Photo Essay: Mushroom Hunting
“Judgment Night“ (soundtrack) a review and an incomplete history of the rap-rock genre
Spotify Playlist: Judgment Night… plus
The use of genres to categorize music, much like the use of taxonomy for the classification of organisms, provides a handy framework but is not without its faults. The shaky scaffolding buckles under the strain of classifying musicians and music that defy or destroy classification with no regard for external constraints.
Those of us coming of age before the commercialization of the internet, in that twilight period when the tape cassette passed into shadow and the CD ascended , movie soundtracks served as a playlist of sorts.
One need look no further than a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack to find some of the best playlists ever created. But where Tarantino movies are both visually and sonically part of my cultural fabric, the movie “Judgement Night” (1993) has all but faded from my visual memory banks. But the soundtrack, that is a different story.
The “Judgement Night” soundtrack was an experimental collaboration between rock and hip hop artist who largely kept to their overarching genre with a few exceptions. It is one of the jewels in the crowing achievements of rap-rock
As stated earlier tracing the lineage of any genre in music is fraught with challenges. But one of the earliest known fusions of rap and rock can be found listening to “Year of the Guru “ (1968) by Eric Burdon & the Animals.
Over a steady bassline, Burdon does not so much sing but speak his lyrics :
Now here I sit in a state-run asylum Limitless, friendless but much more together I decided to do some good book readin’ About the art of people leadin’
The following year The Stooges released their debut single “I wanna be your dog” off of their self-titled debut album. The song features Iggy Pop as he walks the narrow line between traditional singing and the rhythmic speech delivery that defines rap:
And now I’m ready to close my eyes And now I’m ready to close my mind And now I’m ready to feel your hand And lose my heart on the burning sand
The Stooges contribution to the rap-rock hybrid are arguably minimal but they were part of the burgeoning garage-rock/protopunk scene and they along with their peers (The Velvet Underground, The New York Dolls, MC5, The Sonics ) undeniably pushed rock toward more experimentation, smashing rock into its fundamentals components and ushering the eventual emergence of punk.
Punk and early rap shared a common ethos that of being raw, emotional, and honest. Music was the weapon of choice for the masses and it was more accessible then many had realized.
Rap would appear in New Wave with songs like “Crosseyed and Painless” by the Talking Heads and in the Post Punk scene in “Wedding Song” by The Psychedelic Furs. The hard rock band Kiss would use rap in “All hell’s breaking loose.”
Meanwhile hip-hop artist were experimenting with rock in rap. The year 1984 smashed the walls of genre-binding with the release of Run-DMC’s “Rock Box” which utilized rock infused guitar rifts. The Beastie Boys dropped “Rock Hard” sampling AC/DC’s “Back in Black.” LL Cool Jay went heavy, merging hard rock with his lyrics and scratch. That year also saw The Red Hot Chili Peppers release their debut self-titled album, they would go on to push the rap-rock envelope infused with funk in subsequent releases.
The following year, 1985, an Aerosmith and Run-DMC collaboration, “Walk This Way,” essentially a rerelease of an Aerosmith song , exploded into the mainstream. It is considered the first rap-rock song to reach the “top ten” of the Billboards.
From there, Sugar Ray would merge rap-rock with nu-metal on several songs and collaborations. The sound would fuse with thrash-metal in “I’m the man” (1997) by Anthrax.
On the rap-front Public Enemy were dropping anthems of the genre with “Bring the Noise” and “She Watches Channel Zero” On “Bring The Noise” Flavor Flav and the crunch of heavy guitar and driving drums, provided by Anthrax, promise to bring the noise and Chuck D does so with some of the slickest delivery regardless of genre:
Never badder than bad cause the brother is madder than mad At the fact that's corrupt as a senator Soul on a roll, but you treat it like soap on a rope Cause the beats and the lines are so dope Listen for lessons I'm saying inside Music that the critics are blasting me for They'll never care for the brothers and sisters Mow, cause the country has us up for the war
The tag-team battle-royal raged, and the alternative metal band Faith No More (which “paved the way for Nirvana” according to Nirvana’s own bassist Krist Novoselic) pushed the sound even further .
And then Rage Against The Machine dropped their bombshell, their self-titled debut (1992). Fronted by poet and activist Zack de la Rocha, Rage pushed the sound even further but also inherited the raging rebellious spirit opposing oppression from which rap had emerged. rap-rock categorically declared itself as a force to reckon with. And it manifested as sonic energy in songs like “Take The Power Back” by Rage Against the Machine:
Step back, I know who I am Raise up your ear, I’ll drop the style and clear It’s the beats and the lyrics they fear The rage is relentless We need a movement with a quickness You are the witness of change And to counteract We gotta take the power back
And so we have come full circle and back to “Judgment Night.” Rage collaborated with the metal band Tool for the soundtrack and produced “Can’t Kill the Revolution.” Unfortunately, the song fell short of the expectations from both bands and was never officially released.
