Introduction to The Electronic

Revolution
John Balance

Logic is useless in this respect, is simply not

appropriate. Through using scientific method
when science is not applicable, he gathers,
processes and collates, with the necessary
objectivity and attention to detail, turning
fiction into fact.
By doing this he has brought back the raw
material like an anthropologist might smuggle
precious artefacts, like a spy who has stolen
pages from the forbidden texts, torn them out
of the Akashic Record (certainly not
discovered in some afterlife - but engrained in
the DNA blueprint itself, the original
prehistoric Survival-text.)
Nothing is taken at face value. Every
phenomenon that is observed, every word he
finds is a trap which has to be dismantled, a
code which has to be broken revealing the
meaning, the latent content behind the
appearance.
By sabotaging natural conclusions, logical and
neurological reactions and conditioned
reflexes, he forces the facts to reveal
themselves, and in this way shows a little more
truth every time about the human condition.
The Electronic Revolution was written in the
1960s, when academics shared their
discoveries with high school students, as well
as with the CIA.

William S. Burroughs has become part of the

established order, a likeable though rather
eccentric uncle that your parents view with a
tolerant eye. But this avuncular exterior is
misleading. It is a Disguise.
As a shaman he is an inveterate traveller, who
knows the language of the dead inside out. As
a psychic investigator he travels through the
Lands of the Dead, the Space Between, with a
minimum of baggage, maps the forbidden and
encrypted territory, the realm on the Other
Side.
Unleashed, operating in the territory between
the impossible and the inevitable.

Each day brought a new drug, a new device, a

new social freedom anything could happen
and regularly did. Within this context the tape
recorder experiments of William S. Burroughs,
Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville looked not
only plausible but also seemed to have a great
chance of succeeding.
Attitudes have changed since then. Current
trends have replaced optimism with cynicism.
In a recent magazine article Burroughs told of
the reaction he got when he gave a series of
lectures to a group of students, during which
he outlined plans for what he described as a
wishing machine. It was a device which if

you concentrated hard enough would

considerably increase the chance of your wish
being fulfilled. To Burroughs dismay nobody
seemed interested.

Geff & Peter with WSB Lawrence, Kansas 1992

In spite of the fact that several parties from the

government as well as the ranks of avant-garde
music have tried the experiments in this book
and discovered that they do work, they have
largely been ignored and their latent potential
has not been applied
(Perhaps this is a good thing from a certain
viewpoint. Eccentric uncles should be
considered harmless. In this way nobody will
worry if they stay up late with the children,
conjure up ghosts and suggest things parents
would not even dream of...)
Ideas need a maximum dissemination and a
maximum application to develop. What you
dont know can be kept secret and might be
used against you.
This book is the original handbook of
possibilities. It is both user and misuser
friendly. The true danger lies in denial. It is
intended to be used, to be used and applied.
Experimentation is of vital importance. To
quote from the book itself:
This is certainly a matter for further
investigation.

John Balance
London 1988ev.

In 1988 Geff Rushton (John Balance) & Peter

Sleazy Christopherson of Coil were approached by
Maldoror Press of Holland to help with a Dutch language
edition of The Electronic Revolution by William S.
Burroughs. It had been one of the definitive handbooks
for the pioneers of Industrial Music, and was now
thought to be relevant to a whole new audience with the
rise of Chaos Magic.
Peter designed the cover, as elegantly and simply as ever,
the idea being that the old photo of William was like a
transmission coming from an unknown Interzone of the
mind, despite visible interference...
Geff actually had the harder job of deciding what to say
for the Introduction. After a long period of agonising
about how best to introduce such a definitive text from
his hero & mentor, one weekend when Peter was away
he invited their friend Matthew Levi Stevens to come
over and help him put together something that would be
ready to send on Peters return. This was the result.
The English language original has long since been lost,
unfortunately, but I have translated this back from the
surviving Dutch text. Thank You to Maldoror Stichting.
Emma Doeve, August 2012.