“Cyberia XI” was a mammoth undertaking, inspired and spawned by volumnous .mp3 downloads through certain channels of questionable legalities — regardless of the RIAA’s efforts to curb creativity and the spread of new ideas, approaches, styles, and musical directions. This edition could very well have been subtitled “Against The Odds” on account of the additional personal challenges and stress that had unexpectedly reared their ugly heads during the period of its creation. It may have also been called “Monster” as a result of the 60-track beast it grew into.
Blurb: “Even more grotesque, disorienting, and cyber-extreme is the work of Bill Sienkiewicz, whose ‘Stray Toasters’ series epitomizes the darkest side of the cyberpunk comic style. The story — a mystery about a boy who, we learn, has been made part machine — is depicted in a multimedia comic-book style, with frames that include photographs of nails, plastic, fringe, packing bubbles, toaster parts, leather, Band-Aids, and blood. This world of sadomasochism, crime, torture, and corruption makes ‘Neuromancer’ seem bright by comparison. There is very little logic to the behaviors and storyline here — it’s almost as if straying from the nightmarish randomness of events and emotions would sacrifice the nonlinear consistency. In essence, Stray Toasters is a world of textures, where the soft, hard, organic, and electronic make up a kind of dreamscape through which both the characters and the readers are moved about at random. As Bruce Sterling would no doubt agree, an accidental or even an intentional electrocution could come at any turn of a page.”
Indeed, much of the new territory that was introduced with “Cyberia Four” had since Y2k become regular and standard features: 80-minute media, specific themes, ripped DVD Audio, embedded .mp3s, true mash-ups, and unlisted tracks!
Originally written September 1st, 2003. Revised and updated March 2015. See background story here.
The lands of the future are Cyberia. It’s a machine’s world now!
“Cyberia is where humanity confronts and emerges from its larval and pre-foetal, grub-like state. Where we erupt painfully from the swarming biomechanical cauldron, all the Earth will become the ultraviolent and cataclysmic overture to the true emergence of the superhuman species — and that fresh new phylum will be born into a world remorselessly intent on its eradication.”
Loud. Hard. Uncompromising. Violent. Repetitive. Metronomous. Synthetic. Cold. Lethal. Never send a human to do a machine’s job.
Originally written February 1st, 2003. First online version posted April 2003. Revised and updated March 2015. See background story here.
Starting off with perhaps one of the longest and most symbolic introductions ever, this album finally concludes the journey to Cyberia — a trip which began with a crude sexual seed and has subsequently mutated into a malformation of abysmal darkness and gross monstrosity.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Humanic and orgobionic resynthesis is inevitable and completely inescapable.
We have a biological hunger to join with our machines.
The plastichrome foetus of that shapeless new quicksilver race lies within us; beginning to struggle and flex as recombinant DNA technology and nano-electronic sciences veer towards a catalytic and explosive intersection. Biomechanical shadows and cybernetic specters haunt our prophetic arts and seers, distilling apprehension and exaltation as we feel past biological absolutes dissolving around us and turn towards the luminous realigning geometries of a mighty and merciless future. Cyberia is in our very bones – melting, morphing, recreating and re-contouring us so we might walk safely through the chaotic lands of the future, and that in the psychotic mutating hysteria and super-technological dark ages to come we might truly find our very Humanity.
“Cyberia 9” was the first to include a URL and finished off some special, expensive photo paper left over from the Cyberia 1 and 2 production run.
Originally written February 1st, 2003. First online version posted April 2003. Revised and updated March 2015. See background story here.
I’ve been using taglines since the days before the ‘net as we know it now and have amassed a pretty ‘decent’ collection. I like ’em. They show character (or lack thereof) and generally brighten up the most mundane of emails and posts.
But this one caused a few feathers to be ruffled: –
“Satanism: The perfect religion – screw up & you go to heaven.” Continue reading →
.MP3 files and bootleg mixes were becoming an increasingly prominent feature of the Cyberia staple. This edition, too blatantly followed the typical style of a crappy, cheesy, tacky, funny, cartoonish, and childish compilation of the musical flavours of the “current month”, aimed squarely at the dumb teenage market content with mindless garbage, broadcast over and over and over and over on the idiot box until removed from the playlist and forgotten until the next brainless act of plagiarism or moronic “classic hits of the decade” show is scheduled.
Blurb:”…and hence there’s Cyberia 8: As seen on MTV! Light-hearted fun and games, sweet pop on the dance floor, at the discotheque, and in your head – in your mind, and with a hot stake. It’s about bugging people with remote-controlled mosquitoes, psychotic ducks with a peculiar French accent chasing cowardly dogs, a gerbil in a microwave, Richard Gere, child geniuses with stoopid sisters, cheating at dance competitions, and arriving at the party in a Mercedes-Benz.”
Nonetheless, it cannot be claimed that there is no sense of humour or self-irony in Cyberia.
Originally written May 31st, 2002. First online version posted April 2003. Revised and updated during March 2015. See background story here.
Not unlike “Cyberia 3”, this edition concentrated on the relatively recent dance/pop crossover genre pigeonholed as “vocal trance”. Generally uplifting, happy and positive, the style also reflected the current pantheistic state of affairs in the title of “Dreaming of a better world”. This edition was also the first to be produced with the partial aid of music mixing software (tip: never emulate hardware with software) and introduced the “Primary Screamer”. Finally, it even included three excellent tracks that didn’t quite fit onto “Cyberia Four”!
Blurb: “Whereas ‘Cyberia 6’ jacked off to the hairy underbelly of crass vulgarity, ‘Cyberia 7’ celebrates, almost to the day, three years since the release of the very first – albeit somewhat crude – edition with a more optimistic outlook. However virus-prone and worm-ridden Outlook itself may be, we attempt to explore positivism, safety, comfort, satisfaction, illumination, love, dreams, and memories of a happy childhood – irrespective of how deep they may be buried within our subconsciousness. Cyberia delves into your mind with a hot stake and turns your brain into a mushy mess should you think about murder on the dance floor. Body modification. Smart drugs. Bionic implants. Monsters. Machines. Plugged into the Matrix.”
“Ah, what harmony!”
Originally written April 4th, 2002. First online version posted April 2003. Revised and updated March 2015. See background story here.
