Thomas Bey William Bailey – La Production Interdite
6.26.18 by Ryan Masteller

Doppelgängers: we all have them. Whether they’re psychic phenomena, replicated clones, products of out-of-body experiences, demon-possessed tulpas, or simply alternate-universe versions of ourselves that have stumbled into our world somehow, there’s sure to exist another version of us that, chances are, we’ll stumble upon sometime during our lives. We just have to be ready for it, that’s all.

Thomas Bey William Bailey has confronted the idea of the doppelgänger head on with “La Production Interdite” (forbidden production), and he has presented both the original version (“Instrumental Mix”) and its – wait for it – doppelgänger, “Vocal Mix.” This experiment is exactly what it sounds like. Each thirty-minute piece unfolds with synthesizers rending the boundaries between universes, allowing for extraphysical events such as life-form passage between universes. Now, if I know anything about multiverse theory and the Higgs boson (and I don’t), that’s probably not possible. But what if!

I’d probably be able to give you more information about the theory behind “La Production Interdite,” and indeed Bailey has provided a seven-page pdf with the download (there’s only a fraction of that text on the j-card), but who’s gonna read red text on a black background on a computer screen? My eyes were bugging out of my skull at the conclusion of the first paragraph. Regardless, after side A’s mystic journey through quantum entanglement, side B’s not-quite-mirror version includes Bailey reciting passages of “autoscopic phenomena” (doppelgänger stuff), pretty much solidifying “La Production Interdite” as the “Twilight Zone” or “X-Files” or “Fringe” or “Twin Peaks” equivalent of cosmic synth drones. And that’s the perfect thing for you and your double to zone out to, possibly on the couch while zonked out on whatever sedative the government agents dosed you both with.

Available in an edition of fifty from Elevator Bath – that’s enough for one tape each per twenty-five doppelgänger pairs!