FROM THE WSPC LIBRARY: "PINK WORLD" PLANET P. PROJECT (1984)

"PINK WORLD"
PLANET P. PROJECT
Music and Lyrics by Tony Carey
Arranged by Tony Carey and Peter Hauke
Produced by Peter Hauke
Released in 1984/Re-Released in 2008

Throughout my entire life of listening to and immersing myself within music, I have always been enthralled with music's exploratory spirit and sense of possibility. There are the types of music that I just naturally respond to joyously but I am always on the lookout for something new, something fresh, something unlike anything else that I have heard before, something that can sit proudly and confidently within its own musical universe. I love the journey. I love the peaks and valleys. I love listening to music and having the feeling that I have been transported and therefore transformed. Going against the grain of many fans, critics, and journalists of rock music, I have held a lifelong penchant for double albums, concept albums, rock operas and works of that nature as all of those types of musical works fly against any preconceived notions of what music can and cannot be and always point to where music can potentially go.

With my mythical radio station WSPC, I feel compelled to share with you the music and artists that have meant to absolute most to me throughout my life, especially the ones who I assume may be arcane to many of you. At this time, I feel most compelled to spend time celebrating, and I would imagine, introducing you to an artist whose seismic gifts as a singer/songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist are unquestionably powerful. And no matter how many times I write and speak to you about my personal musical "Holy Trinity" of The Beatles, Prince and Todd Rundgren, this particular musical artist rests confidently and firmly within the upper echelon of my most favorite musicians of all time. The artist's name is Tony Carey.

After departing from his role as a keyboardist in the band Rainbow, Tony Carey has spent the past 30 plus years (and still counting) recording, touring and releasing solo music which partially consists of bittersweet ballads and the kind of stunningly well crafted pop songs that are in shockingly short supply these days, the very kind of pop song that you could listen to on repeat, never tire of and always find musical bliss (his track "Love Don't Bother Me" from 1985 is precisely that kind of song for me). His musicianship is formidable as Carey is one of those ever mystifying figures to me: the multi-instrumentalist who creates albums entirely by themselves, where every single sound springs from his musical being.

But the area in which Tony Carey is a veritable master is within the art of the story song. Tony Carey is an exquisite, evocative and exemplary storyteller. His fables, parables and mostly, his character portraits of figures who are either down on their luck, eternal losers, or figures who live their lives on the fringes of society, if not altogether off the grid, are so skilled and presented through an incredible economy of perfectly chosen and stitched together words that his albums tend to feel less like rock and roll and more like pieces of literature. Even with songwriters as extraordinary as Roger Waters and Pete Townshend, who each bear the titanic gifts, I still tend to think of those artists as lyricists whereas Tony Carey stands so tall and unique, to my ears, I really believe that if he wished, he could have an additional artistic outlet as a novelist. For example, astute listeners may remember his hit song "A Fine, Fine Day" from his album "Some Tough City" (released in 1984).

What brings me to this latest Synesthesia posting for you (as well as myself) is an album that was actually not released under his own name. You see, dear listeners, Tony Carey, while releasing albums under his own name, also issued albums under the pseudonym of Planet P. Project, a "band" that was more electronic, keyboard/synthesizer dominated and dark science-fiction styled themes carried the storytelling rather than his decidedly more Earthbound and gritty solo material, and astute listeners may even remember the track "Why Me?" from the self titled debut album released in 1982. Like the very best of science-fiction, Carey's Planet P. Project identity allowed him the greater opportunity to hold up a mirror to society and our overall humanity in ways that were as disturbingly surreal as they were politically and even spiritually provocative.

"Pink World," the second album from Planet P. Project, is a four sided concept album filed with religious allegory and baby boomer nuclear nightmares and it is a work that has sustained me on a near primal level for nearly 30 years. I discovered the album when I was 16 years old in 1985, after reading an interview with Tony Carey in Keyboard magazine. The article's comparisons of "Pink World" to the music of Pink Floyd was selling point enough for me and after some serious hunting and seeking, I found the album in a record store on the very same day that I went out to see Director George Miller's "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" (1985)--and as I think about that time now, I have to wonder what nihilistic fantasies and fears had I been housing (as I was also a drummer in my teenage rock band "Ground Zero," complete with mushroom cloud illustrated band T-shirts)?

