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Dubstep Christmas Track Played out in House Lights

A fine enough remix, setting the street alight....

Six Notes to Oppress You: Competition for Composers

Super competition.

The Free Music Archive are running a Happy Birthday contest to seek a few new Happy Birthday songs that are simple and catchy, with great earworm potential (remember: HBTY uses only six notes!) that can be sung in restaurants, bowling alleys, even in TV shows and movies – free of charge.

They say "Let's shake “Happy Birthday” from it’s fortified cultural throne, and replace it with a melody that the children can sing without fear of being served a payment request."


Very Smooth. This Is The Kit "Earthquake" - Official Video

The Landfill Harmonic Orchestra

"A community like Cateura is not the place to have a violin..."
The Cateura Dump, in the Bañado Sur area along the Paraguay River, is the final dumping site for more than 1,500 tons of solid waste each day. Poor management has caused the country’s most essential water supply to become dangerously polluted and the environment contaminated. Not the place you'd imagine, amongst child labour and 2,500 families who try to survive each day, to find a fully blown and astoundingly innovative harmonic orchestra.

Feminist Dance?

References to De Beauvoir and softly uttered lyrics calling for "credit where credit's due": synth pop act Gaptooth has an unambiguously feminist message, developed probably after playing live shows since 2006 DJing with the all-woman collective Chicks with Decks in Oxford /Bristol. A main organisers of Ladyfest Bristol 2007, Gaptooth relocated to London in 2009 where she's been in the  recording new songs for her debut album:10th December is the release of 'Ladykillers'.

Spraymasters - a history

Rythmic Noise...Dan Friel - Ulysses

Tonight's Free Lab Radio Tonight: Eddy Temple-Morris

Tonight we've Eddy Temple-Morris in the studio, or as we've come to call him 'Mr Remix', discussing tinnitus, chess & the art of losing...

With 13 years at alternative commercial station XFM, Eddy presents their flagship The Remix show each Friday night. Plus he's also a record producer,  remixer, DJ and bass player in the band Losers.

Our interest in Eddy stemmed from his capacities as a musical polymath, and the fact that he is half Iranian, being the son of Baron Temple-Morris and Taheré Khozeimé-Alam (the daughter of Amir-Hossein Khozeimé Alam of Dezashib -  the last ruling Amir of Qaenat and Sistan, in what's now south-eastern Iran) who like many Iranians, fled to London from Iran in 1979 at the time of the tumultuous Islamic Revolution.

So what kind of music would Eddy bring us?

Surprisingly, a track we weren't immediately comfortable playing, alongside some class remixes (naturally) and a track from his one band Losers for which my favourite video is here below. To find out more tune in on 104.4FM at 11pm-midnight....

Super Japanese Synth Pop to Yet Another Fake Movie

After seeing Argo this week this is just a super find.

Argo is the true story recently released by the USA and written by a CIA operative, of their activities in 1979 Iran, when the embassy was under siege to evacuate six Americans under the guise of location scouting for a fake Hollywood sci-fi movie.

And here we have the sound track to a fake Bollywood movie.

Cochin Moon is by Yellow Magic Orchestra bassist Haruomi Hosono. Hosono was inspired to make music suggesting the other-worldy, spiritual world of Indian cinema and worked with pop artist Tadanori Yokoo, who did the incredible Bollywood-style cover art. This electro-tropical soundtrack to a fake movie of the same name is an entirely electronic work and  is a total dream.


"Vengeance Rhythm"


Two Fingers is an album by Brazilian-born electro-jazz/breaks/jungle producer Amon Tobin and U.K. drum'n'bass artist Doubleclick (Joe Chapman), plus guest MCs. The two producers met when Tobin lived in Brighton, U.K. and started working in Montreal in 2007 over a series of tracks, of which the 2003 track "Ownage" is a great example, but still taking on a new direction "incorporating visceral elements of dancehall, dubstep, and grime". This video is by stop-frame animator and director Chris Ullens. Ullens transforms a pile of toys, a love of super slo-mo explosions and a huge pile of mince into the funniest, most eye-popping and shocking exercise in animated ultra-violence since Oliver Postgate found out Bagpuss was cheating on him with Professor Yaffle. 

Tonight's Show 11pm - HASSAN K

A live jam by Fari B and Hassan K in the studio, with an intro into the work and philosophy behind the Hassan K project based on a history of Persia in the Middle Ages by Malouf, created by Keyvane Alinaghi from Lille, France.

Movember Special + Zine Music

Tonight's show an entirely zany collection of character in a report from the pop-up TASHATORIUM that took place this weekend at Whitely's Shopping Centre, boasting a live performance by The Cuban Brothers. Plus a live performance recorded today by Chris Weaver at a "sound Drawing" Zine Workshop + music by long-standing ResonanceFM friends The Chap and other fantashtic oddities....


















