ConeXión Kooltura - Blog

BLACK IRON PRISON

 

BLACK IRON PRISON

By Isaac Lara (Nava)


The Black Iron Prison is the Cycle—abstract, deeply rooted, and built from ancient and advanced technology. We are overwhelmed, disappearing into digital nothingness—this is the sound I tried to capture. The project encompasses a multitude of sounds, stories, times, and places. My head has been gifted and cursed with a constant maximalist birds-eye view of everything. It’s hard for me to zero in on a particular experience, event, or person; my work culminates all of it in one. 

Every song is a vignette—everything from the production's sound to the individual lyrics, the titles, and the sound of my voice meant to be studied. It’s 60s progressive rock and folk, 90s Brazilian funk and breakbeat, mixed with deconstructed distorted electronics and dark waves of ambiance. Many strands make up the web, and many threads make up the tapestry. 

It’s 60s progressive rock and folk, 90s Brazilian funk and breakbeat, mixed with deconstructed distorted electronics and dark waves of ambiance.

When I was younger, I couldn't handle how sensitive I was to sound. There were times when certain songs, specific musical cues in film or other mediums, and sounds that were the messengers of certain abstract concepts would play and become so overwhelming for me that I physically felt in pain and would cry. My fears were always conceptual and abstract; a sound could tell me a story of something I was terrified to live, and I felt it was young. I needed help understanding the what, why, or how for long. It wasn't even lyrics; I couldn't ever hear lyrics, and I still struggle to listen to them. I always hear the story the sounds tell me first; I only appreciated the lyrics once I got older. It's why I'm so inaudible on the master of a track. 

You can hear everything about where I'm from in what I create. It's all there. I do these projects out of a sense of responsibility to the collective. I see faces like mine who get denied what I am blessed with. I hate to see so much potential wasted every day as this city economically ravages our communities. I like to take walks and run through large crowds and isolated hillsides. I love art. I love a few people close to me. I'd like to be left alone in time. The trick will be getting out in time. 

Most importantly, I hope individuals become people who think about reality and do something about it instead of living passively. I believe in building up our people into a nation of fellow builders. We should all be artists, engineers, scientists, poets, and more and collectively understand these subjects. To engineer is to create art; to create art is to conduct science. The sounds I have begun to toy with are the future of popular music. For music to be “futuristic,” it does not have to have some electronic sound only, nor does it have to be composed in some unappealing way – it must be widely applicable and adopted in conditions relevant to The People in ways that push them forward. 

I have everything I need. I can never move with fear or anxiety. Nothing can or should make me fearful or intimidated. I have everything I need. 

I feel old now; I'm thankful.