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Friday, 17 September 2010
Fact Mix 185: Midland
Midland takes charge of our 185th FACT mix.
The up-and-coming producer/DJ announced his arrival earlier this year with the ‘Your Words Matter’ 12″, a collaboration with his friend Ramadanman released on Will Saul’s Aus Music label. This was followed by Play The Game, a four-track EP on Phonica Records that really showcased the breadth of his sound. Midland makes warm, tensile house and techno, but the narrative shape of his tracks and his regular deployment of fragmented, ethereal vocal snippets betray the influence – conscious or otherwise – of dubstep individualists Burial, Pangaea and Joy Orbison.
If his epic 23-track FACT mix is anything to go by, our man also draws inspiration from much further afield. It’s packed with unreleased material, including Midland originals ‘Shelter’, ‘Hub’ and ‘Dead Eyes’, together with his remix of Caribou’s ‘Sun’ and cheeky re-edits of Washed Out and Massive Attack, and Appleblim & Ramadanman’s immense, forthcoming ‘Void 23′. There’s also classic house from Kerri Chandler, shark-eyed minimal from Arnaud Le Texier and DJ Koze, plus recent cuts from Space Dimension Controller, Workshop, 6th Borough Project and a special edit of Boards Of Canada exclusive to this mix.
Tracklist:
1. Boards of Canada – Corsair - Warp (Hyde park field recording)
2. Matthew Dear - Honey - Ghostly International
3. Midland feat. Anywayawana – Hub – Unreleased
4. Al Green – Truth n time – The Right Stuff Records
5. Space Dimension Controller – BBD Alignment – Royal Oak
6. Boards of Canada – Olson – Warp (Midland Re Edit – FACT Version)
7. Massive Attack – Unfinished Sympathy (Nellee Hooper Instrumental Remix – Midland Rearrangement) – Wild Bunch
8. Ron Deacon – Untitled B2 – Workshop
9. Rainer Trueby – Ayers Rock – White
10. Loot – Dollkraut – Doppelschall Records
11. Washed Out – You’ll see (Midland Re- edit) – Unreleased
12. Roberto Rodruigez – I Got – Forthcoming Fina Records
13. Archie Bronson Outfit – Chunk (6th borough project remix) – Domino
14. El Txef A – She Kissed Me first (Minilogue Hypno Remix) – Forthcoming Hypercolour
15. Mathias Kaden – Kawaba (Dj Koze’s Kosi-san Remix) – Vakant
16. Adultnapper & Big Bully – Low point on high ground – Simple Records
17. Sideshow – Scary Biscuits (John Tejada Remix) – Aus Music
18. Midland – Dead Eyes – Forthcoming This is Music
19. Terrence Dixon (Arnaud Le Texier remix) – Change – Children of Tomorrow
20. Ramadanman & Appleblim – Void 23 – Forthcoming Aus Music
21. Midland – Shelter – Forthcoming Aus Music
22. Kerri Chandler – Fortran (Argys Legendary Bonus Beats) – Deeply Rooted House
23. Caribou – Sun (Midland Remix) – Unreleased
How has Subbuteo survived?
If you thought that Subbuteo went the same way as flares, space hoppers and sherbet spaceships - that is, to the dustbin of history - think again, says Brendan O'Neill.
Like an ageing, slightly bloated former star of the footballing firmament who decides to sign for a Second Division team, Subbuteo seems to be making something of a comeback.
Or at least some people hope that it is.
It may be a super lo-tech game that involves little more than flicking 11 men at an oversized ball on a rolled-out felt pitch, but some believe that Subbuteo can be called off the subs' bench to entertain a whole new generation of gameplayers.
This weekend, the Subbuteo World Masters Tournament will take place in Ashton in Bristol.
Champion finger-flickers from around the world - including Spain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Holland and Austria - will compete for a prize fund of £10,000 and for miniature cup glory.
