Tag: Songs from the Eden Cycle

Songs from the Eden Cycle 4: Annotated

Jon ChaissonLeave a comment

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!

Songs from the Eden Cycle 3: Annotated

Jon ChaissonLeave a comment

Songs from the Eden Cycle Volume 3 was created in November of 1997, when I was somewhere around Chapter 7 in The Phoenix Effect. By that time I was getting a little bit better at keeping up; it looks like I was writing maybe two or three times a week of maybe a page or two every now and again. I’d also started a new poetry comp book called Dualities, where I was experimenting with the dualities (and paradoxes) of life; I really liked the idea of the mind and the heart not just being this or that, but this and that at the same time. This deeply influenced Phoenix to the point where I was was starting to get a good idea of how a character like Poe could be both Mendaihu and Shenaihu in spirit.

The second half of the mix was definitely made in late October or early November, as the first and last tracks are from a sort-of holiday compilation called Invocation that dropped on 7 October. I found myself listening to that particular CD a ton over the next several months, which was totally unlike me. It’s not your typical world music collection, though there is a lot of that on it. It’s like a cross between world music, modern orchestral, and experimental electronica, and it just happened to fit perfectly with The Phoenix Effect.

SIDE 1

  1. Rabbit in the Moon, “OBE”. This was a standout track on the Urbal Beats electronica mix that PGD had put out, and which had gotten a lot of play on the sales floor. I’d remembered hearing it and recognizing the Tori Amos sample (“Precious” from Little Earthquakes, a favorite track due to that excellent piano riff), and thought this was a fantastic use of it. In my head the song embodied the distress of the recently awakened and the fallout that started to pile up at this point.
  2. Shai nO Shai, “Better with White”. This Parisian band came and went so quickly I have no idea who they are other than that they were signed to BMG as a sort of French/Irish alternative folk/indie rock hybrid. Their lyrics were rarely straightforward, either using symbolism or hinting at ancient folk tales. Either way, I loved their one album Human Condition and it got a ton of play in the back room of the store. I’m still not entirely sure what this song is about, though I felt at the time that this was Kai’s approach to her status: a bit of dysphoria and monachopsis (just discovered that word!) but trying to get past it all.
  3. Mansun, “Wide Open Space”. This was such a leftfield track that didn’t fit in anywhere else to the point that it fascinated me. This was a band that had been filed away under Britpop but sounded nothing like Oasis or Blur. They were an odd mix of glam, psychedelia and maybe even a touch of prog, and I was hooked. This song was another mood piece for the story to inspire that feeling of not quite feeling like you belong where you currently find yourself. Safe, but out of place.
  4. Whiskeytown, “Not Home Anymore”. I’d first heard of Ryan Adams via this band, who were much more alt-country than his solo work. I called this one a “high lonesome” track because it does have that feeling of sad bluegrass, in this case returning to your past and finding that nothing remains. Like the above track, this song made me think again about how the recently Awakened would deal with their current situation, having realized there’s no turning back.
  5. Lauren Christy, “Breed (Coda)”. This interesting deep cut is actually a much darker and grittier version of the title song of the album it’s from — the original’s sound is heavier and faster. Because of that, the song’s lyrics take on a more desperate meaning. In the context of Phoenix it becomes about the Awakened understanding how fragile life is and needing to ensure it stays safe and continues.
  6. U2, “Please”. The next to last track off Pop and then the current single from it, this pretty much completes the musical arc I’ve been building up over the last few songs. To me it’s about finally learning your own personal barriers and when to say enough is enough. With Phoenix it then becomes a song about learning how to fight back.
  7. The Chemical Brothers, “Elektrobank”. This was then the current single for Dig Your Own Hole and my favorite track off the album partly because of the brilliant video. I loved the energy of this song as it felt like a long-awaited release, even when it goes into half-speed in the back quarter of the song. It’s a breath of relief. And so with the book it’s the point where one is finally in control of their own self.
  8. Cocteau Twins, “The Thinner the Air”. I’d long been a CT fan and this was a deep cut from the Victorialand album that I loved. It’s such a delicate track that feels more like an exhale. It also feels otherworldly (as most CT songs usually do upon first listen), so it fit nicely in this mix as a follow-up to the previous song. A breath of relief after such a long stretch of anxiety and frustration.
  9. Seal, “Crazy [Acoustic Version/Instrumental Version]”. And yet despite that relief, there’s always that reminder of what happened before it all that you can never quite forget. I absolutely loved the original version when it came out back in 1991. This was a b-side to the CD single and I thought it was fascinating how it mixes two completely different interpretations into one track. I suppose it could be seen as part of that ‘dualities’ thing I mentioned earlier… the calm acoustic and the tension of the instrumental. A theme that pretty much stayed throughout the entire project.

