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I S S U E - @ $ D E C E M B E R 1 8 , 1 9 9 4
<LiNE NOiZ< >LiNE NOiZ>
[L]i[N]e [N]o[I]z -- two4
{ merry christmas }
CYbERPUNk I N f O R M A t i 0 N E - Z i N E
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I S S U E - @ $ D E C E M B E R 1 8 , 1 9 9 4
: File !
: Intro to Issue 24
: Billy Biggs <ae687@freenet.carleton.ca>
: File @
: Interview with Bill Leeb of Front Line Assembly, Delerium, Intermix, etc..
: Billy Biggs <ae687@freenet.carleton.ca>
: File #
: Heavy Duty - Chapter 5
: C.McLean-Campbell <cmc@cs.strath.ac.uk>
: File $
: Nibbles of Information
: Billy Biggs <ae687@freenet.carleton.ca>
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Merry Christmas! Finally the interview w/Bill Leeb, sorry for the delay. The
next issue of Line Noiz is scheduled for release on Jan.1 so send in your
submissions before then!!!
-Billy Biggs, editor.
***** N o T E ******
- We have been experiencing problems with our subscription list. If you
find that the following subscription instructions are not working then
e-mail me at ae687@freenet.carleton.ca and I'll see what I can do....
=-*-= Subscription Info =-*-=
o Subscriptions can be obtained by sending mail to: dodger@fubar.bk.psu.edu
With the words: Subscription LineNoiz <your address>
In the body of the letter.
o Back Issues can be recieved by sending mail to the same address with the
words BACK ISSUES in the subject.
=-*-= Submission Info =-*-=
o Please send any submissions to me: ae687@freenet.carleton.ca
o We accept Sci-Fi, opinions, reviews and anything else of interest.
o Submit! Submit! Submit! Submit! Submit! Submit! Submit! Submit! Submit!
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[ Here it is, the talk. I spent almost an hour on the phone with the guy, ]
[ and have decided to put most of the conversation in here for anyone who ]
[ wants to sift through it. It was an interesting chat, the guy seems like ]
[ he has at least half a brain, but I still think he'd get farther if he had ]
[ a more solid musical training. Oh well... ]
[ Please excuse any mistakes, I was typing this off a recording done at very ]
[ low quality, as well as the spelling mistakes I know are in here... ]
[ BB = Billy Biggs, me BL = Bill Leeb, of FLA etc.. ]
BB: Ok, well, first of all I have talked to you before, on internet, on the
IRC chat in September I think it was, and people were wondering what your
views were on that...
BL: I think that it started off good but I think the problem with it was you
have too many people on it and too many questions, that like so many
questions go by that you can't answer cause there's so many more comming in
you sort of lose your train of thought and you can't focus on one thing on
the screen, they're just rolling off like a fax so it's kind of hard to
have a conversation with any one perticular person so when you're answering
one question and another one comes from a whole different realm. It's hard
for me to focus and then I think it kind of got silly because of that. But
I think the concept is good it just has to be a little more controlled.
BB: Do you plan on doing it again?
BL: I wouldn't mind doing it again especially now because people have heard
besides the new Delerium the new Front Line. I think there is lots of
controversy with the guitars and all this stuff. I think it would be kind
of funny. I wouldn't mind doing it as long as people don't get too personal.
It's kind of ok if you just do it as like a musical sort of thing but when
some people get kind of personal then I think it's kind of silly, it's not
that serious of an issue...
BB: Do you plan on doing anything more on the internet, like a web page or
an email address or something?
BL: Well, I know puppy had one right?
BB: Yeah, they have an email I know... [ puppy@netcom.com I think ]
BL: I'm trying to decide how useful that would be.. Like, what do you think
the audience is of this whole Internet thing, at any different time..
BB: [ Bit of explanation of Internet audience ]
BL: Like I said we've been sort of kicking the idea around alot.. I mean
we're going on tour in the spring right so we might either do it before that
or I might wait till we come back, I mean like if I'm gone for three months
it's not going to do me much good... The email thing does that like just
basically store stuff for you?
BB: Yeah, it just holds messages until you want to reply, if you want to reply.
BL: Well, I guess the only problem I have with that is it seems like it gets
kind of personal I mean it seems more formal just writing letters to people,
and when you get on the Internet it's like 'Chat Line'. So I think maybe I
thought for a little while it's like an invasion of my privacy, like
even when I go out people see you, they know you, they come up to you and
it's like they want something from you, so I kind of like hmmmmm y'know but
I might though.
BB: Do you plan on releasing like a CD-Rom or something like that?
BL: Yeah I'd really like to do that especially with Frontline because we have
alot of stuff, I mean we even have alot of live footage stuff from the last
couple of years that we haven't done anything with, but I saw Sarahs and I
think that was totally cool. Especially for a band like Frontline, where alot
of it's electronic stuff so we're really into the whole Multimedia thing so
to me that would be the logical step. It's just a matter of getting the
record company to go with it. The problem with RoadRunner is that they
aren't really technology related or technology friendly related, they're more
of a head-bangers label. But I'd really like to do it. I was talking to the
guy who did Sarah's and asking how much it would cost and stuff, I think it
would be really cool. Do you think this sort of thing is the wave of the
future? What king of market capability do you think that will have?
BB: Well, I mean if you buy a new computer now it normally comes with a
CD-ROM.
BL: Well, it's probably becoming standard now right.
BB: Yeah, I'd say so.
