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Outrageous Catwalk-Dancing to Xavier. 80s...So Now...

Monkeys + Synthesisers.

Monkeys + Synthesisers is a project where 6 different species of monkeys (and some others) were given different synthesizers. Do monkeys like music and do they enjoy creating music? Wait until half way through to find out what the simian soundtrack really sounds like....

Saturday 26th May - Oscillatorial Binnage

To celebrate our forthcoming gig for the Association of Musical Marxists (I kid you not) we'll be broadcasting a two hour jam by noise group Oscillatorial Binnage. 11pm-midnight as ever.

Catch us June 7th blowing ears and blowing minds at The Blue Posts, Rupert St, W1. Feminist Nina Power will be speaking, as well as Ben Watson, presenter of Resonance 104.4FM's Late Out to Lunch show.

Here we are pictured, at the first ever Wellcome Collection live music event to be held in London. Click the picture to find out how noisy it really was. Other times, as a group we've played with water and kitchen implements on stage, inside one of our kitchen for a party and live broadcast in association with Serpentine Gallery, at Tate Modern vibrating steel and inside a huge empty warehouse where the building itself was the instrument creating resonant frequencies.
Miles and miles of cable for that one!


IF ResonanceFM's Pensioner's Show Took a Pill

Our weekly pensioner's show DAGE on ResonanceFM were the only show to get us into trouble with Ofcom, the UK broadcast regulator. They've always had a reputation for being wild, with their chequered histories and sense of humour, but could they raise the bar on The Zimmers? Here they are, finally with a budget and a music video director....and a sack of hair spray and eyeliner.

Broadcast Sat 19th May: Egyptian/ Afro-Asiatic Hip-Hop-Hard-Step


11pm Saturday - a special one hour mix "After This" by Mutamassik, made on 2 turntables, a CD walkman for original tracks, and a broken mixer. Featuring tracks from the upcoming 2012, vinyl-only release "Rekkez" on ini.itu records.

Here are her views:
"After revolutions, what do you put in place?
Destruction is easy.  Construction is a b**ch.
Also, 1st world protests--*****--if you are not willing to step
down your standard of living, there can be no revolution.  Period."

"I completely lost the illusion that metropolis like New York, London and
Tokyo are the ultimate hubs of activity, power points on maps, the
epicenters of life.  The irony and truth is that their very breath depends
on an enormous, rhizomatic, artificial life-support system that trucks,
ships, flies in provisions from all kinds of unfashionable places to
sustain it's millions.  A city cannot produce enough food for even a
fraction of its population.  If people do not eat, they die..."

Track list:
1.  cello intro= Mutamassik
2.  'Not Having to Choose Between Killing and Being Killed (P.S.A.)'=
Mutamassik 'That Which Death Cannot Destroy' (Sa'aidi
Hardcore/RoughAmericana)
3.  'Elf Laila we Laila'=Oum Kalsoum & Abdel Wahab Orchestra (Sono Cairo)
4.  'Magda Mariam'='Taranim el Qadisa Mariam' (uncredited)/
'#2=Laraji & Brian Eno/'Dec 1'=Morgan Craft (Circle of Light/RoughAmericana)
5.  'Wishik'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
6.  'Fathy's Jam'=Fathy Salama and Friends
7.  'Subliminal'=Suicidal Tendencies (Frontier)
8.  'La d'Hericourt'=Cl. Balbastre 'Jos Van Immerseel plays Historic
Flemish Harpsichords' (Odyssey)
9.  'Broken Record'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
10. 'Rawa'a'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)/'Commitment=Jayne Cortez & the
Firespitters 'Maintain Control' (Bola)
11. 'Welem'=Ghada el Badeyya (Music Box)
12. 'Mothership'=Ed Rush (No U-Turn)
13. 'In Fields Near Labs'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
14. 'Dr. Aida'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
15. 'Nawal'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
16. 'In Labs Near Fields'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
17. 'Blue Bones'=Mutamassik (Meerkat)
18. 'Franco Arab'=Fakry el Gazawy (Morifon)
19. 'Coptic Mass'=Abuna Kyrollos and attendants
20. 'Human Shield'-Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)
21. 'Mestizo.Blood.Drums'=Mutamassik 'That Which Death Cannot Destroy'
(Sa'aidi Hardcore/RoughAmericana)
22. 'The Force is Electric'= Ed Rush/Nico (No U-Turn)
23. 'Cairo Field Recording'
24. 'Bluedev mix'=Youssri & Hannaa/Concord Blue Dvs. Marching Band
25. 'Rekkez'=Mutamassik 'Rekkez' (ini itu)

Wishik--"your face".  My mother sings an old Egyptian song, "Min ellak
teskoun fe Haretna", the words of which were intended as a love song, but
double paradoxically well as a resistance poem:  
"How dare you come and live in our street
You are occupying us and you're cramping our style
We don't have any more comfort.
Find a solution for our situation,
Otherwise leave this place
And go somewhere else."


