“THE FULL RETARD” BY EL-P Cenrnat. Questions I fishin a form of ime travel? Album featuring “The Full Re~ tard": Concer fer Cire; Album’: take on the coming dystopia: “Fk Shudder fom the eens. / Drones the cath, some ou! Sor the st 4", Source of sample in previous phrase: Wiha S Buran: Albus ‘ahem ype: “Ful you did nie" Albuns take on time travel "Daw mabe me ser Bis dimension singh” Earlier albus take com te eave “TN nad 0g back nine won thee cold tock 8 les per hur, ring tbat he Bk": Album's take on ‘hings in general: “Fuck thes.” ike an oracle crowning herself queen, the hook from “The Full Retard” predicts its own reign:""So you should pump this shit, like they do in the fature.” ‘The song’ track is all clanging beats and zapping lasers, its lyrics Jaime Meline’ standard skyscrapers faturism, its overall effect a parade of sonic likenesses \d-sewers of the coming world’s broken infrastructure, The cho- rus, though—the chorus is more about taste than about politics or apocalypse.Take another gander: so you should pump this shit, ike they do in the fue. This isa glimpse into the hypnotic heart of hype itself. ‘What does it mean to pump, promote, or even love some- thing right now, knowing that it—the song or the idea or -will be ubiquitous in the future? Why would ‘we want to prefigure the they of Meline’s rancid imagina- tion, anyway? (To prepare?) More practically shouldn't our ‘own pumping, or pooh-poohing, have some influence on the popularity of this shit among later humanoids? Meline offers us a ch imp forward in time by becoming early adopters, but time travel screws massively with the idea of being an informed cultural consumer: it magnifies the repercussions of each choice while sirmulta~ neously calling the possibility of choice itselfinto question. Does Calvin Klein owe his success to Marty McFly? What the meme happens if you go back and sleep with someone who liked ska? What will my taste look like in two months, or twenty years, if[ think about what my taste will look like in two months or twenty years? Their? ‘The spiraling uncertainty of the hook lands the pres- + its phrasing prods our collective ten dency to vacillate between enthusiasm and doubt, yet man- cent, line and sin] ages to remain firmly above that spiral. To wit: the hook is itself a sample from Camu Tao’s superb “When Youre Going Down.” But by shearing it of context, positioning it front and center, and repeating it endlessly, Meline situ- ates his own style—this shit—beyond both time and fash- ion, Its not that the folks of 2050 will listen; it that they already do. And they, too, are being told to do it like they do in the future. The deferral is infinite, which is less a joke about keeping up with the robo-Joneses than a proclama- tion that we never can.The taste curve has been flattened, ‘This is already the future, which doesn’t exist,so you might as well listen. No reason necessary. —Jeremy Schmidt “THERE MUST BE MORE” BY DAVID RUIS Canreat Question: Which comes fist, belief o the desire to helene? ‘ear of songs release: 1994, Word count of song, excluding exact repetitions: siyj- Four; Author's professions, according t the fauthor songuni, worship leader a planer [pulo, oman, Albums recorded by a thor: When juice Shines, The Mystery, The Mystery (Acoust, Love Has Come (Cima, ED); Books written by author: The Wor ship God i Seeking and The Justice God Is Seeking; Percentage of sls offering ly ies, guitar chords, and covers on first page of Google search for “There Must Be More, David Rais": 100 Gn Stein once noted that Hamler continues to be discussed not because of what is understood. about it but because of what is not, David Ruis’s “There