Wednesday, 18 August 2010

James Blackshaw

James Blackshaw’s on a mighty roll. He’s released a number of fine albums, but grab 2007’s The Cloud of Unknowing (especially), 2008’s piano-threaded Litany Of Echoes, and last year’s piano-and-string (and etc.) augmented The Glass Bead Game to hear the London guitar virtuoso/multi-instrumentalist at his best. Upping the ante, Blackshaw’s forthcoming eighth studio album All Is Falling, his second for Michael Gira’s Young God, is a swirling 45-minute song cycle that includes his first use of electric 12-string along with a heady mix of glockenspiel, piano, percussion, violin, counting voices, flute, alto saxophone, cello, etc. It’s his most orchestral work to date. It’s also best enjoyed in one full sitting, but things come to a head in “Part 7,” so you might as well dip your toe in during a climax (there are many). This is a 7-minute edit of the full 12-minute section.

James Blackshaw – All Is Falling (Part 7 Edit)
(Right click/save as)

Even if his press photos haven’t been updated, the label’s explanation of the shift from acoustic to electric, Dylan fans:The seeds of this project were sown in the past few years while James was serving as guest guitarist with a friend’s group on tour. This was the first time he’d played electric guitar in nearly a decade. Blackshaw got unexpected pleasure and inspiration from the sheer volume involved, the way the different old valve amps he’d rent for each show would perform, and having to be more pro-active in his fretting; he noted that while a 12-string acoustic guitar “sings” or “plays itself,” that an electric guitar needs a lot more coaxing. James became curious as to how a 12-string electric guitar might sound in his own work and bought an Italia Rimini and a little Fender Superchamp. The slimmer neck and the lighter string tension allowing him to play faster and to reach finger positions he’d previously found awkward. At the same time, James acquired a home-recording set up which allowed him to experiment with the arrangements for other instruments, and this became integral to how he wrote the piece with guitar taking a smaller role in the overall picture as a result. Both factors had a huge impact on the new music he was composing as well as the influence of post-No Wave maximalist guitar composers Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham.

All Is Falling is out 8/24 via Young God. Speaking of uncompromising songwriters, the label’s also releasing the new James Jackson Toth/Wooden Wand album Death Seat in October. Gira produced it.

Brandon @'Stereogum'

Aswad - Dub Fire

Thanx to Holy Warbles!

MRI scanners inspire brainwave music

A trio of artists have taken the output of MRI brain scanners as the inspiration for a series of pieces that will be exhibited in Suffolk in September, 2010. Designer Matthias Gmachl, Warp Records composer Mira Calix and electronic musician Anna Meredith have created works for an exhibition called Brainwaves that mashes up science, visual art and sound.

Gmachl is part of design studio Loop.ph, and has created an interactive sculpture that responds visually to sound. He's honed in on the electrical noises made by the machine, and the piece considers how those sounds connect to noises within the brain itself.

Calix, on the other hand, examines the emotional experience of having your brain scanned. She has put together a piece with the help of Meredith and a string quartet which uses the sounds emitted by the scanner as a basis for music. Meredith has also composed a new work of her own which will be performed.

All three have been assisted by cognitive neuroscientist Prof. Vincent Walsh, who is the official Scientist in Residence at the Royal Academy of Music. He'll be mentoring the artists and offering a scientific perspective on the work, giving a talk before each concert starts on the background of the MRI.

Another source of inspiration will be scans of different classical musicians playing through different musical scores in their mind. These will be taken at UCL, and offer a visual resource for the artists, alongside the noise of the machine itself.

Brainwaves will also include a series of talks between musicians and scientists on the topics of harmony, group, composition and frquencies.

If you'd like to attend, then you'll need to get yourself down to Aldeburgh's Hoffmann Building in Snape Maltings, Suffolk at 8pm on 18 September, 2010. Tickets cost £10 and are available from the venue's website.

Duncan Geere @'Wired'

The Secret Histories of Those @#$%ing Computer Symbols

♪♫ Johnny Warman - Screaming Jets

Never ever heard this song 'til a couple of minutes ago!

Thanx Stan!

The Insanity Of Music Licensing: In One Single Graphic

The history of music licensing is a messy one, but the short version is that every time some new technology or technological shift has come along in the past century, someone in the industry has freaked out that it was going to mean the end of the world for them, and demanded that "something" must be done. What was often done was to add another layer of licensing, sometimes compulsory, sometimes blanket licenses, sometimes something else. Basically, every time the market shifted, copyright law was effectively patched with changes more or less duct taped on to existing law. Over time, this has just gotten messier and messier -- especially as some of these rights "overlapped." Is an internet stream of a music file a performance or a broadcast? If someone bought the file, do they still need to pay for a performance right? And that's just a few of the very initial questions.

