Stupidity Hole

Light acoustic-sounding guitar rings out, creates a sort of jaunty, festive melody. Yet there is something melancholic in it. A certain kind of sanguine, a certain kind of determination, yet matched with sadness.

The band comes in and fill the sound with swirling, driving sound. Push forward, give the whole thing a greater sense of definition.

Vocals come in shortly thereafter. Some sort of roaring thoughtfulness, if that makes sense. Lyrics about leaving something behind due to shifting away from wanting to be part of something that is now seen as perhaps undesirable. Going on a journey. That kind of thing.

The chorus comes in and there is a sort of descending melody that carries a bit more weight within. More sort of stretching, but the whole song is rather expansive. The creation of sound on a vast wideness that perhaps resembles the idea of journey greater than it does resemble the idea of linearity, though a journey can often be linear in retrospect.

Rolling drums, noisy guitar, driving bass. The acoustic still is there and helps to keep everything establish and moving forward.

Eventually it drops out (as well as the synth in the background, but only by a bit) and the bass and percussion is revealed. A sense of strife, perhaps. The melody continues, much more naked. Vocals express the chance encounter that helps the protagonist keep going. Then the chorus returns, expressing perhaps a sense of confidence in one’s own decision whilst maintaining a sense of conviction in the journey, if that makes sense. The chorus elongates as the noise keeps on going. Whilst fuzzed it is not aggressive, but welcoming. Expansive. Perhaps it is meant to represent something spiritual in the aesthetic choices. Perhaps it is all meant to be about imagery. It is a certain kind of calm that seldom can be found. The sense of the sanguine, but also the sadness.

The synth continues in the background, giving the driving of the song a bit more power behind it, but again, it is not aggressive. There is no display of force here. It’s all rather calm and all the other things. Perhaps reflective of the present. No sense of nostalgia.

And so on it continues and the song expresses itself as the one thing, and it’s just wonderful. It’s saddening, but it’s wonderful. Celebratory. A beautiful expression of desire and conviction. Over the expanse it keeps on going and so on and so on and all points toward perhaps the unknown, but the joy of doing this and letting go of that which you find no longer tolerable and thus going on a pilgrimage in order to find something that might perhaps represent a higher ideal; the quest for the widening and learning of oneself.

And so it goes until a final note rings out and trails off, signalling the end of the song, letting the remainder of the journey remain more unknown than when it started, as is the way it should be.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 09:44:97

This took longer than the song, which was Killing Joke’s “Pilgrimage” from their album Democracy, which (as I understand it) is not one of their most well-received albums. I think in a few ways the album could’ve been much better, but it’s also one of my favourites of all of Killing Joke’s releases.

I don’t think this is necessarily decent writing. I struggled and that comes through. I think I was thinking too actively. However, I think it’s a good writing exercise as it helps refine and explore the act of talking about music.

At some point during the writing I thought that it might be a good idea to continue working on this way of describing music separate from the word challenges, so I’m probably going to do more but have the main constraint be the song’s length.

Written at home.