Intrepid Travels: The Bus That Fell Behind The Times

Intrepid Travels: The Bus That Fell Behind The Times
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You might need a little more than just the sonospheric groove in the album, Intrepid Travels, in order to experience Sound Strider's out-of-this-world bus ride. Fasten your seatbelts; the music is monotonously nostalgic for the chess playing robot, HAL 9000, and/or a hit of drug-laced juice. In fact, the EP might even make you feel grateful that you never stepped into Ken Kesey's bus "Further". And even if the smell of weed drifts out of the windows, it's possible that even the Merry Pranksters would find this music bumming-out their trip. But -- heck -- that's just my opinion.

It is not until you get to the last track "Betoniere" that there is some evidence of an experimental sound that has not already been done before.

But, let's say that the EP was intended to put us in an alternative state of mind with or without the help of a substance and still be transcendent. Nowadays, the bus might be filled with those Singularitarians who want us to believe that our computers will soon outdo the intelligence of man. You know, those Silicon Valley geeks who are comfortable finding their high on the sentient machine.

For them, penetrating the divine scheme of the universe is credited to the principles of accelerated returns -- the pace of scientific progress exponentially growing until it becomes impossible for humans to keep up. They may be onto something. But even Alan Turing, who has been credited with everything that computers do today, had doubts about whether machines had the intellectual capacities equal to a human mind. Maybe the bigger question is; will the computer be man's friend or foe?

In any case, Sound Strider's spatial elements in his new EP does address man's quest to go to infinity and beyond -- the realm of intrepid traveling -- not traveled yet by anyone.

But, let's imagine that you started off at Menlo Park, California (the former residence of Ken Kesey) and orbited the planet -- that would be a bold journey. But, we all know that childhood fantasies end once you get off the magic school bus. In spite of that, some of us don't exit the celestial flow without questioning limits. Some of us do continue to travel towards the existential -- the unanswerable questions of life -- with or without popping a pill to move to the groove. That is, of course if we don't get hit by the proverbial bus.

You can listen to Sound Strider's Intrepid Travels EP on BandCamp.

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