When the Cover's Better Than the Original

One EskimO "Kandi" - OK we played this ages ago, and although it's outside of our usual sound (Janice Long loves it, this is where BBC2 and ResonanceFM meet), just talking about it yesterday at Absolute radio (where I'd be surprised to hear it on the piped music in the lifts, loos and stairwells etc), had to hear once more....

Sharooz - Nov 3rd Broadcast

Iranian DJ/ electronic producer Sharooz is co-founder of the Sounds to Sample website (now sold to Beatport), sound design company Sample Magic and record label La Bombe.

His music has appeared on record labels such as Ministry of Sound, Record Makers and Sunday Best.

Sharooz has also provided sounds and patches for Steinberg's Cubase software, Propellerhead's Reason, Roland's Sonar, FXpansion's Geist and Korg hardware.

11pm-midnight Sat Nov 3rd.

Check his free track download Osiris below.

Free Lab Radio Tonight ~ Oct 27th

After last week's look at Neurostep, we break free from genre dabbling so that tonight's Free Lab Radio explores Chilean electronica, Persian surf and electro flamenco...
 

Oh ya!


Tonight's Free Lab Radio ~ NEUROSTEP

Since it's adulthood in the 90s, Drum 'n Bass had a lot of children. One was Neurofunk who later produced Neurostep via Techstep...so goes the ever-expanding family tree of musical genres which constantly redefines itself. Who wouldn't prefer to be at the root where the creativity starts rather than at the other, where cataloging has to happen!

So after two weeks in Lebanon, a country in which cultural terrorism is carefully monitored by some (and not wrongly,when they've such good stuff to preserve -i.e. dabke, Palestinian revolutionary music and so on) we're letting loose back here in the UK.

Good ole blighty, we've little care to preserve music forms as part of our everyday life, thus little boundaries.

Morning Song: Ane Brun - 'Do You Remember'

Another video worth watching (rarely do we post aught else):
"Do you remember the late morning, when we went back to bed? When we found our first position and every muscle rested."

Live Electronics Gig - Sth East London

On Wednesday, Embodied Audio-Visual Interaction and A-B-A presents an
evening of live electronics performances.

Ryan Jordan
Glitch Lich
Chris Weaver
Tom Richards
Luke Fraser
Ryo Ikeshiro

Wednesday 17th October 2012
Doors: 7pm. Performances: 8pm
Entry: £5

The Amersham Arms, 388 New Cross Road London SE14 6TY

Nearby stations:
New Cross (East London Line)
New Cross Gate (East London Line)
Deptford Bridge (DLR)
Deptford (Rail)

http://aaaabbbbaaaa.wordpress.com/

☖⚆⚇...≳≲...BEIRU`TRONICA....≳≲...⚆⚇☖


Sampling tracks from our forthcoming live set launching Share Beirut at the Radio Beirut Cafe.

LISTEN IN! 

For a longer set we steam live from 7-9pm BST (9-11pm local time) Fri 5th Oct. on Radio Beirut.

As usual tonight's is an eclectic set, with Middle Eastern references and parallels. There's also some Grim Skunk, Delta 5 and other joys in there.

By the way...did you know that everyone in Lebanon has a cat?














K POP - K is not for Ketamine!

This is old already, but the broadsheets have just discovered it, so we're posting it for you here in case you've missed it. K Pop puts Korea on our minds and lips...we're so shallow!
The videos are always enthralling in a kind of tacky way, yet this one actually has musical merit...drag-multiple-personality-Gaga on ketamine speaks in tongues?
Of course the silent politics is the best bit, not because we're sensationalists, but because it's actually enlivening to see people saying what needs be said for once.

BIGBANG - FANTASTIC BABY M/V

Totally un-PC: Coolie Dance Riddim Mix

Jamaica creatives react to the news too, you know.

Speak Easty

Cassius leads the way with his more bombastic modes of musical expression.  Soon we go East....wanting and yearning with Feeling for You....tonight's show has urban Middle Eastern flavours.

The Best Things in Life Aren't Things

One half of Hull-based duo 'The Cutler' (Steve Cobby) converses as a disembodied computer-generated voice with us about their latest brilliantly titled album 'The Best Things in Life Aren't Things'. We break into the chat with tracks from the new album and even throw in a track from their first (and only other) album. We loved them at first for their variety and quality of music, but now we love them for their philosophy and humour to boot.

Tonight's Show - Fun with 'The Cutler'

On the release of their new and only second album The Best Things in Life Aren't Things, we interview and sample the Hull based duo The Cutler. Tracks are from both of their two album releases, which are five years apart.

To understand why, catch the interview on UK's art-music radio station tonight...

From 11pm on 104.4FM

Where Have all the 00s Giants Gone?

