DEEP SCRATCH

Tag: steve fly

  • With John Sinclair And A Wall Of Legendary Guitarists

    With John Sinclair And A Wall Of Legendary Guitarists

    Jumping from an article in the Detroit Metro Times, about The Damned performing in Detroit, I was reminded of the session with Brian James, March 11th 2011 at Kingston College. The John Sinclair Beatnik Youth session.

    It was unforgettable and overwhelming, the sound, the characters around. The detailed liner notes of the CD listed all those on the session, and includes an extensive contribution by Mick Farren. My google search returned the usual AI summary, and I continued to “ask more questions”. The results below are accurate to my understanding, but then again, my remembrandts r’ a bit fuzzy.

    The rather simplistic, straight ahead facts about the session and musicians and tracks get it down. I’m reminded how I’ll never get to play on a live session like that again! Not least because Brian James and Keith Levene and Mick Farren and George Butler and Howard Marks and John Sinclair are no longer around, but…their recorded music and words and inspiration live with us, through us and all about us. If you don’t know find out. Testify!

    There’s still a lot of other musicians and contributors to Beatnik Youth who are not mentioned below, such as the drummer George Butler (who I had to nervously follow) and Howard Marks. Jesse Wood is also on the album! Holy smokes. What a band.

    To hear what it’s all about, or support visit:
    https://johnsinclair.bandcamp.com/album/beatnik-youth-2

    All Love, Steve Fly


    “The creation of Beatnik Youth was split into two worlds: a legendary live “wall of guitars” session, and a long post-production layering process done by producer Youth and engineer Michael Rendall, who integrated external guest samples and studio tracking. [1, 2, 3]

    The comprehensive list of musicians involved in the album is divided by their location of contribution: [1, 2]

    🏫 The Kingston College of Music Session (Live Tracking)

    These musicians gathered in person on March 1, 2011, to lay down the massive, live improvised grooves that formed the instrumental foundation for tracks like “Brilliant Corners”, and “Sitarrtha”. [1, 2]

    • Brian James (Guitar – The Damned / Lords of the New Church)
    • Keith Levene (Guitar – The Clash / Public Image Ltd)
    • Alan Clayton (Guitar & Vocals – The Dirty Strangers)
    • James Sedwards (Guitar – Nøught / Thurston Moore Group)
    • Steve Fly (Drums / Project Management) [1, 2]

    🎛️ Post-Production & Studio Additions (Not at Kingston College)

    These artists contributed either by having their work sampled and re-contextualized by Youth (often pulling from overlapping studio sessions), or by tracking their vocals/instruments directly at Youth’s private home studio: [1, 2]

    Jesse Wood – Guitar.

    Youth (Martin Glover) – Played bass on all tracks, programmed electronic layers, and acted as the main producer.

    Michael Rendall – Keyboards, synthesizers, and engineering.

    Bobby Gillespie – Lead vocals/guest vocals on “Culture-Cide” (pulled in from Primal Scream sessions).

    Primal Scream – Provided programming and instrumentation for “Culture-Cide”.

    The View – The Scottish indie rock band provided the prominent backing chorus hook on “Culture-Cide”.

    Howard Marks – Spoken word vocals on “War On Drugs” and “Culture-Cide”.

    Zodiac Mindwarp (Mark Manning) – Guest vocals.

    Mark Stewart – Guest vocals (The Pop Group).

    Robb Spragg (Larry Love) – Vocals on “Culture-Cide” (from Alabama 3).

    Angie Brown – Insidious soul choruses and backing vocals.

    drummer Steve Fly (Steven James Pratt) recorded his primary contributions during the March 1, 2011 session at Kingston College of Music. He served as a main drummer, project manager, and executive producer for the Beatnik Youth project. [1, 2]

    He plays drums on the following tracks:

    • “Brilliant Corners”
    • “Change My Life”
    • “Sitarrtha” (where he uses dampened sticks on the toms)
    • “Red Dress (Ruby My Dear)” (where he provides a softer, ambient jazz texture using brushes) [1, 2]
    Beatnik Youth by John Sinclair

  • Soundcloud Update

    Soundcloud Update

    Hiya. I uploaded a heap of my mixes from 2026 over at Soundcloud. 13 hours and 13 minutes worth of (AD FREE) blends, mixes, and fixes, all music and artists proudly supported – purchased – via Bandcamp. Selected, mixed, edited, titled, uploaded and shared.
    Thanks for spreading the word, love, sound.