BIO: Egyptian-Italian Massik states that she's dedicated to promoting "the fire in creativity that incinerates obstacles and small-mindedness".

Mutamassik (= stronghold/ tenacity in Arabic) played cello and drums in various bands, founded Sa'aidi Hardcore Productions in 1996 and label KMT BABOMB, and now runs a music-arts studio G.G.S.S/Rocca AlMileda in Brooklyn, Cairo and Tuscany.
 

 As a producer she pioneered Sa'aidi Hardcore and Baladi Breakbeat and is known to throw in the occasional transcendental sonic experiment. And that's why we love her! From knuckles on the turntable, to sampled sentiments- Massik enjoys her trade. She's currently performing with guitarist Morgan Craft as Rough Americana as well as solo. Go Massik!
_______________________________________________________________________
The second half of the show might be a recording of a live show by arch-soundman Xentos Fray Bentos and tech-artist Chris Weaver, but of course there's been no indication this will happen, in fact this is something I've totally dreamed up in a fleeting blink of Utopia. But dreams go on.

When A Queen Dies......What a Voice.

Donna Summer, aged 63, died this morning. We celebrate too late. During her life, she started singing at church in the gospel choir, and later after teaming up with a pioneer on Italian synthesiser Giorgio Moroder, she became a disco diva with unforgettable hits like Love to Love You Baby and the much reworked: I Feel Love.

She also won 5 Grammy Awards, with an even further 12 nominations. She was the first black artist in history to get a Grammy in the rock category in 1979, and was awarded best rock vocal performance for Hot Stuff, below.

Here she is looking delicious and singing I Feel Love, live in 1978. If you want to see how well she aged, here she is singing it with an orchestra on the Night of the Proms in Belgium, 2005. Ma Donna.



Cospeh Jonrad

Cospeh Jonrad (Ralph Cumbers), sometimes too abstract even for us, has hit the right chord as "some truths."
This is from 'damnation poisoned with rainbows' released on cassette, (yes, cassette, now a retro-trend for those to young to remember cassettes the first time round), June 2011 on MAGIC + DREAMS label. If you like this and think you go even more minimal, try THIS.
If you need more animation and beats in your music, check out Jonrad's work as Bass Clef, below which is his most personable piece of video work yet.

The below video was shot through a teleidoscope, built by Vesta Kroese.


Retro Disco Hiro Friends Go: 'Mind Control'


New single from their imminent album release. But you could be forgiven for thinking this was released in '82, 'til you listen to the lyrics, so contemporary - "I can make my own noise, I can be my own god."

Irvine Walsh's 'Ecstasy' & Films About Dance Culture

As films in this line go, there's been some bad ones, some enduring ones (regardless of their quality) and some great ones (It's All Gone Pete Tong, for example). Usually drugs and death are in the mix. Aside from Footloose of course when dancing itself was the sinful vehicle for the 'high'.

We saw Danny Boyle's adaptation of Walsh's book in Trainspotting, it set a bar for pop film style. But what will Irvine Welsh's new film Ecstasy, adapted from The Undefeated, the third novella in Welsh’s book Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance, be setting?

So far reviews are less then even luke warm. No rush 'n high here then.

This Week - Trollstep

teehnbwitches are just one of many teenagers in America finding a voice in this blend of rap, lo-fi game music, dark step and dubstep.

Bedroom Features

Tonight's mix is done from: The Bedroom-Studio! Heard of it?

I don't think you'd notice, except that there's no talking. Building blocks, track by track.

Some great content. One of my all time favourites tracks near the end. Enjoy the journey, don't ask for a playlist.

From midnight until 1am Chris Weaver has organised something.  He won't tell me what it is, except that currently he's working on a massive project for 800 auto synths, naturally he's told no one about it really, except that it will be performed live in Scotland in the great outdoors as part of a ResonanceFM 2012 mega Olympic project.  Leaves it to me. Call me mouth. We'll probably hear about it first on the BBC, but watch this space, in case I can get more info.