But what we did get was an album of historical significance in rap-rock, rock and rap. The album itself broke through the top 20 on the Billboard 200 and four singles were released . And at the heart of the genre (rap-rock), at the heart of the album “Judgment Night” and at the heart of the song “Judgment Night” by Biohazard and Onyx. Perfect summation:
Onyx! Watch me wreck shit as they exit But yo I keep em hollerin', screamin' out for mercy Minds of a lowest of enemies, ghetto mentality So blast it as I hit your head you're dead not disbelievin' Got the toxic rock, to bring a nigga biohazard!
As warned this is an incomplete history but we cannot close without acknowledging the contributions of the genius producer Rick Rubin, not only to this genre but modern music production in general.
You can hear many of the songs and albums discussed below:
Spotify Playlist: Judgment Night… plus
Beastie Boys – Rock Hard (Youtube)
Tool & Rage Against The Machine – Revolution (2014 Remastered) (Youtube)
“Judgment Night” tracks:
| No. | Title | Artist / Performer | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | “Just Another Victim“ | Helmet and House of Pain | 4:23 |
| 2. | “Fallin’“ | Teenage Fanclub and De La Soul | 4:28 |
| 3. | “Me, Myself & My Microphone” | Living Colourand Run DMC | 3:10 |
| 4. | “Judgement Night” | Biohazardand Onyx | 4:35 |
| 5. | “Disorder” (Medley of 3 Exploited songs: “War”, “UK ’82”, and “Disorder”) | Slayer and Ice-T | 4:58 |
| 6. | “Another Body Murdered“ | Faith No Moreand Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. | 4:24 |
| 7. | “I Love You Mary Jane” | Sonic Youthand Cypress Hill | 3:52 |
| 8. | “Freak Momma” | Mudhoneyand Sir Mix-A-Lot | 4:00 |
| 9. | “Missing Link” | Dinosaur Jr.and Del the Funky Homosapien | 3:59 |
| 10. | “Come and Die” | Therapy? and Fatal | 4:27 |
| 11. | “Real Thing” | Pearl Jam and Cypress Hill | 3:33 |
WOA: A Sailor’s Sunset (A Short)
The sound of his board slicing through the water in harmony with the sound of the wind in his sails and the feel of the boom in his hands. The currents of the ocean below, and in the wind above flowing as one with the currents in him. All powered by Phateon of the heavens above. A singular force of oneness, it seemed, propelled him forward.
The crystalline clear blue waters of the shallow sea grass and white sands below his sea-skipping board receded into the unfathomable azure of the ocean deep. Thenea ever falling below the horizon behind him.
“If I could choose my final sunset…” he thought. “… these could very well be my final hours on E’ricle.”
Tomorrow he would ascend into the heavens to take his first command of a Stellar Patrol Boat in the Space Fleet. And he sped forward as if to outrun the many voices in his head.
“Have my experiences in the surface fleet prepared me for what is to come?”
“Am I prepared to take command?”
“Were we really at war with Ced’-a-meon?“
“How could we ever think to defeating them, on their home world?”
“Are we not leaving E’ricle unprotected with so much of the fleet deployed?“
“Patrol Boats have never been deployed this deep before, what would be our ultimate assignment?”
“Could they reach us here?
“Could we lose this war?”
“Will I ever see home again?”
To calm the voices, he sped with the speed of the wind to the calmest place he knew, deep out in the ocean of his quiet mind.
With Thenea no longer in sight nor even sign of her lights and as Phateon slipped into the ocean, he slowed the boat to a still. While perfectly balanced, he sat crosslegged on his board and so drifted. Calmed.
Long into that dark night he sat. Any other would be panicked to be so far out to sea alone and without means of navigation in hand. But he knew exactly where he was. The heavens told him.
As the waxing crescent of the First Sister, called Carnas by her inhabitants, rose he wondered if he would ever see her full again.
The voices asleep, he picked up his sails and dipped them into the wind. He felt the wind fill the sails and he channeled that energy flow from his steady hands, into his arms, into his body, his legs and finally into the board as he skated over a black ocean leaving a phosphorescent wake behind.
Looking back he wondered, if he had known then what he knew now, would he have sailed back to shore that night. Or instead would he have followed his heart and sailed deeper into the blue.
As the powerless hulk of his patrol craft drifted so far from home and with no hope of rescue he knew without doubt he would never again see his beloved sapphire ocean.
He suppressed those many voices and their existential questions..
As the dead ship spun without control in the black of space he was saddened at being closer to Ced’-a-meon then to home.
