Ladies and Gentlemen I present Tokyo`s The Stalin.
The Stalin was a big influence to later Japanese thrash icons such as G.I.S.M., Lip Cream and Gauze (of whom Stalin guitarist Tam was a cofounder) as well as all your big Western PC grind and hardcore crust bands. In fact, the Stalin made an appearance on the cult Killed By Death Vol. 5. They also worked with Electric Dragon 80000V director Sogo Iishi (vocalist Michiro Endo starred in Iishi`s Burst City). Bill Laswell produced their 1986 album `Fish Inn`. This tracks are from their 1998 album `?`.
The Stalin – Go Go Stalin.mp3
The Stalin – ?.mp3
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Japan`s best chocolate bar
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`I hope Kannon doesn`t judge me harshly for this, after all I do all this for him` I remember thinking as I levered the fork up through the membrane – `all there is is void, there`s no need to see anything else.` Likewise there was no need to taste anything – I swallowed the eyeball in one go & it sat in my stomach like calligraphy.
Kannon judges everyone harshly. Kannon has judged God for capricious acts of aggression and sentenced him to 137 years in the whale-turtle`s belly.
This is all the proof I ever needed, but now I would have more, the spell complete, I wiped the salt taste from my mouth and left the room. Tomorrow, after all was a new day. My blue suede shoes tapped a Tibetan death march on the cobbles, as above me the stars winked out, one by one.
I slept soundly as young men do after an important day`s work, dreaming of Tauhid – void-sapio synthesis – It only came to me in the third chamber of sleep when eyes vibrate like pendulums in the hypo-centre. I woke rapidly and necessarily and crawled to the upturned box that functioned as my writing table. I took a deep breath and vomited smoke all over the page before turning it over and sealing its illusionary essence into the rough paper like a flower dried into a scrapbook. No action without reaction.
As I called the taxi the Ganges burst its banks coating the streets of Calcutta with mud and ash. As I passed through security the last white tiger died on a bambo spear. High over the icebergs of the North Atlantic I felt the bones in my left arm rearrange in sympathy with the redefined structure of Patagonian glaciers. No progress without loss. Time for work.
Stepped out int the sun which rose like dense description and cast spells over the paving. Past the corner shopping trolleys rolling cross the street. Angels above the gate. Into ChinaTown – the law can`t reach here – toothless dragon faced with white heat. First left, then right, skipping over manholes – one for luck, two for a fuck, three`s the golden eagle. Elevator: street level – 16th flr, low smog today, choking birds in mid-flight. Office twisted like a rhombus. View over the docks – water tower dipped like drinking birds. Console warms up. Stuffed tiger silent in the corner. Morning! Bring tea!
The void vibrates soft behind it all – as it begun so it shall end, in projection. Friends and enemies, we`ve eaten eyeballs, toured the world and held our dicks like they were rising oil prices. Softly softly, follow the turtle, the lizards can`t touch us here…
by Colin, Chris and Graeme
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Action is currently taking place in East Iceland to try and stop the construction of the huge hydro-electric Kárahnjúkar dam project. The dam would flood 57 square km of wilderness in the Icelandic interior. In a good piece on the dam, engineer Sigthur St Arnalds describes this process as “wilderness reduction, not destruction”. The power from the dam will go exclusively to an outsourced US aluminium-smelting plant operated by Alcoa. The construction of the dam is being carried out by Betchel who are currently neck deep in Iraq. Action against the dam is ongoing and saw the biggest protest in Icelandic history (only 1000 people, but Iceland is a small country) as well as a hunger strike by Bjork`s mum. Recently 16 activists shut down construction at the dam for 3 hours. There is a trend among activists of idealising Iceland and it`s people. I remember in the run up to the invasion of Iraq, leaflets being distributed encouraging people in London to call for diplomatic intervention from the Icelandic government – because it has no army (except for fat US military presence and a joint defence agreement) and is the longest-running continually operational democracy in the world (again untrue – although it had a parliament during settlement, Iceland was run directly by the Danish crown for several hundred years). There is also an assumption (which seems to come mostly from Bjork videos) that Icelandic people are simple folk who live in animist harmony with the land. Politics in Iceland are run by a oligarch of established families and strongly influenced by the presence of an enormous US air base at Keflavik (which is also a major link in Echelon – the system which allows the US to monitor any phone conversation in Western Europe). 2 years ago when I left Iceland after living there for 6 months there were 2 newspapers – Morgunblathith and the free Frettirblathith- both occupying unshakable US-friendly centre-right editorial space.
Iceland`s population is urbanising rapidly and, it is argued, this plant will create jobs outside Rekjavik. That`s 1000 jobs at a cost of $1.4 billion for the dam and $1.1 for the smelting plant, that works out at $2.5 million per job plus the cost to the environment.
So how can this make sense – are all politicians just shape shifting lizards feeding the military-industrial machine? This explanation seems just a little too obvious. Why not ask Koizumi? He just called snap elections because he lost a vote to privatise Japan`s enormous (and efficient) post office.If successful this move would have created the world`s biggest bank.
More info on Iceland here
plus this article by Mark Lynus
