Live in the moment! definitely stands amongst the many mantra’s that the self-help guru’s of today love to push. Forget yesterday’s regrets and tomorrow’s worries, free yourself from the gnawing doubt and insecurity that your fantasy force feeds you and cut yourself off from the nauseating beehive that is our society. Instead, plomp your butt in the sand and sit cross legged before the rippling waves of the sea, surrounded by stacks of smooth stones for some reason. Take a deep breath, and be at peace in the “here & now”.
Yet a different picture of the here and now is painted in the song Screen Shot by Swans. The song paints the picture of a singular moment, which both the lyrics and the instrumentation seek to approach. We start off with a bass riff, leading into the first verse, which is reminiscent of a religious chant. The images summoned are clear, simple and tactile, an association will most likely immediately spring to mind. In the meantime, the tempo of the bass begins to accelerate and more instruments join in.
The second verse is expressed in the negative, demonstrating all that is stripped in the singular moment, from our hatred of others and our fear of death to our ambitions and dreams. Both the world beyond this very place, as the time both before and after mean nothing to what is happening in this moment. The complex barrage of instrumentation turns into a wall of sound as the song reveals the true nature of living in the present. It is not quiessence, but violence. It is absolute, inescapable and inalienable. We like the idea of the ‘here and now’ as an escape hatch, a meditative garden that we can run towards and block out everything else. However, unlike the constructions of fantasy, the ‘here and now’ is not subject to our whims. It is the other way around. And the ‘here and now’ will come for you, impose itself onto you when you may not want to. When you are forced to wait, stuck perhaps, the walls will close in and the silence begins to scream.
Welcome to the here & now.
Sleeptalking 