Bose make some decent headphones for this

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2009/sep/25/sonic-cannon-g20-pittsburgh

 

Looks like the American cops have been using high frequency noise against G20 protesters in Pittsburgh.  Interesting.

 

Simple solution: Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones.  And if you can't afford these admittedly pricey noise cancellers, then any decent set of Sennheisers with some Nirvana playing at max vol. should do the trick.   Do you feel stupid and contagious?  No.  

Seriously, anyone who objects to the protesters should remember that it may be your pet cause under attack by the increasingly unembarrassed governments of the world. I for one  can't get too worked up about testing on animals, but like Voltaire, I would defend anyone's right to protest against it if they DO feel strongly enough.   Creatively and amusingly rather than with violence if poss.  Government can take mockery less even than being ignored (which is what we should be going more often - ignoring works with little kids).

 

I think Hitler's regime was allowed to develop under such complacent circumstances (mind you, ordinary  pre Nazi era Germans were probably too busy trying to afford such basics as bread to care - until it was too late. . 

Chas 'n' Dave "split"

The Graun had an article yesterday about Chas 'n' Dave, the band who bought East End knees up music to the masses (in the 80s too) "splitting". Well, since they are ending on amicable terms, "splitting" seems a bit harsh. 

 

I used to quite like their music in a non-committed sort of way, so when a friend dragged me along to the Fairfield Halls in Croydon to see them play, I went with some trepidation, not expecting much, but enjoying the company.   They were fabulous!. 

 

The lads put on a top gig - really energetic, with half the show dedicated to taking requests from audience members, the other half just larking around and mostly playing the more well-known tracks of theirs.  Their presence will be sadly missed.  They played  Glastonbury a few years ago and from the comments I've read about the experience, they really worked the crowds, making many new fans along the way I'd guess. 

 

Apparently Dave's missus has died of lung cancer (which prompted Dave's retirement from the biz).  Not so nice.

 

From me, good luck to the lads,  and of course...GERTCHA!

 

Mind of a what?

Does anyone know what tune the musical box plays during the closing seconds of Mind of a Toy by Visage?  Loved it since I was 11. 

 

The Victorian sounding box It has a chord in there which turns me to mush. 

 

I can't find anything about this on the net, even in its own Wikipedia entry. 

Beautiful corporate bullshit

You've gotta  just love the bull put out by the likes of Trafigura, successfully sued for dumping a tankerful of sludge all over the Ivory Coast:

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/16/trafigura-african-pollution-disaster

 

So, does the company even acknowledge this disaster they caused exists?  Naaah.

 

Instead, on the Trafigura website, we have this gem:

 

"A culture of risk awareness runs through all of Trafigura business activities, with traders operating within clearly defined risk parameters."

 

(Oh yes, you bet a culture of risk awareness runs thorough Trafigura business activities.  Low-risk Africans.  No bother, no risk). 

 

Then this slice of crud under "Our Responsilbities":

 

"Trafigura impact on the global economy is a positive one; our responsibility is to the communities in which we operate, our customers, our suppliers and employees". 

 

(I bet those Ivorian were soooooooo grateful for the responsibility shown to their health and the pleasant state of their city).

 

There is nothing in the "Our News" section about the company being sued.  Not a dickie bird.

Shiver me timbers

I'm not really in favour of voting for "one issue" parties, but lets be honest here, my only alternative is to deliberately destroy my ballot paper come the next election, or just aim my pencil randomly somewhere.  The alternatives (apart from maybe the Greens) are just awful. 

 

The Pirate Party's campaign is at least straddling an area which gels very, very strongly with me. So they may just get my X.   

 

They are, apparently, the fastest growing party in Europe, and very popular with the kiddies.  And I'm only half convinced that file sharing is complete morally neutral.  The older I get, the more doubtful I become, but the heavy handed reactionaries in the music biz appear to resemble the horse and cart industry just after the 1,000th Model T rolled off a Detroit production line way back when. 

 

http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/

 

Jack 'n' Chill

I nearly always enjoy finding out "what happened next" to one hit wonders. 

 

This topic might become an occasional ongoing theme, we'll see.  To get the ball moving, here's what happened to Jack 'n' Chill who made the first UK house track, The Jack That House Built, which I  really liked at the time (I was 18, and this stuff mattered a great deal, especially as I was still trying - abysmally as it happens  - to play keyboards).   I felt rather nostalgic hearing it yesterday when rediscovering it on Youtube   

 

I had no memory of what the track was called or who it was buy, and since there are no lyrics, this required a fair amount of sleuthing (but thanks to Everyhit). 

 

A link to the track is here:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDMu3r73Ko4

 

Its funny how some musos turn to drugs, and some to loose women and huge hamburgers, but in this case, one of the members of this band went on to become a dance floor backroom boy.  Hope these guys are still working -  it really was quite a pioneering track, being produced as it was in the UK - one of the first house tracks to have originated outside the USA and Chicago in particular. 

