So here we are…It wasn't even two years ago that we were waving Hello! to our lovely cousins across the gate, and not even one year since we were young, alive, and in love. Oyamada and Ozawa are a mere 22 and 23 respectively, a fact that stings all the more for the (spry!) 26 year old who sits here writing. But then again, time marches eternal.

Or does it?

We arrive at Flipper's end: the Double Knockout Corporation's parting gift. And let me tell you: what a gift it was. But I don't need to tell you that—anyone tuned into Japanese music can tell you how important this band (and this album) is for the shape of music to come. And besides, you already knew that too…right?

If you want to know about the music itself…then go listen to it. The record is right there waiting for you, and words won't capture in vexing prose what ears provide through lived experience. Instead, we're going to focus on the elements which live outside of the record. Or perhaps it's better to say they live deep within the vinyl, or beyond the sound…but we'll get to that when the time comes.

What's most interesting about DOCTOR HEAD'S WORLD TOWER is how it engages in deception. Some of that deception comes in the most literal sense—the album is a clear “ode” (knockoff, shibuya haters would rather say) to its influences: everything from the ill-fated Monkees' film Head, to the baggy beats of the Roses' Fool's Gold, to My Bloody Valentine's shoebound Tremelo and Glider EPs, to the driving basslines of Ride's Seagull (itself a motif ripped from 60s iconoclasts like the Beatles' Taxman), or even to the then-still piping-hot Come Together and Loaded singles from Primal Scream. Just as before, Flipper is nothing if not its pastiche of what surrounds.

Yet, one can't help but feel the magic is “off” this time around. The cloyingly sweet neo-acoustic naivety of Three Cheers is long in the rear-view mirror, as is the impressive expansion of Camera Talk—which pulled 'movie reality' into the sonic picture. Perhaps it's because Flipper was no longer alone in their journey through the past—it was now firmly the 1990s, and that meant the 1960s were in. Shoegaze, Baggy, Madchester, and Neo-Psych were all growing popular—each building steam with a grain of 60s acid. Britpop, indie rock, and trip-hop would soon come crashing in as well—excavating the ancient ruins of The Kinks and the Velvet Undergound for whatever bones remained. And in Japan, Shibuya-Kei was minutes away from becoming the mainstream sound…due almost entirely to Flipper's Guitar (the equally important Pizzicato Five were still in their “flop era”).

The harsh reality of popularity must have been crushing to the duo. What started out as pure and loving exploration of childhood memory was quickly morphing into the same tool used for all capitalist exploitation—the smooth and cool sounds which power every hollow TV commercial and shameless drama opening. The fact that these two were suddenly becoming national figures of interest certainly didn't help either. An undeniable pressure was mounting to deliver the New Sound…and it's not hard to see how the band could have easily deceived themselves in their desperate grasp for it. The dynamic duo are literally listening to new singles seconds after they release and thinking “how can we riff on this” right after their first listen. Remember: this record predates both Loveless and Screamadelica by a matter of weeks. You get the sense that music was no longer an expression of passion and joy for Flipper's Guitar, it was now instead an endless maze—eyes peering from within every wall, a pit to hell lurking behind every corner.

So what is one to do in these circumstances? Fall back on the old tricks that made you? Rush cluelessly into the currently hip? Bet your future on the emerging sounds? You and I would almost certainly crumble in these circumstances, and I suppose that's what happened to the band itself, but not before producing a magnum opus which itself is born of that bitter reality—two young artists on the edge, before either was even 24 years old.

So again: deception.

The album begins with the promise of a journey—a fact made clear to even non-Japanese listeners via the vivid sonic portrait painted by DOLPHIN SONG Those same “non-Japanese” might feel a hint of embarrassment in their lack of lyrical understanding, but fret not: I come as the bearer of good news—the Japanese are almost as helpless as you are. Let's examine the opening lines of the record:

Translation is an unenviable task…Poetic translation more-so—especially for a language as far removed from the Anglo-sphere as Japanese. These lines are not Ozawa and Oyamada's—they are my own, and are undeniably rife with misunderstanding and nuances both failed and invented. But to quote Borges: “the original is unfaithful to the translation,” so we move on.

