Not much is know about the last few years of Preston G Parallax‘s murky existance. After we found the floundering Sci-Fi hack in a Berlin backsreet, trying to proclaim the intermingled co-existence of rubber-masked energy beings to a red Volkswagen Polo, he seemed to be suffering from some form of amnesia. To say that this amnesia was selective was a hideous understatement. Preston’s power of recall was an over-fastidious Emperor, whose capricious taste would readily gulp down bitter memories of being dropped by his publisher or some interminable anecdote with glee, yet would toss remembering to take out the rubbish over his shoulder like a half gnawed chicken leg.
His journal offered little assistance.  For the last 5 years Preston had recorded his life in Crawloz, a language spoken by the Crawillian race who appear only twice in his early work. With less than a passing interest in the magnificent complexities of linguistics, he spent the summer of 1985 fabricating an entire alien language, so that the brief passages of Crawillian dialogue contained in his would be more ‘realistic’*. Unfortunately he forgot to tell anyone anything at all about the language. He also destroyed all the documentation he created in that heady summer – in case the human race ever made contact with the Crawillians, and he could thus warn them of the brutal C.I.A pursuit they would inevitably encounter .
The quasi-coherent, paranoid last of Preston’s recorded days make for disturbing reading, and we only share these grim extracts with you today in the hope that someone is out there is able to dechiper them.
September 6th 2005
Received a letter from Packard today. That old dog, still mocking me after all these years. Little does he know that I’ve been working on this century’s ‘2001’. My ‘The Time Machine’ of the modern age that will wipe that smug grin from his face. Tomorrow I finish chapter 4. Must also remember to pick up my prescription from †he ©h∑m^s†´.
September 7th 2005
†ø∂å¥ I finished chapter &*&*(. I can’t wait to see the look on that old ç¨~†‘ß face when he reads my manuscript. He will take it all back. I think maybe the scene where 嬬¬¥ seducesË™^˙∂^˙∂ with a ˙˙∂∂∂∂ would work better if there was more of a ¶¶•¶¶√∫~, and then 嬬¬¥. That would really ¨^¨^¨^~~∫~µ.
September 8th 2005
†ø∂å¥ ^∑´~†ß∑^µµ~© ^~ †˙ ø¬ƒ ߆å∂∂†∫å∂. ^ ®¥¨¥®®® ^ †˙ø¨©˙††˙å†^†∑åß ƒ¨¬¬ øƒ ø¬∂ ∫^∂∂´, åø ßø¨¬∂ ^ ßå¥ å¬†∫^∂∂^´ß (˙å ˙åº).  å~¥∑å¥,. II I^∫~∫~∫  ¥ . U¨¨¨^ß∂ƒ¨~ç´© ∆˚~˙m µµ˚∆∆∆ ¥ƒç©ƒ∂≈ç√∆∆ ¥¨¨¨¥îu ^^^^^^^^uu i^^^^^^^o∆∆∆∆ ••••••ª9 98••••••ª99 8888ªªª ssdsds. º¡º¡º¡º¡º¡ .
*They were translated in English before publishing.
Design A Wave are one of 20JFG’s secret obsesssions that we have been yearning to share with you since the sublime day we first heard them. Now they have a new 12′ out, and a track duly featured on Rough Trade’s recent synthwave comp – meaning that we may finally see them in these eager pages.
Design a Wave are a London based occasional ensemble comprised of the Synth Genius from Cleckhuddersfax, and a cast of rotating vituosos who lived for the last 15 years in the warped part of Bernard Edward’s mind.  Hippasus is a scratched early Pulp vessel piloted by a post punk vocalist elite, his only companion on this journey a marbled plastic drum machine who robot claps out the unique time signature that sends this pop-enhanced vessel into Crawillan Hyperspin. The magical ‘Remedy’ also featured on the Rough Trade comp is Gloria Gaynor being sat down and told that she wasn’t 100% responsible for the disco movement by a well meaning Swell Maps.
Live on Your yard EP is availiable from the magnificent Alter records, who also recently broadcast an ancient codec from the Hieroglyphic Being, and in fact their entire back catalogue is severely worth checking out.