Nineteen Ninety Never

In the comment section of io9 a few months ago, someone suggested that t-shirts be made depicting a quote attributed to George Orwell:

“Back in the 1900s, it was a wonderful experience for a boy to discover H.G. Wells. There you were, in a world of pedants, clergymen and golfers…and here was this wonderful man who could tell you about the inhabitants of the sea, and who knew that the future was not going to be what respectable people imagined.“

Its a wonderful quote, and I completely agree with the commenter that shirts should be made, so I’m offering my design above, paraphrased from that quote (clicking on the image will give you the layered, PSD file should you wish to use it - I can’t remember where I got the template).

I’m certainly not a graphic designer, so if you make your own version, let me know in the comments or via email. It’ll probably be better than what I’ve come up with.

Keep the sci-fi dream alive, my friends…and while you’re at it, grok these future tracks:

Cut Copy - Future

Futurecop! vs. Ciara - Fast Forward 1 2 Step (props to Trash Menagerie for posting that one)

If you liked this shirt, check out more sci-fi shirts themed shirts on 199x

Phase02 is one of those blogs that is the perfect mixture of design and music - you can tell that they’ve put some serious thought into the way they want the blog to look and how it fits with the sound they’re sharing.

They recently posted this track by RSD and I knew I just had to listen to it. I mean, the title of the track is “Naked Mario Kart.”

I love Mario Kart. I’m pretty sure that the original Mario Kart is one of the most perfect video games ever. Like chess, it is easy to learn the rules but you can spend a lifetime mastering it. When I lived in Japan, my roommate Ian and I would spend hours playing Kart. We’d enter a kind of zen-like trance, and stay up all night dodging red shells and sniping green shells.

That’s why I was slightly disappointed that the track “Naked Mario Kart’ wasn’t really about Mario Kart. I mean, one of the sounds might be sampled from it but that’s it. The good news is that it’s really got that etheral, spacey feel that I’ve been digging lately.

Someone also dropped me this Peo De Pitte rework of Telepopmusik’s Breathe, and its also worth a listen. Let them be the soundtrack to your Sunday evening.

RSD  - Naked Mario Kart (Graphics Remix)

Telepopmusik - Breathe (Peo de Pitte Remix)

Between this post and the earlier one with the Starfox image you’re probably thinking I’m getting nostalgic for the SNES days of yore (the Starfox battle mode being great, but nowhere near as good as classic Kart).

You’re right, but its not a new thing. I’m sure one small part of my mind is always thinking about Super Mario Kart.

For more video game themed tracks, check out this post with a Metal Gear Solid rap and this one with some more MGS and a track from the Ocarina of Rhyme album.

Satellite image via here

I haven’t seen it, but I’m pretty sure 1980’s GALAXINA is probably the most perfect movie in the world. Produced by Playboy, it stars the 1980 Playmate of the year Dorothy Stratten as a “voluptuous android who finds herself alone for many years, developing emotions and falling in love with the ship’s pilot as he and the other crew sleep the years away” after they’ve been placed in suspended animation (Parts of this actually sound suspiciously similar to Alastair Reynolds epic book House of Suns).

The tag line on the movie poster (via) is “IN THE 31st CENTURY MAN FINALLY CREATED A MACHINE…With Feelings” and its going on my must-watch list.

Speaking of machines with feelings, you can’t go wrong with remixes of Florence + the Machine’s You’ve Got The Love. I wrote about the XX remix of that track a little while ago (damn, I love golden robots), and I was glad to hear Adam Smith’s take on it.

The Secret Galaxies remix comes courtesy of T-dot ballers Borracho, who were kind enough to post it on their Myspace page. Its a little more mellow than some of their other stuff, and I definitely like it.

You can’t go wrong with a little Ellie Goulding, and when the theme of the day seems to be galaxies and robots what better than a space-disco track about getting starry-eyed (I’m just going to assume she’s singing about looking at the stars and dreaming about space). These Monarchy cats have done some other mixes, and I dig that they called this one the Horses Head Nebular remix.

Anyways, if you’re in a galactic mood, give ‘em a listen:

Florence + The Machine - You’ve Got The Love (Adam Smith Remix)

Cavaliers of Fun - Secret Galaxies (Borracho! Remix) (via Borracho!’s MysSpace)

Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed (Monarchy “Horse Head Nebular” Remix) (via DiscoDust)

A little while ago, XLR8R put together a nice little mix-file of electronica to get you in the mood for Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica prequel. I haven’t seen any episodes of Caprica yet, but I liked enough of Battlestar that I think I could probably get into this new series.

The XLR8R album is a little more mellow than my usual tastes, but there is some still some good stuff on it and I like their thinking.

The Field - I Have The Moon, You Have The Internet (Gold Panda Remix)

White Rainbow - Raw Shanks A Million

Download the full album from XLR8R

I have no idea what to think about Die Antwoord - they’ve got samurai swords and ninjas (I mean, the front man’s name is Ninja!), breathy female vocals and amazing electro beats. But there’s something about them that just doesn’t seem right, and I think that’s part of the appeal - you just don’t know what is really going on. Even their website makes it hard to find out more.

