pollywannacracka

11 from 11...(albums)

2011-12-25T22:40:00.000-08:00

So many albums made that it's virtually impossible to hear them all !!!

And even going through the blognoscenti end of year lists you feel a bit left out and out of touch, seeing stuff you've never heard from artists you don't even recognize.

Then again, theres people who will have never heard these albums and even if they had would think they're shit.

Oh well...there's just no accounting for some people's taste :) So if you're looking for indie pop crap or rock guitars you better skedaddle right now, cos mostly all your gonna find here is electronic noodlings of various description.

And with that, in no particular order and without trawling the hard drives for other stuff from this year or sucking down more stuff i have yet to hear, heres a selection in no particular order of albums that held together over the course of their playlists enough for me to play them again and again...

Submotion Orchestra - Finest Hour

Real musos playing real instruments with a real vocalist who can really sing some real songs and engineered by an ex dubstepper who can really twiddle the knobs to sublime effect makes for a refreshing change.

Kuedo - Severant

Pinch and Shackleton - self titled

Post dubstep...whatever that means, sees 3 heavy hitters form the first wave create lullaby instrumentals to de stress and nod off to in the dark after a long days doing whatever it is you do during the long days that you need winding down from before sleep takes you to wherever it is sleep takes you in the dark.

Rustie - Glass Swords

Yep Yep stupid stupid fresh fresh good time bounce around the lounge busting your new fangled groove to some crunchy beats and an old school analogue synth sound palette.

Zed Bias - Biasonic hotsauce, Birth of the nanocloud

Breakstep/Dubstep pioneer and O.G UK garagehead gives us the remix and new buzz treatment tied together by some mad scientist vocal shizz. A trans genre jump up booty shaker for people who can jump up and shake booty.

lol - me me

Hard to put a finger on what it is I like about this apart from everything. Gives creedence to Simon Reynolds - Retromania in as much as it's a present day summation of everything thats gone before without looking to the future. Big proggy rock sounding electronica.

Active Child - You are all I see

Ever wondered what an American castrato sounding ex choirboy singing deeply heartfelt lyrics might sound like over ethereal electronica ? Wonder no more. It shouldn't work but it so does.

Collie Buddz - Playback EP

Paleface ragamuffin par excellence from an artist who, though limited by the boundaries of the genre, still manages to add value to every release. Pretty fly for a white guy and if you didn't know, you probably wouldn't pick it.

Mungo's HiFi - Forward Ever

KISS...Keep it simple stupid. No flash basslines, no clever beats, just good old fashioned reggae rhythm section and tasty accompaniments in cleaner than clean digital fashion rounded out by some top drawer vocalists.

Yelawolf - Radioactive

Breakthrough rap artist of the year. Offensive, potty mouthed, speed fuelled white trash rapping in double fast time. Not everyones cup of tea but fuck it, i'm diggin it. Eminem did well to sign a clone who took his steez to the next level.

Angel - 7 minutes before time

UK R'n'B that lays waste to the tried and true boring Eurotrance inspired offerings the likes of Jason DeRulo, Usher, Chris Brown and Ne Yo served up this year. Dudes got the potential to blow up large and probably will.

__________________________________________

Funny how they're mostly all guys though...what can i say ? There's a dearth of ladies making electronica ?

Must be time for another selection of ladies to look forward to in the new year.

HOLD TIGHT !!!

13...12...11...

2011-12-12T12:02:00.000-08:00

The countdown has well and truly begun...

To what you may ask ?...To my birthday silly. Not so much this years but next years when i will enact my single revolutionary act designed to bring about a new age of enlightenment and liberty...If only for myself.

I first posted this 2 years ago on 11/10/9 at a site long since banned from and having gone the way of many hubs of social networking...faded into irrelevence and obsolescence :)

Lets Revolt !!!

First a bit of background. The trouble with REVOLUTIONS is they seem to be mostly reactionary and rely on spontaneity with little forethought to planning. So i'm giving myself 3 years to plan in the hope you will all join me. The more the merrier.

Just so you know, i intend to globally mobilise all forms of media 2.0 in all languages. you can help by spreading the word. that said, if nobody minds i'd like to make this forum, thread and post the ongoing hub should things go to plan for my forthcoming REVOLUTION. should things not go to plan i'll create a hub somewhere else but you heard it here first.

I CAPITALISE REVOLUTION because theres an irony in de-capitalising it when the time comes. I'm not going to set an agenda or a thing to revolt against as it's mostly my personal REVOLUTION so by all means personalise your own and decide your cause of action, though you can decide to take my cause for yours. My only request is that you coincide your date with mine.

The date will be my birthday in the year 2012, which incidentally is the 20th of December. Yes... 20/12/2012. A most auspicious date for REVOLUTIONS, given the renewal of the life cycle for yet another Mayan age.

My course of action, my one act of revolt is a simple one. I think it'd be wayyy fun if you adopted it also. On that day, i will march down to the bank or banks as case may be and withdraw all my money but not spend it on anything. On that day C.R.E.A.M. will be my credo. CASH RULES EVERYTHING ABOUT ME. That will be the irony of decapitalising. Then i'm going to go home and stop all my automatic payments. btw 20/12/2012 is a Thursday so the banks should be open :)

However, I'd imagine in revolutions there would be those who aren't so much down with the cause but rather down for the opportunity to take advantage of the chaos and basically line their pockets. In that respect 2012 would be a perfect opportunity. Knowing or seeing someone take out a sum of cash as part of a protest would practically be an invitation for some lowlifes to relieve them of said cash.

I'd suggest a security plan to counter such eventuality. Though i could see groups/gangs of opportunists working together so there would have to be a collective security plan...Safety in numbers perhaps ? But then what do you do about home invasions on the day ?...I say shoot the fuckers.

The other thing is, canceling auto payments requires a startup fee to re initiate them, which defeats the purpose of revolting against banks and their exorbitant fees. In which case as an alternative form of protest, i'm going to take the day of work.

That'll show them who's boss! Though continuing to trade only in cash may be an option

As an update things have moved at such a pace since 11/10/09 that there is the very real possibility the banks may crash of their own accord under the weight of debt by sovereign nations defaulting on their loans.

Not to mention the Occupy movements simple but effective acts of tried and true revolutionary protest. The mass sit in. A favourite amongst Pasifikan protestors such as was used by the Samoan Mau and at Parihaka :(

In any event, my revolutionary act may well and truly be taken on board with the long tailed masses joining me in a bank run simply through synchronicity.

Here's an interesting related scenario of what might occur should people decide to cash up, trade and invest their capital in smaller ventures managed locally and for the benefit of a community of interest...

Can citizen banking neuter the fat cats?

A LOT of people would like to do away with bankers right now. But targeting individuals is not very helpful: most bankers were merely executing the plans of the institutions they worked for. How about ditching banks instead?

Peer-to-peer lenders hope they can undermine banking in much the way that internet upstarts revolutionised the music business. But just as the buccaneering Napster found itself stymied by legal issues, so regulatory concerns have forced the citizen bankers to water down their radicalism

Bank says no? Ditch the bank – borrow from the crowd

What you might not know is that there are technology solutions for banking every bit as powerful as social media such as Facebook that can step into the gap, making it possible, this very minute, for you to borrow or lend money safely online, completely independent of an actual bank. They're called peer-to-peer (P2P) lending services, and they have been around for years. This kind of "citizen banking" should be reshaping the business of borrowing and lending, and shaking the foundations of the financial industry in a way no amount of Occupy Wall Street protesting could accomplish. So what's the hold up?...

...If citizen banking takes off, it could change people's day-to-day reality in the fundamental ways that the now-global Occupy movement is clamouring for. With interest payments going directly to the masses, rather than to banker bonuses and skyscrapers, P2P lending could cause more money to circulate in the real economy. It also naturally distributes risk among many individuals in a potentially more transparent way, rather than concentrating it in large, "too big to fail" institutions.

Living the dream...NZ ELECTION 2011

2011-11-26T12:54:00.000-08:00

Congratulations people!!!

You bought the aspirational middle class dream John Key was selling. You didn’t want the reality Phil Goff was selling and why would you ?

The reality is high unemployment, no jobs, stagnant wages, rising cost of living, NZ’s best and brightest leaving NZ in record numbers, an aging population reliant on welfare, an angry youthful demographic also reliant on welfare, a property investment boil that needs lancing and a wealth disparity chasm that will only widen with asset sales.

I mean, who in their right mind wants to face that reality ?…and buy into it, let alone deal with it, when you can live the dream of aspirational middle classiness. You too can come from living in a state house to make a fortune then become Prime Minister. Thats the shit people want to buy into and the shit Key was selling.

And man did we buy it, hook, line and sinker, cos like i said on dim post, everyone thinks they’re middle class these days. There is no working class anymore, only the underclass, consisting of the working poor and the unemployed.

But no one’s going to admit to being underclass. That’s the fucking nightmare class you read about on the news, committing violent crime, breeding for business and living off charity.

Sure, you may be jobless and poor or scraping to get by, but your parents weren’t and they were middles class so you are too eh ? You just have to keep believing, have faith that Key can keep your dream alive. I mean, you’re a real life wannabe kiwi mum and dad whose better times are just around the corner.

But you know, the only trouble with living the dream is, sooner or later you wake up and have to face reality, either by your own choice or by neccessity of someone forcing you to. And don’t you just hate it when the realization dawns on you that the dream you thought you were living was only happening in your mind and for all that time you were just asleep.

sleep tight NZ, don’t let reality bite…Vampires are real !!!

G’nite...*mwah*

oh and another thing worth remembering is, Key isn't middle class.

He's transcended that to become ruling class...Part of that elite 1% that doesnt really give a shit whether you're middle class, underclass or lacking any class at all, just that you're in the 99% who only have to buy the bullshit the 1% are peddling to keep them ruling.

Luv for the 80's...synthpop

2011-11-06T14:50:00.000-08:00

.......................TURN THE MUSIC UP !!!.......................

Sure you could harken back to previous times for the birth of electronica, but you had to love what happened when the great unwashed got hold of those mint as, and now vintage, synths in the 80's...

Lets just forget the fashion, the hair dos, the make up and cheesy videos though...Ok ?

And for goodness sake, though i'm posting in the middle of an election campaign in NZ, it's not the end of the world if Phil Goff gets in or John Key for another term, like it wasn't when Reagan and Thatcher got elected...but it was touch and go there for a while eh ?

Anyway, here's another 80 minutes of crossfaded childhood memories...

1. The Boomtown Rats - Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays
2. The Clash - Straight To Hell
3. Musical Youth - Pass The Dutchie
4. Bros - When Will I Be Famous
5. Go West - We Close Our Eyes
6. Living in a Box - Living in a Box
7. Depeche Mode - Just Can't Get Enough
8. Yazoo - Don't Go
9. Gary Numan - Cars
10. Heaven 17 - geisha boys and temple girls
11. Flash And The Pan - - Waiting on a train
12. Wa Wa Nee - Stimulation
13. Kajagoogoo - Too Shy
14. Culture Club - Time
15. Elvis Costello - Everday I Write the Book
16. Orange Juice - Rip It Up
17. Naked Eyes - Promises Promises
18. Swing Out Sister - Breakout
19. Curiosity Killed The Cat - Down To Earth
20. Blow Monkeys - Diggin Your Scene
21. Tears for Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule the World
22. China Crisis - Black Man Ray
23. Simply Red - Holding Back The Years

DOWNLOAD

...and don't ask me why there's no WHAM on there cos damn..George Michael was the shit back then !!!....No really...LOOK !!!

For my peeps...

2011-10-17T21:38:00.000-07:00

...it's been a long time between drinks.

I mean, here's some acid jazzy type shit from back in the day that i was listening to the last time NZ hosted the Rubber Wool Cup...and won :)

1. The Family Stand - Ghetto heaven
2. The Emotions - Flowers
3. The Chimes - True Love
4. Driza Bone - Real Love
5. Angie Giles - Submerge
6. Yo Yo Honey - Groove On
7. Loose Ends - Don't Be A Fool
8. Soul II Soul - Jazzie's Groove
9. Leena Conquest - Boundaries
10. Color Me Badd - Time And Chance
11. Smith & Mighty - Walk On By
12. Madonna - Justify my love (William Orbit rmx)
13. Fresh 4 - Wishing On A Star
14. Freak Power - Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out
15. Rockers Hi Fi - Push Push
16. Groove Armada - Superstylin'
17. Stereo MC`s - Connected

cross faded and downloadable as 80minutes of 109MB grooveness...

...oh and here's the t-shirt you can hit me up for if you want to buy one. Silver on Black looks the shizzle

Symbolic Savages Suffering Nobly..

2011-08-03T14:19:00.000-07:00

It's funny looking back in time, either through photographs or video/audio recordings, seeing/hearing yourself how you thought you were and thinking how much you've changed or how much you've reinforced your beliefs to become even more the person you wanted to be.

Rewind 10 years...

...delirious from rushing endorphins coursing through my system as once again traditional tatau bit hard into soft flesh, I remember being interviewed for this documentary, Savage Symbols.

Spouting random, sometimes incoherent stuff then wondering afterwards how much of a dick the editors will make me seem because of it, i needn't have worried. It is what it is and as is, it stands as a record of who i was and what i wanted to achieve in that time.

Now, as i embark on the next stage of discovery in knowing what it is to be a proud descendent of illustrious Pasifikan ancestors, to once again follow in their footsteps and sail in their wake and by it, know what it is they felt...

I am truly humbled...and scared as all hell :)

Many times in life, particularly with regard to family, we have to sacrifice a lot to achieve what may seem a little. The greater need of the many outweighs the wants of the few. If it means we have to suffer to achieve, then let us do so nobly, with humility and with pride in the achievements of those who have gone before, those who lived and died so that we may succeed. If we fail, we fail our ancestors and their lives were thus lived in vain.

I choose not to fail, and measure success by my own standards and the traditions and values of my ancestors. To them, the ocean was the way and the truth of a life that led closer to the creative spirit, the breath of which sustains us all.

The ocean, like the Tatau, can kill the unprepared and the unworthy, but it also gives life to those worthy and respectful of it's power. As the Tatau marks the beginning of a new life, a baptism of fire, so Te Mana o Te Moana is a baptism of water. One, a rite of passage, the other, a coming of age, the end of childhood dreams to start the discovery of life as a Man.

Ultimately if it doesn't kill me, it will make me stronger, and when we pass those lessons on to our kids, it makes them even stronger, more fit to survive and prosper.

We owe it to our kids to show them a life worth living, a past worth preserving, a future worth dying for...Don't ya think ?

Not Cold at all...just warming up

2011-07-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

Born Demeter Maia and raised in Christchurch, New Zealand, Demi is of proud Nga Puhi and Samoan parentage with some righteous Euro, by way of Switzerland and Ireland, and some skanking adoptive Jamaican thrown in for good measure.

Make no mistake though, she's a staunch all Kiwi Pasifikan homegirl with a heart of gold and a fearless take no shit attitude, tempered with a healthy dose of godly faith and humility.

Growing up, she attended total immersion Maori school before moving to Nelson and finishing her education at Nelson College for Girls. Now 19, she is currently studying for a BA in Performing Arts at Otago University and looking to leave her mark on the musical world.

All power to her !!!

Still dunno 'bout the wannabe pop star thing :) but we got your back and are so incredibly proud of our number one girl !

Props to the guys at LYM records as well.

Mata Ariki - In the Eyes of Gods & Chiefs

2011-06-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

It was a time of great change. A time of darkness and uncertainty as turbulence swirled the waters of life and the spirit of the ancient gods fought amongst themselves, desperately seeking to subjugate man to their will forever.

Some wished to destroy Man, seeing mankind as their possession, to bend and ply solely to their every whim and desire. Seeing them as no more than playthings to be manipulated and toyed with. Others in their wisdom, saw Man rapidly approaching a time when they no longer needed the gods, were in the process of attaining true godhood themselves and were thus joyous, hopeful that the boredom of immortal godliness would be greater appreciated in the bountiful company of man. For it was the aim of Man in the beginning to be as gods, the sole reason they were created in God’s image and imbued with the spirit of creation.

Images though, are but a reflection of the true object. And so man was born rife with internal conflict, flawed, as indeed the gods were too, in their creation by the one true God IO, whose motive and intent are hidden in plain sight, masked by the natural world.

Ailing through eons in their struggle for Man to retain the old ways and traditional forms of worship, the houses of the god’s became bitter and jealous of each other. Many men, blinded in their worship of the old ways, sought counsel in the spirits of the dark gods under the promise of great wealth and power for them and their progeny. These men, blind in their ambition, used guile and force to sway the masses into continuing acceptance of the old ways, sacrificing earth, wind, fire and water to appease the gods as they had always done.

However, the question, should man strive to become master of his own destiny or accept the fate the old gods had destined for him resounded amongst the 9 heavens ? Whispers of discontent drifted on the winds of time for an enlightened few, attuned to the sounds of godspeak to hear, sparking an awakening, and promising a new dream should Man take it upon himself to pursue his own destiny.

Into this time, with the spirit of the gods forced to choose sides in the last battle of wills, and man seemingly drifting aimlessly on the tides of life, were the seven sisters of the sea born. Their names being Hine Moana, Gaualofa, Te Matau a Maui, Faafaite, Marumaru Atua, Uto ni Yalo and Haunui. Together they were cast with the purpose, to lead the way forward, to win the war for the future of mankind, to break the old god’s dark spell forever, to enlighten a future for all to see or die trying.

so their journey begins… :)

Ghost in the wings

2011-05-11T16:38:00.000-07:00

This untouched photo was taken at the Nelson Theatre Royal NZ, April 2011 during the Nelson Youth Theatre season of Peter Pan.

...not scary at all eh ?

:)

Things we do for love

2011-04-17T20:53:00.000-07:00

We come in peace, with love in our hearts
humble in acknowledgement of the supreme creator.

We seek not to harm, nor to destroy,
but to follow in the footsteps of our ancestors,
to learn the truth that was lost,
to heal the wounds of past injustices.

May we forever walk in the light,
be guided, strengthened and protected
by the sacred spirit and the divine energy.

___________________________________________

Ua matou o mai i le filemu, o le alofa i o matou loto,
e le agaaga maualalo e ta'uta'u ai le sili sili ese o le atua foafoa.

Matou te saili ina ia le fa'ao'o, se leaga pe fa'aleaoga,
ae mulimuli i a sa uia i o tatou tu'aa,
ia togafitia manu'a ona o le faiga i le aso tuana'i

Tau ina ia tatou savavali pea i le malamalama,
ma ia ta'ita'iina, fa'amalosia pupuia le agaaga,
paia le malosi ma le mana silisili ese.
____________________________________________

That was something i wrote about 15 years ago, when deciding what my life mission was to be in choosing to identify first and foremost as Samoan. It was always my hope that it would be translated into other Pasifikan languages as a form of greeting and salutation.

All that will now come to pass and become embodied in a gift for the wider Pasifikan family as we embark on a journey to reawaken the world, to share the Okeanos dream of German patron, Dieter Paulmann. This journey, reminiscent of those undertaken by our noble and illustrious ancestors deified in legend, will force others to see, through Pasifikan eyes, the harm we cause ourselves, by highlighting Man's attempted self destruction of itself through the damage we are currently inflicting on the world's oceans.

Acidification by CO2 saturation, the creation of 'dead' zones by plankton and oxygen depletion, pollution by plastics and noise which devastate fish populations, are problems we aim to bring to the attention of the wider world, by chronicling in film the voyage of 7 traditionally styled Pasifikan waka/va'a/vaka/boats, crewed by volunteers from all over the globe, though primarily from Pasifika. Such was Dieter's wish in sponsoring the creation of these canoes.

In January 2012 i will be taking my place among the crew of the Gaualofa, the Samoan va'a, as it journeys from San Diego USA and sails back across the Pacific to the Solomon islands in time for the 2012 Pasifika Arts festival.

For more on the voyage, the people, the mission, the challenge and to track the progress of the fleet on it's first legs from Aotearoa to Hawaii, by way of Tahiti and the Marquesas, then on to San francisco and San Diego, go here to the
pacificvoyagers.org

And if you have the desire or the means to contribute in whatever form, though preferably through a kindly donation to the Samoan Voyaging Society, please feel free to do so and know that your contribution is much appreciated.

Account Name: SAMOA VOYAGING SOCIETY INC main branch Apia
Account N°: 00038031142

Such is the sentiment behind Gaualofa.

The things we do for love and expect nothing in return...
____________________________________________

EDIT : With much love and indebtedness to Mareva and Tera'ireia, and in expectation of nothing in return, these two Tahitian ladies of high esteem have seen fit to translate the prayer into Tahitian...

