Grava 4

Grava 4 was released midway through the Storm series and can now be recognised as the first and final post Storm album and understood in the light of the seven preceding Storms.

The first question is why was it not held back till the Storm was over? I suppose Drexciya were very much in release mode at the time and since the other Storms didn’t come out in order either it wasn't a big issue. For the US based Drexciya to liase with one European label is one thing but when you put five in the equation things can get complicated. With 8 albums and various 12”s coming out over this 2 year period, if there wasn't to be a clash then any release windows which arose would have to be taken advantage of. I would imagine Drexciya were reasonable about this, knowing this is still a business for these labels.

Clone put out this album and may well have been poised to become Drexciya’s main label if things had worked out differently. They did go on to release Gerald Donald's second Der Zyklus album along with becoming something of a Drexciyan archivist by re-releasing some of their earliest music with the L.A.M. and Glass Domain 12”’s, not to mention the mid Storm The Other People Place 12”. Another reason why Grava 4 came out when it did may be because there was obviously some delay with Lab Rat XL, which was the final storm to be released and came out on the Clone sub-label Dub, and as Grava 4 was ready to go it might have been a good substitute.

The title Grava 4 must mean something, it sounds so specific, the only things that come to my mind is that it might be short for gravity or else is the name of the universe itself, the 4 meaning the 4 planets. I had originally thought that it could clear up the mystery of the missing track number 4 which has turned out to be a mistake on the CD artwork. The title is actually 'Gravity Waves'.

The phrase ‘Drexciya presents Grava 4’ in the sleeve notes gives the album a certain importance, this is unusually grandiose wording for an album and more akin to a movie credit. Certainly the impression it gives is that we are to approach this album differently than usual. The next line goes on to justify the wording, ‘Earth has finally discovered Utopia.(Drexciya Home Universe). This is an event worthy of celebration indeed and I believe ‘presents’ makes more sense in this context. It seems obvious that the Drexciya Home Universe is a metaphor for Utopia. If the Storm series was leading us towards an evolutionary jump of consciousness then any mention of Utopia immediately proceeding it should be taken as the end result. It's quite exciting to imagine where Drexciya would have taken us next. But in a way it makes so much sense to leave it at this stage, where can you go once you find utopia? If James Stinson had lived maybe they would have just ended up reiterating this destination and ways to attain it in varying degrees. He was lucky he lived to see his vision through to its conclusion. Maybe this is another reason the album came out when it did, as Stinson knew it had to come out at all costs. It could likely have been in a finished state for sometime as well.

A 12" did come out to accompany the album but it only featured tracks from the album and no additional titles or information, although it has become known as Gravity Waves for some reason. Probably because Clone listed it as such just to have a title to sell it easier rather than list it as untitled. As mentioned there was a mistake in the album artwork which did not list track number 4, said to be 'Gravity Waves' but on the 12" there is also a mistake in that the listed 'Drexcyen Star Chamber' turns out to be the troublesome track number 4 of Grava 4, 'Gravity Waves'. Confusing, I know!

The big talking point about this album at the time was that Drexciya had officially named a star after themselves. It's really beautiful that in the future there will always be a star named ‘Drexciya’. Perhaps there will come a time when people look back on our time as we think of Atlantis. Granted some disaster would have to befall the Earth, but give it enough time and it could happen, the things to be saved would be any records of human learning like medicine, agriculture, maps and why not star charts. Some day an archaeologist of the future might even unearth artefacts regarding Drexciya and a legend would be born about the people of the planet Drexciya. The exact wording of the sleeve notes was ‘The star chart is authentic; you will be able to find the star by using coordinates on the star chart. The planet Drexciya can be found in the international Star vault in Switzerland and recorded in the astronomical compendium. (your place in the cosmos, volume 6) copyrighted in the USA available 2003.’ The website which they used to do this is at http://www.starresistry.com Sadly they don’t give you the option to look for previous entries, it’s basically a money making scheme.

