Second post for the day.

I've been taking some time to go around reading other folk's blogs.
Gee I'm sure glad I found some not so good ones (sorry folks & no I'm not telling which ones) cuz the first few I looked @ made me want to go and sign up for special ed.
I've already mentioned Paul's. Not technically the most advanced, but he makes up for that by favouring us with mind-bending wisdom & backing it up by knowing everything. Renee's is vryfine lookin' & she even tells us how to do one too. Her friend David's is seriously scarey in it's accomplishment. Tara's is also looking pretty accomplished and has some good filesharing links.
The problem I have with all these blogs is reading 'em - I get a headache staring at the screen - oh well. I've enjoyed reading what I can, persevering thru the bl1n[)1ng p4in and h0pe to comm3nt a l1ttle more when I c4n get this sign saying 'newbie' off, from where it's stuck to my bleeding forehead.
I think I'm going to do my assignment on the place of Zed announcers' subculture in the mediasphere. How their insularity and the increasingly vulpine behaviour of the corporate radio folk is going to leave them in a power vacuum in the face of things like digital radio.
Well, I don't seem to have scared up too much interest talking about cool music so I think I'm going to back to talking about boring ol' digital radio from tomorrow on.

Hehey y'all,

Here's something a liddle diff. This site is a great essay on sampling, the what, the how dare you! and the upshot.
In that regard, MACOS is interesting: They want samples to be free for all, nice. There's this little essay hidden away in the site, which gives you details on some of the guerrillas in the sampling fracas. Once again, it tells us that the best way to get away with sampling, copyright infringement is just to do it, 'cause chances are your "distribution has never been large enough to raise the concern of a record company, at least not to sue."
Even that's not a guarentee: Negativeland's U2 ep, which ripped off very large bits of, you guessed it, U2, never sold many records, that wasn't the point, it was aural, guerrilla warfare after all, but U2 sued the pants off them - anyway the details are in the essay.
On the flip-side check out 'The ultimate lessons'. This is a great compilation (and now there are another two) detailing the history of sample-hop. It all began in '83 with two white guys in the Bronx. They were floored by folks like DJ Kool Herc, and in particular the Cold crush bro.s. Doing the first breaks in tiny little Bronx nightclubs. Well Double Dee (aka Douglas DiFranco) was a sound engineer and Steinski (aka Steve Stein) collected a lot of records and together they went into a studio and created 'The lesson', cleverly and humorously cut together from that great stock of Steinski's vinyl.
The duo created 3 lessons which are now legendary. Testimony to this are the legions of 'lesson 4s' that have appeared in the years since. Creating a 'lesson 4' seems to be a cornerstone in the career of break-obsessed, young producer, and thus, most of them are appallingly bad. Others are legendary in their own right. One in particular, which is included on and can be listened to at the sight linked 1st up in this post is DJ Shadow's lesson 4. Shadow's 1st known work is still as funky anything, not least because it contains almost an entire James Brown song. James Brown's wrath against unauthorised sampling is famous, yet, despite it's first commercial release on 'The ultimate lessons' compilation, with none of it's samples cleared, Shadow's underground classic remains untrammelled by James, his record company and their hoards of lawyers. Go figure.

Oh, and while you're at it check out this Illegal art compilation, a (not entirely complete) history of songs and artists that have run into huge problems over sampling copyright. See especially, 'The Buchanan and Goodman' - 'flying saucer' number - they used reel-to-reel tapes to constuct a sample-based comedy record in the 50s, sold millions and lost it all. It wasn't even that funny.

I have a little extra time so I thought, for those of you who are not already bored or offended by my taste in music that I would show you some of the people who make it possible. Like Lex records: This is an awesome avant-hop label with folk like political, hard-edged, angry and depressed rapper Sage Francis, excellent New York producer and rapper Tes who received raves from hiphop circles for his x2 release last year, although the link doesn't appear to be working right now, indie-rocking, piano-playing avant-hoppers Hymie's basement, warm and wonderful instrumental hiphop producer Boombip and their truly spectacular Lexoleum compilations, my favourite track off the latest: Lexoleum trilogy was 'The toy chest' by 'Mummy Fortuna's theatre company' aka these guys; all Lex art is done by EHquestionmark - vrykewl. They were set up as sub arm of Warp, which along with Ninjatune has recently been added to the Inertia international dist. roster. (Inertia aren't cool in themselves so they dongedda link). Warp is home to everything dark, weird and cool: Think Squarepusher, The aphex twin, Nightmares on wax or Autechre - quite an old reliable really. Ninja is the UK home of what was once triphop, but has not descended into that horrible frontal lobotomy that is chillout. Their stalwarts include Amon tobin (dark triphop and drum'n'bass), Vadim - long term trip hopper and, more recently one of the best things to happen to UK hip hop, Scandanavian ten piece jazz, drum'n'bass, postrockers Jagga jazzist and the video-jockey 'masters of the universe' Hexstatic! A live show by Hexstatic has to be seen to be believed. It's all run by sample-hop supremos Coldcut, doing it since the mid-80s, these guys are still very cool.
Ack! No more time! I will return and - in the mean time, pleez amuze yrselvvs with the ultimate guide to electronic, dance music. That thing is scarily complete.

