Saturday, March 05, 2016

Song of the day (the elasticity of time edition)

"So Jackson: Step In / Out (Jori Hulkkonen Edit)".

Being an "edit" of a song you might remember from the different world that was 1982. (Watch the clip. Joe comes across as a post-punk Peter Allen. Which I suppose he was, really.)


"Edit"? What it is is a simple pop song dissected, forensically analysed, and teased out for 43 minutes. Yes, you read that right. Is such a thing even possible? More to the point, is such a thing even listenable?

Well, yes, it is, actually. The mind can play tricks on the unsuspecting. By seven or eight minutes in, you find yourself starting to wonder if it might be time to move on to the next thing. But you don't, because somehow you can't, and all of a sudden you find yourself being dragged back into the light, only to discover that 30 more minutes have passed. Not only that, but by that point you can't even imagine wanting the damn thing to ever come to an end. But, of course, it does, by which point "Steppin' Out" will be stuck in your head for days. (There are worse things, believe me.)

It's not a thing you would probably -- if you are, ahem, "sane" -- want to come back to particularly often, but you will want to come back to it. Let's say once every couple of months or so. It's like colonic irrigation for the brain.

(Don't ignore the download button.)