cyberpunk

by Mark Frauenffelder

Former editor in chief of Boing Boing, a cyberpunk ~ oriented publication, now editor of ‘Wired’, another computer magazine, reviewed Billy’s latest album.
Below are his comments, but first we hear from our Idol himself :

"Charmed Life took 3 years to record. Cyberpunk took 10 months.
It puts you much more in touch with your own music.
We’ve got the method behind the ideas I had in the early eighties. I’ve always tried to mix elements of technology with Rock ‘n’ Roll. The promise got a little bit lost back then because the technology wasn’t up to what we wanted to do.
Thank God the nineties have arrived & technology’s moved so fast.
It’s made the dream real." ~~ Billy Idol

The PUNK revolution bombarded Authority with the frenetic energy of music fuelled by primal rage.
Cyberpunk is a new revolution where the rebels arm themselves with do-it-yourself technology, cheap computers, & unlimited access to digital information.
Centralisation is dead.
Specialisation is for insects.
"A FANTASY SCENE IN MY MACHINE GIVE ME THE SECRET OF LIFE" - WASTELAND.

The DIY attitude blasts through in the Cyberpunk album. It was recorded in a home studio controlled by a Macintosh computer.
"E" missionary man Billy Idol, his guitar player Mark Younger-Smith, & producer Robin Hancock purposely fuzzed-up the boundaries of producer/artist by trading roles from song to song. They used the computer as a tool to amplify & transmit live energy to the songs on Cyberpunk.
"It’s wrong to call this a computerised album, because we could play the whole thing by bangin’ on one ****ing drum, an acoustic guitar & me screaming.
The computer was just a way to skip levels & get a jump start in the game "

Digital technology has escaped from the confines of military & scientific research institutions & is in the hands of individuals. The coolest innovations happen on the fringes, in peoples garages, or on their desks, where lack of money is more than made up for by creativity & a desire to learn. Big technology is only interested in developing cheaper ways to control or kill more people. Cyberpunk is rebel science; it’s about counteracting Big Tech’s efforts & creating freedom for the individual. Cyberspace is Authority’s worst nightmare. It’s easy to burn a book, or stomp on a protester’s head, but much harder to stomp on electronic information.
"A CY-FI STORY, A DIRT COLOURED LOVE. NEW HOPE OF GLORY. I LIKE TO FIGHT, I KILL GLOBAL OPPRESSION. IF I QUIT, NO HOPE OF REDEMPTION" ~ TOMMOROW PEOPLE

The CYBERPUNK tour will incorporate the latest developments dripping from the bleeding-edge of technology, including telepresence robotry, VR interactivity, & real time "Blendo" video manipulation, in which Idol will tweak images from 20 "swarm cams" & present them on giant monitors.

For too long, monolithic media institutions have been handing down their version of the truth.
Authority implants living mind-viruses into your brain, turning you into their robot. Are you willing to let someone else make the decisions for you ? Cyberpunks refuse to buy into one-to-many form of communication. For $500, you can buy a computer & a modem & participate in many-to-many computer network communication, where there are no ‘reporters’ or ‘readers’, only individuals sharing information instantaneously. You no longer have to be a consumer of someone else’s version of the truth.

Cyberspace !

"TURN ON THE LIES, THE SECRETS, OF OUR DESOLATION, OR BE SMOTHERED, BY THE RED-HOT CORE" ~ NEUROMANCER.

We are merging with machines to become smarter, faster & more powerful. The technological genie is out of the bottle & is growing & mutating beyond our control. Life has never been more wonderful, nor has it been more terrifying. Are you going to ignore technology, turn your back on it, & let authority enslave you with it, or are you going to learn everything you can about surviving an the digital age?
"IN CYBERSPACE, YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THE EARTH AIN’T LEARNING. SMOKING OUT THE MAN, INSIDE THE CHILD - YEAH" ~ NEUROMANCER

"The last thing we thought we’d get by working through the computer was a ‘band’ sound. That’s the most amazing thing to me about this album. Almost all the songs were done by Mark Younger-Smith, Billy Idol, Robin Hancock & Doug Wimbish.
What you’ve got is four people creating what is essentially a band sound. That’s what those tracks had. We achieved our ultimate goal, which is meshing the Sturm & Drang, the passionate RAGE of Rock ‘n’ Roll with the new cool tool & setting it ablaze! That’s what makes it a Rock ‘n’ Roll album rather than just kind of a techno album."

Non-frames index