
Out the other side of the tunnel vision, and PS Bang the stones together, guys. Another 3am special aka more clangers than a Postgate and Firmin production.
Lurgy leapfrog and a day in the kitchen. Nothing more, nothing less.
Medicated post-flu sinus bounce-back doldrums. Chicken soup.
Not quite as recovered as I'd hoped and hoping it's just a blip on the blop. Ear blocked so who knows how this actually sounds In Reality?
Large doses of ginger, garlic, turmeric and horizontal later, and I'm back on my feet (in a somewhat woozy manner of speaking). Turning The Table.