One of the most hilarious blogs that I’ve been following lately is definitely Erotrash. I’m pretty sure it is entirely in Italian, but you don’t need to understand the language to know that all they do is post scans from vintage European science-fiction sex comics. Needless to say, it isn’t exactly safe for work.
The title of of the blog reminds me of one of my favorite Chicks On Speed songs, Eurotrash Girl. I also think that when I saw Chicks on Speed in Montreal about 6 or 7 years ago it was one of the first electronic music concerts that I’d ever been to. My friend Lachy and I were also some of the only guys there, so the whole thing seemed pretty awesome at the time.
The Erotrash blog also has an album of songs available for download entitled Music For Strange Situations. I’m guessing that the strange situations they are referring to are the ones that the girls in the comics they post frequently find themselves in. Maybe just looking at the blog is considered a strange situation. Either way, it must be the music you should listen to.
The actual plot of the 2004 Appleseed movie isn’t all that interesting, despite frequent references to Greek mythology and a Utopian city half-populated by “bioroids.” In fact, I’d be hard pressed to even tell you what the movie was about after watching it in Japanese once, English once and reading the Wikipedia entry on it. Characters seem to know each other, but its never really explained. I’m also not really clear on the government of this futuristic city, ruled by a prime minister, a military dude, a bunch of old men hooked up to life support and an Artificial Intelligence.
What I do like about it is the animation, particularly during the fight scenes. One of my favorite moments is when the main character, the “legendary warrior” Deunan (the chick that looks like a 13 year old boy), and her now-cyborg ex-lover Briareos (the dude that looks like a cross between a Cylon and the rabbit from Donnie Darko) square off against three sexy robots that use whips as weapons. The scene peaks when Briareos punches one of them in half.
The soundtrack, mostly by Boom Boom Satellites and Tetsuya Takahashi is also pretty good. The opening credits scene, with the Basement Jaxx’s “Good Luck” is also sweet.
I’m not really clear if RZA’s alter-ego Bobby Digital is supposed to be some sort of futuristic ghetto protector or if he’s just a cyborg pimp. Either way, he’s pretty awesome. I mean, just look at the album cover: huge circuit-board gun, Mad Max shoulder pads, sniper honey, Kung-Fu, van driving out of explosion. It really has everything.
I also think it is pretty awesome that members of the Wu-Tang make numerous references to the fact that if their group was Voltron, RZA would be the head. Equally awesome is that in almost every single account of the rise of the Wu-Tang clan that you’ll read, there is mention that RZA asked the other members to give him full control of the group for the length of one “dynastic cycle,” after which time he’d relinquish control and basically hand them an empire.
This is pretty much what I wish my life was like. I have a feeling I’ll have to travel farther than the closest star to Earth to find anything as cool as six-limbed gorillas and space babes.
You know what is messed up? If her Myspace page is anything to go by, she’s really into horses. Emperor Caligula was also into horses, and went as far as trying to make his horse into a priest and a consul (rumor has it he also turned the palace into a brothel).
Anyways, Little Boots reminds me of Goldfrapp who, it appears, is also into horses.
William Gibson’s Neuromancer has always been one of my favorite books
Near the middle, the main characters, Case and Molly, end up on an orbital colony that had been populated by a group of reggae-loving welders. Case is a hacker, Molly his cyborg captor/guardian angel.
The two surviving Founders of Zion were old men, old with
the accelerated aging that overtakes men who spend too many
years outside the embrace of gravity. Their brown legs, brittle
with calcium loss, looked fragile in the harsh glare of reflected
sunlight. They floated in the center of a painted jungle of
rainbow foliage, a lurid communal mural that completely cov-
ered the hull of the spherical chamber. The air was thick with
resinous smoke.
`Steppin’~ Razor,’ one said, as Molly drifted into the cham-
ber. `Like unto a whippin’~ stick.’
`That is a story we have, sister,’ said the other, `a religion
story. We are glad you’ve come with Maelcum.’
`How come you don’t talk the patois?’ Molly asked.
`I came from Los Angeles,’ the old man said. His dread-
locks were like a matted tree with branches the color of steel
wool. `Long time ago, up the gravity well and out of Babylon.
To lead the Tribes home. Now my brother likens you to Step-
pin’~ Razor.’
Molly extended her right hand and the blades flashed in the
smoky air.
The other Founder laughed, his head thrown back. `Soon
come, the Final Days… Voices. Voices cryin’~ inna wilder-
ness, prophesyin’~ ruin unto Babylon…’
`Voices.’ The Founder from Los Angeles was staring at
Case. `We monitor many frequencies. We listen always. Came
a voice, out of the babel of tongues, speaking to us. It played
us a mighty dub.’
I know more about cyberpunk than anything dub- or reggae-related, so I could be totally off on what I think space dub would sound like. The Persian Prince says that dub is “an off-shoot of reggae that involves remixing or revising existing songs into instrumental or mostly instrumental versions by increasing the low-end and removing all or most of the vocals.”
Either way, I’ve been playing a lot of Halo 3 with Claudio lately and my next life goal is to get the Steppin’ Razor achievement. Suitably named, it involves getting a triple-kill with the energy sword in a ranked multiplayer match.
I used that picture of Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost In The Shell because if anyone is Cybernetic Steppin’ Razor, it’s Motoko. File this post under Ninjas as well, because you just know Steppin’ Razor is just rasta slang for ninja.
You can read the full text of Neuromancer here or buy it from Amazon here.
Then check out Thievery Corporation and Death in Vegas
If you’ve been reading Nineteen Ninety Never for a while, you’ll know that I totally dig zombies and sci-fi. These two tracks remind me of both, and that’s why they’re bang-on.
Right now we’re digging The Vintage Skeletons. An online graphic design and beatmaking team of one, The Vintage Skeletons have worked on some cool stuff, including AIR WAR MAGAZINE.
I don’t care what the official Tekken back story about him is, but there is no doubt in my mind that Yoshimitsu is an interdimensional demon ninja. Just look at his face - that isn’t human. And the way he disappears and reapers means that he must be messing around with some crazy space-time shit.
Anyways, we’re super into ninjas these days (and I’m not talking about the bullshit pirates-versus-ninjas stuff), so expect to see some more posts along the same lines coming up.
In the meantime, have a listen to this great track about ninjas that I downloaded from the inconsistently-awesome Rhyme Torrents.
This sounds so unbelievably sci-fi fucked-up that I just had to post something about it. I just hope these tracks do it justice. They were the ones I thought of when I saw the picture, and thought about space babes and mechs possibly preventing the end of the world at the hands of interdimensional beings.
