the_beka
Of course, all music is valuable. But this album really manages to be unique and special today. In terms of electronic music, it is as if it blends the old and the present and is among the unforgettable. Needless to say, very very special...
This album and its concept was inspired by Kevin Mitnick’s book,A Ghost In The Wires: My Adventures As The World’s Most Wanted Hacker.
Hackerexists in a largely forgotten world; the pre-Internet, pre-Windows era of the 1980s, when you had to use dial up modems to access another system and hacking was less about code and more about using social engineering to con people into giving you the information you needed.
The story my album soundtracks goes something like this…
The Hacker mingles with others checking in to a tech firm; swiping a security pass, he makes it inside and picks the lock on the supervisor’s office. Once he’s in, he boots up the supervisor’s computer, copying several files onto a floppy disc, before slipping back out of the building without being detected. This was a ‘pen test’, short for penetration test. These days he’s hired to break into firms to test their security and see if they notice the hack, but it wasn’t always the case.
Flashback to the early 70s: the root file in the Hacker’s history. As a teenager he is interested in magic and confidence tricks and stumbles across a book on the art of social engineering. Around the same time an older boy teaches him about phone phreaking – using a 2600hz tone to exploit a flaw in the public telephone system and make free phone calls.
Despite only being interested in being able to see what systems he can access, the Hacker’s youthful misadventures soon land him in trouble with both the phone company and the F.B.I. He is arrested and sentenced to 6 months in a juvenile detention facility.
Upon his release he tries to find a job, but his conviction makes it impossible for him to find work with computers. Frustrated, he turns to phone phreaking once more, but when he’s tipped off that the F.B.I. plan to capture him again, he runs, creating a new identity and using his phone hacking skills to keep himself one step ahead of his pursuers.
With his new identity in place, he starts life afresh in a new city and manages to find a data entry job in an insurance firm. The thrill of illicit hacks won’t stay dormant forever though, and soon he begins again. After several daring hacks, he starts to wonder if his new identity might be compromised. He finds taps on his phone line and suspects that a fellow hacker might be an F.B.I. undercover agent.
He knows he needs to get out, but before he can clear out his apartment, he’s caught by the F.B.I. and despite never having used his hacking skills to steal anything, his notoriety – plus the government’s paranoia over the dangers of hacking – lead to him being placed in solitary confinement within a maximum-security prison.
Years go by with no chance of parole, despite public appeals for his release. Eventually, he is called upon to give his expertise on another hacking case, in exchange for his freedom. Finally a free man, he becomes highly valued for his expertise on hacking and forms his own cyber security company.
Rupert Lally 2022
credits
released December 23, 2022
All tracks composed and performed by Rupert Lally
Cover and inner panel artwork by Eric Adrian Lee
O love all the songs on this amazing album, howevet this particular one sticks out to me while stoned on chem•de-la•chem walking beneath the twilight clouds and setting the mood with this fabulous album I've been coming back to again and again with a topic I talk often of... life, time and the mystery of being and death. Fire of Renewal
Great record. wears it's influences proudly ..but retains a sliver of identity that is uniquely British and has a northern feel to it..I think that these geographic musical vignettes are realy evocotive of northern Newtown Uber estates and satellite communities..I hope this translates to a wider audience for him...he deserves the attention. give him his due .NOW . christopherogley