UA HAERE MAI MATOU MÄ TE HAU I TE ‘A’AU
MÄ TE HAEHAA O TE VARUA NO TE HAAMAURUURU I TE TUMU NUI

EITA MATOU E IMI I TE HARA ,EITA MATOU E FAATUPU I TE INO
E APEE RÄ MATOU I TE MAU TAPUA’E AVAE O TO MATOU MAU TUPUNA
NO TE HAAPII I TE PARAU TI’A I MO’E IA MATOU
NO TE RAPA’AU I TE MAU MAUIUI I FAATUPUHIA E TE MAU OHIPA TANO ‘ORE NO MUA RA

IA HAERE TATOU NA TE ARATIA MARAMARAMA
A TAU E A HITI NOA ATU

IA ARATA’IHIA TATOU, IA FAAITOITOHIA TATOU
IA PARURUHIA TATOU
E TE VARUA MO’A E TE MANA ATUA.

...with my hope that it can be delivered by my Samoan family on the Gaualofa upon touching soil at ther first port of call, Fakarava.

Christ City...HARD !!!

2011-02-27T16:04:00.000-08:00

One week on from a devastating earthquake that pretty much levelled my ex home city of 10 years, I'm reminded of a Chinese proverb...

Crisis : Opportunity riding a dangerous wind

Given that, Christchurch has a bright and prosperous future ahead of it cos as it stands, it's a virtual blank canvas eh

So instead of waiting around for inner city buildings to come down and rebuilding in the same spot. How about start building a new planned and architecturally cohesive CBD in Hagley park from scratch, then turn most of the current CBD into a park and move the university into the rest of it ?

Revitalise the inner city with students and student housing. While giving the new CBD easier access to rail via Addington and the airport via Memorial ave. Build more residential sub divisions out Halswell way and link it all up with an overhead monorail that extends all the way to Brighton then to Sumner, along the Port Hills to Hillsborough following the foothills of Cashmere and straight down Colombo to Moorhouse ave and back to the new CBD.

Then for old times sake, in designing the street access of a new CBD, allow for a motor racing circuit replete with concert/sporting/trade fair arena and easy viewing for the public.

Finally name it after John Britten…Brittendon.

Hotting up...

2011-01-16T13:23:00.000-08:00

You could spend all day scouring the net downloading this recommendation, or that, by well informed blognoscenti whose hipster tastes are perpetually balanced on the cutting edge and you would still miss out on a stackload of good shit being released for free everyday...

...chances are you'd be, on more than one occassion, bitterly diappointed too, when the insider hype doesn't match the product :(

so here's 5 blogs where, even if something doesn't immediately jump off the screen and demand to be downloaded, you pretty much know the next train along the tracks ought to be the goods !!!

this song is sick
gotta dance dirty
you can call me pelski
hot biscuits
rcrdlbl

and with that...

...gleaned mostly from the afore mentioned sites a few months back, and in the form of another crossfaded mix, is a smooth flowing trainwreck of bizarro hiphop, electro, house, r'n'b, dubstep and some nameless shit that is just too cool for any cockslapping tastemaking cyber journo to subgenrify...

Hotting UP MIX - POLLYWOG

1. Flying Lotus - Pie Face (My Dry Wet Mess Remix) (3:38)
2. Dada Life - Unleash The Fucking Dada (Original Mix) (5:44)
3. The Ting Tings - Hands (Passion Pit Remix) (3:24)
4. Samo Sound Boy - Five (3:39)
5. Steve Starks - Git Em (3:23)
6. Sleigh Bells - Tell 'Em (Kingdom Remix) (4:35)
7. Bombé - Brighton (4:59)
8. Slow Hands - Unwhimited Whuuub (3:42)
9. Trackademicks - Fool On The Hill (feat. Phonte) (3:30)
10. Cee Lo Green - Fuck You (Le Castle Vania Remix) (4:36)
11. David Banner & 9th Wonder - Be With You (feat. Ludacris & Marsha Ambrosius) (3:26)
12. Jakwob - Daydreaming (Jakwob Remix) (4:35)
13. Waka Flocka Flame - O, Let's Do It (Heroes + Villains Remix) (5:11)
14. Diplo & Lil Jon - U Don't Like Me (Datsik Remix) (4:42)
15. Skrillex - Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites (Noisia Remix) (3:24)
16. The Bloody Beetroots - WARP (feat. Steve Aoki) (Dirtyphonics DubStep Remix) (5:42)
17. Sunday Girl - Sunday Girl vs. Rusko - Hey Stop (Club Mix) (5:12)
18. Crystal Castles - Not In Love (feat. Robert Smith) (3:46)
19. The Fives Ft Vanya Taylor - It's What You Do (5:16)
20. Paul White - Goes To Hollywood (2:45)

Download 108MB 79 min Hotting Up MIX from mediafire

BTW that first pic, for those not even remotely interested in my taste in music or fashion either, is my latest t-shirt design :)

Ripped from a sticker we put up at cell sites during my coms rigging days to signify radio frequency transmission. It meant, wrap your balls in tin foil before approaching cos they will hot up. Now it means, somewhere between heaven and hell is the Dep't of Hell Science..ME

...the other pic is a random desktop i thought was pretty hawt as well

Twenty Ten

2010-12-19T15:38:00.000-08:00

Best of a badass bunch...blogs, beats, bullshit, bravado.

State of US : i cite

One frustrated American intellectuals take on the decline of western civilisation as seen through and acted out on and by it's own citizens. Calling it how she sees it and it aint pretty. Blood in the streets, chant down Babylon type of steez...Be afraid.

Twatcockslapping : hard news

Let's all hold hands and say topical shit we all know to be true, because we all believe it to be, given that we're all so self evidently enlightened and all here in NZ. With your host, Russell 'wheres the free beers' Brown...whut whut.

Crackasscracking : kiwiblog

Home to David 'the penguin' Farrar, National party spinster extraordinaire and populated by some of the creepiest left/right wing wannabe revolutionaries and political pundits NZ has...Pop your collar and get amongst it.

A Night to Remember : Ladisix @the Mussell Inn, Takaka

Both of them national treasures. Five months on the road in Europe ending in an NZ tour at the cutest lil' pub this side of the black stump. T'was affirming to see L6 hold nothing back and leave nothing in the tank...Give it up like there's no tomorrow.

Brewskis : Moa

Weka lager. If Moa goes off globally, the same way 42 Below did, I expect this will be the beer of choice for all the blognoscenti hipsters to stroke their chins to. Honey dripped nectar of the gods, I shit you not. Best on tap if you can get it, otherwise straight outta the bottle while still chilled in one heaving guzzle...Up ya bum.

Chooooooon : This song is sick

If you like the filthy, twisted , dark sick shit blended together from a cross section of cutting edge electronica then this site vomits up the tasty, chunky bits on the regular...lap it up.

One Female to watch Musically : Kimbra

Without the excess trimmings. Like if Gaga had real talent and came from the (Hamil)TRON she'd be worth keeping an eye on for more than her meat cozzies. Lets hope Kimbra doesnt go down that path...girl power !!!
Settle Down (Penguin Prison RMX)

One Male to watch Musically : Skrillex

Following on from Reso with some of the harshest, dissonant sounds over the crunchiest beats and the highest production values sees Skrillex making music the devil himself would proudly skank too...brodacious!!!
My name is Skrillex EP

The Big Con(spiracy) job : F William Engdahl

Wikileaks is a big and dangerous US intelligence Con Job which will likely be used to police the Internet by carefully leaking to the most ultra-establishment of international media such as the New York Times...Believe it or not ?

Greater Love/Hate Hath No Men : Dr. Abdullah Mohammad Sindi

If you view others as less than human cos God says they're all sinners, you can do the most evilest shit and in turn get it done right back to you hundreds of years later...What goes round comes round.

The Super Sharp Shot of The Year : Cpl Willie Apiata VC

Nothing says don't fuck with me more than a grizzled war hero with a gun staring straight down the barrel of a camera as he walks slowly but menacingly towards you in slow mo...yeah work it baby, you got the right stuff

Wearable Art : Threadless

I know it’s rude to turn your back and walk away on someone in mid sentence when they’re desperately trying to explain the obvious to you, but sometimes you gotta be cruel to be kind…hold tight rudeboy and just read the t shirt

Art imitating Life on Film : Tron Legacy

Sooner or later we are forced to confront our virtual (on line) selves with our real (life) selves and resolve the conflicting philosophies so we don't pass them on to our progeny to repeat the (light) cycle. The least we can hope for is a better soundtrack...Daft Punk suck movie scoring balls.

Life imitating Art on DVD : The Road

Carrying on down. 'The Road' from last year is a movie of the book that follows a fathers futile attempt for his son to be last man standing during a nuclear winter. When all hope is lost, do you bother trying to find it again or just go ehh fuck it...i'm outta here ???

Prey for death

2010-12-16T17:50:00.000-08:00

Here's a pic i took last week of a scene i happened to spot while returning inside from admiring the night sky...

i'm still not up with the play re : lo light shots and macro so it was the best i could do...

...funny thing was, i couldn't look at it through the viewfinder cos it was just way too scary so used the screen at a safe distance

i mean, the moth's wings were still flapping and i could see the spiders fangs buried in its neck...ewwww :)

i know it's metaphor for something, but rather than tell you mine, just make up your own...

Beats to the rhythm

2010-11-11T11:17:00.000-08:00

Another couple of crossfaded selections.

The first - springclean - gleaned from a few choice blogs and the awesomeness that is RCRDLBL .

They're pretty hit and miss with their selections to my personal tastes but hey, they deliver 'em straight to your e-mail and freemusic is afterall the spice of netlife...

...if only they delivered free pizza, beer and the odd bit of weed as well :)

1. Fet et Moi - Paris Is For Lovers (7:21)
2. Tiësto - Work Hard Play Hard (feat. Kay) (3:22)
3. M.I.A. - XXXO (Riton ReRub) (3:49)
4. Kele - Everything You Wanted (RAC Remix) (4:28)
5. Javelin - Intervales Theme (Steinski Remix) (3:16)
6. Greg Nice - Motherfucka (Nick Catchdubs Motherfuckas In Space Mix) (4:09)
7. Pinch feat. Yolanda - Get Up (RSD Mix) (6:20)
8. Wiley & Skepta - The Rolex Sweep (3:22)
9. Caspa - Terminator (Trolley Snatcha Remix) (4:09)
10. Professor Green Feat. Lily Allen - Just Be Good To Green (Camo & Krooked Remix) (5:17)
11. Peaches - Downtown (Simian Mobile Disco Remix) (6:20)
12. Dam Funk - Hood Pass Intact (4:46)
13. Freddie Gibbs - Oil Money (4:57)
14. BIG K.R.I.T. - Hometown Hero (feat. Yelawolf) (Remix) (4:39)
15. Morcheeba - Even Though (Surfing Leons Afternoon Remix) (5:38)
16. Gilles Peterson's Havana Cultura Band - Roforofo Fight (Louie Vega Remix) (8:55)
17. Max Ulis - i don't like you (4:16)

DOWNLOAD spring clean MIX 112MB 80 min

this - ethereal - mix is just some classic downside dubstep with some spring to it, good for a late night sesh or 'puter backrounder, not so good for dancing, but when blazed who dances anyway ?

Just close your eyes and sway, bend like a reed in the wind, let the music swirl like water around you, enveloping you, as though shrouded in a haze of memories not quite realized and drift...mmmkay ?

ok not even close to choice as this random guys blog i goggled the image from...

1. Pollywog - Chinese Whisper (2:24)
2. Burial - Fostercare (5:32)
3. vvv - e´meute (5:08)
4. Von D - Show Me (feat. Phephe) (4:56)
5. Pangaea - Router (6:31)
6. Scuba - Three Sided Shape (5:21)
7. Headhunter - Physics Impulse (5:03)
8. Boxcutter - Arecibo Message (4:25)
9. Toasty - Angel (Si Begg Remix) (5:30)
10. Moving Ninja - Soma (6:24)
11. Mount Kimbie - Vertical (4:07)
12. Nosaj Thing - IOIO (3:24)
13. Martyn - Far Away (5:44)
14. Elemental - DeepChord (6:59)
15. Reso - Hemisphere (6:10)
16. Caspa & Rusko - Rock Bottom (5:32)

DOWNLOAD ethereal MIX 109MB 80 min

...and if you like that try this from back in the day DOWNSTEPPA

yeah, i know it's a bit early, but here's my 2012 London Olympics tee shirt design...

...and my Rugby World Cup one for Nelson NZ, where i'm @

in case you're wondering, RAGLAFART KRAP is Trafalgar Park - our local rugby field - spelt backwards...

The kids don't stand a chance...

2010-10-29T04:22:00.000-07:00

cough *bullshit* cough

Sure, some have got a better than most chance of succeeding in being whatever they want to be, by virtue of privilege, class and culture, but some will succeed purely by virtue of their own skill, talent and tenacity.

Demeter Maia Hunziker/King/Siataga/Kavanagh...now theres a name for the future

love you Dem :)

Pedro dodges a bullet

2010-10-04T17:23:00.000-07:00

If theres one rule for dogs in the country it's...

thou shalt not worry the sheep

...unfortunately, if you're raised as an urban dog and it's lambing time, you're expected to go against millions of years of evolution to say..."I must not play rough with the sheep, NO NO !!! i must not 'play' with the sheep at all, or the chickens for that matter"

Pedro, our beautiful border collie couldn't fight her nature and so it was that the farmers on either side of us came to visit with a ute load of 10 savaged and mutilated lambs collected from the immediately surrounding paddocks.

Given the ultimatum of 2 days to get rid of the dog or they will, I was thankful. They didn't have to, cos being raised country i know the rules eh and if they'd said, 'you owe us 1000 dollars for the lambs or we own the dog, in which case hand it over so we can exact rural justice upon it', i would have.

As it happened, in informing the older kids on holiday that we might not have a dog when they got back, i found the ex was in the market for a dog. Not just any dog though and that she'd be prepared to have our dog. So it was that we arranged for me and the littlies to travel to Christchurch to relocate Pedro and by doing so, save her life.

The morning before i leave, one of the farmers turns up again and says a strange dog has been spotted in the area so he can't guarantee it was Pedro killing their lambs. By the afternoon they'd seen the strange dog kill 2 lambs right in fornt of them, so put a bullet in it for its troubles.

Turns out the dog is a pighunter thats been microchipped so theres a good chance of finding the owners and getting compensation. The dead lamb total now stood at 17, having found a few more around the back paddocks.

When first told about, and having seen the state of the lambs i couldn't quite rationalise that our timid and playful, harmless family dog could have done such damage. Even the chickens we reluctantly accepted that she'd killed a while back had never been found, so there just wasn't the evidence that our dog was a psycho killing machine.

Just to be safe, cos i don't trust the farmers wouldn't shoot Pedro if they saw her in a paddock, and we couldn't trust that she wouldn't slip her collar and go wandering off, we went through with plan A.

Now Pedro lives in Christchurch on a 3 month trial to see if she'll bond with the ex. If not, we'll see if we can have her back as by then the farmers would be more forgiving, the lambing season would have passed and we'd be more commited to putting the time in to training her not go anywhere near sheep.

live and learn...

Boogie on down...

2010-09-19T16:28:00.000-07:00

For lack of a better word, 'Boogie' seems to have been adopted for the rare groove genre some 'cratedigger' mates of mine, from a few years ago, used to voraciously hunt down in second hand record shops to play out at 80's retro parties.

Here's some of my favourties. Nothing too obscure, so y'all should be thoroughly familiar with these and if not, then shame on your funkless, lack of rhythm and blue honkyass :)

For a lot of my Pasifikan cousins, whenever we get together, this is all we listen to. No shame in that 'cos wayyyy back in the day, this is all we used to party to.

Theres one by my sistren of nubian persuasion, with some latina and caucasian mixed in and then theres one by my brothers of funky persuasion...

As much as us coloured folk would like to think we had a monopoly on the funk, it just ain't true.

Same goes for poverty...

107MB 78min

1. Club Nouveau - Why You Treat Me So Bad
2. Mary Jane Girls - All night long
3. Evelyn Champagne King - Love Come Down
4. A Taste of Honey - Boogie oogie oogie
5. Cheryl Lynn - Got To Be Real
6. Elisa Fiorillo/Jellybean Benitez - Who Found Who
7. Tara Kemp - Hold You Tight
8. Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait
9. Patrice Rushen - Forget Me Nots
10. Donna Summer - Love to Love You Baby
11. Jody Watley - Don't You Want Me
12. Chaka Khan/ Tom Brown - Jamaican Funk
13. SOS Band - Baby We Can Do It
14. Stargard - Which Way Is Up
15. Peaches & Herb - Shake your Groove Thing
16. Yarborough And Peoples - Dont Stop The Music

Download Sistren

107 MB 78 min

1. Shalamar - There It Is
2. Mac Band - Roses Are Red
3. The Whispers - And The Beat Goes On
4. Dan I - Monkey Chop
5. Dazz Band - Let it whip
6. Ready For The World - Oh Sheila
7. Cameo - Candy
8. Wild Cherry - Play that Funky Music
9. George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic - Flashlight
10. Brothers Johnson - Stomp
11. Lakeside - Fantastic voyage
12. Earth Wind & Fire - In The Stone
13. Cashmere - Can I
14. Midnight Star - Wet My Whistle
15. Kool & The Gang - Too Hot
16. Isley Brothers - Caravan Of Love

Download Brethren

'Boogie' is not to be confused with one of my favourite ultra realist street photographers of the same name, whose pictures capture as vital a moments in our time as these tunes did and, in my life, still do...

Eight ...nine..ten

2010-09-08T14:43:00.000-07:00

Countdown to 2012...

Te Wa project

Looking like a Pasifikan version of a 'stargate' from the TV series in which travellers could step through time, our logo also represents a compass, with a Fijian warclub pointing West, a Marquesan one to the East, Samoan to the North and a Maori taiaha pointing South. Overlaid is the modern, stylised visual representation around which this project revolves.

Te Wa in Maori means The Time. In the language of Kiribati, for whom the project was named at the Nelson Tasman Pasifika Community trust meeting of 8/10, the W is pronounced as V, making Wa, Va, and in keeping with words similar throughout the Pacific, equates to v'aa, vaka, waka, boat.

Te Wa project is then, The Boat project, that in line with times past, present and future looks to re-create the experience of our ancestors by building and sailing traditionally styled Pasifikan outrigger canoes using modern construction and seafaring techniques.

Not content to build and sail, we will also be looking to re kindle knowledge of ancient navigational techniques using the stars, the currents and the migration of birds, instil traditional cultural values that underpin our commitment to conservation/preservation and self sufficiency in harvesting food stocks from the sea, land and people, while inspiring new generations towards self employment and higher learning in growth industries such as building, sailing and cultural tourism.

This will be achieved by entering into joint ventures with selected partners and by harnessing the skills, knowledge and resources of those in the community and wider culture willing to assist in whatever way possible.

Te Wa is the time and the time is right… NOW

so I would expect an update on the project next year 9/10/11

Now all the ladies in the house...

2010-08-26T15:20:00.000-07:00

...let me hear you scream !!!

Ok maybe not, but by all mean's, keep up with the fine tradition of vocalising electronica...

...in all it's glorious forms.

For but a sampling of that, if you're into it, here's another one of them 80 minutes of crossfaded jumbles. From back in the day to relatively recently...

105meg of Elle-x-tronica

1. Everything But The Girl - Downhill Racer (3:49)
2. Lisa Stansfield - Mighty Love (5:13)
3. Cathy Dennis - Falling (4:02)
4. Kylie Minogue - Spinning Around (3:27)
5. Róisín Murphy - You Know Me Better (4:17)
6. Neneh Cherry - Buffalo Stance (4:02)
7. Nicolette - Waking Up (4:54)
8. Beber & Tamra - Travelling on (4:13)
9. Missy Elliot - Can't stand the jungle rain (4:29)
10. Sticky ft Lady Dynamite - Booooo (5:28)
11. Two Fingers - Bad Girl (Feat. Ce'Cile) (3:36)
12. The Bug - Insane ft.Warrior Queen (3:29)
13. M.I.A - Paper Planes (3:25)
14. Natasha Bedingfield vs Chicane - Bruised Water (Michael Woods Edit) (3:05)
15. Rihanna - Rude Boy (Chew Fu's Bumbaclot Fix) (6:37)
16. Fuzzy Logik ft. Egypt - In The Morning (5:18)
17. Rudenko - Everybody (Fingaprint remix) (5:04)
18. Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed (Jakwob Remix) (4:07)
19. Pinch - Get Up ft. Yolanda (4:21)

...and for a distraction on fembots

www.female-robots.com

Gettin' paid in pounds, not in dollars...

2010-08-10T16:56:00.000-07:00

awwww yeah...

...though now more likely to be paid in euros, but whatever.

