Other fronts in the war of terror

(img by Barnaby Furnas)

Time to take advantage of my privileged position as armchair critic to be smug and self-congratulatory in pointing out that I basically called this back in January, but now even the Times agrees with me: Somalia's in real-bad shape, thanks in good part to the invasion of the largely foreign sponsored (mainly US and Ethopia) "transitional government".

United Nations officials now concede that the country was in better shape during the brief reign of Somalia’s Islamist movement last year. “It was more peaceful, and much easier for us to work,” Mr. Laroche said. “The Islamists didn’t cause us any problems.”

Mr. Ould-Abdallah called those six months, which were essentially the only epoch of peace most Somalis have tasted for years, Somalia’s “golden era.”

Yay, the Whitehouse's blatant Islamophobia and singleminded desire to force their needs and fears onto other countries has fucked over yet another poor, desperate nation filled with easily forgettable others! Hooray for democracy and freedom!

Better and better...

Well I've gotten myself on a bit of kick on various traditional musics from some different places. After last weeks Gamelan discovery, I've been feeling strongly the desire for some different rhythms, a desire which has been temporarily sated by some great traditional music from Madagascar. Here's a couple:

v/a (Madagascar, Pays Antandroy, Cote Sud-Ouest) - Gorodo

Antsan - Jejo Lava, Chant Pour L'arc Musical

These two both come from discs of the French Ocora label (hence the titles), which seems like a real goldmine in terms of interesting different sounds from accross the globe. The first track is just a blindin, sunny-as-hell piece, paced by a quick percusive rhythm, lively guitar (or something similar), and absolutely joyous singing and yelping. Just happy, beautiful music. The second track is apparently just a man playing a single string tied to a stick and singing along. Ha ha you say, but wait untill you hear it. Simple, repetitive and--hauntingly beautiful. The man 's voice is a thing to behold, and he creates a surprisingly engaging and haunting melody with such a simple instrument. The thing that's getting me with this (and thanks to zhao from here for banging on about this, and for the tunes!) is how sonically advanced so much of this sounds (same for the Gamelan). For "traditional" music, its actually much more sonically adventurous and interesting than the vast majority of western music these days, even the more "indie" stuff that's supposed to be pushing the boundaries. Makes ya think....

Okay, and because I'm still listening to house/techno too, here's a pair that have caught my ear this week. The first is by the revived ex-Chain Reaction duo of Substance and Vainqueur, laying down some deep thundering dub techno. The second is some lovely upbeat minimal house featuring everyones favorite sound. warped house piano! Enjoy! :D

Substance & Vainqueur - Libration

Rejected - Let's Go Juno

I did not know it would be this good

Music For the Gods - The Fahnestock South Sea Expedition Indonesia



Mesmerizing, beautiful stuff. Indonesian Gamelan, which is something I've heard mentioned before but never had a chance to look into--turns out this was a fairly major mistake! This disc is a collection of recordings made by a pair of American brothers lugging recording equipment around Indonesia circia 1940, and apparently stands as one of the best documents of gamelan music as performed by the original masters. Gamelan was "forgotten" for a while before being rescued by various musical ensembles and cultural institutes. Whatever the backstory though, this is some seriously ethereal, stunning music. I've been listening to this a lot since I got it. Very peaceful trance-inducing music. I HIGHLY recommend a download (it's okay to like "world music" people, as terrible as that term is).

A Third Thrilling Thumper

I noticed my grammar kinda went south in that last post, comma splices ahoy! But these things can't be helped sometimes. Ninjas be all up in my language steez. Nevertheless, here we have Track of the Week, Part The Third:

Aeroplane - Caramellas

Fantastic piano! Swoonsome buildup around the third minute completes disco wundertrack euphoria! OH EMM GEE!! Love it, you check Aeroplane myspace and listen to other lovely tracks, k? Mulchy! Soon come Beardo Mix The Part The Two, me thinks...