The artwork here has no more production credits to Dimensional Waves or even any Drexciya email addresses either which marks the album out as separate from the Storm series too. Even the return of the name Drexciya in this context, not used since Storm #1, can be taken as a sign that the Storm series is over. The text goes on to say, “Earth scientists discovered the home planet Drexciya on 2-14-2002. Within moments Dr. Blowfin was given the orders to initiate the seven dimensional cloaking -spheres to hide the other three planets from Earths view.” As we have discovered, the 7 cloaking spheres are the 7 dimensional waves/Storms which created a shield/puzzle which when figured out did indeed reveal our destination of this Utopian place. I'm inclined to believe that the date is simply the day their star was registered, by now the studio work would have long ceased, although the artwork and titling as we know from previous releases in the series went on right up to manufacture.

The long and slowly lethargic opener 'Cascading Celestial Giants' seems to soundtrack a rebirth or re-emergence for Drexciya. The hymnal vocal sample gives it an epic, even religious feel, hinting that what we are about to access is something special. The celestial giants are probably a reference to the two largest planets in the Drexciya home universe, Ceeroze and Ociya Syndor or all four of them (which are shown on a map in the artwork). As a side note the musical template for this track would not have been out of place on Dopplereffekts Linear Accelerator (2003). ‘Powers of the Deep’ sounds like a pre Storm era title but in this context could mean deep space and is another slow contemplative number. ‘Ociya Syndor’ of course brings us full circle from the very first Storm’s ‘Mission to Ociya Syndor and Back’. It seems unlikely that all of the four planets in the Drexciya Home Universe would be habitable, we only have to understand the basic principles of our own universe to understand that. The sleeve notes tell us that the home planet is Drexciya, which leaves us asking what’s with Ociya Syndor, is this their Mars, only colonised? Whatever it is, Ociya Syndor is central. Maybe if James Stinson had lived they would have gone on to explain and build a mythos to go with this universe too. A simple colonisation may well be the answer, on the map it's certainly a larger planet than Drexciya and would be the obvious choice for an expanding civilisation. Ceeroze looks too close to their Sun. I wouldn’t be surprised if tiny Bowslac would also have turned out to be colonised, being about the same distance from their Sun as Drexciya.

‘Drexcyen Star Chamber’ finally breaks into a sweat with a more recognisable pacey electro edge and sounds like it could have originated from L.I.F.E. material. The title sounds like an attempt to build a history around this newly revealed location. This star chamber may be a place to view a map of the Drexciyan universe. I am drawn to view this as more ancient than modern by the archaic language used to describe it. The ancient Egyptians would have had what would pass for a ‘star chamber’ and we have already had a reference to the Egypt obsessed Sun Ra on the final storm. Although I think we need to look towards another ancient but equally as mysterious culture to cover all the possible historical origins that this album is hinting at. I would recommend to investigate the African Dogon tribe as a possible influence here. They are famous for having detailed astrological information about the Sirius star system which was then unknown at the time. Their whole belief culture is based around this. This could fit with the title ‘Hightech Nomads’ which sounds very future primitive, whether these people would be found on Ociya Syndor or Earth is up for debate.

'Drexcyen R.E.S.T. Principle (Research. Experimentation. Science. Technology.) has been mentioned before in the press release for Lab Rat XL and I discuss it in that piece but this is basically the method used by Drexciya for doing tracks. One additional piece of information is that this is not the first time this type of phraseology has been used. As a sort of subtitle on the Neptune's Lair album it reads 'Scientific Research Development Lab', this theme is so strong and consistent with Drexciya that it even influenced the title of this blog. Research is key.

