today's post is the ignorance is bliss single, inri038.

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this is a collection of versions of a track that was important to me around the turn of the century: five electronic versions (seven including the downloads) and an electric folk version that i often played as a sort of a drunken party trick. after the lead track, the electronic versions are arranged in decreasing complexity, and the electric folk version is at the end. the bonus tracks are both vocal mixes; i felt that only one was really necessary for the single, but included them here for scope. 

it's sort of about me, and sort of about my dad, and sort of about caricatures. we never had a dog drown, and i simply have no knowledge of the dynamics of my parents' sexual relationship. that's just an old country song. yet, there were a lot of stressful problems in both his work and family life, and that was being pointed to as a cause of his heart problems. 

in hindsight, i'd tend to lean more towards genetics (and perhaps lifestyle) than stress. of course, that's something i have an interest in understanding further as i age. at the time, though, the focus was all about reducing the amount of stress he was dealing with. 

i really just sort of didn't get it. i still don't *really* get it. stressed? well, chill out then. spark one up. put on a tune. it's maybe not as easy as snapping a finger, but it has to be about a general philosophy of life. see, i guess i place a lot less faith in the idea of free will than most people do - and my father, being a rush fan, and don't get me started on that travesty, put far more faith in it. when one is absolutely convinced that their entire life is determined by the choices they make, including the ones they don't make, it produces a lot of pressure to make or not make the right choices. meaning? he did it to himself - his atlas never shrugged. 

ultimately, universe gonna hate. your so-called free will is doomed to be crushed in a wave of stochastics. the universe is a random, chaotic place defined by poorly understood probabilities. so, why bother concerning yourself so deeply with the consequences of your actions in this pointless existence, to the point that it might cut that existence short? it was the idea of him driving himself to cardiac arrest that pissed me off. you could be hit by an asteroid in your sleep. you could spontaneously combust. you could even wake up one day to find that aliens have landed and are taking over the world using robot gunships. once you get *that*, trying to fight for control seems pointless. 

or, so, the debate went. i wasn't really comfortable writing a song *about* my old man, so i took a fictional first-person perspective and went to town with it a bit. 

this release was revisited in october of 2017 to add some further perspectives on the track. the final album version (2014) and the electronics only version (2015) were both added to the single, while the previous lead track (the initial vocal version) was replaced with a remaster of itself that was engineered to better fit the aesthetic of the new outtakes compilation, inrimoved (inri042). a failed attempt to reintegrate the vocals into the album mix is also included as a bonus track. 

written and recorded, 1999-2001. track 3 was reconstructed out of existing sound in june, 2004. initially sequenced on jan 12, 2014. expanded with remixes from 2014-2017, re-released with a newly remastered lead version and subsequently finalized on oct 5, 2017. as always, please use headphones. 

the cover art bitmap is one of the files i put through coagula to produce sound out of light. inristart was a working title for the piece. 

the full instrumental mix of this track appears on my fourth record, deny everything (inri041): jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/deny-everything 

the lead version is now on the outtakes compilation, inrimoved (inri042): jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inrimoved 

the cynicide/folk version appears on my fifth record, jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj (inri052): jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj 

this release also includes a printable jewel case insert and will also eventually include a comprehensive package of journal entries from all phases of production (2000, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2014, 2017). 

credits

released july 11, 2000 

j - guitars, effects, bass, synthesizers, sequencing, drum programming, vocals, vocoders, sound design, sampling, digital wave editing, production