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VIDA DE-sign by Michael Buckingham, aka Mick Muttley

Dear friends (yeah really, one of those) I have become a women's wear designer for VIDA! http://shopvida.com/collections/voices/ ...

Tuesday 6 September 2011

SubVersion Stop 142: Muttley & Collaborators - 15 Minutes Of Fame Pt. 50 - Wilderness (September 2011)



Back in April I posted on SC the opportunity for members to contribute tracks "outside your comfort zone" to my SC Affiliated 15 Minutes Of Fame project concept for 2011, the series dating from 2006, building over 85000 downloads.

Counterintuitively it wasn't plain sailing to accumulate the "Wilderness" tunes, since there's the question of music having redeeming qualities or not, whether you can find something to like in it - "I like this, and I'm surprised" causes of chance.

Crossing the lines between guilty pleasures and acquired taste, the mixtape, 33 minutes long, is a spiky smorgasbord of styles, was very difficult to make flow, while extending my "comfort zone". Nonetheless I'm satisfied with the result - I hope you enjoy it too.

Muttley & Collaborators - 15 MOF Pt. 50 - Wilderness


00:00 James Taylor - You Can Close Your Eyes - submitted by MetaLX

"It takes me back to the days when we used to play music on the weekends and one of my best mates was really into JT, in fact he called him "JT" (laughs). I thought his music was soppy to say the least, but, as time went on I kinda got into his folk sound! As a guitar player I was impressed by his almost psychopathic use of chords and progressions - fingerworkout."

00:00 / 06:00 / 07:34 Sonic Youth - Expressway To Yr Skull - submitted by lament

"It`s on their record called 'evol' and on the back cover it is listed as 'Madonna, Sean And Me'. :)"

02:22 En Vogue - My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It) - submitted by Statto

06:00 / 29:56 Chris Brown & Benny Benyasi - Beautiful People - submitted by 247

"I truly hated this song to be begin with, but now I absolutely love it. Totally out of my comfort zone here :)"

06:43 Prayers For Atheists - Guns Up - submitted by cube

" I love PFA, but they're about as far as I've gone down the punk road ;)"

09:19 Bob Dylan - Hurricane - submitted by Ben Subvert

17:30 Status Quo - Pictures Of Matchstick Men - submitted by scart ridge

20:29 Emma Kirkby - Rise, Glory, Rise - submitted by Muttley

"Opera with Purcell tinge."

22:30 Ultravox - Vienna - submitted by Dave Trax

"Still a deep moody tune with a little cheese added. ;)"

26:27 The Doobie Brothers - What A Fool Believes - submitted by cycom

"An even more embarrassing song, which is more ghey than anything, but definitely a great song."

33:41 end

Download

Monday 5 September 2011

SubVersion Stop 141: Ruff Revival 004: Rick James - Horrorface / Naphta - Copy Rider (Untold Refix)


Jungle's delirium and ridiculousness are two qualities me and Tim from Manacles Of Acid discussed at Oxford's Modernist Disco launch in August, him playing Acid House. In broad context, they shouldn't be confused for the sake of Jungle's birthright and legacy in the current decade. Ruff Revival broaches the difference between connotative sustain and decay, clearing soul and crater bass, that became implicitly associated with the demise of 90s Jungle, and the rise of wall-to-sound Drum & Bass. In certain circles, what I prefer to term 'middle road D&B', populated by older selectors pushing more modernised sounds - DJ Lee being a prime example - there's the adage that music pays the DJ, but with this project the premise is different. To quote Naphta's "My Bitter Sweetness", a work released on label-head Droid's The Fear imprint as a download in 2007: "This history, a lot of people didn't, really, understand what happened then. I'd set my turntables up and play for another seven hours - it was something I had to do". The DJ was still getting paid at best, but the industrious streak, the 'hustler' ethic, further unstripped of greed.

Ruff Revival 004 has been long time burning, like Naphta's preceding album for The Fear. Turning our focus to Untold's version of "Copy Rider", whose burnt squelch, like a wet flannel dousing the coffee-stimualted workaholic masses, we find Dubstep's Woofah-zine interviewee employing an obstructionistic tension between sampled chromatic-scale-bothering downturn, while a tribal ferret drumline runs around the easel, tail between legs. It follows the trajectory of experimentalist label Hessle Audio, where conventional half-time is also sidestepped to see if the Dub can be hectically cleansed of its tiresome sameness, all the while not straying from pleasing dancing posses, by nailing structural phrases into an ongoing mirror pulsewidth.