The bands that made musical history either side of the turn of the century have seemingly receded behind the clamouring mass of home-based music production since the computer became a household object in around 2005.
So where have they been, those bands that you once loved and more importantly what have they been making? Telegraph published the top 100 songs that define the noughties, just at the end of the decade while NME decided to look at the best 100 albums for that period even as listening to entire album became less an dless the norm .
 
Many have developed a doleful, more minimal sound, perhaps as a backlash against the aforementioned clamour. None more so than Massive Attack who's 5th album Heligoland of 2010 certified Gold in the UK, which retains their original sound, with less flourish and freer form. This track, Girl I Love You, is my favourite. It features some kooky cymbal action almost in the foreground which later descends into an almost avant garde dissonant wind section towards the end. Lovely.

Afro-Psyche-Hop. NATIVE SUN with LEGACY

The seed of Sun Ra...."I painted mantras on your mental canvas..."

Music Lift? The Campaign Against Living Miserably

  A benefit gig for supporters of adults with depression, these bands hit the Scala, King's X,  Friday 31st August 2012. The gig, named Man Down is in support of CALM (www.thecalmzone.net).

Live music:
Who are they?  Well Two Wounded Birds's self-titled debut album released in June to great critical accalim. Music mag giants NME Magazine gave the album 8/10, and Q Magazine gave it 4/5. Could they be right? Check it out and join an invariably empathetic crowd.

Tickets: £15 in advance from Ticketweb All proceeds go straight to CALM to support their work and services in London. The event will help push CALM one step closer to expanding its 4 day helpline to 7 days. CALM is a registered charity no 1110621.

Today's Supernatural and Centipede Hz



If you like this oddball, circus-psych rock...you can stream the Animal Collective's whole new album from Domino Records: Centipede Hz HERE

Centipede Hz Tracklist:
01. Moonjock
02. Today’s Supernatural
03. Rosie Oh
04. Applesauce
05. Wide Eyed
06. Father Time
07. New Town Burnout
08. Monkey Riches
09. Mercury Man
10. Pulleys
11. Amanita

MP3 Ping Pong - Sat 18th Radio Show

11pm-midnight on 104.4FM, www.resonancefm.com/listen

Graphic designer to clubs and musicians Ali Augur visits the studio with his playlist. Free Lab Radio responds with several tracks left of that, while we interview Ali on his work and associations.

From fund raising exhibitions in art galleries to club night flyers Ali's work has a strong social leaning. On top of that his long history of designing has some proper names to drop in it!

Highlight: when Ali spots the graphic design for an MP3 on our Ipod, and we Crank It Up, revealing how particular to his taste our playlist has been, compared to "other stuff" we play out.




This Saturday's Show - FauN

 Saturday night 11pm-midnight on ResonanceFM, Cairo-Berlin based FauN plays an hour's mix he's called: Lucid Dreams, which is a blend of various forms of psychotronica.

FauN is a Dj and Organisor based in Berlin and Cairo. As Founder of the "Exodus Project", which is based in Cairo, he tries to combine political work with culture and art.
FauN works together with the Dub Der Guten Hoffnung Crew on the very special dubstep night in Berlin, which takes part @ Subland ones in a month

Gotye coming to UK

One of the 'closest' male voices of today, check the India Aussie's UK dates HERE
The tour begins August 2012 in Korea before winding through Japan, North America, Europe, the Middle East and finishing in Australia in December 2012.

Humane Animal Torture for "Natural Thing"

Genius, everyone loves watching this kind of video. But after the initial fun, what remains? The indelible truth that - put in a confined space with no details - all the animals chased the light in a uniformly concentrated manner. When the light goes out at the end, what does the behavioural pattern tell us?

Nobody Beats The Drum - Natural Thing from johan rijpma on Vimeo.

PODCAST - 'My White Canadian Arse'

Our first and last flirtation with a compilation!  
Highlights: newcomer Shoeb Ahmad, Dunjinz, Nina Hagen, more Amirali, trollstep, tracks like 'Book of the Monkey' by saint of the copy-free: Dan-O plus other wavy grooves and a last rude flip of the tail at the end from Skrypnyk.... find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FreeLabRadio

The Blind Owl - Strange House


Not just the name, but this vintage blues album cover above, and the particular, slightly animalistic song by the band, reminds me of the dark, anomalous and twisted Iranian novel The Bind Owl, by Sadeq Hedayat. This seminal novel looks at obsession, madness, despair and changed the vocabulary, if you like, of Iranian literature at the time.

