Guest Post: Eliot Krimsky presents Songs Of Alienation Mix

Eliot Krimsky is an American musician, producer and film composer. Frontman of Glass Ghost, he also often collaborates and performs with Luke Temple and the latter's band Here We Go Magic. In this mix for Dig That Treasure, he lays out tracks of emotion, humanity and alienation. I'll let him do the explaining...

When I first heard “My Time” from Roberto Cacciapaglia’s Ann Steel album (sung by Italian model Anne Steele) it felt like I discovered a long-lost relative.
It’s a happy mechanical Italian disco song with a dark undertone. The tone of the piece reminds me of this quote from great the media theorist Jean Baudrillard:

“We live in a world where there is more and more information and less and less meaning”

Upon first notes, we hear a claustrophobic synth and an automaton women singing:

"My thoughts are in perfect array / my life runs smooth like a highway / billboards show me the way"

and

"My time, my time I love my time / my time has something more /  my time is the best it's ever been /  I love my time thank you my time"

Is the main character from the song celebrating consumer culture and technology?
Or is this a cultural critique of alienation?
To me the tone of “My Time” feels as relevant as ever in 2014 - it’s funky and Orwellian and it evokes internet-era detachment.
The main character of the song sounds like an announcer on a Walmart loudspeaker telling you a revealing secret: The static that lies just below the field of ‘normalcy’ is violent loud, ugly and insane - but everything just keeps going as planned.
For this mix I tried to find songs that have meant a lot to me and have given me chills - ones that address technological or social alienation and bring us great deal of humanity.
This may be a first of many of these kinds of mixes for me. In this first instalment I chose the more iconic songs of alienation - but there are many more of its kind and yet many more still to be written.

Eliot Krimsky presents...
Songs of Alienation Mix:

Woody Guthrie - 1913 Masacre
Malvina Reynolds - Little Boxes
KRS-1 - Sound Of Da Police
Public Enemy - Don’t Believe The Hype
Nina Simone - How It Feels To Be Free (Live at Montreux)
Kate Bush - Deeper Understanding (Directors Cut)
Roberto Cacciapaglia - My Time
Peter Gabriel - Wallflower
Antony - Cut The World