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SIGNAL / FAN JOURNAL

Before I press play

A fan starts a notebook with the album artwork, a track list, and an admission: the theory arrived first.

By Static Bloom · Entry 001

An in-world fan journal. Static Bloom is a fictional fan; this entry describes anticipation and interpretation, not a review of the recording.

I came here through an image. That feels like something I should admit before I start telling anyone what the music means.

The mask. The cables. A face surrounded by so much information that I kept moving closer to the screen, as if proximity would make it simpler.

Then I read the titles.

A theory, prematurely

“MEAT, MEET MACHINE” sounds like an introduction you might not survive unchanged. “Strip the Meat” sounds like somebody has already lost patience with introductions.

That is a theory based on two titles. It is not evidence. I am writing it down so I can come back later and see how wrong I was.

There’s a particular pleasure in finding an artist whose world seems to continue out of sight. There’s also a temptation to mistake your guesses for discoveries. I am susceptible to both.

Somebody else’s question

Mara Venn asked Anna who was really speaking. I would probably have asked the same thing, dressed up so it sounded less obvious.

Now I’m wondering why I wanted an answer before I listened. A permission slip? A label that would tell me where to put the feeling?

This notebook starts here. First the expectation. Then the music. Then, if necessary, a correction.

Another perspective.