Aside from the obvious feel of The Doors (proto-motoric drums, dreamy guitar riffs) there's the wild-cat vocals that call to mind the sophisticatedly ferine artist Marcus Coates who performed a shamanic ritual with the prog-disco Band Chrome Hoof. Hear extracts of his live ritual and my very frank interview on Resonance104.4FM with him HERE:
http://podcasts.resonancefm.com/archives/9169

Page Jamming

The new craze called page jamming as referenced here.
Here's a "How to" for you: two to watch and hear together.
Check the audio, by MSTRKRFT
http://soundcloud.com/magikhat/mstrkrft-feat-john-legend-heartbreaker-12th-planet-remix
And launch the fine Fantastic Planet, for those entrancingly delicate 1973 visuals:

Skuzz Afrikaans - 'Baby's On Fire'

They made famous the term 'zef' (Afrikaans for skuzz, or 'common but cool'), and recently asked for support when quitting their label Interscope Records to go indie. This rather unforgettable video from the new album by Die Antewoord (The Answer), is less dark than their usual output, and features an extended intro. The artistic direction flirts unashamedly with the prevalent trend for women to look underage, while the storyline playfully documents the near-uncontrollable nature of adolescent passion (sic my 17 years old sister).
Yo-Landi Vi$$er has always looked like this, but the exaggerated references in this video are undeniable. Part of the video's success is also down to the gorgeous actors they've employed as Yo-Landi's would-be suitors, plus the car/bike stunts and the fashion - something Die Antewoord has been consistent with.

Free Lab Radio Tonight - BBC3's Robert Worby

Worby interviewing Steve Reich
Composer and BBC Radio 3 broadcaster Robert Worby in the studio discussing his methods, influences and the forthcoming John Cage centenary.

From reel tape to keyboards to field recordings, features on sound art history, and even  directing the Sonic Arts Network while holding down his day job on BBC 3's Hear and Now - Worby's life is steeped in audio.

In the 70s he was a member of several post-punk bands and The Mekonse performed on 2 John Peel sessions and in 1989, was invited to work with John Cage at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.

Iranian Electronica and What Not...

"One Hell of a Work of Art" - Sound of Noise

Trouble Sleeping


Every single night
I endure the flight
Of little wings of white-flamed
Butterflies in my brain.

These ideas of mine
Percolate the mind
Trickle down the spine
Swarm the belly, swelling to a blaze—
That’s when the pain comes in,
Like a second skeleton,
Trying to fit beneath the skin I can’t fit the feelings in
Every single night’s a fight
With my brain

Songs for the Morning



You thought you knew him but you don't, Gnarls Barkley, once predicted by a few as a one-hit-wonder has been prolific in proving the murmurers wrong since. This song, worthy of Nina herself, breaks through the morning with it's compassionate lyrics and vocals and its persistent rhythm. Live, Barkley's performed this at a much slower tempo, but the faster version contains that element of hope we love.


Fringe Dubstep

RUSKO ‘BIGGEST CHOPPER’ (WHITE LABEL, 2008) [12" Unofficicial Vinyl Release - POLICECHOPPER001]

A tale of faith, suspicion and flying saucers set to Kaspar Hauser

A film that single-handedly invents the techno western genre, The Legend of Kaspar Hauser reimagines the nineteenth century man who seemingly had no past as an androgynous woman washing up on a Mediterranean island, and starting a war between the Sheriff and the Pusher, both played by Vincent Gallo.

Kaspar Hauser, a nineteenth century man who seemingly appeared from nowhere claiming to have had no previous contact with society, is reimagined by director Davide Manuli as an androgynous woman washing up on a Mediterranean island, and starting a war between the Sheriff and the Pusher, both played by Vincent Gallo

A tale of faith, suspicion and flying saucers set to the thudding beats of techno behemoth Vitalic, Kaspar Hauser is the sort of astonishing experience modern cinema rarely manages, a Techno Western in a world of its own.
Screening 9pm, Friday 6th July, Hackney Picturehouse

The Legend of Kaspar Hauser from East End Film Festival on Vimeo.

Tonight's Free Lab Radio - Pates' John Peel Tapes

Pates Tapes is hundreds, even thousands of hours of vinyl and cassette mixed and made available on line. Charles Tapes has been making mixtapes since 1977 and amazingly has access to John Peel's own record collection, which he has bought the rights to.

Here is his one hour Best Of Pates Tapes mix.
Check him out on www.patestapes.com


"A‘Greatest Hits of patestapes,’ one track from each of the eleven sections, you can imagine the arguments I’ve had with myself."

Mutamassik - After This Podcast



11pm Saturday - a special one hour mix "After This" by Mutamassik, made on 2 turntables, a CD walkman for original tracks, and a broken mixer. Featuring tracks from the upcoming 2012, vinyl-only release "Rekkez" on ini.itu records.

