zeuhl (13. 153)

In the conlang Kobaïan invented by drummer and founder of the experimental prog rock and jazz fusion French band Magma, Christian Vander, the title means in combination with ẁortz means “celestial force” and has become a sub-genre unto itself distinct from the related Space Music and Kosmische Musik sound. Established two years after the death of John Coltrane, unmatched and unmeted, Magma’s members sought in all reverence and humility to carry on the transcendental tradition and create something new and never before experienced. The band’s tracks, stretching across seven albums and with a couple of inspired surrogates, notably in Japan, Belgium and Sweden as well as garnering French compatriots, also extensively sampled from the neoclassical canon, including the structure of Carmina Burana. The chief and often exclusive lyrical language for Magma’s songs, the group still continuing in one form or another to the present, the libretto for a literal space opera about a group of human refugees settling on the distant world of Kobaïa after the Earth was rendered uninhabitable. Much more from John Coulthart’s journal {feuilleton} with performances, appearances and cross-overs at the link up top.

does she walk, does she talk, does she come complete (13. 149)

The lead single from their tenth studio album Freeze Frame (with the b-side Rage in the Cage) climbed to the top of the charts of the US Billboard Hot 100 on this day in 1982, holding the spot for six weeks, the record also reaching number one at the same time with parallel success in Canadian and Australian markets. Though arising a few years late, “Centerfold” for its hook and chorus is counted among the album-oriented radio hits, a play format that embraces the full-repertoire of a group and exploring deep-cuts, originating out of a 1964 US Federal Communications Commission regulation prohibiting simulcasts for stations’ AM and FM broadcast bands and programming pivoting to exploration to balance out regular rotation of the latest most popular songs, giving rise to speciality call-signs and defining the genre of classic rock. Narratively about a man shocked by the discovery that his former high school unrequited love interest has appeared in an adult magazine, the singer’s lustful thoughts continue to the end. The previous hit of the J Geils’s Band, “Love Stinks,” informed the guitar riff in “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and caused their shift from Blues to Pop-Rock.

rëşt ộf wŏrld (13. 141)

DJ Earworm’s (previously) reprised mashup, Tops of the World, features the number one song in one hundred forty nine countries from the past twelve months, showcasing some one hundred five hits (obliviously some cross-over) is back online. This lesson in geography, music and culture expressed through dance, instrumentation and fashion as a global exchange is ambitious and inevitably ran into some legal entanglements and take-down notices due to the range of copyright laws that one would expect to have to navigate. Annotated, click through for a full listing of the samples and learn more about each source track and artist and inclusion methodology. This compilation might end the need for international song competitions. Let us know your new favourites and what you have learnt.

money feeds my music machine (13. 140)

Though the success of the single was unmatched by the short-lived Lemon Pipers, the song topping the Billboard charts on this day in 1968, the band could not be fairly classified as merely a one-hit wonder as “Green Tambourine” is regarded as the breakthrough song for bubblegum pop and psychedelia, exposing the listening public to both seemingly disparate genres in one track. Cowritten by Shelley Pinz, a writer and lyricist working at the Brill Building in Manhattan’s historic Tin Pan Alley neighbourhood—housing offices of industry executives and studios, producing the American songbook of influential and popular music from the Big Band era through the 1970s with the address bestowing a signature sound—the words were inspired by a busker Pinz saw on the street one day and wrote a verse wondering what happened to him. Arranged for tambourine and electric sitar, it introduces the dechronicisation elements of time signature changes, fades and tape echo that no one was certain would be received well in a mainstream release. The Lemon Pipers had some moderate follow up success with “Jelly Jungle,” “Rice is Nice” and “Blueberry Blue”—also by Pinz but did not like working for a label after they were discovered feeling stereotyped and only allowed to record what was intended to capitalise on their initial hit and disbanded in 1969. Outside of US markets, more radio play was given to a cover version that appeared on the eponymous debut album Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo.