'700 million light years from Earth' must be giving us the distance of the Drexciya Home Universe from Earth. 'Astronomical Guidepost' has a vocal and ends off the album in a cyclical fashion as I will show. The sentence, "Use the star chart to fix a celestial navigation point, from there you should be able to plot your path back to Earth using rudimentary astronomical guideposts." sounds like it was sampled from somewhere and neatly brings us back to Earth, therefore completing the mission from Storm #1, Harnessed the Storm, to get to Ociya Syndor and back. It's nice the way the music drops away for the final vocal sample and the album ends, it seems these are our instructions and so our journey home begins.

It strikes me that the naming of the Drexciya inspired Aquanauts could itself be a hint at what was coming next after Grava 4, Drexciyans in space, wouldn’t Aquanauts be the perfect way to describe that? Maybe Stinson had explained his new concept to his UR brothers, lets hope so.

Speaking with Osselaer Stinson talked about the Storms as hitting Earth, “...seven storms released around the world. So far three of the seven storms have hit Earth. The next four storms are in a holding pattern.” This totally ties in with conceiving of the storms coming from outer space. For them to effectively hit all over the Earth this would also explain why multiple labels were necessary. Also in the Osselaer interview he gave one of his only references to anything post-storm, "Some of the things of slavery will tell more when the time comes. Stay tuned! I can only tell you a little bit now. After the storm is over I will tell the story. What I can tell you is that in Africa we have a dimensional jump hole. Tell you more later." This is a major hint at what was to come, tragically it wasn't to be but I've put together a possible scenario which Drexciya may have used next to reveal their history and future direction.

'In Africa, thousand of years ago, high-tech nomads began to emerge from an dimensional jump-hole. They were coming from Ociya Syndor, 700 million light years from Earth. To those that know, they have left their mark all over the world, but especially in Africa where their traces can be found in the famous Dogon tribe. One day their story will be rediscovered, for they carved forever in stone their journeys path in the Drexcyen Star Chamber. Its location is a subterranean city, deep on the ocean floor. This is where the Africans were brought to when they were thrown off the slave ships. They were rescued and helped to adapt by their ancient cosmic brothers and sisters. Here they became deep sea dwellers in the bubble metropolis and in time went through the hydro doorways and became star travellers themselves.One day, when the need of Earth will be at its greatest, the powers of the deep will be made known to the surface world. For the Drexciyans are never idle, their principle has always been, Research, Experimentation, Science and Technology, from Neptune’s time to today.'

As I’ve said before, this is only my interpretation. Drexciya chose to create a mystery so we could think for ourselves.

This final quote from James Stinson both clears any doubt towards their intentions with their music and I feel justifies my own endeavours in trying to piece together what their Storm series might mean."All the records we’ve made give you clues, how to tap into your inner selves. We bring you right to that door and give you the key. We’re doing what we’re able to, dropping messages from day one without getting too deep and scaring people off. We can only hope that people will pick up on what we’re doing.”

Shifted Phases

Storm #7 is the Shifted Phases album The Cosmic Memoirs of the Late Great Rupert J. Rosinthrope. The hidden element to this storm is that what we have here is a map to the Drexciya home universe. As I have said previously in many ways this bookends Storm #1 very neatly in that the theme is self contained. This Storm is also on Tresor too so there’s a kind of join there but that could be just coincidence.

Shifted Phases immediately conjures up images of changing dimensions, realities whose frequencies are phased just out of step to be different from each other. Maybe this would be something we need to do to ever hope to reach the Drexciya home universe in a human lifetime. Perhaps one of the unnamed biological experiments on Lab Rat XL would have been to reconnect this part of our brain with this universal mind, that would be evolution indeed.

The album title seems to be telling us that it contains the life story of an individual. Well first of all, like most people interested I put Rupert J. Rosinthrope in a search engine when the album first came out and came up with zilch outside references to the album. So we know the name is their creation at least. These memoirs are not of course an account of an everyday existence either, for these are cosmic memoirs. I would say that this man represents mankind and this is the entire history of man being recounted one last time. The ‘Late Great’ phrase certainly hints at something bigger than this being just about an ordinary man. There was a huge bestseller, in the 1970’s I think, about the possibly factual end of the world according to the book of Revelations. It was called the Late Great Planet Earth which they might have been thinking of to signify how big this evolutionary step could be. I’m not saying there is any Revelations type element in the Storm series, just that that phrase could signify the World.