Here are her views:
"After revolutions, what do you put in place?
Destruction is easy.  Construction is a b**ch.
Also, 1st world protests--*****--if you are not willing to step
down your standard of living, there can be no revolution.  Period."
"I completely lost the illusion that metropolis like New York, London and
Tokyo are the ultimate hubs of activity, power points on maps, the
epicenters of life.  The irony and truth is that their very breath depends
on an enormous, rhizomatic, artificial life-support system that trucks,
ships, flies in provisions from all kinds of unfashionable places to
sustain it's millions.  A city cannot produce enough food for even a
fraction of its population.  If people do not eat, they die..."
Track list:
1.  cello intro= Mutamassik
2.  'Not Having to Choose Between Killing and Being Killed (P.S.A.)'=
Mutamassik 'That Which Death Cannot Destroy' (Sa'aidi
Hardcore/RoughAmericana)
3.  'Elf Laila we Laila'=Oum Kalsoum & Abdel Wahab Orchestra (Sono Cairo)
4.  'Magda Mariam'='Taranim el Qadisa Mariam' (uncredited)/
'#2=Laraji & Brian Eno/'Dec 1'=Morgan Craft (Circle of Light/RoughAmericana)
5.  'Wishik'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
6.  'Fathy's Jam'=Fathy Salama and Friends
7.  'Subliminal'=Suicidal Tendencies (Frontier)
8.  'La d'Hericourt'=Cl. Balbastre 'Jos Van Immerseel plays Historic
Flemish Harpsichords' (Odyssey)
9.  'Broken Record'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
10. 'Rawa'a'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)/'Commitment=Jayne Cortez & the
Firespitters 'Maintain Control' (Bola)
11. 'Welem'=Ghada el Badeyya (Music Box)
12. 'Mothership'=Ed Rush (No U-Turn)
13. 'In Fields Near Labs'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
14. 'Dr. Aida'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
15. 'Nawal'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
16. 'In Labs Near Fields'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
17. 'Blue Bones'=Mutamassik (Meerkat)
18. 'Franco Arab'=Fakry el Gazawy (Morifon)
19. 'Coptic Mass'=Abuna Kyrollos and attendants
20. 'Human Shield'-Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
21. 'Mestizo.Blood.Drums'=Mutamassik 'That Which Death Cannot Destroy'
(Sa'aidi Hardcore/RoughAmericana)
22. 'The Force is Electric'= Ed Rush/Nico (No U-Turn)
23. 'Cairo Field Recording'
24. 'Bluedev mix'=Youssri & Hannaa/Concord Blue Dvs. Marching Band
25. 'Rekkez'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)

Wishik--"your face".  My mother sings an old Egyptian song, "Min ellak
teskoun fe Haretna", the words of which were intended as a love song, but
double paradoxically well as a resistance poem:  
"How dare you come and live in our street
You are occupying us and you're cramping our style
We don't have any more comfort.
Find a solution for our situation,
Otherwise leave this place
And go somewhere else."

Debut EP by Persian-Canadian DJ DJREO

- Poor Volition [Broken Synth]

Saturday's Radio Show - FUTURE REIGNS

If the future reigns the past is its subject. Neo-Romo is now all over the London scene calling itself new wave, dark wave, electronic/post-punk, 'slightly gothy, synthy electronica'. On Saturday June 9th's Free Lab Radio we sample bands such as SOFT RIOT  / NOI KABAT / A TERRIBLE SPLENDOUR and MILD PERIL plus Australia-based musician SHOEB AHMAD, electronics and guitar pop experimentalist soon to play his UK debut June 16th.

Where
the new romantics in the 80s celebrated glamour; flamboyant clothes and hedonism, our Neo-Romos dress similarly but are not so reserved and so at odds with their clothes as the new romantics were. More at ease with themselves, they offer up darker, contemporary lyrics, with an even more effete style and better production.

So to celebrate the Underground Film Festival, the bands play live for Future Reigns with visuals from the equally stygian Underground Film Festival going on above them.

Mild Peril told us of their live performance:  "It's going to be a fairly improvised performance in the style of Tangerine Dream/Zombi/Steve Moore/John Carpenter type synthesizer music, that kind of thing."

In this scene the boys are prettier than the girls, they all smoke and nobody knows what these kids ultimately want because they beautifully express such moribund desires for things that are beyond life itself, even in the realm of science fiction, love and death.
 
Find out more about the event on June 10th and the subsequent Soft-Riot Euro-tour HERE.

