and now bush is in too…
it’s hard to imagine what the next few years are going to be like, check coldcut‘s take.

the wonderful arundhati roy adds the sydney peace prize to the cabinet this week for her work in india. i missed her on denton, but heard she was great.
meanwhile the heavily conflicted gerard henderson of right wing think tank the sydney institute decided it’d be fun to accuse her of a conflict of interest.

here’s a transcript of the denton interview.

it’s difficult to think about the result of the recent australian election in anything other than apolalyptic terms.
how can a reasonable government beat the current combination of a conservative coalition, media monopolies (which will become more pronounced with government control of the senate come july) and perhaps most importantly overwhelming public apathy?

the way that the coalition and family first juggled preferences suggests that the system is distorting the democracy. read abc election analyst antony green’s analysis from the weekend smh.

this has been playing on my mind for a while. maybe it’ll even end up being my next column for itm.

a lot of djs, generally mainstream ones, see their job as accommodating the crowd. obviously this is important. but you can lead the process, or just play what the crowd wants to hear, what they ask to hear.

a covers band knows the crowd will like the songs they’re about to play, why wouldn’t they, the 12 abba or led zep songs in their repertoire have been fully market tested. if you’re just playing songs that zabiela, mark farina or andy c have been playing – why bother? they’ve already taken the risk. if you’re just using their market research to do something that’s already out there, why not just play their mix cd?

the music i love – from the velvets, the saints, sun ra and liquid liquid through to tom middleton, autechre and horsepower productions involved risks for the musicians involved. they weren’t appreciated at first, but have had a huge influence down the track, because they introduced something original and different.

you’d think a dj set taking in everything from hendrix to icecube to aphex twin might be a bit contrived or directionless. but when former avalanches selector dj dexter is at the helm, it’s a wild musical rollercoaster. obviously his skills give him a huge edge over most – plus the experience of over 20 years playing every kind of party and there wouldn’t be many djs confident (or capable) enough to replicate his style. but you might be surprised to hear that he doesn’t get up there and just play, he prepares each set thoroughly before he arrives at the club.

“i don’t believe in just having a box of records and just djing for the crowd, or whatever that means,” said dexter when i spoke to him a few weeks ago. “i don’t think that makes any sense. i want to do something personal – like how most bands write original music and present it in their live set – i want to do the same with djing. i’m interested in putting together a set where i really have a connection with or really love every single record. i’ll put them all together regardless of what genre they come from, and really try and make it work live.”

a lot of djs with similar experience just maintain the status quo – it ensures an income and career, so why would they take risks? – but people just getting into the game should know there’s a lot more that’s possible.

with massive backcatalogues of music, why limit yourself to one genre, or even one year’s worth of music? just look at the way that electro and no-wave sounds have reinvigorated a lot of techno and house coming out. or the influence of dancehall, dub and jazz on the latest run of hip hop, garage/dubstep and techno. why not just go back to the source and find out about these sounds, see where the dots join with your music.

most importantly just listen to loads of different music. don’t just play the ten hyped tracks you saw in freeland’s setlist from the previous week or the mp3 you downloaded from sasha. think for yourself. make your own sound. it may not get you gigs, it may not make you much money, but it’ll make your day when you are actually creating something special, stamping your own influence and invigorating the club and music scenes you’re part of.

faves at the moment and kinda leading towards a best of the year type thing include:
urthboy – distant sense of random menace – elefant traks
horsepower productions – to the rescue – tempa
himuro – clear without items – couchblip
koolism – part 3: random thoughts – invada
lackluster – remixselection_one – psychonavigation/couchblip
spark – super robot battle deluxe – n5md/couchblip
as one – so far so good – ubiquity/creative vibes
various – detroit soul: real soul music from the motor city – unisex

plus a few favourite tracks are:
keepintime – infinity of rhythm (ammoncontact mix) – up & above
depeche mode – enjoy the silence (ewan pearson extended mix) – mute/emi
mr projectile – love here (l’usine remix) – semisexual/couchblip
brooks – mansize – soundslike
freeform five feat bounty killer – eeeaaooww (vybz kartel mix) – ultimate dilemna
urthboy – no rider – elefant traks/inertia
mu – paris hilton – output/inertia
kaman leung – idioms – lacerated/couchblip
inverse cinematics – detroit jazzin’ – pulver
detroit experiment – think twice – ropeadope
tzu – summer days (mad professor dub) – liberation
spymusic – cloak – 2000 black
quantic – don’t joke with a hungry man (seiji mix) – tru thoughts
troubleman – strike hard – far out/didgeridoo
three kings featuring jaygun & bashy – shake dat booty – (pal joey interpretation) – coco machete
moonshine dolphin (ark mix) – fym – boogizm
spark – bombing for peace – n5md/couchblip

here’s what i played on therapy on friday night…

the normal – warm leatherette – mute
the faint – posed to death (calculators mix) – cdr
mia – sunshowers – xl
dead combo – you don’t look so good (larry 7 version) – output
tbs feat jamalski – extraterrestrial manoeuvres in – tigersushi
max brennan – alien to whom? – sublime
dave clarke feat mr lif – blue on blue – skint
layla – maverick – warner
sideshow – butterface (mathew jonson mix) – simple
jaylib – the red – stones throw
shalark – shalade (salad remix) – kif
aril brikha – sweet lullaby – transmat
stalker – stenographer – synaesthesia
balanescu quartet – pocket calculator – mute
burnt friedman + jaki liebezeit – royal roost – efa
other people’s children – delete control – 555
spark – bombing for peace – n5MD
the calculators – another story – cdr
ollo – the lunatics (have taken over the asylum) – groovescooter
reinhard voight – matrix – profan
ele-mental – futuristic dinosaur – kieper
boom bip – first walk (peel session version) – lex

the happiest time of the year. the time slipped forward on saturday night, i wasn’t out and had nothing pressing for saturday morning, so i slept right through, blissfully unaware of the monumentous shift. but last night it was light, warm, almost summer. before too long it’ll just be super hot and unbearable, but for the moment, the weather’s good, work’s good, music’s good.

i’m going through the process of ripping my cd collection onto my computer. i kinda resisted it for ages, but i don’t know why now. it clears the piles of cds threatening to overwhelm my living area at any time. it’s portable, so i’ve been messing with the idea of djing off my laptop. plus it’s like a time capsule through my music flavours, listening to records i haven’t heard for ages, and just getting to listen to heaps of music.

i watched a terribly average movie at the canberra international film fest on friday. we went because it was the only movie on when we could be there – but rereading the blurb, it seemed to be written for a completely different (but parallel) movie. the one we watched was ae fond kiss – an insipid, occasionally watchable romeo + juliet story of a scottish pakistani guy (who happens to dj at bhangra parties) and a scottish irish teacher. not recommended.

my favourite bands at the moment:
the pastels
broadcast
godspeed you black emperor