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That's an interesting post. Are you the author? I see it's from a blog but I'm not sure if it's yours or not. Either way.
I think it's fairly established that the band were into Gibson during the recording of the album and that certain tracks, most notably 'The Sprawl', are an obvious reference to that (although personally I think 'Providence' is the more truly cyberpunk). Looking at the album as a whole as a postmodern 'text' specifically tied to the cyberpunk genre is an interesting, but ultimately problematic, tactic. I think in a strict postmodern sense (assuming such a thing exists) The Fall's I am Kurious Oranj album (also released in '88) arguably eclipses it. However, by giving postmodernism a Jamesonian twist does perhaps edge things more in favour of DN.) Although even here it could be argued that the affectless LA sprawl depicted in Jane's Addiction's Nothing's Shocking album (again released in '88) provides an even truer depiction. At the end of the day, DN is I think too decidedly urban even for a purely Jamesonian reading of the postmodern - the more pastoral Bad Moon Rising works better in that sense. But as a cyberpunk, rather than necessarily postmodern album, then I think DN does indeed come into its own. At least in terms of the rock genre. I'd definitely say that Juan Atkins' Metroplex and Derrick May's Transmat labels (formed in 85 and 86 respectively) came closer to a cyberpunk aesthetic in their DIY approach to technology, fascination with corporatism and generally dystopian inner city imagery - although neither label had actually released an album before DN had been put out. Which also forces me to question the claim that DN somehow anticipated Trance. It didn't at all. American Techno artists such as Derrick May and Joey Beltram did that - albeit with a little help from Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Giorgio Moroder, and Motown of course.
It's a slightly unimportant point, I'm just saying that while DN may have been an album strongly linked to the cyberpunk genre I don't know if this really contributes to us also looking at it in a postmodern context. And that even given the band's interest in the cyberpunk movement, stronger links were I believe forged, primarily within the newly emerging Detroit Techno scene represented at the time by labels such as Metroplex and Transmat - whose atitude to sampling technology certainly seems closer to Gibson's line about 'the street finds its own uses for things' than Thurston's point about 'jacking in' guitars. In that sense Sonic Youth seem closer to 'Steampunk' than they do Cyberpunk.
A really interesting article. Thanks!
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