Urban Turban - Cornershop's New Album 2012

The track here, 'Milkin' It' featuring In Light Of Aquarius from Cornershop's new album (released May 2012), is a critique of hip hop today. In itself it's a minimal crash, as adventurous in it's nudity as some tracks by MIA. The bass line says "Cornershop!" but the rest of it, really is an experiment for them. The guys don't seem to enjoy sticking to a genre, which for me is exciting and natural.
Stripping it bare when technology allows you to slap on more, is hot stuff right now. I keep going to parties where people are dancing around to a simple beat and some ambient noise, not much else. We're so overloaded, that we're reaching for the metronome so we can act out all the words and rhythms that  have built up in our heads during urban journeys? That's it! We're unwinding the urban turban a veritable beehive of sirens, advertising slogans, snippets of TV, radios and second hand I-pod noise and punctuated by bus brakes, alarms and drilling.
"Jiggy jiggy jiggy is all I hear; no rhyme, no style, no original beats."

Polish Experiments, Spaceship on Venus

Tonight, we sample Polish experimental audio from the 60s and 70s with a smattering of lively tunes designed to make you move and think at the same time. Fancy that. See the Polish-East German production (pictured) FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS (Der schweigende Stern)- 1960 in which recordings from the debris of the 1908 Tunguska meteor turn out to be a spaceship from Venus. To get to the drama, you have to jump the lengthy intro, itself debris from the once dominating male voice in literature where dry, lengthy descriptive introductions from the omnipresent narrator were the norm. Check the emperor Nehru character in the white hat, and the terrible dubbing.

Monkeys + Synthesisers.

Monkeys + Synthesisers is a project where 6 different species of monkeys (and some others) were given different synthesizers. Do monkeys like music and do they enjoy creating music? Wait until half way through to find out what the simian soundtrack really sounds like....

Saturday 26th May - Oscillatorial Binnage

To celebrate our forthcoming gig for the Association of Musical Marxists (I kid you not) we'll be broadcasting a two hour jam by noise group Oscillatorial Binnage. 11pm-midnight as ever.

Catch us June 7th blowing ears and blowing minds at The Blue Posts, Rupert St, W1. Feminist Nina Power will be speaking, as well as Ben Watson, presenter of Resonance 104.4FM's Late Out to Lunch show.

Here we are pictured, at the first ever Wellcome Collection live music event to be held in London. Click the picture to find out how noisy it really was. Other times, as a group we've played with water and kitchen implements on stage, inside one of our kitchen for a party and live broadcast in association with Serpentine Gallery, at Tate Modern vibrating steel and inside a huge empty warehouse where the building itself was the instrument creating resonant frequencies.
Miles and miles of cable for that one!


IF ResonanceFM's Pensioner's Show Took a Pill

Our weekly pensioner's show DAGE on ResonanceFM were the only show to get us into trouble with Ofcom, the UK broadcast regulator. They've always had a reputation for being wild, with their chequered histories and sense of humour, but could they raise the bar on The Zimmers? Here they are, finally with a budget and a music video director....and a sack of hair spray and eyeliner.

Broadcast Sat 19th May: Egyptian/ Afro-Asiatic Hip-Hop-Hard-Step


11pm Saturday - a special one hour mix "After This" by Mutamassik, made on 2 turntables, a CD walkman for original tracks, and a broken mixer. Featuring tracks from the upcoming 2012, vinyl-only release "Rekkez" on ini.itu records.

Here are her views:
"After revolutions, what do you put in place?
Destruction is easy.  Construction is a b**ch.
Also, 1st world protests--*****--if you are not willing to step
down your standard of living, there can be no revolution.  Period."

"I completely lost the illusion that metropolis like New York, London and
Tokyo are the ultimate hubs of activity, power points on maps, the
epicenters of life.  The irony and truth is that their very breath depends
on an enormous, rhizomatic, artificial life-support system that trucks,
ships, flies in provisions from all kinds of unfashionable places to
sustain it's millions.  A city cannot produce enough food for even a
fraction of its population.  If people do not eat, they die..."

Track list:
1.  cello intro= Mutamassik
2.  'Not Having to Choose Between Killing and Being Killed (P.S.A.)'=
Mutamassik 'That Which Death Cannot Destroy' (Sa'aidi
Hardcore/RoughAmericana)
3.  'Elf Laila we Laila'=Oum Kalsoum & Abdel Wahab Orchestra (Sono Cairo)
4.  'Magda Mariam'='Taranim el Qadisa Mariam' (uncredited)/
'#2=Laraji & Brian Eno/'Dec 1'=Morgan Craft (Circle of Light/RoughAmericana)
5.  'Wishik'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
6.  'Fathy's Jam'=Fathy Salama and Friends
7.  'Subliminal'=Suicidal Tendencies (Frontier)
8.  'La d'Hericourt'=Cl. Balbastre 'Jos Van Immerseel plays Historic
Flemish Harpsichords' (Odyssey)
9.  'Broken Record'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
10. 'Rawa'a'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)/'Commitment=Jayne Cortez & the
Firespitters 'Maintain Control' (Bola)
11. 'Welem'=Ghada el Badeyya (Music Box)
12. 'Mothership'=Ed Rush (No U-Turn)
13. 'In Fields Near Labs'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
14. 'Dr. Aida'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
15. 'Nawal'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
16. 'In Labs Near Fields'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
17. 'Blue Bones'=Mutamassik (Meerkat)
18. 'Franco Arab'=Fakry el Gazawy (Morifon)
19. 'Coptic Mass'=Abuna Kyrollos and attendants
20. 'Human Shield'-Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
21. 'Mestizo.Blood.Drums'=Mutamassik 'That Which Death Cannot Destroy'
(Sa'aidi Hardcore/RoughAmericana)
22. 'The Force is Electric'= Ed Rush/Nico (No U-Turn)
23. 'Cairo Field Recording'
24. 'Bluedev mix'=Youssri & Hannaa/Concord Blue Dvs. Marching Band
25. 'Rekkez'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)

