In this post I will list some particular developments in the sciences which serve as reasons for optimism that the vanquishing of aging and death may be on our horizon.
1. Gene editing can revert adult cells to embryoniclike ones.
This has lent credence to the belief among some scientists that aging is governed by epigenetic changes, and therefore it is something malleable and not 'hard-coded' into our being. Similarly, transfusion of blood itself from younger to older lifeforms can produce age-reversing effects (also known as ‘parabiosis’, a procedure which will be further elaborated upon later).
Cellular youth and the continued rejuvenation of all our organic components appear to be one of the pillars of combatting death. Our limited lifespans can only be prolonged if change occurs ‘from the ground up’ — that is to say that superficial youthfulness might come only as an expression of our youth on a base biological level.
2. Collagen can prevent the effects of aging upon the skin.
Stem cells are what allow skin to rejuvenate, and their depletion over time will eventually curtail that process. The body normally expels damaged stem cells and replaces them with healthy ones, but eventually a tipping point will be reached wherein damaged stem cells outnumber healthy ones and the expulsion can no longer take place. Increased levels of collagen 17 within stem cells can strengthen the bond which keeps them attached. Though no product yet exists which can achieve this, these relatively recent findings could be a future route towards it.
3. There is natural precedent for the absence of any visible aging process.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydra_(genus) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_dohrnii
4. Early research indicates that hyperbaric oxygen treatment can extend telomeres and reverse the aging of blood cells.
“...a unique protocol of treatments with high-pressure oxygen in a pressure chamber can reverse two major processes associated with aging and its illnesses: the shortening of telomeres (protective regions located at both ends of every chromosome) and the accumulation of old and malfunctioning cells in the body. Focusing on immune cells containing DNA obtained from the participants' blood, the study discovered a lengthening of up to 38% of the telomeres, as well as a decrease of up to 37% in the presence of senescent cells.” [Source]
Most medical decisions made in a lifetime are oriented toward a single objective: extension of life (or prevention of death, depending on your point of view). The improvement of life quality is taken into consideration oftentimes; but the latter usually leads to the former, in the end.
Why should we not take this mindset to its obvious conclusion? That oft-spurned conclusion is: “I don’t want to ever die”. We are discouraged from it — in no uncertain terms — by everything from television series to the church. We are informed that this is not something we should want. When it comes to mortality, we’re told to ‘accept it’ and ‘come to terms with it’.
In any given piece of media, immortality is treated as a gluttonous desire. Inevitably it will result in a sort of eternal limbo or living hell for any character whose wish is granted.
Here is a rather random example, but one which has stood out to me: In the show Picard, Data opines in his ‘farewell episode’ that to live a finite life to its conclusion is the most human experience one could have. In a later(?) episode, Picard had his terminal brain condition repaired by having his consciousness transplanted to a machine body. Once he is brought to, he expresses concern to his saviours that the process may have rendered him functionally immune to the effects of aging (and therefore impervious to death by old age). He is reassured that his lifespan remains that of a normal human being’s — minus the brain condition that was before going to end his life prematurely.
What’s the difference?
What is it, exactly, which makes one cause of death ‘untimely’ and the other just nature taking its course? The answer: absolutely nothing whatsoever. It’s an arbitrary distinction to which is sacred to us.
Do you think aging is ‘beautiful’? Do you look forward to growing old with someone? Your ‘golden years’? Go to any nursing home and you’ll see little in the way of beauty; just a terrifying peep into a telescope pointed toward your own potential future. Tick, tick, tick.
As the young patient wastes away deprived of the proper care for their ailment, so does the old-timer in palliative care. They’re both afflicted by something which a moral civilization would strive to cure. Disease is disease, however ancient and fundamental to our philosophy its normalization may be.
