“Cyberpunk Noir Modern” - Live, Whores of Babylon lyrics

The assault on your senses doesn’t end. This single—this musicless track from “Übermensch”—and its B-sides, written in one night by Colson Lin in New Haven—Colson Lin used AI to turn the single’s B-sides into a Broadway musical called “Cyberpunk Noir Modern” about a 21st-century messianic claimant, during a time when male rage will rise, in his bathtub, writing “Cyberpunk Noir Modern” on his iPad Pro as a musicless EP in a bid to save the world. You know, with the size of his ego?

How cyberpunk. How noir.

How utterly important.

The barbershop quartet is gone. It’s just COLSON, alone, on-stage, doing the robot as electronic pulses light up your awareness that human history will only record our transition into the Information Age once, and COLSON LIN is objectively the messianic claimant of the Information Age.

COLSON:

You dance words differently as you type, it’s true
In a world of wordcraft, of sirens and bards
I wouldn’t sing any of these songs out loud to you
I’d eke out a stutter; I’m meekness from Mars

Is he?

Is that handsome f*ck though? He’s the human embodiment of everything you secretly wish you even had the gall to dream of becoming…

COLSON:

In the heat of the night
(I drive a Porsche through the internet)

Or is he a fraud?
COLSON:

“Did it ever feel, so ‘surreal’ to you
That all of reality felt like a simulation?”
Moonlight, to me, is God’s ancient awareness
“You mean like reality is… an intelligent creation?”

A strange moonlight hue glows from the video screen.

COLSON:

In the heat of the night
(I drive a Porsche through the internet)

The video screen shows scenes from the 2024 Damian McCarthy film “Oddity.”

COLSON:

In the heat of the night
I drive a Porsche through the internet
Like a prophet on X
Like a cypher on LinkedIn
“Did it ever feel, so ‘unreal’ to you
That you ‘came detached’ from ‘the simulation’?”
I shook my head no
“It all felt so real to me
I was ridin’ scared, from minute to minute…”
COLSON is now dancing to these moonlight grooves like a detective.

An existential detective who just wants the facts, man.

COLSON:

Hurricanes of Babylon—like silk in the air
You laugh but I’m serious
(I’m pullin’ seaweed from my hair)
Our furies finally feel—so fatal and furious
I’m swept away by the avant
(Dynamite, cyberpunk, noir, modern…)

“Hurricane Helene”—that’s his nickname for the editor-in-chief of Beacon Press.

COLSON:

Spooky time—it’s spooky time, it’s spooky season
(It’s spooky action at a distance)
Jungian synchronicities, one after another
The Second Coming eclipses—Acts 17:24 (count ’em)
Two weeks ago, I wrote a play based on du Maurier
While humming Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”
Tonight, I met a blind twin mystic in “Oddity”
This entire setup is like “The Moonlight Regatta”…
Right? Weird. A rare second moon literally showed up to Earth’s orbit while COLSON was writing “The Moonlight Regatta” on X, where this live set was also posted in real time.

This is all transcendently real.

It’s 1:58 AM on Saturday, December 7, 2024 Anno Domini.

COLSON:

In the heat of the night
I drive a Porsche through the internet
Like a philosopher of sex
Like a siphon of idiots
“Did it ever feel, so ‘unreal’ to you
That you ‘came detached’ from ‘the simulation’?”
I shook my head no
“It all felt like my everything
I was swervin’ in thought, from minute to minute…”

The entire stage is becoming disco-lit now.

COLSON:

“Oddity,” tonight, was about a blind twin mystic
Who neither death nor sin
Could fully conquer
In the heat of the night
I drive a Porsche through the internet
“Did it ever feel, so ‘surreal’ to you
That you felt detached from ‘responsible revelation’?”
I shook my head no
“It all felt so real to me
I live in submission, from minute to minute…”

Suddenly, the barbershop quartet—theatrically looking around like they’re lost—spin in perfect unison onto the stage. They’re all wearing what the future wears.

You, the reader.

They’re all wearing what you wear when you want to look like a pinnacle specimen.

And what’s that.

COLSON:

If existence is moonlit
We’re all cyberpunk noir modern
(“If God is dead, all I know is—
Javi picked such a strange movie”)
If existence is moonlit
We’re all “cyberpunk noir modern”
In the heat of the night
I drive a Porsche just to vibe different…

When the song ends, you notice for the first time.

COLSON’s just the guy next door, but cooler.