Review: 'Robert Anton Wilson meets Steve 'Fly Agaric' Pratt'

Robert Anton Wilson meets Steve “Fly Agaric” Pratt is really two albums in one: A spoken word album, featuring Pratt's interview with RAW, and a music album, with a soundtrack from the likes of Pratt, Youth (Paul McCartney's "Fireman" partner), Richard Rasa, Tim Egmond, Hagbard Celine and Garaj Mahal. (Pratt, a talented drummer, has played with Garaj Mahal). 

The album succeeds on both levels. The music is quite good and you can focus on that if for some reason it is not convenient at the moment to concentrate on the words. 

And the interview is meaty: While some of the topics Steve asks about cover familiar topics, he obviously worked hard to come up with new, fresh questions. (It's the only time I've seen or heard anyone ask Wilson, "What is your favorite sound?" This is a substantial interview.

You can read Steve's detailed online notes on the background of the interview, if like me you bought MP3 files of the album instead of buying the CD.


When I asked Steve if there were any detailed notes available anywhere for the musical credits for the tracks, he went to the trouble of putting them together for me. Here they are:

01. LSD.
Bob Acid by Steve Fly, feat. samples by Tim Egmond, Michael Ray (trumpet), live drums by Steve Fly, together with an excerpt from ‘Lonely No Longer’ by Youth. 2014.

02. Cannabis.
Music by Steve Fly, taken from the ‘Alan Moore discusses Robert Anton Wilson DVD, which was a perk of the Cosmic Trigger Play crowd-fund campaign. 2014.  

03. Drugscrime.
Drums intro by Steve Fly cut from the Cosmic Trigger Play, followed with ‘Nebula’ by Youth. 2014.

04. Killitics.
Drums by Steve Fly from the play, followed with ‘ by Zanoni by Rick Rasa. 2014.

05. Poundland.
Drums intro by Steve Fly cut from the Cosmic Trigger Play, followed with Shiva Nam Kevalam by Rick Rasa. 2014.

06. Satori Game Theory.
Drums by Steve Fly from the album ‘I mean you’, followed with excerpt from  by ’Suspended Atmosvex Pt2’ by Youth. 2014.

07. World Game.
Drums by Steve Fly taken from ‘I mean you’, together with an excerpt from ’Black Mass’ by Hagbard Celine (Ameoba) 2014.

08. Zen Bastard.
Music by Steve Fly, instrumental tracks ‘Mohawk’ ‘Carolina Moon’ ’My Melancholy Baby’ ‘Nobody Knows’ all from the album Mohawk, with John Sinclair.  2014.

09. Non Prophet.
Bicycling In Bombay (Steve Fly Remix 2006) by Garaj Mahal: Kai Eckhardt - Bass, Fareed Haque - Guitar, Alan Hertz - Drums, Eric Levy - Keys, Steve Fly - Turntables. Harmonized Records, 2005.


Martin Youth Glover sent a collection of remarkable ambient electronica productions for use in the Cosmic Trigger Play, used here with permission. Thanks Yoof. Garaj Mahal are Kai Eckhardt on Bass, Fareed Haque - Guitar, Alan Hertz - Drums, Eric Levy - Keys, Steve Fly - Turntables. 2005. Hagbard Celine (Ameoba) created a series of ambient works for initiatory purposes, used in the Cosmic Trigger Play. Rick Rasa also kindly contributed some of his delightful ‘starseed’ sitar compositions to the Cosmic Trigger Play. Tim Egmond and Steve Fly have collaborated on dozens of projects and tracks, Tim recorded and engineered and co-edited Mohawk by fly and John Sinclair, plus provided many useful samples used in the Cosmic Trigger Play. Thanks to Daisy and all those who helped the play see light of day, and all those who helped support the musical framework of the interview.

Today's listening tip

Garaj Mahal (Facebook photo). 

Steve Fly, e.g. Steve Pratt, on Twitter: "One my fav. Garaj Mahal tunes, called "Be Dope" here live in San Francisco 2001 at the DNA Lounge. Some memorable heavy funk. Many thanks to Archive for such an expansive GM collection."

Garaj Mahal is a jazz fusion band that Steve sometimes has performed with, with Steve performing as a DJ on turntables. Here is another performance Steve likes. 

