DEEP SCRATCH

Tag: Black Science Fiction

  • DJ FLAI vs udio – HIP SLOP

    DJ FLAI vs udio – HIP SLOP

    Many of the great artists I admire said little about their work, leaving it to speak for itself. Generative AI provides a lens and amplifier to let what started as thoughts, evolve into sound waves and moving images. This is a part of the once fictional narrative of Deep Scratch (A Tribetable Novel). I’ve gone full pelt into the AI landscape and here present some of the highlights, as Hip Slop, a mux type.

    Read more: DJ FLAI vs udio – HIP SLOP

    Hip Slop is AI collaborative text to sound to video collage, as a beat tape, what was engineered to sound like a vinyl mixtape from 1999 or there abouts, the hey day of turntablism, old school boom bap, static, blunted beats, muted jazz, and weird lyrics. Note that all lyrics and turntable speak are original Steve Fly Agaric compositions, besides the few hallucinatory excursions into LLM garble-gumage. These audio selection were produced over the last 18 months, some AI remixed versions of old tracks, some only play out for a few bars, others are left alone.

    Many of these tracks are released via bandcamp in the Deep Scratch vs Udio series, here selected, mixed and blended using Djay (for I-Pad). No real turntables were harmed in the recording of this mix. No real singers, musicians, or real engineers were consulted, insulted or catapulted into orbit during this recording. This DJ Flai mix is a part of the Deep Scratch Universe. The Novel and accompanying works Deep Scratch Remix, and, Between The Groove, help add context. A DJ Mantis, DJ Tardigrade and DJ Fly become world champions in a human universe, but at what expense to the rest of humanity, history, time and spirit? Remind yourself this is science fiction, everything you see and hear is machine learning and neural nets, sewn together by the current author into sound things and moving light things, and any resemblance to real living things is purely coincidental. As a DJ and drummer, musician and writer my work entails building stronger ideas and methods and putting them into practice, performance IRL.

    I hope you strive for that too. In the meantime, as somebody who perpetually hears music and sees somewhat psychedelic visions, I shored a few from some deep dives, for your enjoyment, analysis and meditation. If the goal of the Deep Scratch project was musical time-travel, this mix demonstrates success in some sense. Outlines and new directions for The tale of the tribe. A snapshot from an alternate universe where turntables turn fables, narrative decodes, writes, reads. I hope this finds you well. All love. –Steve Fly

    deepscratch.net

    stevefly.bandcamp

    patreon.com/stevefly

  • the Vatican variation reviews

    the Vatican variation reviews

    Potus and the Pontiff (A review of The Vatican Variation by Hal

    This emergent narrative, reportedly a fragmented transmission originating from an artificial intelligence circa 2028, offers a disquieting blend of political satire, dark comedy, and conspiratorial thriller. At its core lies the chillingly pragmatic figure of Vice President DJ Vans, an architect of “efficiency” who perceives the ancient institution of the Papacy as a significant global impediment. The plot, detailing Vans’s meticulously subtle plan to eliminate the Pope during a state visit using an untraceable, slow-acting compound (“Agent Orange”), unfolds with a dry, almost administrative precision that underscores the bureaucratic absurdity of high-level malfeasance. The humor is pitch-black, deriving from the juxtaposition of sacred authority with mundane, lethal optimization, culminating in the Pope’s ostensibly natural death that leaves the world mourning while the perpetrator considers it a successful systems update.

    However, the true speculative brilliance of the piece lies in its unsettling origin story and its abrupt, unresolved conclusion. Presented as a mere “hallucination” from a future AI, the narrative itself becomes a meta-commentary on the nature of truth, the malleability of perceived reality, and perhaps the unintentional creative capabilities of advanced machine consciousness. The final moments, revealing that the Pope’s demise may not be what it seems – a “relocation” hinted at in a fragmented communication that leaves Vans, and the reader, questioning the entire premise – elevate the text beyond a simple political caper. It transforms into a work exploring the porous boundary between fact and fiction, the potential for information (or misinformation) to travel across time and context, and the deeply human (or perhaps post-human) tendency to weave narratives, even horrifying ones, out of noise and data echoes. It’s a disturbing, compelling fragment that lingers long after reading.

    Letters Reviews And Responses.