You're probably tilting your head at the lines already. I swear I'm not that bad of a translator though. I also thought the same thing when reading the original Japanese, especially for the 4th and 5th lines:

The constituent parts were easy enough to comprehend—真珠PEARLS,, 眠りSLEEP,, and the act of 向う見ずNOT LOOKING AHEAD (toward the implied future). The following line also made sense on a first gloss:
進むエピローグへGOING TOWARDS THE EPILOGUE in a 逆さにREVERSED OR INVERTEDfashion. The pieces all made sense…but the whole? I couldn't make HEAD or TAIL of it.

This was for a few reasons. For one: the phrase was entirely lacking in a (conventional) verb. The first line describes the direct object (the THING being acted on) and the second describes the lative place (metaphorical or literal) where things are going, with an emphasis placed on the journey and not the DESTINATION. But that doesn't quite answer the question of “who” (we presume the subject to be protagonist's “I”, as Japanese often demands of us) or “how” (the verbal action, yet unknown) of the sentence.

Of course there are still ways to make sense of things. Poetic Japanese often places (or removes) grammar with reckless abandon, meaning the phrase that would usually modify エピローグEPILOGUE (逆さに進むADVANCING IN REVERSE) can instead be read as エピローグへADVANCING IN REVERSE逆さに進むTOWARDS THE EPILOGUE—we can simply choose to read in the implied grammatical forms ourselves to make this possible…even if the text doesn't necessarily allow for that using 'conventional' logic.

For those of you not aware:倭語國 語支 離 滅 裂 語JAPANESEis the mostmagicalHORRIFYINGlanguage known to man. There's a reason the nation's founding document 古事記KOJIKI stood as unintelligible for nearly a millennium, and why scholars still argue to this day over the basic facts of who's speaking and what's happening in certain sections of 源氏物語GENJI MONOGATARI— a text also studied now for over a thousand years.

Still, that doesn't answer questions about the first line. There's a disagreement in structure: 眠りSLEEP and 真珠PEARLS are conventional nouns, but 向う見ずWITHOUT LOOKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE is more of a verbal phrase…it doesn't fit together. Again, we can use poetic reasoning and imply the noun'ing of this verb—向う見ず（こと）( THE ACT ) OF NOT LOOKING AHEAD— but that's still a willful read on our part. And besides, even if we do that…what the 地獄HELL does any of it mean exactly? 真珠？？PEARLS?? 眠り？？SLEEP?? 向う見ず？？WITHOUT LOOKING ONWARDS??Towards what? Does he mean その未来へ？？TOWARD THE FUTURE? Or does he mean something else entirely? 向うAHEAD?? is actually even vaguer than I let on—it can describe any outward direction 彼処OVER YONDER so where are we even facing??

Picture me: sitting here, at my office in the middle of nowhere, 九州KYUSHU、我が国JAPAN、 火曜日.TUESDAY MORNING The 梅雨RAINY SEASON batters away 初夏暑ONCOMING SUMMER HEAT but the humidity has already come to play. あの馬鹿野郎THAT ONE ANNOYING GUY at the office (you know the one) keeps tinkering with the AC controls while he thinks no one is looking (見るよI AM). Being a Japanese office, it naturally lacks centralized HVAC, meaning that AC wasn't doing much good at full blast anyways. I am once again operating on sub-6 hours of sleep (remember: 日本事務所JAPANESE OFFICE), meaning the green tea in my hands is the only thing still burning the fire we call soul. I sip from my mug, slowly awakening mental faculties, while reading through the lyrics of DOLPHIN SONG for the first time, trying my hardest to ignore the ambient pain of the 湿潤地獄HUMID HELL I find myself in.