    –Fly

    If you dig it you can tip ear: https://www.patreon.com/cw/stevefly

    SOUNDCLOUD

  • Summert New

    Summert New

    So that the futures children
    Know, without any doubt,
    That we tried to do good!
    Howdydoogood

    The tale of the tribe
    Like a mission to mars escape velocity
    All history in one book
    Earth mother nature

    All humanity
    Culture technology art
    Laid out like the narrative
    Comes from the collective
    History itself

    The process without subject

    –26/06/26

  • Decentralized Cognitive Commons

    Decentralized Cognitive Commons

    Text graphic featuring the phrase 'Decentralized Cognitive Commons' and an illustration of a brain, attributed to 'Fly Agaric 23', with the website 'deepscratch.net' at the bottom.
    Graphic representation of a digital interface showcasing 'Twin Holographic Turntables' and details of a performance by Steve Fly. It features elements such as a cosmic background, turntable controls, and performance timings.
    A digital interface displaying information about 'Mycellial Dharma Super-Cluster' and 'Cultivating Super-Colonies', featuring a 3D network visualization, performance metrics, and instructional text on building cognitive ecosystems.
    A digital interface titled 'Decentralized Cognitive Commons' featuring sections on AI and digital feudalism, with interactive 3D elements and a percentage bar indicating progress.

    The original post by Ben is highly recommended and essential reading, before engaging with this remix (down to 18 steps, skipping 1 and 2). This here is the original recording from the original artist. Thanks Ben. https://bengoertzel.substack.com/p/beneficial-agi-in-20-steps

    Read more: Decentralized Cognitive Commons

    Thanks to Ben who, I hope, won’t mind too much in my remixing his words and ideas using the LLM’s he points out are limited, in some sense. What is to be done about AI, AGI, ASI and big tech? What can we the people do, where can we find agency, transform the planet, humanity and culture toward a utopian process of natural abundance, obviously and demonstrably beneficial to all? For example: clean abundant water for all. Adequate abundant and free housing and shelter for all. Free abundant health care and social care and medical assistance for all. Free comprehensive education, learning, and practical skills classes for all. Free inclusion and equal contribution to the allocation process of shared resources, governance protocols (both digital and non-digital) in local environments, for all. All to mean in the terminology of Buckminster Fuller: All-Around-The-World-Humanity. All to mean all, not some but not all.

    The Google Gemini Research paper I cooked up this morning (07/10/26), was a cheeky remix of something Ben Goertzel posted concerning 20 (non simple) steps to “to minimize pre-Singularity transition destructive-chaos and smooth our path toward an abundant and wonderful post-Singularity world for human, nonhuman and posthuman beings”. Amen to that. So my question in the form of a prompt was: “Help me create a communicable path towards beneficial and safe AGI, which the layman or average human being can contribute to. How can independent researchers, artists, poets, writers and musicians help steer this technology?” I made an executive decision to miss steps 1and 2 to produce 18 steps.

    The results of this Google Gemini Deep Research query, quickly kicked me in the nuts and inspired this call for an emergency meeting, or round table discussion about whether or not we wish to play, get in the game. How we might confront and steer the imminent technological singularity, for the benefit of all humanity.

    Like many of you reading this, I’m well over-saturated and fed up to the back-teeth with big tech and big gov and big men talking impassionately about how beneficial they’re technology is. Meanwhile demonstrably enshittifying everything. Yet, a new model for beneficial AI, safe, ethical, moral, altruistic, for the betterment of the many not the few, seems possible. At least, if you don’t believe much in that, then what about the tech bros? Surely not a dystopian entropic slow heat-death of humanity and the planet. Not on my watch.

    These honest questions are suitably naive in some sense, non-technical and aimed at producing something an 8 or 80 year old could understand. I’m talking about myself, a non-technical layman and self confessed musician-poet with a keen interest in technology and humanities.