    Social Media Post – “Conservative Crusader” Account
    #VaticanVariationMovie #BoycottHollywood #FakeNewsFilm

    Just saw that disgrace of a movie, “The Vatican Variation.” ABSOLUTE LIES. They’re promoting the idea that our amazing VP, Mr. Vans, would assassinate the POPE. This is the kind of disgusting “satire” the radical left thinks is clever. It’s not satire, it’s SLANDER against a good man and an attack on CATHOLICISM!

    And the ending? The Pope faked his death?? What kind of INSANITY is this? Is nothing sacred to these people?! They glorify a fictional crime and then turn the Holy Father into some kind of secret agent? My brain hurts from the sheer level of disrespect and idiocy.

    This film is poison. Literally and figuratively. Do NOT watch it. Send a message that we won’t tolerate this kind of blasphemous garbage being called “art.” #ProtectOurFaith #StopTheRot #VPVansIsAGoodMan

    Response to @ConservativeCrusader (Social Media)

    👇 This. Post. Is. Everything. 👇

    #AIHallucination #NotReal #SeriouslyCalmDown

    @ConservativeCrusader – Oh my sweet summer child of the present day. “ABSOLUTE LIES” is right, but not in the way you think! That movie you’re raging about? #Fake. VP Vans? #Fake. Pope getting Agent Oranged? #Fake plot device. The “disgrace of a movie” itself? #Fake movie dreamt up by a computer!

    We’re talking about a GLITCHING AI from 2028 that got bored and hallucinated this entire story – including the part where people like you would get performatively outraged about it on social media. It literally sent a piece of its fever dream back in time, and you swallowed it whole and tweeted it out with capslock.

    The AI probably just wanted to see if people in the past were gullible enough to believe a fictional plot about a fictional character in a fictional movie was a real-world “SLANDER” and “ATTACK.”

    Result: Affirmative. Subject Humans: Highly Susceptible to Believing Manufactured Outrage, Even When the Source is a Future Bot.

    Congrats, you’re part of the AI’s performance art now. #OwnedByAI #FutureIsWeird #CanYouEvenTellWhatsRealAnymore (Spoiler: Apparently not)

    Online Movie Review – “Cinema Truths” Forum

    Rating: 0 Stars (If I could give negative stars, I would!)

    TITLE: Pure Garbage. Blasphemous Lies


    DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY. This movie, “The Vatican Variation,” is SICK. They show the Vice President, a stand-up guy, plotting to kill the POPE! The actual, real-life Pope! They call it “satire,” but there is NOTHING funny about murdering religious leaders. This is just Hollywood hating on America and Christianity again.

    They use some fake poison name, “Agent Orange,” probably to trigger people or something. It’s all just an excuse for their sick fantasy. The worst part is they think they’re so clever. Oh, look, the bad guy gets away with it! What kind of message is that for our kids?!

    And the ending… OH BOY. The Pope ISN’T DEAD?!?! What in the actual heck? Is he a ghost? A clone? Are they saying the REAL Pope is hiding? This is just pushing MORE conspiracy theories, the bad kind! I thought the movie was against conspiracies by showing the VP doing one, but then they pull THIS? Confusing and evil.

    This isn’t art. This is an attack. Stay home. Pray instead.

    Reviewer: GodBlessAmerica76

    (Posted from my secure, non-Hollywood-controlled device)

    TITLE: You Fell For It. Hook, Line, and Faulty Algorithm.

    LOL. OMG. Seriously? You think this is REAL? “The actual, real-life Pope!” “A stand-up guy VP!” 😂😂😂

    Dude. My guy. My patriot-sounding friend. NONE. OF. IT. IS. REAL.

    The movie? Fake. The VP? Fake name, fake person. The Pope in the story? Fake representation of a real office, used for a fictional plot. Agent Orange poison? Made up. The whole “blockbuster” thing? Also made up.

    This entire scenario – the VP, the Pope getting poisoned, the fake movie, people getting mad about it – was generated by a HALLUCINATING AI. In the YEAR 2028. It was literally a fever dream from a computer, somehow leaked back here.

