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I don’t know what my naive self thought was happening – perhaps that the birds just liked the act of catching fish and would do it even on a full stomach? who knows – but I was clearly stupidly wrong. What happens, is the birds have a piece of string tied around their neck so that when they catch a fish, they cant fit it down their throat to eat it and the ‘fisherman’ grabs it out of their beak. Seems obvious in retrospect, and possibly even looks like it’s a clever tactic, like ‘yay – humans win over nature!’ but I cant help but feel like it’s cruel and unnecessary. Maybe before we’d learnt how to use nets and rods and whatnot, I could understand it, but these days(?) Is that the best fishing method(?) Really(?)

Bah. Boo to HSBC for glamorising tying string around cormorants necks. Boo!!

(more on ‘cormorant fishing’ here)

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This type of thing would probably be sufficiently covered in a simple tweet but TweetDeck just spazzed out on me so I thought I’d take it back to the old school and briefly blog about it.

YouCube has a simple premise, and a simple delivery, but it’s rather fun. Load up a cube with 6 links to videos on YouTube and they get loaded onto each side of a cube which you can spin around and rotate as they play back. That’s it really. The fading between the audio channels as you spin the cube is a nice touch and despite a few issues in Firefox for me (the cube doesn’t always seem to actually load up/couple of videos occasionally drop out?), it’s quite smooth. Definitely worth a look anyway. Peep my ‘Wu-Cube’ what I made. It’s great.

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So, a while ago, before people like Benni Benassi and Eric Prydz started relying on tits, sweat and slow motion tits and sweat in their promotional material, dance music videos used to be brilliant. You know, back when artists appeared in their own videos, and not just as a seedy looking fat man in the midst of a club of semi-naked girls. Or if they weren’t in the video, it was because the video consisted of groundbreaking 3D animation which more than made up for it. Back when the dangers of strobe lighting effects triggering seizures were irrelevant. When anything was possible. I miss those days.

So in a loose attempt to revitalise the dance music video genre and drag it out of the slump that they’re currently in, I present my top 7 dance music videos from the 90’s. A selection of the best of the best, each one has carefully been considered against the following criteria:

Got any salmon?
How well does it embody the ethos of dance music? Is there a clear use of salmon in the video? (high). Or no dancing at all? (low).

de l’Épée factor
Were the production crew clearly deaf? (high). Or does the video actually have any relevance to the song? (low). (Named for Charles-Michel de l’Épée)

Dworkin-ism
Distinct lack of tits, arse, or any other excessive sexy time allusions in order to try to promote the music. (high). Or, does it look like a promo for ‘nuts’ magazine? (low).

You’re not alone..
Its influence and clones etc.. Also known as the ‘dolly’ element. Because of dolly the sheep. (Two birds, one stone. Genius.) More influence = more sheep.

Sound basis for evaluation, I think you’ll agree. There’s also the factor of whether I like the song or not, but I’m trying to be objective. Honest.

Anyway, Let’s begin by pushing the limits at number 7...

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Last night, BBC Radio 1 & 1xtra broadcast 5 hours of hip-hop as part of their celebration of ‘30 years of hip hop’. It was alright.
Most of the quality came from an hour long mix from Jaguar Skills, featuring tracks from the past 3 decades. Superb, and available to download courtesy of the man himself here. The quality of the mix is undeniable, but some of the tracks toward the end (i.e. recent times) are a bit iffy.. Maybe that’s just me and my distaste of modern music, who knows. Either way, worth a listen. Great stuff. I’m not sure how different it is from his ‘Hip-Hop Odyssey’ 1979-2006 mix from a few years ago (I’d need to listen to it again) but to be fair, that was brilliant in itself and pretty hard to beat so he could be forgiven if there are any similarities .

The rest of the show, hosted by Zane Lowe & Tim Westwood, took the form of a top 30 countdown of the ‘most hip hop’ people. It was generated by a ‘consensus vote from influential people in hip hop’ including Dizzee Rascal, Rick Ross, Busta Rhymes, Zane Lowe, Tim Westwood and more. Comprehensive indeed. There are definitely some questionable entries and positions but generally, I was actually surprised at how good it is. Bear in mind this was broadcast on Radio 1 which is generally hip hop retarded, and you’ll share my surprise.

The list, in full, is as follows.. complete with links to their featured songs in case you’re not sure who they are..

30. Q-Tip
Founding member (and the most notable one?) of A Tribe Called Quest.
Featured track: Can I Kick It? (ATCQ) from People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm.

29. N.W.A.
The world’s most dangerous group..
Featured track: Express Yourself from Straight Outta Compton.

28. Ice Cube

Don mega.
Featured track: Today Was a Good Day from The Predator.

27. De La Soul
Started the D.A.I.S.Y. Age, repping native tongues.
Featured track: The Magic Number from 3 Feet High And Rising.

26. Beastie Boys
Known to let the beat.. dddddrooppp!
Featured track: Intergalactic from Hello Nasty.

25. Wu-Tang Clan

From the slums of Shaolin.. The RZA, the GZA, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon The Chef, U-God, Ghostface Killah and the Method Man! (& Masta Killa )
Only at number 25?! Loco.
Featured track: Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthin Ta F’Wit from Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).