England (represented by the Bedminster-based Subbuteo star Darren Clarke) will be hoping that the little plastic figures can do in Ashton what the real flesh-and-blood guys failed to do in South Africa: play well.
Cardboard players
The tournament is being organised by a 25-year-old Bristolian and former Subbuteo World Cup finalist, Kaspar Bennett, who says he wants to make Subbuteo as popular as it was in the 1970s and 80s.
"Hopefully [this tournament] will make people want to go back to playing the game themselves", he told the Bristol Evening Post.
World Cup hero Gordon Banks lost to the 16-year-old Subbuteo world champion, Peter Czarkowski, in 1970
But can Subbuteo ever really make it back into the Premier League of pastimes?
In an era of snazzy, computerised gaming - when young people can play increasingly life-like footie games on their Xboxes and PlayStations - is there really space for a game that involves fingers, a green felt pitch, little plastic men, and tiny goals?
Subbuteo was invented by Peter Adolph (1916-1994) in the mid-1940s. Its arrival was announced in the August 1946 edition of Boys' Own magazine and it finally went on sale in 1947.
The contents of the game have changed over time. When it first came out, the little men were made from cardboard and were weighted down with buttons and lead washers, and they only came in two strips: red shirts or blue shirts.
The original version of the game didn't even have the famous green-felt pitch - instead you got a piece of chalk and instructions on how to mark out a pitch on an old blanket.
Through the 1960s and 70s, various design modifications were made, the pitch was introduced, and along came the now famous weighted plastic men - who you could even get in your favourite teams' colours, giving rise to the cult of Subbuteo team collecting.
There have been more than 700 different strips.
Royal fan
At its peak, more than 300,000 miniature teams were sold each year. The first Subbuteo World Cup was held in 1987, the same year in which Justin Finch, a 16-year-old Brit who was then ranked fifth in the world at Subbuteo, made the front pages of the papers after insuring his right hand for £160,000. Subbuteo was a bona fide national pastime, if not obsession.
Yet its popularity waned. And in 2000, Hasbro, owners of the Subbuteo brand, announced that production of the game in Britain would cease. A spokesman blamed "the huge number of football-related products" - including computer games - that had "flooded the market".
Today Hasbro, which still licences out the Subbuteo brand to other manufacturers, no longer distributes the toy in the UK, forcing fans to buy products online. Subbuteo recently made a move into the video game market - a virtual version of this old classic table game has been produced for the Nintendo DS.
So has this finger-flicking institution of British childhood had its day?
"Playing table football for real can't be reproduced on the Xbox or PlayStation, and for that reason I think there will always be an interest in Subbuteo", says Pete Whitehead, who runs Subbuteoworld, a website he created in June 2000 to sell Subbuteo stuff to fans across the globe.
It has customers in Korea, China, Russia, Hawaii, Australia, South Africa and "even to someone at Buckingham Palace".
The figures have weights to keep them upright
Mr Whitehead first played Subbuteo as a child in the late 1970s and got interested in it again as an adult in the mid-90s. He says the attractive thing about Subbuteo - and what distinguishes it from computer-based football games - is both that it involves thrilling gameplay and it can be an old-style, collector-based hobby.
"The beauty about the game is that it requires skill, dedication and lots of practice. And it's also a great game to collect, with a huge amount of stuff out there spanning over 60 years."
Yet playing football-based videogames, you can choose to be any one of 510 football teams from 27 leagues across 20 countries and you can control, pass, shoot or curl the ball with remarkable lifelikeness. Can Subbuteo really compete with all that?
"I don't think there is a substitute for a real hands-on game", insists Mr Whitehead. "There will always be a place for table football."
James Gordon, who runs the Subbuteo Rugby website, admits video gaming has contributed to the decline of Subbuteo but thinks there is still a place for it. The 22-year-old thinks the decline of Subbuteo over the past 10 to 15 years springs a lack of spare time.
In the 1950s, the game was in its infancy
"Lifestyles now are a lot more hectic, hence the popularity of the pick-up-and-play video games. For Subbuteo, you need an opponent, then you need to get it all set up, and then play; it takes time."
