KRS-ONE and the New World Order

I watched Alex Jones' The Obama Deception yesterday (well, most of it anyway).

While it surely is wise to pay special attention to what kind of people the new president puts in his government (as we saw in the documentary mostly bank people, members of the Bilderbergs and The Trilateral Commision, leftovers from the Bush administration, even Henry Kissinger (of all people) as an advisor), Jones' extreme emphasis on certain people and secret organizations does the whole thing a disservice. Conspiracy theory does not make you feel like the world is in our hands (which it really is), but in the hands of a few very powerful men. His dada-like gusto and ability to dig up interesting factoids should be acknowledged, but his analytical tools need to be sharpened.

What I gained from watching this was mainly a deeper respect for KRS-ONE (who stops by to give his two cents on the new administration). He is one of the few rappers who has had the balls and the intelligence to critize the first black president. His message: "Don't get caught up in the emotionalism of Obama!"

Kris is still completely on top of his game, spiritually profound and verbally razor-sharp, having stayed relevant for more than 20 years, releasing more than 20 albums (Pick It Up form the youtube-clip sounds pretty dope, Maximum Strenght needs to be looked into), and succeeding with seemingly impossible tasks, such as incorporating dancehall and vegetarianism into the boom and the bap and still keeping it one hundred percent hardcore. Twenty-two years after Criminal Minded, he still smacks you over the head verbally. If it is one artist I would like to see live, it would be the Blastmaster.

Now what Alex Jones really should do is record an album with the God, supplying the anti-governmental motivation speeches and creepy electronics backdrops that we are used to from his movies to The Teacher's most politically explicit verses.

KRS-ONE f. Truck Turner - Bring It To The Cypher (prod. by DJ Premier)

Saul Williams f. KRS-ONE - Ocean Within

KRS-ONE - You Thug (prod. by Marley Marl)

KRS-ONE - Sound Of Da Police (Showbiz Remix)

"go and tell ya momma i took a bite outta ya bum..."

Learn about Paul C

Traveling at the Speed of Thought: an incredibly well written article about old school maestro Paul C, the man who taught Large Professor everything he needed to become the producer he is today, and he also supplied the musical brainpower needed to make Critical Beatdown a classic. Why is Give The Drummer Some one of the funkiest tracks ever? Because of Paul C.

Together with other genius innovators such as Kurtis Mantronik and The 45 King, he is a half-forgotten (extra obscure perhaps "because he preferred to work without contracts", and so mostly "did not receive credit for his production") master architect of this rap music thing. These people were the Premiers and Pete Rocks of their generation.

"Paul C panned the record, then he just flipped out on the programming. It was crazy.” Extra P says, “It was crazy” three more times and grimaces like it’s so good, it’s McNasty.

NORBERG UPDATE

HIGHLIGHTS:

Swedish skwee-masters Flogsta Danshall are coming to battle Finnish skwee-masters Harmönia...

Tom Hansen, who "will be playing a 1 hour tribute set with strictly The Advent tunes"...

Swedish legendary performance duo Guds söner... it's gonna be real interesting to see what they'll bring to the table...

And more dubstep!

Wu-Tang meets Blue Note

More here...

Interview with Joel Mull, 090404 (Babel, Malmö, Sweden)

I finally put my translation of the interview with techno legend Joel Mull somewhere. Check it out, he is dropping a lot of history.

Ben Sims, Satie, and the birth of techno music

Hard techno is for dancing rather than for listening alone. But some unmerciful tracks of that late industrial funk music do have that repetitive, meditative quality that makes them work just as well in your headphones as on the dance floor. They win in both situations because, as I see it, the track itself emulates the slow and subtle shifts of the uncompromising techno DJ.

Ben Sims - Jenkins Lane

Monotonous music opens your head. This concept goes back to Erik Satie.

"Vexations is a noted musical work by Erik Satie. It consists of a short chordal passage and a bass line which is repeated twice in each repetition of the piece. Satie recommends on the score that 'To play this motif 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities.' While the 840 repetitions aren't obligatory, many artists have followed the enigmatic suggestion and played the piece with many repetitions."

"The work was first played in public the requisite 840 times, by a team of pianists: John Cage, David Tudor, Christian Wolff, Philip Corner, Viola Farber, Robert Wood, MacRae Cook, John Cale, David Del Tredici, James Tenney, Howard Klein (the New York Times reviewer, who coincidentally was asked to play in the course of the event) and Joshua Rifkin, with two reserves, on September 9, 1963, from 6 p.m. to 12:40 p.m. the following day."

If you loop something it changes. The sounds grow. Repetition is difference. "You can't step into the same river twice", as Heraclitus put it, to which Chuck D responded, "You Can't Stop The Bum Rush". What a brother know?

DJ Mujava - Please Mugwanti

Real cool track... finally someone succeeded in doing hard house music!