SIDE 2

  1. Jocelyn Pook, “Oppenheimer”. This was from the Invocation compilation and I was taken by its otherworldly chanting, but also my favorite version of the famous “now I am become Death” quote which includes the unnerving ending line that often gets dropped: “…I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.” That deeply personal acceptance of a world-changing event to the point of understanding its consequences sets the tone for the haunting piece itself, and that was a very heavy inspiration on the latter half of Phoenix where it starts getting more intense.
  2. Forest for the Trees, “Dream”. Meanwhile, this Beck-adjacent project is kind of an oddball throwaway (complete with purposely incorrect use of the three person tenses) that I really liked, especially with its utterly strange accompanying video. I liked that this was a much lighter take on the dreamworld versus reality. That was pretty much how I pictured the multiple realities in this project. [This is not available on the Spotify playlist; the YT video is here.]
  3. The Verve, “Bittersweet Symphony [James Lavelle Remix]”. This was an interesting track in that I loved this version before I even knew who James Lavelle was as a producer and the mastermind behind UNKLE, who I’d discover in 1998. I liked that this was almost a deconstruction of the song, mostly a slow drum groove instead of the ‘stolen’ string loop. It doesn’t quite lend itself to the Phoenix project per se, but it does lend itself to the ongoing theme in this volume that deals with Otherness.
  4. Orbital, “The Box”. This was a brilliant single I loved the moment I heard it, and loved it even more once I finally saw the video for it. This was the kind of electronica that appealed to me: the kind that you could sit down and immerse yourself in. There’s this strange otherworldliness to the song that works well with the slowly expanding Mendaihu Universe I was creating.
  5. Dubstar, “Stars”. The US version of their Goodbye album came out that September and I instantly fell in love with it. It had that early 90s Britpop retro feel and this song was just absolutely gorgeous. The album got a ton of play in the back room at HMV and of course gets an MU Legacy Soundtrack badge. This was an easy fit: just taking it literally, singing about the power of love against all odds, which ties in once again with Poe and Kai’s budding relationship.
  6. Nine Inch Nails, “Hurt”. For a while in the mid 90s I listened to The Downward Spiral quite a bit and thought it was a brilliant album. A few years and much self-therapy later and it felt a little too close to home in some respects and became a hard listen. Still, around this time I’d finally gotten my own CD copy of the album (I’d originally had a dub of it from Chris) and started listening to it repeatedly at the store. I’d always loved this particular song and felt it was a perfect ending track. It works here as well, once again tying in with the Otherness theme.
  7. Pulusha, “Isolation, Part 1”. This one is a special song for me for a few reasons. I remember kind of gliding by it the first couple of times I’d heard it on the Invocation CD, but one afternoon at the shop it just…hit me, and hit hard. Between the spiritual aspects of Phoenix and the spiritual research I was doing at the time, the idea of a twin spirit leaving the body for what might be the last time felt so visceral to me and I nearly fell to my knees with the sensation that I was letting go of something forever. I think these days that’s something you might call ‘deconstruction’…? Either way, that was a turning point in my building this universe. It must have been around this time that I’d finally come up with the idea of Trisanda being the destination. I’d had the vague idea of that world being the soul’s origination, but it must have been around this time that the story now had a new focus: reconnection. [This is not available on the Spotify playlist; the YT video is here.]

This mixtape I think solidifies the mood of the project, a point where I’d stopped flailing and pantsing and I had a much better idea of where I wanted it all to go. I’d gotten closer to the characters on a personal level (finally) and that meant I could explore their lives further. While the mix is still a bit disjointed like Vol 2 was, it’s less so this time out because of that closeness.

Songs from the Eden Cycle 1: Annotated

Jon ChaissonLeave a comment

Recently I’ve been visiting the early days of the Mendaihu Universe project, specifically when I’d started writing it mid-March of 1997. I’ve talked about the background of this story quite often here, but I’ve sometimes commented about its influences only in a passive way. When I started The Phoenix Effect, it was going to be more dark and intense than its previous incarnation as True Faith. And I can safely say that the primary influences of this version were the movies/series Bladerunner, Gall Force, Bubblegum Crisis, and Johnny Mnemonic, and the Masamune Shirow mangas The Ghost in the Shell, Dominion and Appleseed.