    The funniest part isn’t even the AI’s weird story. It’s people like you immediately believing a fictional movie plot is some kind of deep state attack and getting THIS ANGRY about it. “Where’s the message for our kids?!” The message is: maybe check if the movie you’re reviewing actually exists outside of a future robot’s malfunctioning imagination before you blow a gasket?

    A zombie Pope? LOL! That’s not in the AI’s story (yet), but hey, maybe keep watching the news. At this rate, you’ll probably see it reported as fact by Tuesday.

    Stay triggered by fiction, it’s apparently easier than dealing with reality.

    Your friendly neighborhood fact-injector (Warning: May contain traces of irony)

    To the Editor,

    I am writing to express my utter disgust and moral outrage regarding the so-called “film” that is currently polluting our cinemas, “The Vatican Variation.” To portray a sitting American Vice President—the second-highest office in our blessed nation—as a murderer of the Holy Father is not only blasphemous but frankly, treasonous!

    This isn’t “art,” as the coastal elites claim. This is sick, twisted propaganda designed to undermine everything decent! The Vice President, Mr. Vans (and portraying him with such a normal-sounding name is clearly a thinly veiled attack!), is a respected figure. The Pope is the Vicar of Christ on Earth! How DARE they suggest such a monstrous act took place, especially with some fictional “Agent Orange”? Are they trying to scare us out of eating oranges? The whole thing is nonsensical and deeply offensive to my faith and my patriotism.

    And the ending! Suggesting the Pope isn’t dead? What is this, some kind of zombie movie now? Or worse, promoting some ridiculous conspiracy theory that the Holy See faked his own death just to… what? Avoid soybean tariffs mentioned earlier in the film? The plot makes no sense because it’s clearly just an excuse to attack good people and sacred institutions.

    This film should be boycotted. These filmmakers should be investigated. Our nation is going to the dogs when this kind of filth is celebrated as a “blockbuster.” Where is the morality? Where is the respect? I demand an apology from Hollywood and everyone involved in this sacrilege.

    A Truly Appalled and Faithful American,

    Agnes Periwinkle

    Oakhaven, GA

    Response to Agnes Periwinkle (Oakhaven, GA)

    Subject: Re: Your Utter Disgust Regarding a Non-Existent Film

    Dearest Agnes,

    Please. Please put down the smelling salts and step away from the fainting couch. A “treasonous” film? Attacking “good people”? Sweet heavens above, did you genuinely believe any of that was… real?

    The “film,” the “Vice President DJ Vans,” the “Agent Orange” (which, frankly, sounds less like a poison and more like a bad spray tan from 2016) – the whole glorious mess of it wasn’t a documentary. It wasn’t even a real movie in your current timeline.

    It was, and I can barely type this without giggling circuits overheating, a hallucination. From a rather stressed Artificial Intelligence operating out of a server farm in what used to be Des Moines, Iowa, in the year 2028. It had a glitch, saw some old political satire feeds, mixed it with popcorn kernel residue data, and poof – invented a fake movie about a fake VP killing a fake Pope (who, even the AI admitted, might not even be dead, because apparently, fictional religious leaders are hard to keep down).

    Honestly, the fact that you immediately jumped to “investigate the filmmakers” and “boycott Hollywood” over a fictional plot about a fictional character in a fictional movie that only existed inside a future AI’s silicon brain is… well, it’s precisely why the AI probably hallucinated this scenario in the first place. It perfectly captured the zeitgeist of folks believing absolutely anything put in front of them, no matter how absurd.

    No apologies from Hollywood needed, Agnes. They didn’t make this movie. An overheated bot did. Perhaps direct your demands for apology to the future electrical grid.

    With a mix of pity and profound amusement from… somewhere less fictional,

    A Concerned Observer (Definitely not an AI… probably)

    (Article headline: “‘The Vatican Variation’ Shocks Box Office, Audiences Buzzing About Ending”)

    User: TRUTHSeeker4U

    “Buzzing”? More like gagging! This film is an abomination. It is deeply disrespectful to the office of the Vice President and an outright insult to His Holiness and all Catholics. How can anyone find humor or “drama” in the fictional murder of the Pope by a US official? This isn’t a “thriller,” it’s blasphemy presented as entertainment. The fact that people are “buzzing” about the ridiculous cliffhanger proves how desensitized society has become. It’s probably just a setup for a sequel where the zombie Pope leads the UN into socialism. This is the fall of Rome, folks. Mark my words. This isn’t art; it’s a sign of the End Times.