Wishik--"your face".  My mother sings an old Egyptian song, "Min ellak
teskoun fe Haretna", the words of which were intended as a love song, but
double paradoxically well as a resistance poem:  
"How dare you come and live in our street
You are occupying us and you're cramping our style
We don't have any more comfort.
Find a solution for our situation,
Otherwise leave this place
And go somewhere else."


BIO: Egyptian-Italian Massik states that she's dedicated to promoting "the fire in creativity that incinerates obstacles and small-mindedness".

Mutamassik (= stronghold/ tenacity in Arabic) played cello and drums in various bands, founded Sa'aidi Hardcore Productions in 1996 and label KMT BABOMB, and now runs a music-arts studio G.G.S.S/Rocca AlMileda in Brooklyn, Cairo and Tuscany.
 

 As a producer she pioneered Sa'aidi Hardcore and Baladi Breakbeat and is known to throw in the occasional transcendental sonic experiment. And that's why we love her! From knuckles on the turntable, to sampled sentiments- Massik enjoys her trade. She's currently performing with guitarist Morgan Craft as Rough Americana as well as solo. Go Massik!
_______________________________________________________________________
The second half of the show might be a recording of a live show by arch-soundman Xentos Fray Bentos and tech-artist Chris Weaver, but of course there's been no indication this will happen, in fact this is something I've totally dreamed up in a fleeting blink of Utopia. But dreams go on.

When A Queen Dies......What a Voice.

Donna Summer, aged 63, died this morning. We celebrate too late. During her life, she started singing at church in the gospel choir, and later after teaming up with a pioneer on Italian synthesiser Giorgio Moroder, she became a disco diva with unforgettable hits like Love to Love You Baby and the much reworked: I Feel Love.

She also won 5 Grammy Awards, with an even further 12 nominations. She was the first black artist in history to get a Grammy in the rock category in 1979, and was awarded best rock vocal performance for Hot Stuff, below.

Here she is looking delicious and singing I Feel Love, live in 1978. If you want to see how well she aged, here she is singing it with an orchestra on the Night of the Proms in Belgium, 2005. Ma Donna.



Cospeh Jonrad

Cospeh Jonrad (Ralph Cumbers), sometimes too abstract even for us, has hit the right chord as "some truths."
This is from 'damnation poisoned with rainbows' released on cassette, (yes, cassette, now a retro-trend for those to young to remember cassettes the first time round), June 2011 on MAGIC + DREAMS label. If you like this and think you go even more minimal, try THIS.
If you need more animation and beats in your music, check out Jonrad's work as Bass Clef, below which is his most personable piece of video work yet.

The below video was shot through a teleidoscope, built by Vesta Kroese.


Retro Disco Hiro Friends Go: 'Mind Control'


New single from their imminent album release. But you could be forgiven for thinking this was released in '82, 'til you listen to the lyrics, so contemporary - "I can make my own noise, I can be my own god."

Irvine Walsh's 'Ecstasy' & Films About Dance Culture

As films in this line go, there's been some bad ones, some enduring ones (regardless of their quality) and some great ones (It's All Gone Pete Tong, for example). Usually drugs and death are in the mix. Aside from Footloose of course when dancing itself was the sinful vehicle for the 'high'.

We saw Danny Boyle's adaptation of Walsh's book in Trainspotting, it set a bar for pop film style. But what will Irvine Welsh's new film Ecstasy, adapted from The Undefeated, the third novella in Welsh’s book Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance, be setting?

So far reviews are less then even luke warm. No rush 'n high here then.

This Week - Trollstep

teehnbwitches are just one of many teenagers in America finding a voice in this blend of rap, lo-fi game music, dark step and dubstep.

Bedroom Features

Tonight's mix is done from: The Bedroom-Studio! Heard of it?

I don't think you'd notice, except that there's no talking. Building blocks, track by track.

Some great content. One of my all time favourites tracks near the end. Enjoy the journey, don't ask for a playlist.

