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I've been mulling over this for a while now, but I've decided to take the plunge and start encoding my rips as FLACs rather than MP3s. It's the best way of ensuring as flawless a copy as possible of the original vinyl (within the restrictions of the kit I use). With a FLAC file you're getting the full package, without the audio compression you get from MP3s. FLAC files can be converted back to WAV files (for burning CDs) to give you a perfect copy of the original audio. What's more, you can compress FLACs to MP3s if you want smaller files for your pocket player, just as you would a normal CD. The big drawback with FLAC files is their size – although they're about 30% smaller than WAV files, they're also around 4 times as big as MP3s. For that reason, I've also decided to use torrents to share them. In part, this is due to my normal free host (MediaFire) being a right pain to use since they 'upgraded' and uploads constantly failing. Folders also tend to disappear if they're not accessed after a certain time. I'll keep trying to upload to MF, but I can't guarantee making files available this way any more. If you don't know a thing about torrents, don't worry, there was a time when I didn't either. If an old fart like me can work it out, then there's hope for everyone else. You'll need a piece of software called a torrent client – I use uTorrent. There have been reports of problems with the 2.x release of the program at the time of writing, so I would suggest grabbing a 1.x version from FileHippo until they get it sorted (I'll let you know when I know). Read through this guide and follow the steps carefully. If you use a router, you will need to pay close attention to setting up a static IP and forwarding your ports (!) – don't worry, it's a lot easier than it sounds if you're methodical and follow the instructions. That's it. To get my torrents, click on the torrent link at the bottom of the post. This will take you to another post containing the actual torrent file in my members-only forum (you'll need to register and be approved for an account before you can access it). Click on the torrent file and select 'Open With uTorrent' (or whatever other client you use) if the dialogue box appears. If you don't want to do this every time, you should be able to set uTorrent as your default torrent program and avoid this step. uTorrent's beginner's guide should give you all the details you need. If you can't work it out, let me know and I'll see what I can do to help. I promised quite a while back to fulfil a request for the lyrics from the Karma Sutra LP posted way back at the birth of this blog. I finally got round to taking some pics of the booklet today, so anyone else who wants to grab it can now do so. Received in the post today:
This is yet another blinding piece of pure punk rock from TCWK. They've taken some classic tunes and given them a great makeover that's guaranteed to make your body jerk in a very pleasant way. The fact that every cent raised is going to a genuine grassroots organisation already operating on the ground in Haiti is an added bonus. Not buying this is not an option. OP's opinion: @@@@@ If you want a clearer idea of the problems and challenges that are being and will be faced by Haitians over the coming months and years, here's the appeal put out by Batay Ouvriye:
Some of you will already know my fondness for Insurgence Records, and my joy at the news that Randy (part of the Insurgence crew) has also set up his own label, Rebel Time Records, with co-conspirator Phil Broadcast Zero. I've already reviewed their early releases, but I recently got a bundle from Randy with everything else put out to date. And what a damned fine bundle it is. Brat Attack – Those Who Sow Sorrow Shall Reap Rage
That's not to say they've forgotten their roots – there are definitely nods to the likes of Aus Rotten and The (English) Subhumans in their approach, but there's also a strong flavour of bang-up-to-date melodic streetpunk underpinning the whole lot. Of course, without the intelligent, witty, and straight-talking lyrics, this would be nothing more than pleasing ear candy à la Rancid, and there's more than enough of that sort of nonsense in the world already. The Brats are clearly not a part of that poseur punk mindset. It's abundantly clear that they're willing to accept the challenge of making punk rock a threat again. The accompanying promo sheet nicely summarises the whole package as 'a hummus-powered, positive & purposeful punk rock radical-left political primer… [that's] even got melody, hooks & a catchy chorus or two!'. This is the sound that fills you with hope as you put a match to the Molotov in your hand and in your head. OP's opinion: @@@@@ Download sample track – 'This Police State Causes Urban Genocide' The Class War Kids – Reflection! Rage! Rebellion!
