It’s all about the Large Hadron Collider. That’s at CERN, son! The Conseil Européen pour la Recherche
Nucléaire! Or, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, if you’re confined
to the English language. (Boring. Moving on.) You saw Particle Fever,
right? They pretty much made a movie about the Large Hadron Collider so I don’t
have to explain that to you. I don’t even have to link to Wikipedia or
anything, you can just go watch it, it’s on Netflix. It’s a fantastic
documentary. I promise immense levels of geeking out over science-y things.
It
pretty much comes down to the fact that scientists smash the crap out of atoms
in the LHC. There’s a twenty-seven-kilometer loop through which they accelerate
particles, and then they smash them together and analyze the data. They’re
pretty much recreating the Big Bang on a miniature scale and studying it to
better understand our universe. I’m in awe of them – I mean, for how many of
you is it your main ambition to get out of bed before noon? These guys not only
do that, they destroy the building blocks of existence with the
playfulness of a five-year-old Godzilla-smashing through a LEGO structure.
It’s
almost irrelevant to talk about a cassette tape called Large Hadron Collider
when all of that is happening underground in Switzerland, but here I am at my
computer, serving you, the reader, like I always do. Jefferson Aircrash (cute)
is the nom du jour of Italian artist Rodolfo Valenti, bka V/Plasm, and
while listening to his tape, I get the feeling that he may have spent some time
wandering the halls of CERN after hours, just kind of casing the place, getting
the feel of it to inspire his music. Or maybe he just watched Particle Fever.
(Seriously, Netflix.) At any rate, Valenti captures the vast, weird idea of
subatomic particles crashing into each other and applies it to his clinical
brand of dark techno. He’s like a scientist himself behind the boards, an
expert in his chosen field, seemingly able to tease out the secrets of the past
and reconstitute them into new and exciting forms. Who knows what this
Jefferson Aircrash pseudonym will unveil next! Clearly the next evolutionary
step, where the molecules of Orbital, Autechre, Underworld, and Aphex Twin are
blasted at near-light speeds at each other. Maybe the LHC truthers were right –
the result of this collision sounds like a black hole in the making, one that
will swallow Earth and then make for the rest of the solar system!
Haha,
who am I kidding. Truthers are hilarious.
--Ryan Masteller
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