Harry Reid Claims U.S. Government Covered Up UFO Evidence for Years [Brittany Bernstein for the National Review]
2.1 Million of the Oldest Internet Posts Are Now Online for Anyone to Read [Samantha Cole for Vice]
The Best Museum in the World [Brian T. Allen for the National Review] “Making the Met, 1870–2020 makes the case, and no one can deny it: The Met is an unparalleled marvel.“
Here's the G-Man in a perfect recreation of Once in a Lifetime by Talking Heads [Jonathan Bolding for PC Gamer]
Venice holds back the water for first time in 1,200 years [Julia Buckley for CNN Travel]
A Bipartisan Foreign Policy Is Still Possible [Sen. Christopher Coons for Foreign Affairs] “The United States does [sic] not have to choose between being the world’s policeman and total retrenchment: it can engage the world more selectively, in ways that better serve the interests of working Americans.“
Karaoke, trivia and frat parties: Tales of Aaron Rodgers' inner weirdness [Sam Borden for ESPN.com]
Ancient Greeks Voted to Kick Politicians Out of Athens if Enough People Didn’t Like Them [Megan Gannon for Smithsonian Magazine] “Ballots that date more than two millennia old tell the story of ostracism“
The Basic Income Has Its Moment: How the Pandemic Made a Fringe Idea Go Mainstream [Evelyn L. Forget for Foreign Affairs]
The Friendships that Make Representative Government Work [Cameron Hilditch for the National Review] “Without a certain degree of trust and respect between victorious majorities and defeated minorities, democracy falls apart.“
1. Destructive, derogatory, or harmful to either the diversity of human cultures and/or their established traditions, peculiarities, and institutions.
//”While the Roman Empire laid the foundations for modern western civilization, the effect of their rule upon conquered peoples was very anticulural at the time.”
2. Hostile, derogatory, or dismissive toward the fields of arts and/or humanities. Anti-intellectual.
//”I thought that the mayor slashing funding for the museum was a very anticultural decision.”
I have been writing and recording music for eight years, none of which has ever been shared publicly until this past summer.
Lately I have been delving into the enormous amount of instrumental demo tracks that I have recorded since 2012; remastering, remixing, and sometimes overdubbing them in order to meet my standards for releasable material. I uploaded two of these tracks to my Soundcloud account a few months ago, but neglected to post them here and add context to them.
1. “Area 51 [2015 Instrumental Demo]”
“Area 51″ is the third song I ever composed; created some time during early to mid-2013. It was my attempt at imitating the Michale Graves-era Misfits, and features lyrics (not present on this version of the track, which is instrumental) sung from the point of view of someone who has trespassed on Area 51, saw things he shouldn’t have, and is being ‘dispatched’ by suited federal agents as a result. I would say the complete song (with lyrics and bass) is the closest thing I’ve created to pop punk.
2. “Inexcusable [2019 Instrumental Demo]”
“Inexcusable” is a recent composition which was more or less created by accident while fooling around with three earlier recordings in Audacity, and is essentially a Frankenstein’s monster of a song (hence its unique structure and multiple distinct parts). It has no lyrics written yet aside from a chorus. The main theme of the composition is darkness contrasted with light — yin and yang. To my ears, it’s an eight minute long meditation that flickers like lightning through the inhospitable polar extremes of human emotion, jerking back and forth between oppressive gloom and defiant joy.
John the Baptist Church in Karaglukh in Hadrut Province, Nagorno-Karabakh (photo courtesy of Maxim Atayants, under the CC Atribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license).
Windows XP Leak Confirmed After User Compiles the Leaked Code Into a Working OS [Slashdot]
McMaster: Trump ‘aiding and abetting Putin’s efforts’ at election interference [J. Edward Moreno for The Hill]
FarmVille is shutting down on Facebook after 11 years [Shawn Knight for Techspot]
Armenia-Azerbaijan: What’s behind the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict? [BBC News]
How to Make Progressivism Mean Something Again [Win McCormack for The New Republic] “…the word progressive, which has become virtually ubiquitous in contemporary American political discourse, is effectively meaningless: A word that carries several different and conflicting meanings has, essentially, no real meaning.”
Universal basic income gains support in South Korea after COVID [Sotaru Suzuki for the Nikkei Asian Review]
Trump refuses to commit to peaceful transition of power [Morgan Chalfant for The Hill]
Heat ray 'was sought’ against protest in Washington’s Lafayette Square [BBC News] “Officers requested a “heat ray” weapon for possible use against protesters in a park next to the White House in June, a National Guard major has said. Military police allegedly asked the National Guard for the Active Denial System (ADS), which makes targets feel their skin is on fire.“
Radiocarbon dating and CT scans reveal Bronze Age tradition of keeping human remains [University of Bristol via EurekAlert!] “Using radiocarbon dating and CT scanning to study ancient bones, researchers have uncovered for the first time a Bronze Age tradition of retaining and curating human remains as relics over several generations.”
Photo by Elekes Andor (used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license).
Brave Complains Google’s Newly-Proposed ‘WebBundles’ Standard Would 'Make URLs Meaningless’ (Peter Snyder)
Russian arrested for trying to recruit an insider and hack a Nevada company (Catalin Climpanu for ZDNet)
White House announces creation of AI and quantum research institutes (Kyle Wiggers for VentureBeat)
Not Just a Lovable Rogue (Dalibor Rohac for the National Review) “Viktor Orban and his Fidesz party have harmed Hungary in many ways.”
