I AM TITANIUM

Subtronics, aliens, and the attributes of the divine

Sources linked: Subtronics, alien sticker, & titanium. Photo editing is all me plz help.

“We are all just goofing off, listening to weird robot noises while we snort drugs or give each other kandi/trinkets.”

“I deeply love this stuff and like to over think it's [sic] importance too but it's a freaking dance party.....”

“Bruh this is so fucking cringey”

“Be so fucking fr”

“Sir this is a Wendy's”

I’ve discovered that there is a whole lot of resistance in the EDM / rave community to three ideas:

1. EDM producers and DJs create meaningful art.

2. We, as a community, should attempt to create and change social norms at music festivals and raves, which are shared experiences where each person’s behavior can affect the collective experience.

3. Our experiences at music festivals and raves have the power to change our everyday behavior and thus can positively or negatively affect society as a whole.

Yes, EDM festivals and raves are giant, goofy dance parties, where we run around gifting trinkets and experimenting with substances while moving to weird robot noises. They also have the potential to be a venue for deep personal and relational change and healing, where we dance to meaningful and powerful music. The magic of the rave is that these two truths coexist: we have hours of fun sprinkled with special moments with friends, strangers, and ourselves, and we have the opportunity to let down our guards and learn difficult truths we might otherwise resist.

Despite the resistance to the ideas above, I believe them to be true, and I want to provide more evidence for idea number (1) today. I’ve previously written about music’s ability to convey esoteric ideas and have another example to share that’s been on my mind recently.

Exposition

Music can convey emotion and concepts without using language and deepen and develop the meaning of words that are spoken or sung. That is, sometimes music can share a theme or express emotion without using a single human word. Other times, music can turn ordinary words into extraordinary communication or gorgeous poetry into a glorious celebration.

During his Lost Lands set, Subtronics combined his “Alien Communication” with David Guetta and Sia’s “Titanium,” and the result felt—to me—like a description of one of the attributes of the divine.

Let’s be real: it’s not easy to talk about the divine in the West today. Between the religious fundamentalists and the new-age spiritual influencers on the one end, and the pure materialists and condescending atheists on the other, it’s difficult to have a conversation about the divine: people tend to either regurgitate preexisting paradigms or roll their eyes in disbelief.

What I’m calling “the divine” goes by many names today: God, the universe, the phenomenon, etc. I’m not quite sure what it is. But I do think that Subtronics’ music has helped me get a glimpse at its power, kinda how Moses was able to catch a glimpse of God’s back as a consolation prize after God denied his request to see all of God’s glory.

Diving into the music

An interview with Jesse Kardon—the man behind Subtronics—indicated that “Alien Communication” was “his take on extraterrestrial life.” The song’s lyrics, which do not feature in the mix with Titanium, are sampled from Abstract Crimewave’s “The Gambler,” but are filtered to sound distant and otherworldly:

Don't take too long, to come back to me

I'll set you free, somewhere around to me

I'm going home, though I'll never be

Baby, you care to go home with me?

The lyrics are both a warning and an invitation; they suggest that there’s some urgency to begin the journey home, even if it’s a journey that will never quite be finished.

It’s interesting that Kardon chose these lyrics in his representation of “extraterrestrial life,” given that they revolve around the idea of coming home. One might expect lyrics that express themes of exploration or discuss the strangeness of interacting with something that’s deeply “other.”

If these lyrics hint at Kardon’s view of alien life forms, they seem to trend toward the “interdimensional hypothesis” rather than the “extraterrestrial hypothesis.” The extraterrestrial hypothesis is the dominant view of aliens and UFOs: aliens are life forms similar to humans who live on planets very far away but have developed sophisticated technology to come and visit us. The interdimensional hypothesis posits that UFOs and other interactions with “aliens” result from other dimensions that exist in the same space as ours. Aliens who live very far away, after all, are unlikely to invite us to join them in a journey toward a shared concept of home, given our homes are very different and very far apart. But some six-dimensional life form could very well make such an invitation, an outstretched hand to go on a journey toward a better understanding of the nature of our home, our reality (for a deeper exploration of this idea, I’d recommend this podcast from Mollie Adler at “back from the borderline”).

Rather than use these lyrics in his Lost Lands set, Subtronics instead mixed in the familiar lyrics of the anthem “Titanium”:

I'm criticized, but all your bullets ricochet

Shoot me down, but I get up

I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose

Fire away, fire away

Ricochet, you take your aim

Fire away, fire away

You shoot me down, but I won't fall

I am titanium

When combined with the flashing synths of “Alien Communication,” the music is a powerful representation of eternal, otherwordly strength and resilience. I was filled with reverence and awe for the divine: it may be misunderstood and criticized, but it is still untouchable. We can poke and prod—we can even shoot to kill—and the divine truths will still exist, ready to be discovered. The divine still moves with power, regardless of whether we follow.

A note on interpretation and intention

I am not assuming here that Subtronics mixed these two songs with this particular interpretation in mind; this is simply what came to mind for me. That’s the great thing about art: it impacts each person differently and can reveal little truths that seem to be meant just for you.

The writer Greg Jackson said this about writing, and I think it can apply to all art:

I fear I’ve said this before, but I don’t believe that writers have the final say or even unique authority to stipulate what their stories are about. A lot of writing proceeds by intuition rather than by ‘encoding’ a meaning for readers to puzzle out. That is to say, fiction should, to my mind, slightly eclipse the author’s own understanding of it. And, while I’m all for people sharing their interpretations of stories, I think authors should tread lightly when it comes to their own work: their words simply carry too much weight and risk foreclosing other ideas and tampering with art’s essential open-endedness.

So, what do you think? What does the combination of these two songs bring to mind for you?

Until next time,

Mia

Mia Arends loves writing and dancing—and thinks both are cosmically important. Follow her on Instagram, Threads, or X.