While I’m on this subject I might as well elaborate on a possible meaning of the phrase ‘Cosmic Memoirs’. I had come across a similar phrase to this before when reading about Rudolf Steiner. Steiner died in 1925 and wrote about higher states of human consciousness. He called it the Cosmic Chronicle or Akhasic Record and what he described this as being was an uninterrupted view/experience of the entire history of man, right from the beginning of time. I wanted to mention this character before in relation to being a possible influence on the evolution of the consciousness element of the Storm series(the ability to view the cosmic chronicle was one of his final steps) but thought I’d hold back on him till now. We’ll never know for sure what sort of reading Stinson and Gerald got up to but while Steiner may seem obscure to most people, he would be well enough known to those interested in the subject. Cosmic Memoirs is the only direct reference to Steiner and that is why I only mention him now but if you delve a little deeper into his idea’s you may be surprised at how much resonates, again this could just be coincidence.

My last point in this vein would be to point out another connected philosophical viewpoint. If you accept the existence of a type of universal/folk memory then would it not follow that there be a common consciousness? Ludwig Wittgenstein theorised about just such a possibility in his ‘no ownership of mind’ theory. If you choose to follow up this line of inquiry prepare yourself for mind scrambling scenarios where amnesiac’s wake up in hospitals screaming, “Someone is in pain, I don’t know who!”. This might even shed light on that enigmatic Stinson quote where he’s asked for some last thoughts in the Beere interview, “Look in the mirror, do you see you or do you see me?".

Musically Shifted Phases is way up my list, there is a varied palette of sounds to be found here. In particular, the piano on ‘Lonely Journey of the Comet Bopp’ really makes you feel like your watching it move through space. There are so many standout tracks here I would only end up listing the bulk of the album, lets just say it’s another triumph then. Of course there is a ‘Production by Dimensional Waves’ credit, but no other information relevant to figuring out what its all about. Although on the CD there is the line 'In memory of James Marcel Stinson who died in September 2002'. Luckily the titles give us all we need to know. To follow the CD track-list in order, as we also did with it’s opposing bookend, Harnessed The Storm, made the most sense to me.

The first thing which might surprise you in space travel is that there is a ‘Solar Wind’, you would also need to be wary of running into the path of radioactive solar flares but that's beside the point. A ‘White Dwarf’ star would be a phenomena you could encounter on your way, maybe in this context it could even be used as an ‘Astronomical Guidepost’ for our journey (also the name of a track on Grava 4). ‘Waveform Cascades’ could mean a lot of things but ‘Dance of the Celestial Druids’ sounds like another astronomical phenomenon. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a druid like figure in the constellation chart alongside Leo etc, another guidepost in our journey? ‘The Freak Show’ again sounds like an astral happening which now makes three possible astronomical guideposts we have encountered. ‘Implosive Regions’ sounds like we are now leaving our own galaxy and navigating the asteroid belt, a dangerous region indeed. It should come as no surprise then that we should now encounter at this furthest point the 'Lonely Journey of the Comet Bopp’. We now cross into some ‘Neptune’s Lair’ type imagery because everything beyond this point is the unknown. We know that James Stinson was a jazz fan and having talked of possible philosophical influences earlier, we have on ‘Crossing of the Sun-Ra Nebula’ an acknowledgement of a definite influence. You need go no further back than Sun Ra to find in him the forefather of musicians creating imaginary worlds to go with their music. Once we cross this nebula we encounter ‘Scattering Pulsars’. The following ‘Alien Vessel Distress Call’ again makes me think of classic ‘Neptune’s Lair’ type scenarios. Who exactly the alien craft belongs to could be either us, as we would be the aliens in this universe or them. The final track is ‘Flux’ which of course means fluctuation or change. If we have followed the instructions so far we will have experienced both a change of consciousness and now a change of place to fit that consciousness.