Windows 95 Released a Quarter Century Ago (User ”bondman” for Slashdot)
Former DHS official says Trump offered pardons for carrying out illegal policies (Justin Wise for The Hill) As I have said in a previous post, I believe that presidential pardon powers in the U.S. need to be re-evaluated.
POLL: Joe Biden Leads Among Active Duty Troops (Brittany Bernstein for the National Review)
Crusader Kings III Review (Luke Plunkett for Techspot)
Central European Filmmakers are Reframing the 20th Century (Michael Brendan Dougherty for the National Review) I had some similar thoughts after watching Agnieszka Holland’s Mr. Jones, which is also the centerpiece of this article.
Marco Rubio Hopes UFOs Are Aliens, Not Chinese Planes (Matthew Gault for Vice) The humourous headline addresses an issue which we should be taking much more seriously.
Radicalism’s Perils (Mathis Bitton for the National Review) “In times of political and economic upheaval, we must resist the siren calls of prefabricated Theories of Everything.“
Civilian Control of the Military Is a Partisan Issue (Ronald R. Krebs and Robert Ralston for Foreign Affairs) “Too Many Americans Don’t Subscribe to a Basic Tenet of Democracy“
Created 150 Years Ago, the Justice Department’s First Mission Was to Protect Black Rights (Bryan Greene for Smithsonian Magazine)
Photo: William Henry Goodyear w/ colour by Joseph Hawkes, Brooklyn Museum Archives. Year unknown (before 1923).
UC Berkeley Study Finds Diluting Blood Plasma Reverses Aging In Mice (Schwit1 from Berkeley.edu for Slashdot)
Thebes: The Forgotten City (Paul Cartledge for History Today) “The city of Thebes was central to the ancient Greeks’ achievements in politics and culture. For many centuries it has been largely – and often deliberately – forgotten.”
Trump administration drafting 'Artemis Accords' pact for moon mining (Joey Roulette for Reuters) “The agreement would be the latest effort to cultivate allies around NASA’s plan to put humans and space stations on the moon within the next decade, and comes as the civilian space agency plays a growing role in implementing American foreign policy.“
When the System Fails: COVID-19 and the Costs of Global Dysfunction (Stewart Patrick for Foreign Affairs Magazine) [Paywall]
The story of Halo 2's iconic multiplayer maps: tight deadlines, a tiny team, and a visit from Napoleon Dynamite (Wes Fenlon for PC Gamer) “An oral history of some of the best multiplayer maps ever designed with two Bungie veterans.”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: ”Hacking Attempt' Claimed By Georgia Secretary of State Was A Security Test the State Govt. Requested Themselves (Mark Niesse & Jack Gillum)
The Low-Temperature Election (Michael B. Dougherty for the National Review) “It’s as if the coronavirus has taught the American people that we don’t even need the political process as an occasion for venting hatred at each other anymore. An opinion on masks or hydroxychloroquine will do the job just fine.“
Photo: Wikimedia user “Sandpiper”, 1986. Public domain.
Adelphi researcher discovers early, complex brain surgery in ancient Greece (Adelphi University Press Release)
Abolish Silicon Valley' Author Urges 'Expropriating' Platforms, Making them Open-Source Public Services (EditorDavid for Slashdot) “My Utopian view is to put tech companies in full public view. Expropriate platforms and turn them into municipal services, public services and make them open-source.“
The Right to Work From Home Could Be Guaranteed By Law in Germany (EditorDavid for Slashdot)
The Queen and Her Delinquents (Madeleine Kearns for the National Review) “The monarch shows dignity during a time of crisis; her grandchildren do not.”
Pope advocates for universal basic income in Easter letter (Rebecca Klar for The Hill)
Virginia lawmakers decriminalize marijuana, legalize casinos as session winds down (Gregory S. Schneider for The Washington Post)
Meghan McCain: Trump will replace Pence with Haley to counter ‘identity politics’ (Joe Concha for The Hill) This was also predicted separately by CNN’s Paul Begala.
Mnuchin: Trump Admin. Considering ‘Sending in Checks to Americans Immediately’ to Offset Coronavirus Impact (Zachary Evans for the National Review) This was a very surprising move for a Republican administration to make to me, at first.