Since Derek B (R.I.P)

the original bad young brother, came correct with Brit hiphop wayyyyyy back in the day, thru to the hiphouse revolution that redefined rapsingin' over beats, followed by the junglist revision of classic ragga/the rise of the hippidy hoppidy 'skibadee' style and the breakbeat garage MCing of 'So Solid' in the dirty dirty style of proto Grime, theres just been something about europeans spitting over tunes that's always floated my boat

Dunno what it is. Maybe it's the accent, the cadence, or the radical interpretation of beats and experimental electronic noodlings that i much prefer to their stateside cousins, but you just don't get american rappers and beatmakers doing it quite like this...

sure i could force some Black Atlantic consciousness spiel rotating around ghetto sieged JA soundsystem culture being the epicentre through which the feedback loop between the US and Europe flows, that ultimately underpins the interchange of innovation/reinterpretation back and forth blah blah blah...but meh, in the words of New Flesh, if you bubble an a swing, stick and move.

So now if you want, treat your ears to something a little less ordinary and revel in the glory of a mere sampling of euro inspired beats, rhymes and remixes from the last 2 decades...

1. Bomfunk mc's - Freestyler
2. Tinie Tempah - Pass Out
3. Freq Nasty - Check It Out Feat. Skibadee
4. Shy Fx - Nuttah Feat UK Apache (T Power RMX)
5. Shy FX And T Power - Set it Off Feat. Fallacy & DI
6. Reflex - Put your hands up Feat MC Viper
7. Truesteppers - Booooo! Feat Neutrino
8. Teebone FlyBi feat MCs Kie & Sparks
9. So Solid Crew - Ride Wid Us
10. Two Fingers - Whatuknowabout Feat. Sway
11. Durrty Goodz - Take Back The Scene
12. Caspa - Rat-A-Tat Tat Feat Dynamite MC
13. Grand Puba - Get it (Reso Remix)
14. Milanese - Peggy Flynn
15. Chipmunk - Business Feat Young Spray
16. Dizzee Rascal - Fix Up, Look Sharp
17. Kano - Home Sweet Home
18. Beatnuts - Dude Descending a Starecase (Stanton Warriors RMX)
19. Aquasky Vs Masterblaster - All in Check Feat Ragga Twins

Download 'Rappin the euro'(107mb/80 min of crossfaded choons)

HERE

slow burn

2010-07-29T16:08:00.000-07:00

Its been along time, since I left you, without a dope beat to step to...

Sure, you might not be able to step to this, but you can sure as hell lie back with your significant other and well...suffice to say, this is for the lover in you.

So yeah, you know the deal...lined em up in winamp, cross faded 'em for 20 seconds and recorded 'em to fit on an 80 minute cd as one continuous mix

1. Robin Thicke - Lost without you (4:08)
2. Usher - Burn (4:15)
3. Chong-Nee - Scenarios ft. Niki Ahu (3:40)
4. Nasri - Click Click Click (2:44)
5. Usher - Making Love (Into The Night) (3:36)
6. Robin Thicke - The Sweetest Love (3:54)
7. Ryan Leslie - Rescue U (4:24)
8. Anthony Hamilton - Magnolia's Room (5:03)
9. Maxwell - Ascension (The Tribute Uncut) (5:19)
10. D'Angelo - Cruisin' (Wet Remix) (7:53)
11. Chante Moore - Loves taken over (Quiet Storm mix(6:33)
12. Grand Puba - Get It (Caspa's 80Eighties Remix) (3:26)
13. Movement 98 - Joy and Heartbreak (instrumental) (6:56)
14. Azizi - Don't Say It's Over (3:57)
15. Plumb - Damaged (3:56)
16. Rhian Sheehan - Waiting (4:29)
17. Ladi6 - Dark Brown (4:08)
18. Brooklyn Funk Essentials - Date with Baby (5:08)

Download 77min55sec, 107mb 'slowburn mix' off mediafire here...

Rewind my selecta...

2010-05-26T00:48:00.000-07:00

Given the same opportunity and knowing what we do now, would we have made a different choice that may have led to a better outcome? It's something i posted about before and still... i dunno eh

No regrets, no apologies, no thank yous and no excuses. It's what i would like to think characterises my efforts in most things and what the hell, we take even the smallest victories and achievments for what they are.

Take this choice tune by Maree Sheehan from 1995.

Even when we were on the same course in Christchurch back in the day, Maree was showing she could write distinctive original kiwipop. She was in the music performance unit and i was in audioengineering, though sometimes our paths crossed and more so because she was my partner at the times friend.

As things happened, we all ended up in Auckland thru the 90's and my ex-partner, an awesome contemporary dancer, went on to choreograph for her. I was at the time still entertaining thoughts on being a supa dupa dope producer and had made some tunes which Maree had vocalised, none of which for silly reasons ever went on to be professionally recorded.

For a time though, I had borrowed her drum machine to work some beats out, and in giving it back to her, when it was fairly certain we were heading in different directions, i'd left some beats on there.

one of which she used as the backbeat for that tune...fatally cool.

I imagine that in some parallel universe, i am a supa dupa dope producer. Whereby, for every choice made here, an equal and opposite choice is enacted in another universe and i leveraged that uncredited beat and forged connections into other productive avenues...but meh

...then i wouldn't be who and what i am now, or done what i have, and i like me here now and what i've done, so given the chance to do it all over again, i probably wouldn't change a thing.:)

BTW how good was/is my ex as a choreographer ? Here judge for yourself, she got ladi6 to move like this...

Red Sydney Project

2010-05-22T05:25:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the 21st night of September ?

Ok, so its 2 days and a generation earlier but still, you cant deny the wondrous combinations Earth Wind and Fire can create.

Fast forward to the 23rd of September 2009...as a dust storm blows in from the outback of Australia to blanket Sydney city, colour its skies a fiery red and you'll find here, captured in all its luminescent glory, by photographers of all ages and expertise, a visual record of sights rarely seen.

I meant to post something on it a while back, but only recently trawled through all the photos and picked out a few favourites...

I should have taken note of the photographers names to link back and credit them, but never really planned to do anything with them. Yet now think it would make a great commemorative poster or T shirt print.

whaddayarekkin ?

Bassmatch

2010-05-15T17:58:00.000-07:00

I'd always liked big phat dubby basslines and remixes of tunes that incorporated them but which you might not think would fit.

So heres a mix i did a while ago with the pic above being some random image search i did that fits the theme.

*beats international - dub be good to me
*the cure - pictures of you (dub mix)
*outkast - spottieottiedopalicious
*A Tribe Called Quest - El Segundo (norman cook mix)
*massive attack - bluelines
*red star - west london (ol skool mix)
*zed bias - ring the alarm
*theivery corporation - state of the union
*red star - pretender
*si begg - buss
*basscamp - crossoverer

Bassmatch 51min:28s 160kb 58 Mb

ENJOY...

Post u a card from my personal paradise...

2010-05-11T17:24:00.000-07:00

Here's The Cure for your ills. The dubbed out version i posted in a previous mix, the lyrics of which evoke wondrous sentiment. Enjoy...

I'd always wanted to make my own postcards. So over the past few months i've been keeping an eye out around Nelson and taking pics that fit the brief of postcard look.

some of which i've posted up here before but meh...whatever :)

some weird art thing in the carpark at the local fresh choice supermarket. Its more the building behind it that screams kiwiana. Funny how we've still got clapped out wooden buildings littering our cities, tucked away in unassuming places. I love that we still do.

My lady's uncle's 50th birthday was held at her parents place in Delaware bay. It was the night of the blue moon in february 2010. Taken from their deck, this was the only shot i managed cos the kids didn't charge the batteries up...grrrr but i doubt i coulda got a better one.

The Nelson cathedral at the top of the mainstreet acts as focal point for the city centre. Iv'e seen so many shots of it from that angle, that i just wanted to explore the surroundings and came across the view here. An awesome spot to sip a coffee and chill out during the day with a good book. If you're into that sort of thing

At the end of the marina drive, down by the fish processing plants is a bench that looks out over 'the haven', the name for the tidal estuary that fronts Nelson city. I dont know that its neccessarily a tourist spot, but it's as good a place as any to grab some fish and chips and head to, espceially when the tide is in.

The famed boulderbank. A stretch of boulders and land that juts out to enclose the haven. If you're lucky enough to catch the sunset on the right day you'll be rewarded with natural beauty and light of a red sun setting behind the ranges in the distance while the waves crash on the perfectly formed smooth rocks...ahhhh

Nelson's Chinese sister city Huangshi, has in the Queens garden, adjacent to the Suter art gallery, an area set aside for the celebration of their divine oriental aesthetic. You really cant go wrong wandering round here in an afternoons stroll not 2 minutes from the centre of town.

A short distance out of town but still within walking distance is Founders park. A replica early NZ town and favourite haunt of mine. Not only for the organic founders brewery which makes beer to die for but also for the zen like quality of the neighbouring Miyazu Japanese garden. Miyazu also being a Nelson sister city.

Queens garden is a lovely example of traditional English Victorian styling, replete with fountain, rose garden, water wheel and built around what was, back in the day, the traditional eel catching ponds of the original Maori settlers. I had to rush this shot as people were wandering across the frame and just happened to fluke the ducks who seemed to be posing for me :)

Naturally i've whipped up some notes and lines and typical postcardy stuff you'd see on the back, got costings to have them printed commercially but we'll see if i can be arsed following through with selling them.

I've never been about chasing the money especially not where art is concerned.

Duck Rock 4 life...

2010-04-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

Its the early 80's and to a funkalicious youngun, growing up in small town southern NZ, surrounded by hardnuts whose idea of music didn't extend beyond rock and blues guitar, Hell seemed like a really nice place.

Kiwi music is in it's cringeworthy infancy with the punk inspired 'Flying Nun' sound, while the mainstream charts and airways are clogged up with country, softrock and discopop.

The time is ripe for a ghetto explosion of musical anti-establishmentarianism from the impoverished black streets in much the same way as punk exploded from the white.

Enter Malcom McLaren. Already infamous for his dealings with the sex pistols and looking to redefine the music/art/fashion landscape yet again, he and soon to be uber producer Trevor Horn embark on a world tour, recording bubbling sounds emanating from the global underground.

The result being Duck Rock. A mishmashed pastiche of an album that single handedly introduces hiphop and contemporary african music to a sterile musical mainstream.

An accompanying video for the seminal 'Buffalo Gals' single inspires rabid interest in the latest incarnation of artistic black innovation coming out of New York in the form of Hiphop, with its 4 elements foundation of graffitti, b- boying(break dancing), turntablism and MCing.

This, combined with other forms of media exposure for hiphop tied to an underlying, laissez faire street philosophy towards art, sees it as the first defining attitude adopted by this then youngun in NZ. From there it was onwards and upwards, sometimes sideways for the chameleonic McLaren and likewise for me.

So it was with a tinge of sadness i read of his passing from cancer this week. He, for those who loved his ethics, was an inspiration for the do it yourself attitude of both hiphop and punk and fuck you very much to all the haters who thought him a con man and rip off artist extraordinaire.

For all that, there is no doubt the musical, art and fashion world changed because of him and so did I. BTW Thats my tribute t shirt design at the top and this is another unrelated one...

...pimpin' ain't easy :)

Shout out to a hero...

2010-03-21T15:40:00.000-07:00

PS hero puts out some mean as PhotoShop tutorials !... of which i've only tried 2 yet

Here he shows how to get that comic book look Cpl Willie Apiata VC so deserves :)

and here the velvia film look...

CHECK...the S..the H...the O...the O...the T...the E...the R !!!

Holding bags...

2010-03-16T22:21:00.000-07:00

Growing up in Sth Otago NZ, it was practically tradition for the less fortunate of my generation to pass through the teenage rite of sniffing glue under the wooden railway bridge at night, by the water hole near the primary school.

Hearing the sound of the approaching train getting louder, seeing the head light through the slats followed by the deafening roar as it passed just millimetres over our head while we huffed and puffed and screamed our lungs out was exhilarating stuff, especially when your coherent mind is somewhere else!

As fun as that was, sooner or later, a choice needed to be made, to sniff or not to sniff. When it gets to the point of not being able to taste or smell anything and you have to add 14 sugars to a cup with 5 teaspoons of coffee in it just to get a hint of bitter sweetness, you know the time has come.

For me, the choice was also reinforced by way of a life changing revelation, distilled into the maxim…

"No matter how far you drift, when it comes right down to it, you're the one left holding the bag.

You see, once you come back down to earth, from the perceived, celestial, out of body trip sniffing takes you on, the desire to go back is governed by one thing, the need to remember something truly life enhancingly important.

The lack of knowing frustrates you, as anything you try to recall that’s teetering on the precipice of your outer memory does. However, once I remembered what it was I was supposed to, I stepped back from the edge and never went back.

I should add that, The revelation came in a garden shed with such blinding force that all I could do was yell “YEAH…YEAH” and shake the shit out of my mate so vigorously that he dropped his bag and bolted out the door thinking I was going to kill him. I think it may have been his last sniff too :)

In looking back I have no excuses, no regrets, no apologies, no one forced me to do anything and as much as i could make excuses about having a shit childhood, crap parents and living in a racist town, i was the one left holding the bag once the buzz had gone…no one else !

Now I hold the bag for whatever goes wrong in my life, the difference being, I tend not to drift too far off and when I do, it’s governed by personal responsibility for my actions. I also know that there are greater forces at work, which contribute to shit happening in life beyond my control.

Its worth remembering though, that shit doesn’t just happen, arseholes cause it and we usually just let them.

Kulcha culture

2010-02-25T12:30:00.000-08:00

The year is 1995, new jack swing, formerly in full effect with the likes of Guy and Babyface, is on the wane, but not before some Ozzy based poly's drop an album that jacks the genre with a nu islander swing.

Kulcha's self titled album, though fraught with dodgy vocals and sentiment, does provide us with a memorable slice of polynesian pop culture by way of an ode to lost love, delivered in singularly rare form...the drippingly sweet and gushingly sentimental "fly girl"

Arrrgh...me hearties

:)

Space invading the hounds tooth

2010-02-18T12:33:00.000-08:00

I've always liked the houndstooth pattern with its repeated and negatively spaced monochromatic look. It also reminds me of the classic space invaders arcade game.

so naturally i'd want to combine the two into some sort of pixel blocked hybrid...

...then maybe add some colour and 3d it

or make pretty shapes out of it

which would look great on a tshirt or as a screensaver for your 'puter :)

and it seems i am not alone in my admiration...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invader_(artist)

Get rich or die tryin...

2010-02-11T16:27:00.000-08:00

Nature selects for the greedy. To be rich is to have evolved beyond the need to work to survive. It is advantageous to oneself and ones own kind to be selfish. Survival of the fittest now means survival of the richest with the firm establishment of the predatory overclass emerging as a potent signifier of evolution in action .

Predation in nature naturally requires prey. For the overclass, that is the underclass. Emerging from the shadows, having always been there, they're called, in our instance here in New Zealand, polynesians (inclusive of maori). You may not have heard or seen us cos we pretty much keep to ourselves, dont tend to make a big fuss about shit and dont get much media coverage apart from when we do something bad, excel at sports or sing for our suppers as entertainers. Generally we just roll with the punches, probably due to that old christian 'turn the other cheek' thing.

The thing most forget though is, rolling with the punches shows an adaptability which nature also selects for, meaning we are also more fit to survive than most. Not in a rich predatory way, but in a straight, no holds barred, by any means neccessary, predatory kind of eat the rich, if worse comes to worse way. Or at least kill them, dispossess them and move on cos weve moved past the 'eat what you kill' thing. Another one of those christian things.

Good or bad, it all comes down to moral relativism as to whether you think it is right or wrong for the over and under class to do what they do to survive. Nature though, isn't morally bound and capitalism, the favoured means by which predation occurs, favours none but itself. Life is after all a game of chance, the more adept you are at playing the game at both ends, the more likely the chance you and your progeny will survive to keep playing, except you dont get many chances and usually the die is cast before you enter the game.

If there is a third option it is the one i choose to play and summed up in the maxim 'i can't lose if i dont play'. If there were a loser, it is the playing field on which the game is played out and currently, it is showing signs of wear and tear that might inhibit any classes ability to play the game.

Trick of treaty...ahhh flag it

2010-02-07T16:55:00.000-08:00

Here's my refix of the tinorangatiratanga flag...softer, nicer, less in your face with added star value :)

...but following on from the devil being in the details, here's some treaty issues i was wondering about.

At what point did Maori chiefs cede their right to self governorship over their peoples ? Sure they ceded...

to Her Majesty the Queen of England absolutely and without reservation all the rights and powers of Sovereignty which the said Confederation or Individual Chiefs respectively exercise or possess, or may be supposed to exercise or to possess over their respective Territories as the sole sovereigns thereof.

...in exchange for the rights and privileges of british subjects.

But that doesnt mean to say that by accepting those rights and privileges that they, as people, allowed themselves to be governed by british rule/law or that because of the signing they became british subjects. Seems implied that there is a choice to then, decline rights and privileges of british subjects and remain autonomous as Tuhoe, who never signed.

Even so, having rights and privileges means you are afforded the protection under british law as any traveller to the UK would have, but without a passport and citizenship, you are not a subject of the british gov't. Maori were and still are, as defined by the treaty, a native population with self governance over their own peoples.

They gave up sovereignty to land and sea as it applies to the territories, but the people should be an entirely different matter...yeah ? Like if i gave up sovereignty to my house, that doesnt mean to say i've ceded sovereignty over my family who live here ? It's not like we're slaves /chattels who came with the property and are gifted as part of the deed.

By that reasoning, Maori chiefs have a duty/obligation to still continually govern and provide for their own peoples if, by way of having resources, they have the power to do so ?

If on the other hand, it's implied that the chiefs ceded their right to exercise power over their subjects, as part of the rights they possess over their territories, then doesnt that mean the chiefs do not have any power to further be/act as chiefs on behalf of said subjects and territories with regard to sovereignty or any matter ?

Devil in the details

2010-02-03T13:41:00.000-08:00

Round the ways where i live are some places steeped in maori and pakeha history. Some of them tapu and some not, with the line between changing as the channel does with successive tides and the passing of time

one such place is a swamp in a valley down by the estuary where according to local legend, a tribe of old chose suicide rather than massacre by a marauding iwi

my lady and i, ignorant of any such history wandered off one day for a walk and came across a dessicated old goat washed up by the entrance to the swamp. Half buried in the sand and so decomposed was it, yet having no foul odour, that at first we thought it was tussock. it wasnt til i kicked it then flipped it over that we became sure of what it was.

noticing its fine pair of horns i decided to liberate its head from its body and take it home. this proved more difficult than expected but after much twisting and pulling it came free, so off we wandered into the swamp, up the valley and over the hil on a shortcut home so as not to be trapped by the rising tide.

i've since been meaning to strip it back to the bone and maybe in the future cast it in metal or if possible get it chromed thinking it would look rather choice as an artpiece, but in the meantime its just stuck on the fence outside the kitchen window as reminder that though God is seen as the big picture, the devil is in the details :)

Counterfactualising colonial dependency

2010-01-16T15:59:00.000-08:00

Imagine, back in the day, those whiteman ships landing in africa and other places (including polynesia) rounding up the natives and herding them off to foreign lands to work as slaves for christian eurotopia and its colonies.

then imagine if they'd instead treated the natives with dignity and equality, married them, bred with them and carried them of to foreign lands to become first class citizens by allowing them the same opportunities to land and education.

how different would things have been now ?

given the class warfare already rampant in the new world at the time and still, the constant demand for new workers to fuel the needs of the market, and warriors to extend the empire and defend the status quo, it was and still is easier to use and abuse native trust.

the end result being the dead that now walk the earth as witnessed in the latest tragedy unfolding in Haiti.

all those black faces you see wandering the night as zombies (the living dead) dont belong there. they are the result of transplanted slaves and colonial expansion from times gone by without a thought for the aftermath of what happens when the goodtimes end for the eurotopian ideal.

the irony is that haiti, (long seen as the spiritual home for voodoo and zombies) as a violent failed state by western standards now has the opportunity to rebuild itself in its own best image but what is that image ?

being poor and black/brown will always be disadvantageous in the modern world. decent housing, education and food is for the most part a dream and many will always be reliant on the charity of those more fortunate

at least those most oppressed in haiti had shelter, water, sanitation, food and in some measure, self respect/determination. now having nothing and being reliant on foreign aid i wonder how much more damaging the effect will be on the national psyche. their roots being what the colonial powers nurtured by planting them there, making them welfare dependent and leaving them unprepared to carry on past their use by date.

watching the reports on TV i see hiphop wannabe gangsters in doo rags and nikes, seduced by the media to believe they can have it all, complaining about having nothing now, not realising that they never had anything to begin with, just a well orchestrated lie as a hope of something to strive towards. many expecting and demanding international aid and relief as though it is owed to them to live by the same standard as everyone else in an enlightened society.

the billions needed in reconstruction will never come. the empathy currently felt towards haiti will vanish as quickly as the rotting corpses littering the landscape. scooped up with little respect and dumped in mass graves, out of mind and out of sight. the rush of journos will soon tire of touring the devastation and turn their attention back once again to the desires of their media overlords as the semblance of good will and charity become exhausted by bureaucratic bungling and inevitable corruption.

the western public desensitised by information overload will simply change the channel back to sports, grab another beer and go back to wishing they were tiger woods.

the haitians will of course be expected to be humble, gracious and accepting of their fate consigned to life in a tent, scavenging, surviving on aid packages dreaming of a utopia that will never happen in the capitalist real world.

and i think, it didnt have to be that way !