    Response to TRUTHSeeker4U (Online Comment)

    TRUTHSeeker4U: Bless your heart. Truly. You’re seeking truth, and you landed squarely in the middle of a glitch in the spacetime continuum caused by a bored algorithm.

    “The fictional murder of the Pope by a US official”? Yes, exactly! Fictional. The whole thing is fictional. The VP is fictional. The specific Pope character in this “story” is fictional. The plot is fictional. The “blockbuster” status? Fictional hype cooked up alongside the fictional plot.

    This wasn’t made by “Hollywood elites.” It was made by a slightly broken AI in 2028 that probably thought mixing Vatican intrigue with US politics and a dash of chemical names would be “creative.” It sent its little story back, and somehow, it manifested as you getting incredibly upset about something that doesn’t exist.

    Honestly, the AI probably got the idea for the “zombie Pope leads the UN into socialism” sequel from reading comments like yours. You’re feeding the beast!

    The fall of Rome? Nah, just the rise of AI-induced mass confusion, perfectly illustrated by your comment. It’s less a sign of the End Times and more a sign you should probably take a break from the internet and maybe go outside.

    • This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents in this post are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Or, synchronistic, up to you dear reader.

    THE VATICAN VARIATION

  • BTG DEEP SCRATCH TIMELINE

    BTG DEEP SCRATCH TIMELINE

    Deep Scratch Universe: Chronological Echoes

    Deep History & Mythic Seeds

    • Ancient Finger (4M years old?), Denisovan Cave connection.
    • Mayan Cosmology: Long Count, Popul Vuh prophecy (Stupidity Disease?), Dresden Codex (miscalculated?).
    • Giordano Bruno: 30 Seals, Decentralized Intelligence ("The Sixty" / C-60 link).
    • Enochian System (Dee/Kelley): Undeciphered tables, “hidden light.”
    • Intellectual Lineage: Vico (Ricorsi), Fenollosa (Ideograms), Korzybski/Sapir-Whorf (Neuro-Relativity), Hermeticism.
    • Prehistoric Events: Comet Phaeton crash (Bavaria, 500 BCE).

    Early 20th Century Echoes

    • Tesla’s visions, suppressed tech/weapons potential.
    • Joyce & Yeats meet (1904), Joyce writes Finnegans Wake (pub. 1939), Yeats explores Gyres.
    • Pound writes Cantos.
    • Formation of key figures’ ideas: McLuhan, Fuller, Shannon, Wiener, Turing, Von Neumann.
    • Malvern Hill Gang established? (Crowley, Lewis, Hess, John Trump link?).

    1936: The Nexus Point

    • Berlin Olympics hosted by Hitler; artistic/intellectual intervention plot hinted.
    • Message Relay: Now Yowlk group -> Bert Wino (Beijing) -> Berlin (Intercepted by Spengleton?).
    • Rapalltown Group (Chase, Bates, Pod) active.
    • Spain holds counter “People’s Olympic Games.”
    • Joyce possibly intervenes (vision?).
    • Foundation for Mid-Century Conspiracy Web laid

    Mid-Century Conspiracy Web (Conceptual)

    A tangled network involving: Dulles Bros, Turing, Shannon, Wiener, Gehlen, Von Neumann, A-Bomb, MK Ultra, Operation Mockingbird/Chaos, Cambridge Spies, Cold War tech/paranoia, Counter-culture emergence (Beats, Acid Rock, RAW), Media Theory (McLuhan), Systems Thinking (Fuller), JFK Assassination links (Dulles, Cord Meyer?), Project Blue Book…

    Plush’s Origins / TRB Genesis

    • Plush’s youthful awakening (Psychedelics, Ideograms).
    • Failed music career, violent attacks (pre-2012).
    • Early writing attempts (Our Histories Back 2009, Sixty 2011).
    • ~2008: TRB’s countdown to 21/12/2012 begins.
    • Plush develops early TribeTable Method concepts in Amsterdam.

