New track by Red Eye contributor Micoland.
Graffic Equalisers Compilation
Beta Birmingham, a new record label based in the midlands, has launched with an awesome compilation of wayward glitch-hop, drumstep and bass-heavy craziness called Graffic Equalisers. The album was released today on CD and digitally through Addictech and can be bought through the label for only 3 pounds sterling!
“Beta are proud to present our widely anticipated debut album ‘Graffic Equalisers’, 10 tracks of bass-heavy dancefloor dubs and next generation sub synthesis from the Midlands elite electronic producers. Graffic Equalisers’ weilds a furious artilliary of glitch hop, dubstep and drum and bass, AVAILABLE NOW! both digitally and as a limited edition CD. ‘Graffic Equalisers’ can be found at independent music retailers nationwide, however, it is also available directly from us for only £3 + p & p Visit http://www.betabirmingham.co.uk for more info!”
The compilation also features a track by Red Eye contributors Wobble N Dubb. Destroying Grandma’s House is one of their best tracks to date and is probably worth the asking price alone! Graffic Equalisers has only been available for several hours and Destroying Grandma’s House has already been remixed – check it out below:::
http://www.betabirmingham.co.uk/
WOBBLE N DUBB – DESTROYING GRANDMAS HOUSE (GROOVEMERCHANT CAKE MIX) by the yardbird
RIP Gil Scott Heron
The legendary poet, musician and “Godfather of Hip Hop” Gil Scott Heron, died yesterday afternoon at St. Luke’s Hospital, New York City, aged 62.
Active right up until his death, his music and poetry has been a massive inspiration to disenfranchised people across the globe, for several generations, and was a catalyst for the birth of rap music.
Anything I could try and write about this sad news will not do the man justice, and anything I write about how this news makes me feel will sound cheesy and crass, but I feel I should write something.
He has been a personal hero of mine for many years, his political messages and heartbreaking stories resonated with me despite being worlds apart, and his poetry stimulated me to pick up a microphone myself – he will be missed by many who never knew him. There was an honesty to his work that I seldom hear in music these days, and his lyrics spoke of great strength and of great weakness, as he battled for civil rights and against his own debilitating drug addictions. I can only have eternal respect for the man, and my condolences go out to all those that knew him.
Me and the Devil now seems like his swansong, much like Johnny Cash with his cover of Hurt, there seemed a finality to his last album and perhaps a premonition in its contents.
Either way I’m New Here was a fitting end to an unbelievable musical career though his legacy to music was already etched in stone. RIP GSH.
New releases on Dead Channel
Our friends at Dead Channel are back with two new releases and more to follow in coming days. The net label, based in the North of England, aims to serve as a vehicle primarily for the transmission of electronic music that has little, or no other outlet, but all has been quiet for a few months due to other commitments by its artists. Now Dead Channel are back on air with releases from label stalwarts Wobble N Dubb and Micoland, with an EP to follow by Tokyo based techno-maverick, Little Nobody. Fans of Wobble N Dubb will be pleased to hear that their debut album It’s Not Rocket Surgery is now available for free download from the website and we’ll have a review of that up in the next few days from the legendary Lisa Right Eye. Until then you can download and listen to the new releases for yourself here:
Wobble N Dubb – It’s Not Rocket Surgery
734 years in the making, Wobble N Dubb do not recommend you download their debut album, as it may distort your perception of reality as you know it.
After a year of polluting the underground rave scene with atrocious, viscerally-coagulated beat spasms, they retreated back to their secret lair in the Yorkshire mountains to push their manifesto of noise to it’s logical conclusion. The chromosomes of Coldcut, Point B, Modeselektor, Reso and Venetian Snares have been spliced into a genetically modified hyper-toxic foetus, in a collaboration with NASA and HP Sauce.
It’s Not Rocket Surgery but it sure as hell feels like it!
Conflux vs. Micoland – Ark Hive
This second retrospective of early works by Micoland has been compiled in the spirit of Spac Hand Luke Vs. Amen Andrews, in that both artists are in fact the same person. These tracks all date from 2007 and 2008 and feature both the Skam Records-inspired analogue experiments of his Conflux project, and the darker output of his Dubstep and Hip Hop tunes as Micoland.
