Hello fellow DJs
First off, apologies for the late CD, just about dispatched in October, and second off apologies for the late liner notes, just about dispatched in November.
But hopefully now you've had a chance to enjoy the music. And I hope enjoy is the right word. I've tried to strike a balance between theme and content, hopefully broadening your musical horizon slightly. To add to your enjoyment here are the liner notes for the CD:
Notes from the Asylum was inspired by my day job. I am a psychiatric epidemiologist and I look at how your environment affects your chances of developing a psychotic disorder (like schizophrenia). The album started off as a bit of a joke: wouldn't it be funny to create an album with a theme roughly on madness, but it developed into something a little more serious, as I hope to expand upon in these notes. The story roughly follows one person’s journey into madness, from the prodromal period prior to illness - substance abuse, city living - through to sectioning, diagnosis, treatment, and for the purposes of this album, escape, murder and execution (I had to end it somehow). I hope I will not be harangued for including these here, they are in fact very unlikely to happen during the course of a psychotic outcome, and I apologise in advance; no offence was meant. The songs fitted the theme and the album, imo, would have been the lesser for their inclusion.
Has it come to this? - The Streets
About the theme: The song's roughly about elements of youth culture in British society - mostly about drug taking. Smoking cannabis and taking amphetamines seems to double your risk of schizophrenia, though this may be particularly detrimental during adolescence when the brain is still developing. The song also mentions a variety of urban areas, including Brixton,
About the music: You are probably familiar with the Streets, though whether you know this song or not, I'm not sure. Whatever your opinion of the Streets, the album from which this was taken Original Pirate Material was ground-breaking at the time, capturing the feelings of a generation of young people towards modern living.
2001 Spliff Odyssey - Thievery Corporation
About the theme: See above regarding cannabis use during adolescence. I suspect it may be too late. Especially if you have the val/val allele of the COMT gene - the two together really increase your chances of later madness. It's all to do with how your brain processes (or fails to) dopamine the principal chemical released through smoking dope.
About the music: Down-tempo group Thievery Corporation are one of my favourite chilled-out groups to listen to. Always relaxing, great samples and moods aplenty.
City Headache - Scott Matthews
About the theme: The more time you spend living in an urban area, the more urban your residence, and whether you were born in an urban area, all increase your risk of developing schizophrenia. My research tries to understand why this is the case. It is not simply because mad people are more likely to move to urban areas. Neither is it due to higher numbers of immigrants (who are at increased risk), or purely due to being poorer, though the latter is part of it. It seems that living in cohesive communities protects you from developing schizophrenia. More isolated and fragmented areas possibly foster paranoid thoughts and so on which may, for some, lead to mental illness.
About the music: Scott Matthews is a British singer-songwriter from
Madness - Deltron 30 30
About the theme: This really does exactly what it says on the tin: madness. The lifetime prevalence of schizophrenia is about 1% - meaning that roughly 1% of us will develop schizophrenia during our lifetime. It affects about 40% more men than women, and the peak period of risk is below 30 years old. The risk for women increases around the time of the menopause, leading some researchers to question whether oestrogen (that's estrogen to others) has a protective effect against schizophrenia. Incidentally, in the year 3030 we would speculate that the incidence of schizophrenia would remain roughly the same as it is today. It does not appear to have decreased over time, though psychiatrists will increasingly delay labelling someone with "schizophrenia" at first presentation to wait and see whether the course and outcome of the presentation changes.
About the music: I came across this track while listening to Last.fm - a fine place for finding new music. When even hip-hop is rapping about "city madness" you know that this is for real.
Bullets - Editors
About the theme: The central lyrics here matter more than the song title: you don't need this disease, no you don't need this disease. For those who develop schizophrenia, it generally sticks around. Anti-psychotics help to control the hallucinations and delusions but have a raft of other side effects including a loss of libido and for many patients weight gain. A failure to adhere to medication often results in relapse of a psychotic episode. Since the course of schizophrenia is often chronic, mostly beginning in the mid-twenties, it is a disorder that afflicts people for most of their lives. Outcome is poor too - people find it very difficult to secure jobs, decent housing and pursue relationships - either with friends or partners. People with schizophrenia are ten times more likely to commit suicide than the "healthy" population, but they are also more likely to have a range of other co-morbid disorders.