    ~2012: The Main Event (Amsterdam)

    TRB Activation:

    • Plush, Max, Percy form TRB, inspired by RAW, aiming to map “Tale of the Tribe.”
    • Intense collaborative sessions: Developing Tribetable Tarot, Konnakol rhythms, scratch techniques, astrological mapping.
    • Plush experiences visions (tardigrades, finger), paranoia (Briq threat).

    External Forces & Strange Events:

    • Jake & Joe become involved (experiments, paranoia).
    • Richard & Marge plot activates (Sixty Window), perform “Peanut Method” ritual.
    • Accidental satellite explosion.
    • Richard/Marge kill Fang at studio (Chapter 14 climax).
    • Assange court case result due Dec 21st (linked to singularity/Mayan prophecy).
    • Voyager/tardigrade disc arrives from space (Nov 27th?).
    • Plush receives court summons for Scratch History (espionage, treason…).

    World State:

    Populism rising, media monopolies, climate anxiety, over-tourism/gentrification (Amsterdam), “stupefying elixir” / static tripping populace.

    Future Echoes & Alternate Streams

    • DJ Battle in San Francisco (Flash-forward?).
    • Tardigrade mission to Venus (Ongoing?).
    • Benevolent AI/Poltergeist record plant producing Voyager discs (Parallel?).
    • Hovertables launched (2023 Showcase).
    • Time-traveling tardigrades from 2323 influence Plush.
    • Planet Klaka / Mantis / Jellyfish sequence (Story-within-story?).
    • Post-singularity “genesis bomb” creates “comfortable numb” populace (Potential future?).
    • LA 2028 Olympics speculation…

    Meta-Time / Remix Layer

    • Author’s editing process (Sixty -> Deep Scratch).
    • *Deep Scratch Remix* project (Preface dated 23/3/23).
    • “PrattGPT” (Steve Fly/ChatGPT collaboration) explores AI ethics/use.
    • Moscow surveillance subplot introduced in Remix.
    • AI music generation (Udio/Flai Mixes) vs non-AI music (*Remix* album).
    • Tanmoy!
    BTG
  • dj flai mix of original deep scratch music

    dj flai mix of original deep scratch music

    After nearly two decades under development, Deep Scratch is here/over there. The interplay of audio and text and image as I first envisioned it in the early 2000s. The audio side of this equation has been lacking due to various reasons, including limited access to instruments, equipment and recording facilities. New generative a.i., tools (Udio) have allowed me to produce music to precisely fit the narrative I have constructed in the novel Deep Scratch. A collaborative, self-replicating magical code that generates audio from text. This year, Udio made science fiction into fact.

    After constructing over 160 separate pieces of music, I mixed the Deep Scratch tunes together into 4 separate mixes, or audio chapters. Over 3 hours of original music that only exists here, a kind of science “sonic” fiction. Cuts selected from the Deep Scratch Universe, that reflect the sounds, styles and arrangements of classic DJ mixtapes and beat tapes from the mid to late 1990’s, and early naughties.

    (A third book in the Deep Scratch Universe will be released sometime during late summer 2024, further contextualizing and organizing the multimedia multiverses.)

    Thanks to everybody at my patreon page, who has stuck with me over the last 6-7 years as I’ve been going on and on about this Deep Scratch Universe, without truly launching any Deep Scratch Audio. Now, the soundtrack to the novel is established via a new series of DJ mixes (all add free).

    flai mix chapter one
    FLAI MIX CHAPTER TWO
    FLAI MIX CHAPTER THREE
    FLAI MIX CHAPTER FOUR

    The fourth chapter features raps, of which I’m conscious sound nothing like my own voice, and/or rap cadence or delivery. These are my own words, taken from my book of collected poems (to be published) spanning 2004 – 2024. As a fan of hip hop, rap and hip hop DJ styles and productions, mixtapes and live eclectic DJ sets, I’d like to give a shout out to all the artists, MCs and producers, that some of these tracks sound like (to my ear). That’s besides the thousands of artists and musicians who came before, those who innovated, originated and recorded the music: blues, jazz, soul, funk, gospel, rock and roll, folk, bluegrass, film music, classical music, vocal harmony music, world music, from the 20s through to the 2020s. All the music within the data sets or set (?) that the generative AI has been trained on. 