Entombed in the ruins of his first command
destined for eons hence to orbit great Phateon out between the worlds, he came to peace with the thought that from here the sun would never set.
Multicast: Voices from the Crossroads. Episode 2: Sophia, Ian, Charlie and later Tyler
“Episode 2 of Voices from the Crossroads” keeps it close to heart for the interviewer/author. Unlike Episode 1 which was a one-on-one conversation, this time around the subjects participated in a conversational round-robin. Thank you, Sophia, Ian, Charlie and Tyler.
As all perceived things also exist in transcendence, you can learn more of the transcendental versions of our conversation by reading: Tales of The Crossroads, Introducing the Band
Ode to nature’s forgotten children
These simple lines, When combined, Into complex thoughts, Simple phonemic symbols, Ancient poets wrought, With power to make one tremble. Epics lyrical, Conceptual miracles, Tales of dawn’s hero’s, Arjuna of old, Achilles so bold. Through time, We forgot, The lessons they taught, Reverence of nature, from whom’s bosom we nurtured. When childlike, In virgin-woods we hiked. We explored, And the first-children adored. Before we self-reveled, And great mountains leveled. For what? For naught. For paper gold, Our mother we sold. To the muses I pray, For the eloquence to say, Of the pains I see, That we make be, With the felling of so many a tree. In the glades, Under canopy shade, Is where I would have my relics laid. Forevermore, These earthy remains, In the bosom I adore.
Tales of the Crossroads: Fearlessness and tranquillity
A review of God’s V’s concert from planet Moriah. By GBb music corespondent, So Kirk.
There comes a moment in a person’s life when immediacy requires a higher form, when it wants to lay hold of itself as spirit. Last night was such a moment.
Having difficulties of admission regarding my press credentials, I was a tad late to the show. Unlike the long awaiting fans who were treated to a gradual turning up of the metaphoric lights, arriving with the show already underway, I was thrown straight from darkness into light. A light that assailed all the senses.
Sonic wave after sonic wave washed over me. echoes of the fundamental forces of creation. I understood now why they held the top three spots of the Galactic Billboard. (GBb).
Bound by duty to cover the night’s event but transfigured by self in self, with personality wanting only to stay conscious of the eternal validity in the moment.
But that moment was halted, repressed in the depression of fear and loathing that pervaded the outside world. Duty bound I began recording and photographing the event in the vain hope of capturing the real magic of the moment, the magic of being there.
While documenting the night’s events I came to a conclusion, “I just want to enjoy the music. So… Fuck this. I quit.”
Along with this story I am also submitting a brief audio clip and a few images. Consider this my resignation, as I only plan on following the band and tour.
Next stop, Florida!
GBb Editor: We at the GBb are saddened by So Kirk’s recent resignation. We hope to hire a music corespondent replacement soon. Meanwhile, we are pleased to announce the recent hire of So Kirk, he joins the GBb as our newly created position of dedicated correspondent to God’s V for the GBb.
By candle light
Threads of dependent origination braided into wick. One side enlightened, the other ignorant, experienced as flame of enlightenment.
A forgotten name
A lone hiker treks, far from civilization, deep into the wilderness. Relying solely on his compass, map and skills he explores a vast mountainous wilderness. All he needs he carries on his back. Day follows night. Night follows day. Camp, trek. Trek, camp.
Nearly a week in, the lone hiker stops to set camp as the sun sets low. Taking out tools, he sets about building a small shelter and a fire. All but settled for the night., he breaks out his mess kit and begins opening a can of beans. Looking around enjoying the view he empties his can into his skillet. His face turns aghast as he looks into the skillet to see what is unmistakably the spherical round of an eye. The eye looking askew turns to stare at him.
He drops and kicks away the skillet gasping “What the fuck”.
Stepping back, never taking his eyes off the upturned skillet gasping heavily as he backs into a tree. Slowly he slides his back down the tree until he is squatting. He stays that way eyes glued to the skillet for what feels like hours until he notices the sun has set.
Slowly getting up and picking up a stick he makes his way toward the skillet and beans. By the light of the fire and using a stick he slowly flips the skillet over. No sign of the grotesque orb, he probes the beans spreading them around looking for the horror.
He finds naught but spoiled beans.
His appetite gone he settles in for the night turning his knapsack so as he can keep his eyes on the skillet and tainted beans. He fights the urge to sleep fixated on the spot as the fire dies down. Try as he might to stay awake, eventually he falls asleep.
Startled awake and quickly remembering where he was his eyes scan and find the skillet, it still lies how he left it.
