+ THORACIC DROP: < Deposit
> news appropriate to this site.
+ AUTOGEDDON: Subscribe to Ballardian & receive automatic email updates
A Premeditated Ballard Playlist
Author: Simon Sellars • Jul 2nd, 2006 •Category: Ballardosphere, Brian Eno, music
We recently interviewed RE/Search’s Mike Ryan about his DJ set at the RE/Search–JG Ballard launch party last year…
Now, on his always interesting blog, Premeditated, Mike has explained in further detail the thinking behind each selection. Mike’s an insightful Ballard scholar and I agree with him when he said that thinking through Ballardian connections in music serves as an excellent “entry point into thinking about Ballard’s writing”.
Well, in any case, it’s a nice change from the standard Freudian analyses I was drip-fed at university.
As Mike writes, “I wasn’t trying to create an ‘atmosphere’ but ‘curating’ music that I felt had a connection to Ballard’s themes”.
I have excerpted the following comments from Mike’s ‘premeditated’ post….
The Jezebel Spirit David Byrne & Brian Eno
“The voice of the preacher in this song is reminiscent of the unstable characters that Ballard creates that try to exorcise the demons of suburbia, high rises, corporate campuses, gated communities, etc”.
The American Astronaut — Billy Nayer Show
“The lunatic vocals ranting and raving about being the American Astronaut on this track are much more in line with what the loneliness of the future of space travel would have in store for people if we ever were to start traveling through the galaxy. The title of the track and the delivery which reveals the psychology of the space traveler are in line with Ballard’s approach to space travel, akin to John Carpenter’s Dark Star“.
Ha Ha Ha — Flipper
“We go downtown to do our shopping / and we … work in sub-urb-ia / And I say: HA HA HA HA HA HA / HO HO HO HO HO HO HO / HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH ”
Baby’s On Fire — Brian Eno
“A baby is on fire and all anyone is doing is taking pictures of it. One of the reasons that Ballard wrote Crash is that he started to observe people viewing atrocities as mere spectacles to be entertained by instead of rushing in to help the victims”.
Water — Christoph De Babylon
“This is an electronic/drum machine instrumental that sounds like it is under water. The Drowned World is the obvious reference.”
Days Passed — Scorn
“When you play a song called ‘Days Passed’ right after ‘Water’ the immediate reference, for me, was New Orleans our real-life drowned world.”
..:: LINKS
>> Premeditated
>> RE/Search
>> Mike Ryan interview
Author:
Simon Sellars
Find all posts by
Simon Sellars
Newer: Hyper-Cannes »
The following are archived comments from a previous post (now superseded and deleted) that discussed Mike Ryan’s track selection…
1. Gregory Ego Says:
December 28th, 2005 at 4:27 am e
How about these for additions?:
For Your Pleasure (Roxy Music)
Cars (Gary Numan)
Maserati (Crime)
2. Johnny Strike Says:
December 29th, 2005 at 9:47 am e
Thanks Gregory. And you’re right, Maserati was a definite nod to Ballard as well as our glam roots, especially Roxy Music. It’s odd that wasn’t picked up in our own home town, where we pretty much started the whole punk scene; and punk itself of course claimed Ballard and Burroughs as it’s main literary sources.
I agree that “For Your Pleasure” is loaded with Ballardisms: penthouse perfection, remake-remodel and so on. Even more so than Bowie, who could have easily been included during some of his periods too. Gary Numan is an interesting choice and I know what you mean. Some may not feel he’s “cool” enough but I think he was the best of that whole new wave synth scene. I’ve heard that he’s a big Ballard fan too, and left the music biz to fly jets: pretty Ballardian!
I’m surprised there isn’t more of the sounds that were covered so wonderfully in Joseph Lanza’s “Music For Elevators – A Surreal History of Muzak.” I believe Ballard even provided a blurb for the book. I’ll stop now. I don’t want to be uncouth and write a whole essay in the comments section.