I should explain that some bands, not just the Grateful Dead, allow their performances to be recorded live by fans and posted on the internet. The Internet  Archive hosts many such recordings.  I am a fan of one the bands that allows this, the Gin Blossoms.

You can browse a Garaj Mahal collection at the Internet Archive, and a Gin Blossoms collection. 

New music video from Steve Pratt

 

Renaissance man Steve "Fly" Pratt has just released a new music video he made for a track by the jazz fusion group Garaj Mahal, which recently released a new album. 

I learned about the above video via Steve's Substack, but his Patreon offers the clearest explanation of what's going on here:

Roughly a month ago I was invited to experiment with some visuals for the new album by Garaj Mahal: Rotifer. I accepted and went deep into the microcosmos, a place I've been swimming around for a while with water bears, and came up with the goods.

The first full length video just went live. Enjoy.

@GarajMahalMusic⁩ is: ⁨@FareedHaqueMusic⁩ , Kai Eckhardt, Oz Ozzeldin, Hassan Hurd. Video content generated using Gemini Veo. The creator intends to plant a tree for each full video and encourages anybody who enjoys this video to go support a local artist, or plant a tree, or both!

Stay tuned at: https://www.youtube.com/@GarajMahalMusic

All love

--Fly

Here's a review of the new album. 

The Internet Archive has live performances of bands that allow their shows to be recorded and released by fans, i.e. the Grateful Dead's policy, so  here is a Garaj Mahal performance featuring Steve  that Steve thought was "particularly good."   (I am a Gin Blossoms fan, so here is the Gin Blossoms live collection.)

Here are some of Steve's musical adventures, "interesting throughout," as Tyler Cowen likes to say. 

Steven 'Fly' Pratt talks about 'The First Trip'

Musician, writer and world traveler Steve "Fly Agaric" Pratt, 47, aka Steve Fly, aka Steven James Pratt, is a native of Wordsley, England, who for many years has lived in Amsterdam. He was a competitive swimmer in his youth but soon developed an interest in jazz and other forms of music. See this biography emphasizing his musical interests. 

Steve's newest project is The First Trip,  a music album focusing on Robert Anton Wilson and Illuminatus!, issued in conjunction with Bobby Campbell's ongoing Tales of Illuminatus adaptation of the Illuminatus! trilogy. You can find the album on Bandcamp.  Note that as with most other Bandcamp releases, you can play the tracks before you decide whether to buy the album. When you buy an album on Bandcamp, you can download the tracks to keep them and also stream it from the website or from a smartphone Bandcamp app. Steve's album is priced in pounds; it cost me about $10. 

Over the years, Steve's projects have included the Robert Anton Wilson meets Steve “Fly Agaric” Pratt album, which features Steve's interview with Robert Anton Wilson, with music from Steve Fly, Tim Egmond, Martin "Youth" Glover, Rick Rasa, Hagbard Celine, Garaj Mahal.

His books include World Piss, a collection of early writings; Fly On The Tale Of The Tribe: A Rollercoaster Ride With Robert Anton Wilson  (see this review by Oz Fritz), and Deep Scratch Remix. Browse more titles here. 

Steve has so many interests and so many creative projects that any interview with him is going to be a snapshot in time, although there is continuity in his work. Here is my 2012 interview with Steve, focusing on his interest in Robert Anton Wilson. Here is my joint interview with Steve and Peter Quadrino over Waywords and Meansigns, the project to set Finnegans Wake to music/adapt it to sound. 

I really enjoyed listening to The First Trip and Steve agreed to take my questions for a new interview focusing on the new album. 

Steve with his handmade IRL Pyramid Speaker by Hans Speijer and his piratable-turntable.

RAWILLUMINATION: How did the album The First Trip come about? How does it relate to Tales of Illuminatus? 

STEVE PRATT: Due to Bobby's tireless organizing for Maybelogues 2024, we got chatting in early June about new music I was working on, I sent some examples. I'm not sure who ignited the conversation about music and TOI [Tales of Illuminatus] but it was floating in the air between us. With an equally enthusiastic go-ahead from team TOI, I started producing the music for The First Trip.   

