SPOELSTRA – the almighty internet
(CD, narrominded)
I have some theories about the
internet. You may want to quote me, if you work in the field of
communication planning, communication theory, society research or just a
plain old marketing super expert and therefore in constant need to fill your
brain with phrases and keywords that sound really cool and intellectual and
at the same time just enigmatic enough so that people don’t really
understand what you are talking about and therefore think what you just said
is totally clever. My first one is: the internet is a hype. Like electricity
and running tap water it will turn into an infrastructure commodity sooner
or later, but right now it is still in the exploration phase. The second one
is: the internet is not important. Being online is important. The difference
is that the internet is a technology whereas being online is an activity and
it is only activity that shapes our society. See, like the medium is the
message. It is always good to cite Marshall McLuhan in this respect. Makes
you look like a true communications philosopher that knows his stuff. Right,
you can also quote Marshall Mathers but remember to insist that what you
just said is by McLuhan. One Media, one marshall.
My third theory about the
internet lacks on the enigmatic side, but what the heck, it goes like this:
the internet is full of shit. One third of all content is pornographic in
nature. Another third is illegal downloads. Almost another third is mindless
shit like those funny videos on YouTube or the whole cheezburger-network (if
you know what that is, you will support my theory). A very tiny fraction of
what is going on online is interesting news, newsworthy information and then
some netlabels. But their bandwith is microscopic in comparison to the
enormous stream of bytes being used up by the latest funny video or game. By
the way, I counted the whole Social Media stuff into the “mindless shit”
category. Don’t tell me that posting “dude, I was so smashed on liquor
last night I puked into my roommates cupboard” to all your unknown friends
constitutes an enormous revolution in human society. Because then I want to
leave this society. And where would that be, now that even Pakistan started
their own version of Facebook. (“dude, I was so smashed on hash last night
I puked all over my roommates Kalashnikov”?). Maybe you won’t use this
in the end, I guess.
I have no idea really why Spoelstra called
his latest album “the almighty internet”. I could construe something,
but it would probably be as ridiculous as my theories about the internet or
even worse. On this album he does something completely different, which is
not that new, because he does that all the time. This is his electronic
album, which he means he probably found some old synthesizers in his attic
and re.activated them It features some weird tracks, most of them in the
vein of what you used to hear in old videogames and on overloaded websites
in the beginning of the internet, but only with a stronger weird edge. I
don’t remember hearing flanger effects on Donkey Kong, if you know what I
mean? At times this mix needs a lot of nerve to endure, at other times it is
really refreshing. You got to admire the strange sense of humor as well as
the guts to release this. It start with the weird cover which for instance
makes it completely impossible for me to read the songtitles or something.
All part of the overall concept, though.
One final thought: most people
I see working at laptops in cafes or wherever public places, look bored,
immersed in apathy and almost frighteningly sucked out. There are still
enough other things to do, you know. Maybe this is what this CD wants to
tell us?