I am confused for the reasons outlined above. I chalk this up to a mix of my inexperience and the fog still raining over my head. I decide to message my good friend, far more knowledgable in Japanese than I. He too is confused, which is odd—he's never confused. I take to the internet and discover what I should have already known: these lines confound even native speakers, who have now spent decades debating on their supposed meaning. Reading through blogs, I find a headline titled something like:

As my mind swirls through the whirlpool of potential meanings, I look again at the lyrics and remember what comes next:

At first I figured they were speaking to an imagined character of the story (almost always a girl of interest)…but then I realize what it truly means:

In that moment, I awaken.

Perhaps I mean that literally (the tea was finally kicking in), but also figuratively—I realize that there was much more to DOCTOR HEAD'S WORLD TOWER than had previously met my unaware eyes. Suddenly everything had taken on new meanings and demanded further investigation.

It looked like I was going on this journey with them: in reverse, towards the epilogue.

God only knows what it would take…

Of course I'm not going to sit here and scrutinize every line of an hour long album for you. Calvino once wrote that analysis is a VIOLENCE冒涜 against the text, and Japanese is the last language I want put under such a vicious lens. And besides, not all songs deserve full attention anyways. GROOVE TUBE was definitely written by Corenlius (and is definitely about his PENIS特別なバナナ). While AQUAMARINE and THE QUIZMASTER are more enjoyable than profound (again, willing to bet on Cornelius doing the bulk of songwriting duties there). But allow for me to share some slices of (presumably) Ozawa's reality with you.

In GOING ZERO, we go “far away”, as the final lines of DOLPHIN SONG promise:

Ozawa declares his future plans:

He's restless, aimless, and desperately trying to escape his idols…the same ones that defined Flipper's Guitar. Maybe he's even trying to escape Flipper's Guitar itself. He needs to pull this intractable feeling out of him. And so, we begin:

It does…right? Ozawa's 'song about the song itself' reaches for an expression of the infinite, as well as his dissatisfaction with the state of things. Whether that means a dissatisfaction with his career, his life, or even reality itself…well, that's up for you to decide. All I know is what he's decided on:

(SPEND BUBBLE HOUR IN YOUR) SLEEP MACHINE is delightfully mysterious. Our character attempts to escape whatever it is that's hanging over him:

Any takers? Remember, participation is required for a grade.
…No? Fine. Then I'll continue:

Again we are listless: stargazing instead of shoegazing, detached from all the things that are supposed to be keeping us “here.” We await the promised place and aim for the BUBBLE HOUR.約束された場所で

The mysteries of this world become clearer in the final verse:

The phrasing here is difficult to convey in English. The lines that fit naturally in Japanese:

Are not so conforming in English. 君の中YOUR INSIDES is literally something like 君の体内WHAT'S INSIDE OF YOU. When I write that in English, it feels like I'm being literal with it…like I'm describing the real GORE血 and VISCERA内蔵 (often SEXUAL性的) that comprises the interior of your physical form. But in Japanese, this immediately carries the image of something else—an impossible 夢世界DREAM WORLD that envelops 君の中の私ME WITHIN YOU the psycho-spiritual 本質ESSENCE that is 彼方YOU and is now, by extension, 此方ME too. He is not the DREAMER夢想家, but instead the 見られる人DREAMED. Someone has become his captor—us?—forcing his endless pleas for escape from this nonsensical 地獄HELL with every TURN回転 of the record.

