John Pilger "The War You Don't See"

Originally broadcast on ITV1 last Tuesday, here's a brilliant documentary by the veteran journalist John Pilger about pro-war bias in the mainstream media. Watch the heads of BBC and ITV news squirm as they are confronted with the facts of their own unbalanced coverage - these people come off just as bad (if not worse) than the politicians they love to skewer. I don't have a TV anymore, so I don't have the pernicious influence of mainstream news reportage in my life (thank God) but if you still swallow the myth that our TV news outlets are un-biased, read this interview with Mark Thompson, director general of the BBC, where he calls for impartiality regulations to be dropped, and for TV news to become "more biased".

Uh oh... [Averted]

So, NASA is going to broadcast a news conference at 5:30pm today to talk about an "exceptional object in our cosmic neighbourhood". What could it mean? A planet? An alien ship? A comet that is on a collision course with Earth?? We're holding our breath here...

***EDIT***

It's a black hole, the youngest black hole in our galaxy. So no harm there then.

This is the first time I've checked out NASA TV, it's actually pretty cool.

Peter Sissons on Anne Robinson

The End of Technics?

Yesterday Panasonic announced that it was going to stop production of the Technics 1200 turntable. It seems like a sad news day for djs and dance music in general. At the start of the last decade turntables (presumably mostly Technics, as they are the industry standard and most recognisable name) were outselling guitars. Well, it seems it may be a little premature to sound a death knell for turntables as a whole just yet - according to Gizmodo, the site that originally broke the story it is only the Technics 1200Mk6 that is going to stop being produced. And I hear nothing about the 1210 series, which is possible even more popular than the 1200s. Still, it's a shame and a sign of the times, but hey, in 10 years we will all be djing on touch screen displays anyway.

Neil Kulkarni Hip-Hop column.

Some people who read this blog will be too young to recognise the words "Melody Maker", but if you happened to read that paper in the 90's, and had any kind of interest in hip-hop, you should recognise the name Neil Kulkarni. He's still writing, about all different kinds of music, but he does a specifically hip-hop based column now for the Quietus. His new one is worth checking out, if only for the particularly fine rant at the beginning about mainstream hip-hop. But read further on and you'll find lots of names on the current underground scene worth checking out - Joell Ortiz, Willie The Kid, Nottz, Gunshot and loads more.

http://thequietus.com/articles/05156-hip-hop-state-of-the-art-report-end-of-play-2010-2

Why Do People Hate Hipsters?

"Hipster-hate blogs are multiplying online. But who are these much-maligned trendies – and why do people find them so irritating? Perhaps we should learn to love our skinny-jeaned friends instead."



An excellent article from last week's Guardian that asks the question we all want to know, and also point you in the direction of a number of blogs answering that very question.

Weezer Offered $10 Million To Split Up.

This is not a joke.

"A group of frustrated music fans want Weezer to break up, and they're willing to pay them. Claiming the band has never improved on their 1996 album Pinkerton, the organisers of a new campaign hope to raise $10m to convince Weezer to pack it in and stop "disappointing" fans. "This is an abusive relationship," the project's creator said. "It needs to [end]."

More at The Guardian.

Gary Erskine in the Guardian

Hey kids! Do YOU want to become an internationally reknowned comic book artist? Well our pal Gary Erskine has some tips for you...

http://careers.guardian.co.uk/behind-the-job-title-comic-book-artist

Fucking Ludicrious

Via The Guardian website.
The Crown Prosecution Service has decided not to bring a single charge against the police over the Death of Ian Thomlinson at the G20 Demonstrations last year. Despite admitting the police action amounted to assault. Absolutely fucking sickening.
Guardian Website Article

New records / Music Reviews

So..... I have new tunes and have listened to rather a lot of good music in the past week, so figure it's time for a sporadic review blast. Dig in.

Storlon - The Snake (Unoiki 0410) - free to download until the 14th.
Unoiki's digital calendar continues to be awesome - another month in and another surreal slice of avant-garde music that isn't afraid to find the fun in experimentation. Glitchy crackles, minimal pops and deep swells spray and coalesce as the bass creeps up, before the wall of noise breaks and the beats emerge. Halfway between Martyn's low-end experimentation and clickno minimalism, it's a more DJ friendly track than previous releases, without ever losing sight of the label's experimental and avant garde ethos. Awesome.

