As racist, woman-hating fantasy writer Vox Day (aka Theodore Beale) likes to remind people, he was kind of a big deal in the industrial dance music scene back in the day, with three Billboard Club Hits to his name.
Well, sort of. Beale — he wasn’t known as Vox back then — was briefly a member of a largely forgotten industrial dance group called Psykosonik in the early nineties.
Now, I was listening to a lot of industrial dance music back in those days, and was particularly enamored of the label (Wax Trax!) that Psykosonik was on. Yet somehow I never noticed them.
Listening to their first album today — the one that Beale was involved in — I can see why. Musically, they’re a peppy, if highly derivative, mix of industrial and rave, at times sounding a bit like the Shamen or Pop Will Eat Itself or even, unbelievably, EMF.
The trouble comes when the group’s vocalist opens his mouth to sing or, even worse, to rap some of the most cringeworthy lyrics I’ve encountered since I listened to this. The bassy “rapping” in their song “Acid Hammer” is on a par with the rapping in Aqua’s “Barbie Girl,” except that Aqua was in on the joke, and Psykosonik clearly wasn’t.
And that’s where Mr. Beale comes in, because a lot of these very very serious, very very terrible lyrics are his. Psykosonik seems to have been built largely around two guys — Paul Sebastien (vocals, lyrics, music) and Daniel Lenz (music). Beale, a member for only two years, is credited by Wikipedia as being responsible for “composition, lyrics.”
So let’s take a look at some of them, shall we? The lyrics below, which I found on Lyrics Wikia, are excerpted from songs he’s credited with co-writing; click on the titles to see more.
Fractals fusing, brain abusing
Drink your smart drug, find illusion
Ride the air on an angel’s dare
Mandlebrots fly everywhere
Illusion the solution
You will find your absolution
Within silicon, in silicon, in me
Mondo rave, magnetic wave
Cyberbaby, my love slave
Computational attractivity
New world networked connectivity
Down to the ground, down to the ground
Social entropy is reigning today
Burn it down, burn it down, burn it down, down to the ground
A generation’s coming your way
Feel your heart explode with lust
Vacationers, this one’s a must
If you choose to take this drug
You will feel your libido erupt ….If you choose to lick my brain
Use your tongue to taste the same
Feel the acid reign
Servitude is in the mind, a death in life
Don’t be confused by the terms of Left and Right
Statism is statism, by any name the same
Apathy is suicide and we will bear the blame …Huge berserk rebel warthog error
Zeroboys unleash domestic terror
Jack it in and burn the data
Violence a religion they can relate to
Now, it’s not completely clear from the scanty info I’ve found if Beale wrote all of these lyrics by himself — Wikipedia also lists Sebastien as being responsible for lyrics — but quite a few of them have the stink of Beale about them. I mean, “social entropy,” “statism is statism?”
Oh, and that bizarre bit about the “huge berserk rebel warthog?” That may be Beale’s only bit of cleverness. After puzzling over it a bit, and listening to that part of the song over and over to make sure that was really what was being said, I put the phrase into Google and discovered that it’s an anagram for George Herbert Walker Bush.
If you want to listen to any of these songs — and really, they’re not bad, if you can manage to ignore the awful lyrics — you can find the whole album here.
And here’s the video for their single “Welcome to My Mind,” which features Mr. Beale’s rotating head.
Y’know, “99.9% of men are awful” isn’t really a lot better of a viewpoint than “99.9% of women are awful.”
That is VERY misplaced hatred. Please don’t hate on men who actually support women, hate on the culture that perpetuates unfairness and discrimination against women – and the men that create it. Hate the men David writes about, not David, he does NOT deserve your hatred.
Oh look, a straw feminist gotcha troll trying to use SJ language and failing miserably. Yawn. For future reference, it was “White knight” that gave it away (well, and everything else, but that was the kicker). Only MRAs use that phrase these days.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I know I am offended that David spends hours and hours of his life exposing himself to some of the most toxic shit the internet has to offer. To add insult to injury, he then has the audacity to ferret out the most outrageous bits and pieces of vile thought and post them here with witty commentary. I mean, what’s up with that? The unmitigated gall! We get to know what those assholes are saying without giving them clicks! We don’t have to subject ourselves to the comment sections and reddit threads where reason and civility go to die! As a final bit of malice, he then curates an excellent comment section here, where funny and thoughtful people can banter and debate and trolls are allowed only because they dance for our amusement.