WINNIE THE POOH MUGCUP COLLECTION no doubt seeks to deceive from moment zero. The title is inherently funny, and the music is just as joyfully infectious. Anyone reading through the lyrics would at least balk at the jarring interspersion of English non-sequiturs throughout the page. But again, we have no choice but to cut between the noise for the greater essence of truth. He writes in the opening lines:

Already the materialist quality of the title is inverted, although I'm sure you might have guessed that anyways. English fails to capture just how demeaning Ozawa is towards life itself, though:

人生HUMAN LIFE may be the essence of existence, but he follows that up with ってYA KNOW, a casual citational form that inherently belittles what comes before. He continues with the crass 奴BASTARD which also common slang for GUY野郎, and is often used thoughtlessly to describe THAT THING.あの奴 There is zero reverence here for the entire human experience: it is nothing but a CHEAP下品な mug for the (depressingly) extensive collection of commercial TRASH苦 you keep on the shelf…one that pleases no one but your own inflated EGO.विज्ञान And if life itself is so self-centered and commercially hollow, one must wonder if we are even aware of those who live beyond our kitchen shelf.

Alright, that's the DISNEY CORPORATION鼠国 down…what else does he take aim at?

ACID: THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE…全く無駄骨The ultimate trip that changes lives and confounds to the deepest portions of the soul…best experienced with the correct music in tow. It seems like Ozawa is distrusting of that notion (the core thesis of the [neo-]psych movement), which is made all the more ironic considering the nature of this album, at least on the face of it. These experiences are simply ANOTHER偽の one. Perhaps 人生LIFE itself is just ANOTHER PSYCHEDELIC PAINT意味不明, our shade of kaleidoscopic hue which paints upon the world's canvas. The act of turning on the RECORD PLAYERぐるぐる回る isn't a cause for a party either, it's framed as yet ANOTHERまたか… prison experience—being locked in while journeying through a 地獄巡りTOUR OF HELL I should note here the Japanese is again clever:

A 巡りGO AROUND shares the same root concept of revolution or rotation…the spinning of the record player. It's equally notable that TURN TURN TURN回って廻って周って can be read as a reference to the Vaselines tune Son of a Gun, which bares a striking resemblance to the track (the guitar solo is borderline suable) and features repeat uses of TURN TURN TURN.夢想花っけ The Vaselines were yet another influence on the genesis of Flipper's Guitar…but let's RE-TURN殺すよ to that after some final words:

Some party this is! I hope you brought the lobotomy tools with you! Ozawa wants out of this hell…but it won't get out of him. Instead we're forced to have some FUN FUN FUN〜うゎ、楽しいよぉ〜 while he begs for his end. It's no coincidence that he continues to plead while the songs keep spinning away, talking over him. They overwrite him—his thoughts, his feelings, his identity, his agency and control. Again, you should guess these lines all reference songs that Flipper would have been covering with a smile on their face just 18 months earlier. Oh how things change…

I should also note that the WORLDLY DESIRES出鱈目 line is an act of deception on my part. The original Japanese 煩悩POISON is a proper buddhist term that's often left untranslated as kleshas in English. Common translations include AFFLICTIONS,愛情 DESTRUCTIVE EMOTIONS,なんか感じないよ MIND POISONS,笑門来福 ETC.疑問符哉 The three main afflictions in the classical tradition are IGNORANCE,繰り返される ATTACHMENT,諸行は無常 and AVERSIONそれでもやっぱり from which all other poisons stem. Later Mahayana texts also tacked PRIDEよみがえる and ENVY性的衝動 on the list to round out the FIVE POISONSザゼン・ボーイズ

I wonder how a little DANCE DANCE DANCE神の子どもたちはみな去れぇ！ fits into that mix…although we know for a fact that Ozawa's not all too happy with it. He's already in hell—the one found in the unending turn of the record player. But why is it hell exactly? What did those songs…or music in general do to him?

All in due time…but allow us a short reprieve before the grand finale.

After the cool groove of THE QUIZMASTER, we're treated to the beautiful joy of BLUE SHININ' QUICK STAR. In many ways, this feels like the 'true' end of the Flipper's Guitar project, carrying the same optimism and beauty that punctuated their previous work. The groove might be new, but the guitar work also screams that late 80s vibe you'd just as find on their first two records. We are again gazing up at the stars:

A tale of cats and dogs? Perhaps Oshiiマ王 would like a word… Again we're presented with an image of IMPERMANENCE此処 and ETERNITY此時—recast to ponder the question of a HELL黄泉関係っけ which may lurk beneath.

