Hinterland + Metropole by VercinFeatherix

This is intended as a companion piece to "2052" and "Life on Mars", occupying the same thematic, fictional, musical universe, taking place after the former and before the latter. It imagines and very loosely outlines a post-apocalypse of the Anthropocene via musical vignettes.

The looming, uneasy sense of doom and apocalyptic potential expressed in "2052" has come and gone, whether as a bang or a whimper, and while the settlement and resulting society described on "Mars" is being established by those who could flee to space (and the underlings they drag along with them) there are the many left behind to try to sift through and make life out of the wreckage and ruins.

Being set in the medium future (let's say 300-400 years) this album assumes a world where there's been further development of our technological abilities - specifically, that we were able to establish widespread use of relatively effective automation and machine learning, to that point that it largely runs itself and persists despite a significant reduction in human population following whatever flavor of collapse we caused.

The global economic apparatus continues as ever, being designed with our current market ethos to maximize extraction and profit, and to completely disregard human need. Continuing on our trajectory of extinction and ecological devastation, nature is effectively eradicated and replaced with these various mechanized networks.

There are vast hinterlands throughout the world, pockets of people too physically isolated from habitable urban areas to have direct knowledge of how the technology they see functions. They have only the faintest of memories of re-tellings of life before collapse, and understandably mythologize it and it's ruins that they wander through. With total ecological collapse, rather than following the seasonal migrations of large fauna, they follow supply chains and distribution networks, hunting and raiding and stealing from driverless vehicles, fleeing armed drones, moving between bombed out, overgrown suburbs and strip malls. A rough and meager life, but free from the direct control of those psychopathic systems, so if nothing else, rich in free time and solidarity.

There are also isolated and densely populated cities, the hubs of these automated networks. With great technological development comes fabulous treats and gadgets, great wealth, monumental displays of technological prowess - but of course, this marvelous technology operating within the ethics of hyper-capitalism, these benefits are hoarded. The vast majority of urban dwellers live in a constant state of dire precariousness: expected to work to live but in a world of near total automation, mostly just labeling images to further train AI's; in the midst of grand towers, palatial structures, and unfathomable wealth, but crammed into pods, eating bug paste, breathing in fetid, toxic air, and largely kept at bay with spectacular simulations; largely left to fend for themselves and die, as they are not just a surplus labor army but a surplus population in general.

And then we discover, as would be expected, that having ushered in a barely habitable planet and global misery and death, the future Bourgeoisie haven't completely abandoned Earth. Rather, they float above in the stars in luxurious space stations, siphoning off whatever material wealth and resources can still be dredged out, thinking of themselves as interplanetary gods, and like the gods of old, engaging in all manner of depravity to satisfy their boredom, free of remorse or self-reflection.

Certainly a broad and (I hope) interesting thought experiment and series of musical sketches, but what's the point?

Of course, given the subject matter, this is a means of dealing with and exploring my deep anxieties and pessimism about the future. The continued doubling down on a global system that is very clearly leading toward ecologic catastrophe is deeply frightening, and I'll confess that at this point it's broken my brain, and that I'm all but a full on Doomer. Covid was the dry run for whatever larger disaster lingers unseen over the smoky hills, and as the reaction to Covid has made clear, the owning class is very prepared for mass death, and clearly still have enough power to coerce or convince the rest of us into accepting it, as well. The alienation and atomization of Neoliberalism is so thoroughly ingrained in every aspect of contemporary life that I'm having a hard time seeing how or when the level of solidarity, coordination, and class consciousness necessary to counter or even just slow down this machine of death in which we all reside is going to develop.

But by that same token, I also freely confess to strongly believing in the value of utopian yearning. History totters in a wobbling, chaotic, near random cycle of tragedies followed by their farcical mirrors. There is no predetermined outcome. On the cosmic scale, depending on what types of theories and frameworks of the universe you choose to believe, everything that could ever be has been and can/will be again. Therefore, the act of imagining something better in a sense conjures it into existence, if perhaps only in a parallel and/or future universe. There are theoretically infinite parallel universes where what we'd consider utopian is ho-hum and commonplace. I take solace and am very happy for those parallel versions of me on those other Earths who enjoy those splendors, and in imagining and dreaming of it, an infinitesimal portal opens between my soul and their's and makes it real (albeit to an extremely limited, ephemeral sense).

So despite the seemingly highly probably of larger disaster, we owe it to ourselves to still keep that sincerity and earnest yearning for something better, to vehemently reject the notion that 'history is dead'. While obviously bound by material conditions, and certainly not something that will just magically occur without considerable struggle and likely great hardship, the present and future can be what we want it to be. We just have to figure out how we're going seize it back from these unimaginative, vampiric motherfuckers who are dragging us into oblivion with them. Fingers crossed.

Just a simple dude trying to make sense of a brutal and unjust world.

I delve into my anxieties, loves, fears, and joys, and refract that energy into groovy vibes.

I'm immeasurably grateful for your time and ears.

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