How the Cornish pasty came to prosper in Virginia (Jonathan Turley for the BBC)
NYC Health Committee Chairman Braces Residents for ‘Temporary Burials’ in City Parks Due to Limited Morgue Space (Zachary Evans for the National Review)
Trump Signs Executive Order To Support Moon Mining, Tap Asteroid Resources (BeauHD for Slashdot)
The President’s Cabinet Was an Invention of America’s First President (Karin Wulf for Smithsonian Magazine) “A new book explores how George Washington shaped the group of advisors as an institution to meet his own needs“.
Mini Review: Killing Joke – Malicious Damage: Live at the Astoria 12.10.03
It's good to see a setlist on here which is substantially different from that of their other live releases. Unfortunately, however, this performance is marred by sloppy playing, and was probably not the best choice for release. Cuts which have not appeared on any official live albums previously (or which have not been played often by the band so far in the 21st century) include Total Invasion (butchered by Jaz), Blood On Your Hands (butchered by Geordie), Seeing Red, Kings and Queens, and Empire Song.
Of interest only to the most die-hard fans. Listen to The Great Gathering (2016) or XXV Gathering: Let Us Prey (2005) for your fix of live post-2000 Killing Joke instead.
John Smith (1580–1631) is best known to most for his love affair with Pocahontas—which in turn was a result of his participation in the first wave of English settlement at Jamestown. However, his exodus to Virginia was preceded by many years of piracy and mercenary work in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Central Europe.
Smith was an adolescent runaway, born a commoner, who idolised Sir Francis Drake and felt magnetically attracted to the early-modern archetype of the ‘gentleman soldier’. After leaving home he learned Italian, and became well-acquainted with classical military and political texts.
While under the employ of a French captain in the Mediterranean, Smith became wealthy from the sinking and subsequent plundering of a Venetian trade ship in the Mediterranean, and subsequently toured Italy. He made his way north to Graz; a city in Steiermark (Styria), Austria. By 1601 – six years before the first English settlers were to arrive in Virginia – he had become a member of an Austrian division doing battle against the Ottoman Turks. It wasn’t long before he was promoted to the rank of captain within the Holy Roman Empire's army and had 250 cavalry units put under his charge.
Smith's most notable feat during his stint in Central Europe was winning a set of one-on-one duels against three successive members of the defending Turkish garrison during the siege of Alba Iulia (in modern-day Romania). Following this emphatic exhibition of martial prowess, he stood boldly before an Ottoman general with all three of his defeated opponents' heads each impaled on an individual lance. The enemy general was astonished, and reportedly embraced Smith; then rewarded him with a fine horse and splendid jewel-encrusted scimitar.
Later, the Austrian-allied Prince of Transylvania granted him the prestige of nobility, thus fulfilling one of his most fervent and fantastical ambitions. Needless to say, it was not with great frequency that individuals from meagre yeomen farmer backgrounds in England (nor Europe in general) were able to experience such a degree of social advancement within their lifetimes. A coat of arms was bestowed upon him by the prince, which famously depicted three disembodied Turkish heads (as seen below). The Latin motto inscribed beneath it, “vincere est vivere”, means “to conquer is to live”.
Buzzsaw on Quaaludes: Killing Joke and the Guitar Stylings of Geordie Walker
Killing Joke has had a sole guitarist since its formation in 1979; a man who never receives the credit he deserves, save from the countless musicians he has inspired and his fans. He is a guitarist's guitarist – a player whose genius you cannot fully appreciate, unless you yourself share his craft. His name is Kevin Walker; but is known to most as ‘Geordie’.
Geordie Walker performing in Finland, 2009. (Photo by Thomas Vitikainen)
There aren't very many guitarists, whom you can recognize on a track solely based on style of play. Geordie Walker is certainly one of them.
Wikipedia describes his "unorthodox style of play" as "Byrds-like chiming arpeggios of repetitive and somewhat somber melodies with a hypnotic long-sustain tone". It is one reason why his play is so instantly recognizable and fascinating, but it is not the whole story.
While experimental in his ethos – and possessing a first wave post-punk background similar to Daniel Ash, Bernard Sumner, or Billy Duffy – Geordie Walker is a different species from these three. He bookends the fiddly, reverberating, scratchy, ingenuity of post-punk instrumentation, with some of the most inventive and memorable heavy riffage in rock history.
This is something which the mainstream has completely failed to bestow due credit for, in spite of concurrently acknowledging his "influence" the scant few times it has deemed him worthy of mention. This is an injustice which Killing Joke as a collective musical unit has long struggled with – the namedropping of stars who have owned their records, taking precedence over their actual music.