Dam Mantle - The Grey EP (Halleluwah Hits)
Originally known as Animals and War, Tom Marshallay made quite an impact on Glasgow's DIY and independent scene, gigging with a looper pedal, casio keyboard, acoustic guitar and drum machine. It was brilliantly lo-fi and psychadelic, but seemed quite limited to the live sphere only. Some unknown metamorphosis has taken place, and Dam Mantle (joined by Louts for live sets) is suddenly a bass-heavy electronic proposition that owes as much to Flying Lotus, Blockhead and Samiyam as it does to the alt-folk origins. Rebong begins as a wobbly piece of electronica, before morphing into a wonky, broken beat rhythm that wouldn't sound out of place on a Lukid or HudMo record, whislt Yoghourt takes vocal loops, splices and chops them, and builds floating ethereality into thump-crack hip-hop. Rebong's probably the most evidently dancefloor track, full of crisp percussion and lfoed basslines. Admittedly Rusko won't be playing it any time soon, but for those looking for more cerebral and wonky dancefloor material, it's a bold piece of work and as a whole work, Grey is excellent.

Akira Kiteshi - Boom N Pow / Ming The Merciless
Finally got round to buying some Akira Kiteshi, after hearing many many good things about him. Finding a Raffertie remix finally flipped the decision and off I go to buy two EPs. For the most part, AK makes that mythical beast known as 'Dubstep'; full of wobbly, skull-crushing bass and skittery, swung beats. However, there's a smattering of offbeat breakcore-isms, and a predilection for frantically screamed vocals that adds an unnerving edge.
Boom and Pow's probably my favourite off both records, with crunked up boom-clap and fractured hype vocals. The best thing about it is the first breakdown though, which cuts up chop socky vocals and white noise, before a dropping the famous "and now for something completely different" and morphing into a wobbling 4x4 monster. YEAH!
I've also been getting well into Raffertie, who provides the remix of Boom and Pow, and makes pant-wettingly grinding breakcore / dubstep hybrid. His Vomit Riddim is just disquieting though, breaking down from womp nasty into the coughing and splattering of some poor munter losing their guts. It does this repeatedly. ooft.

Alexis K -The Death of Everything Cool (Permanent Damage)
Quite pleasant electronica / trip-hop type stuff that's due a digital release fairly soon. I was pretty dubious, as the press claimed Alexis K as "The First Lady of Dubstep", an odd praise, and one that seems highly implausible considering the existence of a certain Radio 1 DJ. However, the four tracks here all unite barking basslines, half-time rhythms and the rest with an unusual country/ western bent. Alexis' guitar lines are crisply played and pretty catchy, but do take away from the dancefloor potential of some tracks - The title track kinda feels like the final tune on a mix, rather than a DJ tool. The combination works well on Sundance at Dawn though, where a lingering High Noon atmosphere, film samples and colt gunshots replace grime's "urban jungle" pish and gangster glock pops that have become yawnsome.
In general, the production's exceptionally crisp, the style's unique, and I've played it over a few times, but I haven't found myself slavering to play it on repeat. Worth looking out for.

Mo-Seph - The Other Place / Growth and Form (Black Lantern)
Author / curator / performance poet / Apocalyptic Goblin of Doom Harlequinade continues to unleash sonic majesty upon the world through the portal of Black Lantern - this time round, he's dredged up two EPs / mini-albums from Chemical Poets collaborator Mo-seph. Both are vault-dredgers, and the breadth of styles and influences absorbed is spectacular. There's a distinct ambient and experimental bent that pervades both EPs, flitting between delicate gamelan percussion and warm synths (Martin) and squashed electronica droning (Swamp), as well as throwing in the occaisonal breaksy trip-hop number like Entropik. There's flute breaks, cello basslines, an array of synths, and percussion ranging from Roland-esque clank to live kit and foundsounds, all building delicate sound passages. As a newcomer to Mo-seph's work, it's a little difficult to know where to start - there's such a diverse range of sounds and styles which are all executed well, that it feels a little spastic to listen to. Download both, get 'em on your mp3 player and set course for the middle of nowhere... real fucking wow music.

