Word The Cat

….after 5 years its back to London.

On the (slim but not impossible) off chance anyone out there is looking to financially back a Thai action movie, here’s a synopsis of Bangkok Loco director Pink’s proposed new film:

“Cock fighting is a sport that has been an attraction for many years. It is seen in virtually every country. What will happen if a duck must conceal it’s identity to fight with cocks? What will happen if that duck falls in love with a chicken? It is merely a duck. In the end where the movie climaxes, the duck must fight with a goose that had also concealed it’s identity as a fighting cock as well. Chicken, duck, or goose? Who will win ? And why does the swan raise a challenge at the end. The problem of the influenza bird flu virus also takes hold of a world population with no remedy in sight.”

More info here and here

Currently in the middle of putting together a double strength mix for may/june. I wanted to put some Mika Vainio tracks in there but not sure they’ll gel, so I’ll post them here instead. Mika Vainio is one half of Finnish electronic duo pan sonic. I remember hearing them as a teenager when I was into Godspeed!, Trans Am etc. (Pan Sonic used to release on Blast First) and not quite getting it. Now this music sounds great. Both tracks from his Olento LP on Sähkö of unreleased things from 1995. Boomkat will sell it to you here.

Mika Vainio – Stratostaatti

Mika Vainio – Ilta

Oh and elsewhere in Scandanavia, there’s an intimidating amount of free music available via Norway’s Miasmah label

If I haven’t got round to posting any jazz recently it’s because the Words and Music blog is taking care of it. This post has Cecil Taylor alongside Albert Ayler and a very strong track by Bill Dixon (the man below). Last night’s Mika Vainio post went wrong somehow but it will be restored as soon as I can get onto the server. Happy bank holiday weekend.

Where does the image end and the referent begin? Do TV cops have anything to do with real cops? By real do we just mean sketched with more detail? Three Burials… sees a border guard given a soul (by which is meant the potential to change) but Tommy Lee retains unquestionable moral authority, even more so because he’s in charge of the composition and the edit. No running from God and his avatars – a moral absolute that’s absolutely moral and who’s also a cop that always gets his man – he’s in the edit, the narration, he’s in the word, no he is the word. It doesn’t have to be this way but as far as culture is concerned it usually is.
Burial’s record sleeve takes a God’s eye view of south London. Sitting somewhere outside the rave watching the queue from a high window. I quite like listening to dubstep on a shitty home system. It leaves the music (more) minimal with the bass as a distant rumble. A lot has been made about how this LP is home (rather than 10 foot speaker stack) listening. It’s also said to be “built from the echoes of London’s streets and hidden spaces”. What’s interesting is that this is what London might begin to sound like for people who hear this record. However, with a healthy amount of bullshitting I’m sure you could make someone believe this is what the Falkland Islands sounded like. The (sound/film) image constructs the real and keeping it real is a very subjective business.

Burial – Broken Home 11.5mb

Kode 9’s 20 minute mix of Burial LP tracks here.

The Burial LP is released independently through Kode 9’s hyperdub label. You can pick it up here.

Chavez was in London this week. BBC Radio 4’s coverage has been characterised by (readily admitted) amazement at hearing socialist rhetoric in a European capital, or should that be ‘newsworthy’ socialist rhetoric. What would Chavez be saying if he didn’t have 200 years of US imperialism to rail against i wonder, such questions might be immaterial cos it doesn’t look like US imperialism is going to let up in the near future.
But why are the BBC so suprised? C.R.E.A.M is why. Peter Lamborn Wilson in his Hakim Bey alter ego puts it like this:

“Money decrees itself a law of Nature, and demands absolute liberty. Completely spiritualized, freed from its outworn body (mere production), circulating towards infinity & instantaneity in a gnostic numisphere far above Earth, money alone will define consciousness” (Millenium: 30-31).

“Debt itself – the true content of all money – is a highly ’spiritual’ concept. As tribute (primitive debt) it exemplifies capitulation to a ‘legitimate power’ of expropriation masked in religious ideology – but as ‘real debt’ it attains the uniquely spiritual ability to reproduce itself as if it were an organic being. Even now it remains the only ‘dead’ substance in all the world to possess this power – money begets money” (Millenium: 70-71).

Even if you think he’s a wacked out old orientalist whose views are damaging to material class struggle, you can still enjoy him cussing Eddie Murphy:

Hakim Bey – Boycott Cop Culture 15mb

And here ‘poetic terrorism’ (thanks Ms. Kristeva) again from T.A.Z. (see Reclaim the Streets for the practice) published in 1994. These recordings with musical backing by Bill Laswell were released on Laswell’s excellent Axiom label.

Hakim Bey – Poetic Terrorism 6.2mb

Did you know ‘equality secretary’ [?] Ruth Kelly is a member of Opus Dei? You probably will do when the DaVinci Code comes out. Although the prospect of being surrounded by Tom Hanks billboards for the next 3 months (not to mention the rise of British TV actors employed to play ‘europeans’ – you know those yellow toothed, regionally accented people in a perpetual state of decay) tempts me to flee to South Georgia, I might dig a hole to hide in and listen to this instead:

Shizuo – Fuckstep ‘98 Side A 34mb

Shizuo Fuckstep ‘98 Side B 31mb

20JFG carries a post on rave and, rather puzzlingly, neu rave. There’s something reassuring about being neu, things end up circular, which means no-one’s ever right or wrong, just 5 years out of time (and Reaganism’s so hot right now). Shizuo isn’t reassuring as you’ll know if you’ve ever seen his comics. In fact the tempo and volume shifts on this record are custom designed to fuck up people’s dancing. However unlike other radical attacks on pleasure its actually fun, unlike going to an Opus Dei centre for tea:

“Numeraries generally practice one small corporal mortification at every meal, such as drinking coffee without milk or sugar, not buttering one’s toast, skipping dessert, not taking seconds, etc.”