Early Output
London-based Killing Joke started out as a wonky dub outfit, releasing their first EP, Turn to Red, in 1979.
While perfectly adequate, within the narrow confines of the style of music his band was then playing; Walker's work on this release was not overly remarkable. It was within the following year, as the band began to take a more aggressive sonic approach – in response to the energetic environment of live shows – that he began to break the mould.
The 1980 single ‘Wardance’; accompanied by the equally famous b-side Pssyche; is a deliciously primitive release. ‘Wardance’ is what would happen if a Neu! cover band, or some other krautrock outfit, performed in "The Upside Down" from Stranger Things. A savage caveman beat by drummer Paul Ferguson introduces a fuzz-laden funk bassline. Then, Geordie does something quite interesting:
His riff on this song is one chord; played with the "scat" rhythm which has long been an aural trademark of reggae, dub, and ska. There was nothing remarkable about this in 1980 – The Clash, as well as other British punk and post-punk acts had been there, and done that. But this particular instance of it, was played with heavy distortion on the open E string – the lowest possible chord in E standard tuning. In other words, this was less of a "scat" and more of a "thwomp".
This minor change to a rather stale trope, was simply a stroke of genius. Killing Joke has downtuned their instruments since the early 80s; and as this video of them performing the song here in the teens shows, it has made the song even more utterly monstrous as it has aged.
On these earlier releases, Geordie Walker had not yet built up his distinctive style to its classic form. The Turn to Red EP, ‘Wardance’ single, self-titled Killing Joke debut album of 1980; and follow-up, what's THIS for...! (1981); were all recorded in E standard tuning, rather than the lower D standard tuning, which has now been used by Killing Joke for about thirty-five years.
More importantly, on all of those releases; plus 1982's Revelations; Geordie is without his most recognizable trademark: his yellow-gold, hollow-bodied Gibson ES-295 guitar. He had not purchased it yet at this time, and instead used a Gibson SG.
[Edit: I've also seen a video of a television performance from this period where he has a Fender Stratocaster, but the band is miming along to a studio recording, and I see no evidence that he ever used it in the studio or during any real live performances.]
Walker's nascent sound on these first four releases was thin and wiry; it is high-pitched, sharp, and has very clear definition, in contrast to his later multilayered textures, blanketing eerie harmonics. But it still has its charm, and the work he does with it is still very recognizably Geordie. But this was Geordie Walker 1.0: a sound that he would leave in the early 80s, and never again return to.
Recently, Jaz Coleman joined the Foo Fighters onstage in Prague to perform ‘Requiem’ off of Killing Joke’s first album. Although the performance is dreadful aside from Jaz Coleman's vocals, I noticed two things: first, three guitarists combined, sounding far less impressive than Walker does on his own; but also, that this may have been the first time that Requiem had been performed in its original tuning by a member of Killing Joke since 1982.
Killing Joke (1980) was the band's debut album, featuring many songs which would later become staples in Killing Joke's live setlist. It begins with the aforementioned track Requiem; a slow, thumping, buzzing, clockwork eulogy for humanity after an apocalypse.
When performed live, to lessen the monotony of repeating the riff throughout the whole song, Geordie will often do some improvisation following the first chorus; slide up from the second fret to the fourteenth to play it during the second and third choruses; or switch from the neck pickup to the bridge pickup during the second and third verses, to back up Jaz Coleman's vocals with a more muddy, chiming tone. All of these live quirks can be seen exhibited during this performance of the song.
Also of interest on the debut album, are ‘The Wait’, a white-hot early industrial metal masterpiece, which contains what may be the grandest riff of Geordie Walker's career. S.O.36 is a rarely-performed, extremely underrated cut, for which he provides dissonant, ghostly arpeggios. I also find the riff of Primitive fascinating; because, (to me, at least) it bears some resemblance to Ron Asheton's riff on The Stooges' ‘T.V. Eye’. Walker is such an underivative guitarist, that it's intriguing when he actually gives glimpses of who his influences may be.
Walker's sound began to evolve on 1982's Revelations. I personally consider it to be a quite mediocre album, but Geordie has his moments on it. The guitar on tracks such as ‘The Hum’, and ‘The Pandys are Coming’ is bone-chilling. This album was supposedly the first on which Killing Joke downtuned their instruments – but only a half step down, instead of the full step D standard tuning which would first appear on 1983's ‘Fire Dances’.