For many people it's all about nostalgia, says Pete Whitehead. "I have lost count of the number of people who have visited our website and then called us up to say what great memories it bought back.
"Then we get loads of customers who say they have a son who is always on the PlayStation and they want to get him away from that…"
But not everyone wants to get stuck back into Subbuteo. Faizaan Sacket, a recruitment consultant in London, was an avid player in his teens - but he wouldn't want his three young sons to play it today.
"Time moves on. Technology advances. Why would anyone want to sit around and play Subbuteo on a mat now, especially when you can buy an electronic version for your Nintendo DS?
"Would I want my thee sons to play it? No. Kids today do not have the patience. The world moves too fast, and so do they. My boys would reduce a Subbuteo set into a green confetti killing ground in minutes."
Still got my Subbuteo set but my goalies are fuct!
Hear Edwyn Collins' new album early at NME
Edwyn Collins is set to release new album 'Losing Sleep' on Monday (September 20) – but you can hear the album now on NME.COM.
The full tracklisting for 'Losing Sleep' is:
The full tracklisting for 'Losing Sleep' is:
'Losing Sleep'
'What Is My Role?' (co-written with Ryan Jarman)
'Do It Again' (co-written with Alex Kapranos & Nick McCarthy)
'Humble'
'Bored'
'In Your Eyes' (co-written with The Drums)
'I Still Believe In You' (co-written with Ryan Jarman)
'Come Tomorrow, Come Today' (co-written with Johnny Marr)
'It Dawns On Me' (co-written with Romeo Stodart)
'Over The Hill'
'All My Days' (co-written with Roddy Frame)
'Searching For The Truth'
Autism’s First Child
As new cases of autism have exploded in recent years—some form of the condition affects about one in 110 children today—efforts have multiplied to understand and accommodate the condition in childhood. But children with autism will become adults with autism, some 500,000 of them in this decade alone. What then? Meet Donald Gray Triplett, 77, of Forest, Mississippi. He was the first person ever diagnosed with autism. And his long, happy, surprising life may hold some answers.
Full Story
Various - Wilco: Spins The Numero Group (2010)
"We like Wilco a lot. We like that they're mining the future as much as we're mining the past. We like that we're Chicago boys. We like that our kids play with their kids. We like that they have an insane collection of guitars. And we like that they like records the way we like records. That is, we both capitol-L-Love records. So when the opportunity arose to introduce our audience to their audience at Wilco's Solid Sound Festival, we were all about that. We spin, they play, all is right with the world.But then we thought: what if we turned the turntables? What would Wilco spin if they could spin us? Idea: give each member of the band access to our entire catalog and ask them to pick a few of their favorite tracks. Here's the result: The Numero Group as seen through the ears of Wilco. Seventeen tracks from the over forty records we've compiled in the last seven years. From us, to you, and for free, yet. We have no plans to start a band, by the way." - Tom Lunt, Rob Sevier & Ken Shipley/The Numero Group
01. Arlean Brown - I Am A Streaker
02. Four Mints - In A Rut
03. OFS Unlimited - Mystic
04. Boot Hill - No Control
05. Propinquity - Sea Song
06. Jim Ohlschmidt - The Delta Freeze
07. Caroline Peyton - Call Of The Wild
08. Chocolate Snow - Inflation
09. Ames Harris Desert Water Bag Co. - People
10. 5 Spiritual Tones - Bad Situation.
11. Elijah & The Ebonites - Pure Soul
12. The Performers - Mini Skirt
13. Betty Wright - Mr. Lucky
14. Bobby Cooke Quartet - Ridin' High
15. Stormy - The Devastator
16. Tonistics - Dimona
17. Final Solution - Where There's A Will
Download
Thursday, 16 September 2010
WTF??? Hitler Youth pope aligns atheists with nazis!!!