    Also perhaps noteworthy here are my previous Gemini Research Papers and my publications of them, notably MAMMALIAN (31/08/25) and Between The Groove (01/05/25) Tail Ov Tribee (07/07/26). Between them these cover a lot of ground and provide my own strong suspicions about beneficial AI, AGI, ASI etc. Somewhat confusingly criss-crossing between fiction and non-fiction depending from where in spacetime you are perceiving the messages. These works are largely unedited Gemini Research papers, collected, introduced, titled and published with full disclosure about the AI used. The least amount of good-faith gesture I could pay and a demonstration I hope of my honesty, when it comes to the disclosure of where an idea originated for me, how I communicate it, and why.

    I mean to say, please visit the original 20 step outline by Ben Goertzel at his Substack. If you haven’t already, dive in and have a look at what he’s doing, how he’s doing it, and why. What I have done is simply ask a question to re-interpret these steps, for a wider audience of non-technical humans, and for independent artists, poets, musicians, and humanitarians, or those close to my own field of study, but not limited to.

    Finally I fess up that I produced a nice and terse remix of my findings in the form of a roughly two hour audio-visual presentation, I could get behind, with a little help from my friends. You.
    I’ve included the Presentation Doc, The Gemini Research Doc, and MAMMALIAN collection as exhibits for your consideration and added context, previous LLM collaborations..

    What am I asking for? Nothing but the continuation of what you’re doing. Keep doing what you’re doing. I’m just over here saying I see you, and I hope you don’t mind me adding you to a dream team of quality critters. Yes, I confess a vanity project, yet at the same time I hope a small contribution and explicit effort to steer ‘whatever the hell this thing is” towards the beneficial for all…side of technology. A truly decentralized, rotational, altruistic and without any shadow of a doubt, beneficial to all…super intelligence or technology or AI god whatever you want to call it. Human health, sanity, healing, climate renewal, tackling carbon challenges, protecting wildlife and human life, first. I think it can be relatively simple for a huge majority of humans on earth to agree, if only THEY could all be fairly and equally consulted.

    The global campaign to help people across all strata of society better understand technology, AI and how to responsibility, fairly and safely use it for their benefit, with trust and good faith in their local communities and as perceived internationally maybe the challenge of our times. Besides the actual engineering and eventual use of whatever goddess-like AGI ASI thingymajig gets cooked up, the interpretation and access to good balanced fair and factual information remains critical. We can agree. A good fair honest balanced media landscape, educational system and government and private protocol remains critical. Change now, or change later, but change you will.

    –Lotsa love. Fly.

    P.s Only two days after writing this I started my first Vibe Coding experiments, using the latest Gemini Aragon model. For the purpose of correspondences with this particular project, I helped steer the construction of the Decentralized Cognitive Commons web app.
    https://sites.google.com/view/decentralizedcognitivecommons/full-page-embed

    18/10/26

    https://sites.google.com/view/decentralizedcognitivecommons/full-page-embed

  • MAMMALIAN: MODEL AGNOSTIC META MULTI AGENT LEARNING INTELLIGENCE AND NONFICTION (DEEP SCRATCH)

    MAMMALIAN: MODEL AGNOSTIC META MULTI AGENT LEARNING INTELLIGENCE AND NONFICTION (DEEP SCRATCH)

    I, Steve Fly, do not hold a Phd, but, I do refer to myself tongue in cheek as MPHDJ on occasion. The following is a presentation of a number of papers generated by Gemini Research,(MAMMALIAN) prompted by the current author, aimed at providing further context and content for consideration on behalf of those brave sleuths and long-game mystics who follow the tale of the tribe, and do what they can to forward the importance of the work of Robert Anton Wilson in 2025, his helpful contribution to keeping one’s sanity and sensibility alive and kicking with both feet. MAMMALIAN may also be considered auxilary text from the Deep Scratch universe so please feel free to jump around and use it as a reference guide.

  • Love Is The Only Thing That Matters At All After All

    Love Is The Only Thing That Matters At All After All

    A lush out testament to the diva conversation, the female voice, heartache call and swing response lotsa’ soul, soul, the antidote to a world at war. Come back, sit back, turn it up, saturate yourself with voices, songs. Press play, make you feel. Artists supported via bandcamp, supported by fly patreon-camp, cheers.

