In Search of African Vinyl

I don't know much about this film/music project apart for this trailer, but it looks to be intriguing and very enjoyable:

update: more here http://www.trotroproductions.com/Works-in-Progress.html
and Frank has his own blog here:
http://www.voodoofunk.blogspot.com/

Jamaica has still not been depleted of its vinyl musical treasures from decades past (the major difference being that in JA they are still repressing vinyl from original masters - in Africa this seems to be not the case), and it appears the time is right to save as much as possible of the vinyl output from the African nations - I would guess that the hot period for this Frank guy in the video would be the mid to late 60s and early to mid 70s. What I've heard from that time can be quite mind blowing.

The suggestion by Frank that that all western music comes from African music is a bit silly - but the fusion of existing folk songs, rhythms and melodies with imported funk and soul from the US and European pop that these African musicians made often transcended and in some ways improved on its influences. Reggae did more or less the same thing which is probably why I personally see and hear the parallel. And then some of it is just plain original and ground breaking (JA or Africa!)

Looking forward to the full length film whenever it turns up.
Looking at Frank's blog it is clear that the man is very much healthily obsessed with this music and I find the enthusiasm and the artwork for the albums and the sheer scale of his endeavour a great encouragement to hear more African music of the time.

Much to his credit Tom at Music Thing linked this video back in July. Thanks Tom.

Note: vinyl is apparently virtually indestructible certainly compared to tape or hard drives, so if you have anything nice and rare, hold on to it and look after it. And rip it (high quality) and share it...

Playlist.com?

These people Playlist.com are offering ringtones of the ACEtone Allstars - I don't think they should be doing this - even in the unlikely event that someone might want to pay for such a ringtone - how are they going to pay ACEtone Records? I have no agreement with them that I'm aware of but in these days of digital distribution it is possible that I overlooked their name in some agreement I made.
Being a 'beta' and pretty new it appears I have no aggreement with them about these ringtones for sale...

The ALLstars tracks are not yet with CDBaby or iTunes so I really have no idea how they think they are entitled to sell ringtones.

Note the fact that there is no way of contacting Playlist.com by e-mail and I don't think I really want to call here * to contest what is in principle important, but in the case of ACEtone Records, insignificant:

*Farbod Tojarieh
Copyright Agent
Project Playlist, Inc.
9300 Wilshire Blvd.,
Suite 200
Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Or send a fax to the following address:

310-278-7641
ATTN: Project Playlist Inc., Copyright Agent

Or by Phone:

310-479-3202

I expect/suspect Farbod is not only the 'copyright agent' (whatever the f**k that means) but the webmaster and chief bottle washer too - the general factotum - the grand poobah of Playlist.com.

The little that this bothers me is more because of the other good people playing on these tracks besides myself who might rightfully find fault with unauthorized ringtones of their musical efforts FOR SALE - when they have happily acquiesced to giving full tracks away for free at my instigation. Not quite right is it? Another skewed picture...

If Farbod would like to explain, I would be happy to hear from him.

Dub the Old Way

It is very interesting to see this kind of thing - so, big up to BattleJam who has replicated and built upon the sounds and techniques of the greats - this guy has skilz - yes indeed. One thing though - a REAL bass line would improve this kind of stuff very much.
I would be happy to provide one when I get the new flat wound strings on the bass.

Enjoy this - it is actually very good - a spring reverb and a space echo would complete the picture.
I just love to feel a bit envious of people like this. I want your board man!

Never let us forget the Korean Dub konnection

nice drums...but is he really a Korean guy? Anyone? I know from personal experience that reggae and Dub are a big deal in Korea...your answers on a postcard...

Japro-Funk? Japonica don't really know what they are doing...

...but it's better than they think!
It goes on a bit but actually sounds way better than I would have expected:

Media Obsolescence

This story and variations on the theme crop up more often that is really necessary.
Strangely no mention of the mould that can get under the plastic on optical disks...or was that the hyped-up scourge of some three or so years ago (5, 6 years ago?)? Don't hear much about it these days.

A lot in this article is true and to the point but typically this commentator offers no suggestions for a solution. More of a jaded old gripe than a helpful article. We are at the mercy of this monster we have created. Help us oh prophets of ages past who had the good sense to make information permanent. Send another Moses, with the internet etched on tablets of hardest obsidian - carved into the stone by the hand of god his self, verily...

I do need to correct this oaf on one point. I bought a turntable just 5 or 6 years ago - specifically a DJ type turntable and believe it or not - it will play 78s - so the fact that this guy threw away 'valuable' 78s is preposterous. And if they were valuable he would have been able to sell them on e-bay. Perhaps they were just old 78s nobody wanted and not actually valuable at all.

That simplicity is threatened, even in the publishing industry. I recently completed a book, printed it and gave the manuscript to my agent. To give it to a publisher, she wanted it in a digital version, so I gave her a Word file. When she opened it on her computer, it was full of garbage characters. There had been some problem in the document conversions among several programs. I couldn't fix it.