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synchronoptica

one year ago: the acting FBI director (with synchronopticæ) plus assorted links worth the revisit

twelve years ago: cross-border pizza deliveries 

thirteen years ago: Shakespearian words 

fourteen years ago: tensions in the Middle East 

fifteen years ago: the Twitter revolutions 

sixteen years ago: US military embraces social media 

seventeen years ago: chain-of-command 

you’re one of my kind (13. 129)

As our faithful chronicler informs, on this day in 1988 the lead single from the band’s sixth studio album Kick climbed to the top of the US charts, subsequently approaching number one in Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK. The music video, influencing radio play, is combination of “Need You Tonight” with the following track from the album, “Meditate,” which segue together, in the tradition of Queen’s “We Will Rock You”/“We Are the Champions,” the movements from the 1987 concept record are generally combined as a set. The poetry slam of “Meditate” is an homage to Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” with INXS members displaying title cards—ending with the date that atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and “sax solo.” Kylie Minogue and Bonnie Raitt, among many others, have performed covers of the song.

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synchronoptica

one year ago: a fireless engine (with synchronpticæ) plus a Lunar New Year’s gaming tradition

twelve years ago: pension supplements 

thirteen years ago: diet fads plus English as She is Spoke

fourteen years ago: Greek haircut 

sixteen years ago: plus-sized iPods plus couple’s sleep positions

10x10 (13. 125)

no ordinary venue: disgraced FIFA ex-president Sepp Blatter encourages a World Cup boycott of the US  

slideshow: reconstructing the lecture series of Theosophist and meteorologist Clement Wragge  

margin unit: Persevereance rover discovers evidence of an ancient beach in Mars’ Jezero crater 

jesse garon presley: Scott Walker’s ballad about Elvis’ lost twin 

squaring the circle: a clever workaround to the geometrical conundrum  

optimised for nastiness: Sir Tim Berners-Lee is in a battle for the soul of the web 

the streets of minneapolis: Bruce Springsteen’s tribute to the resistance and its fallen champions  

don’t look up: asteroid 2024 YR4 has a four percent chance of striking the Moon 

tangible data: information that one can hold in one’s hands—via Kottke 

host nation: Italian officials condemn planned presence of US ICE agents for the Winter Games

10x10 (13. 118)

write his merits on your mind: a fitting eulogy for murdered ICE victims from eighteenth century poet William Drennen on the persecuted and defamed activist William Orr 

drizzle: the controversial conservatory teacher Li Jinhui (黎錦暉) who brought jazz to Shanghai 

sons of torum: the dreamtime legends of the vast taiga 

fungus among us: the sociophonetics of the mushroom kingdom—from the Roman legal Latin res fungibiles, replaceable things 

the life aquatic: a tribute to David Bowie on the tenth anniversary of his passing with beautiful Portuguese covers of the classics 

arsenal and armoury: a new exhibit examines global traditions of battlewear, beyond white knights  

stooky bill: a visit to the London address where television was first demonstrated—see previously—a hundred years ago today 

deluge: British Museum curator on the “ark tablet” and the universal myth of the Great Flood  

chill session: a set of deep cuts from Daft Punk 

border czar: Trump dispatches Tom Homan to Minnesota to manage the campaign of state terror

märchesänger (13. 107)

Youth choir, whose early members were mostly comprised of individuals orphaned during the war founded in 1948 in Obernkirchen in Niedersachsen (named after the constituent county in West Germany), the Schaumburg Fairytale Singers rapidly attained a high degree of musical excellence, winning many competitions in their class, and were propelled to a level of international fame unexpectedly on this day when their English interpretation of Der fröhliche Wanderer (Mein Vater war ein Wandersmann) peaking at number two of the British singles on this day in 1954, remaining in the charts for twenty-three weeks after it was broadcasted by the BBC as the encore after placing during a performance in Wales. Domestically, the arrangement composed by the choir director’s brother made to sound like an authentic folk song, the success of the Schaumburger Märchesänger was boosted by the Merry Wanderer being made into a Heimatfilm (a nostalgic, pastoral genre especially popular in West Germany and Austria from the late 1940s to early 1960s, and abroad lead numerous tours, concerts and special appearances, including the Ed Sullivan Show and at the Kennedy White House. With an expanded repertoire and extended alumni association, the choir and music school (also with multiple campuses) continues the legacy of its founders in cultivating talent.