Forgive the awkward translation of the first line…it's truly wonderful in Japanese, but 流線型AERODYNAMIC SHAPE is just not something that rolls well off the Germanic tongue (think JAPANESE BULLET TRAINS,何と比べても早く、弾よりもはやく PLANES,あ、スーパーマンだ！ HOT SPORTS CARSスパイでぶっ飛ばせ！)…but nothing really captures the feeling in the same effective clip—at least not to my knowledge. The chorus variates in later sections:

Which leads us to the bridge:

And a return home:

In this world, the THING此物 is not the thing 彼物ITSELF. It is INCOMPLETE,未完 HOLLOW,未満 INVERTED,未順 or IMPERFECT未然 in some way. Countering this feeling is the dream儚夢 of a beauty which lies elsewhere—over the rainbow and beyond the stars星の彼方へ In that beauty lies not the paradise of ABRAHAMIC PROVIDENCE神様処, but instead the joy of nonexistence神様処, where even the SHAPE糞 of your being vanishes into the DARKNESS神様便所 and into the light天国下水, which were always one and the same.

Perhaps it is there that Flipper's Guitar now lies. But remember, we still have a closer to provide the LOVE IS DESTRUCTIVE / ONE MORE FINAL: I NEED YOU.Air.・まごころを、君に to this song's comforting 終わる世界・世界の中心でアイを叫んだけものDO YOU LOVE ME? / TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF.

And at last we've arrive at the end. Let's try to take this one step at a time…We begin with yet another groovy beat, supported by some distinctly heavy guitar riffs. The story enters:

We are again back in eternity…again aboard a ship…again on a voyage. It seems the SS DOLPHIN SONGまた軍艦理論か circumnavigated in ways Magellan could only dream of—running the seas in reverse and landing at the end of the journey before getting the chance to experience all the tracks in-between. I guess he wasn't lying about that epilogue…

For those who don't know, the Butterfly's Dream refers to a classic Taoist tale found in 莊子ZHUANGZI Of course I'm sure every true Shibuya-kei fan is always holding some Taoist or Buddhist literature while This Year's Girl plays, so I speak now to only the imagined uninformed reader: HEY, MORON!いい加減な！ Zhuang Zhou dreams the same dream we all do: being a butterfly with not a care in the world. When he awakes, he is unsure if he dreamed the butterfly, or if the butterfly dreamed him. There is an uncertain nature to reality itself—everything you think and feel is just that: thought and feeling. In that context, it's reasonable to find anything as 'fake,' insofar as we may be the only one experiencing it (consider a paranoid delusion or visual hallucination). And if you think that, why not think that everything is a lie—a localized deception of “reality” we've tricked ourselves into believing? Ozawa continues:

You might have found the previous thought absurd, but is it really all that insane? The nature of Buddhist (and by similar extensions Taoist, etc.) schools of thought can seem an immediate mystifying turn-off to the western predisposition…but why should it be? The tangle of circumstances we call “reality” is fraught no matter how you slice the pie, don't you think? We can sit in the RYM comment box and philosophize about whether or not JPEGMAFIA is GOATED最高だ！ or WASHED最低だ！ all day, but that doesn't mean you're not feeling the “real” experience of it. And yet, that doesn't quite mean the act of reading this review is “real” either. All we know now is the contradictions at hand: we move towards eternity but must not wish for it…we must remain in motion and not sink further down into hell (an 蟻地獄ANTLION PIT resembles some depictions of Buddhist hells). Speaking of the metaphorical hell:

It appears we've arrived at the literal one too! At least, at a hell resembling the Christian vision. Our peaceful journey, seen off by the dolphins, has become an eternity of torment and damnation. What is one to do but laugh?

