"Immediately after the blazing success of their ridiculous 2012 double ruinmix album LULU (labelled by media blogger Mark Whitby "a visionary masterpiece" and "one of the best, and most original, albums of 2012"), Buttress O'Kneel and Lucas Darklord wondered what to destroy/recreate next. Both huge Bowie fans, they decided to ruinmix The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, very quickly opting for a double album, with one volume being The Rise, and the other The Fall.

The procedure was simple: O'Kneel and Darklord would destroy/recreate the album one song at a time, in two different ways, and then their independent pieces woud be brought together in a masterclash of dadalayers and oblique strategies. Both artists did what they do best: O'Kneel looped and glitched and collaged with her usual absurdist gay abandon, while Darklord granulated and fedback and distorted and burst and stretched with his vast array of multi-level destruction/reconstruction networks.

Early on in the process, the duo decided that they would always keep one version of the songs the exact same length as the original (though not always on the same volume of the double album), so they ended up with one version of the songs that was identical (lengthwise) to Bowie's own, and one version that was an extended noise freakout with no limits. While they were creating these multiple versions of the songs, they released a "sneak preview" of the double album as a "Double A-Side Virtual 7" Vinyl Record" on archive.com (Moonage Daydream and Suffragette City) in January 2013, although, it must be noted, these versions are actually also different versions to anything that actually appears on either The Rise or The Fall. But the album, both volumes of it, was almost ready for release! Exciting!

Also of note: while the double album was being worked on in the early days of 2013, the actual living artist David Bowie had not released an album of new material in ten years, and was not expected to any time soon. But of course, as history will tell us, he had actually been secretly working on a new album, The Next Day, which he released in March of 2013, surprising O'Kneel and Darklord, and suddenly (and completely accidentally) making their ruinmix double album culturally relevant.

Poised for release, O'Kneel finished the artwork, referencing the artwork for The Next Day (itself a detournement of the "Heroes" album cover, defaced with a white square), and the album was ready for exposure to the masses...

And then...

Well, they sat on it. Rumours circulated in the noisewave underground that Lucas Darklord was not completely happy with it, and wanted to change a few pieces here and there - other rumours said it was O'Kneel who was dissatisfied, and who wanted to make the alterations. Either way, and whatever the truth may be, the duo sat on the album, making their tiny tweaks as they saw fit, for nigh on THREE FUCKING YEARS.

By which point, of course, David Bowie released ANOTHER surprise album, Black Star... and then promptly died.

Now Darklord and O'Kneel were in a quandary. Although their double ruinmix album was finally 100% completed, it seemed somehow disrespectful to release it straight after Bowie's death - the pair were worried that it would look like some kind of disrespectful cash-grab grave-robbing capitalist venture, when really it was a love-letter to a musical hero. So they sat on it again, and waited for a more appropriate time to release it.

That time, more than two years after the passing of David Bowie, is finally with us. That time is NOW.

Is it still relevant? Is it even any good? Were all those minor tweaks worthwhile? As in all matters of art and culture, we're afraid that the only person who can decide such matters is, unfortunately, you."

Department of Historical Explanations and Memetic Archeology
IWML
2018

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DOWNLOADS OF THE ALBUM COME WITH NARRATIVE LINER NOTES. THE NARRATIVE LINER NOTES FOR "THE RISE" READ AS FOLLOWS:

"THE RISE

The world is in turmoil. Ziggy Stardust learns, through mysterious means, that there are only five years left until the planet is utterly obliterated – “earth was really dying” – and he decides that he needs to tell the world / heal the world. To get his message to the dwindling and degenerating human population, he needs to create the most startling and provocative band the world has ever seen, and become spokesperson for the planet, rallying the humans to action. He creates a band, “The Spiders from Mars”, named after an ancient David Bowie song, and begins spreading his message and attracting followers. His main message is of the concept of ‘soul love’, an unconditional love centred on an intangible animistic ‘oneness’ that not only unites all humanity, but all matter in the universe.

Desperate to let the world understand his universal animistic ‘soul love’ philosophy, Ziggy attempts to dissolve the lines between male and female, old and young, maternalistic and paternalistic, claiming to be a unified being known as a “mama-papa”.

With his philosophy becoming more and more popular, Ziggy encourages people to move beyond even his vision of ‘mama-papas’, and consider reality on a larger scale: he’s no longer an ‘earth man’, but a ‘star man’. His followers grow, and his teachings appear to be making a difference. Selflessness and environmental responsibility seem to be on the rise. Albeit slowly, the world seems to be reversing its collapse. There is singing in the streets.

5) (currently RISE disc) Ziggy climbs to the top of the mountain, and looks out over the sea, and sees the greatness of what he has achieved. The world is healing. And it’s all thanks to him. He offers praise to the ancient Egyptian sky-goddess Nut, or "Lady Stardust" as he refers to her.

Ziggy realises that it’s working – he can make a transformation to the entire planet as a rock and roll star. But as his influence grows, so does his ego, and Ziggy begins to realise the personal power he commands over people. He can literally make people do anything he wants. Jealous of his personal fame, Ziggy’s band attempt to instate their own power – “we’re the Spiders from Mars!” – and reap their own wealth and fortune and ravenous disciples. But despite everything, it's Ziggy who brings the peace, and the band can never be the stars that they want to be.

Ziggy plays the world’s largest concert ever, in Suffragette City. This is Ziggy’s crowning achievement – but as he plays, he begins to realise that the masses are not here for the message, but for Ziggy himself. Turning to his band, he sees that they resent him. Amongst the sea of followers, there is no ‘soul love’ to be seen. Fame and power and blind worship – but backstage, he is offered taboo offerings. Ziggy realises that his personal power is so great there are virtually no limits he can’t cross. This is the beginning of the fall – he wrestles with his conscience, but gives in to total hedonism."

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