Unrock

The track "Unrock" refers to the record store of the same name, located in Krefeld, Germany. Krefeld, the birthplace of the artist Joseph Beuys, was the first stop on the trip. The store Unrock presented the concert, the last one to take place in the old store, as an event to mark its move to a new location.


Before the show, we hung out with Bernd, a friend of the owner, who reminded us that Krefeld sits not far from Düsseldorf, the home of Kraftwerk, Can and Neü. Bernd's words stuck in my mind, and in the mid-section of "Unrock," with its insistent LFO-based pulse, and in the final section's bursts of white noise, I pay my respects to the traditions of the region.


A document of a complete performance, "Unrock" is the only track on Panic and Anti-Panic to appear in an unedited form.

Up the Gravity Well

The tracks on Panic and Anti-Panic flow in reverse chronological order. Although "Up the Gravity Well" appears first on the album, the performance occurred at the end of the trip, in Den Haag, the Netherlands. "Up the Gravity Well" was recorded in the basement performance space of the Villa Grijpsheert. Actually a squat in the embassy section of town, The Villa Grijpsheert stood at least three elegant brick stories tall and housed a variety of artists and their studios.

The title refers to a phrase that William Gibson uses in his novel Count Zero to describe the location of a burnt-out hacker, Wigan Ludgate, who is squatting in the remains of the Tessier-Ashpool family's orbital mansion, the Villa Straylight:

Wig, I said, times money but tell me what you intend to do now? Because I was curious. Known the guy years, in a business way. Finn, he says, I gotta get up the gravity well, God's up there. I mean, he says, He's everywhere but there's too much static down here, it obscures His face.

Concert poster by Samantha Rees.

Up The Gravity Well - Excerpt by johnlevin