Bedside clock radio in a Tokyo hotel

Last night a secret agent saved my life. I was getting in over my head, recording conspiratorial conversations and taking covert photographs until the bad guys walked in with pistols and my cover was blown. A capable agent showed up in the nick of time and whispered, “You’ll just have to trust me.” This is what happens when you fall asleep in front of 24.

I knew it was a dream because of all the wonderful machines: my spy world was filled with chunky reel-to-reel recorders with wood paneling, Rolleiflex and Argus cameras encased in pebbled black metal with chrome handles, aerodynamic telephones with glistening plastic cords and beveled buttons that make a satisfying ker-chunk.

I have a techno-thriller dream yet the gadgets are from the 1950s – why? Perhaps it’s a matter of symbolism: when I say phone, do you picture a cellphone or do you imagine a landline telephone? Or calculator: do you picture a dashboard widget or do you envision something closer to a classic Texas Instruments calculator? 

Affection might have something to do with it, too. Do we fall in love with software? From a functional standpoint, I admire the digital audio recorder on my iPhone – but I’ll never fall for it in the same way that I cherished my parents’ old reel-to-reel recorder.

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Carl Craig – Mind of a Machine
from Landcruising. Blanco Y Negro, 1995 | Buy remastered mp3s
After nearly fifteen years, Carl Craig’s ode to night-driving holds up remarkably well, from the opening ignition that fires up “Mind of a Machine” to the title track’s laser light show and the blinding headlights of the “Home Entertainment” finale. Landcruising is what you want Blade Runner to sound like. And it’s a perfect calling card for Detroit’s auto industry — every time I play this record, I want to buy an enormous car just so I can drive it down the Lodge Freeway at two in the morning with the title track blaring. One of electronic music’s finest moments.