RAWILLUMINATION: You describe The First Trip as a concept album. I think I figured it out: All of the listed bands on the album are bands listed in Illuminatus! as being booked to perform at the rock festival in Leviathan. So the concept is that all of those bands really exist? And that's why the music is so different from track to track, because you are creating different "bands"?

STEVE PRATT: Yes, exactly. I created the lyrics to help fold them into the TOI universe, and in some sense I co-arranged and co-produced the music, but the precise description of what I did, distinguished from what the A.I. did, is tricky to distinguish. A.I. songs are like laws, which are like sausages, in that it's better not to see how they're made.  

RAWILLUMINATION: Are you the only human who worked on the album? There's a pretty wide variety of vocals and instruments on it.

STEVE PRATT: Yes, I'm the only human who worked on the album. Or the only interacting brain body nervous system that feels fully convinced he's human ;-) 

RAWILLUMINATION: I have been trying to think of how to describe the album, maybe "subversive pop"? How do you describe it to people who have not heard it? Some of it seems like Frank Zappa, but without the snarkiness.

STEVE PRATT: It's fitting you reference Zappa. And a very generous comment about less snarkiness. "Snarkiness" works well to describe a lot of current A.I. songs, which to my ear lack nuance and subtlety...lyrically speaking. 

I've been mulling on A.I. generated music, humour in music and so, the music of Zappa (perhaps the most "consistent" example) who has ajacencies with TOI music and with RAW (and Shea's) sense of humour, satire, pacing, style, comedic strategies...I touched on some of this in my essay about SUN RA. Very generally, to my mind, it comes back to the mosaic method of McLuhan, the Hologrammic prose of Joyce, Burroughs and Wilson, the holo-sonic music of Johan Coltrane, the participatory relationship between the parts and the whole. Unity, the Tao, epiphany (with a healthy reminder that these 'impressions' are non-simultaneously apprehended events). The songs from this album ,cover a part of a broader spectrum, which will be revealed as TOI progresses. 

RAWILLUMINATION: It's interesting you mention Burroughs, because Zappa was really into the cut-up technique. And as for the band names: I like the fact that "Nirvana" is in there, somehow Wilson and Shea named the last great rock band!

STEVE PRATT: Great analysis, I concur. Cut-up is also a large component of good turntable routines, "needle drops" are like cut-up in that you kind of throw the dice where the stylus needle will land, which groove...and take it from there.

A recent photo of Steve "Fly" Pratt. 

RAWILLUMINATION: I bought The First Trip on Bandcamp, where I have bought quite a bit of music. I know your music has been available at other places -- I bought the "RAW meets Steve Fly" album on Amazon -- but are  you selling your music only at Bandcamp now? How do you think Bandcamp serves artists and listeners? 

STEVE PRATT: Yeah, I rate Bandcamp, currently, as the best platform for artists to get paid, and without any ads. Bandcamp Fridays, where 100% of sales go to the artist, is a future friendly scheme. I'm not using Spotify, but you'll probably find some of my music there.

RAWILLUMINATION: You have been a prolific recording artist. Is there an album of yours that you think was particularly successful, and/or was a particular hit with listeners?

STEVE PRATT: That's kind of you to say, but, not really, I've had little success or sales, let alone a hit. Most of my work has been collaborations, I've yet to release what I'd call a proper solo album, but I'm ready...after 3 decades of practice. Most tracks released on bandcamp are my home productions, some using an APP and now A.I. Mohawk (with John Sinclair) received some good reviews, and is perhaps my most popular project/album, not many picked up on the fact I played all the music on that album (with overdubbing). 

RAWILLUMINATION: "Jump Into My Submarine" is a standout track, I congratulate you on that track. Do you want to tell me anything about it? Are there other tracks you want to call particular attention to?

STEVE PRATT: Yeah, there's a yellow submarine docked at NDSM, Amsterdam Noord, I was right there today, and this fact, together with the Leif Erikson and that 70s funk submarine vibe, down periscope...all contributed to my audio-vision for 'Jump Into My Submarine'. I've no other emphasis on any track.

RAWILLUMINATION: How many instruments do you play? I know you are a turntable player and a drummer, but I heard guitars and all sorts of instruments on the new album.