A Brace of Balaeric Beauties

A Mountain Of One - Brown Piano (Remake by Studio)

Peter Visti - Dolly

Start the week off with some slow-grooving beauties. First off Studio's remake of AMO1's newest single is everything you could hope it would be, massive slow-kick bassline and shimmering neo-western guitars unfold over an epic 10-minute span of ghostly disco. Peter Vistsi gives us a re-edit of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" which mostly just steals a guitar lick and the the eponymous chorus re-sung by male vocalist, adds haunted synths, drum kick and handclaps, repeats into krautrock oblivion. Just put these two songs on repeat and drift away...

Turkey Shells Northern Iraq

Can you imagine the absolute shit storm that would happen if this was Iran shelling Iraq?? Oh double standards. But the Americans have long ignored (condoned?) the Turks campaign against the Kurdish people anyway...

This Week in Imperialism

This.

I've seen several comments about this "non-binding" US Senate resolution to partition Iraq into semi-autonomous regions based on sectarian lines (Sunni, Shiite, Kurd), and the thing that keeps getting me is, where are the Iraqis? As far as I can tell, it seems like this plan was drawn up entirely in washington, without any consultation with the people that it would actually effect. Historically, this makes perfect sense. The current borders of Iraq were drawn up by the British back when they were running things in the early 20th C. And given the US's current imperial agenda in the middle east, it's really about time they started drawing new lines on the map. But how is there no comment on this at all? Once again, a foreign, Western nation has decided that it is its burden--no, responsibility--to tell a poor, third-world nation how its government should be run and how the country should be structured, without even consulting them. Especially the sectioning along cultural lines, it seems based on such a mean-spirited assumption about the Iraqi people, that they're simply incapable of overcoming cultural differences, and must be kept fenced off from each each other likes dogs. The assumption that the "oriental" is fundamentally irrational and unchangeable, and that we, the enlightened people of the West, in fact understand their culture better than they do, is like prime rule number one of Orientalism. I wonder if the people writing this resolution have ever even heard of the concept, let alone read the book.

(But but, you say, there's a reference to some sort of partitioning in the Iraqi constitution! And the Iraqi constitution is a clear and unambiguous statement of the will of the Iraqi people, created without any outside influence whatsoever! Really! The American's were also totally surprised to find out Iraq had oil after they attacked! They were so surprised!)

Even the phrasing of that article, all the quotes from the various politicians, are all in reference to how this well help the US. So the message is, "Here, run your country like this, because it will make our (already quite easy) life here in America that much easier." And we are surprised that so many in the third world consider the US to be arrogant and hubristic?

Doesn't this blow anyone else's mind???

Sometimes I have conversations with people who actually think that cops are okay, that they aren't pricks by necessity of their job, that they don't serve as a tool for government intimidation and oppression. for any of you still out there, watch this video of some poor college kid getting tasered for asking john kerry a tough question. yup, those cops sure are playing a vital role in society...

Jesse Rose, Sat Sept 15 @ Lotus Sound Lounge

Anyone down for this? Should be good ole dance tymes!

Jesse Rose @ Dirtybird WMC 2007


He does a more ruff-n-tuff house sound than a lot of the minimal I post round here. Much more a a UK/US house style compared to the sleeker continental german stuff. Which means MAD DOPE BASSLINES. Mind you he did do one of the recent Body Language mixes for Get Physical, home of Booka Shade, M.A.N.D.Y., etc., so there's certainly a lot of crossover with that scene as well. Anyway, this should be good times. Tix $15. And it's on a Saturday!

Here's a remix of his I just randomly downloaded, which sounds pretty good to me:
Armand Van Helden - Playmate (Jesse Rose Remix)

So yummy! So yummy!

thanks to woebot for the tip. Though ostensibly a children's program, I think there's a good chance this show was specifically designed for me. How awesome is that song??? I wish all tv was like this (well, this and nature shows).

"Carrots want to go to the party in my tummy??"

Just for the record, I'm going to be singing this song as I eat from here on in: There's a party in my tummy! So yummy! So yummy!

For whatever reason I was thinking about this snippet of conversation I overheard on wreck beach the other day:

"I was just having this same conversation last weekend when we were camping: never forget your pineapple!"