Geordie's tone on the album is far different from the two that preceded it. The distorted, wiry, scratchy, sound of those early releases, was replaced with an airy, clean chime, with a boost to the mid-range frequencies. The result is guitar parts which have a clattering, messy smack to them – instead of a razor edged high-end hiss.
Fire Dances
The sound Walker introduced on Revelations was taken to a logical conclusion the following year, on Fire Dances (1983). The most significant development of his guitar work on this album, was the debut of his signature hollow-bodied 1952 Gibson ES-295. It was a milestone, as swapping out a solid body for a hollow one gave his sound far more resonance and presence.
"I kind of noticed that if you're using a really distorted sound, if you play complex chords, because of the harmonics in the distortion the chord will fucking disappear. I thought... if I got a semi-acoustic I could put like, a contact pickup in it and mix the acoustic sound with electric sound... and I got an old Gibson fucking catalog and I spotted it."
-- Geordie Walker in 2011 (source)
Originally released for use in big band jazz; and other forms of pre-rock 'n' roll music; in 1952, it gained notoriety as Scotty Moore's instrument of choice on Elvis's early singles. Its gold paint-job was considered outrageous at its time of release.
"To me, a hollowbody is the sound of wood making music. A solidbody is the sound of an amp."
-- Scotty Moore, 2015
Of course, in the world of distorted hard rock, and heavy metal, seeing such guitars onstage is rather a rare occurrence. It wasn't at all unheard of in the post-punk and new wave scenes (Billy Duffy comes to mind), but those players don't implement the heavy chugging, nor display other such metal influences, like Geordie does.
The first time I ever saw a video of Killing Joke performing live, I was a bit amused seeing what appeared to be an old fuddy-duddy rockabilly guitar, being used to play songs like ‘Asteroid’ or ‘Total Invasion’. I believed that the man laying down these tracks must have been a long-maned, bearded, metalhead in a t-shirt; and that the robust sound I was hearing must have been an illusion created by studio multi-tracking. I doubt that when anybody hears post-nineties Killing Joke for the first time they imagine an aloof, well-dressed gentleman nonchalantly strumming away at an Elvis guitar whilst puffing on a cigarette.
Fire Dances is Killing Joke gone psychedelic, featuring upbeat songs with vocals that alternate between childishly whimsical, and completely frantic. Geordie contributes off-kilter, dizzying melodies with a playful mood to them.
It sounds as though his bridge pickup began to see frequent use on this release, a development that would greatly expand his versatility both in-studio and onstage later in his career. A switch of pickups can be detected by the replacement of his high-end chainsaw neck pickup tone with a wet, bell-like chime. Nowadays, on many songs he will switch to his bridge pickup during verses (see: ‘Requiem’, ‘S.O.36′, ‘Primitive’, ‘Pandemonium’, ‘The Great Cull’); and on some songs he will do the opposite (see: ‘Love Like Blood’, ‘Autonomous Zone’, ‘Majestic’, ‘Hosannas’, ‘This Tribal Antidote’).
The New Wave Years
Geordie Walker's liberal usage of delay effects on Fire Dances became a staple of his sound in the commercially successful years which followed.
On 1984's Night Time, it can be argued that his sound finally progressed to vaguely what we hear today. Palm-muting and distortion made their return to his repertoire; however, instead of the icy “Geordie Walker 1.0″ sound of the first two albums, his tone maintained a resonance, density, and an imperial dignity of sorts, from Revelations and Fire Dances.
The exact combination of effects used by Walker from Night Time onward are oft-mistaken by those trying to imitate his sound. Chief among these misconceptions is that he uses a chorus pedal.
I have seen many people ask how to get their setup to sound reminiscent of Geordie Walker's on forums, and the other users will more often than not recommend chorus or stereo chorus effects. After spending countless hours fiddling around with my own guitar setup; and watching videos of Killing Joke performances, and interviews with Geordie (a very rare thing to come across); I strongly believe that he does not use – and probably hasn't ever used – chorus effects.
Delay Pedals
Instead, the resonance of his sound comes from (aside from his hollowbody guitar) clever usage of delay pedals. The users of EquipBoard, have compiled a list of some models he is seen using in various videos and photographs. They include:
The Line 6 DL4 Stompbox Delay Modeler. Spotted in a video from 2006 during the “Hosannas from the Basements of Hell” sessions.
The Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man (era not known).
The delay pedals are set up in a way which mimics chorus, but excludes some of the more "wet" elements of it. To hear the difference, listen to Killing Joke’s ‘Eighties’, followed by Nirvana's cheeky recycling of its riff in ‘Come As You Are’. On the latter, Kurt Cobain is using chorus, and the difference is quite apparent.