Foul-Mouthed Design Website Spits Out Advice Automatically
Think of this as a potty-mouth, @AngryPaulRand take on Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies. ‘Good Fucking Design Advice’ is a website that randomly dishes out design guidance for free, all given with a healthy dose of the word, “Fuck”.
Created by two graphic designers, Brian Buirge and Jason Bacher, the site is more for a laugh than anything else.
Each page refresh will generate a new ‘inspirational’ line; and sample ones includes “Learn to take some fucking criticism”, and “make it fucking smaller”, so it’s not completely useless.
Our favorite? “Use fucking Helvetica.”
Each page refresh will generate a new ‘inspirational’ line; and sample ones includes “Learn to take some fucking criticism”, and “make it fucking smaller”, so it’s not completely useless.
Our favorite? “Use fucking Helvetica.”
The Shilohs EP
This album is available for free download. You can listen to it in its entirety on this page, but since Bandcamp recently stopped allowing unlimited free downloads, you can download a V0 (best quality-small size) mp3 version for FREE here:
Formed in September 2008, The Shilohs (Dan Colussi, Ben Frey, Mike Komaszczuk and Johnny Payne) present their first EP, recorded on Steve Bays’ (Hot Hot Heat’s front man) Vancouver studio, Tugboat Place.
The result of those sessions is displayed on The Shilohs, their selftitled debut EP: a collection of beautifully crafted pop songs, evoking the late 60s/early 70s golden years of American pop rock, from straight rock and roll catchy melodies to slow, pleasant ballads and sing along friendly pop songs.
The Shilohs are currently recording their first full length with producers JCDC (Destroyer, The New Pornographers, Tegan & Sara).
Home of Ice Giants thaws, shows pre Viking hunts
Climate change is exposing reindeer hunting gear used by the Vikings' ancestors faster than archaeologists can collect it from ice thawing in northern Europe's highest mountains.
"It's like a time machine...the ice has not been this small for many, many centuries," said Lars Piloe, a Danish scientist heading a team of "snow patch archaeologists" on newly bare ground 1,850 meters (6,070 ft) above sea level in mid-Norway.
Specialized hunting sticks, bows and arrows and even a 3,400-year-old leather shoe have been among finds since 2006 from a melt in the Jotunheimen mountains, the home of the "Ice Giants" of Norse mythology.
As water streams off the Juvfonna ice field, Piloe and two other archaeologists -- working in a science opening up due to climate change -- collect "scare sticks" they reckon were set up 1,500 years ago in rows to drive reindeer toward archers.
But time is short as the Ice Giants' stronghold shrinks.
"Our main focus is the rescue part," Piloe said on newly exposed rocks by the ice. "There are many ice patches. We can only cover a few...We know we are losing artefacts everywhere."
Freed from an ancient freeze, wood rots in a few years. And rarer feathers used on arrows, wool or leather crumble to dust in days unless taken to a laboratory and stored in a freezer.
Jotunheimen is unusual because so many finds are turning up at the same time -- 600 artefacts at Juvfonna alone.
Other finds have been made in glaciers or permafrost from Alaska to Siberia. Italy's iceman "Otzi," killed by an arrow wound 5,000 years ago, was found in an Alpine glacier in 1991. "Ice Mummies" have been discovered in the Andes.
RESCUE
Patrick Hunt, of Stanford University in California who is trying to discover where Carthaginian general Hannibal invaded Italy in 218 BC with an army and elephants, said there was an "alarming rate" of thaw in the Alps.
"This is the first summer since 1994 when we began our Alpine field excavations above 8,000 ft that we have not been inundated by even one day of rain, sleet and snow flurries," he said.
"I expect we will see more 'ice patch archaeology discoveries'," he said. Hannibal found snow on the Alpine pass he crossed in autumn, according to ancient writers.
Glaciers are in retreat from the Andes to the Alps, as a likely side-effect of global warming caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases, the U.N. panel of climate experts says.
