Monday 29 May 2017

Politic 32: Krush Groove

With the imminent launch of his new album, 軌跡 (Kiseki), hear be some of my most favouritest noise sounds from the man from Japan with two turntables...who sometimes has a friend hold a mic.


Kemuri (Untouchable Mix) [Stepping Stones - Soundscapes]
Song 1 [漸 - Zen]
Duality (featuring DJ Shadow) [迷走 - Meiso]
3rd Eye [迷走 - Meiso]
Road to Nowhere [寂 - Jaku]
Shin-Sekai (featuring Rino) [Milight]
Meiso (featuring Black Thought and Malik B) [迷走 - Meiso]
Ibuki Reconstruction (DJ Krush Remix featuring Kodo) [Reload]
Drum [Stepping Stones - Soundscapes]
Real (featuring tragedy) [Milight]
Ha-Doh (featuring Toshinori Kondo) [記憶 - Ki-Oku]
On the Painted Desert (DJ Krush Remix featuring Boom Boom Satellites) [Reload]
The Kinetics (featuring Mista Sinista) [覚醒 - Kakusei]
Big City Lover (featuring Sonya Vallet) [Krush]
Bypath 3 [迷走 - Meiso]
Aoi Ame / Green Rain 
Strange Light (featuring free the Robots) [Butterfly Effect]
Beats (featuring DJ Shadow)
Hitotsu no Mirai (featuring Kemuri Productions) [Milight]
Rust (featuring KK) [覚醒 - Kakusei]
Black Satin / On the Corner (DJ Krush Remix featuring Miles Davis) [Reload]
85 Loop [覚醒 - Kakusei]
But the World Moves On (featuring D-Madness and Masato Nakamura) [深層 - The Message at the Depth]
Lunation [Strictly Turntablized]
Matsuri 
Beyond Raging Waves (featuring Shinichi Kinoshita) [寂 - Jaku]
Spiritual Prayer (DJ Krush Remix featuring Sugizo) [Reload]
Final Home (Vocal Version featuring Esthero) [覚醒 - Kakusei]
Song 2 [寂 - Jaku]

軌跡 (Kiseki) will be released on 7th June (in some parts)...

Saturday 20 May 2017

Every 14 Days...(37)


Seiobo There Below (Laszlo Krasznahorkai)

It's fair to say that Krasznahorkai is a difficult author to read, with his lack of punctuation and endless, rolling sentences that go on for pages and pages. But stick with it, and the rewards are there to be seen. 'Satantango' and 'War and War' were challenging, and 'Seiobo There Below' perhaps tops them in terms of trying to get your head around the extreme depth in the writing.

Essentially, 'Seiobo There Below' is a collection of short stories; not that it's particularly framed that way. Each chapter is the story of the relationship between an individual, or individuals, to a work of art. This takes various forms: a Buddhist monk preserving a statue of a Buddha;  a Hungarian going to the Acropolis of Athens, only for it to be too sunny for him to see anything, thus spending his time drinking with some young locals; a security guard for the Venus de Milo at the Louvre in Paris; others.

Each is a painstaking look at how we appreciate art, all with a sense of pain and suffering as the cost of the reward. Each is meticulous in its detail, with the heavy influence of Japanese art reflective of Krasznahorkai's time spent in Asia. And indeed, this is not without its suffering itself. The need to immerse yourself in the minds of various individuals in Krasznahorkai's long-winded fashion takes some effort on the part of the reader, needing to juggle a lot of detailed text with knowledge of various artistic styles and cultures. The chapters are even numbered to the Fibonacci Sequence!

The title comes from a story midway through the book, 'The Life and Work of Master Inoue Kazuyuki', about a second-rate and over-worked Noh master in Kyoto, who has to summon the goddess Seiobo from his very depths for his performance. With 'Seiobo There Below', Krasznahorkai has performed similar feats.

Days to Read: 22
Days per book: 15.3


Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick)

Another one of those books that 'I should have read by now,' seeing as it's had a lot of influence on other works in its time, and I've seen 'Blade Runner'...in bits. With recent releases like the 'Ghost in the Shell' remake, I thought it was perhaps time that I read it.

Overall, I'd say this was a book where the idea is stronger than the actual book itself. I'm not particularly a big one for sci-fi, particularly in book form, and so the writing style was not much for me, feeling a little short on painting a picture in my mind, more telling you exactly what happened. Moments seem to come out of nowhere and are over in a flash.

The ideas, however, are good, and one can see why they have influenced many films, manga and comics, particularly considering it was a book written in the Sixties, with society moving more towards artificial forms.

It's a shame that they don't come packaged a little better, however. The characters and their relationships seem as artificial as the intelligence on display, lacking any particular depth. As such, while the concepts are interesting, they're ones you're quite happy to not be living with.

Days to read: 15
Days per book: 15.3


Too Much Information (Dave Gorman)

Having polished off his other books, I now turned to the latest instalment of bearded checked-shirt wearer Dave Gorman's paper-format writing. Each of his previous books have been about journeys; though this one less so. Though perhaps the journeys he was taking were starting to become a little convoluted.