Rick James' "Horrorface" implies from the title alone a dream where you're being made a fool of, and because it's not lucid, you can't control it. This property is refracted by it's divergence from Amen to Think to Hotpants, alternating like a Peter Stringfellow prayer mat. Creeping up the alleyway of cool via slick modern production values, the work takes a detour halfway in, improving on the head-to-grindstone slack of the Untold riddim with Perfectly Clear sparkle dotted on the outer limits. Despite the stock sampledelia: film samples, trad breakbeats and punnet-fresh melody, there's a strong identity to Rick's - aka Ricky Force - and J Rolla's fusions that place him in unison with Tim Reaper's better efforts of late. Lofty idealism isn't always part and parcel of getting a vinyl like this out, but here Ruff Revival engrave themselves in worthwhile history, with statue-over-city flair.

SC Promo Including Digital Download Availability

Sunday 4 September 2011

SubVersion Stop 140: Sci & Tech Posts: God Is In The Neurons / Building Blocks Of DNA Found In Meteorites From Space

SC member Shift posted two ace threads on the forum this Summer, one highlighting an audio documentary that introduces all-level neurology ideas; the second: scientists have confirmed building blocks of human life exist in asteroids, that have collided with Earth in previous centuries. I'll elaborate on what caught my ear the swiftest.

God Is In The Neurons


Narrated across 23 minutes, written and researched by Athene (www.athenism.com), some of it's pertinently enlightening, encouraging propositions begin with human calculator Rudiger Gamm, who used to fail at basic Math, training himself according to neuroplasticity (strengthening of emotional connections in the brain towards certain stimuli). One self-penned comparison I picked up early, was links with - here emotional - resilience being part of meditation, and the way Athene touches on this: "Whatever you are doing at any time, you are physically modifying your brain to become better at it" he states, speaks for sensory elevation with the concentrated mind; because you are attempting to alter your hemispherical connections, consciousness increases your ardour to doing so.

My second observation in the field of studying schizophrenia, is the chemical neuropinephrine, mentioned by Athene two minutes in, creating "narrowmindedness", has more than the limbic system's primitive conditioning and corruption effecting its outcome, "knocking out most of our working memory". Here, a catch: those experiencing paranoia, psychosis or similar mental difficulties require higher levels of comfort chemicals. Oxytocin, for instance, released by mothers in breastfeeding, but also, as neuroscientist Rick Hanson outlines in "Meditations For Happiness, "when you're giving someone a long, long hug" - to rebalance their minds from the defensiveness, elucidates we cannot necessarily function coherently contrariwise - like our head's drugged inside a beer barrel.

Other highlights to consider are Athene's information that serotonin is responsible for self-esteem, so the more exercise and outside influence we get, the more control we may be able to take overcoming depression. This is already accepted wisdom, but helps detox complexities in his compacted balls of intellectual wool.

So let's arrive at the "God" internal theology to save you a great session listening and watching. Did I mention the inner soundtrack's superb too? Ambient pianos and drone shifts in science fiction manna by Professor Kliq - you can also download. Athene cannot prove or disprove God isn't in the neurons, but he can theorise of the scientific explanations in a very palatable format. Don't delay taking your eyes off this text - if you're further intrigued in anything related to personal growth and understanding.

God Is In The Neurons

Saturday 3 September 2011

SubVersion Stop 139: Subvert Central Podcast 51 - Koe


01. Sbtrkt – Living like I do – Young Turks
02. Instra:Mental – When I dip – Non Plus
03. Joy Orbison – Sicko Cell – Swamp81
04. Boddika – Soul What – Swamp81
05. Fantastic Mr. Fox – Sepia Song – Black Acre
06. El-B feat. Rolla – Dirty Dirty – Night Audio
07. Joe – Claptrap – Hessle Audio
08. Curtis Wodka – Love me or hate me – Heavy Hittaz
09. Mr Oizo – Flat Beat – F Communications
10. Addison Groove – Footgrab – Swamp81
11. Martyn – All Nights – AllCity
12. Fuzzy Logic - Hold U Back – Unreleased
13. James Blake – CMYK – R&S
14. Fantastic Mr. Fox – Fool Me – Black Acre
15. Cosmin TRG – Tower Block – Hemlock
16. Boddika – Sometimes – Swamp81
17. Ding Dong – Badman Forward Badman Pull Up (The Bug remix) – Greensleeves
18. Instra:Mental – Thomp – NonPlus
19. Burial & Four Tet & Thom Yorke – Mirror – Text

“This mix includes music I recently play in the clubs and on my monthly radioshow, Garage Sessions [ www.play.fm/radioshow/garagesessions ]”

Download (56:40 / 107MB)

http://subvertcentral.com/podcast/