agnes english (13. 101)

The one-hit wonder from John Fred and the Playboy Band reached the top of the US singles charts on this day in 1968, holding the number one spot for two weeks with their best known song, whose title is a mondegreen of the Beatles’ track “Lucy in the Sky” which Fred initially misheard. Although never achieving the same success as the lead from their sophomore album—performing well on international markets too with Argentinian singer Anthony Swete’s version of “Judy Disfrazada” among South America’s best-selling singles of the year, very much influenced by the British Invasion, the group hailing from Baton Rouge had a sizeable discography and were active for decades in the local music scene as session performers and openers.

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synchronoptica

one year ago: Reagan’s second inaugural (with synchronopticæ), planetary alignment plus Trump’s second inaugural  

twelve years ago: the Treaty with Respect to the Final Settlement on Germany plus psychoanalytic comics

thirteen years ago: tinkering with DNA, organic wine plus more yarn bombing

fourteen years ago: piracy and copyfight 

fifteen years ago: regional rights 

what a mistaica to make-a (13 .091)

On this day in 1996, the seaplane of Jimmy Buffett, Hemisphere Dancer, whilst taxiing off the coast of Negril was fired upon by the national coast guard mistaking it for a drug-trafficking aircraft. Only sustaining minimal damage with no injuries, the pilot surrendered to authorities following several harrowing minutes of assault and the passenger manifest included U2 members Adam Clayton, Bono and his family as well as Island Records producer Chris Blackwell. The government acknowledged the incident and issued an apology, and Buffett (previously) penned a song several months later to commemorate the rather traumatising event—admitting in the fullness of time that he might have been transporting his own personal stash.

*     *     *     *     *

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting (with synchronopticæ), Trump’s special envoys to Hollywood plus identified aerial phenomena 

thirteen years ago: clinical studies on marijuana 

fourteen years ago: planet hunters 

sixteen years ago: hircine decor 

there’s rocks and there’s boulders—children take cover (13. 063)

Apologies for propagating this somewhat irreverent earworm—but blame Miss Cellania for referring us to this lyrical seismic realignment of the classic Fleetwood Mac ballad, composed in 1975 but not released until 1997 as a single after the group reunited) to make it literally about natural disasters by Dustin Ballard (aka There I Ruined It, see previously) and friends. The band’s beautiful repertoire in my head isn’t so sacrosanct not to be above parody and often mentally set random phrases that scan alike to Edge of Seventeen, etc. I’m taking cover too.

9x9 (13. 061)

flu season: experimentation with gene-editing tools suggest CRISPR may be able to stop the virus from replicating—see also

i want my mtv: a service that rebroadcasts the cable channel from its first day until they stopped playing music, including vintage commercials—via MetaFilter 

l’etat, c’est moi: Trump makes the case for his own impeachment with his Mar-a-Lago press conference on Venezuela  

fire with fire: stopping a rogue AI with an instinct for self-preservation may call for turning off the internet—or more drastic measures 

a day of love: a plaque commemorating Washington, DC police for their actions during the Capitol insurrection has gone missing on this fifth anniversary—see below, see also  

monkeybranching: Gen Z dating and relationship terminology  

donroe doctrine: Denmark demands Trump quit his designs on seizing Greenland, risks the end of NATO  

gomrath: a forgotten psychedelic masterpiece rediscovered fifty years on  

home-brew: researchers develop a vaccine deliverable by beer

synchronoptica

one year ago: European Cultural Capitals (with synchronopticæ), certifying the vote of the electoral college plus the coat of arms of Denmark changed to signal Greenland is not for sale

twelve years ago: repeating history’s mistakes

thirteen years ago: cocoa and Christmas chocolates plus the threshold of discoverability for actors

fourteen years ago: debates over fluoridated water plus American empire

sixteen years ago: boxing up the Christmas stuff 

seventeen years ago: a faded superpower 

the world of 2026 a.d. (13. 048)