New Music Reviews

I spent a bit of cash on records the other day, and also tracked down a bunch of new promo. Reviews / chat follows.
Promo

Mount Kimbie - Remixes (HFRMX 006 / 007)
Mount Kimbie made massive waves last year with the EPs Maybes and Sketch on Glass; their bridging of trip-hop, house and minimal electro made for deep, cerebral listening and earned them rave reviews from Wire, DJ and all the usual suspects. Being signed to Scuba's awesome HotFlush imprint also placed them squarely in the "dubstep" bracket, just as the world was looking around for a more delicately engineered strain of offbeat bass music. Suffice to say, you can't track the vinyls down anywhere, and almost every track from the original two EPs is getting a remix pressing, due in April.

The breadth of these remix EPs is their main strength; Instra:mental reconfigures At Least as a lush, 4/4 house track, full of fractured vocals, which'll go down great with the Subculture crowd, whilst Prosumer and Tama Sumo go for a more driving, Berghain flavoured techno number, hanging the original's vocals from crisp hi-hats and offsetting it with fat kicks.
James Blake, the most sonically similar to Mount Kimbie, fractures almost all of the original aspects and builds a half-timed, trip-hop wonk-fest that slowly ebbs and flows with washes of vocals and synths. It's gorgeous, and with careful treatment can make for some great mixes, as Scuba's Sub:stance mix proved earlier this year.

Scuba of course makes his presence felt under his new minimal moniker SCB, and uses the delicate woodblock / chime rhythms of the original as splashes of colour on a dark technoid canvas. It's infectious and driving, building to a grinding dancefloor climax, without ever losing the delicacy of the original elements.

Nico Purman - All That Glitters Aint Gold (Vakant) - Out April 26th
Limited, one-sided vinyl from one of Berlin's finest minimal dancefloor stables featuring nine minutes of brilliantly restrained cosmic disco. Applying Vakant's usual pallete of minimal clicks, fractured vocals and dubby ring-outs, Nico Purman injects a dose of disco groove, catchy claps and resonant guitar to create an absolute dancefloor killer. It's got all the weirdness you'd expect; strange, gargling vocal breakdowns, reductionist percussion and repetitive riffs, but it's impossibly danceable, with washes of guitar and synth injecting energy and groove. Admittedly, there's no awesome B-side to discover, but what's there is grade A material. Get some free Nico Purman here

Ramadanman - Ramadanman EP - Hessle Audio Out 05th April
Along with Hotflush and Werk, I think Hessle's got to be one of my favourite labels at the moment - Pangaea's EP was absolutely sublime, and Ramadanman's Humber 12" gets constant rinsage in DJ sets (awesome remix too). After the more surreal tones of James Blake's The Bells Sketch, head honcho Ramadanman returns to the fray with a much more dancefloor-friendly double pack EP. This really is bang for your buck; six tunes split over two vinyls, from off-beat two-step, to swung techno, to jungle-inflected dub. Opener I Beg You begins as gorgeous percussive dub, full of polyrhythms and Burial-esque mournful vocals, but builds into a stuttering breakbeat reminiscent of the current crop of rave revivalists. There's a similar rattling rimshot pattern permeating the soulful vocal samples of Don't Change For Me, and the whole EP sees Ramadanman blending hard-nosed percussion with dubby atmospherics in a way he's never quite managed before. The ubiquitous wobble bass is even handled well, providing welcome heaviness on No Swing, rather than steamrollering it's way into a drop. A very accomplished record, with plenty of useful moments.