***

As an addendum to my last post, go here and download Todd Terje's re-edit of Paul Simon's "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" (scroll down to the very bottom). Talk about reclaiming resolutely middle-brow dad-rock!

tempo change

Okay it's official: Studio's new album West Coast is my favorite album of the year. It brings together a whole slew things I've been digging recently: the slow-mo disco, the balearic rivival dance-rock, the groove-locked krautrock, the dubbed-out post-punk, the long-form dance mystery. This is it. I've been listening to it several times a day since I downloaded it on saturday. If I post it here, will you promise to buy it? At least if you really like it, as much as I do? Cuz there's no way these guys are making a living off of this record, the previous 12"s were in runs of 500, you can bet your ass they have a day job to pay their bills. and yet THIS IS AWESOME. It deserves all our support. I'm ordering it, you bet I am! That's why I'm putting it up on yousendit only for a week, so it's not just a giveaway to random googlers months from now.


studio - west coast (pt 1)
studio - west coast (pt 2)


K, so a couple weeks ago I made a mix of stuff sort of along these lines, balearic dance-rock slow mo disco italo krautrock goodness (balearic is the new buzzword, watch for it--it's a reference to 80's era ibiza, where a much more eclectic dance culture ruled, kinda). I really really like this mix actually, i think its one of the best ones i've made in a while. You might be able to tell this sound has definitely got its grips on the old brain-muscle. It's enticingly free-form too, you can throw in influences from almost wherever you like; just keep the rhythm going, keep the vibe fresh and the rest will follow. Thus I present the second treat of today.


das turtles - the beard mix


01 - Findlay Brown - Losing The Will To Survive (Beyond the Wizards Sleeve Reanimation)
02 - A Mountain Of One - Innocent Line
03 - Quiet Village Project - Can't Be Beat
04 - Rune Lindbaek - Afrika
05 - Harmonia - Notre Dame
06 - A Mountain Of One - Warping of the Clock
07 - Quiet Village Project - Too High To Move
08 - B-Movie - Nowhere Girl (12-inch version)
09 - Yellow Magic Orchestra - Behind the Mask
10 - Talking Drums - Courage
11 - A Mountain Of One - Our Eyes


A couple of comments: before I heard studio, a mountain of one would have been my top nu-balearic group, and I'm still really looking forward to their forthcoming compilation of tunes. The two groups are definitely on the same page though, apparently studio will be remixing AMO1's next single, which I'm pretty hyped for. Anyway, I'm quite excited by these couple of bands (I would also throw Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve in there). I mean they're technicially indie rock (cuz they play something rock-derived and they make independant music) but somehow manages to avoid the absolutely dead sound of the currently omnipresent complacent indie rock milieu. Two points save them, I think: the focus on staying (roughly) within a "dance" sound, and their co-opting of a resolutely uncool populist, "dad rock" sound to make actually quite innovative and interesting music. It creates a very strange tension between its seeming familiarity and unplaceable new-ness. Both Studio and AMO1 invoke some forgotten rock radio classic while never being actually mistakable AS such a thing. They've packed a few too many disparate influence into their sound to fit into any one place perfectly, yet recall many simultaneously. Sure this is problematic, indie has been accused quite justifiably of regressive retro-ism and ironic pastiche, substituting quotation of once great music for creation of their own. Certainly this balearic rivival thing could easily turn in such a direction, but this music seems to be quite without irony; it appears to be a genuine appreciation of a more populist, popist sound. To me, there is genuine mystery and intrigue here, something that doesn't quite fit in my head, tickling a spot that I can't quite reach. And I want more.

The rest of the mix fits more along the beardo-disco axis, which is certainly a related field (prins thomas and todd terje both remixed studio's "life's a beach" and they're pretty much the poster boys, along with lindstromm, for beardo/neo-cosmic disco). I've extolled my love of quiet village project before, and I could have put even more of their tracks on here, but I restrained myself. But the mix has nice slow-tempo feel, moving across what are ostensibly a lot of different genres, yet maintaining an overall cohesiveness. And that Harmonia track comes in like the voice of Zeus or something, I'm really proud of that one. Also, spot the Toto re-edit!

