DJ Z Trip has dropped a free mix encouraging American’s to go out and vote Obama next month. Hop on over to Z Trip’s website for some awesome mash-ups featuring folks like Saul Williams, Jello Biafra, DJ Vadim and others; and don’t forget to register your vote.
I encourage you to download it and pass it along to anyone you think should hear it. Feel free to burn copies, share it with friends, family, co-workers, strangers, and especially anyone you know is on the fence about this election. I’m also putting out a radio friendly version, in case anyone wants to broadcast it.
Justin Ouellette– the owner of Muxtape– has finally broken the silence on what really went on since the RIAA decided they couldn’t live in the same world as his music sharing service.
Ouellette has described how he almost signed a licensing deal with the majors to keep Muxtape alive, how it would have meant comprimising the core values of the service, and how, despite this, the RIAA eventually forced his web host (Amazon) to ditch Muxtape from their servers.
More importantly, he describes what the future holds for the site. Right now Justin is busy converting Muxtape into what sounds like a promising artist-based platform for hosting and marketing music, which sounds a bit like Myspace with out the advertising and crap.
Around the same time I got a call from the VP of anti-piracy at one of the majors. After I picked up the phone his first words were, “Justin, I just have one question for you: where do I send the summons and complaint?” The conversation picked up from there. There was no summons, it was an intimidation tactic setting the tone for the business development meeting he was proposing, the true reason for the call. Around the same time another one of the big four’s business developers reached out to me, too.
I spent the next month listening. I talked to a lot of very smart lawyers and other people whose opinions on the matter I respected, trying to gain a consensus for Muxtape’s legality. The only consensus seemed to be that there was no consensus. I had two dozen slightly different opinions that ran the gamut from “Muxtape is 100% legal and you’re on solid ground,” to “Muxtape is a cesspool of piracy and I hope you’re ready for a hundred million dollar lawsuit and a stint at Riker’s.”
In the end, Muxtape’s legality was moot. I didn’t have any money to defend against a lawsuit, just or not, so the major labels had an ax over my head either way. I always told myself I’d remove any artist or label that contacted me and objected, no questions asked. Not a single one ever did. On the contrary, every artist I heard from was a fan of the site and excited about its possibilities. I got calls from the marketing departments of big labels whose corporate parents were supposed to be outraged, wanting to know how they get could their latest acts on the home page. Smaller labels wanted to feature their content in other creative ways. It seemed obvious Muxtape had value for listeners and artists alike.
The good folks at A5 magazine let me know about their spanking new edition:
A5 SEX ISSUE IS OUT! Presenting 68 works + a special poster with 30 amazing sex facts and a special new double sex mixtape to download from our site. To buy and order it please visit our site: thea5magazine.com. Full list of participants can be found at Flickr.
Craig Murray is no stranger to literary suppression.
The outspoken former British amabassador to Uzbekistan was forced to un-publish certain documents which he claimed exposed “Britain and the CIA’s use of intelligence obtained by torture abroad” (which had been legally obtained by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection acts) from his website after legal threats were aimed at his web host.
This is the key section from my new book which the publisher is unwilling to publish due to legal threats from Schillings libel lawyers, acting on behalf of the mercenary commander Tim Spicer.
The episode highlights the un-democratic nature of libel in Britain, where vast amounts of money can be used in court to sweep unwanted material under the carpet.
England’s libel courts are still the playground of the rich and famous who wish to censor their critics, accusers or slanderers. This anachronistic law grew out of dissatisfaction with the old aristocratic ways of dealing with defamation through duels. And the basic principles of the law – the uncompromising support for the right to reputation over the right to speak freely – have survived most attempts at reform ever since. In 1774, Lord Mansfield stated that ‘whatever a man publishes he publishes at his peril’, a statement that can still be applied to English libel law today, which hangs over the head of every writer, editor and publisher in England, making publication a potentially perilous activity indeed.
Here is a portion of the text which is being suppressed from Murray’s book:
Then, suddenly, Tony Blair intervened. On 11 May 1998, without consulting the FCO, he gave a statement to journalists. Penfold, Blair declared, was “a hero”. A dictatorship had been successfully overthrown and democracy restored. Penfold had “Done a superb job in trying to deal with the consequences of the military coup.” All this stuff about Security Council Resolutions and sanctions was “an overblown hoo-ha”.