This disc picks up from where the last one left off without simply being more of the same. It keeps all of the energy, urgency and humour that hooked me first time without sounding in the least bit rehashed. You could quite happily play their entire recorded output back to back and enjoy every fist-pumping, life-enhancing, sweat-soaked second of it. I wouldn't be surprised if you then pressed 'repeat' and did it all over again. Even at their most serious, The Kids aren't afraid of making you laugh while they fire you up. When they tackle sexual indoctrination and self-restriction in 'Cherry Poppin' Conservatives', they do it with a literal 'fuck you' attitude, happily asserting that 'it don't matter who's into penis or vagina, if you like 'em both, best of ya!'. The remedy is to 'whip it out, slap it around' while also making sure that Christian Conservatives get their 'ass cherry popped!'. Sounds like one hell of a party. The funnies don't always fit the theme, and that's where the poetry of their message shines through. 'The reason I'm so angry is because I'm so in love, I won't give up but one heart can only bleed so much for a world so fucked up' ('Love & Anger') captures the essence of why we feel so compelled to scream out, and how we're building a future based on love as we kick down the world around us. This whole package brings to life Raoul Vaneigem's lesson that 'people who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about love and what is positive in the refusal of constraints, such people have a corpse in their mouth'. In true punk rock style, The Kids spat the corpse out a long time ago. OP's opinion: @@@@@ Download sample track – 'Common Threads' The Rotten – Enemy Of The State
Suitably refreshed, I hit play again. What a difference a cup of tea makes to your ears. The Rotten may not have quite the same the musical or lyrical prowess of their label breathren, but that doesn't stop 'em expressing themselves in no uncertain terms. The noise is stripped down, punked up and gobbed out in the finest tradition of the old school style. There's a decent dose of street politics and wrong-side-of-the-tracks anger aimed at the 'great and good', as well as tongue-in-cheek humour and the desire to just have fun. And there's nothing wrong with that. The influence of Canuck punk pioneers DOA courses through the veins of these 21st century (angelic) upstarts, underpinning but not overpowering this rough diamond of a record. The Rotten – they're anything but. OP's opinion: @@@@ Download sample track – 'K.W.D.P.' You can buy all of these titles from me for the princely sum of £7 each plus a bit for p&p. All profit goes to the local antifa group. Just use the order form to let me know what you want, where you live and an email addy for PayPal, and I'll get it sorted. And apologies to Randy, Phil and the bands for the delay in getting these reviewed. Your efforts are much appreciated, even if I'm a slackarse sometimes. Right about now is one of my favourite times in the garden. It may not be at its 'prettiest' anymore in the eyes of some but I behold things with a slightly different focus. Not only is there plenty of food to be cropping but there are also plenty of seeds to collect. Free seed this year = free plants and food next year. Now that's a punk rock result! Pretty much all of the flowers and veg I grow in the garden produce viable seed. This is the big advantage when you choose to grow seeds from pure lines rather than hybrids. Saving seed from hybrid species is pretty pointless, especially if you don't have much space, as none of the offspring will have stable genetics and you will end up with all manner of shapes, sizes, colours and/or flavours (good and bad) depending on what you're growing. So stick to the non-hybrid varieties if you don't want to have to keep buying the F1 seeds every year. Also, it pays to remember that many varieties will also readily cross-pollinate with others of their kind. This isn't anywhere near as problematic as F1s crossing, especially if they're high quality pure lines getting jiggy with each other. But if you want to keep a particular variety of these types true to the parent plant, either stick to only growing that specific variety or keep the different varieties isolated from each other. How (or even whether it's practical) to do this depends on how they are pollinated. Chillis, for example, are pollinated by insects moving from flower to flower. So, if you want to grow two types, a net cage moved from one type to the next on alternate days will allow insect pollination while preventing cross-pollination. Complete isolation is the only really guaranteed way of keeping things perfect but I don't require or desire absolute perfection (most of the time!), so close enough is good enough for me. That's enough theory, time to get on with the fun bit. Saving seed is easy, needs no special equipment, and requires just a bit of your time (and a nice cup of tea to help you along). Firstly, you can (and should) choose the best plants as your seed source. When you sow them next year, you'll be guaranteed to have great results. Then you find out the best time and way to collect the seed. For flowers, it's normally just a case of leaving the flowerheads to die and literally go to seed. These seedheads will then ripen, which usually means that the seeds fall freely from the plant if you give 'em a shake or gently rub the seedhead. That's