I just wanted to start a quick discussion on the musical merits of the closing years of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s. These years saw the synthesis of two of my favourite musical forms, Punk and Electronic, into what we now know as the beginning of New Wave music. Whether you like Punk, Electronic, and New Wave or not, I believe proper appreciation of all music requires a simple understanding of prior forms. Our generation has been affected by this considerably small movement more than perhaps any other when it comes to our view of modern electronic music. Had it not been for a handful of independently operating bands in North England and New York, the electronic music we hear today would be totally different, perhaps following a more American tradition such as Disco or a more German tradition such as Trance.

The synthesis of Punk and Electronic came in part by the development of the Moog Synthesizer, which allowed poor, independent bands to experiment with electronic instruments, the increasing popularity of Punk ideology, which encouraged untrained, lower-class musicians to produce music, and the arrival of Disco from the United States and Krautrock from Germany. For more information about the development of New Wave music, watch “Synth Brittania” by the BBC.

Below are a few of my favourite songs from the period, comprising of Punk, New Wave, and Electronic music between the years 1977 and 1984 (with the exception of In The Night by the Pet Shop Boys, release in 1985). Above is Yashar by Cabaret Voltaire.

1. Are Friends Electric - Gary Numan

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2. Damaged Goods - Gang of Four

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3. Moments in Love - Art of Noise

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4. Smalltown Boy - Bronski Beat

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5. Auto Modown/Space Girl Blues - DEVO

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6. Wishing - A Flock of Seagulls

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7. Money (That's What I Want) - Flying Lizards

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8. Love Action - The Human League

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9. Underpass - John Foxx

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10. Mad World - Tears for Fears

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11. Vienna - Ultravox

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12. I'm Still Searching - Visage

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13. This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) - Talking Heads

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14. In The Night (1985) - Pet Shop Boys

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Of albums I want.

This is Happening - LCD Soundsystem
Magnetic Man - Magnetic Man
Visionaries - Parallels
The Rawkers - Cassius
Heartbeats - Grum
Modern Thrills - Tesla Boy
Surfing the Void - Klaxons
Brothers - The Black Keys
One Life Stand - Hot Chip
Odd Blood - Yeasayer
Love and Its Opposite - Tracey Thorn
Teen Dream - Beach House
Transference - Spoon
Soldier of Love - Sade
Heligoland - Massive Attack
Romborama - Bloody Beetroots
Business Casual - Chromeo
These New Knights - Ou Est Le Swimming Pool
Treats - Sleigh Bells
Delicacies - Simian Mobile Disco

And surely more to come soon.

1. Rill Rill - Sleigh Bells

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2. Dance the Way I Feel - Ou Est Le Swimming Pool

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3. Dance Yrself Clean - LCD Soundsystem

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4. Butter - Bloody Beetroots

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Well it’s another awful rainy day and I like to celebrate awful rainy days with mellow and melancholy beats, either downtempo electronic, blues, jazz, or like today, trip hop. Trip hop is an unusual genre since it blends the electronic drum beats of hip hop and instrumental flows of jazz quartet, two sounds that sound excellent together despite the obvious modern day culture clash. Hip Hop also originated its backing tapes in resampled soul and motown songs and the offshoot of electronic based beats that later became known as breaks doesn’t sound like something that would be well acquainted with the classy almost anti-street culture that jazz has a connotation for nowadays. But I love it as I do most music that is new and challenging and a blend of cultures.

Today’s selection of trip hop comes from the notable Japanese hip hop artists Tsutchie, Nujabes, Fat Jon, and Force of Nature, which collaborated to develop the trip hop sounds of Samurai Champloo. I tend to dislike anime music since most shows rely heavily on jPop or jRock artists with little regard for melody and the most awful lyrics imaginable. Most notable for being stupendous though are the works of Yoko Kanno, especially in the shows Cowboy Bebop and Turn A Gundam, the Pillows for the show FLCL, the RZA for Afro Samurai, and of course the music of Samurai Champloo. Each episode features six original songs culminating in the release of six albums after the series’ completion and as a score I would have to recommend it as one of the best. Each of the artists brought elements of their own style to the album and the only thing I could have asked for would be a few more hip hop styled songs since the albums tend to be more on the jazzy side of trip hop. Either way, take a listen and tell me this isn’t one of the best scores ever. Enjoy.

1. Death Wish - Force of Nature, Nujabes, Fat Jon

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2. Sanctuary Ship - Force of Nature, Nujabes, Fat Jon

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3. Death Chamber - Force of Nature, Tsutchie

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4. Judgement On - Force of Nature, Tsutchie

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5. Pretending To... - Force of Nature, Tsutchie

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6. Sincerely - Force of Nature, Tsutchie

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7. Aruarian Dance - Nujabes, Fat Jon

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8. Mystline - Nujabes, Fat Jon

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9. Flip - Tsutchie

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10. Thank You - Tsutchie

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Along with the operas I can’t seem to get enough of, I’ve been gorging my ears on all the Romantic Era compositions I can get my grubby little hands on. Classical, Romantic Opera, and Ballet has been tearing up my iTunes for the last few weeks and I feel like sharing. For those that don’t know the Romatic hey days were the mid to late 1800s, a period that has fascinated my forever. Without the events of the late 1800s our current society would be drastically different including the occurrences of the two World Wars, the rise of Capitalism and Communism, and the exploration of the globe that has resulted in today’s globalism. Music of this time likewise was significantly changing through exploration and rapid cultural changes occurring in Europe. Russia emerged as a musical powerhouse as one of its few oddly strong areas of talent with such names as Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and later, Shostakovich.