In many ways I feel like the journey ended for me with L.I.F.E., you should read my last paragraph there again if you want a neat summary of and praise for the Storm series. Mind you, Shifted Phases may only be about a physical journey but it is one we could not have even conceptualised about taking before understanding the previous Storms. It only seemed easier to figure out in comparison to what had gone before.

It's worth noting that the Storm series follows an ancient tradition in story telling known as the mono-myth, as identified by Joseph Campbell. He boiled this down to any account of growing up, leaving home, a search, a trail, a gift and a return. It is a process of meeting and integrating the shadow or a lost or unrecognised part of the self. Where the shadow is not integrated this archetype remains potent and unfulfilled. The persona longs for its journey of symbolic death and the awakening to the authentic self.

As Drexciya, James Stinson and Gerald Donald gave us great music, but by not explaining themselves and creating a mystery they gave us the use of our imagination. This is only my interpretation, to have your own is more important.

This is not the end, Grava 4 is next.

1. DREXCIYA - HARNESSED THE STORM
2. TRANSLLUSION - THE OPENING OF THE CEREBRAL GATE
3. THE OTHER PEOPLE PLACE - LIFESTYLES OF THE LAPTOP CAFÉ
4. ABSTRACT THOUGHTS - HYPOTHETICAL SITUATIONS
5. LAB RAT XL - MICE OR CYBORG
6. TRANSLLUSION - L.I.F.E.
7. SHIFTED PHASES - THE COSMIC MEMOIRS OF THE LATE GREAT RUPERT J. ROSINTHROPE

L.I.F.E.

Storm #6: I was inclined to believe that L.I.F.E. by Transllusion was the natural closer of the Storm series until I began to see so many connections between Shifted Phases and the post Storm Grava 4. So what we have on L.I.F.E. is the conclusion to the evolutionary curve we have been on and the beginning of the physical journey home which is concluded on Shifted Phases. Personally I would have expected the Storm to be one conceptual piece without the beginning of a physical journey seemingly tacked on to the end but after trying to interpret Shifted Phases from all conceivable angles I just can't in good conscience place it anywhere but the end. Although Storm #2, the first Transllusion album, is when the evolutionary theme really begins, so in one way it's quite fitting that the second Transllusion album should end this process.

To recap, on Storm #1, Harnessed The Storm, we have the violent scene setter which tells us that all is not well but ends on a note of hope of a new kind of life. Storm #2 The Opening of the Cerebral Gate is when things start to become clear, it is the first real step in the Storm towards this new life as we learn to look within and explore our mental dimensions. Storm #3, Lifestyles of the Laptop Cafe, tells us to continue this process of finding our true selves but also to develop/retain our basic human emotions, especially love and not to become a victim of the coldness of technology/modern society. Storm #4 by Abstract Thought, is the first of two pre-evolutionary exercises, in this case 6 thought exercise. Storm #5 by Lab Rat XL is where 6 biological experiments take place. On L.I.F.E., Storm #6, we take the final evolutionary step.

There is a wealth of titles, subtitles and artwork to furnish us with additional information to crack the concept here. The true title of the album turns out to be ‘Life Is Fast Ending’. This can even be extended to the phrase 'Life is fast ending, so live' taken from their 'message to the world' in the artwork of this album as well. This reminds me of when Stinson talked of his inspiration in 2001, “It came from deep inside my mind. God gave me this vision and I’m building on it, bringing it to life for the whole world to see."
We’ll never know for sure how certain James Stinson was of his impending death, if anything when he speaks of his future in Atlanta he seems full of positive plans, “...the move is going on. It involves relocating and rebuilding our studios, re-launching the businesses and then that's going to be about it. Once our company gets going, I'm going to cut my hours back and eventually I'll get my own truck.” So I don’t think we need to be too morbid and always think he means himself when we read things like, ‘Life is fast ending’. He was obviously aware of his heart problems and even the move to Atlanta was for this reason but I feel he is making a broader point for all of us and not just thinking of his own potential end.

