Posts by Peter Darlington
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Hard News: Friday Music: Walking Distance, in reply to Tom Semmens,
Dance music badly needs an injection of younger generation of DJ’s that a younger crowd can identify with. After all, the currently mighty David Guetta is 45, the fabulous Carl Cox is 50, Paul Oakenfold (who?) is 50, Pete Tong is 52, and Tiesto is 45 I think – you get the picture.
Yes agreed. My 18 yr old is into the likes of Lunice (TNGHT) and d'n'b DJ Netsky who are both early 20s. There's also guys like Lapalux and James Blake etc... but they're more downbeat noodly rather than four to the floor house music. In terms of Deep House I love Local Talk Records from Sweden. Regular new releases and effortlessly funky business to get your dad-ass down to.
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Hard News: Thatcher, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
I thought that was more of a sign that the poor and disgruntled were now in prison, or some distant township type area, which wasn't very heartening. I went back to Brixton a year or so ago and noticed that most people were white, which was a symptom of the same thing.
Yes, sad but true. London now looks like a place only milionaires can live in, until you get to the very outer edges.
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Hard News: Thatcher, in reply to Bart Janssen,
I think asking people to be above celebrating her death is failing to acknowledge just how much harm she did ... individually to real people with real lives. I may not condone pissing on her grave but I understand the emotion that leads people to that.
She led a government that did very real personal harm to very many people.
Yes indeed. My family came from, and still live in, the north of England right up next to Liverpool. I lived in the UK in the late '80s and the vibe of Thatcher's Britain was inescapable. The hatred and mistrust of the Met, Section 28, and the freedom for people to espouse nakedly racist, xenophobic and generally awful views in the name of being pro-British and pro-capitalist was repugnant. It was a particular sort of bullying patriotism.
I visited my family up north during that time, and while it was economically wrecked up there I was stuck by the way family life had hung together depsite all. It felt welcoming and decent in a NZ sort of way, unlike the vaguely threatening vibe you often got around London, especially after dark. My partner and I loved going up there for some chill time and to be around a family who had that typical of northern ability to laugh at the blackest of situations. My grandmother used to do her ironing late at night listening to BBC radio and manically arguing with Thatcher's speeches, as if they were sitting across a table from each other. We'd laugh at her but for her it was no laughing matter and she often stated it was the middle and upper middle class shopkeepers (Thatcher's father) who were the most vicious and corrupt to poor and working people, ripping them off during the 1930s depression.
When we went back in 2008 it had all changed. London was more affluent, cleaner and friendlier. This was heartening. When we went up north though it was a different story. Economically the place is still wrecked but the strong northern family bonded world I remember has disappeared. It just seemed rough and unwelcoming, and depressing. What Thatcher couldn't achieve in the 80s she's certainly completed since. And this is the most unforgiving thing to my mind, even if you give her the benefit of the doubt and accept that she was breaking down inefficient industry so that a re-energised market could jump in and provide opportunities for anyone willing to seize the day, it just didn't happen. The destruction happened but it was never backed up with any kind of market-led creative investment or growth and, for that huge proportion of British people who live north of the Watford Gap, they've been left decimated for decades. And I'll never forgive her for that. Never.
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And this is the final week of voting on TheAudience for this month's's wild-card Making Tracks grant winner. I won't beat about the bush -- I'd really like it to be Christoph El Truento. The guy's done so much off his own bat that it'd be nice to see him get the support to make a video.
Word, dude is becoming something of a national treasure in the SJD vein.
Here's some choons from me;
James Blake hooks up with Brian Eno on Digital Lion. Deep bass humming.
https://soundcloud.com/selftitledmag/james-blake-digital-lion
Bonobo hooks up with Eryah Badu for the soulfully gorgeous Heaven for the Sinner
https://soundcloud.com/bonobo/heaven-for-the-sinner
...and young Bristol DJ and drumset basher Typesun with a wonderful low key soul track The PL
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We used Algoriddim Djay for the radio show last year. Made things pretty sweet for simpletons like us to be able run the show although we never tried anything too fancy. Things I also never tried - queueing up several tracks in advance. Would've been useful but I'm not sure it can be done? Also, recording the whole mix for podcasting later, several people asked for it but I never got around to it.
As far as music goes, if you like where the dancehall gets ravey, the new Major Lazer EP Lazer Strikes Back Vol 2 is available at
http://www.factmag.com/2013/03/12/major-lazer-drops-second-free-ep-lazer-strikes-back-vol-2/
JStar has his Summer Bass Badness reggae d'n'b mix on Mixcloud and download here
http://www.mixcloud.com/Jstarmusic/jstardigsmusic-17-summer-bass-badness/
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Up Front: Card on the Table, in reply to James Butler,
For all the talk about how Heinlein was a nutso libertarian and PKD was a flag-waving commie, it's worth noting that they were firm friends and Heinlein financially supported PKD when he was at his lowest ebb (which was pretty often).
I never got the feeling PKD was a commie. He was into hippie spiritualism and freak politics (anti Vietnam War etc..) But not inherently left-wing.
I'm going to add to this list of "SF writers whose politics I know of and disagree with" Gene Wolfe, a conservative Catholic
Word. New Sun series was a big favourite back in the day.
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Reading all this makes me so pleased that Philip K Dick was a freak and Iain Banks is a leftie.
#sleepseasy
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Up Front: Twenty-Two Two, Two, in reply to Emma Hart,
The Hop is now out in Woolston, on Ferry Rd, two blocks from my house. The beer is still great, but unfortunately the atmosphere is completely different.
Will definitely be keen to check it out next time we're in town.
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So happy for C1 Espresso, so sad for Twisted Hop. Possibly my 2 favourite destinations in Christchurch.
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Thanks for that review Russ. Flume and Nicolas Jaar would've been my must-see acts of that lineup.