STEVE PRATT: I do indeed play drums, turntables and a smidge of guitars. I also make noises with my mouth. I hate to burst the bubble of wonder for you, but I did not play any instruments on First Trip. Everything you hear is by Fuckup, Sol and Udio. I'm simply a producer, arranger, lyricist and co-song writer. A curator (much like a DJ) These distinctions are fuzzy at best. My M.O was to imagine music that might raise at least a smile, or belly laugh, from Bob.

Illustration by Bobby Campbell 

RAWILLUMINATION: What part did you play in the music for the Cosmic Trigger play?

STEVE PRATT: As music director I had a hand in composing some of the music, but there were contributions from other musicians and producers....plus the previous musical director had written songs. During the stage performances I played drums for scene transitions. I have a lot of unused music and sounds from the play that I hope to revisit in the future.

RAWILLUMINATION:  The Internet archive has a collection of live recordings by the jazz fusion band Garaj Mahal. Is there any easy way to find the recordings that feature you on turntable performing with them?

STEVE PRATT: Yeah, put "Fly Agaric 23" in the Archive search window, for a selection of my live turntable jammin' in the U.S. (2000-2005) Keep your ears peeled for the new album by Garaj Mahal with some very special guests ;-) 

Also, this show was a particularly good one imho (with special guest Leo Nocentelli from my fav. funk band of all time....The Meters!)   

https://archive.org/details/garaj2003-10-31.flac16   (Avalon Ballroom Halloween 2003).

RAWILLUMINATION: What do you want people to know about The First Trip that I neglected to ask about? 

STEVE PRATT: There will be more trips, tracks and albums as the TOI project progresses, some will be made using Fuckup/Sol/Udio A.I., others will not. Whatever it is, it's gotta' be funky with an accent on the FUN part.

Steven James Pratt bibliography

Spore of the Words/Shanigums Wave (2011)

Fly: Selected Poetry 2001-2017 (2017)

Cannabis Coffeeshop Journal (2018)

Sounds Fly: Music Writing (2018)

Big Chief: Getting High With John Sinclair and the Fly (2018)

Silent But Dudley: Writings on the Black Country (2018)

Flying: Selected Writing (2018)

Passport to Poetry: Brexit (2018)

Fly on the Tale of the Tribe: A Rollercoaster Ride With Robert Anton Wilson (2019)

Fly Papers: Cannabis Writing 2018-2020 (2020)

2020 Squintin Quartino (2020)

Deep Scratch: Novel (2020)

Flyku: Poetry (2020)

Corona Slayer: Poetry (2021)

Prose Piracy: Selected Writing (2021)

New Growth: Selected Writings (2022)

Deep Scratch Remix (2023)

Steven James Pratt Discography 

Robert Anton Wilson meets Steve “Fly Agaric” Pratt (2016)

They Came to Starburg (2016)

Corona Slayer (2022)

Deep Scratch Remix (2023)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round One (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Two (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Three (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Four (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Five (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Six (2024)

Folkin' Around Elections (2024)

Deep Scratch Vs. Udio: Round Seven (2024)

The First Trip (2024)

Talking with Steve "Fly Agaric 23" Pratt

Few, if any, people have been more energetic in setting up Internet sites to promote the works and though of Robert Anton Wilson than Steve "Fly Agaric 23" Pratt, a resident of Amsterdam is plays drums, is a DJ and works in various other art forms.  And he isn't exactly slowing down: As I write these words, a brand new site, RAW360, is poised to launch.

I have been wanting to interview Mr. Pratt for a long time, so the following is one more item crossed off my "to do" list.

This interview concentrates on Steve's interest in Robert Anton Wilson. For an archive of his performances with Garaj Mahal and others, go here. His new is called DOCTOR MARSHMALLOW CUBICLE and a sample of the band's music is here.  A comic of Pratt meeting RAW is here.  Mr. Pratt's book, World Piss, may be purchased here. The photo below of Mr. Pratt and Mr. Wilson was taken in 2002.

Steve, could you tell my readers just a little bit about  yourself?

Greetings dear readers, i am 99% sure my name is Steven Pratt and that i was born in Wordsley, England in the year 1976. I currently reside in Amsterdam and spend most my time these days reading, drumming, spinning records, blogging and petting cats.