That David Futrelle. What a jerk.
Anyway, back on topic.
I honestly can’t tell if Teknojihad is anti-war or pro-genocide. With the references to statism, Orwell and Bush, my first thought was anti-war, but Vox is such a screamingly authoritarian, murderously racist crackpot it might just be badly-written.
@M.
I’ve actually seen “White Knight” used on a few other (definitely NOT MRA-friendly) sites recently. It’s kind of jarring to see the phrase out in the wild, without the usual stream of consciousness “beta cuck mangina” following. It’s not used as a male-only insult, though. The other places apply it to any circumstance where someone’s valiantly trying to defend the indefensible. Like Woody with his unflagging allegiance to Paul Elam.
Ah, Woody. I miss the little guy. Wherever you are, friend, long may you sporkle.
Three things that drive me nuts in shitty lyrics:
1. “rhyme makes it poetry!”
2. “I can twist diction all I want, they’ll get what I mean”
3. “Meter’s for assholes”
I ain’t surprised that, out of 3, VD gets like a 2.6.
I don’t know how much you all know about Top Gear but someone started a rumour that Sue Perkins was going to be the new host and now she’s been getting death threats because of it.
https://twitter.com/BBCNewsEnts/status/587931261345357824
sorry, I only meant to post a link to the tweet there.
For me, it was that, the “rack up feminist points” bullshit and the obsessive “how dare you discuss terrible people and bad things happening in our world! How dare you!”,which is kinda the whole idea behind antifeminism. To them, caring about issues, especially if they don’t affect you directly, is the worst thing ever. Which reveals much about them.
Yes, I’ve seen feminists (rightfully) calling out allies for shitty behavior, but never on the account that they dare to be allies, but because they’re acting shitty. It’s like MRAs really are incapable of seeing the difference between being called an asshole on account of one’s behavior and just being called an asshole.
Also, N.P.S. seems to have understood pretty much everything wrong (#NotAllMen, White Upper Class Feministy). It’s like, those are real issues, but they really do not apply here. Context, what’s that?
Still, I don’t want to believe N.P.S. to be an antifeminist troll. Partly because it’s not my place to tell anyone how to do their feminism, but also because that would mean that there exists a person on this earth who has gone through the trouble of actually listening to feminist arguments only to use them to pose as a feminist on the internet. I cannot understand anyone who would waste their time in that manner for a game of make-believe. If feminists truly were so horrible, why would one need to pretend to be one in order to make the movement look bad? You’d think you could just go on the internet and find the vile things feminists allegedly say every day. Then maybe gather them all in one place and make a blog about it or something.
Then again, I don’t understand people who identify as antifeminists in the first place, so my point is moot.
N.P.S.,
Uh huh. We’re supposed to think you’re for real? Pullith the other one. It hath bells upon it.
Aww, I thought Sue Perkins would actually have made a good host. There’s no point trying to replicate the show with “suspiciously simialr substitutes”* for the three originals. Then you’ve just got “5th Gear”. They need to go in a totally new direction. SP would have been really good. Although Sandi Toksvig would be even better; especially as she can’t drive.
Failing that, the German lass who drove the Transit really fast.
[* Copyright TVTropes]
Actually, that’s extremely common amongst the antisocial injustice wimps:
https://twitter.com/EffNOVideoGames/status/522833853279268864
David is awesome. He makes me laugh. That is an amazing gift. David chooses to lighten people’s hearts. That’s such a cool thing to do. He doesn’t have to.
He ridicules bigots because they are ridiculous. They rant and rage and cry and plea for the ability to dominate and abuse. David laughs at them and his wit is razor sharp. He dissects their arguments and rightly mocks them. That is powerful activism. If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be here trying to take him down a peg. I suspect you’re hoping to lower his morale and frighten away some of his newer readers. That’s cute. I bet you even thought it was clever when you came up with it.
