This album is truly a joy, and after all the pain Burroughs had to go through back in the fifties to get Naked Lunch published in America, it's almost lamentable to see one of his final projects get a big fat warning label on the cover for using the word AASS (if I add the extra A, they don't catch it).
The album uses a combination of Burroughs' unmistakable, dead-pan voice and hiphop to create an environment that is surprisingly complimentary. The Disposable Heroes of Hiphopcrasy provide the loops, synths, and samples that make Burroughs funkier than you ever thought imaginable. I walk around singing some of these tracks to myself all the time.
While the previous album stuck to old standards such as Naked Lunch, this one included more obscure works.
The title piece (You know, that "Annie" one), is a funny little story about a set of mutant humans, "Annie" being a woman with "an auxhillary a**hole in the center of her forehead." It's a great bit, but I've only seen it in one collection of his writings so far, elusively entitled "Early Routines."
The brightest point on the album--or at least my personal favorite--is the track "One God Universe," where Burroughs reads his brilliant, seething take on contemporary monotheism to a groovy baseline that only intensifies his charm.
This is one to share with your friends. If they can stand potty words like the dreaded AASS.
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GENERAL INFORMATION ON THIS ARTIST
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS (1914-1998) is often considered a member of the 1950s Beat literary movement for his close ties to Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferhlinghetti, Neal Cassady, and Jack Kerouac, although his writing, influence, and style reach far beyond the borders of that small community.
He is best known for co-developing with Bryon Gysion the Cut-up method, a literal application of the montage technique to the printed page. Pages and sequences of words are cut-up, then juxtaposed to form a purely visual pattern, thus breaking the traditional associations between words.
His most famous novel is Naked Lunch, a hallucinogenic semi-account of his life as a junk addict. It is here that the world met the world of Interzone, an elusive world of junkies and queers.
Burroughs primary theme in all of his writing was control, namely various methods, both real and extremely fictitious, whereby human beings manipulate and abuse one another. His primary method of relating to this idea was through his own harsh experiences with drug addiction, a problem that haunted him for most of his life.
Burroughs has been credited as the inspiration for a slew of artists, especially in the music industry, including the likes of Kurt Cobain and is considered the grandfather of 80s punk.
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BURROUGHS HAS A HUGE CULT FOLLOWING ON THE WEB, AND YOU CAN SAMPLE MANY SELECTIONS OF HIS WORK, PLUS READ COMMENTARY, BIOGRAPHIES, AND ANYTHING ELSE YOU COULD ASK FOR FREE.
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TO HEAR SOUND RECORDINGS OF BURROUGHS AND HIS WORK, CHECK OUT THESE SITES
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS UBUWEB SOUND POETRY
http://www.ubu.com/sound/burroughs.html
THE GHOST OF WILLIAM BURROUGHS
http://www.netherworld.com/~mgabrys/william/prev.html
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ALSO RECOMMENDED
INTERZONE
is a COLOSSAL web ring that is amazingly easy to navigate. The most informative and useful sites Ive seen related to Burroughs.
www.inter-zone.org
THE WSB INTER-WEB-ZONE
http://www.hyperreal.org/wsb/
Recommended:
Yes
Great Music to Play While: Hanging With Friends