Disengaging the other

2009-12-30T14:51:00.000-08:00

There is this thing thats not me, it's something else.

it's always been there, overpowering me, oppressing me, guiding me, protecting me from my true self but the time has come to disengage from it

it is that which if named becomes the very thing it is not, giving it substance, a form that doesn't exist were it to remain nameless...

...the first act of disengagement was moving to the country/seaside, to physically distance myself from the bulk of it. second act, to give up being in its employ, to not be solely reliant upon it for sustenance and survival. third act, to employ alternatives that ensure sustenance and survival.

the fourth act will be to bring the curtain down on it and expose it for all to see whilst keeping myself in the shadows of it.

this guy sees it...

sticks and stones

2009-12-17T13:22:00.000-08:00

may break my bones but words can never hurt me...why ?

...cos i choose not to let them, unless they come from the people i love

sometimes i think i need to learn new forms of communication...

...other times i think people just dont listen

i'm reminded of a monk overseeing the influx of tourists to tibet who said "many come, looking looking, clicking. few come, SEE."

I sea...

All cooped up and no place to go...

2009-11-22T13:32:00.000-08:00

3 weeks ago, we got new chickens to replace the ones our dog had killed. Given that, i decided to build a better coop to keep the chickens safely enclosed, as before, we were rather trusting of nature to ensure the balance of respect amongst our free ranging animals, plus the old coop now had the vibe of death surrounding it.

It was a close call as to giving the dog away, seeing as how i'm not a dog person, yet i've been landed with the responsibility of occupying most of her time. She didnt used to kill chickens but a few months ago my lady's uncle bought their mutt over and while we were chopping wood, the mutt shows our dog how to round up a hen, scare the fuck out of it and when bored with that game, grab it by the neck and chest, bite/thrash it around until it doesnt move anymore but lays still and bloody in a deathbed of its own feathers...not pretty

Since that time our chickenshit little bitch killed 5 hens, but left the cockerels alone cos apparently they will put up a fight, and being a border collie she was clever enough to hide the carcasses so i couldn't get all up in her face about it, but she's not so clever that she can hide the guilt and shame in her face.

Having completed the job yesterday with some driftwood from the beach attached to the gate as the last bit of fencing in required and in honour of the hatching of 2 little chicks, i killed 3 out of the 4 cockerels, one of which is going to be in a risotto this evening...yummmm

I'd been putting off killing them for ages but they arent much use for fuck all else. They just wander round the yard shitting everywhere and making too much noise in the wee small hours, not unlike our youngest but i think i'm gonna keep him, and the dog too :)

so for anyone wanting to know how to kill a chicken. i'd recommend this method. it's the weirdest thing feeling its head disengage from its neck.

word up

2009-11-12T17:21:00.001-08:00

wordle...yeah !!!

here's lookin at you kid...

2009-11-05T12:48:00.001-08:00

its a fine day in the hood so i decide to take the kids and dog for a drive to the beach for a wander and play. as we pass over the bridge by the turnoff i notice all the wild goats have decided the grass is greener and more abundant on the other side of the road so have come down for a munch .

i'd already promised myself that if i am ever in a position to *ahem* kidnap one, i bloody well will and now seems like the best opportunity i'm ever likely to get.

i pull over, jump out and chase a bunch of about 10 across the road, just able to catch the leg of a young white kid as it scrambles through the fence but with a deft kick of it's hoof it frees itself from my grip and i'm left with air...bummer

i wander back to the vehicle when a family of 4 predominantly black ones start hoofing it across the road so like a wild eyed caveman from wayy back in the day i sprint after them and manage to nab the cutest little black kid with a stripe on its forehead. beaming like the proud hunter of yore i take it back and throw it in the vehicle.

the littlies are all giggles and smiles and Chi the oldest of them asks "can we keep him?" to which i reply "of course" without skiping a beat he then asks "...and can we call him nibbles?", sure i said thinking what a choice name. we carry on to the beach whle the little goat baaas and tries to hide under the seat.

funnily enough, the day of capture is also my lady's birthday so we decide to tie it to the tree by the gate upon her return and offer it up as a present. naturally shes rapt even though its suffering from the unsightly equivalent of goat cradle cap and has a few goat fleas as well, but then what do you expect ?...it is after all a wild animal and we'll sort him out wth worming stuff and de-flea her soon enough

a week or so passes and we are all enamoured with the little fellow, making sure it's loved and cared for while keeping it in plain sight of the lounge, cos the dog, having killed a few of our chickens, may decide to ruff him up some if we let her. they seem to develop a rapport so we move Nibbles round the back of the house to the orchard, yes we have an orchard of sorts with a few fruit trees out the back, that one day will be the location for a wondrous moonlight and candled feast of baccanalian proportions sometime in the not to distant future, but at present is in need of some grass maintenance courtesy of a growing goat

i guess it wasn't meant to be. the next day as i'm leaving to get the kids from school and do some errands in town i tie the dog up and make sure Nibbles has water then give him a good rub around the ears and neck. he seems to like that cos he pushes into me and goes all weak at the knees. i think/feel something isnt quite right but dismiss it as i have to go and decide to keep a sharper eye on him over the next couple of days. on returning from town, i notice him out the back lying unusually still. sadly Nibbles had passed away from what i believe may have been accidental poisoning in eating a strange, berried vine like plant close to where he was tied up.

my lady and i are pretty cut up over the whole thing and upon her return from work we bury him in the orchard and plant some rhubarb over him to mark the spot. in time re constituting his energy to us by way of a crumble pie perhaps at our orchard feast.

i've since passed the wild goat herd a few times and though i could snare another one, i'm in no hurry. if i've learnt anything from this, its that i have so much to learn, so it pays not to rush headlong into things especially when dealing with the living. maybe next year or the year after or whenever, i'd like to imagine that like john denver i'll be able to say in all earnesty " thank god i'm a country boy" but not today:)

epiphanies in a room wth a view

2009-10-28T13:55:00.000-07:00

you know those blinding moments of OMFG clarity where you realise that 'this is how it is' and probably always will be ? sudden realizations that synchronize with other events happening both in and outside ones sphere of influence...

...one of the latest a couple weeks ago was when my lady inititated a full time career of the 40hr a week variety, meaning i had to take up the slack with the kids, and by kids i'm talking the full range, from hormonally charged teenagers of both sexes to just at school, pre school and toddler, all needing lunches, dinners, cleaned, clothed, entertained and transported to various places for education and recreational purposes

the epiphany was, i'm probably going to be doing this for at least the next 15 years. it was one of those 'job for life' moments when you realise the job you have or the career path you chose has now chosen you and theres no escape...

...the hardest part has been resetting my body clock and natural rhythm to accomodate the significant others, the rest is just planning and logistics, the drudgery of routine that must bore the shit out of any process worker stuck in a crap factory job...getting up, getting fed, getting to work, getting the job done then getting back to to bed...blah blah blah

truth be told...i LOVE it! It has presented me with an opportunity to evolve and grow into the person i want to be in my coming age of leisure, to cultivate hobbies and pastimes which i never had the time for but also to put them on a timeline that requires no pressure to learn or succeed in and i'm lucky enough to be living in place of natural wonder and beauty such that i'm inspired to actually do it...

in the meantime i'm growing and ocassionally killing/eating our own chickens but otherwise collecting their eggs, the buzz of which is equivalent to downloading a just released 320 bit album. i mean its free and it gives sooo much pleasure as you savour and devour it. free range eggs taste wayyy better as free music sounds wayyy better:) and when used to bake with, which i have also taken to, the results are divine...

...apparently the fish are starting to run in the channel across the paddock and the eels are stirring at the stream down the end of our drive

so i'm gonna have to learn how to catch and feed us there too, cant freaking wait...mmmm yummmmmm

i'm also developing my green thumb, having planted some veges in 'my nightmare before christmas' garden, so named because its fenced in by an old recycled, faded and chipped white picket fence lashed together with black cord and held up by rusted metal stakes. i'll get around to taking a photo of it one day cos it looks like it should be a burial ground for dead cuddly toys...

...then i've got my industrial sewing machines, my screen printing plant so maybe i'll resurrect my clothes label. ive got my puter, speakers and internet so maybe i'll make tunes again and resurrect my record label. i've got my camera which i'm still learning how to use and once the littlest starts at pre school i'll have the time to take on part time study so the opportunities are limitless. maybe i'll learn how to write nasty code and hack the fuck out of some shit sites or maybe crash the banks and start a revolution or maybe i'll learn how to weld and cast metal cos i've alsways wanted to make steel art and furniture or maybe kick my creative writing steez into full effect and write/illustrate a kids book

who knows ? but i suppose most importantly, i have the opportunity to affect and influence my childrens development in the most positive manner and revel in their company for they are my most treasured things...

BTW that first pic is the view from my lounge looking straight out as i type, its what i see on any ordnary day, the last is the view out my lounge side window and dedicated to all my playas in the hood, both real and virtual who are stuck in the daily grind of the big smoke...live long and prosper otherwise eat ya heart out :P

sunbursts

2009-10-23T20:44:00.001-07:00

you're driving home in a bit of a rush cos it's getting dark and you got to put dinner on for the kids...

...you glance out the window, see the sun setting and think...meh the kids aren't gonna starve in the next half hour but i'm only going to see this exact scene once

so you pull over, grab the camera, marvel at natures awesome wonder and think...yup all is good in the world...

...at least for tonight. ahhh but the doubt and indecision creeps in just like when trying to decide which pic has the best filter over it

pffft...when it comes right down to it, it doesnt really matter. what does, is to make the time to enjoy the free and simple things in life cos theres fuck all of them around...

Somewhere between...

2009-10-11T15:21:00.000-07:00

...heaven and hell

is me...

...hopefully more saint than sinner,

but it's not really for me to decide...

...is it ???

The re-up...

2009-09-21T19:18:00.000-07:00

Before the nothingness settled upon the face of dubstep, before the dubzombies and wobbleclones took charge there was...

Hell Science Dept - ratz inn amaze

...ever wondered what type of t shirt la roux or lady gaga might wear ???... i did, so designed this

...and heres some pics i been taking

trouble with where i live is, the sky is so harsh and flat most of the time, so i took a sky from another pic and pasted it behind the dead car. Luckily the light is coming from the same place so the shadows dont look too weird...

taken through the window of a helicopter as we flew into the marlborough sounds at the top of the sth island to do a little antenna swapout...

having just rearranged the lounge i noticed it was a full moon and the reflection of the carving on the window ledge was reflected just so. Naturally i wondered if i could take a photo of it...

a half dead bee was nestled in the blossom as i tried out the super macro function. It somehow wasnt positioned right so i gave it some direction...

another antenna site in the marlborough sounds and me trying to capture too much. Some foreground tussock with water reflection fading off to bush, mountains and sky but fuck it...i like it!

...tried untold ways to shoot this dead truck with weeds growing out the engine but in the end i decided to capture as much as possible without the background intruding

a building i liked the angles of and how the sun was hitting it. The barbed wire and fencing was a bonus and i treated it to look cartoonish as though all thats missing is the bat signal in the sky

a misplaced japanese garden down under, hence the upside down shot. In trying for a triptych i split it into 3 parts...

...finally, i heard it said that 'if you cant live in a great city, live by a great coastline'

New Zealand doesn't have any great cities so i live here...

...once again shot through the window of a helicopter with our house being out of sight just behind the hill. Incidentally that estuary has the meanest cockles and rock oysters and the fishing around there is supposed to be mint as too

:)

Chasing the 4th...

2009-07-30T17:59:00.000-07:00

Looking back I suppose it was a defining moment of my life. One that gave me a huge sense of self belief and confidence but also instilled a deep seated fear.

I am seven years old. Me, my older brother by one year and older step brother by 2 years are wandering along the beach in Samoa. Having just spent the day surrounded by tropical fish, following coral paths in your stereotypical paradisical sth seas lagoon, we head back to the archetypal, golden sandy beach to avoid being trapped by the rising tide.

We find some sticks and start tracing lines in the sand as we slowly meander back to town. About 100 metres away in the treeline we hear and see some dogs playing rough amongst themselves, not an unusual occurrence in the islands as they tend to run wild, somewhat paralleling island youth when also transplanted to foreign climes.

Upon spotting us, they start barking like crazy, sprinting towards us and closing the distance with alarming speed. It takes all of half a second to realize we’re in deep shit. There’s about 7 of them and 3 of us. They’re stronger, better equipped to defend their supposed turf from ignorant intruders and they're faster but still we run.

Naturally, with me being the youngest, I am also the slowest. I watch helplessly as my older siblings out pace me. I capture a quick glance backwards, I call out, my voice broken and shaking from fear and lack of breath, for my brothers to slow down. It is in vain. I hear the barks getting louder, I feel their presence. I fully expect the next thing I feel to be a chunk of flesh torn from my calf.

There only one thing for it…

With precision timing born of instinct, I spin and in the most aggressive stance possible for a 7 yr old I decide to hold my ground. I’m not scared anymore, I’m alone in my plight and I accept my fate. Now I’m just fucking angry and in the same instance I let out an involuntary growl. It’s time to stand and fight.

Dogs in a pack tend to take cues from a leader, usually the strongest and fastest. Being instinctual creatures also and faced with no other choice, the leader in this case knows its gonna get the smash, hard and full on, right across its face, so in less than an instant it chooses the softer option.

With a cowardly yelp it turns on its heels and starts running with equal alarming speed in the opposite direction followed by its pack of would be assailants. I make a gesture as if to give chase. The leader in looking backwards sees this and I glimpse fear in its face. It flees faster, its tail firmly between its legs and whining like the dog it is starts to outpace its siblings.

My own siblings upon hearing this come back to stand beside me as I exhiliratingly say words to the effect of ‘fuck that was close’. With little else need saying and from emotions borne of desperation, we piss ourselves laughing and carry on meandering up the beach tracing lines more forcefully in the sand.

Looking back and in keeping with things learnt later in life concerning ‘the way of the warrior’ being governed by ruthless intent and impeccable timing, there were so many things that could have gone wrong.

The lead dog for example, if given more time to make a decision would surely have slowed down enough to let one of its minions take the first and possibly only blow I could have managed. It would then have salvaged some pride and ripped its pound of flesh from me for our intrusion on its patch.

Or if my brothers and I had made a decision from the outset to collectively make a stand, the dogs would again have reassessed the odds differently and probably have turned tail much earlier. As it was, everything turned out as it should have because that’s the way it did turn out.

Since then there have been many a time when faced with fight or flee or as the case may be, refuse to fight, I have drawn on that instance. Knowing that if the time calls for it, I can go to that place without fear, hold my ground and let instinct take over, though the rationalist in me will always look for the non violent solution first even if it means losing face.

As for chasing the 4th when theres only 3 of us. That’s a recurring dream I’ve been having that reminded me of the above incident.

Its dark and we’re being chased thru desolate city streets by something way scarier and otherworldly than dogs. There’s 4 of us, only I don’t know who the others are, just that once again I’m last in line and first to get caught. There’s no point calling to the others to slow down, they wouldn’t hear me and even if they could they wouldn’t slow down. Why would they ?...theres no scaring whats chasing us and theres no defense against them.

The thing is, I don’t give a shit about defending the others or myself, its just that I’m last. Why cant the others be last for a change ? That’s all I care about.

In this dream there has to be a sacrifice and someone has, in the best tradition of shitty movies, to martyr themselves, slow down the enemy that others may escape but why me? Its always me…

…and it’s making me fucking angry. You don’t want to make me angry !!!

Go figure:)

Dead cars

2009-07-14T03:32:00.000-07:00

As much as i'd like to be able to frame a shot on film with just the right settings using decent gear then develop it accordingly, it's just not gonna happen...

...shopping it digitally on a shit camera gives the amateur that i am, an option to fix things in post production.

after all its more about seeing something and having something to say about a subject with the final image looking good by any means neccessary...isnt it ???

...something i photographed on a whim at a work site and possibly the start of a series of 'dead cars'

it's weird, but when you come across an object out of place and time you cant help but wonder how it got there, where it was made, who made it and what was its function ???

...sometime in a post apocalyptic future, will eloi type people wonder the same about all the junk they find which we're currently hiding in the earth and sea ???

with vehicles in odd places well past their use by date, i imagine its a case of the final owner adopting an 'out of sight, out of mind' attitude...

...what struck me about the scene i stumbled across was the truck, the bit of house framing leaning against it, the gorse, the pine, the cell tower in the background, even the grass are all symbolic of transplanted colonial technology and industry here in New Zealand that in due time have/will become out of control or just plain obsolete but are slowly being assimilated back into the natural order...

...it's kinda whats happened/happening here with the colonial mindset and populace as well and maybe ultimately what will happen to us as a species on this planet :)

Like an american teenager...

2009-07-04T17:37:00.000-07:00

Oh if only it were that simple...

...but anyways while im on the UPR back in the day tip

dei hamo international...1993

and here he is again, still in the game, still talkin the same...

...now officially the worlds oldest teenager, throwing down another one of his uber catchy hooks and trademark cloned american steez over a stonkin, analog key fuelled, crunkin dirty south, booty bassin beat by talented new kid on the block producer yorel

luv the guitar lead break eh, good shit cuzzies!!!

I knew there was a reason i liked hiphop and r'n'b but i didnt need some clever White chick to explain it to me...heh

NESIAN STYLES (RE)PRESENT R‘N’ B:
The appropriation, transformation and realization
of contemporary r‘n’b with hip hop
by urban Pasifika groups in Aotearoa

Kirsten Zemke-White

Abstract
This paper will first give a brief cultural context of hip hop and its meanings in Aotearoa. The relationship and nature of hip hop and r‘n’ b at its point of origin (in America) is explored showing how the two pop genres are intimately related historically and musically, in Aotearoa and in the United States. From the Pacific community and media, a contemporary [Poly] ‘Nesian Style’ is evolving which utilises this creative and cultural combination. Many of the key Aotearoa ‘Nesian’ styles and artists are introduced, citing their songs, musical influences, and Pacific themes. This outline of artists supports the notion of r‘n’b as contemporary local cultural expression and, alongside hip hop, as a ‘Nesian Style’...

...seriously, it's kinda unnerving to have lived it and still living, yet be put in some goldfish bowl about it and written about like some stuffed zoo animal. As though preserved for posterity in the annals of academia for purely observational purposes.

Then again it must be weird for the author too, looking in and not really feeling what its like to be hiphop in aotearoa with an a r'n'b gangsta lean...

what can i say ???

...we're just products of the environment and we tend to empathise a lot:)

Just cant stop lovin...chong nee

2009-06-29T22:15:00.000-07:00

...not in a gay way but for the music he makes:)

From his days as half of AKA brown...

baby we can do it

...and his involvement with urban pacific records

the river - UPR

which incidentally is the best cover of a dave dobbyn track you will ever hear and featuring the iconic gelfling himself

to his sublime 2006 album, 'Just gettin by on Love' featuring this gem...

...to the new collaboration with Pieter T,

cant stop lovin you

the man just brings the goods each and everytime !!!

...so while everyone is saluting the death of the king of pop/r'n'b, I'm saluting living, reigning kiwi r'n'b/pop royalty

just hope Chong Nee doesnt pass away too soon like his mentor Phil Fuemana and gets all the shine he deserves while he's still alive to enjoy the fruits of it

Phil, by the way was a wise man who once said...

"I am pretty sure that most of us - like me, in our mid-to-late thirties - we remember what our parents gave up for us ... The shit that they had to go through was unbelievable. They had the whole dawn raid thing. My Dad got put in prison 'cause they thought he was Samoan overstayer.

I remember walking into a shop and him getting chased and running away. Cops running past us and grabbing him. I was just standing there - I was probably about seven, just watching this go down and thinking 'what tha?' He came back a few hours later, but that distress, it makes you think of that Bowling in Columbine movie - living in fear. Now, whenever I walk into a restaurant, everyone's all - 'fuck I'd better watch out' - ya know? I'm the last person to bloody beat you up. Probably some other dopey egg is gonna do it. Like I wanna jeopardise my life like that - but that's the way it's perceived ...