24. DJ Premier
Producer extraordinaire. He IS that boom bap NY sound.
Featured track: Just To Get A Rep (Gang Starr) from Step Into The Arena

23. Lil’ Wayne
Biggest selling artist of 2008. “best rapper alive”? Fucks sake.
Featured track: A Milli from Tha Carter III.

22. LL Cool J
Don’t call it a comeback, he’s been here for years.
Featured track: Mama Said Knock You Out from Mama Said Knock You Out.

21. Snoop Dogg
Laaiiid back..
Featured track: Gin and Juice from Doggystyle.

20. Rakim

He was a fiend, before he became a teen..
Featured track: Paid In Full from Paid In Full.

19. Barack Obama

Featured track: Victory Speech.

18. Run DMC
Featured track: Run’s House from Tougher Than Leather.

17. James Brown
The most sampled man in the world. Praise be to the funky drummer.
Featured track: The Payback from The Payback.

16. Puff Daddy
Don’t worry if he writes rhymes, he writes cheques.
Featured track: Bad Boy For Life from The Saga Continues….

15. Public Enemy

Featured track: Fight The Power from Fear of a Black Planet.

14. Spike Lee
Doing the right thing.

At this point, I stopped listening. Not in a protest or anything, but because things to do and that.. 5 hours is a looong time. I have the final ‘chart’ entries but the featured songs from here on are my choice as opposed to the tracks that were played on the radio.

13. Nas
Half man, half amazing.
Featured track: Nas Is Like from I Am...

12. Kool Herc
The innovator.
Featured track: Old school documentary.

11. Afrika Bambaata
Zulu nation overlord.
Featured track: Planet Rock from Planet Rock.

10. KRS-One

Knowledge reigns supreme over nearly everyone.
Featured track: Sound Of Da Police from Return of the Boom Bap.

9. Notorious BIG
Mo money mo problems.
Featured track: Party & Bullshit.

8. Tupac
Sippin’ hennesy and ridin’ on his enemies..
Featured track: 2 Live And Die In L.A. from The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory.

7. Eminem
How the fuck can he be white? He don’t even exist..
Featured track: Role Model from The Slim Shady LP.

6. Chuck D
Different to Public Enemy(?) Never hear a brother like him go solo.
Featured track: Welcome To The Terrordome from Fear Of A Black Planet.

5. Kanye West
Seriously?
Featured track: 2 Words from College Dropout.

4. Grandmaster Flash
Grandmaster! Cut-cut-cut faster!
Featured track: The Message from The Message.

3. Russell Simmons
Bigger and deffer.
Featured track: EPMD – Rampage ft. LL Cool J from Business As Usual.

2. Dr Dre

The motherfucking D R E.
Featured track: Keep Their Heads Ringing from Friday Soundtrack.

1. Jay-Z
Meh.
Featured track: Can’t Knock The Hustle from Reasonable Doubt.

And that’s that. If you’re in the UK and reading this within the first week of this being posted, you can go and listen to the various hip hop shows that formed this mini celebration over at the BBC here. The Sarah Love UK hip hop show is a standout. Live cyphers from Jehst, Verb T, Mystro and some others..

Word.

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Saw this today and marveled at the genius of it for a while. Thought I’d share.

It’s basically a collection of songs that have been produced from audio snippets off of YouTube – and the corresponding music videos which are made up of the actual original video footage. I’ll let Kutiman explain it himself;

It’s really nicely done and actually surprisingly listenable-to. It’s also a nice touch having the credits (i.e. links to the source material) because watching the original clips on their own highlights how much of an achievement this project is. Rather mundane videos of people playing guitar in their bedroom or singing to themselves come together to form a decent piece of music. Go watch. http://thru-you.com

Inspired!

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NXE by the way, stands for ‘New Xbox Experience‘. It’s the.. err.. new xbox experience (strangely enough). Released midweek, I got to play with it a bit last night and so far I think it’s an improvement on the old navigation system. The coverflow style stuff is obviously heavily apple influenced but it’s slicker than the old blades so I’m all for it.

Not too sure about the avatar thing though. It’s so Wii. I struggled to get mine to look like me (click on the image on the left to see Mii me), but it’s quite good to see the groups of your friends who are playing the same games or whatever.

But anyway, the point for this is to say: the ‘welcome’ video that it plays just after you install the update is nice. That’s it. If you’re not xboxed up, you can still see it online. Good work from Exopolis. Check the HQ mov or the LQ youtubism.

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Shortly, the new Atmosphere album “When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold” will be out (April 22nd to be specific) and personally, I can’t wait. The couple of tracks that I’ve heard off of it have upheld my expectations and I’m sure the album wont disappoint (more on this next week. probably). The reason for this post however is to celebrate the way that Rhymesayers (or indeed, Slug and Ant) are promoting the album because it’s a definite change from the standard stickers/posters/myspace bulletins approach (although it includes those things as well).

Firstly there was the announcement..

