Some of the language used in this program is graphic and may be considered to be Not Safe for Work. See track individual track titles and listed track details for more information. Please use listener discretion.

This is essentially a collage/media mix format psychedelic musical mix/journey into the world of pigs and songs and material all about pigs both as metaphor and actuality.

I really really wanted to complete and publish this project, which I have been working on for a very long time, by the date of the mid-term elections in the U.S. for 2022 and it looks like I have done so.

This mix is, in part, the distillation of many different shows that NCN has done in years past including 'The Coronavirus Show' (March 15, 2020), 'If Pigs Could Fly' (about swine flu/H1N1) and 'Counting Sheep (and Pigs) from August of 2014 plus a bunch of stuff created specifically for this program.

This mix is also available, all as one file, at NCN's SoundCloud page where it is, free of charge, streamable in HD sound and downloadable in lossless .flac format:

soundcloud.com/nationalcynical/ncn-the-psychedelic-pigs-show

It is also available, all as one file, at NCN's archive.org page where it is, free of charge, streamable, torrentable and downloadable in a variety of formats including lossless:

archive.org/details/ncn-the-psychedelic-pigs-show

Total running time: 4 hours, 30 minutes and 4 seconds.

POSSIBLE MIX SPOILERS AHEAD:

The exploratory background triad backbone of the whole thing is essentially work by the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails/Trent Reznor (specifically the songs 'March of the Pigs' and 'Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)', as well as the progressive/psychedelic 70s band Pink Floyd (specifically their songs, 'Pigs on the Wing' Parts 1 & 2 and of course, the classic and the iconic 'Pigs' from their 1977 album 'Animals', a song which is given a thorough 'self-aware' remixed exploration in Track 9 which is cued in the player and is probably the most complex, ambitious and work-consuming track of the project--for more details on this track see the page that it is on) and the rock/metal band Black Sabbath (specifically, their song 'War Pigs'). Many, many variants of all these songs (remixes, mashups, covers, parodies, live versions) run as intertwining leitmotifs all through this work along with other pig-oriented material, including...

Including the conflation, as a running theme in our mix, of a political scandal that was sort of pre-echoed years earlier in a the first episode of the 'Black Mirror' TV series. This episode had to do with the fictional terrorist kidnapping of a royal princess in the UK, who was threatened with death if the Prime Minister of the country did not have sex with a live pig, live on national television, before a specified time.

Strangely, years after this episode was created and aired, a real-life scandal in the UK did emerge called 'Pig-Gate' in which it was alleged that then-Prime Minister David Cameron once had sex with the carcass of a dead pig back in his wild drinking college days and that there was photographic evidence of this event (to our knowledge, no such photograph has ever emerged) for more information on this scandal see the link below:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piggate

There is also material in the mix, particularly in the 'Flu Mix' tracks having to do with H1N1. Some of this material was adapted for The Coronavirus Show (aka 'If Pigs Could Fly v2.0') years later. If you are interested in that show go here:

archive.org/details/ncnifpigscouldflyv2.0thecoronavirusmix

In addition to the 'backbone triad' of artists and the song variants, mentioned above, that form the foundation of this mix, there is a fourth 'adjunct' to this triad that sort of finds its exit point from all the 'piggishness' and this can be found in Parts 1 and 3 of 'The Momentum Mix' portions of the program (Tracks 5 and 20, respectively). This song is Queen's immortal 'Don't Stop Me Now' performed by Freddie Mercury and it is sort of matched here with NIN's 'Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)' which is basically it's cue. Many different variants are heard of this rousing Queen tune until it finally realizes its most climactic and dramatic form, ultimately, in the METAL version of the song and the end of Track 20. This is the crescendo climax of the entire work.

DISCLAIMER:

Most of the individual pieces in this mix were painstakingly assembled by NCN and have never ever existed in this form before now, but most pieces, individually were not created by NCN but rather were created by various mainstream, underground, obscure, or DIY artists and are being used (fairly) in this mix. All derived material has been somehow transformed here or is being used as a cultural touchstone or reference. I will try to fill in the proper accreditation for these, over time. Tracks that are particularly derivative are not available separately from the entire work. If anyone has any questions as to used source material please feel free to contact me through Bandcamp to ask. It is NCN's hope and intention that our use of these artists' work increases their scope and their audience and get them more attention. They deserve it.

NCN hopes you enjoy this newly released offering. We are working on many different Bandcamp projects simultaneously. This has been one of them, so it feels good to finally get this one released.

PRO TIPS on how to listen to this album:

- Use headphones
- Make sure the 'MP3Gain' setting on your media player is being utilized if you are listening to this over a computerized device (and you probably are) this will help minimize uncomfortable volume changes during the mix. MANY different sources have gone into this mix and NCN has made every effort to modulate these different sources and their respective volume levels, but it is a good idea to use the 'MP3Gain' feature on your player in order to normalize otherwise uncomfortable volume changes. We are not professionals.
- Listen to the tracks with 'gapless playback'. Many of the tracks are designed to be what we call 'contiguous', meaning they lead one right into the other and should be heard, for best effect, without any pauses or silence at all between the tracks.
- Take breaks. This is a long program. It is not necessarily meant to be 'consumed' all in one sitting. Think of NCN programs not so much as traditional 'albums', but more like eclectic 'sonic photo albums' or 'audiobooks with music'. The best place to take breaks is when you hear an NCN 'Station ID' which identifies that you are listening to The National Cynical Network. This usually signifies that a temporal, thematic or subject-oriented change is taking place in the program.
- Try listening to it in the background while working on the computer. The way these and other NCN programs are constructed (we find) is that they are both effective as a mental sonic 'wallpaper', because of the dynamic richness in form, but also rewarding listens if you also devote your entire attention to them, due to the crisp and compelling nature of the content and its sequences.

Happy Listening!

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