About the music: Editors are one of my favourite bands currently. Their music is energetic, intense and political, and entirely unforgiving. The lead singer's voice is beautifully intrusive.
Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
About the theme: This song marks the descent into madness
About the music: If you haven't heard this song you have been living in a cupboard. But I make no apologies for its inclusion. When you can actually isolate the song from the overkill it received, it is a fine, catchy pop tune.
Rehab - Amy Winehouse
About the theme: Can any one contemporary artist be more welcome on the pages of an album about psychiatric problems. Amy's addiction to just about anything that is bad for you has been pretty well documented and it is sad to see such a talent experience so much turmoil, and to, in typically British fashion, have it splashed across the front pages of every newspaper and magazine. There is a relationship place between art and mental illness, particularly addictions, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and this has led many to speculate that the two are intrinsically linked. Our protagonist is on her way to rehab.
About the music: See entry for Crazy, above.
Men in White Coats - The
About the theme: This song shows that our protagonist has sought help from the psychiatric services. Most people arrive at the attention of services via their GP or the emergency department, but others arrive through the police or judiciary systems. Some are sectioned - legally detained due to their illness. As with most things, your chances of coming to the attention of services via the police, or being sectioned, is greater if you live alone and if you are of ethnic minority status.
About the music: I confess to knowing nothing of the Dallas Guild though I believe I first heard this song on a tv ad. It's catchy and addictive and a must for this album.
Frontier Psychiatrist - the Avalanches
About the theme: Possibly the defining song of the album, this has become my Department's unofficial theme tune.
About the song: As mad as cheese. Crazy random sampling of crazy great stuff from this Australian band. The album is as bizarre as it is catchy from start to finish. Worth a listen.
The Drug's Don't Work - the Verve
About the theme: Anti-psychotic drugs represent phenomenally complicated, expensive drugs. The first generation of the drugs worked pretty well at stopping the psychotic episodes but gave people pretty nasty side effects. Second generation drugs have improved the side effects largely, but there is little evidence that they perform better than the first generation (despite being vastly more expensive) at treating the psychosis. Some, including my boss, have argued that first generation drugs offer better public health value, since they are just as good at what they do (bar the side effects, which themselves can be limited) but are much cheaper. However, there is a strong pharmaceutical lobby which pushes forward more and more expensive drugs without necessarily strong evidence that they are any better.
About the music: The Verve's classic song, fits into our story perfectly. The drugs aren't working and our protagonist is no getting any better.
Stay Positive - the Streets
About the theme: This dark, brooding entry from the Streets, provides a reminder of the difficulties of drug addiction.
About the music: The only artist to get a double billing here. This is also taken off Original Pirate Material and I love its dark unforgiving bleakness.
Demonique - AiM
About the theme: This song to me - a tale of an escaped quasi-human figure on the run - illustrates the panic, and to some extent misconception that people with schizophrenia are dangerous. This is simply not true. People with schizophrenia are more likely to kill themselves but attacks on others are extremely rare (though they still make the headlines). I wanted to include this song because it captures a truly volatile feeling of fear in the populous about the release of a madman onto the streets.
About the music: This is one of the few songs, which on occasion, can frighten me. It's down-right intimidating. You can almost place yourself in the Bedlam. AiM are one of my favourite hip-hop artists around. Though this song is less in the hip hop fold than other stuff on their albums, I can't recommend this British outfit enough.
Clubbed to Death - Rob Dougan
About the theme: I included this song because a) I liked it b) I needed some way of ending this concept album. Our protagonist, as it were, following on from his escape, clubs someone to death. In reality, as I state above, this is extremely rare but frequently becomes perpetuated in the tabloid headlines, helping maintain the stigma around mental illness. Various campaigns have attempted to tackle such stigma, including one shortly to be released in the
About the music: Again, found on last.fm. I love this track - it appears in the Matrix film, so I am led to believe.
Execution - David Thomas Broughton
About the theme: Our protagonist, re-captured by the authorities, is put to the chair. The end has sadly come.
About the music: I discovered David Thomas Broughton by accident while listening to Pandora. His fragile voice reminded me of Anthony and the Johnsons. This track is taken from his album The Complete Guide to Insufficiency which is a suitably downbeat title for the music. Recorded in one take in a church in
That's it! I hope you enjoyed both music and liner notes. The album artwork is an image of mine entitled Dark Corners, taken in
Cheerio
Dr Pepper
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Notes from the Asylum - October
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