Wikileaks vs. the banks

Uploaded by thejuicemedia on Jul 1, 2011
The banking blockade on WikiLeaks: not only is it illegal under current trade laws, it goes against the fundamental principles of freemarket capitalism. Another sign that the game is rigged?

Burning the Bridge to Nowhere

Doug Stanhope does not give a fuck what you think. There’s no sugar with his pill. No lubricant with his dildo. Nothing is sacred during his acerbic assaults on the state of the modern world and all myths must be destroyed, however positive they may seem.

I think it goes without saying that his comedy is not for the easily offended, and if you consider porn and drugs to be society’s sickness you probably won’t like him. He may even make you physically ill. If this sounds like you, you can stop reading this now and save yourself an aneurysm.

But he isn’t provocative for the sake of it (a criticism that could easily be leveled at Frankie Boyle for example). There is a ruthless logic at work, to the point where anyone with a questioning intelligence will find it hard to disagree with him – even when he’s advocating fun with pedophiles, pissed and leering on stage, or vehemently blaming people that have children for climate change – the arguments are watertight. Even the most liberal-minded comedy-lovers may flinch, but his rants make sense, and expose us for our own hypocrisy as a society. And I, for one, find that shit hilarious.

No Refunds is my favourite. The first time I watched it I was pissing myself for hours afterwards. It’s anger and energy is infectious. It came as quite a shock, as I had previously only seen his rather downbeat contributions to Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe. Although they were intelligent and witty they didn’t quite prepare me for the genius of his on-stage performances, which have been compared (incorrectly in my view) to those of Bill Hicks. Anyway, don’t take my word for it, watch this shit:

I was ecstatic when I heard Doug had a new DVD out. But Burning the Bridge to Nowhere is an odd one. Filmed in Oslo with only 36 hours notice, you can see why both the time constraints and the language barrier may have contributed to the slightly stilted delivery of his new material. Maybe it was the lack of alcohol or maybe he was just pissed off – his comic timing doesn’t seem to be up to his usual standard. I don’t want to seem overly-critical though as some of it is really good (parts of it are up there with No Refunds) and he has set himself a very high bar with previous shows. What I would say, is that if you like Stanhope, watch it, and if you don’t yet, watch the others first – you’ll be more forgiving of the bits of it that don’t work quite so well.

Buy it from Amazon

Headcleaner Blog

For those of you that liked the video we posted from “20 years of Braindance”, you will be glad to hear that you can keep up to date with Headcleaner’s movements on his new site:
http://headcleanersound.com/

It includes live videos, information and even some videos demonstrating the devices he has been building recently. Check it out!

Depot by Urban Exploration

Headcleaner @ Rephlex Night

Headcleaner’s awesome improvisation with a modular synth of his own creation! Easily the best thing at 20 years of Braindance, showing the old skool how it’s done basically. This is next level shit 😉

Meriline Avenue – It1néraire

Meriline Avenue is the collaborative effort, combining the awesome forces of Aniline and John Merick. It1néraire is their debut album and is available for free download from SWISHCOtheque

Aniline consists of Florian (aka Ritzen) & Alex (aka Doss-House) and have been working together since early 2008. They are from Lyon and Poiters, France and you can hear their music here: http://soundcloud.com/aniline

John Merick is also currently residing in France and you can hear his solo work here: http://soundcloud.com/john_merick

The album opens with a short intro and takes you smoothly to the first full length track, “333”. This reminded me of a futuristic TV theme from the 1980’s, but with all the sheen and finesse of modern production values. “Dôme” is a beautifully melancholic tune with a sinister edge, which I personally think contains something for everyone.  That statement could easily extend to the whole album though as it is massively diverse from track to track, which although makes you question the input of each member per tune, keeps the listener interested and stimulated throughout.

“Spider Pepper”, the stand out piece and my personal favourite, begins with an eerie undertone and wouldn’t sound out of place in the score for a Tim Burton movie. Although this track evolves quite a lot it has a wonderful structure which ebbs and flows seamlessly with subtle, rhythmical flourishes, building to a melodic crescendo comparable to that of Kettel or Plaid. “Seaside Street” is an amazing piece of ambient music and much to my disappointment only lasts for 1:46, as I could have drifted into my own world, listening to those sounds for at least 5 minutes.

When I played the album in Windows Media Player, I found it odd that 3 of the tracks were tagged with the artist name whereas the others were not, however let’s face it, this is a very minor issue and is in no way detrimental to this quality piece of work. It may be something that the label should keep an eye on for future releases though. Incidentally, the album name is translated to Itinerary and the track “37°37’42.39”N116°50’43.59”W” takes you to an unidentified area in the Nevada desert when entered into Google Maps, which I thought was a nice touch. You can tell a lot of effort went into the construction of all elements of the album including the titles and artwork, as well as the music.

“Meganeura” instantly reminds me of Aphex Twin’s “Polynomial C”, but in it’s vibe and atmosphere more than anything. This is soon replaced by, what I can safely say at this point in the album, the Meriline Avenue Sound, where beautiful melodies meet broken beats (as complex as you hear in Breakcore at times) and sit together with precision accuracy, increasing and decreasing in intensity at exactly the right points, then surprising you with unexpected key changes sometimes altering the whole direction of the tune.

In conclusion, anyone who is into electronic music should definitely have this in their collection and I will be listening to this album for a long time to come.  8/10

http://soundcloud.com/meriline-ave

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Meriline-Avenue/162771400437761

The Psychedelic Experience

Recommended reading for all psychonauts, Timothy Leary’s The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of The Dead.

Excerpt from the book’s introduction:-

The Tibetan Book of the Dead is ostensibly a book describing the experiences to be expected at the moment of death, during an intermediate phase lasting forty-nine (seven times seven) days, and during rebirth into another bodily frame. This however is merely the exoteric framework which the Tibetan Buddhists used to cloak their mystical teachings. The language and symbolism of death rituals of Bonism, the traditional pre-Buddhist Tibetan religion, were skillfully blended with Buddhist conceptions. The esoteric meaning, as it has been interpreted in this manual, is that it is death of the ego and rebirth that is described, not of the body. Lama Govinda indicates this clearly in his introduction when he writes: “It is a book for the living as well as the dying.” The book’s esoteric meaning is often concealed beneath many layers of symbolism. It was not intended for general reading. It was designed to be understood only by one who was to be initiated personally by a guru into the Buddhist mystical doctrines, into the pre-mortem-death- rebirth experience. These doctrines have been kept a closely guarded secret for many centuries, for fear that naive or careless application would do harm. In translating such an esoteric text, therefore, there are two steps: one, the rendering of the original text into English; and two, the practical interpretation of the text for its uses. In publishing this practical interpretation for use in the psychedelic drug session, we are in a sense breaking with the tradition of secrecy and thus contravening the teachings of the lama-gurus.

However, this step is justified on the grounds that the manual will not be understood by anyone who has not had a consciousness-expanding experience and that there are signs that the lamas themselves, after their recent diaspora, wish to make their teachings available to a wider public.