Ancient Annunaki gods Enki and Enlil may not be familiar to most -- but they figured prominently in Sumerian history -- as did Nammu, an ancient reptilian goddess and mother to Enki who is depicted on the EP's cover.
Nammu is a creature born both of land and sea -- bearing a distinctly lizard-like appearance. Reptiles represent the dark, underbelly of the human psyche and inn popular culture they're often portrayed as manipulative, cold-hearted entities that are out for human blood and the gold resources of planet earth. These stories have given rise to numerous conspiracy theories about the reptilian bloodline that may be behind the scene today. Is Donald Rumsfeld a Lizard? Did Barbara Bush just shapeshift on CNN?
According to Sumerian mythology, Enlil sought to destroy his half-brother Enki's messy, somewhat botched two-legged creation originally destined as a slave race -- but Enki fought to save his pets from the Deluge. Hemiptera's title track is suggestive of this narrative through various sound signatures, such as a lamenting melody of an accordion, heavy interplays of acid soaked texture and a strutting synth. The battle over mankind's fate is more blatantly depicted the theme of Hemiptera's own remix of "Reptile Dysfunction" in which Enki's message to Enlil is clearly to "watch your back." We're never quite told by the Sumerians why Enlil had a distaste for mankind. Was it perhaps because he knew they carried Enlil's reptilian bloodline?
"11th hour 11", named after the EP's 11.11.11 release date, features an Emergency Broadcast System (EBS)-inspired attention signal -- a synchronistic reference to the FCC's unprecedented nationwide testing of the EBS two days prior. However, it's "Chaotic Nodes" that pushes this concept forward. The track sets forth with slowly churning moody harmonics which, on the outset, promises for an ecstatic pirouette but then -- gets jammed and twisted into a dark sonic segue by a signal that seems to come from another dimension - and sends things askew.
Two remixes of Chaotic Nodes provide wildly differing contours and take the listener into two new destinations entirely. Bleupulp slows things down with a post-dubtechno vision while Piltdown Sound's version heads into dirtier techno territory. Meanwhile, Revy stirs things up dramatically with his heavily hypnotic rendition of "Reptile Dysfunction" -- a cosmic carnival ride into a future where sound and space are distinct yet fold into each other in a complex kaleidoscope.
![[blpsq016] Hemiptera - Reptile Dysfunction](/img/work/nomencl/m_4886.jpg "[blpsq016] Hemiptera - Reptile Dysfunction")