One company that has launched a music service recently passed around a graphic illustration of the insanity involved in licensing music for any sort of online music service:

What you see there is basically the result of a century or so of "bolting on" new licenses due to changes in the market, rather than any concerted effort to look at whether or not the underlying laws or licenses make sense. It's the result of massive regulatory capture, as industries unwilling to change just run to the gov't and demand to be compensated even as their old business models are going away. At what point do people say it's time to scrap this mess and start from scratch?

@'techdirt'

Government Uses Social Networking Sites for More than Investigations

In the midst of recent controversies over Facebook’s privacy settings, it’s easy to forget how much personal information is available from other sources on the Internet. But the government remembers. EFF recently received a number of documents from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) highlighting the government’s ability to scour not only social networks, but record each and every corner of the Internet. These documents were released in the second of a series of government disclosures resulting from EFF’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in which EFF, with the help of UC Berkeley’s Samuelson Clinic, sought information on the procedures and guidelines employed by government agencies when conducting social network monitoring or investigations. As an example of the government’s substantial information collection capability, several documents [PDF] in the CIA’s disclosure discuss the CIA’s so-called Open Source Center, established in 2005, which has been collecting information from publicly accessible Internet sources such as blogs, chat rooms and social networking sites, in addition to monitoring radio and television programs. The Open Source Center’s website, opensource.gov, bills itself as the “US Government's premier provider of foreign open source intelligence.” It is accessible to almost 15,000 local, state, and federal government employees and offers products ranging from reports and analysis on publicly available information dating back to the mid-90s, video reports and internet clips, translations, and media mapping and hot spot analysis.

In the other document [PDF] included in this release, FBI emails reveal the FBI’s interest in the University of Arizona’s Dark Web Project, an attempt by computer scientists to “systematically collect and analyze all terrorist-generated content on the Web.” Information in the document describes the Dark Web Project as especially effective in employing spiders to search Internet forums and find hidden web sites in the “corners of the Internet.” In addition to being able to search the Internet for content, the Dark Web Project is developing a tool called Writeprint that claims to help identify the creators of anonymous online content. The FBI emails reveal an interest in applying the Dark Web Project’s tools to the FBI’s own “operational analysis and exploitation of data, including web forums.”

As EFF and the Samuelson Clinic continue to seek information about law enforcement investigation techniques used on the Internet, we hope to learn more about how the government uses this information and especially how long it plans to keep it. In the meantime, however, it is clear that government investigators are collecting a wealth of information though the Internet in general and outside of the law enforcement context. It is also a good reminder that while social networks and other websites have privacy settings, the Internet does not. Stay tuned here for the next release.

Tim Wayne @'EFF'

Shamantis - J.Biebz (U Smile 800% slower)

Brilliant!!!
Update:
A hoax?

More Porn For The Blind

What computers have shown us about the mind

The Invisibles: Filmmakers give voice to brutalized migrants

The women and children are raped. They are kidnapped. Those who can not remember the names of their relatives in the United States with money, have the tips of their tongues cut off. Those who can not pay the kidnappers are tortured, chopped into pieces and their bodies burned in boiling pots of diesel oil. Some are still alive when they are thrown in.
The Mexican government knows this, but does nothing to stop it.
These are the “Invisibles.”
These are the stories of migrants traveling on foot from southern Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. They are traveling north through Mexico, risking their lives to help their families.
Their stories are told in “The Invisibles,” which premiered on the campus of the University of Arizona on Sunday afternoon.

With striking cinematography, and powerful stories, this is the reality of the death walk. The filmmakers execute the four short films in perfect style, weaving stories of struggle and tragedy, while revealing the face of humanity.
A 17-year-old tells of her family being robbed. Then she was raped. More than half of the women migrants are raped. A man in a hospital bed tells of being thrown from a train. Along the train route, kidnappers hide waiting to kidnap the migrants.
Why? As one young mother put it: There is no work at home and everything is expensive. When her children needed school supplies and she could not buy them, she made the decision to travel on foot from Central America, risking all for a job in the US.
Filmmaker Marc Silver answered questions about the film after Sunday afternoon’s screening. Silver described his early interest in resistance efforts, which led to the profound truth of the deaths of migrants in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. Amnesty International learned of the project and is now sponsoring the effort to bring about education.
When asked if migrants were reluctant to tell their story, Silver said that they were glad to have an opportunity to tell their stories, to share the horror of the abuse they had suffered in Mexico.
The four-part “The Invisibles,” is co-directed by Silver and actor Gael Garcia Bernal, star of “The Motorcycle Diaries.” The four segments are part of a feature length film now being filmed which will include the story of migrants dying in the Sonoran Desert.