the perfect time to collect 'em. Make sure you do this around noon or early afternoon on a dry day, not just because it's more pleasant for you but because it means the seed isn't damp. Collecting veg seeds is slightly different but, almost without exception, is best done when the vegetable itself has fully ripened and matured. There's a good introduction to veg seed saving here and here. Google should help fill in the gaps. Once you've got your seed, you may have a couple of options of what to do with it depending on the species. Seed from many native plants in the UK (as well as non-natives from the same hardiness zones) can be sown as soon as they're collected. In some species, they'll germinate straight away. The plants then have enough time to put on a decent amount of growth before the approaching rigours of winter set in, and they'll have a great head start come next spring. This is particularly useful for biennials like foxgloves, as they'll produce flowers in the same year. Other species need a period of cold to break their dormancy (known as cold stratification) before they'll spring to life, so sticking 'em in a pot, bed or seedtray in the garden now will ensure they get the chilling they need once the snows and frosts take hold (an alternative is to reproduce the same effect in your fridge before next spring – mix the seed with some damp vermiculite, seed compost or sand in a ziplock baggie, remove most of the air, seal and put in the salad drawer of your fridge for however long the species needs). The rest of your seeds, including most of your veg, will need to be kept until next spring or beyond. That's easy enough too. You need to make sure the seeds are properly dry. Seeds from ripe flowers will probably not need any further drying, seeds from veg will almost certainly need a bit of help. Just put them in a warm and dark place with decent air circulation and low humidity until they are. The seeds can then be stored in paper envelopes or bags in an airtight container in the fridge. Seeds will often remain viable for quite a few years like this, although germination rates will eventually decline over time. For even longer-term storage, many seeds will also survive quite happily in the freezer. Chances are you'll end up with more seed than you need. What a great problem to have, eh? Either swap or give them away (via friends, the web or by organising a community seed swap) or indulge in a spot of guerrilla gardening. So that's the basics. The specifics are down to you, your plants, your tea supply and Mr Google. Artist: Antisect 01. Intro (War) I could've written a blinding piece about this record, but someone far more intimate with it than me has already done it:
Biased my arse! I was there, it was fucking awesome! For a recording from 1984, this release does an amazing job of capturing some of that power. Play it loud, and you'll feel exactly what I mean. I love strawberries. But only fresh picked and in season, when they're absolutely bursting with juice and flavour. Not only are they at their most pleasing on the mouth, they're also the perfect additive to a fine vodka*. The problem is, strawberries need space (albeit not much), and space is at a premium in my garden. I've tried growing a few plants in the gaps among the herbs, but they've not done brilliantly well. So I looked at getting a strawberry planter, a particular kind of pot for growing strawberries vertically. The problem is, anything half-decent (in size and appearance) is expensive. And I'd rather save the money for a good vodka to infuse with the strawberries.
At the moment, I'm growing Elsanta. This has got a bad reputation as the bland and ubiquitous supermarket variety but, grown with some TLC, it produces large amounts of luscious medium-sized berries that are loaded with taste. Next year, I may well try a more unusual variety, or even add a few 'perpetual' types that produce small but continuous crops from mid-summer until the first frosts. Seasonal strawberries in November? Yes please! I can't think of a better way of ignoring the impending winter months than stuffing my face with straight-off-the-bush summer fruit. And once you've got a few plants established, you'll never have to buy any more. Apart from giving you fruit for a good few seasons, strawberry plants send out runners every year with new baby plants on (you can see them hanging over the edge of the pot in the picture). These will self-root once they come into contact with soil, a process you can help by using a u-shaped loop of wire to pin the runners in place. Once the plantlets have rooted, you can cut the runner from the parent plant and pot the baby up elsewhere. Care for it properly and it will be ready to replace its parent next year. *Fruit vodka: simply fill an empty vodka bottle about one-third full with ripe strawberries or other berry-like fruit, add 2-4 ounces of sugar depending on the natural sweetness of the fruit, top up with vodka, give a good shake and keep in a cool, dark place. Shake vigourously every day for a couple of weeks, then shake every week or two for as many months as you can bear, but at least three. When it's ready, strain it through muslin or similar fine cloth and put into a clean bottle. If you can resist the temptation to drink at least some of it, place it back in the cool, dark place and try and forget about it. If you can wait until Christmas, you'll be well-rewarded. Particularly