When me and my crew started out in the music biz we never wanted to save the world. We didn't say - 'let's save everyone, lets lead the way for PIs' - fuck off! We were trying to make money and dissing everyone else along the way - 'they're fuckin' useless, we'll do a better R'n'B track than them, we'll do a better hip hop track than them.' We were as arrogant as anyone else, but that's what happens on nearly all projects that are inspirational to people - they just happen. They're driven and then you think - fuck I'm gonna be like that.

Now I read an article in Real Groove and Andy [Murnane, from Dawnraid] mentions me and I remember it was Andy's job carrying the bags - he was just this white guy, who was Danny's mate and now he's one of the leading hip hop innovators for our country. I didn't even know him. That's what inspiration is - him and Danny have gone on to inspire heaps of people ... Some people in the media did used to pick on us because they thought we were trying to be American, but then they'd fuckin' eat KFC and McDonalds like everyone else. But all they saw was these brownies - who are perceived to be the ones who do all the trouble - choosing a genre that's equal to trouble in the States.

I wouldn't even believe what you hear from the States. I mean, there's probably a million times more black people not into hip hop, ya know? There 's a whole heap of black people in the US who are middle class and they probably like country music or soul music ... So as far as that argument about us in the media - it just seems like something to look at ... At the same time, we're lucky because as PIs, our hip hop does have a PI flavour and gives us a unique point of difference.

And in the end, as Kiwis - whether that be Coconuts, Maoris, Pakehas, or whatever - we have our flavour and that's gonna be what gets us to wherever we're going . And I am happy with how things have turned out over the years, because these days I can look at the charts and see a group like Nesian Mystik on there and I know it 's been worthwhile.

It's definitely all good."

so yeah, props to nesian mystic !!!

All hail the king...now let's feast on the cannibal!

2009-05-01T00:15:00.000-07:00

King Cannibal has a nice ring to it and the moniker more than suits the ferocity and savagery of his beats. Of course cannibals need not neccessarily be savage or fierce. They could be total geeks who have taken extreme porn to the next level.

Seeing as how there didn't seem to be anything geeky or pornographic about him, i had to ask...

...ever fancied yourself as a porn star and thought up a typically porn star name ?

Porn star names, i hate that shit. Wasn't the idea of that originally invented by scammers to find out peoples pass word (as road names / pet names are the most common things people use for passwords)?

uhh dunno...so how many names did you go thru before you settled on king cannibal, a few i bet

Originally i was using the name 'ZILLA' and had a few releases under that name. I then fell in love with drum & bass again after picking up a second hand copy of Ed Rush & Nico's Technology 12", and incorporated some sounds in to my music, coming up with something a lot harder.

I also discovered an awful band had started using it in the U.S and our discography and online identities were getting continually mixes up. This was worrying and the name 'ZILLA' was starting to grate with me , so i thought it'd be a good time to change up. It (king cannibal) came about just through words that sounded good together and ones that didn't through up lots of shit in google.

With whatever name you choose, after a couple of months the words kind of lose all original meaning anyway. Still the name sort of primes people for the music i produce, the only down side is people will always read darkness in to whatever style of music i produce.

yeah like, whats with that album cover with the wormlike shit ?

The Virgo sleeve?

yeah, it reminds me of trichonosis, a nasty pig worm thats not good for humans and kinda relevent in these fearful times of swine flu.

That was done by Openmind, Strictly Kev's (Dj Food) design alias. I love it, i need a big poster of it blown up for my wall. Its poster paint squirted in to water and photographed before it started to cloud up.

Seriously who comes up with these wack names. bird flu, swine flu, sars, aids etc...

Swine flu? Oh man - i think after Jade Goody finally passing away it left a swine shaped hole on the tabloid front pages, lucky for them this came along.

...and while on the subject of pork, i dont dine on the swine eh, havent for about 17 yrs. anything else is fair game tho and in extreme circumstances i'd surely eat human. what about you?

Wow man, you write for Music Week right? lol. I guess it would depend on what bits you ate. I'm sure Eli Roth is already on it, possibly with a 9 1/2 Weeks remake

so given the choice of die or eat your freshly dead mother would you ?

Eat my freshly dead mother though? Yeah sure its what she would have wanted.

lol...is it me being weird again or is there something mildly erotic about eating your dead mother. so do you eat meat and whats your favourite dish?

Yeah i'm a big meat eater, for me food is mostly a functional thing. I'm not in to the whole food culture.

On the whole if you was to measure my palette in terms of IQ i'd have severe learning difficulties. Its pretty embarrassing i have to say.

It annoys me how much of our media concentrates on the food programming. You can have a run or 2 or 3 cookery shows on a channel all priding themselves on finding only the very best ingredients from all corners of the world often hand reared and killed by the chef in question, hours of this stuff

very next show "ladies and gentlemen The Sugarbabes"...music ?

- fck it, lets give them the turkey twisler music, they eat that shit straight out of the trough.

_____________________________

mmmmm...sounds yummy, I'll have a double helping thanks!!!

...something completely DFRNT

2009-04-29T01:00:00.000-07:00

umm maybe not...

...see I'm kinda paranoid about being too visible online. I mean, forget big brother finding shit about you and constant surveillance cos most people offer up more voluntarily on myspazz than 'the man' could ever find out.

others dont seem to have that problem, like maker of deep and thoughtful tunes DFRNT.

and yeah you know the deal...

send me sum beats and i'll ask you sum stupid questions...whaddayareckon???

yeah sure, whythahell not eh. Grab me on AIM or MSN

choice...but i dont got no msn or aim.

ha ha

...in line with that, how much of a tool is the internet for you in your day or music job, like would you miss it if you couldn't be constantly aware of who you know is online and can chat instantly with them?

The internet is a massive part of what I do – I’m a web designer by day. Without it, I’d have to actually speak to people, you know… like face to face and stuff and be some sort of cowering mess of a bloke, wetting himself on the bus, and staring at people in the street like a weirdo.

heh...so you ever scored a root off some random using that social networking stuff ?

interestingly enough I met my fiancée through the internet. She found me on MySpace, we hooked up – and now we’re living together

hmmmm...and is that Edinburgh in the header pic off your site? If it is, does that make you scottish?...or not, cos you may have moved there for other reasons like...ummm fucked if i know really

It's one of those places i've always wanted to visit tho cos it looks old and crusty and i love discovering old crusty shit...

...and also cos here in NZ we got a place called Dunedin ,which is close to where i was born, often called 'the edinburgh of the south' and is named for the original.

Yeah, the header picture is Edinburgh – it was a photo I took from the top of Calton Hill, after a bit of a session one night.

It’s a beautiful city and in fact Edinburgh used to be called ‘Dunedin’.

I’ve lived here for most of my life and there’s plenty old and crusty here for real

I hope you dont mind if i imagine your posts being spoken in a scottish brogue then:) and while on the subject of language.

Why drop the vowels for DFRNT?...is that like an ogam, runic or celtic thing cos i remember early rock inscriptions from wayyyy back in the day doing the same and that made it hard for ethnocrypotologists to decipher exactly what they said.

Well I used to produce as “Alex C” but these euro-raver-twats used to send me emails all the time thinking I was the cheesy trance producer of the same name, so I had to find something different for the Dubstep productions.

I figured ‘Different’ was a decent enough name, but preferred the way ‘DFRNT’ looked on paper, and it’s always been capitalized.

One day I’ll come up with a brilliant acronym to fit. Something like
“Do Foxes Really Need Teeth” – but a bit more music orientated no-doubt.

I remember thinking of it then dreading that somebody might eventually ask me “why did you choose DFRNT” and I’d be totally lost for chat.

...i suppose music is a language too, so to equate it to your tunes, what is it you're trying to say and with it do you imagine you're speaking deferential high language to an educated audience or street slang to the homies ???

The message from DFRNT doesn’t really say anything in particular,
but I do tend to make music more destined for headphones and mp3 players than I do for the club, although slowly that’s starting to change.

I’ve never really felt down with the kids to be honest.I don’t want to talk down to anyone mind you – I don’t think music’s about that.

Music feels more like a common ground. Something that can allow everyone to connect on a similar level, as opposed to thinking “oh, that’s a bit posh for me” or whatever.

haha nice...and i suppose you've met kode 9 yeah ?... maybe even supported him on a gig? Talk about music as a weapon, that dude could drive a guy to suicide with his hi brow rants alone...heh

Actually I've never met Steve. I missed him last time he was in Glasgow (recently) Only spoken to him once, and it was fairly brief. He's a mysterious guy.

I think his music serves as a source of inspiration for alot of people, and Hyperdub is pushing the sounds of what many people consider to be dubstep in to different areas - which is fine by me and I'm not really familiar with any of his rants

______________________

...just as well cos, like me, you'd probably have a hard time understanding them;)

Hey Fella!!!

2009-04-24T18:27:00.000-07:00

uhhh...make that Phaeleh...

In aboriginal culture, your skill in life determines your adult name. Up until then you're pretty much just boy/girl.

Going by that, i'd call phaeleh 'sublime bristol bassbeats' and proceeded to hit him up for a q&a about beats and shit...

So what does your mum call you and is it hard living up to that whole 'bristol bass' thing?

...glad you reckon i could get away with 'sublime bristol bassbeats'.

I reckon theres quite a lot of others in bristol more worthy of the name (RSD i'm looking at you especially) and you're gonna be disappointed with (my) actual name, which is Matt

It's cool being in bristol tho cause there is an awesome scene, but unfortunately, like anywhere i think you really have to be within certain circles to reap the benefits of it.

do you know banksy?

nah, tho i did see a half done thing of his on a roundabout once, guess i could have waited to see who showed up...

ever done it yourself, tagging or a bit of graf that is?

not too artistic, so that's less up my street

and uh what's with the funny spelling, i read phaeleh and read it as fail eh:) is that like a greek demigod or something?

greek demigod is in the right area :)

I needed a new name a few years ago, and always liked making up new words for tunes back then, so did the same for the name...

Kinda fell in love with the way names were spelt in greek mythology (i did classics at school). basically wanted to come up with something with an a and an e next to each other...

...and also needed something which returned nothing on google;)

shot...so whats your musical background? Failed d'n'b producer or maybe unemployed audio engineer? seems a lot of them end up on the d..step buzz. I bet you play an actual instrument or studied some shit...yeah ?

It's a mixture really, played a fair few instruments but guitar was my main one. studied that more than anything else, though only use it to teach and for the occasional use on a tune or for session work.

In terms of electronic stuff i mainly produced down tempo electronica, though for live stuff would do more dnb/garage/ravey stuff, kinda combined the 2 to end up with phaeleh!

you do have a lot of questions

just tell me to fuck off if you had enough. I get that a lot eh:)

don't mind them in small doses;)

...so is there a question you'd love to be asked which you've got an awesome answer to? Like you stayed up blazed as one night figuring out the answer to life, the universe and everything but if you just spit it out unsolicited it'd sound all pretentious wank like ?

afraid i don't really have any questions i'm waiting to be asked, tho i'm sure something will spring to mind by the time i've sent this.

____________________

sweet, but i prolly wont be interested by then...heh

Three V's please...

2009-04-21T22:56:00.000-07:00

If the ghost of 2step, that will bevan so eloquently buried in sth london, were reincarnated. It would be born again in austin texas as VVV and sound like this...

...so on gettin some free 320's, i hit him up online and as you do, asked a few dumb questions.

cheers for the tune...mind if i ask a few dumb questions ?

1 or 2 dumb ones i can handle. shoot.

...is there like a UKgarage appreciation scene that spawned you or is there something in the water down there. I mean, what the fuck is it about texas ??? .

hmmm...well id say there's something in the water here in texas.

I know that the waste water facilities are working harder and stinkier than ever to keep us from growing additional digits on our hands and foreheads...

To be truthful, i'm not sure why i like uk garage and 2-step, it was something that grabbed me by surprise. Dance music in texas has always been popular, it used to be trance and techno...that shit drove me crazy!

I couldn't fathom being into a scene that had raves and parties for shows. Makes me giggle a bit still but around the same time, thanks to a friend, i heard el-b and burial

...so growing up, what were some of the tunes or producers that, with their utter shittiness or perfection, inspired you?

I grew up listening to metal and punk rock for the most part.

I later discovered bands like CAN, Kraftwerk, Magma, Cluster, Goblin, Amon Duul and other records with goofy names. I still love the Stones, Scott Walker, Richard Hell, Roxy Music, the Gun Club, Johnny Thunders, and Iggy Pop.

I spent some time listening to classical and experimental stuff too.
I adore Arvo Part, Erik Satie, Segovia, Luc ferrari, Varese, Xenakis
and others from the outer regions of these genres.

Anyway, bit of a ramble there. As far as dance music influences go, this could take all day, so i'll say a little bit of everything...

...have you ever met george bush?

fuck bush.

ok then...like -Parson, have you been touched by aliens or have you ever thought you've seen a ufo and tried to rationalise it away?

no interviews man, my life's not that interesting:)

hahaha...last dumb question, i promise Cool. Do you have anything interesting to share besides your music, you know, something you'd like to say to the world?

______________
heh i guess not...and on a side note

...my money's on the predator !!!

hyperstition

2009-04-19T01:19:00.000-07:00

To name it is to make it real, giving it substance it would otherwise not have...

...where superstition, the oft transmitted real becomes truth masked as untruth

Hyperstition inverts the real, masks untruth and makes the unreal, truth!!!

...shout it often enough, loud enough, in the hope you will believe it eventually

once believed, it becomes the truth, though still not real...

2 finger salute

2009-04-16T01:34:00.000-07:00

Not since 'milanese' fucked with 'virus syndicate' has an album like it taken my fancy, but here in the form of 'AmonTobin' and 'doubleclick', we have 'TwoFingers...

Lifted from the blog of one of my current favourites, the fiercely named 'king cannibal' comes this press release...

Imagine if Timbaland were kidnapped and held hostage in a council flat in Tottenham. Imagine then, that elite robot agents aligned to the New World Order were sent into rescue him with laser cannons little knowing that the kidnappers were in fact an underground cell of benefit-cheat Jedi. Imagine hip hop recapturing the sheer brutality of classic-era Public Enemy without it becoming a retread. Imagine if “urban” music was made not for the charts but the heart. Imagine “Two Fingers”.

Two Fingers are Brazilian beat-adventurer Amon Tobin and Joe “Doubleclick” Chapman. The pair met when Tobin lived in Brighton and bonded over an interest in music that ran way beyond the boundaries of “electronica”. In Montreal they applied production techniques associated with UK styles like drum & bass to the template of hip hop. It was an experiment with explosive results. MOBO-winner Sway (now signed to Akon’s Konvict label in the US) heard what was brewing he was so taken with it, he flew straight out to Montreal and recorded seven tracks with them, showing a harsher, more serious side to his personality whilst offering wry social commentary on everything from the way young Black men are treated (”What You Know”) to crazy girls who do too many pills (”That Girl”). The remaining rhythms were voiced by sometime Missy protégé Ms Jade and dancehall legend Ce’Cile. A couple of instrumental rhythms were added and this, first stage of a continuing project, was complete.

“Two Fingers” is a project unlike anything that any of the three main players has ever made before, a unique, utterly uncompromising, brutal and beautiful record that could only have grown out of the UK and the internationalism of those involved. If it’s not hip hop as we know it, then nor is it drum & bass or grime. Like all the best music it transcends genre to stand on its own – icy, transcendent, brilliant.
'...

...dont believe the type. Hiphop aint dead, it's alive and kicking the shit out of your preconceptions. Fuck the purists:)

Shifting graveyards

2009-04-14T23:44:00.000-07:00

Within a stones throw of our place, down our private road is a private beach at the end of which is a private burial ground...
...we went for a swim there and we took some photos

Theres something kind of forbidding but exciting about coming across graves in the bush...

RIP

Remember why Jesus died eh

2009-04-07T23:29:00.000-07:00

...so i could go on a long weekend holiday. Thanks JC. Hopefully we'll get some choice holiday shots out of it

Heres a past holiday shot chopped up by pups. Of course thats not pups only talents. In real life hes known as Paul Walsh from paulwalsh.co.nz fame

...seriously though. Jesus attained a consciousness we should all strive to emulate. One that will bring us closer to the creative principle.

He showed us a way and we should let the truth of it reflect in our lives. Even if you dont believe he existed. Its still an ideal and a consciousness worthy of restecp...

Ya betta lively up yo self

2009-04-06T23:58:00.000-07:00

I guess music can't soothe the savage beast cos for all that jamaican music speaks of peace, Jamaica itself, leads a life of violence.

My lady, whose family are jamaican, passed this on and i wondered what Uncle bob woulda made of it if he were still around...

... but the truth is, they prolly woulda shot him again and killed him ages ago even if he hadn't of died of *cough*...cancer???

JAMAICA - A HURTING NATION
Published: Sunday | February 8, 2009

Dr Karen Richards

Besieged by crime and desensitised to death and violence, Jamaica is suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD). This is the diagnosis of consultant clinical psychologist Dr Karen Richards who draws parallels between the average individual who walks into her practice and a hurting nation.
· Jamaica's symptoms

Self-harm is probably the single most defining feature of the borderline personality. Jamaica is drowning in a sea of its own violence.
In 2005, Jamaica had 1,674 murders (64.10 per 100,000 people), giving the country the unenviable reputation of having the highest murder rate in the world that year. Hope was raised by a small reduction in 2007.
We thought the patient (Jamaica) was on the road to recovery, but relapse was soon evident. The murder rate again rose by three per cent in 2008: Last year 1,611 Jamaicans were slain by fellow citizens.
In spite of the efforts of the new government, more than 70 people were murdered within the first 20 days of the 2009. Nearly as many people have been killed in Jamaica in the last two years as in the 40 years of conflict in northern Ireland.
We are not at war with another country or threatened by some external force We are annihilating ourselves. The fact is the biggest threat to a Jamaican is another Jamaican.
· Jamaica, the patient

The patient with BPD can sometimes be recognised by distinctive self-inflicted scars, multiple etchings carved into the skin, albeit hidden under long sleeves. These are merely outward manifestations of the chaos and self-devaluation being experienced on the inside.
Neither citizen nor habitat is spared in the course of this self-destructive illness. Undoubtedly, Jamaica is by God's own hand among the most beautiful islands in the world. Yet, we deface our environment like the BPD patient defaces his or her body.
Even in the most remote places, what do we see? The scourge of graffiti, the ever-rising tide of garbage and stinking gullies clogged with all manner of waste.
The natural beauty of the land is punctuated by zinc fences, the mentally ill who sleep in rags by the side of the road, the shacks where vendors gut, scale and sell their wares. This is not always about poverty; sometimes it is about pride.
The tourist zones are a façade, they are not representative of the real Jamaica; they are like the long sleeves worn by the patient who seeks to deceive the onlooker. But to a discerning eye, the emblems of self-defacement are evident.
Boundaries and rules
The BPD patient has difficulty maintaining order. In terms of nationhood, order is established and maintained by consensus on the boundaries and rules. But, Jamaica has a problem with lawlessness on various levels. In some instances, lawlessness is not considered to be lawlessness at all. It is repackaged as a question of freedom and the individual's right to choose.
Like the borderline personality, we function in a system of extremes in which we either idealise or devalue. We have recreated the tribes along party political lines and in our blind faithfulness to the ideal, some are prepared to take up arms against fellow Jamaicans, thereby devaluing ourselves.
A paradox
Jamaica is a paradox, a social web of contradictions: a church on every other street corner and a murder on the next; the 'batty rider' and the Bible; a culture of slowness from which the two-fastest people on the planet have emerged.
Our religious culture, for example, rails against the perceived abomination of homosexuality, but gives a tacit nod and wink to the fact that most of us are and continue to be born outside the institution of marriage. Thus, many children are denied the right to a functioning father and are sentenced to economic, emotional and social deprivation.
On one hand, we are a proud and patriotic people who are survivors of a macabre past, but on the other hand , our self-esteem seems poor.
In some quarters, we are weighed down by the sufferer mentality which engenders a sense of entitlement. Despite our popularisation of 'Africanism', our bleaching symbolises our discontent with blackness and our adoration of things from 'foreign'. Our identity is not yet fully formed.
We have not escaped our past unscathed.
· Causes of BPD

There is now an overwhelming body of research which indicates that this constellation of symptoms is the result of extremely traumatic experiences in early childhood and early caregiver attachments which were abusive and damaging to the individual.
To this extent, trauma may lay at the heart of our understanding of BPD.
Individuals with borderline personalities tend to have severe experiences of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, which include neglect and deprivation, often at the hands of those to whom they looked for care and nurturing. What is BPD - legacy of abuse?
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is perhaps one of the most controversial, yet now widely accepted psychiatric diagnoses to have emerged in the 20th century. It could be defined as a pervasive distortion in an individual's personality, which negatively impacts upon his or her global functioning.
In order to meet the diagnosis, the individual must exhibit at least five of the following core signs:
· Frantic efforts to avoid real or perceived abandonment.
· A pattern of unstable and intense relationships, often characterised by extremes of idealisation or devaluation.
· A highly disturbed sense of identity and self-image.
· Impulsive and often self-damaging behaviour, i.e. substance abuse.
· Binge-eating or sexual promiscuity, recurrent self-mutilation or suicidal behaviour.
· Marked emotional instability.
· Chronic feelings of emptiness.
· Inappropriately intense anger or rage.
· Transient and usually stress-related paranoid ideation.