You’re in way over your head, kid. You might want to get back in the shallow end.
That was directed to N.B.S.
@M.
Oh, I know there exist such people. I was taking a (failed) dig at N.P.S., who, I suspect, is one of these huge wasters of everyone’s time.
I’m leaving the crafting of disguised insults to people who can actually pull them off from now on. Carry on.
@M. “For future reference, it was “White knight” that gave it away (well, and everything else, but that was the kicker). Only MRAs use that phrase these days.”
Yeah, I refuse to let the assholes have the phrase “white knight”. The whole idea that some bro is going to swoop in on a white horse and fix everything for the girl is so fucking absurd that it deserves all the mocking it can get from all sides.
Yes, I know MRAs use “white knight” to shame other men for being too nice to women, but that’s just their toxic othering of women. If it wasn’t “white knight” then they would use “mangina” or some other phrase. I like the term “white knight” because it cuts through the soul of gendered chivalry and benevolent sexism so nicely.
Speaking of MRAs, it’s funny when you get some straw feminist concern troll like N.S.P. that is so steeped in the idea that women are the other team that zie* can’t understand that the majority of women, feminists included, don’t view men as “the other”. Which is, quite frankly, a far more healthy way to view the world.
Humans are humans? Yes indeed.
*I’m giving the benefit of the doubt that zie is indeed, a woman, and not a male concern troll.
@Anarchonist
… Oh, sorry. ^^;; My bad, I’m clueless sometimes.
“I don’t know how much you all know about Top Gear but someone started a rumour that Sue Perkins was going to be the new host and now she’s been getting death threats because of it.”
Enough to know that any new host is going to get death threats. The BBC should just ax the show, its hosts are what made it so special. (Not that I blame them for firing Jeremy Clarkson.)
I think David’s doing a great job shining a mocking light on these horrible people, in an entertaining way. May Katie bless his many little ferret paws.
How about the fact that they insist that men are basically uncontrollable rape machines unable to even look at a woman without sexualizing her? How about the fact that they insist that it is impossible for men and women to be friends? How about the fact that they actively work towards entrenching toxic masculinity?
This must be the single most shallow piece of reasoning I’ve ever seen, as if the underlying argument was “but they’re MEN’s rights activists! MEN! You’re a MAN, you must be in favor of them!” That’s not how it works. Even the smallest dive into their worldview will turn up hundreds of reasons why even straight white men would find them reupulsive, and that isn’t diminished by the fact that a large percentage of those reasons arise from simple morals and empathy.
Well said Kirby.
N.P.S – I am not at all sure if you are feminist or anti feminist, but you sure as hell are bad at putting a point across. Lots of twaddle to make the point that you do not believe that a man should be writing a feminist blog, and that you disagree with much of the content. Why couldn’t you have just said that instead of coming across like a born again feminist?!
Damn, Sue Perkins is flipping AMAZING, and was the first person I ever heard win a round of Just A Minute without interruption, and I am now sad that she has decided to leave Twitter, because she is brilliant and funny and I actually might have a little bit of a crush on her. 🙁
Fuck Top Gear. If it did have Sue Perkins presenting, it’d be like, 100% less crappy and I’d feel ok about watching it again.
This made me think of Stewart Lee’s routine on Top Gear.
And there’s that bit he said about Richard Hammond being like the weaker kid who stands next to the school bully, Jeremy Clarkson, which I can’t seem to find.
But it doesn’t surprise me that TG fans are being vile to anyone even perceived as a threat to their show.
And yeah, what’s NPS’s point about this blog? How dare you quote shitheads, because it’s triggering to women? Who only get harassment if they speak against the shitheads? And that using one’s male privilege to call out other men is somehow misogyny?
Good thing xie seems to most likely be a troll. Does anyone recognise xir username?
Sue Perkins did a round of Just a Minute without being interupted ? Damn! I musta missed that ep.
Oh well, I heard David Tennent’s 1st appearance minute without interuption.