BL: Well, definatly I think we'll be doing it, I've already been asking
about it it's just a matter of going through the red tape..
[ Delerium ]
BB: Well, with the new Delerium release ("Sematic Spaces") it was a big
change for Delerium, is this the new sound of Delerium? Do you consider this
a departure from all your old stuff?
BL: Yeah, well, y'know, it's kind of like music for me and Rhys is like the
weather right, like everyday you wake up in a different mood.. I don't know
about you but if I'm in an aggro mood I'll listen to aggro music, if I'm in
a laid back mood I'll put on 'Dead Can Dance' or something, so it's the same
when we write, it's just whatever the mood suits us at the time is what we'll
do. I don't think we ever feel like we better just do this because we might
be making these people mad, I think we just do what we want when we do it
because we feel it's right at the time. I think we've done so many Delerium
albums that have been really dark and ambient right that it's probably good
for us, like it was fun to do one that wasn't so dark, and maybe a bit more
commercial. I mean at the same time we wrote Spheres 1 and 2, and Sematic
sort of in the same year, and I think Spheres 1 is like really dark, and I
think it's one of the best ones. I think that, on a consistency basis,
Spheres 1 is probably the most, I mean, it just sounds like a whole Alien
soundtrack. So like I say we did that one right after, so it's just a change
of mood. But y'know the funny thing is is that least, well I dunno, the new
Delerium is getting like 50 times the exposure right. I don't know if you
watch MuchMusic [ Canadian music station ] but we're on medium rotation,
we were on 4 times yesterday! Like it's been on three times a day right now.
It's a cool video, "Flowers Become Screens", it's done in black-and-white and
shot in a desert right. Y'know what they even played it on, "Electric Circus"!
I couldn't believe it! [ EC is a live dance at the MuchMusic station
shown every friday that plays dance music with dance music people dancing ]
And then they played it like an hour later on "City Limits" right with
the Frontline one on "The Wedge" I saw it like 4 times in one day so if you
like keep your TV on I'm sure you'll see it right. So in a way it's good to
do one like that so maybe people will go and oh so Delerium is a real thing
and then go and buy one of our older records but they'll probably weird out
cause those were pretty dark and pretty industrial. Like I say, we're like
the weather right, if we feel a different way we'll do something different
again.
BB: Well, if this new Delerium does really well and people like it are you
going to do the same sort of thing then, are you just going to go with the
flow?
BL: Well, with all the signs so far I'd say this is easily our best selling
one so far, I mean it's like on all the charts now so I mean, yeah, it's
like we'll cross that bridge when we get to it I mean we'll see how we feel
in 8 months from now, see who's available. See the weird thing is that when
we wrote this we had no intentions of anybody singing over it. It was kind of
like we wrote the record and then we gave it to Nettwork who said, oh well
are you guys interested in having somebody sing over it?, and so we sat back
and the songs that she sang that, we pulled out some stuff right, so she
could put vocals on it right, so yes, so I think that's why it turned out.
I think it's a great record, I mean I think that's why it turned out
as it did. I mean we weren't trying to make a commercial album we just did
what we normally do.
BB: Well what about the enigma sounds, some people were saying that you were
just ripping off the enigma sounds? To get more commercial.
BL: Well I mean the only thing we used that they did was our Gregorian chats
right.
BB: Well there was the beat in Flatlands and the whole Enigma style right.
BL: Well for a beats sake we could do that thing ourselves we're just too
lazy right. It's no big deal it's just like a kick and a snare. Like who
hasn't sampled a drum beat? like I said if we wern't so lazy we'd just
do it ourselves I mean a drum beat doesn't mean anything, it's just what you
put on top. And I mean the Gregorian chants we used that with puppy like 8
years ago, we just didn't get famous that's the problem. But it's kind of
weird right some band comes along and they get commercially successful with
doing it and also and maybe we might be trying to burn down that, but we were
doing this when that guy hadn't even heard of this kind of music. But
whatever, I mean like I think it's 50 times better than that if you listen to
like either of the Enigma albums. I think the first one sounds like all one
big song and the second one just sucks. They've a song that's like the Day of
the Dolphin or something, like oh my god, like I can truly say me and Rhys
have never done anything like that so when people put us in the same rap
well then maybe there's a few sounds that come from the same sources y'know
but whatever. When it comes to coolness i'd say those guys have some major
clones stuff in there stuff right. I mean I think that last album just reaked.
And what about the drum beat they stole? You know what one on the single?
BB: The "Return to Innocence" one?
BL: Yeah, well, that drum beat is like a total Lead Zeppelin loop right,
It's from when the levy breaks. it's on every sample cd you can buy like
it's even on the budweiser commercial when the guy throws the baseball at
the building and the whole thing falls down, right. but I see nobody saying
why is enigma using a lead zeppelin drum beat. I hate that kind of
analization because then they aren't looking in their own back yard I mean I
could pull alot of things out of their music that, things that they use, I
mean most of the sounds they use are presets, at least we don't use presets.
I can find you the keyboard where they got all these sounds from! But you see
I don't have time to explain that to every guy on the internet what I'm telling
you. I mean, on that cd, to me, they're burning a bigger band then we are. I
mean Led Zepplin will always be a bigger band than Enigma right. So y'know
who's burning who? It just depends on how you look at it.
BB: Ok, well, will you be using Kristy Thirsk again?