Maaaan, is this guy a Luddite! And the publisher had no clue what she was doing. And why was he submitting a 'Word' file to a publisher?! 'there had been some problem in the document conversions among several programs' - how's that for technical jargon!!! Me no understand - too...tech...nik...al. If I were he, I'd be embarrassed to admit such unforgivable ignorance. Just ask someone who knows about these things before you go making an arse of yourself on the internet!!!

Really, people need to read the stuff they write before they publish. Or perhaps not - it is all ephemeral and no one will know 20 years from now that Russell Smith is a clod.

New Eating Betty track 'Love and Justice Dub 'pon di radio

At 19:42 minutes you can hear a new track titled 'Love and Justice Dub' from the forthcoming 'Every Spoil a Dub' album by Eating Betty - here -
Many thanks once again to Dr. Strangedub for his continuing support and for playing Eating Betty so often on his radio show 'The Echo Chamber' KFAI-FM (90.3 Minneapolis / 106.7 St.Paul, Minnesota.

Dr. Strangedub's myspace page
Archive of 'Echo Chamber Shows'
KFAI audio streams

Big up Dr. Strange Dub!!!

Scientist sets the record straight

Responding to allegations that he blew a music festival sound system, Scientist sets the record straight. In no uncertain terms!
This is interesting for various reasons - to me primarily because it sheds a lot of light on the kind of work that currently occupies this legendary Dub giant.
Good to know he is working away and showing the people how sound is supposed to be done.

Here is a pic of the legend in his yootful prime:

Is Cuil a hoax?

http://www.cuil.com/
Certainly looks that way to me.
First clue: The claim that the word 'cuil' in Irish means knowledge is a red herring - or more precisely 'a trout of brownish colour' according to the Patrick S. Dineen dictionary. And brown trout is slang for...anyone? Two other meanings for 'cuil' from the same dictionary are 'a horse-fly, a gnat' and 'great eagerness'. The Irish language is baffling at the best of times!
With the fada the pronunciation is close to 'cool' but more precisely 'coo-ihl' - is this what they mean? It means 'a corner, nook'. Hence the goal area in ball games is referred to as 'an cuil', a goal keeper 'an cuil baire' (both 'u' and 'a' have a fada).
No definition of this word that I can find links it in any way to any meaning pertaining to knowledge. The only word I know in Irish for knowledge is 'eolas'. There are probably others but I doubt that 'cuil' with or without the fada is one of them.

I would be delighted if CEO Tom Costello or his missus Ms. Patterson could direct me to the source of his pet definition - and if it indeed it means what he says it does, I'll delete this post, humbly and happily.
Here are the relevant entries from the Dineen dictionary:

Second clue: Try doing a search. Lots of pages turn up in the search that do not exist, will not load. It does not find acetonestudio.com. Google turns up several pages at the top of the list for the same search. It's a disaster.

In terms of functionality and the 'user experience' it leaves an awful lot to be desired. This choice of three (default) or two columns for viewing the search results confuses the eye (and mind). The results vertical 'list' used by every other search engine seems to work just fine. Why change it?
Using Firefox it functions well enough, however using Safari it just does not work at all well.

The home page is...well...corny. That picture of the standing stones is just so ridiculous. If this guy is really Irish, I'm surprised by this bit of jiggery pokery. Arra shur begorra, whares the feckin' Leprehaun, mar ya?

It may well be that Cuil.com is exactly what it says it is and is at present inchoate but will in time grow to be a useful tool. Until then Google rules whether we like it or not.
They shouldn't have announced this thing it is wasn't ready. And it is not ready.

Having read more on this since I first posted I think it is worth making an additional note on pronunciation:
'cuil' (with the fada on the u) is pronounced something like coo-ihl. Not 'cool' or 'kewl'
This is such a crock of...er...um...gold? Brown gold? Brown trout all the way...and you know what that means...

Another point - cuil.com may (or may not) have the $$$ and servers and requisite technology to do as they profess that they can do - but as yet cannot and do not - but what they seem to lack most of all is intelligence and ability to deliver. Is it really intended to be a dumb search with no filtering at all? Somehow, whatever happens when you do a search it seems to do the opposite of what they claim. This is a really amateur effort...or maybe, in fact - I'm a dumbass who doesn't know how to look for something. Now where did I put my keys...?
well let's see what happens when the money dries up and the strawberries and cream have turned to white castle burgers...

If it turns out to be 'something' after all, I'll be happy to see them succeed and will eat a hat made of foie gras and caviar, served on a bed of endive and drizzled with the sweat of Nibelung. On my budget, that is as likely to happen as cuil.com lasting more than 6 months...to be bought by someone who just wants them to be the f#%k out of the way with their interfering, bungling, nonsensical algorhythms!

You read it here - just now...yeah...

Ah, the beauty of online customer reviews

No idea if this Jack Mehoff (har, har) actually even bought the product he reviewed. This is mean spirited, cruel and kind of funny...
And just in case you want to know what this is all about here the good ole Wackypedia entry