@waxlabltabler: "This is the sound of what you don't know killing you" is correct. This line is a play on the common expression "What you don't know can't hurt you.".
@Skiptomylou: This song is not about what El-P hates about himself. This song is about running into an old aquaintance at a train station and realising too late that this aquaintance intends to attack you for profit in order to fuel a drug habit. It is intended as a window into the life or concerns of a person growing up and/or living in brooklyn. "I'm maintaining." is a common expression having the same meaning as the next to meaningless 'I'm alright' which I'm guessing you're more familiar with.
@techy101: This section is describing the aquaintance lighting what first appears to be a tobacco cigarette but gives off the smell of PCP. It is not about whether or not EL-P or anyone he is associated with professionally has, does or will partake in the imbibation of narcotics.
@CosmicHorror: The link is the emotional impression of each: hopelessness, loneliness, emptiness, loss, uncertainty, aquiescence, melancholy, "...the solemnity of the remorseless working of things"... etc.
@MrKlorox: It doesn't make sense. The disassociative vibe I can only guess is in regards to to the somewhat industrial sound of the instruments and some of the more abstract lyrics. The lyrics are not intended to evoke drug-induced thought patterns.
I think you're taking the drug thing too literally rather than figuratively, lam8. I also get the impression that you've probably never done a dissociative hallucinogen (which are not narcotics. narcotics refer to opioid-related drugs, as far as I'm informed) which would explain your eagerness to isolate the concept of "drug-induced thought" from anything else the artist chooses to explore, as if there's a separation. There's not one. Drug-induced thought is still thought. Drug-induced experience is still experience. Drug-inspired art is still art.
I think you're taking the drug thing too literally rather than figuratively, lam8. I also get the impression that you've probably never done a dissociative hallucinogen (which are not narcotics. narcotics refer to opioid-related drugs, as far as I'm informed) which would explain your eagerness to isolate the concept of "drug-induced thought" from anything else the artist chooses to explore, as if there's a separation. There's not one. Drug-induced thought is still thought. Drug-induced experience is still experience. Drug-inspired art is still art.
Dissociative makes perfect sense as an adjective describing ISWYD in both music and lyrics (El-P has the tendency to synergize their effect in both). The album as a whole is an artifact of the disembodying consequences of a Metropolis lifestyle on the eve of self-promised destruction. It's Thanatotic - meaning the polarity from Erotic. If Eros is the spontaneous will to live, grow, make love, be curious, play, then Thanatos is the spontaneous will to stop existing, to self-destruct, to cancel out everything, to die. Where do you think ISWYD falls on that scale? El-P's trying to capture the human emotions that are swarming rootlessly around a nature-less metropolis: exhaust fumes, poisoned food, asbestos, urban heat, scavenger vermin, sewer water, densely compartmentalized dwellings, etc. and all the broken lives that this environment spawns. Paranoia, death wishes, isolation/alienation, panic, addiction, boredom, dread, etc. that subject matter is definitely some disembodying thanatos to me! and dissociative hallucinogens have been considered the Thanatos hallucinogens (PCP, Ketamine, DXM...). El-P doesn't need to be talking about being on any of these particular substances to evoke their atmospheres. The atmosphere here is universal and "dissociative" is a very appropriate way to relate it!
@waxlabltabler: "This is the sound of what you don't know killing you" is correct. This line is a play on the common expression "What you don't know can't hurt you.".
@Skiptomylou: This song is not about what El-P hates about himself. This song is about running into an old aquaintance at a train station and realising too late that this aquaintance intends to attack you for profit in order to fuel a drug habit. It is intended as a window into the life or concerns of a person growing up and/or living in brooklyn. "I'm maintaining." is a common expression having the same meaning as the next to meaningless 'I'm alright' which I'm guessing you're more familiar with.
@techy101: This section is describing the aquaintance lighting what first appears to be a tobacco cigarette but gives off the smell of PCP. It is not about whether or not EL-P or anyone he is associated with professionally has, does or will partake in the imbibation of narcotics.
@CosmicHorror: The link is the emotional impression of each: hopelessness, loneliness, emptiness, loss, uncertainty, aquiescence, melancholy, "...the solemnity of the remorseless working of things"... etc.
@MrKlorox: It doesn't make sense. The disassociative vibe I can only guess is in regards to to the somewhat industrial sound of the instruments and some of the more abstract lyrics. The lyrics are not intended to evoke drug-induced thought patterns.
I think you're taking the drug thing too literally rather than figuratively, lam8. I also get the impression that you've probably never done a dissociative hallucinogen (which are not narcotics. narcotics refer to opioid-related drugs, as far as I'm informed) which would explain your eagerness to isolate the concept of "drug-induced thought" from anything else the artist chooses to explore, as if there's a separation. There's not one. Drug-induced thought is still thought. Drug-induced experience is still experience. Drug-inspired art is still art.
I think you're taking the drug thing too literally rather than figuratively, lam8. I also get the impression that you've probably never done a dissociative hallucinogen (which are not narcotics. narcotics refer to opioid-related drugs, as far as I'm informed) which would explain your eagerness to isolate the concept of "drug-induced thought" from anything else the artist chooses to explore, as if there's a separation. There's not one. Drug-induced thought is still thought. Drug-induced experience is still experience. Drug-inspired art is still art.
Dissociative makes perfect sense as an adjective describing ISWYD in both music and lyrics (El-P has the tendency to synergize their effect in both). The album as a whole is an artifact of the disembodying consequences of a Metropolis lifestyle on the eve of self-promised destruction. It's Thanatotic - meaning the polarity from Erotic. If Eros is the spontaneous will to live, grow, make love, be curious, play, then Thanatos is the spontaneous will to stop existing, to self-destruct, to cancel out everything, to die. Where do you think ISWYD falls on that scale? El-P's trying to capture the human emotions that are swarming rootlessly around a nature-less metropolis: exhaust fumes, poisoned food, asbestos, urban heat, scavenger vermin, sewer water, densely compartmentalized dwellings, etc. and all the broken lives that this environment spawns. Paranoia, death wishes, isolation/alienation, panic, addiction, boredom, dread, etc. that subject matter is definitely some disembodying thanatos to me! and dissociative hallucinogens have been considered the Thanatos hallucinogens (PCP, Ketamine, DXM...). El-P doesn't need to be talking about being on any of these particular substances to evoke their atmospheres. The atmosphere here is universal and "dissociative" is a very appropriate way to relate it!