SONG:
(To download, double right click and “Save Target As…”)
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: “A Rocket for the 21st Century”, from SEED, 29 Sep 2009, as used in the post “Plasma drive. We have one.” (with necessary allusions to “YOU PUT IN OTHER DETAILS”).
ABSTRACT: First, I should say that I’m definitely bending one of my rules here – the one against “egregious” sampling. I don’t really think this sample is egregious, for one thing, and I think (hope) Mr. Gabriel would agree. I’m certain Mr. Gabriel approves of Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz’s work superheating hydrogen and helium to form plasma, then using magnetic fields to make an invisible bottle that directs the plasma into jets powerful enough to send people to Mars in 39 days, rather than the 8 months conventional chemical rockets would take. (Remember: plasma is scrambled eggs! Also, remember that “Mercy Street” may have been written as a tribute to Anne Sexton, but was really always about the psychological challenges of space flight. Really.)
I also used a vocoder in this, albeit crudely, and referred to the surface of Earth as the shore of an ocean to be crossed, which is totally a concept and recording method used much more artfully in that “A Glorious Dawn” video. Exploration, new horizons, faster ways of getting to places we’ve never been before – that’s all pretty universal stuff, isn’t it? Uh, so to speak.