Onset usually occurs in adolescence or early adulthood and can be triggered by a severing of a key attachment. To onlookers, persons with BPD often appear to be volatile, chaotic and self-destructive.
Current research suggests that somewhere between 43 and 75 per cent of people with BPD engage in self-damaging acts and approximately eight per cent will commit suicide.

...sad eh ???

but get ya dub skank on and shake ya natty dreads anyway cos really what the fuck can you do about it...

...i mean chances are you got BPD as well, yet it still doesnt stop me from wanting to go there:)

Zhao's anti-musical elitism rant...

2009-04-05T23:15:00.000-07:00

Seems i'm on a bit of a rant fest so...

What do you call an american educated chinaman living in germany who spins among other things african music ???...confused??? nah Zhao.

A disciple of all things ambient and ethnic who mashes up world music with various forms of moody electronica to illuminating effect. He's also been known to tee of on things that grate his worldview. Here is a classic rant that inspired some intelligent debate from his blog

More Gripes

Against Drawing Lines

this blog, indeed my entire musical project, is about the blurring of, and hopefully completely doing away with, all lines which separate us and our sensibilities.

all lines are arbitrary and all separation is illusion. they are fictions invented to keep us apart, and remain our greatest collective enemy. i will provide an argument for this from a biological perspective at a later date, on the same river, but for now:

• all you modern classical people stop dismissing techno as stupid machine nonsense for kids on drugs. this is pure ignorance.

• all you beat heads take some time to explore the "werid" stuff on this blog.

• experimental sound freaks stop being afraid of hiphop and grime: testosterone is as valid as estrogen, that's why we have both.

Against Prejudice

also, i would like to ask the people who say they love music made on "real instruments", by "real musicians":

have you ever heard an idiot say, perhaps with drool dripping from his chin, that Free Jazz or improvised music is easy, and that anyone can do it?

well, that's exactly what you sound like when you say the same thing about what DJ's do.

of course there are bullshit djs (as there are bullshit jazz musicians); and some of them, for whatever reasons, make it big. but a real DJ (yes, like me) plays the roles of Historian, Archivist, Ethnologist, Curator, Choreographer, AS WELL AS Entertainer and Performer.

so you think it's "easy" to "play records"? how about next time there are 500 people gathered in a big room, who all paid money to dance non-stop for the next 8 hours, i give YOU 2 turntables and see what happens. i will laugh my ass off when the bottles start flying and your legs turn to jelly after 15 minutes.

and people like this always have a big chip on their shoulder about how much money some DJ's make -- presumably in comparison to how little they make as a "real musician" (boo fucking hoo) -- "and all they're doing is playing other people's music!!!". well let me ask you another question: do you think gallery or museum curators should get paid well? after all, they're only hanging other people's art on a wall, aren't they?!?

i can not believe how much of this condescending, bigoted and ignorant bullshit i have heard over the years, being a dj who happens to have serious respect for, and have met lots of people from, other musical disciplines. and most people who say things like this do not even go to dance clubs -- so please do us all a favor: stop spraying your stupid opinions about subjects of which you know nothing.

rant over.

...not to rain on his parade tho but i reckon playin rekkids aint that hard eh

Kode9's anti-dubstep rant...

2009-04-04T14:07:00.000-07:00

Back in the day i also liked nothing more than to frequent a little known nook in the web called hyperdub. It was a site set up to promote the darker strains of UKgarage run by a certain frustrated intellectual goes by the name of kode9.
There but by the grace of some journo, dubstep could have well been named hyperdub and maybe should have. He also ran another blog influenced by bushido code and samurai ethics applied to music which pushed another strain of UKG he was developing, sinodub.

Sadly, neither of those sites exist in pure form but may possibly still linger as echos cached in virtuality.

Fast forward to the present and hyperdub is now an eclectic label most responsible for inflicting burial and the spaceape upon us...

...so whats kode9's got to say about the D-step now ???

Dubstep doesn't need loyalty. It's not a fragile little creature that needs to be nurtured — at its centre, it's a big, ugly and increasingly popular monster that is gorging itself into immobility. The mainstream of dubstep is becoming such an abortion that it's really very little nothing to do with anything I'm interested in musically, apart from tempo...

Oh dear...Here in a recent interview with some old school techno stalwart he ruminates on a whole bunch of shit, but what comes thru most is, as the Dr who helped design the frankensteinish creation that is dubstep, he has now joined the mob in trying to destroy it or at the very least exile himself from it...

...but maybe, as a mind extant from the brain, the good dr Frank Einstein could remotely control his creation to suit his own agenda and abrogate responsibility to the supposed free will of the monster and the whims of the mob ???

read more of his musings here...

SONIC WARFARE

A masterclass in hyperstitious sonic fiction, a one man assault squad in the war against audio mediocrity or maybe he's taking the piss and its another fiendish jewish led conspiracy to enslave your mind to the new world order/illuminati aimed at geeky middle class white kids like what Tig was ranting on about...

hmmmm...lash up a fat one and reason on that

Tig's anti-hiphop rant...

2009-04-03T21:00:00.000-07:00

Back in the day i liked nothing more than to go to the political palace of that mecca of all things hiphop, Davey d's site, and wind up the nation of islam acolytes for their strange beliefs...

...there was however a guy on there who went by the name of tig. A moderator of sorts whose opinions were in no way moderate. Given any opportunity he would launch into a tirade on whatever the hell, from 9/11 to hiphop.

Heres one of his better ones i saved for no reason and just found hidden in the dark recesses of a back up hard drive...

This Is What Is Wrong With Our Kids Hip Hop. Not just the obvious negative sh*t but, the whole machine.

It's become a drug and they can't get enough of it - they wake up and turn it on and walk to school with it in their ears and play it on their breaks and listen to it on the way home - everyday.

Worse, when it's NOT playing - they're still hearing it in their minds - rap is contagious like that.

There is something in pounding rhythms that is primal and subliminal and no child can resist it - that's why hip hop is global - even if they can't understand the lyrics, they get the flow and the beat.

I look at how OBSESSED kids are with it.

They no longer listen to their parents or teachers but, Mos Def is a God to them and they know all the lyrics. I'm old enough to know what kids were like BEFORE rap and I'm in horror watching what they've turned into.

And, I see how fiercely they defend rap, it's their Saviour, their God, their church. It's the new revolution.

When we were kids, it was just music. Hip Hop is a cult - driven by the New World Order/Zionists to make our kids stupid. And, it's been working just fine.

Something else - this music does not promote thought or clarity or higher thinking of any kind. It's not mentally stimulating, it's sexually and aggressively stimulating only. The incessant beat just allows you to NOT THINK, just ride the flow.

Classical music DOES open up one's mind to higher thought.

Hip Hop is the new crack.

I watch kids taking that garbage straight to their brains all day, everyday. They don't even know it's not even music, it's beats and loops chewed up and regurgitated from REAL MUSIC.

If they were born after Hip Hop took over, they have no idea that Zionists have been feeding them garbage. The reason rappers get paid so much to do so little is because they help the Illuminati and New World Order causes so perfectly.

Our kids are addicted to it and now many of them are adults and they don't know they've been brain-wash and fed garbage.

This includes many people on this site.

There will be people coming in here wanting to fight what I'm saying here and I'll tell you all right now:

You don't know what you're talking about. If you come in here fighting me it's because you were not here BEFORE rap and you don't know whereof I speak. The only people who will resist what I'm saying will be under 30.

Anyone from the 60's will tell you that rap has transformed our kids into something else and it hasn't been favorable.

People like Tupac would've never gotten any respect in the 60's but, he's one-notch below Jesus as far as hip hoppers are concerned.

Crack used to be the worst thing that ever hit the black community - now, it's turning out to be Hip Hop. Millions and millions of our kids are ingesting the brainrot daily and getting stupider and more aggressive and more sexual and they don't have their minds anymore, all they can hear are the lyrics of some catchy joint.

Subdue a musical people with music - brilliant. We are INDEED "slaves to the rhythm" and just put on a funky beat and our toes start tapping by themselves.

Rap takes it to another level, altogether.

You could teach 10 year olds trigonometry with rap. History, Rocket Science, whatevah.

They proved that with "Schoolhouse Rock" back in the 70's.

But, that's when they decided to make our kids dumber and fatter and addicted to food, sex, and hip hop and they've grown up and now their kids are dumb and fat and addicted.

Hip Hop is being used to cage our minds.

It's the ultimate distraction from profound thought - pounding beats on a subsonic level to rattle the entire brain physically and catchy hooks you CAN'T stop hearing over and over and over in your head LONG after the song is finished.

And, they can't get enough of this escapism.

And, sure, IF it were used to teach AND in moderation, it would be something that added to society.

Unchecked as it is, it has become the new "drug" the new high that is limiting us as a people. We should let the other races kids pound THEIR brains into mush while OUR kids read more and study more and outperform them.

THAT is the only way Hip Hop is going to have any revolutionary use. I really get tired of hearing young people use the term "revolution" and "hip hop" in the same sentence - as if that garbage has ANYTHING to do with positive change.

Then, I have to remember that they ARE young and they were raised when the powers that be were indoctrinating them into the New World Order - where blacks are completely shut down and useless - and, HAPPY about it and too busy WORSHIPPING false Gods like Biggy and Tupac like they made a positive difference in the world at all...

F*CK HIPHOP AND VIDEO GAMES, HYPOCRITE

bros onto something or at the very least on something, except i dunno about the jewish conspiracy driven by the illuminati/new world order...

...just seems like hiphop souled out, took the money and ran with it

a hard reset mix

2009-04-02T01:21:00.000-07:00

Atmospheric and Dubstep.

Two words bound to pique my interest as i trawled the mix section at dubstepforum. At least someones still giving it a go i thought and thank fuck he didnt put Intelligent and Dubstep...

So heres a quick journey thru myspace land, courtesy of a hard reset selection which reveals international acts coalescing online to form virtual puddles of dubstep all over the show. From texas to canada to holland to croydon even...

Well, what are you waiting for ??? Fill yer boots up and go for a plod. Get some more of that dubstep atmosphere in ya !!!

Something a bit different - chilled and deep, lots of unsigned dubs, etc.

Enjoy!

VVV - Émeute
FBOM - Under the Influence
Martyn - Everything About You
Lethem - Highbury Dub
Synkro - Everybody Knows
Hard Reset - Overstanding
Cyrus - Bounty
2562 - Kameleon
Breakage - Callahan
Mundo - Still Stand Rasta
Ramadanman - The Woon
DJ Distance - Delight
Zen Militia - Pull of Guilt
Ital Tek - Deep Pools

the russkies are coming

2009-03-31T21:41:00.000-07:00

As a graphically minded person, i went thru a stage, as everyone does i'm sure, of admiring old russian propaganda posters...

Yup, before the germans took styling and propaganda to new levels with the swastika and the meanest uniforms ever, the russkies made posters that celebrated their revolution. The results seemed to make you want to revolt and comply with whatever 'ism' it was they were pushing, even if you didnt know shit about communism/socialism/marxism/leninism etc etc...

...they were generally, and by choice limited in their colour palette making the artworks stark, bold, cold and wayyyyy cool even by todays puter generated standards

truly a style unto itself worth imitating, so naturally you'd want to give it a bash eh......a work in progress and possibly just the header to something bigger, better, bolder but more probably another t-shirt:)

fait accompli...

2009-03-31T02:52:00.000-07:00

...freedom of speech ???

MWAAAAAHHAAAAAAHAAAAHAHAAAAAAAA !!!

another flawless victory...

...hiphop is dead, long live the king

NEXXXT...

A toast(y) to the dearly departed

2009-03-28T23:58:00.000-07:00

i meant to post this a few weeks ago when i found out but shit happens and stuff gets pushed back so...meh whatever

Raise your glasses in a belated farewell to dubstep maestro toastyboy's last hurrah...

...this from his myspace dated 15 march

end.

hello peeps

it may or may not have escaped your attention that i haven't made any new music/updated my page in a long long time.

well its probably no big shock that i'm winding down the toasty stuff.. the sort of music i want to make these days doesnt even remotely fit in with the whole toasty thing, so i thought it was time to draw this page to a close..

i dont want to make a song and dance about it, just wanted to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone who supported me by listening to my stuff, or by messaging me on the myspace or by..... buying my music!

big big big big shout out to all the punters, djs and labels that supported me over the last few years!

peace and loveism

damo toasty

Arguably the bestest and brightest star in the dubstep galaxy.

Any of his singular stellar productions shone more fiercely than the dim lo lights of a million halfstep wobble clones clumped together in an unformed gaseous cloud barely steering clear of dubsteps black hole event horizon...

...he will be missed.

in tribute and soon as i get my fast net connection back again i'll post up a mix of sorts that combines toasty plus the other 2 torch bearers for the breakier side of dubstep still shining...distance and reso

skream if you're damaged

2009-03-26T23:05:00.000-07:00

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHH...why ???

dubstep wunderkind, 'skream' remixes the classic sexual abuse anthem 'Damaged' by 'Plumb'

and released it as 'love dont come easily' with not even a nod to plumb...

...and oh how the noobs over at dubstepforum are lapping it up with sycophantic platitudes like he's a fucking genius or some shit

'love dont come easily' is a stripped back minimal halfstep version that intermittently breaks into a double time breakbeat but compared to the original it aint even half that...

...check the 320 download here

now i'll be the first to admit the kids got talent and an ear for a choice riff. You only have to check out his previous productions like the standout 'dutch flowers'...

...but c'mon, credit where credit is due and lets call a spade a spade

its not the best thing since the last best thing and i'm sure he can do much better...

starfuckers

2009-03-23T02:10:00.000-07:00

yeah you know the type...

...only wanna fuck you cos you're famous

whats worse is the ones who suck up and fuck you cos you know someone famous and its a fast trak into 'the scene'...

...they ingratiate with the ladies of the crew, next thing they rollin backstage and before you know it they moved on to fuckin the famous G's

but oh no they dont stop there cos theres always someone more famous and a bigger scene to crack...

...clever litttle bitches they are too and in a minute they stalkin niggas across the world, droppin names on line and pretendin like they contributin

fuckin vampires will suck the life outta ya if ya let em...

...fools betta recognize

broodstep

2009-03-21T00:50:00.000-07:00

another winamp playlist spanning the years and covering the harder, darker, faster side of dubstep...breakstep

once again theres the occassional sound of trains wrecking during the crossfade but meh...fuckit. Its practically the tunes in their entirety.

...i suppose i could get real flash and sync em up in virtual DJ but its just easier to line em up and record the shit as is

so lash up another fat one, crank the bass, turn the lights out and enjoy...

1. Babylon System & SPL - Gangster (4:08)
2. Lone Wolf - Marked (Bad Since Birth) (4:47)
3. Vex d - Angels (6:33)
4. Toasty - The Knowledge (Original) (5:08)
5. Boxcutter - Brood (5:40)
6. Reso - Metal slug (5:17)
7. Protocol X - Screwheadz (5:06)
8. Scarecrow - Snakes And Ladders (4:39)
9. Luke Envoy - Honour Kill (5:32)
10. King Cannibal - Call Me Mr Cold Blooded (6:34)
11. Innasekt - Archetype (7:34)
12. Elemental - Deep Under (6:32)
13. Darqwan - Universal Wan-Ting (5:07)
14. Distance - Cyclops (4:23)
15. Threnody - Killer (5:39)

1hr 14 minutes - 81 megs

moodstep

2009-03-15T01:28:00.000-07:00

A collection of tunes spanning a few years of dubstep and cross faded in winamp so i make no apologies for the occassional trainwreck...

...i do apologise to protocol x tho for ripping a tune of his myspace but i just couldn't help myself

lash up a fat one, kick back and enjoy...

1. loefah - bombay squad (5:18)
2. distance - dark crystal (5:45)
3. boxcutter - gave dub (4:28)
4. scuba - dream (4:35)
5. vaccine - wishful thinking vip (5:33)
6. shackleton - in the void (4:56)
7. pinch - qawwali (5:17)
8. d1 - sorrow rmx (5:51)
9. skream - dutch flowerz (4:22)
10. conquest - forever (7:52)
11. reso - onsen (6:25)
12. mala - alicia (5:33)
13. protocol x - blue monday (5:02)
14. caspa & rusko - rock bottom (5:32)
15. mount kimbie - taps (3:11)

1hr 10 min - 80megs

One short of a six pack

2009-03-13T03:27:00.000-07:00

Had a bit of time on my hands due to a slow as fuck net connection and some crap tv reception despite flash aerial...

...so retouched a grafik like how i always meant to but was too lazy and too busy

it'll prolly end up as a tshirt at some stage...

Background on Hell Science Dept

2009-03-05T20:57:00.000-08:00

Made by a friend to spec and consisting of 3 motorbike pistons, some cut/shaped copper tubing and cunningly held together by just 3 tech screws...

...initially designed as a talisman/logo for a film school graduating project about some violent, post apocalyptic, engine worshiping kids killing peace loving hippies which i art directed

no photochopping or nothing (heh...well actually i adjusted the levels).Other than that, it's just a straight photo of it lying on my mates garage floor...

...and a wicked desktop background even if i do say so myself :)

anti - travel

2008-11-13T02:33:00.000-08:00

workplace photos...

...beats being in a office eh ???

except when it rains...

The breakbeat lattice

2008-09-07T01:07:00.000-07:00

In the beginning darkness moved across the face of the waters until a splash was heard. The splash was constant, it had rhythm and the rhythm became beat and God saw the beat was good, so he broke it and the beat was made better...Can i get an amen brother ???And the beat was told 'go forth and multiply' and it did.

Eventually it came to pass, that with the rise of the technobots,
did the age of the machine dawn and the beat morphed and changed to become firmly embedded in electronicas dna matrix.

What may have been merely a continuum in linear sense from a fixed starting point became as the aboriginal dreaming. An interwoven lattice of real and hyperreal. A non local phenomenon crossing space and time...

Chronicling the breakbeat across many a genre that resonated with my being thru the ages and making a mix of truly epic proportions, sliced diced and served up cold became a mild obsession. It soon became apparent though, that i wasnt the one to do it and by doing so i would fix the linearity of a continuum i wasn't sure existed.

So here by way of a folder you can randomize such that no 2 repeat listenings are in the same order is 300mb/4hrs of 44 tunes in their virtual entirety underpinned by the cosmic constant of the funky lattice...THE ALMIGHTY BREAKBEAT

get it if you can cos it'll prolly disappear into the copyright infringed black hole real fast..:)

Genesis

amen brother - the winstons
funky drummer - james brown
apache - incredible bongo band
think about it - lyn collins

sampladelic hiphop

hear the drummer get wicked - chad jackson
king of the beats - mantronix
mama said knock you out - LL cool J
straight outta compton - NWA

retro funky soul

heaven - the chimes
sleep talk - alyson wiliams
heartbeat - seduction (C+C music factory club mix)
wishing on a star - smith + mighty

madchester

fools gold - stone roses
strawberry fields - candyflip
only one i know - charlatans
groovy train - the farm

acid jazz

submerge - angie giles -(driza bone mix)
too young to die - jamiroquai
facts of life - danny madden
midnight at the oasis - brand new heavies

rave in house

Im raving i'm raving - shut up and dance
let me be your fantasy - baby d
rhythm on the loose - break of dawn
move your body - xpansions

original junglist

original nuttah - shy fx
bludclot art attack - ed rush
innercity life - goldie
king of the beats - aphrodite

bigbeat

firestarter - prodigy
busy child - crystal method
block rockin beats - chemical brothers
come in hard - hardknox

nuskool breakz

rockweiler - suns of mecha
2kool 4skool - uberzone/afrika bambaataa
hiphop phenomenon - tsunami 1 & BT
beat box rocker - west bam (freq nasty vs blim mix)

2step/UKG

the way - future underground nation
body groove - architechs (zed bias mix)
outta space - mellowtrax (deekline mix)
just in case - jaheim (dubaholics rollers revival)

breakstep

havok - reso
guesswork - toasty
lion - vex'd
kilimanjaro - search & destroy

ALL TRAX ARE FOR EVALUATION PURPOSES ONLY AND SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM YOUR COMPUTER WITHIN 2 DAYS. IF YOU LIKE THE TUNES THEN SUPPORT THE ARTISTS AND BUY THE HARD COPY :)

to be continued...