Silver said he was pleased with the cooperation he has received in southern Arizona. “No one wants to see more people die in the desert.”
When asked what could be done, Silver recommended helping Tucson-based humanitarian aid organizations, including No More Deaths, the Samaritans and those who put out water for migrants at Humane Borders.
But Silver said what is needed is systematic change, change that encompasses trade and economic changes.
The Spanish language four-part series, “The Invisibles,” with English subtitles, will be shown on Mexico television to bring awareness to the abuse and torture of migrants ongoing in Mexico.

Silver said telling these stories has been empowering to the migrants who suffer abuse. It is also empowering to those who hear their stories, stories of resilience and courage.
Silver said there are also acts of kindness by those who try and make a difference, like the volunteers in migrant shelters, who are also targeted with abuse for helping migrants.

Then, there are village women who throw bags of oranges or tortillas to those migrants riding on top of trains.

Brenda Norrell @'Censored News'

When Did We Become Mentally Modern?

SHINDIG #3

Tuesday, 17 August 2010

Rustie - Sunburst EP Minimix

HA!

(Click to enlarge)

Thanx Stan!

Chris Carter - Interloop

No - it should become one NOW!!!

Australia's Gillard backs republic after Queen's death

Prodigy VS Elite Force - Smack The Force Up

Suicide Bomber Kills Dozens in Attack on Iraqi Army Recruits

North Korea is now on Twitter

HERE

Chasing The Genes For Cocaine Addiction

Bob Dylan, the Beat Generation, and Allen Ginsberg’s America

Anger over Israel soldier's prisoner Facebook images

Eden Aberjil posing with Palestinian prisoners

Palestinian groups said the images showed the Israeli occupation was "corrupting"

A former Israeli soldier has been sharply criticised for posting images of herself on Facebook posing next to Palestinian prisoners.

Eden Aberjil had put the images in an album on the site entitled "The army: the best days of my life".

Army officials have condemned her behaviour as "shameful" and said they would investigate the matter further.

Palestinian groups said the images were humiliating and revealed the "mentality of the occupier".

The controversial images were among 26 photographs Ms Aberjil posted on her Facebook page.

In one, she is shown smiling next to three bound and blindfolded prisoners and in the second, she is sitting with her face turned towards a prisoner.

Ms Aberjil had already been discharged from the army having completed her mandatory military service, and it was unclear whether she could face disciplinary action.

But a military spokesman said all the details had been passed to her commanders for "further attention".

"This is shameful behaviour by the soldier," the spokesman said in a statement.

Palestinians are routinely blindfolded and handcuffed when arrested by Israeli troops, to prevent them trying to escape.

While the photographs do not depict overt abuse, the Palestinian Authority said they did show "the mentality of the occupier to be proud of humiliating Palestinians".

"The occupation is unjust, immoral and, as these pictures show, corrupting," said spokesman Ghassan Khatib.

Yishai Menuchim, head of the Israeli Committee Against Torture, also criticised the images, saying the incident "reflects an attitude which has become the norm and consists in treating Palestinians like objects, not like human beings".

Last month, six Israeli soldiers were widely criticised for posting a video of themselves performing a dance routine while on duty in the West Bank town of Hebron.

The soldiers escaped disciplinary action after the army said no harm had been done.

@'BBC'

Indian Summer Mixtape by Niels van Nimwegen

Download @'Soundcloud'

Tracklist:

Alex Smoke - Eccie Brekkie Heart

DVS 1 - Running

Four Tet - Nothing To See

Al Tourettes & Appleblim - Lipsmacker/mr. Swishy

Aardvarck - Blackwell

Kingdom - Bust Broke

Altered Natives - The Bitch

Kidkut - iLove04

Lil Silva - Nightskanker

Kode9 feat. The Spaceape - You Don't Wash (Vocal Mix)

Midland - Play The Game (Dexter Remix)

Andrea - Got to Forget

WTF???