Then of course there’s the music. Nearly all of my writing projects have dedicated mixtapes and/or playlists — yes, even the juvenilia and the trunked ideas — and Phoenix was no different. At the time, this new story was still considered part of a much larger extended universe I then called the Eden Cycle, with vague outlines for several books spanning multiple storylines and eras. [That in itself was inspired by the Star Wars expanded universe.] Mind you, I was still nowhere near the write every day goal I was aiming towards, so by June I was only a few longhand chapters in, sessions squeezed in before my shift at HMV or in the evening after dinner.

The first volume of Songs from the Eden Cycle was created for two reasons. One, I needed all the inspiration I could get, and ‘soundtrack’ mixtapes always worked for me; and two, I was heading out on a weeklong multi-state road trip to visit a good friend of mine, and what better way to think about my project than while I’m on the road? I may have only gotten one writing session in during that trip, but I’m sure I gave that mix a few repeat plays at the time.

Songs from the Eden Cycle Vol 1, created June 1997 (likely later in the month).

SIDE 1

  1. Poe, “Hello [Band Version]”. When I first started making the mixtape in the back room of the store, I knew this was going to be the first track because it had inspired the new direction for the Vigil project. Plus, it’s a banger! I liked that the lyrics were an obvious nod to cyberpunk, and to my ears a nod specifically to Johnny Mnemonic and Neuromancer. At the time, Phoenix‘s plot contained the idea of spirits with the ability to switch bodies, including cybernetic clones. The “phoenix” part of the title then was meant to evoke an idea of being reborn, specifically in a violent way. The opening of Phoenix is almost exactly the same as it is in A Division of Souls, only that the Awakening ritual was originally a catastrophic ‘ring of fire’ explosion at the Tower. [Note: Spotify doesn’t have this version available, so the original album version took its place.]
  2. Failure, “Heliotropic”. There’s no specific scene or idea for this song, only that I was listening to Fantastic Planet quite a bit by this time and this was added more as a vibe than anything else. The heavy and distorted bass and the thundering drums to me evoked a grimy night city scene a la Bladerunner. B-Town was never planned to be all grime and grimness, mind you; just certain parts of it to make sure there’s a visible line between the haves and the have-nots.
  3. U2, “Mofo”. I was also listening to Pop a lot at this time too; I loved the album even despite the critics hating it. I loved the almost non-human sound coming from this song, which hinted at that ‘phoenix’ idea; the story at the time had these newly awakened spirits hiding inside cybernetic bodies just this side of the uncanny valley (another Bladerunner influence).
  4. David Bowie, “Dead Man Walking”. Another “phoenix” idea I played around with: what happens to the original bodies once the spirit leaves and enters a new one? What remains? They were a husk at most, and a possible target for a different and malevolent spirit at worst. [I hint at this in The Persistence of Memories when Caren and Poe meet Saisshalé for the first time.] I was also listening to Earthling quite a bit, pleasantly surprised that I’d finally found a non-greatest hits Bowie record that I really liked.
  5. Psykosonik, “Need to Die”. This CD was given to me by a coworker at the record store who was really into the whole electronica and darkwave thing. He liked it all, even though he was not a clubgoer. This darkwave band was similar to bands like VNV Nation and Front Line Assembly, which I also gravitated towards. I liked this laid back groove and thought this song fit the mix. [Note: I would only find out years later that one of the band’s members, Ted Beale, would end up being the infamous Vox Day. I keep the two as separate as I possibly can.]
  6. Live, “Lakini’s Juice”. Secret Samadhi was their weird album, I think. It was the follow up to the hugely successful Throwing Copper, and while there are elements of their heart-on-sleeve earnestness they’ve always had, it’s a much darker affair. This was the first single and definitely a left turn for them: grimy and gritty and unsettling. I thought it fit the flow and mood of the mix nicely.
  7. Elysian Fields, “Lady in the Lake”. Bleeding Cedar was one of the early promo CDs I’d gotten from the store, and I was taken in by the band’s sultry goth sound. It was like listening to a much darker version of Mazzy Star in a way, feeling like the aural equivalent of a ghost story. While “Jack in the Box” was the single, this was the track that appealed to me. Lyrically it doesn’t quite fit but the vibe is perfect.
  8. Moby, “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver”. Despite my wondering why he decided to cover Mission of Burma for his non-electronic ‘punk’ album Animal Rights, I kind of liked this take on one of my favorite Boston-centric songs, as he manages to retain the meaning and energy of the track. Why here? I think partly because WFNX was playing it a lot at the time and I needed to fill out the last part of Side 1. It does sort of fit the mood of Vigil’s take on the situation: if someone has to take the reins and get shit done, it’s definitely going to be them.
  9. The Verve Pipe, “Veneer”. I’d loved the Villains album and had seen them live at Avalon in Boston in May, where I learned the story behind this dreamlike track — driving alone on a deserted Michigan highway while high as a kite. Hearing it in its proper context made me absolutely love the track. In the context of Phoenix, I think this was how I thought a newly ‘awakened’ spirit would feel: completely out of sorts and confused, maybe akin to being high.

