There I was, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool. Shooting some b-ball outside of
the school. When a couple of guys – they were up to no good – slipped me this
new tape by Millions. I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t! I had an old Run DMC
tape in my Walkman. I was expecting something along those lines, I think. I was
way off.
Straight dissonance! Killin’ it, right off, with a blast of freshly
heated synth noise, melting my ears and face alike with “Trespassers.” This Millions
cat, David Suss, where does he get off? I almost dropped my Yoo Hoo, and then
there would’ve been trouble. I haven’t had a Yoo Hoo catastrophe like that
since “Nil Admirari,” Oneohtrix Point Never’s similarly album-starting nuclear
meltdown on Returnal. Alright, Suss
calms it down to pure tones by the end of the track, but I’m chugging my drink
in case “Bilocation,” up next, does this to me again.
“Bilocation” doesn’t ignite rocket fuel up in my grill, but it’s
unsettling for thirteen minutes nonetheless. Sparkling synth meanders through
the galaxy, all pretty and inviting, until a transmission interrupts it and the
SETI Institute goes apeshit over the source of the interruption. At least they
would if I elected to inform them. This one’s piping straight to my earbuds,
and nobody gets any of it.
So it’s clear now that I’m only in it for the space bucks, and maybe a
ride in a souped-up intergalactic 1973 Dodge Swinger. That’s right, I’m pretty
far gone – I’m leaving my street-balling days behind for interstellar space
travel! “Prismatic” is the trip, and then the portal, and then I’m in and out.
“Line in the Sky” culminates in the promise of infinite movement, never staying
in one place, always moving toward a new destination. Maybe I’m still being called
by those transmissions. Maybe not.
This whole tape was inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s book Against the Day, by the way. I’ve never
read any Pynchon, but I just saw Inherent
Vice and was decidedly underwhelmed, but I’m more at odds with PT Anderson
than anybody. Also, Pynchon had that bag over his head on The Simpsons. At any rate, this tape is perfect sci-fi head
trippiness. Let Millions, and Field Hymns, make some trouble in your
neighborhood sometime soon, OK?
--Ryan Masteller
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