BL: I'd like too for a song or too I think she does a good job. See, what I'd
really like to do next time is to use her and Sarah for a song or two, and
I'd also like to get the woman from "Dead Can Dance" to sing on it. I think
it would be great to have like 3 or 4 tracks on the album with 3 different
singers.
BB: Well, would you use her with like Frontline or something?
BL: No, well, maybe just for backup singers like the who-whos or the do-ups
right? No I don't think that would work with Frontline. For Delerium, I
think we'll do it the same way right like write songs like they aren't meant
for singing and then we'll bring somebody in and say ok well sing on top of
this, then it won't sound so pretentious right, cause I don't want like a pop
record right, I'm just not into that.
BB: Is there anything new planned for Delerium right now?
BL: New? Not really. I guess because like the video is new and I think
they're going to work "Flowers" down to all the major radio stations in
January and stuff cause they still think there's still alot of life left in
it that record right. I think the problem is that it still not on a major
right so I think we're still not getting major exposure. I think that if
that record got the same backing that enigma did we'd do just as well if not
better. That's what they think too right so they're still trying to do that.
Intermix
BB: Well, about intermix right you have a new release comming out with them?
BL: Yeah.
BB: When is it comming out? Could you tell me about it?
BL: Yeah, well, it's called "Future Primitives", yeah "Future Primitives". I
think you're the first guy I've told that too.
BB: Actually, I think you said it on Internet.
BL: Did I? Hmm.. Well, you know that's cause I never remember it right.. I
think it's going to come out in Feburary or something like that.
BB: Well, you said on the chat that you aren't into raves and the rave
scene. Isn't Intermix towards like the whole techno-rave scene?
BL: Well, err, ahh, erll not the new one it's sort of filled with like
African chants and tribal stuff, I mean it's pretty ethnic stuff.
BB: Well, are you trying to make it sort of like tribal-techno sort of stuff?
BL: Yeah, yeah.
BB: Well, that is sort of a sub-genre of techno right.
BL: Well, I like aspects of it, I just don't like, I'm just not into that
"Electric Circus" sort of thing.
BB: Well, EC isn't really techno..
BL: Yeah, well, y'know that whole sort of that crowd. I don't know, it's
kind of weird to explain. I've always been more sort of anti- things like
that when people were into like Spandu Ballet and stuff we were into Portion
Control and Noibot, y'know what I mean, so we'd always go around and say look
at those sucky people right and me and orgre and kenny that's how we started
puppy. It's kind of like the same thing I find with parts of the rave thing.
There are kind of like casual people that shop at like the bluejeans store
like the gap and then they show up on the weekends for the raves. And they
don't even know what they're dancing too, they're a bunch of idiots. It's not
that the music I don't like it's just like alot of those people like with the
white tee-shirts and the devin boots and the chains in their pockets and the
slick black hair, y'know what I mean, it just that I don't like that concept.
I mean, there's nothing wrong with doing drugs and dancing all night too tech
music because I'd rather listen too that then rock, I hate rock right. It's
just like the whole feel of it some nights I go there and there's a whole lot
of GQ people with their shirts off and I'm like, oh man I don't want to see
this, so I think it's more like the people than anything else.
BB: Well what do you think of rave music?
BL: Well what's rave music? Is orbital rave? is the grid rave? like didn't
rave music disappear a few years back? like James Brown is dead right?
BB: Well, not really I mean rave music would be like sort of like the beat
with the sort of LFO kind of acid sounds.
BL: Well I mean LFO only released like one album
BB: I meant the synth term, as in Low Frequency Occilator sort of thing
[ I was talking about pitch-bend arpegios ala every acid sound in techno now ]
BL: uhh, well, I mean it's okay for like a dance club right but when you
bring it home it sounds like shit right because it's usually just like one
kick drum and then you hear like this little bass line and then it's just
like bomp-chick-a-chick-bomp-chick-a-chick y'know and there's like nothing
else going on it gets really boring quick right. I guess the problem for me
and Rhys is when you do music for so long to tell you the truth y'know, I
could do an album like that in a night right, it's really not hard to do. So
for like the average guy who doesn't know anything about anything it might be
cool right but when you've been doing it for a while and you set high
standards for yourself and you hear stuff like that you go, well, whatever.
I mean I find that kind of music has a really short shelf life as well it's
like DJs go to like the local store they play all the new 12", take them to
the club and play them for three weeks and then discard them and then the
next thing comes out. Every week all the DJs line up at the local techno
store waiting for the next white vynil stuff they can mix into clubs but most
people don't know what they're dancing too. So usually for people who make
that there's usually no money in for most of it either. So it's great for
like a bedroom worrier y'know, sits in his bedroom and program some beats and
puts out a little CD, and I think that concept is cool and that everyone
should be able to do that. I just find for me I usually look for things that
are a little more evolved, a little more difficult. But I think it's good
that you can do that. Like Aphex Twin, I think everything he's done he's done
in his bedroom right. I mean it sounds like it too right, there's nothing.
The concept is great that anyone can go out and buy his own stuff and make
their own music and get it played and I mean there's room for everybody and
I think that part of it is good.
Front Line Assembly
BB: Do you consider the new album a departure from everything that Frontline
has ever done before?
