The Floating World: I Against I
So, here we are. I've finally got the free time and the energy to start this thing up, over two weeks from when I said it'd be happening soon. This comes as a surprise to very few, I'd guess.
As you can tell by the top of this page, I've picked the name for the replacement for WES. I first encountered the term "floating world" in the context of Ukiyo-e, a type of art that flourished during the Tokugawa period of Japan. I mostly picked it because this column will be, as mentioned, "floating", with updates when I feel like it. But if this isn't claiming too much, I'd also like to try and replicate one of the aspects of Ukiyo-e, the fact that "although Ukiyo-e was initially considered 'low' art, by and for the non-elite classes, its artistic and technical caliber is consistently remarkable". I'm not trying to write "technically" or in some fashion that'll bamboozle those who don't read and think about music as much as I do, but I'd like it to be good stuff nonethless. This aspect of the title is mentioned with tongue firmly in cheek though, as I think I'd be flattering myself if I achieved that sort of goal consistently.
Now, having said that, I'm going to proceed with the inaugural entry, which promptly dives into what may be for some of you hopelessly obscure territory. You can see why I say the name is more of a goal than a claim...
Oh, and a procedural note: I fully expect some/all of the few readers of this blog to not be interested at all in these entries, which is fine; but those who are going to actually read them really should get ahold of the song in question if at all possible first. Soulseek is a good place to start, and if you feel guilty about downloading music, you can always delete it later...
-----
"I Against I", a one-off collaraboration between Massive Attack and rapper Mos Def, was unfortunately part of the generally poorly executed Blade II soundtrack. A series of team-ups between big names in techno and rap, most of the songs are clearly the product of two acts wanting a nice paycheck. But for whatever reason (possibly Massive Attack's ludicrously high levels of quality control, which means that although Blue Lines and 100th Window sound like two different bands, they're both incredible), "I Against I" wound up being not only the highlight of the soundtrack but one of the very best latter-day Massive Attack tracks, worthy for inclusion on a best-of if one ever gets put together.
Although much of the verses suffer slightly from conforming pretty closely to the world of the movie, mostly they're just battle rhymes, Mos spitting out all sorts of doggerel to convince the other to back down. That, combined with 3D's (was Daddy G still involved at this point? If you have no idea what I'm on about, go have a quick look at their biography before continuing) spinning, darkly fuzzy soundscape could have resulted in a merely excellent track, the dry thumping drums and vaguely Joy Division-esque keyboard part meeting over the thick digital bassline.
But instead, due to the customary musical alchemy Massive Attack perform and some interesting lyrical tactics in the chorus, we get what could be (if necessary) the perfect soundtrack to long stretches of Grant Morrison's The Invisibles.
The musical aspect of this I can't really discuss, you really should just find the track; there are so many great bits, from the dry digitized drums that start the song to the way it's hard to tell whether the music was molded around the vocals or vice versa. Long story short, it is (as most good music is) more than the sum of it's parts.
And the chorus; well, first for those feeling flippant note how Mos Def doesn't just say "I against I", he repeats the first "I" and adds a bit more to it, so it sounds like "Ia", leading those of us who've read Lovecraft to thinking about the ol' "Ia Cthulhu Ia!" chant of various mad cultists. But that's an aside, it's the other stuff that's interesting:
Flesh of my flesh
Conventional enough, leading us to assume (separate from the movie, which is how you should be listening to "I Against I") that the narrator is referring to a relative or (pardon the pun) "blood brother". But then we have
And mind of my mind
Now this is new. If "flesh of my flesh" is usually someone of the same descent as you, what is this? Can people share mind the same way they do "flesh"? I don't want to get too much into this, just keep this line in mind.
Two of a kind but one won't survive
One interpretation of the "mind of my mind" line that occurred to me initially was that in fact there must only be one mind between the narrator and his opponent (which isn't exactly a happy thought either), but this seems to disavow that. Those who've read The Invisibles should be thinking at this point about the Christian fish symbol and Universes A and B (which, as those who've finished the series may remember, are two entry-points into the same universe).
My images reflect in the enemy's eye
And his images reflect in mine the same time
What Massive Attack, and specifically 3D, have specialized in at least since Mezzanine is a version of purely existential/metaphysical terror. Think of the creeping dread of the normal life in "Inertia Creeps", the dull fear of the night watchmen in "Group Four", the living nightmare that is much of 100th Window (and, importantly, remember the Horace Andy line from "Everywhen": You think you know / Everything / You think you know). "I Against I" is plowing a similar furrow here, but in this case it is the horror of, to paraphrase Walt Kelly, seeing the enemy and realising it is us. There are no sides, there is only Flesh of my flesh / Mind of my mind. The abyss gazes also, and etc.
It's not the Invisibles versus the Archons, it's that the Invisibles and the Archons are two aspects of the same thing (the realisation that the principle of individuation* is a falsehood) viewed from different cultural/psychological/emotional contexts. The harder Mos Def rails against the enemy in "I Against I" (the title, in addition to being a reference to the phrase "I and I", is completely deliberate; think for a second what it means to be I against I, and then consider whether "I" is a real thing anyway), the stronger the enemy gets, and in the chorus he admits this.
All of this is pretty far out for most people, and my apologies for same, but hopefully this is made up for by the fact that as well as "I Against I" works as an analogy exploring some relatively obscure truths, it's also (as mentioned) one hell of a song. Would that all lessons be so entertaining.
*The principle of individuation is the idea that we are separate from things around us, much as Cartesian duality attempts to hack mind and body apart into two separate substances. Both are, at least in my view (and Morrison's too, I'd wager large amounts of money), equally false.
