Category: culture

Grinding hard not soft, fashion core on a freestyle jazz metal tip

Reading the article about “Fashion-core” that Nik linked to, it kind of made me feel old that “hardcore” no longer means early nineties UK rave breakbeat or mid-nineties Rotterdam gabber and that it has gone back to one of the first uses of “hardcore” to describe music that I heard. Actually it also made me feel old because I’ve actually witnessed a term for music change over the course of more than a decade.

Reality Slap

A copy of Neil Ollivierra’s unpublished book Reality Slap is currently being hosted over at the Emotion Electric site in PDF format.

From The Milk Factory:

“Neil Ollivierra described the early days of the Detroit movement in Reality Slap, a book he never officially published, but which gained near cult status in the Motor city. The book focuses on his life as a socialite, as well as the rise of Detroit techno, and his involvement with Derrick May and the Transmat label.”

Arcade 64

Now this sounds like my kind of party! (Thanks to Davo for the link on that one).

Dont think retro fashion, think RETRO GEEK! Vintage computing and gaming meets arcades and the finest local and international live acts for a night of blistering beats, acid, techno, breaks and console bleeps. Get down to the big ass bass or blister those thumbs on a NES, Atari, C64, Neo Geo or any of many other gaming flashbacks powered up and on site for those of us who were more geeking up at home then doing the John Travolta…. screw the 80’s… insert coin to play!

Parallel Dimensions to get full release on Ubiquity

Back in 2000, Theo Parrish released the fantastic double pack Parallel Dimensions on his label Sound Signture. At the same time there was a CD of Parallel Dimensions which only had 1000 copies pressed and had 4 additional tracks that weren’t in the vinyl pack; So Now What, Anansies Dances, Space Ghosts, Summertime is Here, Brain Collaboration and Violet Green (the CD lacked the brillant Dreamers Blues and What U Cry 4 though). Luckily Ubiquity are releasing all the CD tracks onto vinyl soon!

Planet E re-release 4 Jazz Funk Classics

Along with a bunch of other re-releases recently, Planet E are re-releasing an absolute classic (now it really is a classic!!).

To be re-released on April 9th, the long awaited Planet E original, 69 – 4 jazz funk classics!

This is a true repress of the original 1991 release in every way. For those who are long-time followers of Carl Craig, it’s common knowledge that 4 jazz funk classics was Craig’s debut release on Planet E Communications, Inc.

Now 13 years later, the music is still just as timeless as the day it was created. Record Collectors from all over the world know the street value of this rare classic has reached as high as $100 a copy. Today this is your opportunity to pre-order a sure-satisfying product that will bring a wealth of enjoyment and unlimited profits to you company. Order now and be confident, because this one won’t wait!

69 – 4 jazz funk classics
PLAN 12S 69
side a
a1. ladies & gentleman
a2. if mojo was a.m.
side b
b1. my machines (pt.1)
extraterrestrial raggabeats (pt.2)
my machines (reprise)
b2. frequency finale

The little things

Somedays, its nice just to stumble across a little program or utility that makes you day just that little bit easier. Potrace by Peter Selinger is one of those great little programs. Potrace traces a bitmap and then transforms the bitmap into a smooth, scalable image. At the moment Potrace can output the file as an EPS, PostScript, SVG (scalable vector graphics), and PGM file. Very useful for when you want to do something with some crusty old gif file or something, and you can’t be assed tracing by hand in Illustrator or something. Here’s an example of a file that I converted:

Drexciyan Gill Man (before)

Drexciyan Gill Man (before)
Drexciyan Gill Man (after)

Drexciyan Gill Man (after)

And its nice to see that its available for Linux, Sun Solaris, Apple Mac OS X, FreeBSD, NetBSD, AIX and Windows.

Lapti Nek by Sy Snootles and the Max Rebo Band

I not quite sure how, but an mp3 of this song appeared on my harddrive one day. Perhaps I downloaded it and forgot about it, perhaps someone else put it there. Anyway, I recently started listening to it again. Its a song from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. It was peformed by Sy Snootles and the Max Rebo Band (employed by Jabba the Hutt) but not actually in the movie (well this full version I think). Its a craptastic, so good its bad early eighties sort of pop/disco funk type deal, which only the eighties could have produced I guess. There’s something so catchy about it though.

Ab queck zenick fesi
Jup col im in na hiz jal, ooh.
Wa toc peg qui dos gee pif, aah.
Joh jarraz bas deg zorze zot.
Jer wih tuster mo vey
Qui neb be og ezen on
Wok lapti nek seb not van
Goc jarraz bas deg zorze zot

Lapti Nek
Rat a ran wim joct co jappi qaff
Lapti Nek
Kiv ba ha top wep jex pi va bep
Lapti Nek
Rat a ran wim joct co jappi qaff

Av queck zenick fesi
Jem wih tus-ter movey
Qui Neb be og ezen on
Wok lap ti nek seb not van
Wah toc peg qui doz gee pif
Goc jarraz bas deg zorze zot

Lapti Nek
Rat a ran wim joct co jappi qaff
Lapti Nek
Kiv ba ha top wep jex pi va bep
Lapti Nek
Rat a ran wim joct co jappi qaff

Deg zorze zot
Jem wih tuster mo vey
Qui neb be og ezen on
Wok lapti nek seb not van
Goc jarraz bas deg zorze zot

Lapti nek, lapti nek (repeat and fade)

It wasn’t a rock!

The B52's in concert at the Hordern

The B52’s in concert last night at the Hordern in Sydney.

(Sorry, I just cut and paste from a mailing list that I posted to and am too lazy and busy to write something better).

They started off with Planet Clare. They also did Roam, 52 Girls, Mesopotamia, Love Shack, Channel Z, Deadbeat Club, Quiche Lorraine, a bunch of other songs that I can’t remember or didn’t know and of course they encored with Rock Lobster.

Sounds of Seduction were the support with their usual array of nutty go-go dancers. When we walked in Jay Catz playing the Wonder Woman theme song, then onto the Batman theme song. Most of the crowd were getting into it (or atleast enjoying it) and I heard lots of people giggling to the music, so that was pretty cool, since some crowds can be a tad hostile the concept of a dj being the support.

All in all, it was a fun night though. Glad I went.

Update 04/03/2004: A review over at the SMH.

Grex Ultra Dynamics: Notron, the next generation

Some of you might remember the legendary Latronic Notron that was famously known (well atleast in Detroit ‘spotter circles) for being used by Claude Young. Apparently other famous users were Björk (who even received her own Notron mod in the form of the “Björkeyboard”), The Orb, The Advent, Kirk De Georgio, Mark Bell, James Ruskin, Oliver Ho, Howie B, Max Duley and Richie Hawtin.

Well after disappearing for a few years, Notron’s creater Gerard Campbell, appears to be back with a new company: Grex Ultra Dynamics. The first product released is the MFX8 Midi Crossfader which allows for gives quick and easy control of up to 56 MIDI Controllers along with volume cross fading, beat gating, punching, kill, MIDI clock generation and unique ratio sequencing. Its already available for sale direct from the Grex Store for £225.00 excluding VAT.

On the horizon in 2004 (in the Northen Hemisphere’s spring) is the next generation Notron; the Genotron which apparently has over 5 times the processing power of the original Notron.