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After listening to this work as a whole, for a whole almost 4 months, I am sure Starship Earth is representative of the most accomplished B. Hasemeyer music to date. It works as a concept album as well as a piece of entertainment. Starship Earth runs 45 minutes.
3/4 an hour. 1/2 of 90 minutes. 1/4 of 3 hours.
The proof of poignancy is all in the numbers. I was originally shooting for a 14 track opus much like Radiohead's scattershot Hail To The Thief, which clocked in at 54 min. However, I got to 11 tracks, with only a week to go before my release date of 5/4/2019... and I realized there was no conceivable way I could write, record, and master 3 tracks in time. So I wrote one new one, the last track on the album; "End Of Time" which runs 3:20. The track signifies an individual called out as "you," who catches the narrator's eye, then sees him cry, then listens by firelight to the announcement "This is the end of time motherfuckers, welcome to the end of time." The individual "you" is then pointed out as a spy, whose mind is changed after night settles in, who sees the narrator Die, then takes time to print out "leaflets announcing this is the end of time motherfuckers..." perhaps as funeral programs. By verse 3, "you" is standing forever guarding the narrator's grave, "telling all who dare to set foot on the path to the window to the awkward moselium, this is the end of time motherfuckers, welcome to the end of time."
So, examining time conceptually here, also actually, the 11 tracks before End Of Time had a run-time of approx 42 min. Fourty-two minutes is a relatively short album by 90s CD standards (which I do use as my standard context of form and format when working on my albums). Comparatively, Thom Yorke's debut solo album The Eraser ran 41 mins. I know that run-time by heart, and I honestly can't think of one album in my meticulously edited and chunked through collection of "shit I listen to" that runs 42 minutes. So, adding on the End Of Time, track 12, made Starship Earth an (almost, really close) even 45 minute piece of work.
Funny how track 12 implies the clock and its name is End Of Time.
If you were to start at the top of an hour playing this album and watching an analogue clock, it would end stiffly "in the middle" of the 9 on the clockface.
Speaking of the middle, I should briefly touch on track #6, the inverted 9 if you will...
So yeah, there is a way to read this thing. And the title is not "just there" it definately means, umm, well I promise its "somewhere..."
There is also a Cherry Key, if you were lost and locked out of all meaning and interpretation of the title Starship Earth. Yes, Cherry Key runs 2:09, its track #5, but measuring by the proverbial clock on the wall, it drops in at exactly 13:05 (+ 2:09 = 15:14)... So after the Cherry Key has been ingested, the minute hand is precisely on the 3 on the clock-face, the exact opposite of where we wind up on 9 after the whole 45 mins of the complete play-thru.
So now, you have a certain way to read this album. The first 1/3 of the album takes place between tracks 1-5. Then there's that dreaded "middle" song, Kong Fuzd, which runs ridiculously long for a simple guitar and voice affair, clocking it at 6:10. The Kong stomps in at the exact middle of the album, track 6, and... wait.
What the fuck? How is the middle of the album, the 6th track of 12, only beginning on the 15 minute mark??
Ok, deep breath. Lets figure out where the 30 minute mark is, the 6 on the proverbial clock-face on our imaginary wall. Counting in, the second 15 minute "movement" of Starship Earth takes place within only 3 tracks, beginning with Track #6 and ending exactly 17 seconds short of said minute hand pointing directly down at the 6, the 30 min mark. Seriously, if you add up the run-time of Kong Fuzd, Genies, and Wires (6:10 + 3:59 + 4:44) you get 14:53.
Next, we'll acquire the details on the next movement just using some subtraction. 4 tracks left.
To recap:
Movement 1: Tracks 1-5: 15:14
Movement 2: Tracks 6-8: 14:53
And so, by adding these two (15:14 + 14:53 = 30:07) we can infer the exact length of...
Movement 3: Tracks 9-12: 14:53
What?
How is the holy fuck is Movement 2 and Movement 3 THE EXACT SAME RUNNING LENGTH, down to the very second?? Well, this is simply assuming the album runs Exactly 45 minutes.
Wait, what is the actual length?? Is it really Exactly 45 minutes?
As the artist who created this puzzle, I will not now say anything like "it doesn't really matter, its just music." On the direct contrary, this stuff is just as important as our currently hidden, yet very real actual reality, which I basically spell out "but, somewhere" on my little masterpiece Starship Earth.
The proof is in the puddin. Dig in, get it all over your face, drippy. I make music for people to dive headlong into, and in the case of Starship Earth especially, there's enough depth here to drown in.
--B. Hasemeyer, 7/28/2019
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