The panel's credibility has suffered since its 2007 report exaggerated a thaw by saying Himalayan glaciers might vanish by 2035. It has stuck to its main conclusion that it is "very likely" that human activities are to blame for global warming.
"Over the past 150 years we have had a worldwide trend of glacial retreat," said Michael Zemp, director of the Swiss-based World Glacier Monitoring Service. While many factors were at play, he said "the main driver is global warming."
In Norway, "some ice fields are at their minimum for at least 3,000 years," said Rune Strand Oedegaard, a glacier and permafrost expert from Norway's Gjoevik University College.
The front edge of Jovfunna has retreated about 18 meters (60 ft) over the past year, exposing a band of artefacts probably from the Iron Age 1,500 years ago, according to radiocarbon dating. Others may be from Viking times 1,000 years ago.
Juvfonna, about 1 km across on the flank of Norway's highest peak, Galdhoepiggen, at 2,469 meters, also went through a less drastic shrinking period in the 1930s, Oedegaard said.
REINDEER
Inside the Juvfonna ice, experts have carved a cave to expose layers of ice dating back 6,000 years. Some dark patches turned out to be ancient reindeer droppings -- giving off a pungent smell when thawed out.
Ice fields like Juvfonna differ from glaciers in that they do not slide much downhill. That means artefacts may be where they were left, giving an insight into hunting techniques.
On Juvfonna, most finds are "scare sticks" about a meter long. Each has a separate, flapping piece of wood some 30 cm long that was originally tied at the top. The connecting thread is rarely found since it disintegrates within days of exposure.
"It's a strange feeling to be tying a string around this stick just as someone else did maybe 1,500 years ago," said Elling Utvik Wammer, a archaeologist on Piloe's team knotting a tag to a stick before storing it in a box for later study.
All the finds are also logged with a GPS satellite marker before being taken to the lab for examination.
The archaeologists reckon they were set up about two meters apart to drive reindeer toward hunters. In summer, reindeer often go onto snow patches to escape parasitic flies.
Such a hunt would require 15 to 20 people, Piloe said, indicating that Norway had an organized society around the start of the Dark Ages, 1,500 years ago. Hunters probably needed to get within 20 meters of a reindeer to use an iron-tipped arrow.
"You can nearly feel the hunter here," Piloe said, standing by a makeshift wall of rocks exposed in recent weeks and probably built by an ancient archer as a hideaway.
Around the Solar System
On Sept. 8, 2010, a C3-class solar flare erupts from the Sun. Just as a sunspot was turning away from Earth on Sept. 8, the active region erupted, producing a solar flare and a fantastic prominence. The eruption also hurled a bright coronal mass ejection into space. (NASA/SDO)
A setting last quarter crescent moon and the thin line of Earth's atmosphere are photographed by an Expedition 24 crew member as the International Space Station passes over central Asia on Sept. 4th, 2010. (NASA)
Aurora Australis seen above the Earth in this image taken by a member of the ISS Expedition 23 crew on May 29, 2010. (NASA/JSC)
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Gotryke Mix Vol 1: DJ 3000
The Gotryke Mix Series debut with the right kind of pedigree from DJ 3000, a musically-inclined car connoiseur.
“Motech’s vision was born from the dust and destruction of the automobile industry in the Motor City,” said Frankie Juncaj, who records as DJ 3000. “Once a booming industry that influenced the world, it was reduced to shambles in one fell swoop and left a permanent residue on the city it once inhabited. Drawing from the never ending influence that Detroit had to offer, we began looking back to our ethnic roots. What eventually emerged was a unique blend of Detroit electronic rhythm combined with the sounds and textures of generations long past.”