good fruits for this include blackberry, raspberry, any of the currants, and sloes. Sloes should be picked after the first frost if you're in the northern hemisphere, as this is when they're at their ripest. Sloes are very sour, so use plenty of sugar for the best flavour. And prick them with a fork first to allow the vodka to really bring out their fulsome twang. I've just made a batch of blueberry vodka (yeah, I know, imported produce is bad, but these were only shipped from Germany, are a rare treat and were on the discounted sell-by shelf in the supermarket for only 30p!). It's already taken on a deep purple hue and should be stunning come the winter solstice. That's just given me a thought – cranberries, like sloes, are also sour and cranberry drink makes a fine vodka mixer. I think a bottle of cranberry-infused vodka could very soon be on the cards. Ernest Embryo pointed out that three of the tracks in the 'You've Heard It All Before' compilation couldn't be opened because they were corrupted. So I've re-zipped these three tracks and uploaded them again for everyone that's had the same problem: Download the missing three tracks I also received a lovely email from Chris Willshire (the force behind the label) about the upload:
Chris' website is currently down, but hopefully not for too much longer. There are some interesting plans in the pipeline from what I can gather. Artist: Squandered Message 01. Beware-Teddybear Hailing from Berlin, SM were part of the ferocious yet melodic Euro hardcore scene that was at its peak right then. Although maybe not quite as well known as bands like Jingo De Lunch, Life…But How To Live It? and Negazione, they exhibited a similar musical prowess and approach to their sound. If you like any of the bands from this era, there's a good chance you'll like this too. To be honest, I never listen to this kind of stuff at home very often. I've always preferred this style in the flesh – watching the musicians play shit-hot licks while usually jumping around like kangaroos on speed is quality entertainment and you'll always find me in the thick of it (although maybe not for the duration these days). But when the mood takes me, taking myself back to this time of my life in the comfort of my living room works a treat. And I still can't help flailing about wildly when it goes mental. Artist: VA Disc 1 Disc 2 This is a right mix of stuff, from the humorous to the bizarre, and feels very much like a 'Bullshit Detector' comp (but generally with better production on most of the tracks). Outstanding numbers include Wat Tyler's 'Our Wedding' (natch), Ten Naked Fish's 'Securicor' (just for being the Wessex Massive), Blyth Power's 'Reality Asylum' (typically clever and funny) and Maggot Slayer Overdrive's 'Major General Despair' (great band, great noise). The weirdest / most artistically challenging award goes to Academy 23's reworking of 'Demo(n)crats', which reminds me very much of a punk Aphex Twin. You probably won't like it all, but I reckon there's bound to be something that tickles your fancy. 2000 were pressed in total, and it was a benefit to raise money for Rape Crisis (click to make a donation if you can). Download Part 1 PS: I have failed miserably at my goal of making regular monthly posts. So I've introduced a simple subscrition option that will send you a brief email whenever I get my lazy arse into gear and put something up here. |
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This is The Brats fourth album, and I don't know how the fuck I missed the other three. This is anthemic rebel noise done right proper! Clearly designed to upset our enemies and fire us up in equal measure, the tracks are a finely-tuned and targeted assault on the stupidity that constitutes the current social order. It's a big target, but The Brats main-line their attack straight into the system's nerve centre. This is music that goes well beyond the meaningless clichés often found in lesser offerings. This mob know it's 2009 not 1979 and, while they're clearly well versed in our history, they're also fully aware of the reality of the struggle today. 'Those Who Sow Sorrow…' is a beautifully angry response to the situation we currently find ourselves in.
I love this band! I want to have their babies and breed an army of punk rock superheroes hell-bent on creating regime-changing anarchy! OK, I know that I don't have the appropriate ladybits required for babymaking but, if I did, my womb would be theirs. These young soul rebels have revolution etched into their genetic make-up.
On first listen, I was a bit underwhelmed by this offering. But I quickly realised that my mistake was playing this straight after the other two and not giving my brain a chance to reset. Much like wine appreciation, you need to clean your aural palate when enjoying fine music.
So I had a quick think about it, hit Google, and found a pretty elegant solution that was along the same lines as what I was already contemplating. The best part is it cost me less than six quid. Simply get three terracotta pots of different sizes, fill with compost, and stack them up. Sink each smaller pot just under halfway into the soil in the larger pot and you're good to go. I've used 33, 23 and 15cm pots, with 4 plants in the biggest, 2 in the middle and 1 on top. With a heavy-cropping variety, these will be all I need to indulge my taste buds and liver.
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