3. R. M. Says:
January 7th, 2006 at 2:43 am e
“Airbag” by Radiohead (surviving a car crash)
“Lucky” by Radiohead (surviving a plane crash)
“In Every Dream Home a Heartache” by Roxy Music (man in love with blow-up doll)
“Here Comes Bob” by Sparks (crashing your car into other people’s cars in order to make friends)
4. greg r Says:
January 7th, 2006 at 1:45 pm e
takako minekawa – a report on an investigation
deltron 3030 – virus
bjork – the modern things
cibo matto – sci-fi wasabi
milk cult – pate pipe bomb
buffalo daughter – robot sings
sun ra – space is the place
5. Anonymous Says:
January 14th, 2006 at 5:09 am e
vata13thesleepcontroller
6. Ashbrg Says:
January 14th, 2006 at 1:56 pm e
Howard Shore’s soundtrack for Crash is possibly the most ballardian music i’ve ever heard.
And a basic one:
Buggles – ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’
According to
http://www.relache.com/jg_ballard/buggles.html
7. Ashbrg Says:
January 14th, 2006 at 1:58 pm e
or read this
TREVOR HORN ON J G BALLARD
I’m a nut for J. G. Ballard, I’ve read just about everything he’s ever written. “Video Killed The Radio Star” was based on The Sound Sweep – a short story by Ballard about a little boy who’s deaf and dumb and he goes round sweeping the sound out of rooms with this sound vacuum cleaner that he’s got; music is out of date – people don’t listen to it anymore. Music’s been condensed down to an essence that you can’t actually hear but has the same effect on you. That gave me the idea for the song. I don’t bother talking about Ballard to most people because unless they’ve read him they start saying “Oh, you read science fiction?” and I can see a curtain come down.
8. Greg Oakes Says:
January 14th, 2006 at 8:36 pm e
“The Garden” by John Foxx after the “The Time Garden”;
“Motorcade” by Magazine
9. Greg Oakes Says:
January 14th, 2006 at 8:39 pm e
Actually, now that I mention it, the entire “Metamatic” by John Foxx and just about everything of the first three Ultravox albums….
10. Wal Says:
January 15th, 2006 at 7:21 am e
When I listen to Godspeed You Black Emperor , I think of empty desert landscapes and -maybe- abandoned swimming pools filled with dust. So I’ll say:
“The dead flag blues” by G.Y.B.E.
11. johnny Says:
January 17th, 2006 at 12:54 am e
Metal Machine Music by Lou Reed
12. David Says:
January 22nd, 2006 at 8:15 am e
“Hell is Chrome” by Wilco
13. nuno Says:
January 25th, 2006 at 9:32 am e
What about “Interzone” by Joy Division? You refer to Atrocity Exhibition but Interzone seems to me an obvious choice. Don’t you agree?
14. johnny Says:
June 6th, 2006 at 8:29 am e
The Mondo Cane Soundtracks
by Riz Ortolani
don’t know if it qualifies- the cd plainly states it contains no music- negativland- deathsentences of the polished and structurally weak- packaging is mock of auto owners manual with a stunning booklet containing pictures of wrecked cars with what appear to be personal notes found inside on opposite page. and its worth a listen even if its not music.
Ballard music? Lemme see… How about everything by Cabaret Voltaire for starters? Or Death Trap and High Rise from Hawkwind’s PXR-5 album (Calvert plunders JGB for lyrics)? Something by the Comsat Angels? High Rise by Ladytron? Wind from Nowhere by Uzect Plaush aka Paul Schutze whose entire oevre is Ballard-inflected? Warm Leatherette by The Normal? Or the same by Grace Jones? And so on…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8008277.stm
re: VJESCI
http://www.ballardian.com/john-foxx-interview
http://www.ballardian.com/review-john-foxx-and-tiny-colour-movies
http://www.ballardian.com/simon-reynolds-on-the-ballard-connection
http://www.ballardian.com/a-ballardian-burial
http://www.ballardian.com/negative-acoustic-space-ballardian-sound-art
http://www.ballardian.com/tribute-to-jg-ballard-brian-eno
http://www.ballardian.com/cousin-silas-another-flask-of-ballard
http://www.ballardian.com/critical-mass-cronenberg-shore
http://www.ballardian.com/ballardian-music-mike-ryan-interview