Record shopping:
Traversable Wormhole vol.5 - TW05
If you've not caught any of this before now, Traversable Wormhole are just awesome: suitably anonymous, minimal and very, very dark techno. A heated fourway fisticuffs between Monolake / Dettman / T++ / Intelecto about who's got the bigger pair. I've just picked up the 5th release - Plain black packaging, lightly stencilled title, no side A or B except in the runout. This is exactly how I want my techno - you dig in boxes, you listen in shop and take it home that day, clutching at the bag feverishly, proud of the obscure gem only you in the whole world own. Well, truth be told, Traversable Wormhole isn't as anonymous as, say Seldom Felt (who performed in Ninja masks. Awesome.), and in the days of Boomkat and Rub-a-Dub online stores, crate digging's a lost art, but it still feels nice to encounter proper nameless brutality. Plus, clanking percussion, deep bass and heavy sounds have rarely been done so well.
Free Traversable Wormhole Mix

Low Limit VS Lando Kal - Golden Handshake - Numbers Guess what? Numbers' Record label is pretty damn good. Yeah, yeah, big surprise. I'll be honest, nothing on this EP quite hits me the way that Lazer Sword's Gucci Sweatshirt remix did, but it's an impressive piece of work nonetheless; crunked up, funky, synth-driven mayhem. It's pretty awesome. Blurring the lines between hip-hop, dubstep, garage and house, it's got something for every discerning DJ looking for a party tune to absolutely blow it out the water. What it says on the tin really.

More reviews soon.

Pointless pacman pics

Who says there's nothing good in the news? Pacman, the Death Star and Hi-tech science.
Via the bbc news website.

Today's news.

1. You can download a stack of Notorious B.I.G's acapellas. From this site. I'm assuming this is entirely legal, whilst trying to make a dubbed-out bootleg of Kick in the Door.
2. Flutes sound great with a shitload of Ping-pong delay on them.
3. The world sounds better with a Buddha Box, and a couple of layered loops from it creates an awesome ambient performance. FM3 actively encourage this use of their product.
4. You can double drop Little Rocks, courtesy of Dr. Ruth.
5. The Ramones can be mixed into hip-hop and Ali Renault. http://bit.ly/7QdlOE
6. Alec Empire is still one weird fuck.
7. Grimly Wetfox has some interesting things to say about dreams, and makes excellent pop culture references in the process. Click to read.

Where have all believers gone?

"The British Social Attitudes survey of religious belief in Britain shows the decline in Christianity generally and Anglicanism in particular continuing. But what it does not show is any concomitant rise in atheism."

 From The Guardian

To celebrate, here's "Outcast" by Hungarian metalheads 'Ektomorph':

Virus Syndicate are still not very nice people

and have made this video about drugs.

Definitely one of their sickest tunes to date, backed by buzz-saw grime productions from Benga.

The cultural melting pot proceeds to bubble, with Virus now the only UK acts to appear on a US Dubstep compilation, with Xzibit, Snoop Dogg and Eve. With Glasgow spitting out Reggae MCs like Soom T, genre's become utterly detached from location. We transcend cities and physical boundaries, and the length of time between a scene emerging and it's sound becoming a part of the ever-evolving sphere of influence is rapidly shortening. We will soon share ideas upon thinking them.
Sigha - Rawww EP [HFT010] by Hotflush
Also digging the brand new Hot Flush stuff from Sigha. I actually know very little about Sigha, but Hot Flush has become a solid gold stamp of approval in my mind - Mount Kimbie's weird and wonderful take on UK electronic is sheer beauty, the new Scuba EP kicked the shit out of the modern dubstep scene, and this forthcoming EP from Sigha looks awesome. Deep, dark, post-Basic Channel techno. It's also twelve minutes long, for maximum k-hole devastation. Like all good minimal, it seems blindingly repetitive and reductionist, but unfolds a complex sonic head-fuck.

I'll post a full track closer to the release date.

Bette Davis Eyes 2.0

The human eye is a perceptual powerhouse. It can see millions of colors, adjust easily to shifting light conditions, and transmit information to the brain at a rate exceeding that of a high-speed Internet connection.

But why stop there?

Why indeed.... Cheers to Weaponizer.

They Cry Because They Hate Our Freedoms

Police say a 61-year-old man annoyed with a crying 2-year-old girl at a suburban Atlanta Walmart slapped the child several times after warning the toddler's mother to keep her quiet.
Comparisons to Clint's character in Gran Torino have been made by some, but I'm not convinced.