As you can tell by the top of this page, I've picked the name for the replacement for WES. I first encountered the term "floating world" in the context of Ukiyo-e, a type of art that flourished during the Tokugawa period of Japan. I mostly picked it because this column will be, as mentioned, "floating", with updates when I feel like it. But if this isn't claiming too much, I'd also like to try and replicate one of the aspects of Ukiyo-e, the fact that "although Ukiyo-e was initially considered 'low' art, by and for the non-elite classes, its artistic and technical caliber is consistently remarkable". I'm not trying to write "technically" or in some fashion that'll bamboozle those who don't read and think about music as much as I do, but I'd like it to be good stuff nonethless. This aspect of the title is mentioned with tongue firmly in cheek though, as I think I'd be flattering myself if I achieved that sort of goal consistently.
Now, having said that, I'm going to proceed with the inaugural entry, which promptly dives into what may be for some of you hopelessly obscure territory. You can see why I say the name is more of a goal than a claim...
Oh, and a procedural note: I fully expect some/all of the few readers of this blog to not be interested at all in these entries, which is fine; but those who are going to actually read them really should get ahold of the song in question if at all possible first. Soulseek is a good place to start, and if you feel guilty about downloading music, you can always delete it later...
-----
"I Against I", a one-off collaraboration between Massive Attack and rapper Mos Def, was unfortunately part of the generally poorly executed Blade II soundtrack. A series of team-ups between big names in techno and rap, most of the songs are clearly the product of two acts wanting a nice paycheck. But for whatever reason (possibly Massive Attack's ludicrously high levels of quality control, which means that although Blue Lines and 100th Window sound like two different bands, they're both incredible), "I Against I" wound up being not only the highlight of the soundtrack but one of the very best latter-day Massive Attack tracks, worthy for inclusion on a best-of if one ever gets put together.
Although much of the verses suffer slightly from conforming pretty closely to the world of the movie, mostly they're just battle rhymes, Mos spitting out all sorts of doggerel to convince the other to back down. That, combined with 3D's (was Daddy G still involved at this point? If you have no idea what I'm on about, go have a quick look at their biography before continuing) spinning, darkly fuzzy soundscape could have resulted in a merely excellent track, the dry thumping drums and vaguely Joy Division-esque keyboard part meeting over the thick digital bassline.
But instead, due to the customary musical alchemy Massive Attack perform and some interesting lyrical tactics in the chorus, we get what could be (if necessary) the perfect soundtrack to long stretches of Grant Morrison's The Invisibles.
The musical aspect of this I can't really discuss, you really should just find the track; there are so many great bits, from the dry digitized drums that start the song to the way it's hard to tell whether the music was molded around the vocals or vice versa. Long story short, it is (as most good music is) more than the sum of it's parts.
And the chorus; well, first for those feeling flippant note how Mos Def doesn't just say "I against I", he repeats the first "I" and adds a bit more to it, so it sounds like "Ia", leading those of us who've read Lovecraft to thinking about the ol' "Ia Cthulhu Ia!" chant of various mad cultists. But that's an aside, it's the other stuff that's interesting:
Flesh of my flesh
Conventional enough, leading us to assume (separate from the movie, which is how you should be listening to "I Against I") that the narrator is referring to a relative or (pardon the pun) "blood brother". But then we have
And mind of my mind
Now this is new. If "flesh of my flesh" is usually someone of the same descent as you, what is this? Can people share mind the same way they do "flesh"? I don't want to get too much into this, just keep this line in mind.
Two of a kind but one won't survive
One interpretation of the "mind of my mind" line that occurred to me initially was that in fact there must only be one mind between the narrator and his opponent (which isn't exactly a happy thought either), but this seems to disavow that. Those who've read The Invisibles should be thinking at this point about the Christian fish symbol and Universes A and B (which, as those who've finished the series may remember, are two entry-points into the same universe).
My images reflect in the enemy's eye
And his images reflect in mine the same time
What Massive Attack, and specifically 3D, have specialized in at least since Mezzanine is a version of purely existential/metaphysical terror. Think of the creeping dread of the normal life in "Inertia Creeps", the dull fear of the night watchmen in "Group Four", the living nightmare that is much of 100th Window (and, importantly, remember the Horace Andy line from "Everywhen": You think you know / Everything / You think you know). "I Against I" is plowing a similar furrow here, but in this case it is the horror of, to paraphrase Walt Kelly, seeing the enemy and realising it is us. There are no sides, there is only Flesh of my flesh / Mind of my mind. The abyss gazes also, and etc.
It's not the Invisibles versus the Archons, it's that the Invisibles and the Archons are two aspects of the same thing (the realisation that the principle of individuation* is a falsehood) viewed from different cultural/psychological/emotional contexts. The harder Mos Def rails against the enemy in "I Against I" (the title, in addition to being a reference to the phrase "I and I", is completely deliberate; think for a second what it means to be I against I, and then consider whether "I" is a real thing anyway), the stronger the enemy gets, and in the chorus he admits this.
All of this is pretty far out for most people, and my apologies for same, but hopefully this is made up for by the fact that as well as "I Against I" works as an analogy exploring some relatively obscure truths, it's also (as mentioned) one hell of a song. Would that all lessons be so entertaining.
*The principle of individuation is the idea that we are separate from things around us, much as Cartesian duality attempts to hack mind and body apart into two separate substances. Both are, at least in my view (and Morrison's too, I'd wager large amounts of money), equally false.
