Evolution

I’ve simplified the end of the Storm Series which links with the Drexciyan rebirth of ‘Grava 4’, as much for myself as anyone else as no one has requested it. I just think it’s worth restating a few things and explaining more clearly once more how the end of the series joins up with what came after. I’ve also for the first time really begun to understand the messages contained in the Storm Series which I will here also elaborate on. As usual it’s my own interpretation, what you find in it is meant for you.

Drexciya's end of the Storm Series maxim 'Don't be Afraid of Evolution' could be seen on one level as don’t be afraid of the part of life which is death. Certainly if you only examine the themes of the final Transllusion album 'L.I.F.E.' it would appear as very much an album which is about coming to terms with and accepting death. But paradoxically it is also a warning to really live when you still have the chance to. Its ‘message to the World’, “Life is Fast Ending - So Live!' tells us that clearly enough. Whether this was a part of the process of James Stinson coming to terms with his own mortality in the face of mounting health problems we may never know, he had probably already moved to Atlanta by the time he titled these tracks for that reason, as ‘Dirty South Strut’ may attest.‘L.I.F.E.’ then takes it place in the wider Storm Series, as I see it, at the point where they/we become willing and mentally able to transcend the physical, but only when the time is right, more than likely at death. The following journey through outer space which we embark on during the final storm of Shifted Phases which ends in our ‘Flux’ is the moment when the storm finally leaves us transformed and ready to enter the Drexciyan Utopia revealed in ‘Grava 4’.

There is another side to this ‘Don’t Be Afraid of Evolution’ phrase as well which appears to be the hidden message of the series. I’ve boldly called this previously the meaning of life in the DRL FAQ, as they may have come to see it as such, but I’ll get to this later. First we need to ask what is it that makes us afraid. Well being afraid comes from experiencing fear, it's no wonder then that one of the storms, The Other People Place, concentrated on overcoming fear and developing its opposite trait, love. Its track 'Running From Love' could be read as running from life, because that is what we are doing when we live in fear. Also if you reverse the first four letters of evolution you get love, coincidence? Additionally their aforementioned ‘message to the world’ speaks volumes on the nature of the way they see how we should be living our remaining life once we come to this realisation.

So what is causing our fear of truly living life? On the Transllusion 'Third Eye' 12", which importantly first introduced the ‘Don’t Be Afraid of Evolution’ phrase in its artwork, we may get the answer in the vocal for ‘Your Holding Me Up’. The main lyric goes “Your holding me up, your holding me back”. Where, what or to whom are these sentiments being addressed? I would say they are being aimed towards anything which could be considered a negative influence on our personal being, growth and expression. ‘Let Me Be Me’ from The Other People Place album also contains these sentiments. Stinson himself said of the Storm series “I suppose we’re trying to say ‘enjoy life’ with these albums. The world has become a dark place and it’s our job to entertain, make people happy and put the fun back in the music. That’s what Drexciya is about in the first instance and that’s why our concepts have become deeper lately.” I would interpret this that they had always been about making dance music and making people happy to some degree but as time went on they could see a deeper need for happiness in people, that there was too much negativity in the world and that people were not really living up to their potential because of this. This realisation made it necessary for them to make their concepts deeper than before. Maybe it was simply that as they had matured they could now understand the reason why people were responding to them and positive music in general and they decided they would concentrate on this aspect more specifically. Having discovered this it is admirable of them that they felt some responsibility to do this.