The music of the era is charged with national pride, exploration, world influences, and internationality that I adore. Despite hyper competitiveness amongst the nations, talent was encouraged to travel to enhance the name of the fatherlands and inevitably cultures clashed in the form of unparalleled experimentation. It was the time of Neitzsche and Marx and Mill in philosophy and ideology made a huge impact on musical composition. Instrumentation also moved out of religious traditions and harpsichord, organs, and tabernacles were replaced with percussion, brass, and wind instruments that upheld military and international motifs better. Arias and hymns were replaced with turbulent choral shouts and hedonistic story lines. Music became modern and the world changed.

1. Magic Of Love Introduction & Scene - De Falla

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2. Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op.95, From the “New World” - Allegro con fuoco - Dvorak

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3. The Red Poppy, Ballet Suite, Op. 70 - Heroic Coolie Dance - Gliere

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4. Peer Gynt Suite No.1 Op.46 Anistras Dance - Grieg

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5. Duo for Violin and Cello, Op.7 - Allegro serioso, non troppo (Recorded in Japan 1978) - Kodaly

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6. Czardas - Liszt

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7. Symphony No.10 in E Minor, Opus 93 - II. Allegro - Shostakovich

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8. Persian March, Op. 289 - Strauss

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9. The Firebird Suite - Infernal Dance - Stravinsky

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10. Overture The Force Of Destiny - Verdi

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11. Claire de Lune - Debussy

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I know I’ve always been an outspoken critic of copyright and generally regard it as an issue that is very close to my heart. As a person that believes in knowledge production as the epitome of human achievement, copyright understandably is an important subject of study for me and through my understanding I have come to the realisation that as copyright stands in many industries, primarily printing, music, and video, copyright has become over ripe in its understanding of the flow of information and has failed in its original goal of fostering the increase of knowledge. Copyright is now a system of protectionism for the powerful, mature industries backed by the MPAA, the RIAA, and the publishing houses. I am not saying this as a rant or call to arms, but there are obvious truths to the argument and it all comes down to the money trail. Artists sell the rights to their own music to the labels, writers sell their words and thoughts to publishers who turn around and sell the ideas for millions to movie studios, and Hollywood churns out movies based on idiotic romantic expectations and mindless special effects. Just look at the Academy Award for Best Picture this year - produced by independent international studios - even the establishment know their own creations are shit. Today the creators are okay with not owning their own creations.

Just look around at the anti-intellectualism of our societies. Less than half of Americans believe in evolution and a large proportion answer “don’t know” to almost every question. More people go to higher education than ever before and it is the academia that is pandering to the masses now and not the masses courting the intellects of our country. We claim as our right freedom and equality, but we commodify human life, information, education, and our values. Our society seeks to enforce a system of zero sum to all aspects of life when nothing is zero sum, everything has value and can’t be explained simply as gains and losses, winning and losing.

I argue against many like minded individuals that free trade is the answer. It is too easy to believe that capitalism is the problem, but we do not live in a capitalist society. We live in a society of consumerism and consumerism is not capitalism. The protectionism of agriculture, information, ideas, goods, and services is not free trade. The coercive lobbying by big business, military aid and arms, and government regulation is not free trade. The internet is free trade. The free flow of ideas through groups like ThePirateBay, Wikipedia, and blogs is free trade at its core. The unhampered exchange of information is the very ideal of free trade and the forces of entrenched academia that disparage Wikipedia and the MPAA and RIAA’s suit against ThePirateBay are an anti free trade action towards regulation and comomdification. People see capitalism as the root of the problem but I blame the subscribers to the system more than the system itself and the most influential subscribers are the entrenched industries and governments.

Similarly in the trial that just ended today (the verdict will be announced April 17 2009), TPB is being blamed by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry for copyright infringement; however, as Wired also fails to take notice, ThePirateBay is only a structure and a structure has no action on its own. That is like arguing that pencils are bad because they can be used to right hatespeech or knives are bad because they can stab people when they aren’t buttering toast. I argue that structures are not inherently bad or good, it is the subscribers of that structure that use it do its worst. As a country we blamed “the nazis” for 20 years and “the commies” for 60 years for all the ills of the world. We made no distinction between the people and the leadership as can be seen in the propaganda material of the governments involved. Even today we blame the Middle East for the oil crisis and do we not see that we attack structures when it is the people behind the structures that are really at fault. The people in the Middle East are not bloodthirsty savages and neither were the guys in the other trenches in World War I. They were manipulated by the wealthy leadership of their nations, by the power behind the structures. To attack thePirateBay is to attack the essence of the internet. It is an attack on forums and communities, an attack on YouTube and Wikipedia, on anyone that fights for the freedom to do what they want with their own material. Yes copyrighted material gets stolen everyday but look at the example of Marley and Me author John Grogan and tell me that the publishers are not worse.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with thePirateBay and PiratByran trial please read about it here.