BL: Yeah I think that like, I don't know what it is I think that really it's,
like I think it's probably the most Frontline album. All the stuff underneath
is so signature of what we do, it's just we've added one new element and we
just added that element because we wanted to do something different for
ourselves. It's like again it was like the thing of like ok, we've written
an album, and yeah it sounds great and all the technoheads will like it, but
we didn't like it, so we wanted to add another concept where we thought like,
yeah well maybe some of these people wont like it, but alot of new people
will like it and at the same time it was just fun to do. I don't think we
take it as serious as other people think we do but at the end of the day
we're just having fun with it. it's not like, if you don't like it you're
going to die from it, it's just music right and it's just something to do.
So I think some of those people just take it a bit to serious as well and I
think we wanted to have fun with it and we wanted to change the sound and,
I don't know but I think that in some aspects it's the the best sounding one
by far I just think it takes people a while to get used to it and people I
always find as always the slowest to change. I mean, nature changes quicker
than most humans do right and people sort of get familiar with a sound and as
soon as the familiarity is gone they start weirding out but I think in the
end the change is whats really important even if at first people usually
don't want to change and they hum and huh, it was like computers, nobody
wanted computers when they first came out, it was like 'oh my god I don't
want one of these' and now they're running the world. I think it's the same
as what were doing I think that in a year from now it will be like, it will
be the same thing. But somebody's got to get up there and break the mold and
try something a bit different and it's got nothing to do with getting on the
bandwagon or wanting to sound like anybody else, has absolutely nothing to
do with that. I don't think anybody's record sounds like this one,
_anybodys_. Maybe people used the same elements, but I think the way we've
done it I don't think anybody's done that..
BB: So you weren't trying to become mainstream with this?
BL: Nooo [ very persuasively :) ].. If we wanted to be mainstream you'd have
to take a whole different approach... you have write ballads, you have to get
a crooner, our music's way to weird for most people still, in that aspect I
still think we're still a sub-culture kind of band, I just think we set
really high standards for ourselves and I think we still follow them. With
each record we're trying to do somthing a bit differnet, and that's what we
did with Millenium and I'm sure we'll do with the next one. I think that's
the part we like, the technology part, where we try to do something
different every time. I just didn't want to do another record like the last
2.
BB: Why did you decide to do the rap?
BL: Yeah, well it was again trying something differnet, and see we like some
of that music too right so again we thought this would be cool because we
like some bands that were doing that kind of stuff we thought we just
happened to write a song that when we finished it we listend to it and we
went y'know this would be pretty cool to do the song and when we brought the
guy in and he layed down the rap we thought oh yeah we like this so, it's
one of those songs y'know lots of people think it's great, some people think
it's their favorite song, other people hate it. I think it's better to have
an album where people react then people just go like it's ok oh well tactical
was better, I would rather prefer if they go oh this is killer, or oh i'm
weirding out oh my god!. I think it's better to stir up the emotions in
people and get them evoked about something than to play it safe and sell the
same amount you sold last time. I'd rather take a chance and try something
different because I think the reward can be greater too and I think it's
more exciting and I think that's what it's all about is evoking peoples
intrests or their feelings about music and that's what we did and we're
getting more violent reactions from people and I think that's more fun.
BB: Why did you do the rap with that guy?
BL: Well, I wanted to get the guy from Public Enemy, but he's to expensive.
Y'know were a bunch of white hockey kids I don't think the political aspect
might come into play but, I think it had alot to do with that we were
working with Nettwerk at the time already and they have an album on Nettwerk
so it was just handy. We were there, he was there and it just went down.
BB: Are you going to have more rap on your albums?
BL: No that was more of a one shot one thing probably never-ever happen again.
BB: What interested you in the movie 'Falling Down', you used samples from it
in your first few songs?
BL: I like what it says, *laughs* I like the statement. I think that for a
better part I can appriciate where he's comming from. I think the roles are
changing of people in the world, majorities are becomming minorities and
minorities are becomming majorities. I just feel like there's just too many
people in the world and people are becomming less tolerant but yet you have
too y'know? And it's like you just see it, people weirding out all the time
and it just kind of interests me all that stuff how like people are trying
to find their own identities and the only way they can do it is to go out
and shoot a whole bunch of people and so people go here's a name blah blah
blah and he gets on the news right. But y'know, I guess we've created this
society so now we have to live with it. It's just so on the money now like
the whole how things are gonna be and gonna get even worse I thought that
that was a good concept for our whole album. The human interest story of
like of a society that's crippled by it's own laws and fears and regulations
and it's just gonna get worse you can't get better there's just too
many people and the planet can't support it. It's kind of a drag i won't be
here in a hundred years to see the severity of it, I think it will be a fun
time to live in. My visions are like, y'know the roadwarriors thing, mutants
roaming the earth looking for gasoline, I just think that would be an awesome
time to live in, just like on your smarts. I would. So anyways I went on that
kind of vibe for the album and that movie I thought struck a good chord
there.
BB: So like the album had that sort of theme. Is that your style to like to
things in themes, for example tactical had a sort of cyber theme?
BL: Yeah this is the theme. Even the title 'Millenium' it's sort of like a
forwarning to people about the future and what we think it too be so we want
to be sort of a real epic sound and name to it and I think it does that
quite well.
BB: About samples in your work, do you need permission?
BL: Yeah, for real obvious ones yeah. Like the guitar samples we have
contracts and everything for that. It's all listed on the album. All the
bands and stuff. We're not that stupid.
BB: Ever had any legal problems with samples?