    –Lotsa Love Steve

    A graphic image featuring a cat alongside a person working at a music mixer, with the text 'LOVE IS THE ONLY THING...' and the names 'DJ FLY' and 'AGORIC 23' displayed prominently.

    [01] Lizzie Steiner – Cherish The Day

    [02] Eryka Badu x Alchemist x Thundercat – They Ain’t You

    [03] Alabama Shakes – Tied To You

    [04] Cleo Sol – Their Smiles Are Not The Same

    [05] Ego Ella May – Tarot

    [06[ Ella Fitzgerald – Let’s Face The Music And Dance

    [07] Eryka Badu – Love Me Not

    [08] Alabama Shakes – This Feeling

    [09] Norah Jones – Travelin On

    [10] Nate Smith Feat. Brittany Howard

    [11] Hiatus Kayote – Red Room

    [12] Alabama Shakes – Garden

    [13[ Aretha Franklin – Love Is The Only Thing

    [14[ Cleo Sol – Family Ties

    [15] The Cinematic Orchestra – Leave The World

    [16] Sault – Wild Fires

    https://www.patreon.com/stevefly/posts/love-is-only-at-171049351

  • Box Of Monk

    Box Of Monk

    Box Of Monk by Steve Fly

    This album is my tribute to John Sinclair and the music of Thelonious Monk, in the most innovative way I see fit. Every sound you hear originates with my voice, humming, beatboxing, live into a microphone. With the added sources of uncle Tim in the Amsterdam studio, I fixed up these mixes or blends of the live voice takes and the Uncle Tim experiments.

    The Book Of Monk Continued….

    John Sinclair wore many fine hats, one of which was the beret of the investigative jazz poet. His 40 year tribute to the life and work of Thelonious Monk, always know: a book of monk, focuses on his deep self confessed ‘obsession with completeness’ his nutty aim to write a poem for every Monk composition. I suggest the continuation of what he started, as a tribute to John and to Monk.
    I’m instigating a new series of collaborative productions in music and verse, laying groundwork and formulating a plan to complete what John started.
    Box Of Monk is the shared beginnings of my process of building a bed of music and poetry. Stay tuned for more uploads to this album and The Book Of Monk Continued…project.

    Make it new. All love.

    –Steve Fly Agaric 23
    21/06/26

    Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”―Thelonious Monk

    Picking up the joint and running with it, I’ve boldly produced 10 poems, interpretations and a tribute to the investigative jazz poetry of John Sinclair. Seeking to sound unique enough to warrant a serious tribute to innovation and making it new, yet familiar to those who knew John and appreciated his incalculable impact on modern American culture, poetry and activism.
    The songs are performance by example, demonstrable appreciation for the artform and for John and for Monk. These songs are also meant to be a calling to the others who may put one or two poems together themselves and imagine what the Book Of Monk project is all about and begin a new exploration.

    Dedications and special thanks to: Celia Sinclair / Ed Sanders / Leslie Lopez / Leni Sinclair / Larry Hayden / David Amram / Frenchy / Peter N Nevraumont / Kai Eckhardt / T.S Monk / Tom Worrell / Peter King / M.L Liebler / Carey Loren / Mark Sampson / Youth / Adam Brook / R.J / Jeff Grande / Jair Rohm and friends worldwide.

    Edited, Mixed and Arranged by Steve The Fly 10/10/26. Turntables, piano, vocals, and beatbox by Steve The Fly. FX engineered by Uncle Tim. 2026 

    credits

    released June 20, 2026

    All music by Steve Fly. Mixed by Uncle Tim 2026.

    https://stevefly.bandcamp.com/album/box-of-monk

  • Bumble Fleece (Mix)

    Bumble Fleece (Mix)

    On Genre And Prestige

    As a self confessed ‘ecelectic’ DJ for a while, then with an unwanted pigeon hole I’d brush off such a slot, such a category, like water off a Ducks back. I play all sorts. I like ALL SORTS of music. Ha. What does that mean in 2026? Eh, now with all the fancy AI and studio this and that, productions, billionaires, Spotify deals. What a fucking racket. Turn your shit down! 