"Pink World" tells the story of a seven year old boy named Artemis who makes the grave mistake of playing in the woods and drinking chemically polluted water from a "little nothing river" located behind a "little lonely factory" that makes household goods. Despite the adult warnings ("You drank the water?!/There's nothing we can do! There's no one we can call!"), Artie's impulsive act robs him of the power of speech but he is then given psychic abilities ("I could see into the future/ I could hear what the people think/I saw visions in my head/I saw things I should not see") and he is ultimately remade into an immortal being who never ages ("Well, I guess I'm gonna live forever/Find myself a cave and hide me away").

Meanwhile, the world is on the brink of nuclear holocaust, and with an unprecedented certainty. Artie and his powers are soon discovered and being seen as a messiah, he is then implored to save humanity from annihilation. Artie complies by creating a pink tinged barrier of infinite height and depth that indeed saves humanity from the falling bombs, cruise missiles and acid rain. Yet inside "The Zone," after the nuclear fallout, "Pink World" then spends its second half in a horrific dystopian, Orwellian landscape where life "inside the fishbowl" is one of never ending surveillance, rampant fundamentalism and vicious totalitarianism, a world where "the one we owe it all to's only seven years old."

This is as much of the storyline that I feel compelled to share with you as I wish for you to experience "Pink World" for yourselves, just as I did. Yes, there are shades of Pink Floyd here and certainly The Who's "Tommy" (released May 23, 1969) there but for me, Planet P. Project's bone chilling album sits very comfortably alongside The Kinks' "Preservation Act 1" (released November 16, 1973) and "Preservation Act 2" (released May 8, 1974) and more recently Nine Inch Nails' "Year Zero" (released April 17, 2007), while also standing firmly in its own musical universe as it is unlike so much of anything else that you will hear.

Musically, all of the performances on this album (aside from some key contributions from a small list of studio musicians), are delivered by Planet P. Project's one man band, Tony Carey. The album is awash in atmospheric, synthetic textures that are occasionally blasted apart by rock guitars, rumbling bass and nearly martial drumming at times. Holding everything together is the sound of Tony Carey's rich and raspy voice who so successfully voices the thoughts of little Artemis as well as a host of other characters through his wry, observational, sometimes ironic, sometimes matter-of-fact yet ALWAYS direct lyrics. As poetic and as visual as Carey is (I especially love his metaphor for the oncoming destruction, "it rolls like an avalanche and it will sweep you away.") the those who do not care for concept albums have no reason to fear that "Pink World" would fly off into an esoteric musical headspace akin to the furthest reaches made by Yes or 1970s King Crimson. I think that "Pink World" is more than accessible while also being one brooding, haunting experience because Tony Carey has so heroically written some damn good songs.  

"To Live Forever" effortlessly sets the sinister stage for Artie's destiny and everything else to follow over the course of the album's four sides (or the CD's 79 minute running time). "What I See," is a menacing ride with dangerously chugging guitars, pulsating drums and almost spectral backing harmony vocals as we walk  through Artie's terrifying future visions as he is plagued by nuclear nightmares ("I see a planet that's glowing red/I see the millions burning in their beds/I see the beauty that might have been/ Torn from the future by hungry men"). Slower, moodier tracks like "The Stranger," "The Shepherd," and "A Letter From The Shelter" all work beautifully to establish the album and story's emotional core of humanity's respective states of seeking spiritual deliverance, desperate hopes to find a savior to rescue us all from destruction and also humanity's collective sorrow with the extinguished nature of free will.