I also suspect that he uses a tiny amount of a phaser effect, to give his sound more ‘shimmer’; but I have no evidence to support this as of yet.
Automatic Double Trackers
Geordie also uses automatic double trackers (ADTs) to replicate the layered guitar sound on records – usually only attainable in the studio. He claims to use two at once, which is undoubtedly a paramount component in the constitution of his gargantuan sound.
The ADTs he uses are "Parmee Acoustics and Collins Electromagnetics (PA:CE) Automatic Double Trackers".
Unfortunately, it appears that the company which manufactured these is long-defunct, and as such this unit is no longer in production (as of December 2018, Ebay appears to not have a single one listed). It is described by Fletcher Stewart at Tone Report to be "perhaps one of the most elusive effect units ever made". Stewart, who was able to cop one of the devices off of the internet somehow, described its key features as "the thickest liquid stereo chorus imaginable, chewy true pitch vibrato, sine wave flanging, detuned slap back and more".
The settings on the PA:CE ADT unit Geordie makes use of, are the slapback and detuning features; which are applied sparingly.
While this specific unit may be nearly impossible to locate nowadays, an automatic double tracking effect can be created by nearly any modern delay pedal which boasts multiple outputs and a modulation feature. Modern ADT units are also available for purchase, but I cannot vouch for their aural similarity to Walker's.
Amplifiers and Heads
In the eighties, Geordie used Burman cabinets. Burman is a defunct brand, and I can find no record of it existing after that decade. As such, they may also be difficult to get your hands on.
At some point following that decade, Walker switched to a Marshall EL34 100/100 Power Amp, used with a Marshall JMP-1 Tube MIDI Preamp. Since then, he has alternated between various Marshall heads, and Framus Dragon Heads. Similarly, he has also used both Marshall and Framus speakers in conjunction with different combinations of those heads. During the Killing Joke 40th anniversary tour of 2018, he can also be seen using speakers made by Blackstar; a UK-based manufacturer founded in 2004.
The Nineties
Walker's guitar work appeared on four albums in the nineties: Killing Joke's ‘Extremities, Dirt, and Various Repressed Emotions’ (1990), ‘Pandemonium’ (1994), and ‘Democracy’ (1996); and industrial super-group Murder, Inc.'s eponymous 1992 album.
Geordie became conspicuously more influenced by hard rock and heavy metal during this period, readopting a heavily overdriven sound for the first time since 1981 for the proto-grunge Extremities, as well as Murder, Inc.; and later introducing Ministry-esque crunchy, repetitive palm-muted power chord riffs on Pandemonium. This was a turning point, as the remnants of Geordie’s new wave past were nearly completely cast into the rear-view mirror.
The musical climate of the late eighties and early nineties essentially saw the end of new wave and synthpop, as bands for whom Killing Joke's early output had been a key influence began to break into the mainstream. This, combined with the abysmal reception to Outside the Gate – an oft-forgotten and widely-panned 1988 album which Geordie’s guitar is barely even audible on – spurred the band to go loud again.
Walker experimented a lot during this period, pulling many new tricks out of his bag which would not, ultimately, carry on into the next decade and beyond. The song ‘Whiteout’ off of Pandemonium is the only Killing Joke song to feature liberal use of a wah pedal. Live performances of ‘Exorcism’, ‘Millennium’, and on occasion, ‘Whiteout’, would see Walker briefly swap his beloved ES-295 for a sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standard outfitted with white single coil pickups. This guitar was only used for these specific songs during tours in 1994 to 1996, and has not been used onstage by Geordie since.
The reason why Geordie Walker decided to bring a guitar which wasn't an ES-295 on tour with him for the first time since the early eighties is not known to me. Occam's Razor suggests he thought that the fat palm-muted tone (on the studio versions of the aforementioned tracks) would be best suited by a solid body guitar; rather than the more airy and resonant hollow body. I've never seen it discussed in any interview of his, nor did the Les Paul ever return when those songs were played on later tours. Regardless, for a brief period, it seemed Geordie didn't believe his ES-295 to be capable of providing the sound necessary for the band's heavier cuts.
It should also be noted that 1996's Democracy featured acoustic guitar overdubs on many of its tracks. Outside the Gate had also seen some sparse usage of an acoustic; but on Democracy, it is often front-and-center, especially on the title track. This was to be the last time acoustic guitar would appear on a Killing Joke album, but in a 2011 interview Walker didn't rule out the possibility of it returning for a future release.