Cyrus vs the magic flute

2008-08-23T02:33:00.000-07:00

Cyrus, a member of croydon's random trio put out as minimal and darkly atmospheric dubstep album as you can get last year on DJpinch tectonic label.

On vinyl it consisted of 3 x 12"s. I downloaded it from some dodgy russian site i think, only to find the third vinyl rip missing. Oh well never mind :(

A few months earlier I downloaded an album of world flute music called lifescapes world flutes

I also ripped a tune of Omen the other random trio members myspace. That tune being a remix of a Loefah tune called voodoo

You still with me ???...good

So naturally, being the dubmugging polynesian hell scientist, i mashed the fuckers up in true savage style just by lining em up and playing em together to these ends.

'Voodoo' and the world flute tune 'Buffalo Nation/There's A Fire Deep In The Hill [Native American] became what you hear on myspacepage and the rest as follows

Cyrus - Rasta From (5:00) VS Lifescapes - Eagle Dreams - Native American (7:13)
Cyrus - Mind Games (5:37) VS Lifescapes - His Royal Soul Has Flown Away - African (3:34)
Cyrus - The Watcher (5:38) VS Lifescapes - She Dances with Her Soul - Indian (7:00)
Cyrus - Paradise Dub (6:06) VS Lifescapes - Swimming Near Emerald Cliffs - Chinese (5:11)
Cyrus - Gutter (4:23) VS Lifescapes - Where the Moutain Begins - South American (8:27)
Cyrus - Dirt (5:37) VS Lifescapes - The Orphan Song - Chinese (6:23)
Theres a fire deep in the voodoo magic hill (6:32)

In selecting which tune to match with which, I just went with word association. Of course i fucked up the last 2 tunes cos 'gutter' is supposed to go with 'the orphan song' and 'dirt' with 'where the mountain begins' but who's to know ???

I mean, ya gotta expect these things when your'e 'puter mixing shit on the fly :) Naturally i cut off some bits in the mix which was done virtually live on a DJ program i DL'ed the trial version of.

All this was inspired by hearing DJ Zhao's blogariddim mix earlier today which essentially does the same thing and that is, mash up stylee, but i'd kinda been meaning to do it for a while.

I could go on about non local space and time creating warped effects and deeply spiritual vibes meeting the UK underground in NZ but meh, just listen to the shit and hopefully enjoy the spontenaity i had in doing it. After all, the way of the warrior is about impeccable timing and ruthless intent.

So yeah, sometimes words get in the way and sometimes you can overthink things to lesser effect...

so heres
cyrus vs the magic flute 23-08-2008_7;21;24_p-m-.mp3 42.81 MB

Anyone for koura ?

2008-08-15T03:09:00.000-07:00

Koura of course being the maori word for crayfish. Kaikoura then being 'crayfish food' with kai meaning food is a place famous in New Zealand for being the home of the crayfish and nowhere is more famous than the roadside caravans of 'nin's bin' and 'cays crays' for that stuff. A spot on the main highway north of christchurch where you can pull over and get your fill...

Cays crays is also a tune by darlings of the indy dance set, Fat Freddies Drop

remixed to sublime perfection by darlings of the dubstep set, digital mystikz

check it here and this is the original (live)

Burial exhumed

2008-08-06T00:57:00.000-07:00

Yeah i dont like his drums. Never did. And yeah i thought he was El-b incognito. And yeah i thought it was just a clever as fuck Kode 9 gimmick playing on hyperstition

Hyperstition through CCRU (Cybernetic Culture Research Unit):

1. Element of effective culture that makes itself real.

2. Fictional quantity functional as a time-traveling device.

3. Coincidence intensifier.

4. Call to the Old Ones

so it came as a bit of a surprise that he would out himself on his myspace complete with pic.

But now that i know he was actually Kevin Federline in disguise it all becomes transparently obvious. I mean who wouldn't want to keep that fact on the low low to retain even a modicum of street cred ???

Nah seriously tho. I kind of wished he hadn't. I can sort of understand the need to out himself so people could just hear the music without being coloured by the hype given his nomination for a *ahem* prestigious Mercury award and the fuss the Sun was making about him.

Still i feel a bit let down that he changed to please the media and to be honest. I preferred the unfamiliarity of a name without a face that now i can see, removes the haunting supernatural element burial as word suggests and places him in the physical realm like the rest of us mortals.

As a kid I was into KISS for the same reason. The mystery of the star, the spaceman, the cat, and the demon added value to the music. To my mind it didnt detract but on unmasking they just weren't as interesting

Babylon Tower Systems

2008-07-12T20:51:00.000-07:00

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech

Let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

Come we chant down babylon one more time - Robert Nesta Marley

And it came to pass i found myself in Fiji building cell phone towers for a chinese company lookin to give vodaphone a run for it's money in the pacific.

Fiji is a strange place. Geograhically it is pretty much in a direct line north from NZ so it keeps the same timezone. But temporally its like a land time forgot. A curious colonial experiment of indentured foreign labour force meets primitive savage society in a land to reap profit from benefit of extraordinary climate conditions.

The place itself is a collection of over 300 islands clustered around a couple of big ones, Vanua Levu and Viti Levu. The islands themselves being little more than the tops of huge mountain peaks thrusting out of the ocean. It is a place where rapid tectonic shifts and catastrophism can easily be justified as causes of creation. And fuck is it lush !!!

Some places are paradise on earth. Others are hell. Suva, the capital was a bit hellish with all the charm of a cheap hooker. The worst excesses of western consumerism is in your face constantly. Over priced malls, cheap backstreet bootleg sweatshop rip off brands and hot of the press dvds barely in the cinemas are sold on the footpath and never has it been easier to get weed by being a foreign visitor with dreads. Within 5 minutes of hitting the streets I got sold a crappy pair of carved wooden fijian knives and a tinny for 50 bucks. Man...did they see me coming or what ? But what the hell, they probably needed it more than me, to keep up the semblance of western identity or maybe just to get by cos there aint much money trickling down to the common folk these days and if it werent for the indian business owners who have stuck it out for 3 coups in the last 20 yrs the place could easily be a Zimbabwe of the pacific.

In the bush it's even worse if you measure by western standards. If however in classic island time you see things as always having been, settled into the tides of life as dictated by the sea and air and rain, then all is as it should be. And all things shall come to pass before starting over again.

As a pasifikan. I felt proud and honoured to be working in and for my Fijian brothers. I liked the idea of hooking those niggasup cos Vodaphone with its monopoly was charging whatever they liked for user fees so Digicel, a chinese rival was builidng networks to compete in the cell phone market all over the pacific, having previously established networks in Papua/New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga. They are still looking to create networks in the Solomons, Vanuatu and Timor.

That means constructing 30, 45 and 60 metre towers around the islands and mounting antennae and aerials with which to bounce signals about. Cue a ragtag bunch of riggers and climbers led by Martyn, the livewire pommy bulldog type to get erecting steel lattice towers so that once again we may all speak the same language. Dave the diminutive but knowledgable Coromandelite and Mike the vego treehugger from Christchurch completed our team along with Callum the aging climbing rockstar running the ground crew for us.

Originally servicing a 3 month contract, which if completed would have gotten me into trim shape and turned me the golden honey roast chicken tan i tend to go after long exposure to the sun:),I was, with extreme trepidation, excitedly looking forward to it, but sadly our time got cut short. Love of money being the root of all evil eventually getting the better of our bosses in NZ and our Digicel masters in Fiji meant coming home early after only 4 weeks.

But oh what 4 weeks. I got sunburnt, pissed, stoned, sick, sore, tired, hurt, amused, and angered pretty much every other day, but ulitmately was disappointed we had to leave in the end. Hopefully we'll be back or off for another mission in the future. Timor sounds interesting but scary as fuck.

It was hard being away from home and family but it seemed like a journey of rediscovery for me. I actually felt connected to Fiji, through the pe'a from which it made its way forth to Samoa and through the little known Lapita culture that sprang forth the polynesian mystics to the later cannibals who ravaged and reigned as the last wave of settlers in the sth pacifics.

I should probably go on more about the tatau legend and the mysterious Lapita people and especially the later cannibal history all of which is fascinating or even some of the awesome people i met and worked with in Fiji but...meh maybe later

Secret garden...shhhhhhh

2008-05-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

I would love to develop a photographers eye. The way they can look at something and focus in on the most interesting of angles and subject matter. Losing sight of the big picture to frame up a shot in the minds eye of an image in partial detail which in essence captures the whole scene...

...and what prompted that ??? Well I worked a short film in a hobbyists woodworking shed and shot some photos of which these are probably the most worthy.

More brilliant than Toasty ?

2008-05-15T22:11:00.000-07:00

The progression of the breakbeat continuum into breakstep as opposed to the de evolution into dubstep's halfstep. One is the accelerated velocity into the unknown the other a decelerated step back to the past via the much explored dubsonics.

Never more so has the breakbeat continuum been encapsulated in one tune than in 'toastys -i seek knowledge' on the visionary 'hotflush recordings' label circe 2004. Truly a revolution in sonic fiction. The jump off point for a branching timeline in the multidimensional musicverse. From the opening afro percussion intro, the rocket take off wind up and the catch of breath into the first drop, the warped sampladelic female vocals, the glitched out techno beat, the atonality of what sounds like an alien spaceship humming and throbbing in the background. Brilliant. But flip it over and in seeking higher knowledge, is it more brilliant than 'like sun' ?

Once again we are introduced to the sound of an alien spacecraft via afro-percussion. This time in observational stealth mode. The unmanned bridge of the motherplane from nation of islam’s finest work of black sci fi fame. A stepped militaristic beat reminiscent of the fruit of islam or S1W's ensues. The sound of a teleporter introduces a pilot. A klaxon warning suggests one should buckle up 'keep moving' an acceleration is imminent, but we dont. Instead the bass drops and you round the dark side of the moon to reveal something more brilliant, Ra the sun. Again the klaxon sounds forewarning another imminent change, precursoring the opening of hyperspace, a tear in the spacetime fabric. One last look back. Floating dream like strings imbue a melancholic feeling of possibly never seeing things as they were again. Then it's through to the unknown unaccompanied by a feeling of acceleration.

Why ?... cos you have just travelled without moving. The speed of thought as projected through space is faster than the speed of light. You have outrun the light. Like the sun at dusk as the last rays fade, this work sets behind a new muscial horizon. Leaving a gate open for many to follow.

rapidshare_ HF_006_Toasty-The_KnowledgeLike_Sun_2004_192.rar

T-shirts and Grafikery...

2008-04-25T23:58:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed the new colour co-ordinated look to the blog ???I was getting back into grafix/tshirts and thought i'd give the blog a makeover as well . The image behind the header was an album cover for Danny MacMillan of 'inflight records.

This, a tribute to hyperdub. Arguably the greatest label in the dubstep universe manned at the helm by the hyperstitious visionary Dr kode9

This, a reworked 'redstripe' label. Beer de rigeur of the dubstep lager connoisseur, though probably more popular due to its jamaican origin...

Afrika Bambaataa..nuff said. Hiphop pioneer and with whom I share a common quest. Looking for the perfect beat. If you find it before me hookusup yeah ???

Originally designed for bloodied blade, harder than hard dubsteppers as a work in progress and a tribute to Ogami Itto, the lonewolf shogun assassin. I was thinking of putting it on screen but then again maybe not.

08...year of the dirtbox

2008-03-29T23:23:00.001-07:00

6 weeks in wellington working the NZ international festival of the arts seems like a long time and it was in that it's a reasonbly long stint away from the family, but workwise, it just flew by.

As always my festivals seem to start with that bloody tent (mentioned in previous posts). A weird sense of deja vu usually descends but this time was different in that they procured the services of eclectic french candian circus troupe 'Les 7 Doigts de la Main' who custom fit an acrobatic comedy show within the tight confines of said tent. The show was a hit and the performers, one in particular was a standout. The luscious Mimi who by festivals end was flirting with anyone who glanced at her sideways and paid her a compliment especially my mad pommy flatmate Simon, with whom i had the pleasure of sharing time with in a choice apartment downtown.

Simon is one of those irrepressible guys who never lets an opportunity to have a good time get in the way of work. Dude knows his shit though and it was always a blast rolling into a joint and knocking shit up or tearing it down in record time just so's we could chill back at the flat.

First show we worked on was a french opera replete with hiphop dancers in skimpy costumes and an exquisite set which included a rising corporate desk, huge maps of the world and a cockpit of charles lindberghs plane which ever so slowly arced it's way across the stage to the accompaniment of some rather atrocious german opera singing. Perhaps it wasn't atrocious and maybe i just don't have cultured ear but it wasn't dubstep eh ? We did manage to drag a couple of the dancers out for a barbie at a mates place but the languge barrier got in the way especially when you're slurring words like a drunken dero from too much beer...haha

That was followed up at the same venue in a long night of turning the theatre around to accomodate it by Shen wei dance company. Normally i'm not a fan of contemporary dance. All that flailing of arms and running round in coloured condoms just seems a bit too high art for my tastes. However with this troupe, there was a piece they did which was kinda fresh. It involved distended headed people, not unlike mayan trepanning, caked in white and wearing thick woolen garb of red and black perfoming intricate slow motion moves in solo and tandem against a nice bit of chinese inspired backdrop and on a pristine white floor. Naturally the floor was a bitch to lay as was the second one laid over and needing to be stripped at interval then restretched in preset for the subsequent show. I had a show call on this gig which involved making a plumb bob hanging from a batten by some invisible fishing line being swung ever so gently back and forth across the stage. Fucked if i know what that was about but it looked way cool

Blackwatch, a show about the legendary regiment as reported to a writer and a misplaced sense of loyalty to your country via the armed forces, focused on a stint in iraq for some dimwitted scottish wideboys expecting a bit of ol skool fightin but instead they got rather fucked up. It was staged in the events centre, ( same place as WOW)so of course it needed to be converted from a sports venue into a theatre meaning lots of hanging drapes and general fluffing around. The show was full on high energy stuff, lots of running around and shouting, some dancing, a bit of singing, lots of swearing in heavy scottish brogue and of course topped off by a bagpipe solo. Have i ever told y'all how much i love the bagpipes as an instrument...no ? thats cos i dont and never will. All in all though it was primo, solid, macho swaggering stuff indeed, complimented by my mate Gerhard, the austrian rigger who was venue manager. Outside of work and during a night off we even managed to have a decent drink and smoke up at his place til sun up. Which is how good friends should drink and smoke, like there is no tomorrow.

Giselle pronounced 'jizzle' by the elderly yet precocious texan narrator, Bill with whom i befriended via a shared appreciation of ganja and who for the course of half the show sat on a 4 meter power pole was next up on my hitlist. Staged in a converted shed on the waterfront it also played host to Blackbird, an ozzy play about a scottish paedophile reconciling with his victim in later life and directed by Cate Blanchett, yes, the cate blanchett. It sounded like heavy shit, but not as heavy as the steel decks and seating we had to install in that shitty venue and i mean quite literally shitty. Im talkin guano everywhere up in the rafters. Of course it was my job to black the place out and make it look pretty for the punters, but fuck me if all those little nicks you get on your hands didnt take forever to heal. Thanx to my amazingly robust polynesian genes i came through unscathed. Unfortunately blackbird mistimed with other work so i never got to see it. Was a bit bummed but hey, you cant see everything.

Jizzle, a satisfyingly weird blend of irish humour, line dancing and loosely based on the ballet of the same name however i did see. Over and over via a monitor backstage as i was on standby should the rope dance in the second half not fire due to miscoiling them in their preset state. It was my job to climb the truss after every show to coil them and i was pleased to say only once during the entire season did one of the 7 not fire and that was on the last night which by then i couldn't give 2 shits about as i was next door back in the events center watching the final dress of Honour Bound.

watch vid here

That was a show which given my rigging background i was jizzing for and didn't want to miss. Set in an 8 meter square steel cage and criss crossed by flying lines the show concerned itself with David Hicks, the supposed ozzy alqaeda terrorist detainee held in camp xray gitmo cuba for years without trial. Finton, seriously who would name their kid finton, the head and only rigger nailed that shows ass. As physical a performance by the talent as i've ever seen, it was complimented by some clever and inventive flying tricks and projections on the cage. Hopefully Finton will make himself available for the next wearable arts show as another mate and rigging dynamo, Nick of the sky has run off to join the circus. Cirque du soleil to be exact and good luck to him. Dude is seriously talented, confident, competent and good looking...bastard heh.

As with most festivals there is just so much going on in the periphery and all over that it creates a buzz in the town which for us as production technicians is quite energizing but ultimately short lived as at the end, whatever relationships we formed with foreign people and players we have to discard probably never to re establish again. Thats the nature of the beast. Another thing as previously mentioned is, you cant work and see everything, so what you get here is basically a condensed work history which i hope conveys some of the magic and merriment we get from doing our jobs well.

Therefore I'd like to acknowledge the management who put their faith in me and the people i work with, the stars and workers who make my life better for having known them and i only hope it's reciprocated.

peace and blessings to all involved. Catch y'all asses next time

CHEEEEEEEHOOOOOOOOO !!!

and if you're wondering what the dirtbox is. It's the words we took the 08 spelt as DB to represent on the ugly ass crew t shirts we were * ahem* privileged to be given.

The long hot summer just...

2008-02-01T00:13:00.000-08:00

...well not quite the whole summer but, january has surely passed me by

maybe it's cos i been hella busy, holidaying round the sth island, working heaps and chillaxing with the kids that i havent clocked in or maybe nuthing much has happened worth blogging about...

...so anyway we, or should i say i, helped pump my first crane a couple weeks ago following on from one we built in queenstown and here in christ city over the last month

pumping cranes is a deadly serious business. I'd explain but this pretty much says it all...

...needless to say wind is the enemy

completely unrelated, i came across a dubstep vid lately worthy of mention

a pleasant surprise as apart from 'various productions-hater'

and kode9/spaceape-9 samurai

from a few years back, most are kinda to say the least, underdone, though some might say so are these...

...oh well different strokes. Funny but there do seem to be some similarities in style. Black and white, animated with no live personage of note

Take a piece of this...

2007-12-09T02:39:00.000-08:00

What does about 2grand kiwi get you in art direction and set construction in christchurch NZ if you doing it for love and the challenge ???

this...

2 stories high, 3 days to build/dress and designed to fit a 16 x 9 film frame pretty much exactly with no after effected visual tricknology. The last day of the build of course being a real shitter. Up til 5.30am, due back at 7.30am to open the gates and let the lighting, grip and power trucks in, then finish off dressing the set while they set up...

...needless to say we're still screwing down the chequered floor while the band is rehearsing before the director Richard Bell ( most famous for being half of 'state' with acclaimed director/photographerAnton Corbijn ) says enuff and kicks us out while they get on to the business of shooting the vid. Suits me sir, so i shot off home for a nap and back in time for lunch...

cool bunch of guys they were too, the electric confectionaires

Variations on a musical theme

2007-11-09T01:14:00.000-08:00

Tired of listening to endless mixes of the same genre ???
Does it seem as though one tune melds into the next only to become indistinguishable from the previous ???
Looking for the seemingly random in the staid set structure of most genres ???

You're not alone...

What to do you ask ??? I just create playlists on themes...

...heres a crying one

1. Roy Orbison - Crying (2:48)
2. Alison Moyet - All Cried Out (3:43)
3. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Weeping Song (4:20)
4. The Cure - Boys don´t cry (2:34)
5. The English Beat - Tears Of A Clown (2:42)
6. Ub40 - Please Dont Make Me Cry (3:26)
7. Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons - Big Girls Don't Cry (2:24)
8. Gerry and The Pacemakers - Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying (2:34)
9. Godley & Creme - Cry (3:54)
10. Rolling Stones - Fool To Cry (4:06)
11. Elvis Presley - Don't Cry Daddy (2:47)
12. New Edition - Tears on My Pillow (3:49)
13. Allure - All Cried Out (4:35)
14. Justin Timberlake - Cry Me A River (4:50)
15. Jimi Hendrix - The Wind Cries Mary (3:20)
16. Bob Marley - No woman, No cry (4:04)
17. Prince - When Doves Cry (3:48)
18. Jay-Z - Song Cry (5:03)
19. The Streets - Dry Your Eyes (4:32)

CRYING SONGS.zip (90.43 MB)

Or even, try typing a word into the search function of your p2p provider of choice and pick a selection based solely on that...

...enjoy and for fuck sake don't take music so seriously

WOW..what can I say ???

2007-10-14T23:32:00.000-07:00

September is World of Wearableart month in Wellington. Of course WOW, being one of NZ's showcase events for all things wearable and arty, not to mention theatrical and choreographical.

It hasn't seemed like a year since I last posted about it but it's a case of time flies when you're having fun and my life sure is fun so time tends to fly by.

