Fact Mix 156: Kode9

Today’s FACT mix comes from the man behind Hyperdub, and one of modern dance music’s most celebrated producers and DJs, Kode9.

Debuting on Tempa in 2002 with ‘Fat Larry’s Skank’, Kode9 has spent the last decade exploring an aesthetic that’s taken him from suffocating dread-filled dubstep to toxic house music. Along the way, he’s released a superb album (Memories of the Future, with frequent collaborator Spaceape) and become just as famous for his record label as his own productions: since Hyperdub’s inception in 2004, it’s released albums by Burial, Ikonika and King Midas Sound, and singles by Zomby, Terror Danjah, Cooly G, Mala and more.

This month, 9 will release the latest in K7’s DJ-Kicks series of mix CDs, a journey from elasticated house and dancehall, through soul, funk and hip-hop, to overbearing dubstep and grime. Kode is one of the world’s best DJs – his extended sets at Plastic People last year are spoken of with pure reverence, and this year he’s let out specialist mixes in 2step and “sino-grime”. Here he contributes a mix of “mostly ’94-’96 jungle”, bound by an icy, misty quality. Lemon D, DJ SS, Undercover Agent and more feature.

Next week, Hyperdub, Plat du Jour and FACT will be presenting an off-Sonar party at Club Mondo, Thursday 17 June. Already on the bill are Darkstar, Cooly G, Ikonika, Guido, Mweslee and Kode9 himself, plus Plat du Jour residents. There’s also a ton of special guests – to find out who, you’ll have to attend. For more tickets, click here.

Download: FACT mix 156 – Kode9
(Available for three weeks)

Tracklist:
1. Soundman & Don Lloyde with Elizabeth Troy – Greater Love
2. Lemon D – Manhatten Melody
3. Dope Style – You Must Think First
4. Nut Nut – Special Dedication
5. Undercover Agent – Oh Gosh
6. DJ SS – MA2 remix
7. 12-10 Series Mk 1 – All that Jazz
8. L Double featuring Bassman – Da Base too Dark
9. Urban Jungle – Back in the Daze
10. Sacred – Kall the Kops
11. Fusion Forum – Vintage Keys
12. Maldini – Def Roll
13. Bad Influence feat. DJ Rush Puppie – Time & Time

@'fact'

Ironic!

@'Rachel Maddows Show Flickr'

Why Israel is Isolated

This week, Elliott Abrams, the former Bush official and noted neoconservative, wrote an essay in the Weekly Standard attacking the Obama administration for not more forcefully defending Israel during the flotilla crisis. Abrams said the White House had joined an anti-Israeli “lynch mob.” Over the course of the article, he used the metaphor six times.

It’s remarkable when you think about it. To Americans with even the slightest degree of racial awareness, “lynch mob” conjures something quite particular: African American men hanging from trees in the post-civil war South. To deploy the metaphor to describe a United Nations resolution that obliquely criticizes Israel is audacious. To deploy it to describe the support for that resolution by America’s first African-American president is downright astonishing. It’s a bit like calling Joe Lieberman’s opposition health-care reform a “pogrom.”

As an Obama official once told me about the Netanyahu team, with amazement, “these guys are actually waiting for President Palin.”

Why does Abrams’ metaphor matter? Because it shows how out of touch the Israeli government’s American defenders are with, well, America. There’s an irony here. The Netanyahu government is filled with Americans. The prime minister himself attended high school in the Philadelphia suburbs. Ron Dermer, one of his closest advisors, was born in Miami Beach. His ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, hails from New Jersey. In addition, prominent Americans like Abrams regularly appear in the U.S. media to echo the Netanyahu line. But paradoxically, this familiarity breeds overconfidence and ignorance. When Netanyahu travels to Washington, he speaks before Jewish audiences that mostly dislike Barack Obama’s Israel policy, even though according to a recent American Jewish Committee survey, American Jews overall support it by a margin of close to two to one. When he’s not speaking to right-wing Jews, he’s speaking to right-wing Christians. And when he’s not speaking to right-wing Christians, he’s speaking to former Bush administration officials who expect to soon be back in their old jobs. As an Obama official once told me about the Netanyahu team, with amazement, “these guys are actually waiting for President Palin.”

What Netanyahu and his acolytes seem not to understand is this: Although there are lots of Americans who will support Israeli policy no matter what, their side is not likely to wield power anytime soon. The two most important emerging forces in American politics are Hispanics, America’s largest minority group, and millennials, the most diverse generation in American history, and one larger than the baby boomers. Both are growing inexorably as a share of the electorate. Both have tipped decisively towards the Democrats, not just in 2008, but in every election since 2004. And neither is likely to be uncritically pro-Israel. According to a 2006 survey by the Pew Research Center, only one-third of Hispanics, compared to almost half of non-Hispanic whites, say they sympathize more with Israel than the Palestinians. Given the disproportionate percentage of Hispanics and African-Americans in the millennial generation, it’s a good bet that younger voters tilt this way too. If the Netanyahu government and its allies have a strategy for talking to these Americans—as opposed to the ones who attend the AIPAC Policy Conference or Christians United for Israel rallies—it has been well-hidden. Comparing the Obama administration to a lynch mob isn’t a very good way to begin.

