Music review: Asian Dub Foundation, Negativland

electronic music in working class culture

On the cultural left-wing, folk, hip hop and hardcore punk are the usual genres that convey working class sentiment about life under capitalism. Rebelling against the status quo through music usually produces powerful lyrics that can stand on their own merits as poetry.One genre that often doesn't come to mind is electronic music. Electronic music has branched into many different types itself....

PART 2 (final)

With sampling, music with the use of progressive sound bites was bound to be produced by progressive musicians. For example, excerpts of a lecture by Ambalavaner Sivanandan is used on the track Colour Line on the Community Music album put out in 2000 by Asian Dub Foundation.




I could review this album, but that would be redundant, as I agree with a review already. All I will say is ditto. What is clear is that electronica of this variety follows the rap traditions, so it has lyrics galore.


Well, after singing about it for years, The Crash did come.


NEGATIVLAND: culture jamming as music

Going further with sampling, the group Negativland is known for sound collages. They have been around since 1979. Certainly not geared towards a top 40 audience, the avant garde style reminds me of a novelty record. It gets my attention because it it so out there that it makes me think (WTF?) and laugh. And that's the point.

One album put out by them, Dispepsi is based on advertisements by Pepsi and Coca-Cola that they put into a new context with odd results. But perhaps the most interesting work the group did was to manipulate, not samples, but the entire corporate media:

“...Following the somewhat unexpected success of this album (Escape from Noise), Negativland faced the prospect of going on a money-losing tour. To prevent this, they put together a press release. It insisted that the acts of an axe murderer named David Brom had not been incited by their song Christianity Is Stupid. There had never been any claim that the song had incited the act, however. The song contained samples deriding Christianity taken from the pro-Christianity film, If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? The story ran on TV news shows, newspapers, and magazines, with little to no fact-checking. Soon the world was informed of the "Killer Song" that caused a kid to murder his parents with an ax.”-wikipedia.




Above: The Letter U and the Numeral 2. This song received plenty of attention when it came out. The announcer, Casy Kasem goes into a fit of expletives in an off air recording, and is used in this track. On this network program American Top 40, Kasem was replaced by Ryan Seacrest in 2004.




Above: a video clip from the 2007 DVD Our Favorire Things....Just plain weird.

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WORLD NEWS bulletin for period 9th-23rd

ANTI-SHELL CAMPAIGNER IS HOSPITALIZED IN NIGHT-TIME BEATING

from the morningstar (UK)

Thursday 23 April 2009

ACTIVISTS opposed to a Shell pipeline project in County Mayo, Ireland, have expressed outrage after a top campaigner was badly beaten on Thursday night by at least six people in balaclavas.

Willie Corduff, a member of the Rossport Five - who were jailed for 94 days in 2005 over their opposition to the routing of the onshore pipeline through their land - was rushed to Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar.

Earlier this week, Shell decided to resume efforts to lay the offshore section of the pipeline after its environmental management plan was approved by Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan. Mr Corduff and two other local men climbed under a lorry at midday on Wednesday in a bid to stop work at the Corrib site.

The other two men were pulled out, but Mr Corduff decided to stay under the vehicle until he had evidence that Shell had authorisation to press on with its work.

Campaigner Sean Mallory told the Star: "Willie was planning to stay there overnight. "But at 4am, he got out to stretch his legs and was attacked by six people in balaclavas. They kneeled on his head and kicked him repeatedly."

Gardai investigated another incident at the Corrib site yesterday in which, they say, up to 15 people wearing balaclavas and carrying tools, bars and chains vandalised the area last night.

It is not known if the two incidents are connected, but commenters on online newswire Indymedia observed that the damage to the site does not fit with the peaceful tactics favoured by the Shell to Sea campaign.
They suggested the beating of Mr Corduff indicated that both incidents are more likely to be the work of agents provocateurs.

Mr Corduff is in stable condition at Mayo General Hospital.

