Sketches from the Book of the Dead is Mick Harvey's first solo album since leaving the Bad Seeds, a group he was part of for 25 years, mostly as the band's musical director. It could just as easily have been titled "Sketches from My Book of the Dead". This collection of all-original songs was written as a memoriam for people, places, and things; it's a look at how the present impacts life as it moves toward its conclusion, and what will be left unsaid, undone; what will be left behind that matters. Harvey plays most of the instruments himself, with help from longtime collaborator J.P. Shilo on violin and accordion, bassist Rosie Westbrook, and backing vocals by Xanthe Waite. This is Harvey the songwriter; these are the most skillfully written, tender, and empathic tomes in his career thus far. "October Boy," the album opener, is obviously for the memory of former Birthday Party bandmate and collaborator Rowland S. Howard, who died in late 2009. Shilo contributes a second guitar played in Howard's signature stun gun style, it offers a direct look at Howard's life, his demons, and his obsessions. Its spaghetti western framework is balanced by a minor-key, two-chord vamp with feedback and tempered noise. "The Ballad of Jay Givens" is a meditation on the suicide of a friend of Harvey's father, in which he directly challenges the Anglican church's edict that suicides are "forbidden to enter heaven." He counters: "But I say, all is forgiven." "Frankie T. & Frankie C." is a modern folk tale of love both beautiful and tragic, revealed in Harvey's signature, subtle yet cinematic style. "Rhymeless" is a haunted, heartbreaking elegy. It's addressed to the bereft parents of deceased children and framed in a signature musical language that is elegant, always direct, and uncluttered. Harvey sums up Sketches from the Book of the Dead with two songs that alternately counter loss with beauty and bravado: "How Would I Leave You" features his lilting piano, which creates a melodic line for a sublime poetic reflection on the questions framing one's taking leave of his beloved and friends. "Famous Last Words" is the bookend: a swaggering rock & roll tune full of razor-blade guitars, fuzzed-out basslines, and tribal percussion, that answers both the Grim Reaper and God himself with wonderfully gaudy panache. Harvey's music has never been more self-assured than it is here, and this album marks the dawn of a new era for him as an artist. (Thom Jurek - allmusic; 4/5)

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Glinner Graham Linehan

Show some grace and fuck off. RT @SarahPalinUSA: Show photo as warning to others seeking America's destruction.

Robag Wruhme – Thora Vukk (2011 - Albumstream)

A prolific, beloved member of the German techno community, Jena-based producer/DJ Gabor Schablitzki released a wide assortment of EPs throughout the late '90s and 2000s as DJ Robag, Die Dub Rolle, Machiste, Themroc, Rolf Oksen, and, most commonly, Robag Wruhme. While the 2005 Wruhme album Wuzzelbud KK, issued on Musik Krause, was a set of predominantly all-new tracks, it provided something of a gateway into Schablitzki’s work, offering not just streamlined techno that clicked, roiled, and wobbled, but downtempo hip-hop as well. An alliance with Sören Bodner was dubbed the Wighnomy Brothers; the two DJ'd under the name, and Schablitzki used the alias as an outlet for some of his most popular productions -- alternately foreboding and rollicking tracks like “Wurz + Blosse” (Kompakt Extra, 2004), “Wombat” (Kompakt Extra, 2005), and “Moppal Kiff” (Freude Am Tanzen, 2006). Under the Wighnomy name, Schablitzki released Metawuffmischfelge (Freude Am Tanzen, April 2008), an elaborately layered mix of contemporary minimal techno. He followed it with Wuppdeckmishmampflow (Kompakt, January 2011), a relatively subdued set. (Andy Kellman - allmusic)

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via

Russia's Khimki Forest Threatened by Highway Project

Time is running out for Russian activists hoping to stop the construction of a highway through an old growth forest outside of Moscow. In an eleventh hour campaign, the Movement to Defend Khimki Forest is targeting the French company overseeing the controversial project. Vinci, one of Europe’s largest corporations, signed the contract for the Moscow-St. Petersburg motorway in 2009 and could begin the first phase of development this month. The 43-kilometer section will slice through the heart of an old growth oak forest, an important corridor for large game and home to numerous endangered plant species, as well as a cherished greenbelt on the edge of one of the world’s most polluted cities...

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Adam Federman @'The Nation'

Movement to Defend Khimki Forest
Interesting document on private holdings in relation to this "venture"

The ethics and realpolitik of assassination

Osama bin Laden's daughter witnessed his death, says Pakistani official

Osama bin Laden's 12-year-old daughter watched as her father was shot dead by American special forces, a senior Pakistani intelligence official has told the Guardian.