BL: Well you only have problems with samples is when you use part of a song
or something. When you're just using like a door slam or something or a kick
drum or a snare then nobody cares. You also have to remember that when you
sample something, those people sampled it from something else. I mean look
at FSOL, their song 'Pappa new-guinea', it was like a big hit, it had the
woman from dead-can-dance all over it. It just depends how you use it but we
go through all the legality of it.
BB: When you get samples from like movies or stuff do you have any method
for searching for them?
BL: No, I just watch alot of films. And whenever I hear something I go, oh
this would be cool, and I keep notes right so I just go back one day and get
them all.
BB: Do you have some sort of database of samples?
BL: Well, we've got everything on DAT right. So, I usually write everything
down right. There is sort of a method to the madness right.
BB: What about the lyrics in "Millenium", do they actually mean anything?
Do you put any thought into your lyrics??
BL: Oh yeah, I think these ones have alot of thought put into them that's why
they're printed.
BB: Was there before?
BL: Probably, yeah.
BB: Why do you have different projects? Why not all have it under one band
and under one label?
BL: That's funny. *laughs* I think you'd just be confusing the issue and we
like to do this full time right, so this way we can always be creative and
always be doing something. We don't have to sit around and like wait for this
or wait for that and I think they're all pretty different in their own
merits and since we like doing it all the time why limit yourself to one
thing? It's like going to Europe, why only visit one country right? Don't
you want to explore and go everywhere?
BB: Do you have guidelines for each group? As far as what constitutes an
Intermix song or a Delerium song?
BL: Oh yeah, sure. I think it's pretty easy. If you listen to the stuff
everything has it's own style.
BB: Do you have any other projects planned? Like, a new band?
BL: One more thing we're going to start, but we wanted it to be like a real,
like more like a hardcore electronic punk band with like live guitars we're
going to like change the name and everything and get some real players that
will be like something totally different.
BB: Are you going to still have Frontline around?
BL: Oh yeah we'll still have that this will be something totally different.
This is probably won't have anything to do with this scene at all we're doing
this for something totally different.
BB: Are you still going to be using like electronic instruments?
BL: Parts of it but it will be different.
BB: When is this planned for?
BL: Oh, probably in the next year sometime.
BB: On the net you mentioned something called Organisms 1 and 2, what is
that?
BL: Those were techno comps me and Rhys put together of like local artists.
They're techno comps of trance-ambient and I think they're really good, much
better than any of that shit that comes from Europe. We've got some stuff on
it, and Sect has some stuff on it. We're just doing it to help out the local
artists.
BB: What's your musical background?
BL: I don't really have one.
BB: Do you have any formal musical training?
BL: Nope, nothing at all.
BB: Can you read music and play?
BL: Nope.
BB: Can you read music?
BL: Nope, don't wanna know. We just do things by feel right. I don't need
some like I know like the scale and I know each note.
BB: Do you know chords?
BL: Oh yeah, I know all that stuff. I can sit down and play anything I want.
That's all I need to know.
BB: Would you say your music is more chord based than note based?
BL: Both. We know where everything is and how everything works and that's
what we need to know. I don't want to know any more than that cause I think
that would take away our creativity. I don't want to be able to play the
sting cause once you play like that there's no going back.
BB: Do you input stuff into MIDI and then build on top of it?
BL: Yeah, we always start with the rhythm tracks. Then just build on top. We
usually write like main groove, then come up with a chorus to see if we can
take the song any further.
BB: Do you find your music using synth tricks more than musical ability?
BL: There is no method to the madness. It's like, whatever works works.
There's no set rules, it's like if it fits if it works if it sounds great it
doens't matter which way it's done that's the ultimate goal for us.
BB: What sequencer do you use?
BL: We've got a couple we have like the c-lab, the notator, the creator. We've
got one of the q-base doo-hickeys and we've got one of those mac-jobbys it's
whatever works on a given day that's what we use for a sequencer.
BB: How much is done live with like Front Line Assembly?
BL: Like this time what we're going to do is when we play live we'll have the
sequences and we'll have the click track and so the drummer will play along
with the click. And then we'll have the guitarist and Rhys plays all the
keyboards samples and strings live and so the only things that will be on
tape will be the sixteenths notes cause nobody can play them right. That's
pretty live if you ask me and that's just as live as anything else, except
for memorex.
BB: So this tour is in the spring?
BL: Yeah, I think in March.
BB: What do you think is the future of electronic music?
BL: I think the only thing that's going to happen is like it always has is
you'll see less and less bands with music and you'll just see differnet
adaptations. Like, you have metal and techno and industrial and jazz and
hip-hop and I think they'll always just merge like the whole techno-ambient
thing. First it was hardcore techno, then it was ambient, now it's slow
it sort of goes in a big cycle it always stays in that same concept a few
elements change and the speed changes but whatever that's probably all it
always sort of mutates within itself music just the sounds change but the
song is still a song, you still need a groove and a chorus no matter what
kind of music you do.
[ BB/BL @ da phones 11/94 ]
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File - #
From: C.McLean-Campbell <cmc@cs.strath.ac.uk>
HEAVY DUTY
C.McLean-Campbell
Series Editor: Peaches
Copyright 1994 Toaster Books. All Rights Reserved.
CHAPTER FIVE.
Beejay stuck the logic-probe back into it's position in the pouch and
shoved it back inside his jacket. He was a hi-tec boy scout; he always
carried a little toolkit with him because he was always prepared. The
Project demanded both improvisation and opportunity. A toolkit was handy.
You could never be sure when you might need it.