AUSTRALIAN ACTIVISTS PROTEST CANADIAN MINING COMPANY

from indymedia newswire

Protests by the Save Lake Cowal campaign have halted work at the Barrick Gold open pit mine at Lake Cowal, New South Wales, Australia over the Easter Weekend. Lake Cowal is an ephemeral lake lying in the Lachlan River plain within the Murray-Darling Basin, home to many migratory water birds and sacred sites of the Wiradjuri people.

Twenty Eight people were arrested on Sunday when protestors walked onto the open pit mine closing it down. They were authorised to enter the mine site by Wiradjuri Tradtional Owners.

Barrick Gold, a Canadian mining company, uses highly toxic cyanide in the gold mining process with the cyanide transported over 1600 km by rail and truck from Gladstone in Queensland to Sydney and over the Blue Mountains to the mine. Since 2006 Cyanide Watch has born witness to the cyanide crimes of the gold mining industry.

The Lake Cowal Gold mine also uses up to 15 megalitres of water per day pumped from artesian bores. This bore water comes from the sacred underground Dreaming track, also know as the Bland palaeochannel. The region surrounding the mining site is enduring its eighth year of drought. The Murry Darling River basin, which produces much of Australia's agricultural produce, is under severe stress from lack of water flows caused by several years of drought and over-allocation of water for irrigation.

The protest is the seventh yearly gathering of solidarity with the Wiradjuri people and their ongoing opposition to the mine, and further expansion of the mine. "We asked our supporters to enter the mine site to bear witness to the destruction and document the mine's impact. It is important that Wiradjuri maintain access to our cultural sites." said traditional owner Neville Chappy Williams.

Members of the Wiradjuri conducted a smoking ceremony inside the mine site. They alledge that over 10,000 artefacts have been stolen and kept by Barrick Gold Corporation at the mine site in a compound encircled by a 6 foot fence.

"This is a fight for justice, Barrick Gold Corporation is destroying our culture," states Wiradjuri Traditional Owner from the Lake Cowal area, Neville Chappy Williams at the smoking ceremony, "We have been in the courts now for 10 years, it has been a desperate, never ending uphill fight but we are not giving up and we are not going away."

"They are destroying our culture so we stand firmly in the ground to assert our inherit right to occupy and enjoy our land. Aboriginal sovereignty has never been ceded, we have a right under 116 of the constitution to practice our religion."

Caroline Glass-Patterson, Wiradjuri woman from the local area stated "We stand here on poisoned and desecrated land, the smoking ceremony will cleanse and protect the artefacts. We want Barrick Gold to shut down it's operation and leave and for our artefacts to go bought back to country."
In February 2009 the NSW Land and Environment Court handed down a decision in favour of Wiradjuri Traditional Owner, Neville Chappy Williams, with an injunction restraining the NSW Minister of Planning from determining the E42 Modification Request for the proposed expansion of Barrick Gold's mine in Lake Cowal.

"We are very pleased with the result", stated Mr. Williams, "We have been fighting against the world's largest gold mining company, Barrick Gold, for nearly 10 years, we will continue to fight until we get justice. Barrick Gold has ridden shot gun over this ecologically significant and sacred land for far too long. "

In March 2008 Wiradjuri Traditional Owner, Neville 'Chappy' Williams, exposed a massive collapse at Barrick’s Cowal Gold Project in Lake Cowal.
Barrick Gold has been criticised for their mining practices by indigenous leaders from many mining regions. In May 2008 several international indigenous leaders attended Barrick Gold's Shareholder's meeting. Questions by indigenous delegates were censored from the webcast of the meeting. Many indigenous communities impacted by Barrick Gold are calling for investors to divest their shares and no longer support a transnational corporation that perpetrates gross violations of human rights, such as alleged killings, rapes, poisoned waters, poisoned rivers, poisoned soil, and forced migration.

