Where modernity approaches the vanishing-point of technique -algorithm or ones and zeros - it is forever departing from the primitive, something fundamental to a body. I mean above all rhythms that interweave and interlock and release or counterpoint.
Advance is simply an escape from the primitive; the body is a jungle of assorted activities that somehow combine their disparate elements into one.
In a way, the heavy, murky rhythms of Lee Perry's dub recordings - especially Super Ape from 76 - are a good signpost to bodily, as opposed to logical, creativity.
Perry may be a genius-level creator, but his body is attached to his head as he dances and works, rather than the conventional Western method of attaching the head to the body in a relatively dormant position.
"My insides are my outsides.. See, I take my insides and I put them outside for my fans, and all the people who love my music. For I give them the light. I'm Mr Lee Perry. Ha ha ha! I am the President, the Upsetter, Death's conqueror, I am everything.. I am flame, flames of fire. Scratch on the wire. I am on top of the music, walking on top of the music, it is under my feet (DT)
Nor exactly humble, but I guess someone in that synergistic state doesn't need to be. The simplicity of having 4-tracks also gives the edge to chance in the choices that Perry makes in transferring the 3 single tracks onto the 4th multiple recording.
The airy notes of "Black Vest", that relocates Max Romeo's " War Ina Babylon " to the distant sounds of a beach band heard from the thickets of primeval undergrowth
The sensual, bodymorphic (underclothes?) disparity of sounds is a rebuttal to a world of pure logic and information-flows. The primal.nature of things is always going to be rhythmic and sensual; information is always a secondary event from the one.
Living things are semi-compartmentalised, and their very disparity provides unity. There's no such thing as unity without difference; it simply means a parallel reality of sameness.
Schismatic effects create united form (see prev). Athletic grace is the end-product. The head is always useful at this point in the game, but the body is primal and assertive. Balance is always the key.
Hence, one can see Perry as a shamanistic type of mind, the mind living off a jungle of effects that is millions (billions) of years old. Everything has a part to play, from.the phlegm of respiratory passages to the fungus of some ramshackle jungle clearing ("Fungus Rock/Dub", a metaphor for sex-viruses.)
The real.problem is that a logical universe is very convincing to the ego (of acolytes) even if it is in a parallel illusion. This is always a slight flaw of the comic book fantasy, actually. Starlin's Warlock is great, but has the limit of having to be logically-consistent when inconsistency can be more dramatic and haphazard (Avengers: Illuminati is the ultimate in the over-consistent illusion of logic.)
A magician has logic as part of their equipment along with haphazard chance, and the disparate sounds and effects of the environment. Most logical processes on Earth, after all, are absolutelt haphazard.
The carbon and nitrogen cycles are composed of bodily remains and respiratory processes that are events of the random environment. The fact us that logic is not logical simply because the power of natural processes overridrs everything.
There is a place for logic; and there is also a place for haphazard power. There is a place for marine bone (in red clay for building); and there is a place for Man's constructions.
A little reasoning goes a long way. Excess nitrogen in fertilizer creates algal blooms and the good, nitrogen-fixing microbes in soil go to waste. Every haphazard process has a logic (such as an animal hunting prey), but the point is that both are necessary for power.
Forest and jungle are sources of power and psychic health (wisdom or apothecary). This sense is felt throughout the fantasy of, not only Howard, but also Noto and various Conan yarns such as the aforementioned "Gods of the Mountains".
In the latter story, Valeria accompanies the Cimmerian on a delirious trek through caverns under the forest in a sequel to " Red Nails". The phosphorescent splendour is not unlike Noto's underworld scenario from "Red Lace" (prev); instead of carnivorous plants, the duo encounter rotten-smelling moss (which is apparently edible, if not to Val) and giant fungus, as well as the skeleton of a dragon amongst other hazards.
Fungus is known as 'suspicious meat', and this odoriferous subterranean world of twilight has s sense of decadence and decay that are sources of strength in organic substance.
The process of digestion and intestinal fauna are the equivalent of the breakdown of decay, and the strength that results is bodily strength.
A subterranean world of horrid meat and smelly plants evokes also the insides of the body; possibly this was an implication of Perry's remarks on his creativity.
A funky or murky rhythm brings into the picture bodily strength which is hidden or obscured by the visual aspect of form. A source of strength is mor logically derived from the head, but is harboured inside the body.
This is a decadent area that contains at least the scents of decay because this is also a source of strength in life. Perry makes the point thstbhw contains'both positives and negatives', but is a source of light.
That point is that stories that are lusty and gusty as with this one, need a source of Dionysian gusto. It could be the wind wheeling down a mountain; it could be caverns measureless to man. A logical.order of the head cannot contain a gusto that is hidden by the form of the body; that is not advancing into a sterile future of ones and zeros, but is harbouring decadence and decay.
The rhyming cadences of Perry might not be as clarified to modern ears as is an algorithmic routine, but he makes the point of 'inside worth' quite explicitly in "Blackboard Jungle Dub" (from Doublestandart.) This ancient source of strength is also found in Fulling (P156).
If living things are antagonistic by nature and design (athletic), they contain multitudes in Whitman' expression. The murky and odoriferous zones are strong in Noto, Howard and assorted Howardesque yarns, as well as the jungle fastness of Perry's domain.
They are not found in a logical (Apollonian) order since such an order has not the primitive gusto of underground beats. 'Underground route to Hollywood' (Perry lyric). Weird Tales.
In the sense that antagonism and schism (prev) are needed for bodily function, these decadent fantasies and murky rhythms have the truth of the matter.