    So, by way of introduction, these tunes are a representative of a new interest in an old hobby, an older like for those left-field, abstract jazzy breaks, the wired and funky. Wat a drummer would go for, and that bass. Oh yeah. Now, I gotta’ fess up, back in the day, to take such excursions into abstract experimental breaks could get you booted off the set. As a drummer I leaned into the weirder breakbeat breakbeats. Here, finally, some new music at tempo that tickle my fancy and I hope yours too. Frenetic Upbeats. Heavy comedic bass. Let’s go. Artists and tracks supported at Bandcamp, purchased and very grateful for. Cheers.

    –DJ Fly Agaric 23.

    [01] Plug – You’re Better Than That

    [02] 7th Pyramid – Sunken

    [03] Plug – Who’s In The House?

    [04]  Subtle Audio – Senses 

    [05] Dgohn – Orchids

    [06] Paradox – Drum Line

    [07] Plug – Check This Out 

    [08] Earl Grey – French Exit

    [09] Dgohn – 7 Years Of More

    [10] Plug – King Ring

    [11] G-Jones / E-Prom – 1000 Cuts

    [12] Plug – Mr. Nod’s Tune

    [13] 7th Pyramid – Coming Out

    [14] Plug – Sound & Safe (Sets The Local birds Off–Fy)

    https://www.patreon.com/stevefly/posts/bumble-fleece-165688745

  • Makes Me Wanna’ Hurl

    Makes Me Wanna’ Hurl

    An off the top verse, put to mic, plus freestyle guitar take added post production. Rough. x Fly.

    A new boom-bap to bop the old mad christers,
    Time to take a stand make a band and eat oysters,
    War porn torn across villages and cities
    Building up the war machine with Jesus throwin’ fiddies,


    Hey listen up you dutty man, misreading scriptures uncle sam, which,
    Clog the arteries and fuel the devil archers from the marching forgeries,
    Blowing up schools, hospitals and mortuaries,

    The dead can’t talk but these fingers can tap,
    Dance to the speaker and double rap to my black cap sap lap, your honour
    Slipped in some marijuana now I’m wanted by the hour to throw a cake made of flower,
    Flame sewer sour tower power dower cower for cover, spittin’ bars for my brudda,

    Rake mower grass seeder automatic inter breeder, success and suck seeda’
    Hop in my pan, I fried ya’
    A kindred spirit beside yer’ inside we take slide to
    The outdoors shaped like a funnel spider

    When I see dem’ killa girl, it mek me wanna hurl,
    Killing the innocent and so what be their punishment
    When he see em’ kill a girl, god get angry on the whirl’d
    Blowing up schools what a whirl what a whirl 


    Spun out like a spinning top at the audacity they got,

    War ain’t holy it’s phoney a mugs game of the lonely,
    Bombing away the life they say they give, if only,
    They’d wake up in time space, recognize they out of phase-traced,
    The error of their ways and face the stinging tear gas haze laced    

    With memories of once womb innocent babe
    All from the cradle but some sent early by Trump cabal to their graves,

    They digging and the cabal dancing on em’ then builds a big ball room,
    To swing little dick, sing bronze age dogma like a sequence of strokes,
    Who buys this shit except the business spivs and talk show hosts,
    The return of Jesus on a winged horse, just say neigh
    Not even Elon on Ketamine riding Pete Kegsbreath with wings, let us say,
    Our men don’t support fascists they destroy them,
    Put that in your pipe and smoke it while losing to von neumann

    When you unabashedly kill many little girls, or protect those who do,
    You get the worst place in hell a really low place that’s true,
    That’s the trump fash’ axis pedo power far-wrong netanyahoo,
    Sorry to break it to you but to put this song into review,
    You target innocent young girls and murder them in cold blood without a sorry,
    Shame on you, you lack any moral high ground everything you say is dud and folly
    I’m counting down days until yer trial upon the tally,

    https://substack.com/@stevefly
  • Drone On Drone

    Drone On Drone

    Drone On Drone – Deep Scratch