From midnight until 1am Chris Weaver has organised something.  He won't tell me what it is, except that currently he's working on a massive project for 800 auto synths, naturally he's told no one about it really, except that it will be performed live in Scotland in the great outdoors as part of a ResonanceFM 2012 mega Olympic project.  Leaves it to me. Call me mouth. We'll probably hear about it first on the BBC, but watch this space, in case I can get more info.

So Beautiful, and Terrible

Now that Marina has come out with a new album, it's time to look across the spectrum of voices/lyrics/orchestration out there. Beyond the obvious, there's singer song writers like these....

"When you came jumping down the stairs 
Screaming bloody awful,
You woke up god and everyone, 
Screaming bloody awful [...] 
And then the earth started shaking, and yeah it was crazy 
Heaven and hell came crashing down, 
It was beautiful -  and terrible."

You Keep Saying We're Free

Not every rapper is shooting guns with his gums. This thoughtful poet and believes we can hear him even if he doesn't shout. And he's got something to say you'll find rings true.


Uncle Sam Goddamn :

Ah,
The name of this song is uncle sam goddamn
It's a show tune but the show ain't been written for it yet.
We're gonna see if Tony Jerome and the band
can maybe work this sh++ out for me
And straighten me out right quick
I like it so far man

Welcome to the united snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grand imperial guard where
the dollar is sacred and proud

Let's do this s** for real, come on now

Smoke and mirrors, stripes and stars
Stolen for the cross in the name of God
Bloodshed, genocide, rape and fraud
Written to the pages of the law, good lord

The cold continent latch key child
Ran away one day and started acting foul
King of where the wild things are, daddy's proud
Cause the roman empire done passed it down

Imported and tortured the work force
They never healed the wounds or shook the curse off
Now the grown up Goliath nation
Holdin open auditions for the part of David, can you feel?

Nothing can save you, you question the rain
You get rushed in and chained up
fists raised but I must be insane
Cause I can't figure a single goddamn way to change it

Welcome to the united snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grant imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is god

All must bow to the fat and lazy
The f++ you obey me and
why do they hate me, who me?
Only two generations away from
the Worlds most despicable slavery trade

Pioneered so many ways to degrade a human being
That it can't be changed to this day
Legacy so ingrained in the way that we think
We don't only need chains to be slaves

Lord it's a shameful display
The overseers even got raped along the way
Cause the children can't escape from the pain
And they're born with the pores
and this hatred in their veins

Try and separate a man from his soul
You'll only strengthen him and lose your own
Well shoot that f++ker if he walk near the throne
Remind him that this is my home (now i'm gone)

Welcome to the united snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grant imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is god

You don't give money to the bums
On the corner with a sign, bleeding from their gums
Talking much, you don't support a crackhead
What you think happens to the money from yo' taxes

Sh++ the governments an addict
With a billion dollar a week kill brown people habit
And even if you ain't on the front line
When the master yell crunch time you right back at it

You ain't look at how you hustling backwards
And the end of the year add up what they subtracted
3 outta twelve months your salary
Paid for that madness, man that's sadness

What's left get a big ass plasma
To see where they made Dan Rather point the damn camera
Only approved questions get answered
Now stand your ass up for that national anthem

Welcome to the united snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grant imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is god

Custom made, the consumer news
Keep saying we're free
But we're all just blue



All of this wilderness is mine

Soft-spoken Albert Plá is a well-known Spanish pop star and firebrand. Here in the video for "Hongos" (which means mushrooms, nothing to do with how he's hung) he has set himself amongst the shrooms during a psycho-delic trip that features his own manhood almost coming alive. Apparently this is a common nightmare, or dream even, amongst men. I can't say myself.

After watching it, you might want to know what he is on about, so I've tweaked the hideous-auto cyber translation to make sense in English, enjoy!

Mushrooms 
It was Monday afternoon,
but it was dawn at the same time
a bitter chocolate rain fell in the desert

Thawing snow bites the dust,
the heat in this winter makes curves that flow straight in the air
I look down and find them I'm making the exact same curves ...
I look down and find them!

On my toes,
colored fungi grow
I eat them
and make flowers grow
beyond the horizon.

My memories, on wheels,
I oscillate between here and somewhere else,
the rattlesnakes amongst the honey-loaded bees,

Grass grows in the sky
the full moon looks like an asshole,
and who wants a beer in this field of mushrooms and who wants a beer ...
Oh! in this field of mushrooms.

On my toes,
colored fungi grow
I eat them
and make flowers grow
beyond the horizon.

How loud is silence!
I'm still so ugly while my world is so flowery
and I am so lost in the desert

All of this wilderness is mine,
I'm speaking of things I don't understand,
Then I look inside
I do not like what I see
Then I look inside ... I do not like what I see.