How did you become interested in Robert Anton Wilson?

Due to my early sporting career as a swimmer i missed out on many intellectual pursuits, discovering the wonders of literature, philosophy and science after my official education, thanks to RAW for the most part. I first encountered RAW through his book Cosmic Trigger II that i traced back through 3 people, starting with my girlfriend at that time, to a guy in Wolverhampton called Jonah who got turned onto RAW in the 80's, possibly via Bill Drummond and The KLF. After 5 years of reading RAW throughout the late 1990's i viewed him as THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT WRITER AND THINKER SINCE SOCRATES.

I have just one Web site devoted to RAW, but you have more than I can keep up with. Could you list them for me, please? Is there a "portal" site that links to them all?

Thanks TOM, from the guy who keeps up the most consistant and comprehensive RAW related blog in cyberspace. I do not yet have a single hub for my RAW related output, but you can get an RSS feed at my wikispaces account, linked below. RAW influences every blog i keep, but the explicitly RAW sites I prune are as follows:

tsogblogsphere
A tale of the tribe
Ettt (email to the tribe)
Only Maybe
Wikispaces.flyagaric
Soundcloud
Fuckbook
Myspace (ghost town)


Q. I was struck by the fact that in the tribute program for RAW you did earlier this year with John Sinclair, you used music that RAW enjoyed. Did you ever talk to RAW about jazz, or about music?

A. Yes, during the interviews RAW kindly granted me I asked him about the music he liked, and I talked a little about my own musical projects. He surprised me with a quote that he was unable to source on the spot, but which i recently read in the introduction to FUG YOU by Ed Sanders. (which i highly recommend, especially due to the high quality surrealist poetry) ("When the mode of the music changes the walls of the city shake.--Tuli Kupferberg adapted (and considerably improved) from Damon of Athens, ca. 460 B.C" from the opening page of FUG YOU: An Informal History of the Peace Eye Bookstore, the Fuck You Press, The Fugs, and Counterculture in the Lower East Side.--Ed Sanders. ).

Eric Wagner has correlated extensive research into RAWs affection for the music of Beethoven and Bach in particular that will be explored on his upcoming class at the Maybelogic Academy. RAW certainly liked orchestral music and Jazz. I would estimate jazz of the 'cool' period. RAW seemed to me to simply enjoy relaxing music. Yet, further more i feel that Jazz as a music form, and free jazz and the avant garde forms have an affinity with RAW's hologramic prose on some level.

Maybe i can take this opportunity to tantalize RAW heads to a new RAW website/museum which has been in progress for over 12 months alongside aerosol graffiti legend and digital design master CHU. /

Although the new RAW panorama site is accesible through conventional web brousers, lap tops and home computers, it takes advantage of the newer IOS systems and incorporates giroscopic intelligence and augmented reality features. Combined with the large array of multimedia content and support from the RAW estate, Matt Black of Ninjatune and deepleaf productions, it presents a state of the art project, dedicated to the life works and panoramic perceptions of RAW. I look forward to sharing more news about the launch of this new site very soon.


Q. Well, then, what can we expect when RAW360 launches?

Alike many other virtual technologies RAW360 remains difficult to describe. At first glance it might look to some people like a first person shooter game due to the sensation of exploring, zooming in and out, and interacting with the hotspots: responsive areas containing multi media surprises, audio, video, image, text. Unlike a first person shooter game you are actually inside a RAW museum/library discovering and uncovering exhibits. We are looking to expand and continue developing RAW360.net into next year as new content and partners get on board. Please contact me by email if you wish to recieve updates and/or have anything you wish to share. Bob@raw360.net


Q. I looked up Wordsley, your hometown. You grew up very close to Birmingham, a big music city. You weren't far from Wales, with all of the history and myth that entails. England is not a very big country, so by definition you could easily travel to Stonehenge, the Saxon Shore, Hadrian's Wall, etc. etc. It sounds wonderful to me, but I understand you envy people who grew up in the United States, as I did. What is it about the U.S. that fascinates you?

