Tag: 1998

This fourth volume is my favorite of the original four volumes from the 90s, and the one that got the most play, even more than the first volume. It was made almost a full year after the third volume, when I was already coming close to finishing the first draft of The Phoenix Effect. By early 1998 I’d finally solidified the process I’d been aiming for: writing a few longhand pages before work started, and transcribing it into the computer when I got home, revising it as I go.

On a more musical note, I’d fallen deeply in love with several albums that would drop in 1998, many of which would end up with the honor of an ‘MU Legacy Soundtrack’ badge with repeated plays even when I started work on A Division of Souls a few years later. Hell, I even made several mixtapes around this time, more than I’d ever made since my high school days. Part of that was due to finally installing a cassette deck in my car. My music listening habits would expand exponentially after that.

Several of those MU Legacy Soundtrack albums would indeed get repeat plays in the mid-2010s when I revived the project for self-publishing. And by this time, I’d recreated nearly all of my mixtapes using mp3s, so they too received a welcome revisit.

SIDE 1

1. Massive Attack, “Teardrop.” I remember hearing this track for the first time in the back room at HMV; I’d read several highly positive reviews, and when we finally got a copy of the import version of the album in, I threw it on. Hearing Elizabeth Fraser’s delicate voice over a hypnotic beat literally made me stop in place for the entire song. I may have even pulled the boss in and said “OMG you have got to hear this. This one is going to be huge.” In the context of Phoenix, it perfectly encapsulates the whole Love Conquers All theme I had going with Poe and Kai, in that ethereal and otherworldly way.
2. VAST, “Touched”. I was handed this album by a label rep and was instantly fascinated by their sound; it was kind of a cross between Nine Inch Nails, the darker moods of 4AD, and the gloomier aspects of 80s post-punk. The whole album got a lot of play during my writing sessions, and this single served as a perfect soundtrack for when I needed to channel a lot of tension and power for a scene.
3. Mistle Thrush, “Shine Away”. This was a local Boston band with that skirted the edges of both shoegaze and grunge, sometimes coming across as delicate and other times hitting you with a wall of sound. This track does both in a heavily dreamlike way that I loved. Another perfect song for a book soundtrack.
4. Dishwalla, “Until I Wake Up”. I was a passing fan of them for their first album, but it was the second record And You Think You Know What Life’s About that knocked me for a loop. It unfortunately went nowhere and got no airplay, but I instantly fell in love with its harder edge and deeper personal lyricism. This track was singer JR Richards’ masterpiece about trying to maintaining emotional sanity by using sleep and dream as an oasis, and it fit perfectly with what I was trying to do with Phoenix: a story about emotional survival.
5. Primal Scream, “Higher Than the Sun”. I’d fallen in love with Screamadelica the moment I heard it back in 1991 and I would return to it every now and again just to remind myself how wonderful it is. I’m thinking I must have gotten a used CD copy of it at this point and started playing it frequently in my writing nook once more, and the heady psychedelia of this track fit the otherworldliness of the story.
6. Radiohead, “Street Spirit (Fade Out)”. Another song that comes from the summer of 1996, when I used to listen to The Bends all the time. I’d always liked how this song evoked not so much a return to home and recognizable surroundings, but more of an uncertain placement where home and surroundings aren’t quite what they used to be. You want to feel safe but something’s keeping you from that.
7. Hooverphonic, “Eden”. I instantly fell in love with Blue Wonder Power Milk when it came out and played the hell out of it over the next several years (I still revisit it now and again!). I’d been thinking about putting a song or two on this mix and considering its title, I felt this one fit perfectly. It’s a deeply personal song that works in the context of Poe and Kai’s relationship.
8. Portishead, “Roads”. I remember this one being on the Dummy album, but it didn’t really resonate with me until it was used in the Tank Girl soundtrack, interestingly enough. And I’m pretty sure its use there (a mood piece where TG is finally getting a moment’s reprieve even though something bad could happen at any moment) was what made me think of it.
9. Information Society, “The Ridge”. When Kurt Harland finally returned with the IS project, I did not expect a full-on goth darkwave sound. Still, Don’t Be Afraid worked perfectly with his songwriting style and became wone of my favorite albums that fall. In the context of Phoenix, this was around the time I really needed to take the character traits of Denni more seriously. I knew she was going to have a huge role in this expanded universe but it wasn’t really until this time that I finally figured out how I was going to approach it. This particular song inspired that: a girl given otherworldly powers but no instruction manual. How the hell was she going to deal with it?