The name is a play on Motown and techno, but also references an automotive trade school in Detroit from the 1980s. Falling in love with cars was natural for Juncaj, who grew up in Detroit. His father and most of his relatives worked at Chrysler and he hung out at his next door neighbor’s whose who built race cars for fun. Juncaj is into classic Chevrolet muscle cars and slick styled Euro- rides. “If I could buy one classic Chevy it would be a ’67 Chevy Camaro because to me it screams classic American muscle. I grew up seeing that car in my neighborhood. Yes, I know my dad worked at Chrysler but he even had a Chevy Monte Carlo.”Juncaj relocated to Amsterdam, but if he moves back to Detroit he’ll buy a used 2004 Audi RS4. “Its fast and looks slick and without looking loud so this is the perfect car for me. I plan to buy one in the future….I hope!”
DOWNLOAD: View dj3000-karma-mix-mp3
Space junk: Hunting zombies in outer space
Earth's rings have never looked so beautiful, you think as you look up at the pallid sliver of light arcing through the night sky. Yet unlike Saturn's magnificent bands of dust and rubble, Earth's halo is one of our own making. It is nothing but space junk, smashed-up debris from thousands of satellites that once monitored our climate, beamed down TV programmes and helped us find our way around.
This scenario is every space engineer's nightmare. It is known as the Kessler syndrome after Donald Kessler, formerly at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Back in 1978, he and colleague Burton Cour-Palais proposed that as the number of satellites rose, so would the risk of accidental collisions. Such disasters would create large clouds of shrapnel, making further collisions with other satellites more likely and sparking a chain reaction that would swiftly surround the Earth with belts of debris. Orbits would become so clogged as to be unusable and eventually our access to space would be completely blocked.
On 10 February 2009 it started to happen. In the first collision between two intact satellites, the defunct Russian craft Kosmos-2251 struck communications satellite Iridium 33 at a speed of 42,100 kilometres per hour. The impact shattered one of Iridium 33's solar panels and sent the satellite into a helpless tumble. Kosmos-2251 was utterly destroyed. The two orbits are now home to clouds of debris that, according to the US military's Space Surveillance Network (SSN), contain more than 2000 fragments larger than 10 centimetres. The collision may also have produced hundreds of thousands of smaller fragments, which cannot currently be tracked from Earth.
Such debris is a serious worry. With satellites travelling at tens of thousands of kilometres per hour, any encounter with debris could be lethal. "Being hit by a 1-centimetre object at orbital velocity is the equivalent of exploding a hand grenade next to a satellite," says Heiner Klinkrad, head of the space debris office at the European Space Agency in Darmstadt, Germany. "Iridium and Kosmos was an early indication of the Kessler syndrome."...
Continue reading
Stuart Clark @'New Scientist'
Just sayin'
JPBarlow Reagan & Bush I took the national debt from 32% of GNP to 70%. Bush II took it from 55% to 82%. It's now 91%.
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
New remixes of Vladislav Delay’s Sistol by Scuba and Oneohtrix Point Never
Two superlative remixes for you to download today, both of tracks from the new album by Sistol.
Sistol is one of many alter egos of Finland’s Sasu Ripatti (Luomo, Vladislav Delay), under which he makes raw, intuitive and elf-confessedly druggy house and techno. The new Sistol album, On The Bright Side, has just been released by the Halo Cyan label, and the tracks ‘On The Bright Side’ and ‘Funseeker’ have been remixed by Scuba and Oneohtrix Point Never respectively.
Scuba’s version is one of his most warm and textured offerings to date, a swung, dubstep-inflected house track with a mellifluous, energetic groove and clipped, ecstatic vocal samples that recall the work of his star signing, Joy Orbison. All in all, a top-class offering.
Oneohtrix Point Never’s take on ‘Funseeker’ is a different beast altogether, an immersive synth epic that feels like ambient and noise both, but isn’t really one or the other, and is full of his instantly recognisable high-range sounds (“More seagulls!”).
Bob Marley Family Loses Case Over Hit Records
Bob Marley's family lost a lawsuit seeking the copyrights to several of the late Jamaican reggae singer's best-known recordings.
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan said the UMG Recordings unit of Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group is the rightful owner of copyrights to five albums that Marley had recorded between 1973 and 1977 for Island Records.
