hidden voices

In the dream, I am floating — or more accurately, hanging. My limbs are limp, relaxed into paralysis, as if by curare. Slender rods, each a foot long, have been drilled into my femurs and tibiae, inserted at right angles to the bones. Each rod terminates in a cable woven from surgical steel. Similar rods and wires have been implanted in my arms, breastbone and cranium. The cables snake through eyelets and disappear into darkness. I am at the centre of a metal spider's web, a flesh and-and-blood puppet held taught by hidden pulleys and weights.

There is no discomfort, only a slight itching where the metal pierces the skin. Toneless voices speak to each other; I can't make out the words, but I can tell they are fine-tuning the tension and vector of each cable and rod, manipulating my skeleton so that each joint is perfectly positioned. The paralysing drug has released the counter valence of my muscles and tendons, and as the physicians make smaller and smaller adjustments, pain is unspooled from old injuries, set free from the clenched muscles and twisted ligaments of a decade of increasingly violent spasms. The old pain feels good, like a deep tissue massage. The air is warm and dry.

I am at rest.

TRACK 01 "Prelude," The Bird INDEX: 00:44:16

TRACK 02 "Mr. Chombee Has the Flaw," The Herbaliser INDEX: 03:16:05

TRACK 03 "Rockit Soul," Funki Porcini INDEX: 07:33:10

TRACK 04 "Broken Levee Blues," DJ Shadow INDEX: 11:13:48

TRACK 05 "Ella's Uncle," Matthew Trapnell with Trapezoid INDEX: 13:21:35

TRACK 06 "Mr. Ameche Plays the Stranger," Yo La Tengo INDEX: 19:15:32

TRACK 07 "Etoh," The Avalanches INDEX: 28:29:39

TRACK 08 "A Woman's Voice," Wax Tailor INDEX: 33:33:13

TRACK 09 "Light in a Dark Place," Rothko And Caroline Ross INDEX: 36:54:63

TRACK 10 "Motherfucker=Redeemer (Part Two)," Godspeed You! Black Emperor INDEX: 40:54:58

TRACK 11 "White Blur," Aphex Twin INDEX: 51:02:01