
If You're Into It, I'm Out of It (1997)
1990s angst descends into the mouth of a leviathan of apathy - a lost world found out of the grey and into the darker. German producer Christoph de Babalon conjures a mix of dark-ambient and breakcore fitting for an apocalyptic video game, perhaps dealing with everyday life and a hunger for escapism. The opening track, "Opium", drops its anchor of a looming atmosphere, and makes its initial venture into drum n' bass with "Nostep" Welcome to the Graveyard.
The record proceeds to unwind across a collection of breakcore beats which lends itself to one hand of the record as a sword to fend off the inner demons, which unveils an overlord boss as the droning progresses. Slowed crashes and faint, shrieking bombs are heard near the end of the penultimate track, "High Life. (Theme)", with no consolation. The energy of breakcore is regurgitated in, "My Confession", closing this fascinating record. It leaves a reminder that things can happen in cycles and to escape it is a wheel being constantly rolled upwards.
6/21/2024・Eduardo Castaneda
Archive Lucida
Archive Lucida is a digital archive and journal of time-based media, dedicated to the curation, preservation, and publication of the underrepresented arts. Founded in 2024 with the intent to establish a democratizing platform for curated film collections, Archive Lucida is dedicated to digital humanities research, review, and critique, free from the bounds of traditional institutional exclusivities. Largely inspired by the scholarship of Roland Barthes and Walter Benjamin, Archive Lucida is devoted to eclectic discussion of the cinematic medium and its many forms. We are interested in global cinema, early surrealism, film history, and archival practice. Above all, as a freeform, digital archive, we aim to make underrepresented art, time-based media, and academic materials decentralized and publicly accessible.