Here we look at the concept of the digital age and the endless stream of consciousness it sends our way, to the point where we can no longer see what we take in, blinded as we are by all the other distractions around us. This is a world where we see, but don't look; hear, but don't listen; and read without any information actually being taken in.

This is an interesting concept, particularly in this day and age of multiple screen-viewing, endless multi-tasking, that actually sees us only do things by halves, not giving our full attention to what is necessary. There is an interesting social point raised here, though - naturally for a more comedy format book - taking an in-depth sociological look at the issue is perhaps missed. Along the way, this becomes more of a collection of rants and raves, similar to the various anthologies of articles comedians and writers now release for people who can't really be arsed to read the Guardian every Sunday. A lot of the content was used in his recent 'Dave Gorman's Modern Life is Goodish' series on Dave, though its 2014 release perhaps pre-dates the televised versions.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it would perhaps have been nice for a more depth summary of the comedic observations and investigations he conducts, with a little more comment at the cost of a little of the comedy.

Days to read: 13
Days per book: 15.3


The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)

You should never judge a book by its cover...yeah, you should! If the promotional cover's rubbish, what is the undoubted shit inside going to be like, I jest! But all joking aside (the left-hand side), I should have paid more heed to the cover for this edition of Paulo Coelho's 'The Alchemist'...and then never read it.

The tagline reads 'A fable about following your dream.' But also states '65 million copies sold,' implying you should buy it because it's popular, not because of your personal desires. Switching to the back, we see 'Dreams are made to be followed. Life is meant to be lived. Some books are meant to be read, loved and passed on. 'The Alchemist' is one of those books.' It then features celebrity endorsements, not reviews, from the likes of Madonna and Will Smith (not the not-that-one Will Smith, but that other one). This is why you shouldn't buy books online.

Paulo Coelho is one of those names you see a lot on book shelves: a name I thought I should probably have read some of by now, assuming he was some kind of Brazilian Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  But very quickly I was aware that this wasn't for me. I'm not sure where to start with why I didn't enjoy this, but what follows are some suggestions.

Perhaps due to translation, but the writing style is far too simplistic. This is not literature, but storytelling one would expect in a primary school assembly. As such, this is a book that annoys rather than engrosses, and you simply want to stop reading it. Each page feels the need to give us a handy life tip, which are incredibly repetitive. Life is far too easy for our young hero; everyone he comes across is simply a guide on his journey, pointing him in the right directions, far too happy to help. Call me cynical, but life just isn't like that. The moral here is that if you want something to happen, you just need to really want it and life will complete the puzzle for you.

I could go on, but I'll leave it at that. Put simply: this is a bad book. The young hero learns 'the soul of the world,' while his English travelling companion only reads books and so learns nothing of life. Some books teach you nothing of the world. 'The Alchemist' is one of those books.

Days to read: 8
Days per book: 15.3


100 Anime (Philip Brophy)

Sometimes with books on a certain genre or theme, the most simply packaged are the most effective. For the BFI, Philip Brophy's '100 Anime' is simply that: a review of a hundred different anime films or series. Not the best, not the most noteworthy; just a hundred of them.

Starting by looking at some consistent themes across anime and Japanese culture, Brophy looks at each of the hundred within the context of these themes, a lot of which are sexual. To an extent, the academic look at some of the titles might be a little too much and reading too much into things. However, his analysis does shed some interesting light on some of the works.

Admittedly, I haven't watched some of the hundred. In fact, I have only seen a small percentage. For those I have seen, it adds some interesting perspectives. For those I have not, it either makes me want see them instantly or can be a slightly dull read for a couple of pages, reading about something I haven't seen and am unlikely to ever be interested in doing so.

That said, this is a thorough and comprehensive look at a snapshot of the contradiction-in-terms I've just written.

Days to read: 36
Days per book: 15.2

Wednesday 10 May 2017

Photos of People Fishing in Japan

As you may know, Japan is a collection of islands; a bit like the Channel Islands, minus Bergerac. 

As a result, Japan has large collections of water surrounding it. And in water one will find fish (unless it's cod in the North Sea you're looking for).

Here be a collection of photos from Japan's islands of people employing various tactics to lure sea creatures to their collecting implements.


Kamo River, Kyoto. September 2008.

Casual midday types. 



Ichigaya Fish Center, Tokyo. March 2011.

Hardcore urban fishing.



Manzamo, Okinawa. April 2012.

What's he up to? He's fishing. 




Nagasaki. April, 2012.

Lonesome fish. 



Kawaguichiko. May, 2012.

Get in-volved fishing.


Silhouette fishing.



Nikko. May, 2012.

White water fishing.



Niigata. June,2012.

Rock and chips.




Kabira Bay, Ishigaki. May, 2015.

Fishing hat.


Fishing box.



Sukuji Beach, Ishigaki. May, 2015.

Fishing carrier bag.



West Pier, Taketomijima. May, 2015.



Always end with a penguin in a shop window (Akihabara, Tokyo. September 2008).


Sunday 7 May 2017

New Evisbeats

Some tasty new Evisebeats beats have made their pretty way on to Soundcloud. 

Here them...