Cyberpunk & Riddim

In September 2006, I managed to read William Gibson's Neuromancer (thanks to Mridul). A down right propah cyberpunk novel. I usually can't read cyberpunk novels because cutting through all the technobabble is tedious. Neuromancer is supposed to be the grand daddy of cyberpunk, written in 1984 and Its influence on movies, books, comics and video games cannot be overlooked today. The novel is about a bionic cracker who is on a contract to infiltrate some top security organization and in the process steal some important data. At least that is what the book was to me. The cracker has a super-sexy-martial-arts-expert for a bodyguard. In the end the nature of the object of their goal is something that came as a surprise to me. Read and experience it for yourself.

The density of technobabble was just right for me. Gibson does a commendable job of visualizing future technology. Something along the lines of Virtual reality meets Darwinia and the visualizer in your media player. -100 points if you are a fan of VRML. In the novel our cracker has to collaborate with a bunch of Rastafarians residing on a space station called Zion. This bit was the coolest thing to happen to sci-fi in years. Imagine a culture spaced out on marijuana living in space! As I read, I could imagine myself floating about this space station with blocked ears listening to dull throbbing of Dub music. Riddim fueled mellowness.

Which brings me to my most recent discovery, an album by Easy Star All-stars titled Dub Side of the Moon. I'm convinced that this album is nothing but a soundtrack to Neuromancer. This album is a dub version of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon album. What-ifs like what if Pink Floyd was a roots reggae outfit get answered on this album. No shrieking in Patois like in todays dancehall numbers, just beautiful vocals in English (except for one track). The first track starts of with sounds of bubbling bongs, tchk sounds of a lighter and coughs. The ringing counter part on Pink Floyd's album starts with heart beats, ticking clocks and ringing cash registers. The reverb, echo and other feedback effects are not overdone. This dub album is not too abstract and sounds more like a reggae-fied cover of Pink Floyd than a pucca dub album.