So we are being told to overcome fear in our lives, great, but how can we be afraid of evolution and what has this to do from my perspective with the meaning of life? Evolution just happens, it doesn’t depend on our fear or love of it. Evolution takes generations, it can not happen over night or even in one lifetime. But yet there it is, that word, evolution, presented as if by letting go of fear we can somehow welcome it automatically into our lives. If on the other hand they are referring simply to mental evolution then this is somewhat more achievable within our own lifetime. It is my understanding of the Storm Series as I have previously outlined in my articles examining its seven albums that evolution in this context simply means life. So to love life itself or to be precise, the continuation of life at all costs and not to confuse it with all the, now revealed as purely illusionary, surface stuff that comes with living in modern day society, which can certainly appear as a very meaningless and ‘dark place’ indeed at times, is the hidden message, another revealed layer of meaning of this series.I state it again, the meaning of life as it appears to me in the Storm Series is the continuation of life at all costs, which means not being afraid of change, to evolve. So no illusionary man-made goals get revealed here, no ‘Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy' ‘42’ or ‘life is really a dream’ type answers, just life itself, its survival and constant adaptation, only the most important and essential realisation of all. This adaptation of life is what I believe on some level Gerald Donald is currently exploring as he continues to embrace the subjects of science and particularly theoretical physics in his music. He expressed these sentiments on the subject in 2002 which seem to chime with my viewpoint, “Well in this world either you move forward or you perish. Sometimes you have to make harsh choices and ultimate sacrifices to sustain life. These are the laws of nature and natural selection.” It will be these things which determine how we live our lives in the future as we continue to evolve, barring a direct comet impact of course! But even then life goes on, just ask the dinosaurs if you could, in fact we can thank that comet for our current dominant place on the Earth.

To briefly recap on the meaning of the individual Storms themselves. The first bookend scene setting beginning of the series (Harnessed the Storm) is when Drexciya get metaphorically kicked out of paradise for forgetting the meaning of life, probably having become too materialistic, think an Atlantis myth type scenario. They go on a journey of rediscovery and experience gradual personal growth as lessons are learned. We can break these lessons roughly down into mental (first Transllusion), emotional (The Other People Place), intellectual (Abstract Thought), physical/biological (Lab Rat XL). The final mental and physical break through of course comes with L.I.F.E. as explained in the first part. The other bookend of the series, Shifted Phases, documents our journey towards our final flux, moment of transformation. Remember the storm, particularly if there’s a few(7?) tornados in there, can be seen as a metaphor for change, transforming as it does the surface over which it travels. Drexciya obviously has US storms in mind and not what we might describe as a storm in Europe. He did say of them, "Much like storms or tornadoes, you don't know where or when they're going to show up..." when speaking with Tim Pratt in 2002 and the same year said the following on the subject of storms to Derek Beere, "It was very, very violent and very chaotic in a lot of different ways. Ups and downs. If you're in the middle of a storm, you have your ups and downs. You have all the elements that there are on this planet that exist in a storm, from water to air, fire, electricity. You might have a cow or a truck mixed up in there too."

So one of the revelations of the Storm Series is the finding of a positive in death. Which as I have said may have come as some comfort to James Stinson, that and the fact that he appears to have really lived, his wife and seven children, not to mention his music at the very least attest to that fact. Perhaps if a few generations follow this lead and see past whatever is ‘holding them up’ and concentrate on whatever sustains and multiplies life on this planet instead of the opposite we do have a chance to further evolve as a species into at the very least a greater one than we find ourselves belonging to today. This is the answer to the central question of why do we positively accept evolution/every thing that comes with the life process? What do we gain by this bravery that would not have just evolved overtime anyway? We need to change, to break the cycle of mental evolution we are on, the five lessons contained in the Storm, if followed are truly life changing and would lead us as a species towards a higher path than we are on now. One that is more concerned with all human life and what will sustain it than now. Today’s environmental issues alone would make this a worthwhile evolutionary step for the human race to take.
It strikes me, as a side point, that this would mean a population explosion, not that we aren't already experiencing one, but the quality of this life for the majority is not very high. But surely following the meaning of life as the continuation of life at all costs idea, a population explosion would be the desirable outcome for the assured continuation of the evolution of our species? Especially if our colonisation of space was on the agenda, the only frontier left to us outside the sea and of course Drexciya in a way have already explored this solution for us. Maybe this exploration of space was even partly what the final storm and even the final Drexciya album ‘Grava 4’ was about. I'm not sure about this but it's possible, but these are questions for another era, hopefully a coming one.

Do not live in fear, see death as a part of life, as essential a part of evolution as birth. The continuation of life, the only true meaning we can take from life. And remember if we continue to live in fear we get stuck in our current negative cycle, the 'War on Terror' exhibit A, but if we love life we grow and have the chance to evolve into something better.

Have you understood me? Paradise regained, Utopia awaits.

To balance this article somewhat and bring it all back to Earth again read all about human evolution so far and some possible futures for at http://www.human-evolution.org/

PS: Please note new email address for direct contact with DRL.