Though the time setting for the novel and later screen-play for the film by Thea von Harbou is up for interpretation, having both gone through several rewrites and serialisation prior to and after its debut in 1927, subject to reconstructions during restoration—the original title cards, incorporated in the 2010 remastering does not specify a year and contemporary audiences placed it around the turn of the millennium, both 2000 and 3000—at minimum the Giorgio Moroder produced truncated version from 1984, the silent film rescored featuring a pop-soundtrack with Bonnie Tyler, Adam Ant, Pat Benatar, Freddie Mercury (see also) and Loverboy, does specifically set Fritz Lang’s Metropolis in this year with an intertitle, subtitles used for the dialogue.

l’amour des trois oranges (13. 041)

Premiering on this day in 1921 Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre, Sergei Prokofiev’s satirical French-language opera (Любовь к трём апельсинам, The Love for Three Oranges, based on an seventeenth century Italian fairy tale of the same name) resulted from a commission after his first series of performances in the United States were well received by audiences. Reception to his avant-garde works (see previously here, here and here)by Americans may strike as a bit unlikely and whilst initial criticism was harsh, crowds flocked to see a commedia dell’arte piece (a parody of the genre) instilled with surrealism in a foreign language and has seen multiple revivals over the decades. The most familiar leitmotiv from the opera is the below march movement, referenced in popular culture, including the contemporary novel by F Scott Fitzgerald, Tender in the Night, with the protagonist awakening from a dream sequence of a military parade set to the music.

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synchronoptica

one year ago: calendrical correspondence (with sychronopticæ), 2024 in review, Bloomberg’s Jealousy List plus The Pirate of Penzance Broadway premiere

twelve years ago: predictions v projections plus proto-memes

fifteen years ago: treacherous driving conditions plus more security theatre

9x9 (13. 027)

pot to kettle: US bans Europeans who encouraged social media to suppress American points of view—see also, whilst the Heritage Foundation openly calls for the dissolution of the European Union  

sight unseen: a collection of the best video essays of 2025  

winter tarotscope: a collective reading for the coming season from AX Mina  

first and main: store front churches as captured by Rob Stephenson—via Messy Nessy Chic with a lot more to explore including more on glass models of deep sea creatures  

x-mas post: holiday greeting cards to Paul Rand (previously) from other designers, artists and architects  

commodorchestra: Linus Åkesson (previously) performs an ambitious chip-tune arrangement of Boléro (see also) on an assortment of homemade eight-bit instruments 

exhibit a: a simple copy-and-paste undoes redactions to some of the Epstein files  

the address is cbs: the censored reporting on the infamous CECOT prison removed from 60 Minutes was bootlegged by international broadcasts—via Super Punch

synchronoptica

one year ago: the first wholly electronic television transmission (with synchronopticæ), the Bohemian John Phillips Souza plus a Christmas pause 

fourteen years ago: a Star Wars Nativity scene 

fifteen years ago: Christmas Eve greetings 

sixteen years ago: zodiacal mugs 

seventeen years ago: miscellany from Wikipedia 

troppo paradiso nelle loro menti (13. 026)

Via Laughing Squid, we are introduced to the musical stylings of the talented Italian guitar quartet 40 Fingers with this moody, acoustic rendition of the overture from Jesus Christ Superstar, the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice rock opera—with an absolutely brilliant arrangement (see previously—Silent Night was originally a guitar piece as well). The band’s biggest viral moment yet was a cover of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and have taken a particular interest in film scores.

public domain review (13. 021)