The albums "Catch a Fire," "Burnin'," "Natty Dread," "Rastaman Vibrations" and "Exodus" were recorded with Marley's band The Wailers. They include some of Marley's best-known songs, including "Get Up, Stand Up," "I Shot the Sheriff," "No Woman, No Cry" and "One Love."
Marley died of cancer in 1981 at age 36.
Friday night's ruling is a defeat for Marley's widow Rita and nine children who had sought to recover millions of dollars in damages over UMG's effort to "exploit" what they called "the quintessential Bob Marley sound recordings."
L. Peter Parcher and Peter Shukat, who are lawyers for the family, did not immediately return calls seeking comment. UMG spokesman Peter LoFrumento said the company is pleased with Cote's ruling.
Marley's family accused UMG of intentionally withholding royalties from their company Fifty-Six Hope Road Music Ltd, and ignoring a 1995 agreement assigning them rights under the original recording agreements, court papers show.
It also accused UMG of failing as required to consult with them on key licensing decisions, including the use of Marley's music as "ringtones" on AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile phones, the papers show.
But Cote concluded that Marley's recordings were "works made for hire" as defined under U.S. copyright law, entitling UMG to be designated the owner of those recordings, for both the initial 28-year copyright terms and for renewals.
"Each of the agreements provided that the sound recordings were the 'absolute property' of Island," Cote wrote. "Whether Marley would have recorded his music even if he had not entered the recording agreements with Island is beside the point."
She added that it was irrelevant that Marley might have maintained artistic control over the recording process. What mattered, she said, was that Island had a contractual "right" to accept or reject what he produced.
Cote also denied the Marley family's request for a ruling upholding its claims over digital downloads, citing ambiguity in a 1992 royalties agreement.
She directed the parties to enter court-supervised settlement talks, and scheduled an October 29 conference.
The case is Fifth-Six Hope Road Music Ltd v. UMG Recordings Inc, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 08-06143.
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan said the UMG Recordings unit of Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group is the rightful owner of copyrights to five albums that Marley had recorded between 1973 and 1977 for Island Records.
The albums "Catch a Fire," "Burnin'," "Natty Dread," "Rastaman Vibrations" and "Exodus" were recorded with Marley's band The Wailers. They include some of Marley's best-known songs, including "Get Up, Stand Up," "I Shot the Sheriff," "No Woman, No Cry" and "One Love."
Marley died of cancer in 1981 at age 36.
Friday night's ruling is a defeat for Marley's widow Rita and nine children who had sought to recover millions of dollars in damages over UMG's effort to "exploit" what they called "the quintessential Bob Marley sound recordings."
L. Peter Parcher and Peter Shukat, who are lawyers for the family, did not immediately return calls seeking comment. UMG spokesman Peter LoFrumento said the company is pleased with Cote's ruling.
Marley's family accused UMG of intentionally withholding royalties from their company Fifty-Six Hope Road Music Ltd, and ignoring a 1995 agreement assigning them rights under the original recording agreements, court papers show.
It also accused UMG of failing as required to consult with them on key licensing decisions, including the use of Marley's music as "ringtones" on AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile phones, the papers show.
But Cote concluded that Marley's recordings were "works made for hire" as defined under U.S. copyright law, entitling UMG to be designated the owner of those recordings, for both the initial 28-year copyright terms and for renewals.
"Each of the agreements provided that the sound recordings were the 'absolute property' of Island," Cote wrote. "Whether Marley would have recorded his music even if he had not entered the recording agreements with Island is beside the point."
She added that it was irrelevant that Marley might have maintained artistic control over the recording process. What mattered, she said, was that Island had a contractual "right" to accept or reject what he produced.
Cote also denied the Marley family's request for a ruling upholding its claims over digital downloads, citing ambiguity in a 1992 royalties agreement.
She directed the parties to enter court-supervised settlement talks, and scheduled an October 29 conference.
The case is Fifth-Six Hope Road Music Ltd v. UMG Recordings Inc, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 08-06143.
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