SIDE 2

  1. Richard Einhorn & Anonymous 4, “Exlamavit (from Voices of Light)”. I was obsessed with this album in the latter half of 1996, having heard it on an NPR station as I was driving into Boston one night. Einhorn wrote it as a soundtrack to the 1928 silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc. It intrigued me because it was the first modern orchestral piece that caught my interest, and reminded me of my favorite Dead Can Dance moments. This intro piece fit perfectly with the “ring of fire” moment in Phoenix.
  2. Pulp, “Common People”. This was a good year or two old and I was passingly familiar with it but it hadn’t resonated with me until around this time when I finally got what the band was about. I’d been listening to the store copy off and on and knew this was the big hit. It might not completely fit in with the story idea, but the vibe of distrusting those who mock or hate you fit in perfectly. It kind of fits Vigil’s vibe as well.
  3. Sponge, “Isolation”. I’d also been listening to the Working Class Hero John Lennon tribute album quite a bit at the time. It’s a song about Lennon dealing with the darker side of fame and feeling isolated despite being constantly surrounded. While the original from the Plastic Ono Band album is more plaintive and laid bare, this version is more pissed off, and it works alongside the above song with that feeling of social disconnection. [The tribute album is not on Spotify and is thus not on the playlist above.]
  4. The Offspring, “Gone Away”. This song was super popular on WFNX (does anyone remember the first single off this album?), and it sort of continues the whole feeling of social disconnect, this time from a deeply emotional point of view. It inspired a possible idea of a recently awakened character who felt this deeply yet didn’t quite understand where it was coming from yet.
  5. Filter, “Hey Man, Nice Shot”. There were actually a good couple of songs I thought fit the opening ‘ring of fire’ scene, and this was the more ‘violent’ one I came up with, fitting perfectly with my still-occasional use of Miami Vice style of writing. And I can never pass up a song that perfectly uses the quiet –> LOUD dynamic.
  6. Failure, “Daylight”. Even then I’m pretty sure I saw this song as an “ending credits scene” track, because it has such an epic coda that just builds and builds and leaves you breathless at the end. I’m also sure even then I pictured a hard cut to black when the drums and guitars kick in after the last verse. This is the first of many mixtapes where this song makes an appearance.
  7. U2, “Wake Up Dead Man”. Could this be a denouement scene song after all that? Perhaps? It’s near the end of Pop, after all the louder and bigger songs, and it evokes a feeling of exhaustion after all the pomp and noise. It also fits pretty well after “Daylight” — while the former song is the moment where something life-altering happens in the story, this song is the moment right after when one suddenly realizes what its consequences are.
  8. Jamiroquai, “Virtual Insanity”. I’ll be honest, this was more of an “I need one more song to finish this mix off” song, but it also fits the theme and the flow as another ‘end credits’ track. In my mind it does somehow fit in with the feeling of something life-altering happening, and now here we are having to deal with the fallout.

Not bad for a first volume, and it got a ton of play over the next several years. I’d be making two more volumes by the end of the year, with a fourth and then-final one made late in 1998 when I was working on the transcription and revision. Several of the tracks on these early volumes have had direct influence on The Phoenix Effect. [I will talk more about these in future entries here.]

A few variations would show up over the next few years, but in 2018 I’d revive the Songs from the Eden Cycle series as a way to keep the universe in mind. The most current one is Volume 10, created in late 2024.

Songs from the Eden Cycle, Vol 8

Jon ChaissonLeave a comment

…and without further ado, here’s the freshly-minted eighth volume of Songs from the Eden Cycle, the official playlists of the Mendaihu Universe! These are mostly from new releases that have been getting heavy play here in Spare Oom including Love in the Void by Hammock, After the Magic by Parannoul, plus a few classic tracks from New Order and Wire that I’ve been listening to as well.

It’s definitely a more shoegazey, post-rocky, electronicky mix than I’m used to, but it definitely fits the mood of MU4 so far. Hope you enjoy it!