In anticipation of Public Domain Day 2026 (previously), here is a preview of the selection of literary and artistic works from 1930 and musical compositions from 1925 (under US jurisdiction, songs have a full century until IP lapses under current law) whose copyrights expire and are released to whomever and for whatever purpose. Artists’ works include Piet Mondrian’s Composition II, the pictured untitled work by Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Abel Lafleur’s Jules Rimet Cup—the original trophy of FIFA, along with countless works in the Art Deco movement registered in that year. Among dozens of cinematic works, All Quiet on the Western Front, the Three Stooges’ Soup to Nuts, The Marx Brothers’ Animal Crackers and Savadore Dalí’s and Luis Buñuel’s L'Âge d’or are counted in, as well as audio recordings by the Gershwin brothers like “I Got Rhythm” and “Embraceable You,” “Georgia on My Mind” by Hoagy Carmichael, “Dream a Little Dream of Me,”Leo Robin’s “Beyond the Blue Horizon,” the inspiration for the Star Trek theme (see also) and “Sweet Georgia Brown.” Comics and cartoons include Betty Boop, Disney’s first appearance of Pluto (as Rover) and Flip the Frog and other characters created by Ib Iwerks after he left the studio. More from Duke Law School at the link up top.

all the kids in the marketplace say (13. 017)

The third single from the band’s second studio album, A Different Light, released earlier in the year in September climbed to the top of the US charts on this day in 1986, holding the number one slot for four weeks and marked the Bangles’ first hit, and ranked Billboard’s best song of 1987. Songwriter Liam Sternberg (also a producer and performer who worked with Devo, the Waitresses, Kirsty MacColl and many others) was inspired for the title—and his biggest credit to date—whilst on a ferry-crossing of the Channel in rough waters and witnessed fellow passengers stepping carefully with arms outstretched to keep their balance, reminding him of Ancient Egyptian friezes and reliefs, composing the track around that image. The below video also received accolades from MTV.

talk to me (13. 009)

DJ Earworm (previously), aka Jordan Roseman of San Francisco, presents his annual United State of Pop in a quite longstanding and well established, since 2007, tradition of mashing-up the most vaunted albums of the year. And whilst admitting I must have aged out of the top-twenty for some time now—and recognised zero percent of these songs but a few of the artists, I appreciate the artistry of the precise mixing and sampling of contemporary culture as a hook to make me want to find out more.

*    *    *    *    *

synchronoptica

one year ago: Chinese names and the challenges of Romanisation (with synchronopticæ), a survey of superyachts plus euro coins starter packets

twelve years ago: the evolution of Santa Claus plus holiday long-distance commercials

thirteen years ago: the coat of arms for Frankfurt am Main 

sixteen years ago: ring-fatigue 

toscanini, dacron (13. 007)

Eventually garnering a Grammy award for Record of the Year, Billy Joel’s eleventh studio album reached the top of the charts in domestic markets on this day in 1989 (cover art featuring a billowing storm warning maritime flag flown to signal the highest intensity gales on the Beaufort wind scale). Featuring tracks including “I Go to Extremes,” “Leningrad” (Joel’s take on the dissolution of the Soviet Union and “That’s Not Her Style,” it was the single “We Didn’t Start the Fire” (previously) that stood out as most memorable. Having just turned forty, Joel was inspired by a chance encounter with a friend of Sean Lennon at a recording studio half his age, reflecting that it was a terrible time to be twenty-one, with a litany of contemporary dilemmas. Joel encountered he had his own at that age, which his interlocutor dismissed, saying he had grown up in the 1950s, a rather halcyon pause in their mind at least when nothing happened. Joel came back with a few headlines of the time and conceived a catalogue of all the impactful, formative events, cultural and political, that had occurred between the year of his birth, 1949, to the present—in mostly chronological order (see above). One hundred-eighteen people, artefacts and circumstances are listed in the song, which upon re-evaluation are panned lyrically, almost to the point of disavowal, with absolute refusal for extra verses by the artist. Only four named individuals are still alive—Brigitte Bardot, Bob Dylan, Bernie Goetz and Chubby Checker.

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synchronoptica

one year ago: The Towering Inferno (with synchronopticæ), assorted links worth the revisit plus a museum dedicated to depictions of The Last Supper

twelve years ago: seigniorage and inflation  

thirteen years ago: trim up the tree with Christmas stuff, US school shootings, lucid dreaming plus O Antiphons

fifteen years ago: the legacy of Cablegate