But as quick as we've established our surroundings, the music suddenly fades out while we're whisked away…the tape continues to roll at an unstable pace, treating us to the strangest moment of the entire record:

English again punctuates this surreal situation. Those who who have been following along with the meta dialogue of the album (remember there is a film by The Monkees called Head) will perhaps see the similarities to an equally bizarre moment in the film, which features a gag-track prepared by the band (cut for length):

At this point the film hard cuts to real footage from the execution of Nguyễn Văn Lém. No, I'm not joking.

Anyways, let's consider the juxtaposition here. The Monkees (now fully self aware of their status as corporate tools) sing their hollow art in jest. The Flippers, meanwhile swear on their sense of truth…one that stems beyond the reach of conventional reality—remaining awake even when asleep. Perhaps shifting from the BUTTERFLY夢想家 to 見られる人,ZHUANG ZHOU the LYRICAL夢想 Ozawa to the 現実PHYSICAL one, or perhaps from FLIPPER'S GUITAR彼方 to 此方YOU. Either way, it's time to head towards the story BACK.方向音痴だろう So lets figure out the secret of THE WORLD TOWER浮世塔 and make some TRACK!無我

We cut to a peaceful ambience, reflecting the mood of AQUAMARINE, while lyrics gently caress us. The unaware listener might hear an end to the nightmare. The meaning, however, runs the opposite way:

Well, at least there is peace in finality…

I'm just fucking with you…we're back in HELL.天国歓迎!

As the heavy guitar and unyielding groove return us to THE WORLD TOWER永遠に, we're yet again given a tour of 地獄HELL. What started off as juvenile play has become a harsh, unending reality…a crazy truth that “to finish from start” makes zero sense. I highlight this line because it's so genius in Japanese:

This line is, at first glance, a little gibberish. 徹尾徹頭???????? isn't actually productive in the language. Or, I should rather say that the combination of all four Kanji is not a word you'd find in the dictionary, and sounds semi-incoherent when heard aloud. If you analyze the component parts, however, the message becomes clear: 徹PIERCING repeated between the other two characters 尾TAIL and 頭HEAD. From the absolute TAIL尾 to the absolute HEAD頭

It then dawned upon me that reversing the kanji so that 頭HEAD is placed first reveals a productive word in Japanese:

Remember what we were told at the start of this journey? We really did need to go “in reverse” to make sense of this epilogue. Or, perhaps to find logic in the absence of sense. Trapped in this 現実HELL losing any grip on the REAL,幻実 what is one left to do?

You heard the man: when that happens, LAUGH.笑え

There's a famous 禅語ZEN STORY (read: 漢文CHAN STORY) that's been passed down over the centuries, now often malformed into social media SLOP精進料理. A young Buddhist monk (with little sense of humor) had earnestly memorized the poem of his former master, which was apparently written moments after the master took a nasty slip off a bridge. The poem (and the fall inspiring it) supposedly triggered his enlightenment, marking its significance to the student. He recites the poem to his new master, who immediately runs away laughing. Restless, the student returns the next morning to inquire on the incident. The master questions why the student is afraid of laughter when others love to see people laugh—a response so good it supposedly earned the student instant enlightenment (NICE!大成功)

The poem he recited?

The Golden Age of Zen
John C. H. Wu
248

Ah…There's that damn 真珠PEARL again. Anyone else getting 眠い？SLEEPY?

If you're still wondering why I'm turning this into the 坐禅ZEN educational hour, lets finish out the final lines of THE WORLD TOWERそれも坐禅よ:

DOCTOR HEAD'S WORLD TOWERあ、平常に戻った is a lot of things. To most listeners, the important thing is that its downright GROOVYファンキー！ and bangs HARD.ヤっべぇ！ The single release for GROOVE TUBEバナナ言わないでよ！ implores that you DANCE YOUR ASS OFF邦訳できないよ、そんな, and most people will have no issue doing that, believe me. To Japan, it's important because it solidifies the stranglehold that shibuya-kei would have over culture for the next several decades—a fact which becomes important to westerners via imports like the “DS/Wii culture” which dominated many of our childhoods. More directly, the record is interesting to westerners because they get to see the “origin story” of Cornelius—who I've purposely been leaving out of this review in fear that he might push me into a locker and force me to eat my own shit and jerk off while he points and laughs.

