Insomniak - I must Sleep

I should start this post with a waring my parents used to repeat back in the 60's and 70's when in some circles it was believed  Rock n roll was the Devil's music and some muscians but  particularly those heavy metal musicians like Led Zepplin and Black Sabbath used a technique know as back masking  (recording words backwards) to hide subliminal messages in the music. It was claimed some even recorded the message "Worship Satan"

In the mid eighties I was listening to some metal / hardcore punk and indie.I was huge fan of the Misfits having discovered them through Metallica, The Misfits played with horror and occult imagery even calling their live album EviL Live.

When the Stone Roses released their eponymous 1st album, I noticed on one track they made use of the production technique of playing the music backwards in one track  (I assumed it was a nod to The Beatles who I understand also  did it)

A few years later after I had discovered the Rave scene. There was an early rave tune by DJ PC called "Insomniac"  with the refain  "Insomniac , I must sleep"  or was it "Insomniac , I'm asleep"  I always figured it was the first as the second would make no sense. After all  being asleep is the reverse of being an Insomniac.

A few years later still I was with my friend Jonny  Jedi .We were mixing records and he played the Insomniac tune, I commented on my confusion over what it said,  so he manually stopped it to play it back.

It was only then we realised what the producers had discovered, when the word Insomniac is played backwards the  phrase "I'm asleep/I must sleep" is the result !

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The Techno Smiley

 

The Smiley face was the icon of Acid House era of 88/89  by the early 90's the rave sound was evolving in different directions and jungle techno was emerging from the hardcore , break beat  and techno. One pioneering tune was Durban Poison by Babylon Timewarp .This tune was hammered at the time on stations like Kool FM.  I remember buying it and hearing it played at a Tribal NRG party at The cool tan centre  in Brixton that I attended with Jonny Jedi. A few years later after we met Snooze  at a Liberator party at the  The Old School House . I discovered the techno smiley on the sleeve was designed and drawn by him.

Another Techno Smiley of that eras appeared on the label of DJAX UP-BEATS

In recent years Kool FM has been relaunched and many of the original headz are still there. MC Navigator ,The Ragga Twins , Brockie and Det  but also the likes of Warlock , Jerome Hill  and  The Distant Planet Crew who began using the techno smiley as far back as 2012 as a central icon their flyers

Nine

 Deep Space Nine - Star Trek

Council of Nine

The Nine stages of the Great Perfection -Dozgchen by Master Lian Sheng Lu

P Carda / Cardy B

Cardy B

P Carda

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B B's   & Queen B's

Picard/P Carda

 Picard - Star Trek

P Carda

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 P's , P P,  &  P P P

Chapel Perilous/Existential Crisis/Awakening

Lion King & Queen B

I was first made aware of the 5% nation back in the 90's by my friend Jonny Jedi who was into his old school hip hop. It was also around the time I first became aware of ; Martin Luther King, The Civil Rights movement, Malcolm X, The Nation of Islam, Black Panthers ,The Weather Underground etc.

The 5% always resonated with me because as a teenager I went to an academically selective school (QEH) and my mother often reminded me "Your one of 5% of the nation that get this opportunity" 

While studying Psychology at University I read about the counter culture of the 60's; The Merry Pranksters, William Burroughs,  Robert Anton Wilson etc I  became aware of ;  The Illuminati , The Rosicrucians ,  The Freemasons, Conspiracy theories, Eastern Mysticism and Cults. during the same period I immersed myself in the emerging Rave culture.

It was in this environment I became aware of a  psychological  process that some people experience. This can be triggered by a variety of things, sometimes by a religious or spiritual experience , other times by drug use or energetic practises eg raising kundalini. It may also be triggered by literature or  societal pressures , sometimes it's just a naturally occurring process.

I became aware the experience can be referred to by a variety of names. An existential crisis/ psychotic breakdown/spiritual awakening/dark night of the soul/chapel perilous... depending on how it is experienced by the subject and interpreted by society . I remember a very extreme example playing out live on television in the eighties when Terry Wogan interviewed David Icke. 

The nature of the experience by the subject is dependent on a number of factors including (but not limited to) ; The language / belief system available to the subject (that enables the subject to makes sense of their experiences), their support network and their mental/physical health.

I had my own experience of Chapel Perilous in the mid 90's , I survived relatively unscathed despite/because of my contact with various cults.

At one point point while living in a Buddhist Temple and working at the Flagship offices of the Sitel Corporation I met a number of people from The Holy Tabernacle Ministries. Their  discussions about universal truths taught by the world religions and their focus on  "Knowledge of Self" resonated with me. This was time of Tupac, Biggie and Puff Daddy. It wasn't until more than a decade later that later I heard the phrase the Killuminati

In 2012 I took my wife and son to a pre  Olympic concert in Hackney.  Jay Z, Kanye West, Beyonce,  Rhianna , Ed Sheeran and Example all impressed. I was sad a few years later to see Kanye West go through his own existential crisis in public and see that for him, just like many others experiencing such an episode, fears about; economics/government , racism, paedophilia etc can become magnified and take one down a negative path.

Thee Totempole of JSteveKane

Thee Poetry ov LLB

FESTIVAL

I mean it was a techno festival:

Teknival in the south of France

Spiral Tribe blasting it out at 123bpm

The whole site avvin it, and avvin it large

Dancing stumbling grinning gurning 

In the scorching southern sun 

Through the cool of the evening

On, on into the dawn

And back to the scorching sun

I mean it was a techno festival

The Bucket Sisters avvin it, and avvin it large

Very JD-worse-for-wear 

The dregs of a bottle in one hand

Each other’s hand in the other

Stumbling into the marquee 

Under the cover of darkness

Yelling “Turn it up! Turn it up!”

Sozzled eyes try to see

Stumbling laughing grinning gurning 

Wondering why no one’s dancing

Wondering why we can’t hear the tunes

Wondering why everyone is sitting down

I mean it was a techno festival

How did we know that they’d have

A Buddhist meditation tent?

FOUCAULT

He said he knew philosophy

But it turned out he knew Foucault

I thought he’d touched the heart of me

He said he knew philosophy

We hit it off tremendously

But finally I saw the truth

He said he knew philosophy

But it turned out he knew Foucault

The first of these poems by Lisa Lovebucket reminded me of  a Tribal NRG party I attended in the early 90's  with my friend Jonny Jedi.

The second poem reminded mevof the days when I was deep in the Kung Fu Cult