What fascinates me about the U.S very generally is what i have come to view as the anarchist libertarian tradition that reaches right back to 1776, and beyond that, if you begin to view Native American Indian tribalism exhibiting basic anarchist libertarian principles. I feel very lucky to have met and to have studied with some of the great American's that most fascinate me: RAW, John Sinclair, John C. Lilly, Jack Sarfatti, Paul Krassner, R.U Sirius, Mark Pesce and a host of literally hundreds of boundary dissolving artists, musicians, poets and generally libertarian optimists. I might also substitute the term 'anarchist libertarian' with '1960's U.S consciousness movement' as describing why the above characters embody my fascination with Unistat.


Q. How did it come about that you traveled to the U.S. and actually met RAW late in his life?


Thats a question i have spent a lot of time thinking about. In the most basic sense I contacted the Prophets Conference now called 'The Great Rethinking' i think, and ordered a ticket for the Sante Fe, New Mexico, event held 14th-17th April 2000, with some help from Birmingham reggae band UB40. But RAW fell ill shortly before the event and cancelled his appearence. RAW falling ill was the twist of fate that led to me meeting him in person since the Prophets took pity on my pilgimage from the UK to hear RAW speak, and so offered me a golden ticket: would i like to be RAW's caregiver at the December conference in Palm Springs, they asked me by email one day. Yes, yes, I say yes. I said. Nearly two years later i simply travelled to his home, rang his doorbell and asked to come in and interview him, he obliged and this led to the most memorable day of my life, some of which is captured in my interview published in the Maybe Logic Quarterly magazine. RAW proved himself to me that day as the cheerful, generous and intellectual giant i suspected. I regret to say that the audio from this interview has been lost during my recent movements.

On another level it came about that I traveled to the U.S to meet RAW due to Carl Jung's dream about Liverpool. At least i deduct that RAW came into my orbit in the UK by way of the KLF, the Illuminatus! stage performance, Ken Campbell's Science Fiction Theatre of Dream Language and Pun, and so Carl Jung's dream which influenced both the name of the theatre, and the contents of the production: Wilson and Shea's Illuminatus! This syncro net is explored in Cosmic Trigger 1, on page 223.


Q. Why did you decide to live in Amsterdam?

Well i thought that might be obvious, it's the quality weed and the blow jobs. I mean it's the holographic principle of Dutch Nobel Prized physicist Gerard T'Hooft, and the tessellated genius of M.C Escher, the relative cultural diversity and fabled Dutch tolerence, the unpredicatable weather and the...waffles. I decided to live here due to landing a job that could fascilitate that dream, and enable me to continue my studies. I shot weed in a coffeeshop and recently graced the New York Times on page 9 in an article about the proposed new restrictions on foreigners freedoms in Amsterdam.

Behind the bar at Amsterdam’s 420 Cafe last month, Steven Pratt showed marijuana products to customers from Romania. (Original New York Times caption. Photo credit: Michel de Groot for the International Herald Tribune)


Why have you spoken up to defend Wikileaks? Do  you see it as an antidote to government militarism and secrecy?

Yes, the antidote, or at least a working alternative medicine for the sick and dying centralized processes that seems to cripple information flow. The corporate militarism and a Pyramid structured secrecy policy of most business practice seems to be failing humanity. I have spoken up, or thrown down written support to defend Wikileaks for a few reasons, the first is that Wikileaks ruined some of my favourite conspiracy theories by providing new data sets by which to deduce 'what the hell is going on'. In particular in the dark recesses of international finance capitalism, the revolving doors and oily lubricants employed by governments, surveillance industry companies and spook agencies, for example. To repeat a familiar cliche' i think that RAW would have supported Wikileaks and continued to cheer the open source revolution and principles that aspire to scientific journalism. RAW, like Buckminster Fuller, identified with decentralization principles, and so Wikileaks, to my mind, seems a watershed moment for a working example of decentralized principle, a methodology in action. And in resonance with some of Giordano Bruno’s ideas, and McLuhan’s and Bucky Fuller’s.