 

 

Jack 'n' Chill:  A duo consisting of producers Vlad Naslas and Ed Stratton, Jack 'N' Chill's hypnotic, instantly recognizable house instrumental "The Jack That House Built" was one of the first house hits produced in the UK (it reached no. 6 in the mainstream sales chart in February 1988). The similar-sounding follow-up single "Beat The Heat" was less successful commercially, and the duo then split up after just two singles. Stratton would then spend three years as a recording artist/producer signed to Virgin Records and later to Rhythm King Records and release a solo album entitled "Step into Time" under the artist name Man Machine. In 1990 he had the idea of creating the world's first dance music 'sample CDs' - a collection of 3 CD s called the 'Zero-G Datafiles' which featured over 3000 audio samples & loops. Although not intended to be used commercially, they became extremely popular. Together with Julie Stratton, Ed then formed the 'Time+Space' publishing company for sample CDs, and other talented sample producers were soon signed up to provide new collections for Time+Space to distribute on the Zero-G label. Meanwhile Vlad Naslas formed the instrument manufacturing company Lovetone with Dan Coggins, which (perhaps oddly) is specialized in guitar pedals.

Modern day peasants

I have nicked this comment from "Calli" from the Graunad comments section as this view so much echoes my own:

 

 

"... the only economic recovery that would mean anything to me would be a change of political system. The current system just puts us, the ordinary people - working class, middle class, small business - through this cycle again and again. I cannot accept that this is an acceptable future for myself or my children, especially because those principally responsible for these cycles sail through the bad times unscathed.

The only political message that would convince me would be a long term vision. I'm not tied to a particular ideology, but it would involve a constitution, getting rid of the 'second' house, long term planning, massive restrictions on "free market capitalism", and limits on how long people can "serve" as MP's. I would make the process of becoming an MP much more like jury service than the gravy train it currently is.

Brown, Cameron : neither has my vote because all they represent is more of the same rubbish that has plagued the UK since, at least the war - a public schoolboy's bunfight were the ordinary citizens are treated like pawns. "

So....what to do next?

 

 

Speech Debelle wins Mercury Prize: or, where's the other good stuff?

Ok, I've not heard Speech Debelle's album as I write this, so can't comment on its merits, but I have a question to the music biz in general.

 

If this album is so good, good enough to be recognised to be submitted for a major award (not to mention major sales jack), how come its only sold 3,000 copies up till now? *

 

There is so much good music around.  So why does the biz continually promote mediocre crud?  How many other brilliant artists am I missing, and who've also sold 3,000 CDs, when several million would be justified?

 

Biz: don't blame illegal downloaders, blame yourselves for not seeing the bleedin' obvious.  If you promote crud, you lose sales.  If you promote decent music then you gain sales.  You'll get illegal downloaders too, but I'll buy a CD and not rely on Spotify when the music is good enough for me to keep it permanently on my iPod.  Of course, when the Symbian version of Spotify is released, I'm becoming a premium subscriber. 

 

Another another thing: over 40s buy music too. I am old enough to remember when pop could be bought by a teeny, my mum, and sometimes my granny.  This does not necessarily indicate its high quality, but then pop is meant to be more Stephen King than Pushkin.  Quality isn't the point - listenablity is.  Most of the pop I love has no musical merit at all, but conjures up memories, grabs you by the feet and gets you bopping.  Its a heart, not a head thang.   

 

I will post a brief comment on Speech Debelle's album after I've played it. 

 

* Yes, I know,  Awards don't indicate whether something is good or not, and anyway, that's in the ear of the beholder of course.  But no smoke without fire, right?

Too darn hot: who paid for the (Mc)Kinsey report?

So a report is fired out by the McKinsey ("dya mind if I just borrow your watch to tell you the time and claim a tenner from you") management consultants, saying that the NHS needs to shave 10 percent of its staff to remain viable. 

 

What the f**k do management consultants know about running a hospital? Or anything else, really?

 

And the slightly sinister thing is that no politician wants to own up for commissioning this report in the first place.  SOMEONE paid for it.  Consultants don't work for free last time I looked. 

 

My theory is that actually, some stinking Nasty Tory paid for it to prepare us for when they inevitably win the next election.

 

"Hey look.  We won by a huge majority.  That means the public must really like what we intend to do.  So...let's do what we do best.  Close things.  Make life as hard as possible for the population who aren't us.  That's nearly everyone!!! Who cares - they are scummy old peasants.  What?  We are nasty.  Nooooo!  Never.  We're just saving you all from the big taxes from big government....".

 

Then, seeing the fuss made by the GBP (Great British Peasantry) against a bunch of US neocons about the "Orwellian" NHS,  backtracked.  But...the money had been paid, the report was let loose on an unsuspecting bunch of serfs anyway. 

 

Bet I'm right about this.   And I'll be pleased to name the name on this here blog, if it's ever revealed.   

 

 

 

Chopper!

Really glad to see one of these around.  When I was a kid these were all the rage.  You had a Grifter if you were hip, but a Raleigh Chopper if you were the daddy.  Mine was orange and black.

 

A few differences between this baby, which I snapped in Maldon at the weekend, is that the banana seat isn't suitable for giving friends a ride on the back ("backies") and I think the wheels on the modern-day version are closer in size to one another than the original 70s model, which featured a much larger back wheel, if my memory serves.