A lot of the kewl avant-hoppers now appearing on these labels, especially Lex and to a lesser extent, Ninja came from the Anticon collective. These guys were the ones who got me into all this in the first place. Not least because their artists, like Sage Francis, Buck 65, Sole (anticon supremo), etc. etc., have been coming out to Brizz since long before it was fashionable and...it still isn't.

While I'm thinking about it (and I know this is already linked on Paul's blog, but then again, what isn't - have you noticed how he's referenced in this week's class reading - like he's some kind of musical god - isn't that unfair? Sh'yaah!) Tigerbeat6 is a great IDM (read your ultimate guide to electronic dance music newbies, it's linked above), beat mashing, electroclash, etc. label. Jeez, Paul even toured their founder Kid606. The co-founder, now no longer on the label is Cex. This guy is a vicious, then heartbreakingly beautiful, then vicious again indie-rock rapper and producer and he's like 21 , or something; that ***ts me to tears...nearly as much as Paul does :p

If we're gonna round out the roster of artists who make me jealous, how about we visit DefJux. They're only allowed to call it Definitive Jux now, 'cause Def Jam got kinda mad, but, hell, who's got the better artists these days anyway?
Check it out, they got Rjd2 a producer who gets a lotta comparisons to DJ Shadow, which is entirely justified: both have enormously phat production, an obsession with obscure soul and r'n'b breaks and they're both amazing (without the need for any interfering rapper), EL-P, this guy is an underground godfather - ex of the legendary Company flow crew and according to some the best rapper and producer in the Jux stable, but then I also really like these guys: Aesop rock and Mr. Lif, they do a lotta stuff together (like the show they did @ this year's Big day out - my pick of the day) 'cause their both incisive, funny and political.

Speaking of DJ Shadow. I'm sure most of you know this guy: His 1996 album, Entroducing - no-one was doing what he was doing back then. This was one of the first non-rock records I ever bought and was the source of my interest in hiphop, IDM, triphop, you name it. You should also check out his label Quannum. There's a lotta gewd things on this label, after all it's the repository for the best of the west-coast underground sound of hiphop. My faves are Latyrx combining the talents of Lateef the truth speaker (one of the world's great rappers) and Lyrics born and Blackalicious, combining, Chief XL (producer) and the Gift of gab (motormouthed rapper), these guys are the soul and heart of Quannum.

If I had to pick a favourite record for the last three years (and I find that very tough), it would quite probably be this one: Solesides greatest bumps. Taking on board tons of the most amazing cuts from the whole Quannum crew, this comp was an insta-classic. These are the tunes that get pulled out by any DJ wanting to warm up the underground crowd.

Before we done here I've gotta take in the UK IDM labels, like µ-ziq's Planet-µ. These guys have signed punishing IDM producers like New-Yorker datach'i, releative oldskewlers (god, now I'm feeling old) Venetian snares and my new fave OOO, check out his album Upon cycles, it's a killer.

Oh hey, I played some of it on my show this week.

Another great Euro label is Fat cat. the sound of the label is divided between the Icelandic pop, post-rock, glitch stylings of folk like Múm and Sigur rós and darker, more ambient outfits like Xinlisupreme. Actually, a lot of these types seem to have departed from Fat cat recently, like the ones on this Fat cat compilation. You can listen to the Duploremote and Com.A tracks here - and if you're up for something braintearing - I think u should.
Bizarrely Fat cat seem to have taken on Tigerbeat6 artist The bug. His album 'Pressure' has to be heard. This one half of the group technoanimal, brought the rough, dirty, industrial beats and Jamaica provided its toughest, meanest, scariest ragga callers and bam: the hardest record of 2003.

Well, I think that's enough about music for now,

I'm gunna wr1te 4bout som3th1ng 3lz to-m0rro\/\/.

Biacondios,

Pal.

Hi, not much time today but thought I should post neehow.
So, taking a liddlle brk from the h4rDc0r3 r4d10: Pls follow this link to the playlist for my last show. If that sounds like your sorta th4ng you can catch my next show tomorrow (Wed, if you're not attending an MSTU 2000 tute) from 3-6pm on 102.1FM. It's called The slack bastard show.
An' if you want more please choon in to Rude mechanical remix, electro, cabaret, trash and dark darkness - especially the guest programming from David Thrussell (aka Black lung, Snog, etc.), Spamdex, excellent glitchy beats, primarily, but lots o'other stuff, NoMC - The don gorgon: reggae, dub, soul, country classics (?!) the show with it all, and Screaming at a wall - hardcore punk and hardcore electronica. They're all good - people say the biggest problem with getting into the nurturing goodness of Zed is not knowing about it. So now you know.
Oh Cr4P! I nearly forgot Earwigs - cool experimental, ambient stuff and hapless recidivist - really up to the minute beats and post-rock stuff - those show are both awesome.