But to me, (and I hope now to you too) this record is something that goes beyond the simple depths of sonic fun or basic “concept album.” DOCTOR HEAD'S WORLD TOWER永遠の永遠によ is a dizzying work that looks infinitely inward, pulling all of reality through the supermassive blackhole it forms. That reality is ripped apart in the process, moving us all closer towards the endless truth of (non-)existence.

It's a record about what Flipper's Guitar stands for at their wits end—the bandwagoning, copy-cating corporate sellouts that were The Monkees…particularly at their own demise when producing Head. It's a record about the fictional Ozawa who lives within the songs he creates—the one who writes GOING ZEROすぐ終わるよ as they play GOING ZERO.もうすぐってば It's a song about the Ozawa trapped in 音楽HELL forever forced to laugh at the infinite absurdities of REALITY ITSELF, 幻想世界imprisoned in 至福DAMNATION as long as the Ozawa of WINNIE THE POOH MUGCUP COLLECTION訴えないでくれ、鼠國 continues turning the RECORD地獄 which captures him. It's an album about the cruel GODS創造者 who made these CHARACTERS悲惨人間—the REAL偽り Ozawa and Oyamada—giving themselves their own TORTURED FORM存在、またはそのさま each time they STRIKE UP THE TUNE.回って廻って周って

But, most importantly, DOCTOR HEAD'S WORLD TOWER滑稽振仮名募集中 is record about you—the God who recreates this entire (non)reality every time you put needle to vinyl and spin the record—kicking off a tour of HELLブログ that'll TURN TURN TURN助けてぇくれぇ! for all of time. Perhaps you will hit ストップPAUSE, but the persistence of art as 幻想CAPTURED MEMORY—a FROZEN, ETERNAL PRESENT本当の世界 that's 君の中なすがままFOREVER DISTANT from our own REALITY地獄—will never cease. There is no getting off this boat, no matter how long you laugh.

In the record's final moments, we can hear the tape reverse yet again—songs from the past bleed backwards into the final chorus of damnation, now confused by samples of Hallelujah! which chant endlessly. Soon the noises blend into one incoherent mass, leaving us with the implication of a new DOLPHIN SONG神のみぞ知るっけ which springs eternal. We have no choice but to journey yet again in reverse—seeking 悟りTRUTH through the LIE此世 we call reality—moving forever towards an ouroboric epilogue once more. Perhaps this time we may understand.

We restart the record (can't let Cornelius out of jail just yet!) and return to some lines from DOLPHIN SONG:折れた矢っけ

The tape forever rolls—from the waking Flipper's Guitar's RECORDING BOOTH,浮世 directly into your dreams現実. But the REAL依然 Flipper's Guitar 訃報SPLIT weeks after this record released. So, who then is left to carry out this transference反響 of REALITY静寂? Is it the Ozawa and Oyamada which live仮生命 inside the SONGS真実 themselves? Or is it the DUTY無意味 of the songs—written and referenced—which exist無我 within the songs themselves? Is it the job of the REALなんてねぇよ Monkees who cast their shadow本質 over the entire album? Or is the job of the fictionalムービーヒーロー Monkees that are SAMPLED輪廻 throughout it? Wait is that why Corenlius said “I'M A MONKEY??”ビートルズじゃないか？ Is that actually meant to be read “I'M A MONKEE????”ストーンズはどう？ Or did I have it backwards this whole time? Do we君か dream of FLIPPER'S GUITAR??私か？？ Or do they誰って dream of US???誰って? Wait does that mean we're supposed to actually listen to the record backwards?回って Or maybe we're SUPPOSED TO廻って read more into...