2003 and Beyond
Killing Joke's heaviest album to date, I believe, was their 2003 self-titled release; produced by Gang of Four's Andy Gill, and featuring Dave Grohl as a guest musician on drums. Interestingly, Geordie was reportedly unhappy with how this album was mixed; which is understandable, considering the heavily-compressed loudness war production on the album, which was common in the early naughts.
His sound on the album is a beefed-up update to that which was used on the band's first self-titled album in 1980. It is ferocious, bordering on inhuman. It dominates the album, rendering the bass almost inaudible on most tracks.
‘The Death and Resurrection Show’'s palm-muted two-note riff is primitive and utterly brutal. ‘Asteroid’ sees Walker adopt drop C tuning for the first time, and the song has become Killing Joke's signature thrasher – a setlist staple which has appeared in almost every tour since 2003. Another notable Geordie moment, is ‘Blood On Your Hands’, which has an unusual, dissonant riff that sounds like a groove one would hear on an electronic track.
The 2003 release served as a template for successive new entries in the band's discography. Geordie’s style was perfected at the beginning of the new millennium, and has not seen much change since.
On 2006's Hosannas from the Basements of Hell (my personal favourite Killing Joke album), his sound is heard at its rawest. The high end on the guitar, on this album, could peel paint off walls. Listening to it makes me feel like I'm being devoured by a great machine, or being dragged on scorching hot asphalt. I've seen mutterings on the internet, that the guitar on the album's closer, ‘Gratitude’, is Geordie using a violin bow on his ES-295; but besides his expressed admiration for 60's mod rock outfit The Creation's use of the trick, I can't substantiate this.
While Geordie Walker has shown less interest in evolving his sound since 2003 than he did beforehand; the quality of his playing has been very consistent. Killing Joke's post-reunion renaissance has yielded some of their greatest songs, and Walker's outstanding riffs have been absolutely crucial to their success.
Now entering his sixties, it's a great disservice to music that he is never given his due. But most seem content with dusty old blues rockers, "iconic" hard rock axemen who are frozen in the year 1989, and the same ProTools-molded landfill bilge regurgitated ad nauseum. Geordie Walker, despite his middle age, continues to breathe life into what has become a monotonous contemporary rock & roll listening soundscape; and I hope to god that there will one day be far more unorthodox sounds out there, such as the one he has spent decades meticulously crafting.
Videos
2009 Instrumental Demos
Documentary Excerpt featuring Geordie Walker and the ES-295
Interview with Geordie Walker (2011)
Playlist of Ten Geordie Walker Instrumental Demos (2007)
Memorial Stadium's facade. It would host Ravens games until the conclusion of the 1997 NFL season, after which it was closed. The stadium was later demolished in February of 2002. (Photo by James W. Rosenthal for the Historic American Buildings Survey)
An appropriate thing to share, as the Ravens play the Raiders this Sunday. This is the first regular season game that the Baltimore Ravens played after their controversial relocation from Cleveland. The game took place at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, on September 1st, 1996, kicking off at 1:00 PM.
The game was won 19–14 by Baltimore and their coach, former Baltimore Colts skipper Ted Marchibroda.
Baltimore Quarterback Vinny Testaverde went 19 for 33, passing for 254 yards and no interceptions. He also rushed for 42 yards and one touchdown.
His Raiders counterpart, Billy Joe Hobert, threw for 192 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions.
Other names which a millennial NFL fan may recognize on the field that day:
Hall of Famer Ray Lewis made his regular season NFL debut on the same day that his nascent team did, recording an impressive seven tackles and an interception in the game. He would spend his entire sixteen-year career in Baltimore, retiring in 2012 after winning two Super Bowls with the team.
Veteran running back Earnest Byner rushed for 43 yards and a touchdown; and caught four passes for 32 yards. Byner retired the next year as sixteenth on the NFL all-time rushing list, but has since dropped to 42nd, behind fellow Raven Willis McGahee, and ahead of Herschel Walker.
Baltimore kicker Matt Stover is a very familiar name to most fans of the Ravens. Active in the NFL from 1990 all the way to 2010, he was the last player in the NFL to have played for the Cleveland Browns before they relocated to Baltimore; staying on board for the move. In total, he spent nineteen years playing for the Browns and Ravens, between 1991 to 2008. He won Super Bowl XXXV (2000) with Baltimore, and with the Indianapolis Colts in 2010, became the oldest player to ever participate in a Super Bowl at the age of 42. He is in 6th place on the NFL all-time scoring list.