So Beautiful, and Terrible

Now that Marina has come out with a new album, it's time to look across the spectrum of voices/lyrics/orchestration out there. Beyond the obvious, there's singer song writers like these....

"When you came jumping down the stairs 
Screaming bloody awful,
You woke up god and everyone, 
Screaming bloody awful [...] 
And then the earth started shaking, and yeah it was crazy 
Heaven and hell came crashing down, 
It was beautiful -  and terrible."

You Keep Saying We're Free

Not every rapper is shooting guns with his gums. This thoughtful poet and believes we can hear him even if he doesn't shout. And he's got something to say you'll find rings true.


Uncle Sam Goddamn :

Ah,
The name of this song is uncle sam goddamn
It's a show tune but the show ain't been written for it yet.
We're gonna see if Tony Jerome and the band
can maybe work this sh++ out for me
And straighten me out right quick
I like it so far man

Welcome to the united snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grand imperial guard where
the dollar is sacred and proud

Let's do this s** for real, come on now

Smoke and mirrors, stripes and stars
Stolen for the cross in the name of God
Bloodshed, genocide, rape and fraud
Written to the pages of the law, good lord

The cold continent latch key child
Ran away one day and started acting foul
King of where the wild things are, daddy's proud
Cause the roman empire done passed it down

Imported and tortured the work force
They never healed the wounds or shook the curse off
Now the grown up Goliath nation
Holdin open auditions for the part of David, can you feel?

Nothing can save you, you question the rain
You get rushed in and chained up
fists raised but I must be insane
Cause I can't figure a single goddamn way to change it

Welcome to the united snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grant imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is god

All must bow to the fat and lazy
The f++ you obey me and
why do they hate me, who me?
Only two generations away from
the Worlds most despicable slavery trade

Pioneered so many ways to degrade a human being
That it can't be changed to this day
Legacy so ingrained in the way that we think
We don't only need chains to be slaves

Lord it's a shameful display
The overseers even got raped along the way
Cause the children can't escape from the pain
And they're born with the pores
and this hatred in their veins

Try and separate a man from his soul
You'll only strengthen him and lose your own
Well shoot that f++ker if he walk near the throne
Remind him that this is my home (now i'm gone)

Welcome to the united snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grant imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is god

You don't give money to the bums
On the corner with a sign, bleeding from their gums
Talking much, you don't support a crackhead
What you think happens to the money from yo' taxes

Sh++ the governments an addict
With a billion dollar a week kill brown people habit
And even if you ain't on the front line
When the master yell crunch time you right back at it

You ain't look at how you hustling backwards
And the end of the year add up what they subtracted
3 outta twelve months your salary
Paid for that madness, man that's sadness

What's left get a big ass plasma
To see where they made Dan Rather point the damn camera
Only approved questions get answered
Now stand your ass up for that national anthem

Welcome to the united snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grant imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is god

Custom made, the consumer news
Keep saying we're free
But we're all just blue



All of this wilderness is mine

Soft-spoken Albert Plá is a well-known Spanish pop star and firebrand. Here in the video for "Hongos" (which means mushrooms, nothing to do with how he's hung) he has set himself amongst the shrooms during a psycho-delic trip that features his own manhood almost coming alive. Apparently this is a common nightmare, or dream even, amongst men. I can't say myself.

After watching it, you might want to know what he is on about, so I've tweaked the hideous-auto cyber translation to make sense in English, enjoy!

Mushrooms 
It was Monday afternoon,
but it was dawn at the same time
a bitter chocolate rain fell in the desert

Thawing snow bites the dust,
the heat in this winter makes curves that flow straight in the air
I look down and find them I'm making the exact same curves ...
I look down and find them!

On my toes,
colored fungi grow
I eat them
and make flowers grow
beyond the horizon.

My memories, on wheels,
I oscillate between here and somewhere else,
the rattlesnakes amongst the honey-loaded bees,

Grass grows in the sky
the full moon looks like an asshole,
and who wants a beer in this field of mushrooms and who wants a beer ...
Oh! in this field of mushrooms.

On my toes,
colored fungi grow
I eat them
and make flowers grow
beyond the horizon.

How loud is silence!
I'm still so ugly while my world is so flowery
and I am so lost in the desert

All of this wilderness is mine,
I'm speaking of things I don't understand,
Then I look inside
I do not like what I see
Then I look inside ... I do not like what I see.