Psychic Temple, 'Plays Music For Airports'

Welcome to summer.

Happy first day of summer! (And happy first day of summer drinking season!) If you read the papers — hahaha, how much of an old person do I sound like here, “read the papers”? As if you’ve held an actual newspaper in your hand to do anything except pack boxes at any time in the past five years. Pretty soon you won’t even know what paper is, let alone the papers. I mean, maybe I’m wrong, maybe the papers will be like the vinyl version of the news. But I kind of doubt it. Papers are fucked. Everything is fucked, really, but papers are going to get it before a lot of other things that deserve it more. Sorry, papers. — or follow the news some other, more modern way, you might feel as if this could be our last summer, a feeling I would not fault you for having, given what’s going on at the moment. (An alternate concern that I could equally appreciate is that it might be summer forever, in the sense that it’s going to be warm from here on out, the figurative hell that we are apparently descending into made literal through our inability to contend with the forces we have let loose into the atmosphere etc.)

Whatever we get, last summer or permanent summer, are you thinking about how you’re going to make this one count? Well, don’t bother: Summers are meant to be wasted, and it is folly to think that this is the one where you’ll somehow get it together to make something out of. It would be nice to believe that come fall you’ll be able to pat yourself on the back and say, “Gosh, I really got it together this summer,” but we all know how it’s going to end: You looking at the clock as Labor Day (less than 80 days away!) winds down, thinking, “Oh my God, I fucked it up again.” Well, don’t be too hard on yourself: Better people than you have tried and failed to make the most of summer. It is a season to be wasted, and the sooner you are at peace with that the sooner you can enjoy it. Either way, it starts now.

Hey, how about some music? I have been listening to Psychic Temple Plays Music For Airports quite a bit lately, and as someone who loves Brian Eno’s original (and who also believes that Bang on a Can’s version is one of the great interpretations of any artwork of the last twenty years) I am probably an easy audience for a loose re-imagining of its first movement, but I really think there is something here even for those unfamiliar with the piece. Give it a shot, and please do enjoy. Also, if you like it, buy it. It is the kind of thing that should be encouraged. Anyway, good luck with your summer. Not that it matters.