The girl, who was found at the scene of the raid by Pakistani security services, is being cared for at a military hospital having been wounded in the attack. She has been questioned about the sequence of events during the raid on Sunday night.
The official said Pakistani intelligence services, who are holding 11 other survivors of the deadly raid on Bin Laden's Pakistani hiding place, would not allow their interrogation by US officials.
"That would occur only if there was written assent from their country of origin. We are yet to receive any request to my knowledge, but given the [critical] statements coming out of Washington and the fact that [the raid] was not an operation we were involved in, we would not accept," he said.
At least 10 people were left alive at the end of the attack, which saw Bin Laden killed in an upstairs room of the three-storey house where he had been living. Hamza, one of the al-Qaida leader's sons, was killed. His body was removed with that of his father by the assault teams.
The survivors include eight children and two adults, both women. One is Bin Laden's fifth wife, a 29-year-old Yemeni, Amal Ahmed al-Sadah, who married the al-Qaida leader about 11 years ago in Afghanistan. The other is understood to be a Yemeni doctor in her 30s whose passport indicates that she arrived by legal means in the region between 2000 and 2006, when the document expired.
The Pakistani official, from the main intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), said verification of the exact identity of the woman was continuing.
"We are not sure if she is a doctor, a nurse, a maid or what," he said.
The White House has so far not commented on the survivors or on reports that a second son of Bin Laden was captured during the raid.
Though mobile phones and computers seized in the compound are being examined by American specialists for any leads on forthcoming attacks or information on fugitives, the women and children in Pakistani custody are potential sources of valuable intelligence.
On Tuesday, the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying that "the family members of Osama bin Laden [are] all in safe hands ... in the best possible facilities," and that "as per policy" the relatives would be handed over to their countries of origin.
This may not be easy. One problem is their unclear legal status. The Saudi Arabian citizenship of the al-Qaida leader was withdrawn in 1994 after his violent criticism of the kingdom's royal family, leaving the nationality of his children unclear. Two young sons of Bin Laden are believed to be among the survivors held by the Pakistanis.
It is also far from certain that either Yemen or Saudi Arabia would be willing to accept the repatriation of Bin Laden's family members or their friends. Nor is their identification a simple task. Some of the children found at the compound may be those of the two brothers killed in the raid, and may have Pakistani nationality. The youngest child found at the compound wais two.
Local authorities arrived at the scene of the raid as US special forces were leaving. It is believed that the attackers originally planned to evacuate all those in the compound but the breakdown of a helicopter meant there was no space to take them.
Instead, only the bodies of Bin Laden and his son Hamza, who was in his early 20s, were taken to the aircraft carrier the USS Carl Vinson and buried at sea. Survivors were left with their hands fastened with plastic handcuffs, a second Pakistani official said, adding that initial communication with the survivors had been difficult as the Pakistani police and military arriving at the scene did not speak Arabic.
Four bodies are understood to have been recovered by Pakistani officials from the compound, including those of the two brothers – who have been reported to be behind the construction and management of the house. One is believed to be the crucial courier, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, who inadvertently led the CIA to Bin Laden. A third body was that of one of the brother's wives. The other casualty is believed to be a guard who has yet to be identified or possibly a domestic servant.
Several of the survivors, including Bin Laden's wife, were injured in the 40-minute firefight that preceded the al-Qaida leader's death.
The White House have confirmed that Bin Laden's wife received a bullet wound in the calf during the assault.
Pakistani officials said that Bin Laden's daughter, whom various reports named as Safina, Safia or Ayesha , had been hit in the ankle in the moments before the American assault team reached the room where they found her father, and later passed out. The wound was possibly caused by fragments from a grenade thrown by the assault team as they attacked, one said.
The girl and her mother are believed to be at a high-security military hospital.
American press reports cited a US official as saying that Fatah had told Pakistani authorities Bin Laden had lived in the complex, at least part of the time, since it was built in 2005. Yesterday, other reports from Pakistan contradicted that statement, saying survivors had told officials they had arrived five or six months ago.
White House press secretary Jay Carney confirmed earlier this week that she was "in the room with Bin Laden" when injured.
John Brennan, President Barack Obama's chief counter-terrorism adviser, had initially claimed Fatah was killed while "she was being used as a shield", but the White House later said that account was inaccurate.
US intelligence officials have also said Fatah, rather than Bin Laden's daughter, identified the al-Qaida leader's body.
Jason Burke @'The Guardian'