Yo. Werd up to the old skewl. AM radio is gonna be wearing a swish new digital suit too. At least if these guys have anything to do with it. They, (Digital radio Mondiale consortium) were afraid that AM all over the world was getting left behind, so, as the link will tell you, they're developing digital delivery and reception systems for AM radio broadcasting under 30mhz. At first I thought they were talking big but lacked commercial clout...and then I took a look at their member list. Eep - oh and look - Australia's there: Well @ least Commercial radio australia is there. The ABC, the CBA? Oh no, heaven forbid.

But -

Bite my tongue. I followed the link back to Commercial radio australia. The peak body for commercial radio broadcasters in Oz. They are heavily involved in Digital radio broadcasting Australia (DRBA) - for which I have yet to find a significant presence on the web. These guys are running, with the CRA as the main partner a trial of consumer, digital radio services over eighteen months, in Sydney. Both the ABC and SBS are involved to a limited degree - so, for that, I apologise to Aunty. See also this, this, this and th1s.

Oh look, surprise surprise - advertisers are really keen on digital radio. At least they know which side their bread is buttered on.

Also on the CRA site is a lot of info describing what digital radio is and can be (at least what the CRA thinks it is and can be). This sub-page has interesting links to descriptions of the technology the DRBA have considered adopting for provision of digital radio. These Include the AM system mentioned above from Digital radio Mondiale and the Eureka 147, being employed for the Sydney trial.
You can find out more about Eureka 147 digital audio broadcast system @ their website. These guys appear to be huge:

Over 300 million people around the world can now receive more than 585 different DAB services. Commercial DAB receivers have now been on the market since summer 1998. There are now more than 32 different DAB receivers commercially available. A receiver archive is available on this site, which exhibits the DAB car radios, hi-fi’s, PC cards, and other DAB equipment that has been developed.(DAB website)

Over 300,000,000, even at this early stage of takeup? They control broadcast and reception, too. I wonder if they will control software as well?
I wonder who owns Eureka? - The website wouldn't tell me. It is a consortium - and again, I imagine the CRA is a member, I wonder if our our government is.
I wonder what power the sole provision of this technology by that consortium will confer. I wonder if that will affect the future of Australian radio. This link contains some info on the DAB consortium and some tech. spec.s of the Eureka system.

Well, I've been looking for info on the involvement of the ABC and CBAA in digital radio. The CBAA does have information on digital radio on it's website, but needs subscriber access - guess I'll have to get that. The ABC gives a rundown of its involvement. NewsRadio seems a slightly bizarre choice for the trial, but hey, Classic FM and Dig I can understand. There is a link here to a news story detailing the paramaters of applying to the ABA for the digital radio trial. Also linked is the press release from the Federal Minister for communication, covering the establishment of the digital radio study group.
Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place but SBS radio doesn't seem to have very much to say 'bout its digital trial.
There's an extensive set of links at the bottom of the ABC site which led me to many things. This includes the other major partner in the consumer, digital radio services trial: Broadcast Australia. These guys will be running the trial in Melbourne, while the CRA is running the Sydney arm. Interestingly BA provides transmitters for a lot of community radio - so will they get digital access in line with BA's other clients if & when digital radio takes off?
Perhaps the best bit of info I've found so far is this essay by ABA General manager Giles Tanner. It describes the technology and implications of digital radio in a down-to-earth manner. Time has passed since this was first published and it appears that all concerned with the current trials have accepted - at least for the time being - Eureka 147 and given it VHF access (VHF channel 9 in both Sydney and Melbourne) - which, I think, limits it to 5 stations (since each Eureka transmission @ about 1 mbs, much wider than FM signals, can carry up to five different, CD-quality stations together, thanks to a device called a 'multiplexer'.
Wow, that was informative, I don't think I could'a said any of that before reading Mr.Tanner, so, please do so yourself, highly recommended.

Here's something I didn't come across on the CRA site, but is on their Digital Radio Australia site. I love it when commercial radio starts complaining bitterly about being hard done by and using words like 'public interest'. Anything that makes them squeal: Tops. Having said this I don't know whether the ABA's decision to grant Broadcast Australia (as mentioned above) the Melbourne half of the digital trial and the 'precious' slice of VHF band concerned, is good or bad. The enemy of my enemy is not always my friend, capiche?
I've been looking on BA's website again and they seem sparse on details of where
they're from, they're owned, I think only recently by The Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group. They do control a very large amount (nearly all) of government and community broadcasting hardware. It's laughable that the CRA should be the one to say this:

Commercial broadcasters reject any proposals, which duplicate the UK model of Broadcast Australia’s former owners ntl. This will lead to valuable public spectrum being held by an organisation with no public interest or community service obligations, and, to radio stations being charged exorbitant access fees to the spectrum needed to transmit radio signals to continue broadcasting to their millions of listeners.

I hope, however, they are not telling the truth.

I need to look @ that in more depth, but, no time now, so, bcksoon.