The album’s tracks were written primarily on hardware such as the Roland Juno 6 and the Casio 101, through delay pedals and other cheap effects, giving the LP a unique feel, unlike much of the polished Dubstep released today. Many of the tracks here featured in the set he performed supporting Milanese at Room 237 in April 2008, but are released here, in all their lo-fi glory, for the first time.
Moth
Burial & Fourtet
Al Thawra (The Revolution)
Hip Hop track inspired by the Egyptian Revolution. Rhymes, beats and video by Red Eye contributor Micolagist.
A Deep Dark Leap to the Right
There’s something in the atmosphere this weekend that isn’t good. For all the glorious weather and talk of fairytale weddings, something doesn’t feel right. Beneath the surface things are changing. They are testing the water. They are seeing what they can get away with…
“Profiles are being deleted without warning or explanation. In the last 12 hours, Facebook has deleted over 50 sites. It may well be that these groups are technically in violation of Facebook’s terms of agreement, which state that participants in social media must not make use of a “fake name”. But the timing – on the royal wedding and May day weekend – is deeply suspicious. We don’t know for certain, but this purge of online organising groups could be linked to the wider crackdown on protest by authorities in Britain. Either way, it is a scandalous abuse of power by Facebook to arbitrarily destroy online communities built up over many months and years. These groups provide a vital means for activist groups to communicate with their supporters.”
Why 10 O’Clock Live is Important
Channel 4’s 10 O’Clock Live has been the subject of much criticism, some of it justifable, some of it not. I’m not writing this to defend the show because I think it is perfect, I’m defending it because I think it is sorely needed.
Christopher Hooton of the Metro has commented that the show is “as overtly partisan as Fox News.” I wonder which party Hooton believes the show is Partisan to? It is heavily critical of all the major political parties as far as I can see. I suspect he is deriding the show for being overtly left-wing – a horrible sin as that may be, comparing the show in any way to Fox News is obscene bullshit.
It pisses me off when people equate a bias for the left with a bias for the right. These are not equal, comparable opposite ends of a single political continuum as some would like to have us believe. The right serves to protect the status quo, the hidden agenda is exploitation. Extreme right wing views are often moral perversions born of fear. Fear of change, fear of outsiders, fear of losing material possessions or status. They come from self-interest, patriotism and nostalgia. People who harbour right-wing views tend to want to preserve privilege and protect the inequality of capitalism.
People who sympathise with left-wing idealogies are not immune from self-interest, they are not saints and they certainly aren’t always right. But their ideas come from a desire to make the world fairer – their hearts are in a more altruistic place. So when someone says that something has a left-wing bias as some sort of a criticism, I can only assume that they are a cunt. Balance in this case is an illusion – and frankly impossible. The news is biased to the right, most newspapers are biased to the right, most political parties are biased to the right, and are there to preserve the status quo… so when something comes along that isn’t, I say, well, good. About fucking time, in fact.
10 O’Clock live is biased to the left. Great.
The program has also been criticised from the left – for not being left enough, for being too soft on certain issues, and missing opportunities to give people who deserve it, a good grilling. For example, the interview with Alastair Campbell in Episode 2 of the first series was painful to watch, as David Mitchell was obviously in awe of him, and seemed unable to take command of the situation, ask any pertinant questions, or hold him to account in any way. This isn’t that surprising though. David Mitchell is a comedian (albeit a politicially astute one), and Campbell was the UK’s Spin Doctor in Chief – not a fair fight.
To those on the left who criticise this show, I say, give it chance. Hopefully it will get a second series and continue to mature into a quality vehicle for political satire. In Tory Britian (sorry, Coalition Britain… pfft), we need a mainstream left-wing voice that is actually heard by people in their living rooms. People saying these important things in an inclusive, funny way that is accessible and entertaining – and this show does just that. If you want to keep your left wing views undiluted and pure in your little middle class left-wing clique, you may as well surrender this country to the fuckers who want to carve it up, and sell it off in bits, to their friends, for a tidy profit.
Most importantly 10 O’Clock Live is hilarious. David Mitchell is in his element – self-indulgent ranting that is cheered because it is heart-felt – often you can’t even be arsed to listen, the guy is so verbose, but you know it was probably fucking excellent. Charlie Brooker has shit hair, but who cares, the man is a miserablist genius. Jimmy Car is much funnier than I ever thought he could be and even Lauren Lavern is getting better.
So long may it continue. We need it in these dark times.
Team Red Eye in the in order in which they joined...
-
The Red Eye Portal 