Ninja reminds me of a skinny white guy I used to work construction with who had tattooed the words “Thug Life” and a dragon ripping through his flesh on his chest all by himself. The style was exactly like Ninja’s - a little shaky, and you’re glad he didn’t go for anything more complicated.

But listening to the Die Antwoord’s music and watching their videos, you should be glad he did go for Yo-Landi Vi$$er. Wikipedia says they’re married, but Wikipedia could say anything and who cares as long as she keeps balancing Ninja’s hard raps.

Rounding out the trio is DJ HI-Tek, his hat is awesome.

I don’t really know what role Leon Botha plays in the band beyond artistic support, but he’s one of the elements of Die Antwoord that you leave you with more questions than answers, and affirms the fact that their style is “UFO.”

Die Antwoord - Enter The Ninja (via Cause=Time)

Ryan from Pitchfork Tweeted that “DieAntwoord.com just made 2010 official. I think BoingBoing called it a memesplosion and I think you’ll be hearing a lot of them over the next few weeks. After that? Who knows.

Maybe its the cold weather (or maybe its because I’ve been using those Bose noise-canceling headphones instead of iPod ear buds) but I’ve really been digging that spacey electro sound these days.

Also - did you know that 2009 was the International Year of Astronomy? I only found that out the other day via post about Simon Page’s Astronomy posters on Sci-Fi-O-Rama. I guess that makes Twenty-Ten the Year After The Year of Astronomy.

Anyways, The Diogenes Club dropped me some of their tracks via email a week about, and while I don’t like all of them “Tie Ourselves Around” has sound I like. You can listen to a few of their other tracks here.

And Kenji Kawai? That’s some good scene-stealing background music.

Kenji Kawai - Unnatural City

The Diogenes Club - Tie Ourselves Around

Remember The Infinity Gauntlet? What a seriously epic comic series. I mean, you’ve got Thanos so in love with the personification of Death that he wipes out half the universe with using the Infinity Gauntlet, a huge glove with with gems that give him power over the different aspects of the universe: Time, Space, Mind, Soul, Reality and Power. Looking at the picture above, I probably couldn’t tell you which gem gave which power.

I feel like one of the big yellows ones is probably “Power” though, and they’re all way better than the Captain Planet power rings.

If Thanos gave Death a USB key with his favorite songs on it, I feel like these would be included:

Death to the Throne - I Only Have Eyes For You

Notorious BIG - Mo Money Mo Problems (Thoko Remix)

Kidda - Everything Bad Is Good For You (TLGB Remix)

Human Contact - Loverider (The Girls Can Hear Us Technologic Remix)

Giovanca - Hypnotize You (NBTD ReMix)

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, then you know that I love really spacey electro like Digits.

They sent me a couple of their tracks a little while ago, and while I’ve been loving them I haven’t had a chance to post them until now:

Digits - Sarah

Digits  - You’re Going to Age

It turns out that one of their members used to be in another band called Europe in Color and he sent me a couple of their tracks as well, equally good:

Europe In Color -Cold Reaction

Europe In Color - Satellite

Check out Digits at DigitsMusic.com and Europe In Color on MySpace.

Thanks to Claudio for pointing out the artist of the above image, the super-talented Jeremy Geddes.

I’m about 500 pages into the first book, The Reality Dysfunction, of Peter F. Hamilton’s “The Night’s Dawn Trilogy” and so far I’m loving it.

Part of the reason I like it is because some of the main characters, the “Edenists” are similar to the post-human Culture of Iain Banks’ books. One of the key differences is that instead of having their main technologies be based on computers, the Edenists grow their sentient starships and habitats out of a substance called “bitek” (that I can only assume is short for “bio-technology”). This gives both their habitats and ships personality and sentience, with the Edenists connected to them via a telepathic affinity bond.

Like a lot of the sci-fi I’ve been reading lately, its full of huge ideas and takes place on an epic scale. Reading it, I feel the same way that I do when I look at that picture of the astronaut floating above the earth.

I added the tracks from the XX below because they definitely have a spacey-feel. If you listen closely to the lyrics of “Shelter,” it almost sounds like they were written about the Edenists and their living technology. The original version of this track is pretty good, but I really like the the rework that Death to the Throne gives it.

The XX - Shelter (Death to the Throne Remix)

The XX - Basic Space (The Astronomer Remix)

Joachim Garraud - Back From Space (Frederico Fanchi Remix) (via the always-classy Palms Out)

I’d say that half of the music I like is pure, decadent electro that doesn’t really require much thought. The other half is music that tells a story, and that’s why I like this track from Oddioblender. Give it a listen and let the story play out.

Oddioblender - Psychics Don’t Need Hooks

After listening to it, I totally started remember Psycho Mantis from Metal Gear Solid. Remember how he read your memory card, and the only way to beat him was to unplug your controller, and plug it into the other port? Truly a memorable moment, and definitely some fourth-wall breaking shiznit right there.

You know who else doesn’t need a hook? Jay-z, that’s who.

Jay-z - No Hook (Team Teamwork Meeting the Owl Remix) (from their nerdtastic Ocarina of Rhyme album)