Once upon a time, all this might not have mattered. In the old days when the Jewish State faced off against leaders like Yasir Arafat and Saddam Hussein, Israel’s foes could be trusted to make it look good by comparison. Today, by contrast, Israel’s most influential critic in the Middle East is Turkey, a democracy and a member of NATO. The Palestinians in the West Bank are led by Salam Fayyad, a proponent of nonviolence, a source of anti-corruption and a devotee of the Texas Longhorns. For too long, Israeli leaders had it easy: unsympathetic enemies in the Middle East and uncritical friends in the United States. The result was hubris, a belief that Israel could do whatever it wanted, and still win the political debate in the United States. That is no longer the case. In Congress, Israel can still do no wrong. But the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue doesn’t hold that view, and he will likely be there for quite some time. Israel’s leaders need to come to grips with how much American politics have changed in the last several years. Obama is the new normal. When they figure that out, perhaps they can tell their friends in the GOP.

Peter Beinart @'Daily Beast'

Patrick Nguyen: The Streets Are Paved With Art

The Mega-Money World Of MegaUpload

MegaUpload is one of the most prominent file-hosting services on the Internet. It is owned by an unbelievably colorful individual who is probably better known for his multiple convictions for computer fraud, embezzlement and insider trading. He owns several luxury cars, for which he is currently under investigation, and has just acquired New Zealand’s most expensive house – a snip at just over $20m.

The file-sharing and anti-piracy world is full of interesting characters, most of whom remain hidden in the shadows. Some individuals are just too large to be contained though, and are either involuntarily thrust into the media spotlight by force or become deliberately high-profile by design.
While many people will be familiar with Pirate Bay founders Gottfrid and Fredrik due to them being featured in countless articles, the pair tend to shy away from too much direct publicity. The same cannot be said of Peter Sunde who rarely misses an opportunity to be in the spotlight, and to great effect it must be said.
The believed owner of MegaUpload, however, makes Peter Sunde look like a shrinking violet.
Kim ‘Kimble’ Schmitz is a quite unbelievable character. Born in 1974 in Germany, he grew to become a computer hacker, successful businessman and convicted criminal. In 1998 Schmitz received two years’ probation for hacking into corporate networks and abusing telephone services but the draw of big money was just around the corner.
In 2001 Schmitz pulled off a huge stock market bluff which netted him a small fortune. After buying shares worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in the almost bankrupt LetsBuyIt.com, he announced that he would invest 50 million euros in the company, but in reality he didn’t have the money. His declaration led to the biggest single-day rise on the German stock market which allowed Schmitz to sell his shares and pocket $1.5 million profit. He was arrested for insider-trading in 2002, sentenced to a term of 20 months and given a 100,000 euro fine.
Also in 2001, one of Schmitz’s companies loaned another one 280,000 euros and conveniently both went bust shortly after. Schmitz later pleaded guilty to embezzlement and received another two years probation.
A master of the PR stunt, Schmitz has previously faked his own suicide and also offered a $10 million reward for the capture of Osama Bin Laden. He also claimed to own a fleet of jets but apparently the planes he was photographed with belonged to other people.
A self-confessed car-nut, Schmitz entered the Gumball 3000 rally many times and actually came first in 2001, but his appearances in this event brought even more controversy. According to YouTube videos here and here, Schmitz drove at 240 km/h on a public road in Belgium, ignored stop signs and drove in cycle lanes where one of his friends hit a pedestrian. In another clip he’s seen admitting to bribing the police and deliberately nudging a rival’s Porsche with his Mercedes.
But claims that he also did the private jet ‘trick’ mentioned above when photographed with, allegedly, other peoples’ cars, may have been a little off the mark.
According to a recent report from New Zealand, Schmitz is currently under investigation for using multiple names to register three luxury cars including a Rolls-Royce Phantom convertible. The cars are adorned with personal plates – GOD, WANTED and GUILTY.
The vehicles are registered to an address in Coatesville, New Zealand, which turns out to be a very special venue indeed – Schmitz’s newly-acquired mansion and the country’s most expensive house, a snip at just over $20 million USD.
The mega-money has clearly continued to roll in, with the addition of porn site Megarotic and the site most readers will be familiar with, MegaUpload. Although Schmitz’s connection to these projects has been denied in the past, he was the person who registered the site’s domain name in 2005 and there are many other links which are difficult to simply brush off.
MegaUpload has become more and more successful in recent times and its growing popularity make it a popular choice with those looking for an alternative to RapidShare. Much of MegaUpload’s system appears to be running from host LeaseWeb in The Netherlands and Carpathia Hosting in the US. In both locations they have many hundreds of IP addresses and servers.
While RapidShare’s huge growth has seen the company become the target for recent legal action, according to information received by TorrentFreak it appears that an apparent expansion of MegaUpload hasn’t gone unnoticed either. French anti-piracy group ALPA has been cranking up the pressure on LeaseWeb in what is being described as a “pre-litigation period”.
If the future of MegaUpload and Kim Schmitz is anywhere as colorful as the past, there will be yet more amazing stories to come.

enigmax @'Torrent Freak'

Israel forced to apologise for YouTube spoof of Gaza flotilla

Lots of Cabaret Voltaire

HERE

wikileaks Allegations in Wired that we have been sent 260,000 classified US embassy cables are, as far as we can tell, incorrect. 3 minutes ago via bit.ly