Secondly, i support Wikileaks due to its whole new style of communication and furthermore propose that in some sense Wikileaks may constitute a new tale of the tribe for the 21st century: a new global epic including history; or a collection of multi-media snapshots into the recent past that detail who said what and when and where, plus data fields of once secret messages between Governments, spooks and Global Corps., and, all this information decoded from a once encrypted scrambled up secret Joyce like nat-language, and juxtaposed into a higher order of meaning.  I sincerely hope that one day some bright and brave soul might set a Wikileaks glossing of 'the tale of the tribe' to verse, so we might have something to stand with the Cantos of Ezra Pound, and/or Joyce's Wake: a modern verse epic including history, something to make you leap up for joy and laugh your ass off, and something that make the soul soar with compassion for tragic suffering.



Why did you get interested in Amanita Muscaria, and why do you use it in your  DJ name?

Like most things in retrospect there remains a complex of origins, and the more i think about it the more i surprise myself. For example, in response to the name a) i used to be a competitive Butterfly swimmer, 2) i gained the nickname ‘fly by night’ at an RnB club I once worked at, and 3) when i discovered RAW's Cosmic Trigger chapter titled Dope and Divinity, I had a Joyce-like Epiphany. (as i write this, a marching band marched by outside my front door, 3.00 P.M, 23/6/12) I read Andrija Puharich, R. Gordon Wasson, John Allegro and Robert Graves as a direct result of this chapter, and 4) when I discovered that Amanita Muscaria was the 24th entry in the index to Cosmic Trigger, Fly Agaric 23 was born out into the world. However, my academic pursuits lay dormant under gestation for the most part until I travelled to the U.S and found some of the others. In particular, RAW himself and the gang of brilliant critters orbiting the Maybe Logic Academy who together helped kick me into writing more sincerely, regular forum and blog postings, and shed loads of quality esoteric reading materials. I was swimming through thousands upon thousands of RAW resources and sources.

Besides my private RÁW related studies i have been performing, producing and DJ'ing music for 20 years, and until my fly agaric 23 epiphany occurred around 1995 I did not have an artist name, if that’s what you call it? so ever since that moment I developed Fly Agaric 23 as a meme spore that i hoped might connect and grow alongside the gazillions of bits flying around cyberspace. I also like the Amanita Muscaria glossing of Christmas and the possible psychedelic shamanic revolution someday usurping Jesus Christ, Coca Cola and the Queen's Xmas speech. I only tried Amanita Muscaria once at a very low dose, and the results were mildly sensational but not really my cup of tea, but the experience did lead to a creative burst of energy and interest in shamanic drumming.

I might also take this opportunity of my first ever interview (thanks again TOM) to address some theories about Amanita Muscaria and its probable use among early hominids and in mythological symbolism, and use Maybe Logic to disperse any creepy messiah complex clinging to any Jesuspect Stereotype such as Fly Agaric 23. The book: Ploughing the clouds: The search for Irish Soma by Peter Lamborn Wilson remains my favourite text on the subject, due to his anarchist-poetic glossing of the data field, and his critical thinking and prize picked specimens. To me PLW manages to apply Maybe Logic to the question of SOMA without identifying any particular species of plant or drug, but instead detailing how SOMA contains a complex of origins and symbolic similarities across cultures from African and Vedic India, to Irish Celtic hyperborean.


What are your favorite Robert Anton Wilson books? What is your favorite book to recommend to a RAW newbie?

I have a particular affinity for Coincidance, which is probably one of RAW's more difficult books and which opens with a riot of Joyce scholarship, moving through a series of Jazz Haiku's, Bell and Bohm Quantum Physics, Synchronicity pieces, a fantastic interview with Sean Mcbride (Nobel Prize and Lenin Peace prize), prose Cut-Up's and more Joycean Taoist Magick. All in all In all, I view Coincidance as an explicit example of RAW's Holographic prose style, or Hermetic style, or his Hologrammic Prose.

I would recommend Cosmic Trigger I as a first book for a RAW newbie, followed by 'Reality is what you can get away with', a surrealist screen play and, good for a Boobie, followed by Everything is under Control' his encyclopaedia of Conspiracy happenings, perfect for a Doobie.