N E WAY, i hope you like it. I do.

Post-83 Guitars!

Because I enjoy making ridiculous sweeping generalizations, I made a claim a couple weeks ago while out drinking with folks that there hasen't been any good guitar-based music since '83, except in isolated pockets. Well here is an example of some post-'83 guitar-based music that I like; in fact, I'm currently totally obsessed with this track.

Studio - West Side

It's modern, hip guitar-y music, but it isn't crappy indie-rock nor is it even crappier fifth-generation grunge retreads, mall-punk emo or (worst of all) jack johnson. No, it's a couple of swedes making music that sounds like it should have been an extended album track on some stoned 70's prog rock band. I love it. I've made a mix with some more tunes like this on it that i'll probably post soon, but this track is even better. maybe.

Get out, stupid!

Lenin on the latest numbers from Iraq:

The monthly figures for June showed the highest daily number of attacks on US troops for four years, confirming an upward trend that has been happening for the last four years. The figures also confirm an encouraging downward trend in attacks on civilians which, at any rate, still constitute a minority of such attacks: roughly 70% of attacks are directed at coalition forces, 16% at the Iraqi security forces, and 14% on civilians.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again: the number one problem in Iraq is the presence of American troops. In fact I totally called this way back in January. The most embarrassing thing for Bush and Co. is that when they finally pull out (they will won't they? am I allowed to hope that it might actually occur, that the horror in Iraq might actually end one day?), there won't be chaos and civil war, but a bunch of parties who are sick and tired of dying, and want to live peaceful lives. I'm not saying that'll it'll be heaven on earth or anything, but I'd give good odds on an America-less Iraq being far more peaceful than Iraq in its current state. Dreams of a better future...

Highly Caffeinated Post

Go to this page, and CURSE EVERYONE OF THESE WRITERS except (surprisingly enough) the two from Q and the NME. Why? Because these IDIOTS have made me sleep on Daft Punk's Discovery for over SIX GODDAMN YEARS. What was I thinking? The comment section gets it's completely right, so bloody underrated, so wonderful! Just joyful dance music. And perfect for summer! Couldn't be happier listening to this right now.

Actually I've heard several critics who I highly respect describe Discovery as Daft Punk's "masterpiece" but it was just one of those albums I never got around to checking out, and I know at the time it was put out I definitely was swayed by the largely negative press it got. Actually, it's a bit odd, but it seems like some serious revisionism is going on here. Look at the pitchfork piece (written by no less a hack than pitchfork head Ryan Schrieber--someone should throw this terrible, rockist review into his smug indie-loving face). But anyway, if you look near the bottom of the page there's a link to their review of Daft Punk's last album, Human After All, which refers to the "exquisite, joyous Discovery." Kinda funny eh? But I mean, even the Onion got it wrong, and they're usually half-decent. It's interesting how group-think can affect critics sometimes, and then affect them in reverse again.


So yeah, I downloaded this last night (along with a bunch of Aaliyah and En Vogue...ummm a slightly odd stage in my musical tastes yes, but good fun nonetheless. I absolutely love Aaliyah. If this goes on much longer I'm going to have to post about her too), and I'll post the whole thing here, cuz what the hell why not. But yeah, what got me back on the daft punk front was actually this youtube clip of some girl dancing her ass off to "harder, better, faster, stronger" which made me realize how great that song was. That's another thing that I've been doing a lot of recently, oddly enough, is checking out various youtube clips of different sweet dances. There's tons of ones of kids dancing to baltimore club or detroit ghettotech, and the comments sections are filled with heated battles about d-town vs b'more and who has the dopest moves. Ah internet, you keep things fresh.


Daft Punk - Discovery


Fuck I was totally starting to do work this morning and then got sidetracked writing about daft punk! blast! Thesis oh so close to done. Mind clearly deteriorating into strange state of constant flux.