It is just an illusion here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone, it is gone forever… All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist. — Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

Fourteen billion years ago our universe exploded from the depths of a black hole with a power and velocity not experienced since the last time our universe exploded from the depths of a black hole. Matter light and dark rocketed outward, some eventually coalescing into planets both real and imaginary. The light waves that shot from that infinitesimally small point of blackness are the movie of our lives, our experiences. The waves have always existed, will always exist. The plot of the film, the actors and the dialogue, was inscribed on the negative at the moment of its Creation, each frame displayed simultaneously on a separate theater screen for all eternity.

Which means that you shouldn’t be mad at your ex-Significant Other for dumping you. They have always dumped you, will always dump you, will always be dumping you. And yet, in different aggregates of light, you are always together, always meeting for the first time, your former lover always stepping in slow motion from the Green Line bus as white-coated sailors pass in review in the background, not late, as moments that always exist can arrive neither late nor early.

In ‘Careening,’ Nibiru faces the realization that we are powerless to bend light; the tossed-off phrase ‘It is what it is’ taking on the inevitability of a boulder that has been flying through space for fourteen billion years to finally meet its always-existing fate: a collision with the top of your head, perhaps on the freeway, preferably in your bed, either impact causing your vaporization, the moment of your total dispersion touchingly preserved in the amber of time. So it goes.

still reeling from a cosmic event
that happened so long ago
still feeling that colossal effect
without a chance to atone

‘Careening’ is a moving mass of sound and light, driven by a melodic lead guitar, the synthesizers describing a cool nebula behind the vocals.

Nibiru self-describes as ‘noise not music; raw pop.’ Based in St. Louis, the band comprises Ben Osborne (guitar), Mark Plant (synthesizers, drum machines, vocals), and Simone Sparks (bass and vocals). ‘Careening’ is from their latest six-track EP, Etiolation. And for those of you keeping score at home, etiolation is ‘a process in flowering plants grown in partial or complete absence of light.’

You can support deserving independent musicians like Nibiru by visiting their Bandcamp page, listening to their songs, and downloading your favorite tracks. And be sure to follow Nibiru on Facebook and Instagram.

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