Staged in the TSB arena on Wellingtons waterfront, WOW makes for a pleasant walk to and from the apartment they fly me up and put me up in for the duration of the preproduction and show. Having the sea at your doorstep for work somehow has a calming effect on all involved in what could potentially be a stressful month of relatively hard slog.

My job this year was in taking over head of rigging and flying. That entails working with the creative and artistic team in realizing their vision for all things related to the suspension of people and set.

This year saw us flying a brass bed replete with wings from which underneath was gathered a mass of fabric that spread out to form a tent as the bed rises. From inside this tent emerges a set of monsters not unlike those from that classic "Where the wild things are" book. At it's height we had to disengage the tent , haul it over the handrails and lose the bed in the sky to accommodate the other flying elements such as the chandelier.

About 2.5 metres wide and about 3 metres deep, this thing just wanted to clatter around and shake as it was transferred from its storage position to its final postion. Imagine an upside down layer cake of illuminated crystal and chain hanging 14 metres above the stage which on cue needs to descend 10 metres to hang above a courtesans banquet of mirrored aristocrats and attendants. Scary but fun.

My favourite bit of set was, 650 kilos a side of replicated cathedral like, aged, stained glass windows that needed to be suspended and tracked on stage via a pulley and trolley system my good friend Mikee and I had to cobble together from various bits of kit left over from previous years.

In between the acts which these pieces formed a central aspect, we flew about 18 people in various costumes and who at various times needed to ascend and descend in perfect accompaniment to the action, lighting and sound on stage which forms the visual feast that is WOW.

For example in the "white section", so named not for any racist reason but that every garment in it is white, we lowered 4 people wearing long concertinaed 'condom' costumes bungy style off a single wire to the stage to pick up a huge funnel like fabric chalice that then needed to be secured in the roof, and in kabuki style via an electronic quick release system, then got sucked down a centre hole in the middle of the stage to reveal a spinning aerialist, while confetti snow cascaded around her.

Quite a problem in terms of logistics to realize the vision especially when the creatives really have no idea how to make it work or the risks and inherent dangers in what they propose. Imagine also that most of these flyers and pieces were crowded around the centre of the stage and that you cant fly more than one of these things at a time without moving another out of the way.

Enter me and my handpicked team of rigger/flymen/rockclimbers/circus performers to do what we do so well.

I could go on in boring detail of the logistics involved but really it's nothing more than a balancing act between us as human counterweight and the performers, along with a custom installed theatre flying counterweight system to deal with the heavier set pieces. Oh and about 160 metres of high strength trussing, 1.3 kilometres of steel cable, 50 metres of suspended aluminium track and acres of fabric.

Needless to say the whole operation is fraught with problems on a day to day basis which we need to troubleshoot and overcome to ensure a smooth, safe and believable effect is achieved for the benefit of the overall show.

And it doesn't help when you are surrounded by beauty in the form of the talented dancers, models, dressers, wardrobe, hair, makeup, stage management, production, catering and admin personnell all striving to perform their duties in the arena as well.

So perhaps I should regale you instead with stories of drunken nights out til 6 in the morning and endless cones in the apartment after a hard days work, meeting strange people involved with the show, befriending them and realizing you're just as strange as them and that the average person attending the show would have no idea of what it is we do, climbing round the roof, hiding in the shadows all dressed in black.

But NO. Somethings are better left unsaid because to be honest, it's all about the show and in that respect it's better the audience remains ignorant lest they wish they could be one of us too or conversely be scared shitless and of course we also have our secrets...hehe

BTW this was the winning piece this year.Yeah, it's sheep inspired made from wool packs and designed and built by a couple of auckland lasses. So what ???

We don't have a problem with it. We like sheep and riggers have great, if slightly twisted senses of humour and a unique outlook on life that comes from looking down on things and thinking. I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky :)

Call me CAFFER

2007-08-22T02:07:00.000-07:00

why ???...you may ask

cos for the last month that was me, contracted festival worker to the Christchurch Arts Festival. A month long celebration of all things arty and festivally in Christchurch...funnily enough

It starts off by claiming the square (central town square) and turning it into a hive of activity and pre excitement leading up to the festival opening proper. Featured attractions were a 'screen saver' projected onto a rather large screen covering the ornate stained glass window of the cathedral situated smack bang in the middle of the square. I coulda done without hanging it, then finding out it was sewn wrong so had to be brought down and sent off to be cut and resewn before rushing it back to be hung again. Only this time my helpers had all fucked off so it was me an me ol mate 'dunners' on the job. To be honest it looked kinda wack anyway.

Another feature was the snow orchids.

Big, scary, triffid looking alien eyes designed by umeric, famous for having directed some primo videos for shapeshifter and salmonella dub and built by warwick bell soon to be famous for building the NZ rugby ball thing going up to coincide with the rugby world cup kicking off next month in paris.

As you can see in the photo there is something with fireworks sticking out of it. That something is the 'fale pod' pronounced 'fa' as in 'far' with a silent 'R' and 'le' as in 'let' with a silent 'T'. It's a samoan word you see. Designed/built by Michel Tuffrey it's basically a screen onto which was projected some images accompanied by some sounds. The fireworks were only for opening night and coincided with a host of other polycentric activities within the square to open the arts festival. Beyond opening night it sorta lost it's flava. I must admit, for a cracker of a town like christchurch it was good to see hear the polynesian family singing/dancing in what is traditionally a whiter than white city.

Nowhere was that more illustrated than by a gay male dancer i befriended being told to 'go home nigga' by the many ballheads we have down here. Kinda sad really that we still got that rep.

Other things in the square were 'the tent' a 'spiegel' type with pasifikan stylings inside which played host to many a musical act and a 'futuro', a 1960's designed UFO type house that failed to replace the boxes we live in. I think I know why...cos round houses have got no corners. Kinda does your head in not having corners to put shit in.

So after setting up all that stuff in the square we rolled onto setting up shows and doing show calls. I was down to help 'danza cuba' but all they had was some congas and a bit of backline. The rest was a host of fiery hot looking dancing cuban brunettes. Just as well they canned me from that gig. Although they did smuggle some cigars in their congas and flicked em off for a fraction of the retail price. A very small fraction that i wouldnt have minded being part of the equation...oh well

Next show was 'circus oz'.

A ragtag bunch of performers with a broad family appeal show based around comedy, music and good ol fashioned circus artistry. I didn't think I would enjoy working with ozzies but they were sum good ones. Hell they even toured the outback doing workshops with abos so you know they weren't like the average ozzy we know and don't love so much.

I was down to tour with them to another couple of places but my skills were needed more in christchurch so when they left, 'aurelia' rolled in.

Aurelia, grandaughter of charlie chaplin, upholding a family tradition of theatre excellence had a show, Oratorio, which because i worked, couldn't see more than fleeting glimpses from the wings in between cues. Damn, it looked cool though and the company were choice folk. From Monica the 8 language speaking production manager to Gerd the stage technical manager, who when I casually asked about snow (it being winter in Churtown) regaled me with stories of friends who had succumbed to it's sense heightening properties far too often. I didn't have the heart to tell him 'nah bro not that sort of snow'. The gay male dancer, Julio, mentioned earlier was the other lead in this show and we kinda hit it off in a very platonic way when within half an hour of setting foot in the theatre, i'd so procured him some primo native bush to chuff away on for the week.

Other highlights were Hollie Smith and Solaa in 'the tent'. Two fine examples of the neo soul funk thing going off currently in NZ. Naturally there was lot more going on to which i was a party to but mostly it was boring stuff like helping rigging lights, PA and exhibitions, the sort of thing which generally operates within arts festivals.

All in all i had a good time. Met some good people, drank some good piss, smoked some good weed and got paid to do it. Come next time Id gladly do it all over again and probably will.

DOWNSTEPPA - the bass edition

2007-07-05T00:33:00.000-07:00

A bunch of tunes from back in the day to today that resonated with my being in some form or another...

...for more on the artists hit the links to their myspace pages

ART OF NOISE_moments in love
VACCINE_wishful thinking (VIP)
COLDCUT_autumn leaves (IRRESISTABLE FORCE MIX)
CHROME VS REYNE_maker ( HELL-SD_RMX)
BOXCUTTER_glyphic
MOVING NINJA_thx
RUF(DUBSTEP RMX)_ my love_Justin timberlake
TIPPER_end of golden weather
T_POWER_so long and thanks for all the fish
LAWGIVERZ_luv
BURIAL_nite train
RESO & ROGUESTAR_no such thing as fate
HELL SCIENCE DEPT_ 2 ways
TOASTY_the knowledge

55min 63 meg of light'n'dark dubstep, ol skool ambience and chilled out breaks

DOWNSTEPPA

enjoy

Predetermining the Collapse

2007-06-06T01:06:00.000-07:00

Everything is now and You are here!!!

That only leaves one other option if it were not true. You are not here and everything is not now, meaning you are dead !

The super position of all states then would be, you are dead, as all possibilities are probable given infinite time but you don't have infinite time. So given that the future exists NOW, you are dead more often than not. More OFF than ON. All possibilities existing now is the wave function. Imagine waves rippling in a spherical pond from a central point. Collapsing the sphere to that point eliminates the ripples such that all you're left with is the particle and the medium.

Collapsing the wave function then gives us the state of realness in the physical sense, a state of aliveness, YOU. Something that is, that can be quantified and understood. The medium is the multi dimensional universi, the multiverse.

The multiverse and our particular universe are in motion ie change of state/position over time. The movement then causes the particle to propagate ripples again. All this takes place superluminally. We only observe the effects through sensory perception and ascribe meaning to the effects we experience.

Choosing collapses the infinite possibilites of the wave function to one. In collapsing, the wave affects other waves inducing them to collapse or combine to form bigger waves. The particles need not move except to flicker between one state of being in the multiverse to a single state in a single universe, meaning nothing moves only the background changes shape.

As an example. If you close your eyes there is only the blackness. Nothing exists in the way you percieve. Everything is reduced to being OFF ie in another state of the multiverse, dead. Imagine objects merely being vibrations of fundamental particles having no discernable shape, form or substance. The matrix vision of neo. All possibilites existing just needing recombining and interpreting.

Open your eyes and the wave function collapses. Everything takes the form your consciousness projects onto the 4d reality. Things take shape and have substance according to what we percieve through conditioning and experience.

What would be cool then is to rather than collapse the wave, blow it up. Everything is ON. The wave becomes a standing one. Time becomes meaningless. We see beyond the 4d veil and control the shape of the background rather that it controlling us.

Naturally I'm just simplifying things for the masses in equating what we see to fundamental particles because of course the many other observers have caused a collapse. That's the consensus conscious opinion that bounds reality. Just because you closed your eyes doesnt mean stuff doesn't exist, thats silly. It still does for everyone else as part of the bigger collapsed wave. Things are as they seem regardless of whether your eyes are closed or not. The moment everyone recognizes the emperor is naked though is when the collective collapse causes a new reality to be adopted en masse.

Imagine walking into a theatre with the audience all agreeing before hand that as soon as the fat lady sings at the end of act 4 everyone will imagine her to feel nauseous and throw up. What do you think would happen ? I'm picking the woman would at the very least feel a bit queasy but not know why. Or have you ever thought there might be something psychic about putting a tiny golf ball 500 metres down the trak using only a bit of fashioned metal and the power of conscious or perhaps unconscious thought ?

As soon as someone proves consciousness exists at the quantum level we can get on with the business of effecting the 4d construct. Thought powered nanomachines anybody ?

Our future doesn't exist yet. Nothing does, but an extrapolation of choices and choices not made at every moment in time recreates presents in other universes. In some of those, what will happen to us is happening now or has happened. The point is, everything is NOW and you are here.

If the fundamental particles which constitute us flicker at superluminal speed between existence and non existence as defined by the 4d construct. We are equally as much dead as alive but more so dead given that we are but one universe of many in infinite time. Assuming of course our particular conscious entity transcends the multiverse.

The present is in a constant state of recreating itself at faster than light speed using the same particles, but for every action chosen and taken there is an equal and oppsite in another universe. The past is a memory and deja vu could be a glimpse of a future probablity or a transdimensional leak where it is happening now but wont happen in this universe for a while. I wonder if there is a unit of consciousness, a thought particle ?

Did you ever think that on going back to a choice made in the past and choosing the opposite, the results to your life would have been different ? Somewhere in your life can you pinpoint an event which defined you and your destiny depending on which path you chose to follow ?

Or in spite of said choice, do you think things would have turned out pretty much exactly the same now and that where you are and who you are were pretty much calculated as an extrapolation of probabilities with any choice you made merely being an uncertainty factor with little relevance in the overall outcome ?

That is too say, you would have made another choice later on which would enact the same type of event leading to who and where you are now anyway ? Bear in mind your 'fate' as it were is so intertwined with others that any choice you made, to have any lasting effect, would need to have the appropriate choices made by a whole host of others to change an event.

Of course in alternate universi, the choices i could have made at the the time, i did make with the resultant consequences being things there are probably vastly different as those divergent choices accumulate to such an extent that 'the many times removed' alternate you is not even you, doesn't think like you or act like you

or do they ??? Is there a connected stream of consciousness which resonates through all alternate yous ??? An absolute you in an ultimate reality ??? Are we then the pebble dropped in the spherical pond or merely a ripple ???

Perhaps only in death will we know but seeing as how we are more dead than alive, somewhere, sometime, we already know...

Reflections of 8ft women

2007-05-28T14:26:00.001-07:00

Recordings of 8 women variously connected to footnote records from 2001-2006...

... a mix of not quite mixed tunes yet it does have a certain flow, featuring released songs, unreleased demos and remixes spanning haunting acoustic to rap to pop to dubstep to jungle

download 24meg 112bit mp3 here

01 jamyma - silence

Kylie wrote the song and sings it to melancholic perfection while Jimmy plays guitar

02 sarah brown - i care

since gone on to bigger things but ohh that voice, so fragile so distinctive. A cover of a jodeci song

03 chrome vs reyne - newex

Jordan Reyne breaks out of her usually gothic/industrial state to craft a fine slice of downbeat pop with johnnychrome on production

04 topaz - rat a tat

first recording and a precursor of many good things to come with beat supplied by internet badboy Lerch

05 sheelahroc - if i gave u th mic

a kiwi classic nuff said. Rhian sheehan phat beats down mix

06 hell science dept - slippin

2002 protodubstep vocal remix tune of funkamental's 'slippin' featuring Michaela Carnavale

07 ladisix - shanti riddim

rare and little heard rolling, jump up, jungle style version of confucius song

08 confucius - glimpses

Michaela once again vocalises a sublime piece of kiwi jungle pop by the prolific Nava Thomas

ENJOY...

Festival of Coloureds

2007-05-03T16:17:00.002-07:00

April is autumn in New Zealand and no where is that more prominently felt in such grand scale than in central Otago.

To coincide with all that autumn entails, every 2 years there is an arts festival in Wanaka. The lake town which in recent times has been the haunt of all things old, white and rich or young, frugal ,white, playful and foreign ie a retirement town for the well to do or a stop on the kiwi experience for visiting backpackers. However thanks to the directorship of festival main man Philip Tremewen who once again sought to bring a polynesian influence to the arts festival since its inauguration last time, it played host to Michel Tuffrey, Lonnie Hutchinson and Wi Taepa. 3 prominent New Zealand artists of polynesian extraction making their marks in various artistic disciplines. Tuffrey in multimedia, Hutchinson in black paper stenciling and Taepa in clay. Also active in the festival were Anton Carter (antsman) Mike Bridgeman (mike busy) Oscar Kightley (brotown) and Riki Gooch (trinity roots) now a wanaka resident

Wanaka in Kaitahu dialect (Kaitahu of course being the dominant tribe in the sth island) is wananga as the ng sound is replaced with the k, hence kaitahu not ngai tahu etc and means a place of higher learning or a gathering of peoples to learn. With that in mind to stand on the anzac memorial hillock, irie eyed with the bros talking shit and overlooking the town and the lake, it is not hard to imagine it's name being given for the many tohunga (maori equivalent of shaman or master craftsman)who undertook to gather in this magical place to discuss and share the knowledge of the elders for future generations.

It seems then as no coincidence to be working on this festival and to interact with these people is something which I feel privileged to do but more because it seems like I was meant to and all that my ancestors worked towards was for me to be there in that space, with those people, in that time, this time. Not only those particular polynesian artists but the team of people who turn up to co ordinate, participate and witness the events.

With my digital camera having been packed before i left, I had every intention of taking many a picture but upon my first few attempts to capture an image it was plain to see justice was not being done so I gave up preferring instead to commit my experiences to memory.

The one image above being so opportunist that I couldn't resist taking it on my phone. It was the time and view and the moon and the...I dunno, sometimes you just don't know why you do it, you just do and and know it's right

The other thing i know is right is that we as people of the sea who populated this land need to reclaim some of it's history, re tell the stories and repopulate the places of those stories in a way that re-interprets the lessons learnt from the past using modern technology yet encompasses all and alienates none and no where is there a better place or platform to do that than in Wanaka in autumn at the Festival of Colour

The Last Priests of MU : DIGITAL MYSTIKZ vs HELL SCIENCE DEPT on a STRICTLY 138 tip

2007-03-08T01:18:00.000-08:00

Fools betta wrekognize...

so we negotiated to perform on this gig but too late before the flyer /poster went to press...

...not to worry though, it should still be massive cos partner in crime skrimshank'll be playing some unreleased bits by a few badboy producers including the odd HELL SCIENCE DEPT joint that'll leave you floored

gonna record the set and post it up so if you can't be there, then be square...

11-12pm HELL_SD followed by MU, MALA, STRICTLY 138 KRU

restecp...

How low can we go ???

2007-02-23T16:00:00.000-08:00

...underground

indefinable dark places from which everything emerges to take it's place in the bright lights of macroscopia. The breeding ground for all manner of hybridised mutant musical lifeforms that defy categorisation

where is it ??? would you know it if you saw it ??? is it even a place worth seeking out and exploring ???

used to be you had to be taken there by it's denizens, to the seedy little back street clubs, suburban garages, shitty little rooms in concrete bunkers stacked sky high in decaying urban centres and made to participate in the strange rituals which govern it...

...now it's on line, all up in your very face but many wouldn't know it to look at it. You only need the desire to search it out, to extricate it from the mass of disinformation it hides itself in

whats it like ???

it's dark, it's cold, it's empty, it's disconnected from time and space. It exists to serve itself, to procreate and give meaning to it's antiform, the overground. It is the dark to the light, the skinny to the fat, the on to the off and now more than ever, we need it...

...it is that which if named precludes itself from being the very thing you wish it to be. Only those who still exist there can truly know it and once emerged from there it quickly fades from memory as one gets blinded and dazzled by the luminessence

if you know it and exist within its comforting boundaries, stay there and let others find you...

Talk is cheap...

2007-01-03T15:28:00.000-08:00

...especially on line

one must not only conform to the patterns and standards of language set by the hive mind but also conform your ideas and thoughts...

...the net in many cases doesn't promote individuality, creativity or allow for freedom of thought and expression. It instead seeks to limit and restrict freedom unless it fits the notion of individuality and creativity as set by the collective

cultural elitism and a perceived intellectual superiority is the new racism...get used to it !!!

To belong, you must sellout your individuality, become as one with the hive, allow your self to be assimilated borglike into the bot mainstream

...woe betides those who don't, you will get banned, demonized, ostracized, excommunicated

You may not have thoughts of your own, there can be no dissensus unless approved by consensus or by the man...

BE PURE, BE VIGILANT, BEHAVE say the terminators

If that be the motto for the powers that be, then i am as NEMESIS the WARLOCK

Nemesis is neither good nor bad, but somewhere in between. He does not rally to the cause of a party seeking to hold the 'balance of power'. Instead he seeks to tip the Universal balance firmly in favour of his school of magic, Khaos, against the forces of Order. In fact, it would probably be more accurate to say that Nemesis is not even between good and evil, but somewhere outside.

HELL SCIENCE DEPT is KHAOS

That is the nature of Khaos - nothing is truly as it seems. Perhaps the human-torturing, callous and brooding Nemesis is no more his real self than the hero of the spaceways known to millions of aliens across the universe. Perhaps his magic dictates that all his good work must in some way be balanced by as many dark deeds.

...and that is/was the undisputed truth

CREDO

There's a fire deep in voodoo magic hill

2006-12-22T03:37:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when you listen to music you start hearing things which aren't there but are maybe supposed to...

...so you fill in the gaps, sometimes in your head, sometimes by clashing 2 songs together

theres_a_fire_deep_in_the_voodoo_magic_hill.mp3">

a mashup of an omen remix of a loefah tune and a native american flute song...merry x-mas

from the Dept of Hell Science

Buy a freakin t shirt why don't ya ???

2006-11-29T01:51:00.000-08:00

just hit me up and for 25 kiwi dollars and some postage I'll sort you out proper...