He'd recovered two CPU boards from the recycling skip at the back of
Fat Mike's workshop. The first one he found was an ancient 586. He had lots
of those boards and, although they were old, they still did the business as
long as you fitted an optical converter chip. Still, the second one was an
old 886, and that was a real find. The 586's and 686's were piling up in
The Project and he worried about the power requirements. Each of those
boards added to the power supply mountain he was scaling, so the 886 would
make a big difference. One 886 was equal to ten thousand 586's.
Beejay worked out a power demand curve in his head and then checked
it on the portable hanging from a string around his neck. He was right. He
needed to position the boards as close together as possible, tight as
sardines, and then link them with more optical wire. He stopped thinking
for a second and allowed his mind to become empty. He was practising
control, calming the rush of ideas that surged inside his head. It was
important to try and slow down a little and let the rest of the world catch
up every so often.
Recently, he had become aware that his pedestrian friends at school
didn't share his interest in electronics. Few of them even understood how
electricity was produced. Last Friday two guys had even told him that the
Moon was bigger than the Earth! School was boring enough. Guys like that
didn't help. So he always skipped Monday morning.
Monday was also the best day to search the skip, particularly after a
busy week in the workshop. Mike Wade's electronic service shop was down a
narrow stairwell below a branch of the Yardies fast food chain and behind
the Kimitz terminal at Newstation Square. Beejay had a deal with Fat Mike:
he came in every Monday morning and re-wrote the defaults on any of the VR
equipment that might have been wiped during the repair work. Having Beejay
write the softs and handling codes meant that Fat Mike didn't have to send
the units back to the original manufacturer who charged a hefty fee.
Technically only Fat Mike was breaking the law using an un-licensed
operator to write softs and handling, because Beejay was only twelve years
old. Fat Mike wasn't too phased by that prospect. He was, he felt,
protecting the consumer from greedy corporations.
Okay so he made money out of it and it was dodgy, but Fat Mike was a
nice guy. Even Beejay knew he was a nice guy sending a quarter of his
annual profits to The Vogel Foundation.
He pushed the boards into his Pale Horse backpack and stuck his head
round the corner of the shop front. With little success Fat Mike was trying
to explain the VR controls on a pair of shades to an elderly lady who wore
her hair blue. He winked at Beejay to let him know he'd seen him and Beejay
ducked back into the workshop. He waited beside Mike's desk.
Across the room Mirima was working on the insides of a large
industrial laser. At her side was a reel of optical wire. Beejay coveted
it. Sensing his stare she glanced up and gave him a smile. Beejay indicated
the reel and raised his eyebrows. Mirima tossed it across to him and he
quickly stuffed it inside his jacket. He plonked the backpack on the desk
with the boards sticking out.
"More boards small scientist? What you want with that shit?" said
Mirima.
Beejay shrugged, Mirima often hung around the workshop, using the
facilities and occasionally fixing things for Fat Mike. She was cute but
she was major-tough. A rigger for the Houses, she was one of the few people
that didn't treat him like shit, that didn't think he was a deevo. Beejay
sometimes wondered what really went on between the Rhodes boy-girl and Fat
Mike, but he never pursued it - it wasn't a good idea to mess with the
Houses.
"Just messin' around Mirima," he said trying to sound uninterested.
"You think I copy that bullshit, small scientist? Non-optimal, defo.
Small company operations I think?" Mirima laughed for a second, and before
Beejay could protest, she returned to her work.
Beejay pulled the Text discman from his pocket and re-read chapter
seventeen of 'The Prince' while he waited for Mike to pay him. It was his
favourite chapter, "Cruelty and compassion; whether it is better to be
loved than feared, or the reverse." He had read it more times than he could
remember, including the original Italian which appeared on the same disk.
Occasionally he let his attention slip to steal a glance at Mirima's long
legs sticking out under the bench.
Suddenly Mirima swore and threw the logic probe down. At first Beejay
had thought she'd spotted him leering at her, then realised she was
swearing at the guts of the laser on the bench.
"Problem?" he offered without looking up from the text.
"Logic section is gone, and no company operations in that field.
Eight hundred ecus for a new board. Shit!"
Company operations was HouseSpeak for theft. She meant she couldn't
thieve it any cheaper than she could buy it. The Houses had earned a
reputation for efficiency. Beejay always suspected that somewhere someone
was running a spreadsheet model for them and handing out targets for each
year. He smiled at the thought of the House bosses discussing the poor
performance from the extortion section or the massage parlours. But it was
rational. He admired anything rational.
"I know that type, Hyundai 480?" He asked.
Mirima nodded.
BeeJay reached into his pocket for a half-eaten Yorkie Bar and bit
off two squares. Chewing the chocolate into a smooth paste, he kept
talking. "Spits out thirty-eight watts of plasma and tapers the pulse to
stop the tip of the laser melting or the insides overheating." He was
reciting from the manual, almost. "I can fix it."
Mirima laughed at him."Small scientist, I can fix it too, but I need
eight hundred ecus, man."
Beejay shook his head. He had half expected her to mention
operational budgets. "No you don't," he said, still reading while he spoke.
A problem had to take more than half a minute's thought before he
considered it important enough to deserve all his attention." The electro-
magnetic-pulse backwashes into the board and eventually the connections get
zapped. It's a design fault, that's why they deleted the model. All I need
to do is rewire the connections with ten ecus worth of gold wire and you're
back in business."
