Art from Roo
Introducing Slackspace
Winston Churchill - Anti-Semite?
Spot the Difference
The Dreammachine
Music Reviews
Movie Reviews
Book Reviews
(Online soon)
The number of empty retail units in the UK is predicted to double by the end of the year, to around 135,000 (1 in 6). It’s not all doom& gloom however (hush anti-capitalists!); as many forward thinking creatives, curators & DIY folk have begun to convert these unused units into “slack space”, community cafes, galleries,studios & performance spaces. This is now happening in many areas around the country - for example, artists in Margate have taken over nearly a dozen units & in Dursley a row of three shops are now a gallery space & crafts centre. Other places joining in include Brighton, Colchester, London & Stroud (where an empty Woolworths displays the work of local artists). The head of the “Institute of Community Cohesion”, a government advisory body, said that to increase differentiation between towns & “as an opportunity to loosen the stranglehold of national & multinational brands”, vacant Woolworths stores should be turned into market halls, comprising local businesses’ acting in cooperation > Google “slack space” for more.
Did you know that Britain’s wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, believed there was a global conspiracy of “international Jews”? Neither did we... February 8th, 1920; Churchill (then a prominent MP as Secretary of State for War & Air) publishes his article “Zionism Versus Bolshevism: A Struggle for the Soul of the Jewish People”, in the newspaper “The Illustrated Sunday Herald”. Whilst not criticising all Jews, Churchill did state his general opinions on the group. “The conflict between good & evil which proceeds unceasingly in the breast of man nowhere reaches such an intensity as in the Jewish race. The dual nature of mankind is nowhere more strongly or more terribly exemplified.... It would almost seem as if the gospel of Christ & the gospel of Antichrist were destined to originate among the same people; & that this mystic & mysterious race had been chosen for the supreme manifestations, both of the divine & the diabolical”. He describes three Jewish political classes, two of which he considers “honourable”; Nationalist (primarily identifying with their country of residence) & Zionist (wanting a specifically Jewish country). On the third class, “International Jews”, however, his views are stronger; “In violent opposition to all this sphere of Jewish effort rise the schemes of the International Jews. The adherents of this sinister confederacy are mostly men reared up among the unhappy populations of countries where Jews are persecuted on account of their race. Most, if not all, of them have forsaken the faith of their forefathers, & divorced from their minds all spiritual hopes of the next world. This movement among the Jews is not new...this world-wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization & for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, & impossible equality, has been steadily growing. It played...a definitely recognizable part in the tragedy of the French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the Nineteenth Century; & now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe & America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads & have become practically the undisputed masters of that enormous empire”. He also lists other countries negatively affected by Jews, noting that “Although in all these countries there are many non-Jews every whit as bad as the worst of the Jewish revolutionaries, the part played by the latter in proportion to their numbers in the population is astonishing”!
Read Churchill’s article @ library.flawlesslogic.com/ish.htm *racist web site!!
Saddam Hussein was a bastard, but who originally helped the Ba’athist party to gain power? We fear Iran’s maniacal Ayatollahs, but who plotted a coup against their former, democratically elected Prime Minister Mossadegh in 1953? Who dropped the most bombs ever used in a single day on the Bosnians? Who keeps thousands of “terror suspects” locked up in a military prison, without fair trial? Which countries walk all over the rest of the world for oil, assets, money? Who needs you to stay asleep while they
plunder us all? Clue - it’s not an Al Quaeda terror cell.
So; indulge us in a brief walk down memory lane while we assess some of the damage that the U.S. & its rather pathetic fuck-buddy the U.K. have caused over the last few years...
HUMAN EXPERIMENTS - America has regularly carried out numerous dangerous & unethical experiments on its own citizens - these include the testing of biological & chemical weapons (e.g. nerve agents), radioactive materials (e.g. injecting subjects with plutonium) & various drugs & “mind control” agents. Those targeted for these disgusting purposes have often been drawn from conscientious objectors, military personnel, prisoners, ethnic minorities, the elderly, mental patients & the mentally handicapped. Shades of Social Darwinism?! Meanwhile, England has long had it’s Porton Down Research Laboratory, testing a variety of drugs & noxious substances on volunteering servicemen & women...