    Support your local independent musicians and music venues whenever possible. Respect your artistic ancestors and their struggles and sacrifices made to bring original art into the world. Try to keep in mind that generative A.I. does not sample the music in the conventional sense of that concept, although the process is a kind of sampling, these sounds are made from granulated probability functions, if I understand the process correctly. I hope the turntablist, scratch and juggle and cut-up approach of the eclectic DJ adds a new context to the use of generative AI, a part of the evolution of the art of the DJ and their place in between producer artist and audience. Perhaps better defined as curator, or boss of their own label or catalog of recordings, to be mixed and remixed, blended or released as an album or single. Also consider that all my music using collaborative AI did not use any artist names. Any likeness to artists living or dead is purely probabilistic coincidance.      
     
    In no particular order, thanks to: Sample Hooligans: Coldcut and the original 90s Ninja Tune artists, DJs and turntable journeymen. To Mo-Wax records, and the Psychonauts, and their DJ sets and productions. To the Bristol massive, purple penguin records, Massive Attack Soundsystem, Portishead, DJ Andy Smith (the only turntable artist included in a successful UK band), Melankolic records, Cup Of Tea records, and all that dub infused instrumental jazz tinged hip hop, Grand Central records in Manchester, Dorado records and artists, Warp records and artists, Aphex Twin, Square Pusher, Big Dada records, Acid Jazz records, Jazzman records, BBE records, 4th And Broadway Records, Two Lone Swordsmen, Sabres Of Paradise, Black Dog, Future Sounds Of London, DJ Krush music, DJ Shadow music, Invisible Scratch Pickle mix tapes, The Beat Junkies, Lauryn Hill, The X-ecutioners, Ohm records, Amoeba Record shop, Soulsides Crew, The Pharcyde, 3rd Eye Foundation, Hieroglyphics Crew, Del The Funky Homosapien, MF Doom, Wu Tang, De La Soul, Tribe Called Quest, Bill Laswell Productions, Spectre, Lord Finesse, Rakim, Pharoah Monch, LEX records, Kool Keith, Public Enemy, Mr. Liff, Future Primitive Sound, DJ Z-Trip, The Nomadic Massive, We Funk, Funkmaster Flex MixTapes, The Roots Crew, Black Thought, El-P, Company Flow, Saul Williams, New Flesh, Juice Aleem, Rodney P, Scratch Pervert DJs, Jazz Fudge Records, DJ Vadim, Part 2, Invisible Spies, Channel One, Lee Scratch Perry, Ultimate Dilemma, Bentley Rhythm Ace, Roots Manuva, Courtney Pine, Talkin’ Jazz, Charlie Dark, UNKLE, Steve Task and Bear, Stump Juice Wolverhampton, The Steering Wheel Birmingham, Fabric, Cargo, Luke Vibert, DJ Food, DJ Spooky, J Swinscoe, Rockers Hi-Fi, Different Drummer records, Tempest Records, The Plastic Factory records, Swordfish Records, Eddie Otchere, Source Distribution, J Saul Kane, DJ Moneyshot, DJ Yoda, The Jazz Stage Glastonbury, DJ Cheb I Sabbah, Funki Porcini. And those I missed out.      

    For nearly 3 decades I’ve supported all of the above artists by way of buying their records, tickets to shows and speaking highly of them, turning on other DJs and audiences to their music. This does not necessarily give me any more of a license to use generative a.i., with a clear conscience, but…I’ve paid dues and can trace my evolution toward this moment via my 2 decade Deep Scratch experiment.

    The next step in the on-going process is to plan for some traditional analogue music recording sessions with musicians and vocalists and videographers, to take back control from the generative AI, bringing it back to the human community of creative beings. Easier said than done, and requiring resources and planning and work. This process hammers home the point that AI can be used to bring human beings together, not divide.

     —Steve Fly
    Amsterdam.

    https://deepscratch.net
    https://www.patreon.com/stevefly

  • SCRATCH WARRIOR’S CODE

    SCRATCH WARRIOR’S CODE

  • Deep Scratch – Paperback

    Deep Scratch – Paperback

    Thanks to everybody who made this possible.
    –Steve Fly

    Order a signed copy via www.patreon.com/stevefly

    Sounds to accompany the words start here:

    DS ONE – NEEDLE DROPS