Discography: Prop Anon, Steve 'Fly' Pratt and Rasa's band (and more RAW-related music)

Starseed's "Entering the Ambient Temple" album

Prop Anon's Discography

Prop Anon, who has a biography of Robert Anton Wilson coming out this fall, also has had a musical career. Here is a discography, courtesy of Prop, with a bit more information from me:

1. Prop Anon Todo Corazon (EP). I don't have more information, sorry.

2. Prop Anon Squat the Condos, an album. Rap music, released in released in 2013. You can buy the individual tracks on Bandcamp, then put together a playlist to replicate the CD, as I have done. Here is the correct tracklist:

1. AGIT-PROP
2. Konkrete Giants
3. Nights Like This
4. Consciousness is the Key
5. Calling Down the Earth
6. Luxury Condos
7. Ayahuasca Metropolis
8. Nammo Tasso
9. Nammo Tasso (DJ Nihilist Remix)

Note that the Nammo Tasso remix is pretty different from the original track; you are not being ripped off if you buy both.

3. Hail Eris, four song EP,  hard rock album, Prop with backing band, remixed by Oz Fritz, available on Bandcamp. 

The only information I could find on this album is from this blog: Prop says, "The music on this EP is Heavy, Strong, Groove oriented. The other musicians on the record are: Scott Yacovina on Drums, Gabe Saladino on guitar, and Jeff To on Bass. Other absolutely vital musicians involved were Mason Lucas, as well as Joe Mulvanerty and Ham from Black47. These guys helped get the ball rolling, and now the present line up is myself and Laura Kang, aka Thee Semiotic Alchemyst."

Also from Prop:

"False Flag." Rap song released in 2014, available on Bandcamp. 

Prop also performs the lead vocal on the song "DDK (Bowing to the Buddha remix) by the artist Goyopod, also on Bandcamp. 

                                            Steve "Fly Agaric" Pratt's Discography

Steve pointed me to Discogs, explaining, "Best place is Discogs, however, this list includes my work as DJ with live bands (garaj Mahal, Gregory james Band), collabs with John Sinclair (on drums) and compilation albums and some Live CD's that are not really proper album releases."

Link:

https://www.discogs.com/lists/Steve-Fly-Agaric-Recordings/921478

Steve also says, "I've a new album/book for release this year, (Deep Scratch Remix) although no publisher or label interest yet, but I suppose I have to tell them about it." Information here. And note that this link also connects you to Steve's music on Bandcamp. Please note also that the same link provides information about Mr. Pratt's books, as well as his music projects. 

See also this blog post on the Robert Anton Wilson meets Steve 'Fly Agaric' Pratt album. 

Rasa's Starseed Discography

I won't attempt to cover the entire music history of Rasa. See this Wikipedia article on Sweet Smoke for his rock music days. 

His current band is Starseed, and the official web site lists all of his albums. 

Note that Rasa recommends two of the albums, Live on Mount Shasta and Entering the Ambient Temple. Rasa wrote (in a December 2021 email), "In some ways, I think Live in Mt. Shasta is “classic” but I think that because all the music was recorded after we had invested heavily in some spectacular sound equipment. We have a couple of good friends who think our best music is on Entering the Ambient Temple.

"Maybe I agree with that. It’s an older recording, and the sound seems a bit raw to me, but not bad. Tim Leary’s old friend Brummbaer thought this was our best album, and he used a bit on his video tribute to Leary."

Note that all of the Starseed albums are on Bandcamp, and when you buy there, Rasa gets to keep 90% of the money. I wish I had bought my copy of Ambient Temple there; I bought it at Amazon. I did buy the Starseed Ambient Blue album on Bandcamp. Note that you can stream Starseed's music on Bandcamp before you decide to buy it. 

Other RAW affiliated music

This of course does not totally cover musicians who have some kind of affiliation or affinity with Robert Anton Wilson, don't miss my blog post on the connection between David Lowery (of Cracker and Camper van Beethoven) with RAW. 

See also my blog post back in 2012 on "Musical Tributes to RAW." 

The Canadian rapper Noah23 is a RAW fan. Prop says Noah23 is "very good." He has many releases, I don't know what to recommend, but on Reddit, Occult Trill and Jupiter Sajitarius are said to be good. His releases are on Bandcamp.  Prop recommends "Faded." and another Reddit posting recommends the Fry Cook on Venus album. "Faded" is a track on the Rock Paper Scissors album. Noah23's new album is called Ikosia Tria, which means "23" in Greek, review from Scatched Vinyl with 8/10 rating.