Mirima pushed her stool back from the work bench. "I copy that
straight? You rewire eight thousand connections for ten ecus. How you do
that Beejay? By hand? In an afternoon?"
"Well, if you happen to have an old Wang matrix-wirer at home then it
does only take an afternoon. The machine code can be a bitch to write, but
after that, it does the business."
Mirima raised both eyebrows and stared at him wide eyed. "Where you
get a thing like that small scientist?"
"Where you get a thing like that Mirima?" he said pointing to the
laser.
She laughed. "Okay, what's the deal?"
"No deal, I'll do it as a favour. Unless you happen to have access to
the Electric Company?"
Mirima shook her head and frowned. "You wasting your time there man.
No back doors into Electric company. Hey, you bust the Electric Company,
we'll make a deal with you."
Beejay shrugged. "Life's a beach. No problem. If you want me to do it
leave it at my house, I can't carry that on the bike. Maybe you can owe me
a favour."
"Beejay, you're playing my tune. It's a deal." She held out a hand
for him to slap. Fat Mike came in just as they'd finished and drew them
both a concerned, suspicious look, before handing Beejay his money.
Beejay's little half-sister Victoria was sitting on the doorstep when
he cycled into the drive. He was careful to put the bike in the hall first.
Nothing was safe in Coretown if it wasn't welded down. Coretown was the
most easterly section of Hacinohe II and the least desirable since most of
the industrial activity had grown up around the local FBR generator and the
THORP. Beejay's bike had taken a lot of saving. The local hoods, the
McKinlay family, tormented him over the bike, trying to bust a wheel
whenever he went past their hang out near the 'eight-til-late' on the
corner of the high street. He was the local deevo; deviant. Because he
could read and because he was smart, he was therefore an alien and the
object of their loathing.
Mirima's laser was already in the kitchen, with a Rhodes streamer
tied to the handle of the case. An envelope with forty ecus was taped to
the side of the case. Beejay took the notes out, crumpled the envelope and
threw it into the bin.
Victoria was seven years old and everyone called her Biskits. Her
rain suit jacket was open and dirty and she was sucking her thumb. She wore
a true-colour holograph of a Swallowtail butterfly, Papilio machaon, around
her neck. There were bits of leaves and twigs in her straight blonde hair
and she flashed a big smile when she spotted him. She kept her thumb firmly
clamped in her mouth, even when she spoke. On her lap were two intact
boards, one was another 586 and the other was crap - just four meg of ram
which wasn't worth the power drain. She stood up and held out the boards to
him. Beejay made her keep still while he removed the rubbish from her hair.
She kept the boards held out.
"Are these the right kind? Will they fit The Project?" she asked,
preparing for disappointment.
He took the boards from her and crouched down to show her the serial
numbers on the cpu chips. "This one is. See you have to look for this bit."
"Good." said Biskits, although when she pronounced the 'g' of good
her thumb got in the way and it came out soft. She was thoroughly pleased
with herself. "What about the other one?" she asked.
" Oh, it's okay. But you watch for the kind with those numbers,
right?"
She nodded.
"Where did you find them?" he asked. "Not in the tip I hope?"
Biskits shook her head vigorously. The McKinlay's sphere of influence
included the tip. The last time Biskits was there they had thought it
amusing to shove her into the rotting contents of a Yardies skip. "Oh no,"
she said quite emphatically," I don't go to the tip now. I got them from
Michiko's granddad."
"That's a good girl. You remember to stay away from the tip. Okay?"
Biskits screwed up her face. "I know, Beejay. You tell me all the
time. Don't go to the tip, don't go to the tip," she imitated him, sounding
impatient.
" Okay, okay. One other thing. Any accidents this morning?"
Biskits closed her eyes and shook her head from side to side, rather
offended that he should ask. "Nope." she said, perfunctorily.
"Did they deliver the cylinders?"
"Yup. And a nice Rhodes Girl left that case in the kitchen for you.
And," she continued quickly after taking a big breath, "mom's pissed about
Max. She says you've to change him back to being friendly."
"Oh yeah?" asked BeeJay.
"Yeah. She says he wouldn't order stuff from Tele-Mart and didn't
switch the microwave on until she shouted at him. He's always nice to me."
"Don't worry about it. I'll sort it out."
She nodded, still sucking her thumb. She looked at his pocket and looked up
at him. When he didn't do anything she looked at his pocket and looked at
him again and grunted. The she broke into a big smile and her eyes
sparkled, but her thumb stayed firmly in her mouth.
Beejay pulled ten ecus from his pocket and gently closed her hand around
them.
"Puritan Sweets only. Okay? and zip up your jacket."
Biskits took the money and ran off.
In the front room the TV was on and Linda was fast asleep on the
couch. Two hydrogen cylinders were propped against the wall where she had
left them. She hadn't bothered to change out of the SNL work clothes, and
Beejay's shades lay on her lap. He gently picked them up and slipped them
on. It was the same old beach, same massive boomers, same suntanned guys
with boards. He kicked the sand before flicking the icon down and killing
the fantasy. It was "Hawaiian Holiday". Biskits was conceived in Hawaii.
Beejay was sad for his mother, sad that she couldn't get over it. But
he was angry at her too. He was angry at the way she just took it on the
chin, and angry at the way she had lost all their money to Jack. Not lost.
Given it to him. Beejay calmed himself, pushed his anger back into the
darkness and concentrated on more positive activities. He took the laser
and a chicken sandwich from the kitchen and went upstairs.