Feeling as if he had a full night’s sleep he is puzzled to realize it is still night with no sign of dawn. Fumbling with his watch he is troubled that it will not illuminate. Reaching for a small flashlight he shines it on his watch to see that it is blank, as if the battery were dead. He frantically takes it off and begins fumbling with the buttons in vain, he slams it on the ground.
“What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck.”
“This is too weird. I don’t like this.” he utters aloud in the quite darkness, startled by his own voice.
On the verge of hyperventilating, “Calm down man. Breathe. Breathe.”
Focused on breathing and rationalizing with the situation, he ponders what to do.
Shining the light around only seeing endless trees “Ok there is something here I can feel it.” Nodding his head he realizes it’s time to pack and hike his ass out of this heart of darkness.
Reaching for his map and compass to plot his exit he is startled to find his compass needle jumps from point to point irrationally. He chuckles hopelessly, fearfully.
Throwing the compass and map aside he scans the woods again with his flashlight looking to find the path he followed into this hell.
His light illuminates the impossible. He drops the light and stumbles backward gasping for air. His flashlight having revealed a figure of inhuman stature, with wings black and leathery, feet of a raptor, head of ram. Visible for merely a second lost when the flashlight hit the ground and rendered inoperable.
Staring into the pith black, seeing nothing.
“You are trespassing.”
Turning toward the voice he sees what appears to be and older gentleman. Aided by a walking stick he has the look of one who has long lived alone in the wilderness.
“Shit. Man, you scared the fuck out of me.” Collecting his wits and feeling relieved at no longer being alone. “I think I might be lost, if I’m trespassing on your property l’m sorry. Just point me the way out of here and I’ll be on my way. “
No reply
“This place is haunted, man. that or I am going fucking crazy from exhaustion. “
The old man says nothing.
While gathering his things,“I mean, you ever notice crazy shit around here?”
After a brief pause.
“Lost? I hear that often. ever shall it be while Uriel guards the way. By which way did you come?”
“Yeah, you see I don’t even know. That’s what I mean by haunted. My compass wont point to north, it spins all crazy like. Oh and I didn’t see any guards. I would have heeded that, believe me. “
The old man walks toward the campfire it grows intense and then flickers almost out he sits on an old log.
“It seems I blow your flickering life span out.”
“The campfire? I don’t need it. Just point me the way out, man, and I’ll be out of here.”
“Sit.” the one without a name commanded. “By which way did you come.”
Feeling compelled to sit the hiker sits.
“I started out from the trailhead that starts near the Devil’s Bridge about six or seven days ago. I thought I was following the Bighorn Trail when I ended up here. I can’t even tell you which way I came here by.” he says as he looks around.
“Trees behind trees, how swiftly they change places.” A shivers runs down the hikers spine as the old man speaks.
The hiker scans out into trees and into the darkness, realizing he does not recognize the scenery from an hour ago let alone from his arrival.
“How wretched the moons perfect disk let’s use instead the wil-o-the-wisp.”
As he speaks an eerie glow permeates the woods. “Mammon never spares the light.”
Noticeably nervous, “I dont even care to pack. Anything here you want to can have.” And then quickly adding “Unless you want it gone, I didn’t mean to imply I was going to litter on your property.”
“Fashioned little worlds within the bigger one Judgment Day must soon draw nigh for the world is in certain decline, Faustus.
Standing up shocked on hearing his middle name an icy dagger pierces his heart. “Do I know you?”
“If my ears still behave you speak of groove or is it grave “
A flood of distant memories from past existences inundate his mind. Threads intertwined into a web at the center a most dreadful pact. A distant name recalled from time forgotten, “Gretchen.”
Swift as an arrow, the stranger was before him, face to face. The dagger in his heart radiates out into all appendages and looking down he sees that the old man’s hand having pierced his flesh disappeared into his very torso. The harbinger of death pulls back his hand to reveal a beating heart.
“Lacking faith one believes only what one sees. Measures illusion with illusion. Less worth than slaughtered sacrificial sheep. You reckon by Earthly rotations I by celestial. What worth is eternal creation when all is subject to annihilation.”
With his engine of life removed from its chassis, he slumps to his knees. I light descends from the heavens. As he passes from the world he remembers the bargain struck and the price paid.
“Gretchen.”
An ardent desire
May all beings I have killed or caused to be killed, either intentionally or unintentionally, attain nibañña. May all beings I have harmed or caused to be harmed, ether intentionally or unintentionally, attain nibañña. May all beings I have insulted or caused to be insulted, either intentionally or unintentionally, attain nibañña. May all beings I have in any way slighted or caused to be slighted, either intentionally or unintentionally attain nibañña. Even over my own attainment.
When slighted
How can one slight you if that one cannot even know you? Who is slighted? How can one know you when you do not even know yourself? For, who is slighted when you realize you cannot be slighted?