BOLIVIAN POLICE FOIL ASSASSINATION PLOT

April 17

from morningstar (uk)

Bolivian police have foiled an alleged plot to assassinate President Evo Morales, killing three suspects in a gun battle.
Police had attempted to arrest the men in the centre of Santa Cruz, an eastern Bolivian city and hub of anti-Morales sentiment, but they fled to a hotel where an intense 30-minute shootout took place around 4am on Thursday morning.
The mysterious group of alleged assassins - included suspects from Hungary, Ireland and possibly Croatia - detonated a grenade inside the hotel, blowing out its windows. Three of the suspects, identified as Hungarian, Irish and Bolivian, were killed.

following is from combined sources

MASSIVE PROTESTS IN OTTAWA

April 21

Over 30, 000 protesters (some estimates had 33, 000) crowded on Parliament Hill in Ottawa to demand the end to the genocide committed against the Tamil people. And demands were made to the federal government to do something. The Tory government refused to speak to the group because they flew the red Tamil Tiger flag. Only after the flags were taken down and the Maple Leaf displayed, the other parties came out to speak, including Liberals and the NDP. The Tories refused, and a staff person from the privy council office was sent out to pick up the petition instead. The Tamil Tigers are on the list of terrorist groups in Canada. This is one reason the Sri Lankan army has had a free hand in its brutal crushing of the Tigers and a large civilian population.

In other circumstances instead of terrorist, the government would say freedom fighter or partisan to describe the group if it suited Canada-U.S. foreign policy. The ANC in South Africa have called for a lasting ceasefire and an independent Tamil homeland. Coming from the ANC with its experience and history of its own struggles, this position carries some weight.

For weeks protests went on prior to April 21 and were ongoing until Wednesday the 22nd. Protesters have left the area they camped in, Wellington and Metcalfe streets in Ottawa, which the protesters had occupied for over two weeks.

420 PROTESTS ACROSS GLOBE, INCLUDING WINNIPEG

April 20 (4/20)

They were mellowed out on killer weed, but rest assured, 3000 demonstrators were angry at the Harper Tory plan to impose minimum sentences for those caught with the drug. On the lawns of the provincial legislative building, the crowd who were mostly youths, toked as one police officer looked on.

When asked why no charges or arrests were done, officer was quoted as saying "Our view is this is a worldwide protest for the proponents of decriminalizing marijuana. From a police point of view, it's not about enforcement, it's more about providing a safe environment for people to express their views. It doesn't mean we promote the breaking of acts or statutes but we're trying to be realistic." Was this about the police being unenthusiastic about obsolete drug laws or the sheer numbers of rebellious tokers?

Bill C-15 would impose jail sentences for those caught with marijuana for the purpose of trafficking. The interpretation by law enforcement could be loosely interpreted. For example, the possibility exists for youths to be busted simply by growing one pot plant. Just call it "for purpose of trafficking" and a minimum of 6 months in jail is imposed. In a provincial jail, on a provincial budget. Because of a federal Tory government.

see the proposed table of sentences.

OCCUPATION AFTER OCCUPATION

Schools

Students in Croatia have taken over multiple university campuses. Regular classes were cancelled and the occupiers have begun new classes to be taught by their peers. The demand of free education is central to the occupations.

Housing

With the mounting housing crises, the squatting movement is having a resurgence as a means of finding housing and protesting. In Reykjavik, Iceland an abandoned house owned by a developer was squatted in protest of its slated demolition for a shopping mall. The occupation lasted from April 9th to the 16th. The occupation lasted two more hours however, when activists barricaded themselves in on several levels. The police took two hours to get through everything with chainsaws, before violently evicting the squatters.

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Benifits of public spending

The Canadian Center For Policy Alternatives has produced a report about the benifits of public spending including a calculator to prove the point that "Our taxes fund a wide range of public services that help make Canada’s quality of life better than many other nations. In fact, middle-income Canadian families enjoy public services worth about $41,000 – or 63% of their income."  You can complete the caculator form to see how much your family benefits from public services such as health care and education.

