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

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:

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.

brit dj tom middleton selected ‘smells like electro’ from sydney boy DSICO’s (now deleted) punk as pussy ep. titled cosmosonica, the cd picks up where his previous mix ‘the trip’ stopped, featuring obscure covers like snow patrol doing beyonce’s ‘crazy in love’. it’s out 16 may on family. good exposure, and undoubtedly more in licensing fees than the tracks ever sold on 12″.
dsico has just dropped a debut artist album. no longer messing with the bastard pop of his 12″s on bondi’s 12 apostles, he has been messing with a kind of rough electropop. i took a shine to it immediately, and it’s getting hyped all over the place, all the sydney mags have given it great reviews, even mark moore (sexpress) gave it a plug! i noticed it on the recommended listening stand in a great little shop in shibuya the other day.

higher frequency seems like an interesting online zine for house/techno events around tokyo. might meet up with a friend at their michael mayer gig tonight.

hyperdia is good for working out your way round the trains too.