I believe this episode is extremely important. In 1998 the country was still starry-eyed about Blair, but with the benefit of hindsight, this intervention points the way towards the disasters of his later years in office. It is extraordinarily wrong for a Prime Minister to declare that a man is a hero, when Customs had questioned him two days earlier under caution over the very matter the Prime Minister is praising. It shows Blair’s belief that his judgement stood above the law of the land, something that was to occur again on a much bigger scale when he halted the Serious Fraud Office investigation into British Aerospace’s foreign bribes. But of course Blair’s contempt for UN security council resolutions on the arms embargo, and the belief that installing democracy by invasion could trump the trivia of international law, prefigures precisely the disaster of Iraq. As with Iraq, Blair was also conveniently ignoring the fact that Sierra Leone was left a mess, with Kabbah in charge of little more than Freetown.
Nottingham hip-hop producer Lone is– to use a well worn phrase– “on some other shit.” Better known as Matt Cutler, the former Kids in Tracksuits beatmaker has shed the confines of conventional hip-hop to focus on big beats, inspired analogue synth-play and other-worldly album concepts. Following on from August’s long player The Lemurian, Cluster Dreams is a limited vinyl and download EP which does more of the same. Massively staggered drums and washy keys are a mainstay throughout these four exotica-tinged instrumentals, which include the pounding 80s groove of Fly Fire Rainbow and a wonderfully meditative remix of Midnight Feast by Bibio. Sounds like: Martin Denny in a blender!
Cluster Dreams is out January 2009 on Dealmaker Records.
Ben Ashton dropped me a line to spread the word about his new independent screen printing studio based in Glasgow. They’ve done a load of work for the likes of Mono, The Ivy and Nice N Sleazys, which all looks really stylish and organic. Check them out.
Yes the much-neglected Earz-mag podcast is back turning tricks every second Wednesday. We’ll be showcasing exciting new (and occasionally older) sounds from the worldwide music scene. Whatever’s been rocking the HQ here for the last couple of weeks will be posted. If you hear something good please support the flagging industry and cop them on MP3 or CD.
Update: I’m trying make this iTunes compatible, hold tight for now apple-geeks.
Disclaimer: Our podcasts are encoded at 112kbps quality, which is fine for listening but lower than you’ll get by purchasing the music from iTunes or AmazonMP3. If you want to send us music for use in the podcast go here.
The Outcrowd Collective are putting on “The Joyful Bewilderment“, an exhibition featuring over fifty international artists, or “image makers” as they describe them, at Rough Trade East in London this October. The first few days feature live music from the awesome Einstellung and the whole thing runs from 2nd to 27th of October. If I lived in London I would so be there! Should any London-based readers want to take photos / review this event for us just drop a line in the comments or contact page and I’ll sort it out.
Glasgow scuzz-troubadours Weenliz’ music has been described as “glitched up super fuzzy plinky plonks… as if rapeman had gone out and bought some stuff from maplins.” After checking their self-titled debut EP on independent blog/label Winning Sperm Party, I have to completely concur. Weenliz is eight tracks of sheer meat– a sporadic pile-up of raw distortion– composed with little-or-no attention to such musical conforms as structure, melody, harmony or rhythm. Rather it is the stuff of circuit-bending noiseniks and anarcho-geeks having a mindfuck with their “instruments”, which reputedly includes hammering guitars with drills and knives. Perhaps this release was the ensuing electric shock that killed the entire band, captured unintentionally as the studio-tape went on running? Standout track titles include Fur/Bramble and Chinese Barbie.
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Craig Murray is no stranger to literary suppression.
Nottingham hip-hop producer Lone is– to use a well worn phrase– “on some other shit.” Better known as Matt Cutler, the former Kids in Tracksuits beatmaker has shed the confines of conventional hip-hop to focus on big beats, inspired analogue synth-play and other-worldly album concepts. Following on from August’s long player The Lemurian, Cluster Dreams is a limited vinyl and download EP which does more of the same. Massively staggered drums and washy keys are a mainstay throughout these four exotica-tinged instrumentals, which include the pounding 80s groove of Fly Fire Rainbow and a wonderfully meditative remix of Midnight Feast by Bibio. Sounds like: Martin Denny in a blender!
. If you want to send us music for use in the podcast 
Glasgow scuzz-troubadours Weenliz’ music has been described as “glitched up super fuzzy plinky plonks… as if rapeman had gone out and bought some stuff from maplins.” After checking their self-titled debut EP on independent blog/label Winning Sperm Party, I have to completely concur. Weenliz is eight tracks of sheer meat– a sporadic pile-up of raw distortion– composed with little-or-no attention to such musical conforms as structure, melody, harmony or rhythm. Rather it is the stuff of circuit-bending noiseniks and anarcho-geeks having a mindfuck with their “instruments”, which reputedly includes hammering guitars with drills and knives. Perhaps this release was the ensuing electric shock that killed the entire band, captured unintentionally as the studio-tape went on running? Standout track titles include Fur/Bramble and Chinese Barbie.