In small type underneath Transllusion is the subtitle 'Don’t Be Afraid of Evolution’. In the second of these Storm articles I argued that a possible meaning of the word transllusion was to become transparent. Maybe in this context the real meaning of transllusion is evolution? Once our fear to evolve is overcome how might this step towards evolution be consciously approached? In the Rephlex press release we luckily have some additional instruction from the band, “Open your mind to another time, place and dimension. Feel electronic music in a way you may have never felt before.” The is a crucial line as the first part is almost like a summing up of the Storm so far as you will by now be familiar with the concepts of another time, place and dimension and more besides. The second part is telling us to use these same insights when listening to electronic music. To the point that we will be able to feel the music in a way we have never done before. It could be read as the ‘Open your mind and your ass will follow’ quote for the electronic age. Considering also that this is probably the musically least accessible of all the Storms it's interesting that this is the one in particular that we are being asked to listen to in this way. It is a deep album for sure but there's some real clashes going on sound-wise. Listen to it on headphones and you'll more easily appreciate how many tracks are layered on here and how some of them even work against each others melodies. This is best shown on ‘I’m Going Home’ which has what sounds like a keyboards banjo setting playing it’s own melody and some other sound altogether playing another set of notes which are kind of good on their own but a bit messy at the same time. In saying that, this is how they want it to sound and I can still find some obvious stand-outs here like 'Consequences’, ’Memories of Me’ and ‘Jogging on the Moon’.

Previous album titles like The Opening of the Cerebral Gate and track titles like ‘Power of the 3rd Brain’ come full circle in the artwork which includes two images of a human brain. There is no artwork credit but it seems likely that Drexciya had a large hand in it. As I said before when considering the Abstract Thought artwork it may be that a designer friend of theirs did it with them or someone else under their instruction. Even though its a good design, the finish is quite rough, both the front and back cover for example look like they were saved at a slighter lower resolution than is standard, but it does the job. The front cover doesn't tell us much but the back is where things get interesting. One large superior looking silver brain is circled by a repeating pattern of star, crescent moon and sun. To speak of ‘the sun, the moon and the stars’ is a common enough phrase regarding enlightenment and I think that’s exactly what this is about. There are 3 other brains circling this one and they seem to be more densely packed with the stuff of the universe and also have the same sun, moon and star patterned outline. Two other spheres contain outlines of human figures which are doing nothing less than ascending, the third sphere is a more crude rendering which represents the same thing. There are seven spheres in all which matches the number of Storms , but could be a coincidence. I would read it that the ascending figures are now at this next stage of evolution, ascending as a result of the insights they have received during the Storm series. As usual we have a Dimensional Waves production credit in the artwork too, which has been ‘Transmitted’ in this case, the third time that phrase has been used alongside ‘beamed’ and ‘filtered’.

To take the track titles in order we begin with ‘Dirty South Strut’. This appears to be a tongue in cheek start anyway from the newly southern state resident Stinson, an in-joke and message to anyone who ever thought that location was a factor in the Drexciya sound. I guess this and the untitled Lab Rat XL tracks were also confirmation that while the music of the Storm series was done in one year the titling and artwork etc was done at a later period closer to the release dates. 'Memories of Me' may be our first cause to consider Stinson making a direct reference to himself, though as I've said I get the impression from his quotes that he was looking towards a future. But I guess he would have also been prepared for the worst which this seems to indicate. 'Consequences' too might also be hinting at being resolved to something ending although the title 'Rolling with the Punches of L.I.F.E.' shows an accepting and positive attitude to life’s ups and downs. There is also a very slowed down male vocal which sounds like it is saying 'Just Roll, just pick it up', back and forth through out the track. 'Jogging on the Moon' is significant in that it is the first reintroduction of a space theme since Storm #4 and that is where we are heading on the next and final Storm of Shifted Phases.