SIDE 2

1. Global Communication, “Epsilon Phase”. Thanks to the Invocation collection and some quick research, I discovered that the guy behind Pulusha was also part of this duo, so I just had to check it out. I picked up 76:14 first and then Pentamerous Metamorphosis right after, and discovered the latter was a remix album of sorts of Chapterhouse’s Blood Music, a shoegaze album and a favorite of mine that was sadly forgotten all too soon. It was this last track that resonated with me, a slow and meditative piece that felt like drifting through outer space, which fit perfectly with the mood of Phoenix. Not only would this song get repeat plays during my writing sessions, I also found it a perfect fit for my road trips when I was heading home in the evening.
2. Portishead, “Half Day Closing”. Their second album seemed a bit odd and disjointed to me compared to Dummy, but it was the live at Roseland Ballroom version that caught my attention with its unsettling creeping vibe. Another example of a song that was chosen for this mix not so much for the meaning but because of its mood.
3. Tin Star, “Raincheck”. I absolutely loved their album The Thrill Kisser, another one the label rep had handed to me saying I’d enjoy it. They were odd, twitchy, yet groovy and moody as hell, and hit all the checkmarks I loved in this kind of band. I liked the heady mood this song evoked, once again making me think of Phoenix‘s theme of discomfort at being The Other. It’s kind of a strange and almost psychedelic song in its own way, and I felt it fit well with the mood of the book.
4. theaudience, “I Got the Wherewithal”. Another album I played the hell out of, it’s full of high-level British alt-pop goodness that could be Northern Soul one moment and gritty Garbage the next. Of all the songs on it that fit the mood of Phoenix, it’s probably this one; it’s a track that evokes disgust in enforced expectations, something the newly awakened and Vigil would be all over. Their one album is one of my favorite albums of 1998 and definitely earned its MU Legacy Soundtrack badge
5. U2, “Love Is Blindness”. I’d also started listening to Achtung Baby again after far too long, and felt this song was another perfect fit: the desperation felt in a failing relationship which I was still dealing with on a personal level, which in a way translated to the desperation felt between the characters I was writing.
6. Radiohead, “Fake Plastic Trees”. I was also still listening to The Bends a lot — both that and OK Computer were getting major play during writing sessions and in the back room at HMV — and I revisited this one when their video collection 7 Television Commercials came out that May. This was more a mood piece for Phoenix, much in the way most of their songs are, considering the song is about the vulnerability of putting on an act as a way of self-preservation.
7. Hooverphonic, “2Wicky”. This could easily be seen as an addition because it’s just a simple outer-spacey mood song, but it had shown up in so many places over the last year or so (like soundtracks and compilations) that it only added to my budding love for the band. I somehow acquired an early edition of that first album when they called themselves Hoover (before the obvious legal threat), and this one always stuck out for me. I liked that it just threw random sci-fi references in there but I felt the vibe fit my book. Interestingly, this is where the collection ended for a good few months as I wasn’t sure what to add next. That is, until…
8. Rob Dougan, “Clubbed to Death [Kurayamino Variation]”. An obvious late addition mainly because I was obsessed with The Matrix when it came out early in 1999, and its soundtrack got a crapton of play. I’m also pretty certain that I was heading down to the writing nook on an extremely consistent basis at this point.

*

This was the last of the original four volumes, but they all got a lot of play over the next several years, often while I was out for a drive. I have many memories of listening to these at night after a long day doing my Newbury Comics / bookstore run, and on my rides to and from work both at HMV and Yankee Candle. There were a few attempts at continuing the series between 2001 and 2003, a playlist created in 2012 that tied in with my ongoing revision/prep work for the now-finished trilogy, and a Songs from the Mendaihu Universe series in 2015 that tied in with the then-upcoming self-published release of ADoS, but it wasn’t until 2018 that I revived the original Songs from the Eden Cycle with six more new volumes.

I still revisit these from time to time, especially the first four when I’m feeling particularly in the mood to revisit those early years. Perhaps it’s also why I then end up feeling the urge to revisit the Mendaihu Universe with more stories. After all, I did keep it open-ended to some degree and have enough worldbuilding work made that it’s worth the revisit!