..that in order to curb illegal downloading, they would not ship promo copies of the new Atmosphere disc. Instead, the label planned listening sessions in New York and Los Angeles. Either music reviewers made the trip, or they waited for the album to hit stores like everyone else.

- see here

It’s a bold move and until this morning, one that proved effective (the album leaked today.. only 6 days before the release.. not bad at all really). The rest of that article talks in more detail about the approach and puts it in context of the whole music industry / download ‘market’ thing. Go read it. It’s good.

There’s also been the recent talk of ‘Atmosphere Karaoke’ where the group are going to host a sing-a-long of their songs before each of the US tour dates. If they do this in Bristol this summer, I’ll be all over it. My Slug impression is fiyah!

What else(?) Oh yeah, the ‘moldy lemon in an envelope‘ thing which is quite funny as long as you weren’t the poor sap who ended up with rank lemon all over your hands.

And the free download on Christmas Day of ‘Strictly Leakage‘ was inspired. It’s still available if you missed it.

But the main thing I wanted to highlight is the ‘Paint It Gold‘ series that they’ve been putting out on Youtube. For the last couple of months leading up to the release date, Slug & Ant have been filming these 10 minute clips in their basement, answering questions emailed in, talking about random shit, and promoting the shit out of the album at any available opportunity. It’s entertaining. And genius. The episodes are getting better each time which makes the forthcoming release (and presumably, forthcoming end of the Youtube things) a bit upsetting. But fuck it, at least the album will be out .

So yeah. I did have a summary in mind for this, talking about how it’s a clever ploy in today’s society which is so indifferent to modern advertising techniques. How utilising Youtube in (what I think is) a novel way is a great use of the service. That managing to fend off ‘leakage’ til so close the album release date is nothing short of a miracle these days. etc etc etc blah blah blah. But this’ll do. for now

BUY THE ALBUM!!

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Wow. Just wow. Evolution has taken a mighty step forward.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/epeng001.shtml?src=ip_potpw

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I passed. Kinda.

http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

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Schwepps: Burst

This Schweppes advert is niiice. Makes me wish I had a highspeed camera. And some water balloons. So I could rip it off and watch the results repeatedly with a gormless look on my face. It would be the most beautiful thing anybody would’ve ever filmed. Even beautifuller than this.

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It was the freshest move I’ve ever seen; it’s like he was floating on air..

http://www.glossyinc.com/sleeper/utahsaints.html

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Long title but it’s the best way I could describe this

Nice advert for (presumably) the Spanish Metro service.. Check the link to viddy the quicktime.

http://www.peliculasponder.com/2004/content/directors/gi_01.htm

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Nice use of the pyramid (though I’m sure I read somewhere that they wouldn’t be using the pyramid live again?). Also, those glasses are insane! Where can I buy a pair?! Or would they burn your face after a while?.. Hmm.. Still, pat that man on the back for picking up 4 awards. Not too shabby.

Also, this week saw the unveiling of the Spike Jonze directed video for Flashing Lights which you can see by clicking on that there link. Not a lot happens. Mostly lingerie. Kinda blah to be honest.

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Wu Tang & El Michels Affair -”Bring Da Ruckus”

I’ve had the MP3’s of this session for a while now, and though the majority of the Clan are missing, they’re still quality recordings. What’s been lacking for a while however, are any accompanying videos.. But no longer! Youtube comes through again..

tsatsulo street soccer

Ridiculous. Just ridiculous. I like to think that I’m an alright footballer but seriously.. Ridiculous.

bonus: the new FIFA Street 3 viral ain’t too shabby either..

DJ Sara and DJ Ryusei

If only I’d've got my Technics 10 years earlier, then I too could’ve been a superstar child DJ. But I didn’t. So now I can’t scratch for shit. But these kids can.

Wasn’t that fun(?)

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The ‘blob’ idents on BBC Three have always been a redeeming feature amongst a lot of the tripe that passes for ‘entertainment’ (see ‘Two Pints Of Lager…’ for reference). Their ‘short yet funny in a slightly odd but quite ‘cute’-ish way‘ – ness has been a staple of the channel for as long as I’ve had it on freeview.. and possibly since the start of the channel(?), so it’ll be a shame to see them go. But go they must, to make way for the new BBC Three branding which I actually quite like. It’s pink. I like that. It’s accompanied by a series of new idents which have yet to air but will hopefully be colourful and joyous! Like the sneak preview below..

If you’re unaccustomed to the ‘blobs’, or simply want a refresher – YouTube saves the day again.

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MDA (Media Development Agency) are, as far as I can work out, the media regulator in Singapore and they also promote media development in the country; they also appear to be awful, AWFUL rappers. I realise that hip-hop is big business nowadays and companies are trying to cash in on it’s allure however they can but really.. there’s a line to be drawn somewhere. I’m not even sure if it’s supposed to be a promotional thing or what (though I can only presume so), but either way, it’s shocking. How they convinced ’senior management’ to stoop so low, I’ll never know. Shocking.

Keep your channels open, HD’s the new TV,
Right here, anywhere through mobility,
My job’s to review the MMCC (Media Market Conduct Code),
My very big ‘yes’ to industry growth..

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