Google CEO Suggests You Change Your Name to Escape His Permanent Record

John Cooper Clarke for Poet Laureate

Facebook group

HERE

Museum Acquires Storied Trove of Jazz

For decades jazz cognoscenti have talked reverently of “the Savory Collection.” Recorded from radio broadcasts in the late 1930s by an audio engineer named William Savory, it was known to include extended live performances by some of the most honored names in jazz — but only a handful of people had ever heard even the smallest fraction of that music, adding to its mystique.

After 70 years that wait has now ended. This year the National Jazz Museum in Harlem acquired the entire set of nearly 1,000 discs, made at the height of the swing era, and has begun digitizing recordings of inspired performances by Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Bunny Berigan, Harry James and others that had been thought to be lost forever. Some of these remarkable long-form performances simply could not fit on the standard discs of the time, forcing Mr. Savory to find alternatives. The Savory Collection also contains examples of underappreciated musicians playing at peak creative levels not heard anywhere else, putting them in a new light for music fans and scholars.

“Some of us were aware Savory had recorded all this stuff, and we were really waiting with bated breath to see what would be there,” said Dan Morgenstern, the Grammy-winning jazz historian and critic who is also director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University. “Even though I’ve heard only a small sampling, it’s turning out to be the treasure trove we had hoped it would be, with some truly wonderful, remarkable sessions. None of what I’ve heard has been heard before. It’s all new.”...

Continue reading

Larry Richter @'NY Times'

The Future of the Internet

The Message of the Bulldozers

On the day before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began, at 2:30 in the morning, workers sent by the Israeli authorities, protected by dozens of police, destroyed the tombstones in the last portion of the Mamilla cemetery, an historic Muslim burial ground with graves going back to the 7th Century, hitherto left untouched. The government of Israel has always been fully cognizant of the sanctity and historic significance of the site. Already in 1948, when control of the cemetery reverted to Israel, the Israeli Religious Affairs Ministry recognized Mamilla “to be one of the most prominent Muslim cemeteries, where seventy thousand Muslim warriors of [Saladin’s] armies are interred along with many Muslim scholars. Israel will always know to protect and respect this site.” For all that, and despite (proper) Israeli outrage when Jewish cemeteries are desecrated anywhere in the world, the dismantlement of the Mamilla cemetery has been systematic. In the 1960s “Independence Park” was built over a portion of it; subsequently an urban road was built through it, major electrical cables were laid over graves and a parking lot constructed over yet another piece. Now some 1,500 Muslim graves have been cleared in several nighttime operations to make way for…..a $100 million Museum of Tolerance and Human Dignity, a project of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. (Ironically, Rabbi Marvin Hier, the Wiesenthal Center’s Director, appeared on Fox News to express his opposition to the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero in Manhattan, because the site of the 9/11 attack “is a cemetery.”)

The month-long period between Netanyahu’s July 6th visit to Washington and the start of Ramadan has provided Israel with a window to “clear the table” after a frustrating hiatus on home demolitions imposed by the “old,” mildly critical Obama Administration – although there is no guarantee that Israel will not demolish during Ramadan, especially if it wants to exploit the period until the November elections, knowing that until then Obama will not overtly oppose anything it does in the Occupied Territories. In fact, the process of demolishing Palestinian homes never ceased. On June 6th, for example, a year after the demolition of more than 65 structures and the forced displacement of more than 120 people, including 66 children, nine families of Khirbet Ar Ras Ahmar in the Jordan Valley, totaling 70 people, received a new round of “evacuation orders.” A week later the Israeli High Court ordered the Civil Administration to “step up enforcement against illegal Palestinian structures” in Area C, the 60% of the West Bank under full Israeli control...

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Jeff Halper @'Counterpunch'

Former RCP president backs review of drugs laws

Pencil Tip Micro Sculptures By Dalton Ghetti

Brazilian born, Connecticut based, Dalton Ghetti carefully crafts the tips of pencils into amazing micro sculptures. These miniature masterpieces are a side project for the professional carpenter, who has been perfecting this art for the last 25 years. Dalton uses a razor blade, sewing needle, a sculpting knife, a steady hand and lots of patience to meticulously carve the graphite which can take anywhere between a few months to a few years. Over time he has broken many works in progress and keeps them in what he calls the cemetery collection. One of the most fascinating things about these tiny works of art is that he has never sold them, only given away to friends as gifts.

@'Kronikle Kidrobot'