It was a labor of love in the end. After so
much prognostication and hand-wringing, it finally came to pass that the Earth
gave up the ghost, as it were, gagging its last noxious breath as the cesspool
coating its surface finally won out. M. Geddes Gengras went with it, went down
with the ship, so to speak, but not before transmitting his final missive, a
love letter in cassette form to his once-vibrant homeworld. And so, “I Am the
Last of That Green and Warm-Hued World” proceeds like a dream of sun-dappled
afternoons in rich fields while the smells of springtime dance in your
nostrils. It is a meditation on the breeze and the clouds, on currents and
shadows, on oxygen and carbon dioxide.
No slouch behind the synthesizer – duh –
Gengras continues a wildly inventive curious streak, taking his modular chops
to Hausu Mountain this time around after having released amazing records on
labels like Umor Rex, Stunned, and RVNG Intl. Each lengthy track here takes on
a mystical quality, like MGG is attempting to tap into the spirit of the planet
one last time before it bites the big one. Here he merges with the vibrations
of life unburdened by its near-future extinction, tranquil and hopeful. Of
course, that contemplation takes on a melancholy tone when you consider where
we all end up, but until then we can ride it out in style with this joint in
our headphones. (Or, uh, we can listen on our headphones while we go around and
pick up trash or whatever. Being proactive.)
Maybe someday some entity will travel to Earth
and find a copy of “I Am the Last of That Green and Warm-Hued World,” and maybe
that being will get a sense of what the planet once was, before it turned into
a chemical toilet unsuitable for carbon-based life (assuming (a) the tape’s
playable and (b) the entity has something to play it on). Hopefully “I Am the
Last” will make that creature very sad as it contemplates the wasted
opportunities Earthlings had to contemplate serenity while conserving their
resources. But that assumes that sadness is a transferrable emotion beyond the
human experience – the alien may just not get it at all in the end, right?
--Ryan
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