Looking beyond the CCPA's "respectible" social democratic jargon, it should be noted that public services are a major victory for the working class because, for example, they give us the power to maintian a strike while still being able to visit a hospital. What do you think about the report? Write a comment on this article with your opinion.

In a release, the CCPA states:

Even households earning  $80,000–$90,000 a year enjoy public services benefits equivalent to about half of their income. This study adds a dimension that has been missing to the public debate over taxes and public spending in Canada. It weighs the benefits of public services provided by federal, provincial, and municipal governments against the benefits of recent tax cuts. 

Click here to download the full report.

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YCL Responds to National Post Slander

Editor, National Post

The continued slanderous disinformation campaign labeling anti-Semitic all those who condemn Zionism and Israeli’s occupation of Palestine is wearing thin.

Last week, the National Post newspaper targeted the brave students and educators at Toronto’s alternative Student School who have launched High School Students Against Israeli Apartheid. The Post even steeped to red-baiting, saying that school coordinator Mr John Morton “refused interview requests from the National Post, but he outlined the school's continued support for such programs in a letter to the Web site Rebel Youth Magazine, a blog published by the Young Communist League of Canada.” (National Post, April 6th)

If The Post had done its homework, writer Dave Bowden would have found Mr. Morton’s supposed letter was simply an email widely circulated among the broad progressive majority in solidarity with the sovereign people of Palestine and outraged by Israel’s racist and brutal occupation, backed by US and Canadian foreign policy.

But then lack of fact-checking has never stopped The National Post from zealously churning-out Harper Tory capitalist drivel – attacking workers, women, youth and students, Aboriginal peoples, Quebequois, people of colour, Muslims and Arabs, people with disabilities, artists, you name it. The Post continually worships the market, while failing to make a profit from its own sales.

The Post’s inflammatory articles against the Student School have prompted an investigation into its coordinator.  Youth today are widely condemned for not voting, and then publicly chastised when we do engage in politics. Teachers who try to encourage discussion in class rooms are singled out for special scrutiny. This does not foster an educational environment, it deliberately creates an atmosphere of fear aimed at stifling free speech.

Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. The shrill claims to the contrary do not cut ice in Canada, nor around the world. The Young Communist League of Canada warmly applauds and expresses our full solidarity with the Student School, which has also recently banned police from its corridors, and High School Students Against Israeli Apartheid. Justice is on your side, as it is on the side of the Palestinian people.

Johan Boyden,
General Secretary,
Young Communist League of Canada
290A Danforth Ave.
Toronto, ON M4K 1N6
416-964-3894
www.ycl-ljc.ca

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Sweden stages protests over Pirate Bay verdict

The Morning Star Online

Sunday 19 April 2009

OVER 1,000 supporters of file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay demonstrated in Swedish towns on Saturday against a court's conviction of the internet site's organisers.

On Friday, the Stockholm district court sentenced Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom to one year in prison each for helping millions of Pirate Bay users commit copyright violations of films, music and computer games.

The court also ordered them to pay 30 million kronor (£2.4 million) in damages to entertainment transnationals, including Warner Bros, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Columbia Pictures.

The entertainment industry hailed the ruling as a landmark decision protecting the rights of those whose livelihood depends on creative activity.

The rallies against "judicial murder" in Stockholm, Goteborg, Karlstad and Lund were organised by The Pirate Party.

The political party, which supports free file-sharing for noncommercial use, said that its membership has risen by over 20 per cent to about 20,000 since the court announced its verdict.

The Pirate Party does not have any formal ties to The Pirate Bay, but has expressed its support of the site on several occasions.

Addressing protesters at the Medborgarplatsen square in central Stockholm, Malin Littorin-Ferm of the party's Ung Pirat youth league demanded that the defendants be freed.

"We young people have a whole platform on the internet, where we have all our social contacts - it is there that we live," Mr Littorin-Ferm said, adding: "The state is trying to control the internet and, by extension, our private lives."

The Pirate Bay doesn't host copyright-protected material, but directs users to content through so-called torrent files.

It has an estimated 22 million users worldwide.

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