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names_of_music ~ Olias in the Wake of the Ideal​-​X

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1.
Money Makes a Monkey 04:46
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2.
Into Thin Air 07:32
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3.
Down at the Docks 07:08
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4.
Song of the Mourning Dove 07:42
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5.
Bird's Gotta Eat 05:43
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6.
We Are Living Now in Perilous Times 06:02
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7.
Suite: Free Port Fan Tutte (i. Sell a Man a Fish, ii. New Songdo City Blues, iii. More of a Ghost, iv. The Empty Chair) 14:38
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8.
We Made a Plastic Island 02:58
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9.
Soft and Weak Like Water 08:18
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10.
Container Transport Air and GHG emissions (Carbon dioxide (CO2), Tonnes/capita, 2000 – 2017) 10:51
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about

Olias in the Wake of the Ideal-X is a prog-concept album filtered through postpunk sonics and the realpolitik of global capitalism as embodied in the hermeticism of shipping containers and free ports.

On a beloved album of Nil's youth, Olias of Sunhillow, Jon Anderson, the lead singer of the prog band, tells the starry-eyed story of the title character who boards a wooden ship called the Moorglade Mover which is capable, not only of floating upon the earth’s seas, but of traversing the vastness of space. In keeping with Anderson’s spiritually ecstatic optimism, the album recounts – partly via its lyrics and music, partly via a short book bound into the spine of the gatefold – a journey of redemption and rebirth. In the sardonic key to which Nil is prone, took the name Olias and attached it to the negativity of Nil (zero, nothing, zip, zilch, nada). For the ensuing quarter-century he's used the nom-de-musique for various projects.

Olias in the Wake of the Ideal-X brings that impulse full circle, telling the story of 21st century uber-capitalism and the shipping containers that made it possible. In place of the Moorglade mover, the Ideal-X, the first-ever container ship, which sailed from Newark to Houston in April, 1956.

These pockets of libertarian regulationlessness allow the ultra-rich to stash money, drugs, art, even trafficked men, women, and children beyond the prying eyes of nation-states and free of customs fees, tariffs, and taxes. Container shipping allows for just-in-time production while also hiding cargo from inspectors. Similarly, so-called "free ports" allow the ultra-rich to hide their ill-gotten gains in tax-free zones licensed by blind-eyed nation states. The true economy roams the seven seas with absolute impunity.

Works Cited
- The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger by Marc Levinson
- Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy by Quinn Slobodian

credits

released January 15, 2024

Olias in the Wake of the Ideal-X was made in summer 2023. It began at 60 Cycle Hummingbird in Chicago. A month spent in Korea and Japan yielded a number of field recordings and a fruitful interlude to hone the narrative and the lyrical pieces of the overall puzzle. Instrumentation and recorded contributions are as follows: guitars, percussion, piano, vocals, organ, synthesizer, bass guitar, drums, ocarina, rhythm programming, effects, engineering, and production by Olias Nil. Additional piano on “We Are Living Now in Perilous Times” by Noa Kim-Cohen. Auditorium bass on “New Songdo City” recorded at Pritzker Elementary School, Chicago. Onion seller on “New Songdo City” recorded in Geoje-do, South Korea. Additional instrumentation on “More of a Ghost” recorded during a rehearsal of the Grant Park Orchestra at Pritzker Pavilion, Chicago. Drumming on “We Made A Plastic Island” by the Gugak Ensemble of Busan, South Korea. Primary harmonic material for “Container Transport Air and GHG Emissions” modified (significantly) from recordings of an anonymous bagpipe player outside Gyeongbokgung Palace, Seoul. Recordings of political demonstrators on “Container Transport Air and GHG Emissions” recorded on Seosomun-ro, Myeongdong, Seoul. Art for this release created by Seth Kim-Cohen with camera-ready assistance from Rebecca Cohen. Images sourced from the free archives of the New York Public Library and the Smithsonian. Recorded and mixed by Olias Nil at 60 Cycle Hummingbird, Chicago. Mastered by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering, Chicago. Vinyl cut by Smashed Plastic, Chicago. All songs by Seth Kim-Cohen.

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The Fire Show Chicago, Illinois

The Fire Show & related things involving Olias Nil and/or
M. Resplendent.

"Stark, dubbish funk with punk penknife and splatter; left-wing epics constructed from right angles, made by (sm)art school punks interested in the feet and the brain, the ground and the lofty heavens."
(Jay Babcock,
L.A. Weekly) ... more

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