‘Bump It’ features a space alien type voice which was previously used on Der Zyklus 2 on ‘Mxyzptik’. I will reprint the entire lyric only because it is concerned with space and experiments which has proved to be relevant so far. “I am Mxyzptik coming from a black hole on the other side of the gamma quadrant. I am now conducting tests with your bio-ports. It's an experiment in bio technology. I’m up to my old dirty tricks again. This is Mxyzptik conducting experiments and testing new theories in alien concepts. I am now in connection with your mind, I shall now exit.” Not that the lyrics to ‘Bump It’ are anything like that, they are more of the “Bump it, work it, side to side” variety, nor does the music sound alike so maybe we should not look for a connection, more the hazards of sharing the same studio, but the lyrical sentiment may be worth considering.

‘Code Blue’ could be a warning of something not right, shades of ’Under Sea Disturbances’? The final track is ‘I’m Going Home’ and this is the one that really explains the journey in the next Storm and even the destination on Grava 4. The home referred to here is the Drexciya home universe and its planet Ocyia Syndor. What they have been doing with the Storm series so far is preparing us for our journey home, it could even be argued that this is not the first time they have hinted at these space origins either, but I will confine myself to considering the Storms for now.

This album is all about life and death, it tells us to live life when we have the chance but also to accept the bad things too and even death when it comes. Whether we are close to death or not we can all relate to questions about the meaning of life and what happens after death and this is what seems to be concerning Drexciya in this final evolutionary Storm before our journey home through space.

Rephlex also had a 12” EP by Transllusion called Third Eye. This release no doubt relates to the album and therefore plays its own role in the Storm series. On it the very echo filled male vocal on ‘Your Holding Me Up’ says lyrics along the lines of, “Your holding me up, your holding me back, test the beat, damn funny, kids don’t make none, roll the dice, lets see what you got, don’t hold me up, lets go.” This sounds like someone ready to evolve to me. The similarity of its title track and 'Power of the 3rd Mind' from the other Transllusion 12”, Mind Over Positive And Negative Dimensional Matter, might be telling us that this is part of the evolutionary process, to gain vision of the 3rd eye, as well as use of the 3rd brain. The fact of these type of similarities between the two Transllusion albums (Storn #2 and #6) look very much like they are being flagged as the beginning and end of the evolutionary part of the Storm (Storm's #1 and #7 being more like the bookends of the physical story).

Maybe some final clarification of the nature of the Storms is needed at this stage. As I explained when discussing Storm #1 (Harnessed the Storm), on Grava 4 we learn that Dr Blowfin releases the seven dimensional cloaking-spheres to hide the other three planets of the Drexciya home universe from Earth's view. These are the seven Storms and each one a dimensional wave. This is a cloaking device in that it is a puzzle. As long as we fail to understand the Storms we fail to see the connection with the Drexciya home universe/Grava 4. To be worthy/able to truly ascend/go home is to follow the path taught during the Storm, to look within and explore our mental dimensions, to develop/retain our basic human emotions, especially love, to carry out the 6 thought exercises and 6 biological experiments and finally to overcome our fear of death and take the last evolutionary step, to then live in this knowledge and ascend.

It strikes me that the way we may be meant to read the phrase 'Life is fast ending, So Live' could be, life as we live/know it is fast ending for us if we have been following the evolutionary progress of the Storm series to this point, so now is the time to really live anew in this knowledge. There is a wonderful universal message for everyone contained in the Storm series. The fact that it concerns a purely mental evolution means it is open to everyone. Truly Dexciya's inspiration did indeed come from above. So follow the instructions and remember, life is fast ending, so live.

The evolutionary part of the Storm has ended, now the journey begins with Shifted Phases next.