Every issue seems to run a little bit later than the last. Still Cyclic Defrost is Australia’s best electronic music mag. Check out the interviews with Sydney’s Feral Media label, the Frequency Lab artist-run space, Melbourne’s Velure, Architecture In Helsinki, activist hip hop crew Combat Wombat, and internationally Hrvatski, Autechre, MIA, Chris Cunningham, Sole and McEnroe. Truckloads of reviews, including my report on Budapest-based Chabz & Krizo. Plus, in what is getting to be a highlight of the magazine, a fantastic trip back into Sir Robbo’s past in Cyclic Selects.
Category: Media

You would have to be an obsessed format fetishist to be still resisting the move from hard copy music (vinyl, CDs, etc) to hard drive storage (MP3 players, etc). It’s hard to argue with the logic – music’s easy to access, search and play, though hi-fi is still a long reach for most users – and indeed I’ve been dragged (flailing my arms to grab anything on my way) across to the itunes side by its convenience for travelling.
So what’s the potential for a purely online label?
There’s no doubt that online releases get rid of some big costs involved with running a label. No need to press up CDs, it side-steps the labyrinth of distribution (especially for international scale releases). It’s just about inevitable that labels will move there eventually. But are the consequent losses in immediate revenue to much of a compromise at the moment?
Well there are a few online labels out there. And not all are simply profile raising exercises to get the artists signed to a bigger label.
One of the coolest I’ve found is Tokyo Dawn Records, who are oddly enough based in Berlin instead of the Japanese capital (I discovered them by accident while searching for Tokyo beatmakers). TDR started in ’97 as a net-label, but have branched in the past few years to release the odd CD or LP.
Their releases are broadly similar to people like Goya, Bugz, Delsin, Sonarkollektiv and Madlib. But they’re marking their own territory, and from my listening sound good, albeit sometimes with lower production values (which may in any case be more closely linked to the MP3 format I’m listening in). Deep lazy downbeat hip hop with tough cool production, dubby electronic grooves, broken beat that flirts with techno and breakbeat. All in all, extremely listenable.
They’re very much into the Open Source ethic too, so most releases are available free P2P or even directly from the site, in a range of media types.
Some of the better known names on board include Alex Cortez and Dharma One. But it’s worth delving deeper, as the lower profile acts are equally exciting. Check out label boss Prymer’s jazz funk flavoured mix sets or the premo new LP from Comfort Fit that Straight No Chaser described as somewhere between Sa-Ra and Bugz In The Attic. It’s a free zipped download.
Category: Music

The head of Deakin Uni’s law school has argued that torture is ‘morally defensible’, even when the subject turns out to be innocent, according to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald. Mirko Bagaric and Julie Clarke’s words, sure to justify future Abu Ghraibs and ensure extra funds for Deakin Uni, were published in a US law journal.

Stateside media commentators The Poynter Institute have been predicting that online media would overtake its mainstream rivals for ages. Epic, a new film by two fellows at the institute, appropriately available online, predicts that newspapers will lose the race for online readers within the next 10 years.
I’ve often wondered when that change will arrive, because the two media cater to fundamentally different needs in their readers. People tend to ‘read’ papers, absorbing information about a range of subjects. They’re more likely to get to an online news source via a search engine, specifically searching for the answer to a pertinent question. Aren’t those quite different? But the superficially sci-fi story forecasts that the new online media will sidestep the traditional outlets (in Epic it’s The New York Times), relying instead on new ‘freelance editors’ (AKA bloggers) and their filtering and reprioritising skills.
The Financial Times said “The film’s core message has started looking less fantastical since it began capturing the imagination of figures in the media world.”
Whatever your take on the issue, it’s pretty crucial stuff and essential viewing.

There are so many odd little online zines or english magazines about Tokyo. Most set up by ex-pats here for corporate work, some with ear closer to the ground than others. Here are a few I’ve clocked in the past few days:

Straight outta Berlin was the theme for last night’s gig at O-East in Shibuya. The Goethe Institut conveniently put together a bunch of acts I missed in Berlin a few weeks ago.
I was down about missing Stephan Betke’s (Pole) huge Scape showcase at the Volksbuhne the night after we left Berlin. So the sinuous, heavily layered, musical dub he brewed up last night was great.
The MIA on the bill wasn’t the Sri Lanka via London one, instead it was an MIA that despite being dressed in underwear and a pile of tinsel was entirely boring.
With drums, keys, laptops and vocals, Mouse On Mars had the crowd writhing to their loping electronic grooves. The place erupted when the bass player started the intro to Wipe That Sound. They eventually finished with the punk-noise DJs Collapse collab (which was originally recorded with Matthew Herbert), which the Japanese crowd yelled along to.
If anyone’s placed to lead the acid house revival it’s Atom Heart. His set was a loose warm rhythm that stepped into deep warm house, squiggly acid and crackling detroit drums. Really fantastic, wish I could’ve seen his Senor Coconut set the night before (along with Monolake and Apparat, but it was just too expensive to go both nights).
Lali Puna create a beguiling, unaffected pop music that takes bits from glitchy experimental electronics and soft indie pop. Cue singing along: “Where do you want to go / You were the last to know / Your future.” Fantastic.

Soundz From Germany confirms that for all the talk of crossover indie dance music from the UK, the people creating music that really walks the line between indie and electronic music, in a totally unaffected way, are doing it in Berlin not London.

He’s no kid these days, but the dapper keyboard jockey from Kraftwerk played a killer set in Prague recently. Read my review on inthemix.com.au.

Broken Social Scene, The Dears, Stars, Metric and Death From Above 1979 play a Canada showcase gig at Tokyo’s Liquid Rooms on May 14. It’s 5000 yen. I quite like BSS, though they strike me as a DJ group – you know the ones who seem to cover a million different styles on the one album – though that might be just because it’s a collective thing.
Is there a Goethe Institut or British Council-like group promoting Canadian culture internationally? If so I guess they’re involved in this.

wiley’s mcing over slimzee’s beats at unit on may 14, presented by the dbs crew. sounds brilliant, i’ve been dying to see these guys for ages. i’d love to see wiley doing some of his weirder instro stuff though.

takkyu ishino has announced this year’s lineup for wire05. djs include abe duque, ellen allien, fumiya tanaka, hell, luke slater, renato cohen, westbam and ishino himself. live will be joey beltram, the modernist, reinhard voigt, toktok and 808 state.
it’s been described as japan’s biggest dance music event, held at the yokohama arena. though at roughly au$130 it’s kinda pricey.