Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 41 — page 68: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE BOOGIE MATRIX by twenty-first century stan- dards. There was an almost intolerable hiss and mush from the needle point, and the re- production was tinny and un- real, but the music that came from the grille was recog- nisable. It was a recording of a pre-Inferno instrument, a primitive hammer and string device that produced music from the out-moded Rever- sionist twelve-note chromatic scale. But as he listened the rhythm of the music seeped into his brain. It was a sound that had not been heard in the world for nearly a hundred years, a type of music utterly foreign to a humanity that knew only the synthetic discords and subtle rhythmic interplay of tones and harmonics produced by an audio-permutator from a metal matrix, inscribed with curves and lines, correspond- ing to mathematical equations and formule. It gripped him and hypnotised him. He felt his feet tapping instinctively in time with the precise beat and the dynamic syncopated chords and melody. It was piano music. It was wonderful piano music. He 67 was listeningto boogie-woogie, to the. Honky Tonk Train Blues, played by an acknow- ledged master of his craft. It was Reversionist and primi- tive, while he was a technocrat and a world-famous composer, but he was entranced. The performance finished, and the girl lifted the pick-up, returning it to its original position on the clip. She re- garded him quizzically. ‘Did you like it, darling?” “Like it?’ he echoed. “Tl say I did. It’s fascinating—the same kind of fascination you find in a poisonous snake. It’s raw, but it’s gripping. It’s an entirely new departure in music.” ““You’re wrong there, Bax. That recording was made a century ago. It just happens to be one of the few isolated things that managed to escape complete destruction at the time of the Inferno. Do you think the others will like it, too?” “‘What others?” “Anybody. The rest of the people in the world. The or- dinary people like you and I.” “Sure they'd like it, but comiclooks.conrn