Up in his room Linda had put three small packets, a mailing tube, the
current issue of 'International Geological Survey' and some other mail on
his bed. He considered the postmark on the mailing tube: it was Italian. He
ripped it open and slid the laminated paper out. It was his degree in
Italian from the University of Milan. He glanced down it to check his name
was spelt correctly and then threw it amongst the others on top of the book
case. The small packets each contained a single chip mounted on its service
board and the technical data sheet. He knew what they were, so he left them
to check out Max. 'Max' was the butchered remains of the old house system
that he had attached to Utah-konica deck.
"Max, what's the status on the Electric Company?" Beejay flipped the
case open and pulled out the laser. It was a heavy brute of a thing, used
in the building trade for everything from drilling small holes to punching
out doorways.
Max was silent.
"Talk to me Max."
"Oh yeah talk to you! You leave me here all day shuffling through a
pile of crap, and then I have to endure all your mothers insults! Would you
feel like talking?"
Beejay had re-programmed Max to be unfriendly. He felt it was more
honest.
"Just hit me with the status asshole."
Max sighed. "I'm still searching, but it's mostly shit. And I have a
report from IGeoSat monitor." Max sounded clipped and mechanical sometimes
because the chip had lost it's coating and the timbre control wobbled a
bit. Beejay was searching through the network to find the Electric
Company's accounts operation so he could adjust Linda's accounts. She had
fallen behind with the payments and they had disconnected her. Beejay had
taken the fuel cell out of the Inkoma to power the house up, since she
hadn't been able to pay for the repair to its suspension system either. It
wasn't as cheap as the electricity from the FBR, but at least they had
power, and he'd connected the heat exchanger to the central heating system
so they had heat too.
From his bedroom window, Beejay could just see the 'eight-til-late'
through a space between the THORP buildings. He dry-sniped a couple of
distant figures with the laser propped on the window sill for a second.
Three walls of the room were now clad in recycled computer hardware.
The Project was gradually taking over his room. Beejay looked at the
columns of angle-iron, optical cable and datastream converters that
supported the embryonic super computer, and sighed. What he really needed
was more time or more money. Or both. He knew he could do it. He knew he
would do it. And once he was in there things would be different. Things
would definitely be different. Pushing the unopened mail to one side he lay
down on the bed and chewed at the sandwich. Staring at the ceiling, he
thought of the schedule he'd set himself. The critical path analysis model
was in the handset around his neck, but he didn't look at it. He ran it in
his head instead. He could see all the intersections, all the bottlenecks
the way a painter visualised a magnificent landscape. The numbers boiled as
he adjusted the parameters, he hadn't expected to find an 886. That was a
stroke of good luck. The 886 was a much faster processor: it would reduce
the ETA by a factor of three.
What he needed now was a real break. A real big break. He daydreamed
about a large skip at the back of 'I Used To Be Massive's' store, filled
with squeaky clean 886 boards. He dreamed of the ultimate find, a 1086
board complete with ceramic heat sink and on-board solid state laser.
"Max give me the IGeoSat report."
"What? Now?"
"No, I'll wait till Christmas."
Max was silent again.
"Now! Max! Now!"
" The Japanese trench's present rate of subduction is now seven point
three two centimetres per year. This accounts for the increased activity
>from Kozu shima volcano." Max stopped for a moment. The voice program was
cyclic. "Do you want the present prediction on the cable stretch in Tokyo
City?" Beejay sat up in instantly, dropping the sandwich. His heart raced,
his head bulging with pressure; he was almost paralysed by anxiety. It
couldn't be right! He searched for a rational reason to assume there had
been a mistake, a sampling error, or some unknown technicality that had
been overlooked. But it couldn't be wrong. The IGeoSat report was a learned
journal subject to ruthless scientific scrutiny. It couldn't be wrong!
Bastards! He could see the schedule collapsing into a million worthless
pieces.
Absent mindedly he shook his head and then said "No" impatiently,
when Max produced the ready tone. With that amount of drift, the optical
cable would loose its external sheath by the end of the week. The first
internal cables would start to shred five days later, provided the movement
of the Tokyo plate was linear.
Of course, the calculations had to be made on that assumption,
otherwise the matrix became unwieldy. But Beejay knew it definitely wasn't
linear. Like the sun came up every morning, there just had to be twisting
>from the coriolis effect of the Earth's orbit. He held his breath. He tried
to visualise the matrix calculations for the planet's plate tectonics,
hoping that somewhere, on the Eurasian plate perhaps, there would be a
neutralising movement. But he couldn't. There were too many variables and
he wasn't able to concentrate on such a large scale of matrix, not when he
was tense. He reckoned there were three available satellite connections
between now and next Monday, and four the following week. He looked around
the room hoping for some inspiration.
Something major had to be done or all this effort, two years work,
would be completely wasted. He was desperate. What he needed right now were
three 1086 boards. That was the only solution. He set his mind to creating
a what-if list of where to obtain such expensive hardware without paying
for it. He felt himself twitching nervously at the thought of taking a
risk. He didn't like anything that wasn't a sure thing.
A soft electronic pip jerked him from the thought. He glanced at his
watch. He would have to go into BigWheeLand and reset the telephone account
soon. But first he would add the new boards. And then he would calculate
the course of action that involved the least risk possible.
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File - $
From: ae687@freenet.carleton.ca (Billy Biggs)
Subject: Nibbles of Information