"A Boy Who Can't Talk Part 1" is the track that immediately sounds like a cross between Pink Floyd's "Pigs On The Wing" and "Mother," yet this track serves to create the emotional core of Artemis himself as society pleads for him, pulls for him and ultimately deifies him ("And you'd like to say 'Leave me alone! Would you all get away!'"). "This Perfect Place," "What Artie Knows," and "In the Zone" are rock solid as they create a triple hard rock sucker punch detailing the consequences of humanity's greatest wishes for Artie to deliver. And somehow, my favorite track on the album is an instrumental!! "March Of the Artemites" (whose acoustic guitar phrases suggest The Hollies' "Bus Stop" to me) contains layers and layers of sounds envisioning an already unbearable future world going even more horribly wrong.

And through this plot driven album, I have to again say that Tony Carey's stroytelling skills are brilliant as the actual plotting of the album is akin to a thriller (Perhaps "Pink World" did play a part in the creation of Stephen King's novel Under The Dome, as Carey has joked). The first two sides are tension filled and possessed with an unrelenting creeping doom which concludes with the inevitable apocalypse. The album's third and fourth sides are decidedly less plot driven and more ghostly, as Carey's writing feels and remains visual enough yet purposefully vague, so as to having the listener to create their own interpretation for what is exactly happening within the story and most specifically the goings on within  "The Zone" and Artie's ultimate fate.

Now dear readers and listeners, there is another piece to this whole story that I have just been itching to tell you about but I will do my very best to refrain from divulging the complete details as I wish for you to experience thias album for yourselves without much interference from me. On a couple of occassions, I have had the extreme pleasure of being able to correspond a little bit with the man himself, Mr. Tony Carey, though his website and his Facebook page. Needless to say, I was excited beyond any words I could acutally wrtie to you as I was able to ask a longtime musical hero some long burning questions about the "Pink World" narrative, to which he supplied a series of unprecedented detailed answers. ("You've coaxed the first-ever inteview out of me re: 'Pink World'," he joked)

What I do feel comfortable sharing with you is one thing he mentioned that just may assist you with getting into the album for the first time or even enhancing it more than ever for fans like myself. When you do listen to the album, Tony Carey suggested that we all keep the following concept in mind:

"Think of the WORST possible thing you could be, which is somebody else's savior."

Taking that cue, the journey of Artemis and human kind throughout "Pink World" is explored not simply as a parable or even as a cautionary tale but as a socio-political mirror that to me, feels especially prevelant in 2013 as we are just overrun with politicians decimating humanity in the name of God or better yet, how they have chosen to interpret the word of God. "Pink World" asks us to think about what happens when one deifies another or utilizes a deity for the purpose of power, control and the subjugation of others? The album asks us to think about what happens when that deity is militarized and worship becomes fascism?

I think that the album is also an exploration of  free will vs. destiny as "Pink World" just may be warning us to be careful for what we wish for...even if humanity is facing down oblivion. What if the album is suggesting that perhaps humanity is just destined to meet its end and by having Artie interfere with this potential cataclysmic outcome, humanity, in turn, is faced with a world where free will itself is non-existent? Maybe it just would have been better to be wiped out of the universe.

Now I realize that all of this sounds like a heavy load to listen to. But I wish to assure you that "Pink World," while disturbing, is not an overwhelmingly depressing experience or a tumultuous slog to wade through. On the contrrary, the album flows wondrously due to the songs, the storytelling and Tony Carey's amazing voice which serves as the perfect guide to this grim future vision.

I think by now you have gathered how important this album is to me. No matter how much my music collection continues to grow, widen, deepen and diversify, Planet P. Project's "Pink World" is one of those rare albums that I return to consistently. At least twice a year, I find myself heading into my music library to dig out the album and eagerly take its chilling journey, emerging transformed all over again once reaching the other side. It is an album that I absolutely URGE you to find for yourselves if you have not already heard it. Yes, it is difficult to locate but if you search on Amazon or better yet, head on over to Tony Carey's website (www.tonycarey.com) and you can purchase a copy for yourselves. If you are still unsure, just head over to You Tube where some anonymous individual has uploaded the full album so you may listen to it in its entirety--and with that, I just may post a link to it myself next month!

Regardless of how you do it, I sincerely hope that you do give this stellar album a chance. If you give yourself over to it, I believe that like the titular pink world itself, this album will roll like an avalanche and sweep all of you away.