SUPPORT FOR OPPRESSIVE REGIMES - Where to begin? Britain has supported many dictatorships & military regimes (often over extended periods of time) - for example those of Chile, El Salvador, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Nepal, Nigeria, Russia, Rwanda, South Africa, Turkey, Uganda & Yugoslavia. This may seem slightly immoral to the layman, but don’t forget that assisting with intelligence, funding, training, munitions,
torture equipment & more are all in a day’s work for Her Majesty’s Government.
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION - “a terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn’t have an airforce” Since 1950, America has dropped bombs on many countries, often with the support of the United Kingdom. These targets (some repeatedly attacked) have included Afghanistan, Cambodia, China, Congo, Cuba, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Libya, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Somalia, Sudan, Vietnam, Yemen & Yugoslavia. Depleted Uranium has been used against Afghanistan, Iraq (twice), Japan, Kuwait & Yugoslavia, resulting in a high incidence of bone & lung cancers, carcinoma, genetic defects, kidney disease, leukemia, miscarriages & other serious medical conditions. To add to the number of potential casualties, 82% of 10,051 veterans of the first Gulf War reporting “mysterious illnesses” had entered enemy vehicles, a main target of Depleted Uranium weapons. These weapons have also been tested on places such as Germany, Okinawa, South Korea, the U.S. itself & also the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, where 60 years of bombing seem to have contributed to a rate of cancer more than twice that of their national average. Cluster bombs (unexploded examples of which lay around like land mines but scattered randomly) have been used against many of the countries listed previously, as have various biological & chemical weapons (including African swine fever, bacteria, CS gas, dioxin-based herbicides (some of the most toxic substances known to mankind), hydrogen cyanide, insects, mustard gas, napalm, rotting meat, sarin, VX nerve agent, zinc cadmium sulphide... Nice!
TOTAL COSTS - The U.K. alone can claim proud & direct responsibility for the deaths of an estimated 4 - 5.7 million members of the human race - special thanks for their participation goes to all the countries mentioned above, as well as Egypt, the Falklands, Greece, Kenya, Malaya & the former Soviet Union. Mark Curtis (author & former Chatham House Research Fellow) has also calculated that Britain also has an indirect responsibility for (i.e. facilitated or turned a blind eye to) approximately 3 - 6 million more deaths around the world over the last fifty or so years, bringing our total up to between 7 & 11.7 million all together. Well done Western “culture”.
“Had a transcendental storm of color visions today in the bus going to Marseilles. We ran through a long avenue of trees & I closed my eyes against the setting sun. An overwhelming flood of intensely bright colours exploded behind my eyelids: a multidimensional kaleidoscope whirling out through space. I was swept out of time. I was out in a world of infinite number. The vision stopped abruptly as we left the trees. Was that a vision? What happened to me?” (Extract from the diary of Brion Gysin, 21/12/58)
Designed & developed by Ian Somerville & Brion Gysin (with a little help from author William Burroughs) in the early 1960’s, the Dreamachine comp-
rises a perforated cylinder attached to a 78 RPM turntable, illuminated from within by a light bulb. Users sit before the cylinder, eyes closed, causing light to flicker through the holes & onto the eyelids. If done correctly the flickering of the light should induce a frequency of around 20 Hz (between 7 - 13 flickers per second), theoretically relaxing the brain by stimulating Alpha waves. Many users report seeing intricate coloured patterns & kaleidoscopic imagery, feeling rejuvenated & sometimes full-on transcendental experience. Although often disputed, the supposed benefits of this invention include “develop(ing) the knowledge of the hidden aspects of things”, increasing problem solving abilities, reaching meditative states quickly & as a “drug-free trip”. On the flip side, there is a small chance of fitting if you’re epileptic & use a Dreamachine (about the same percentage as a TV set or PC monitor), so bear that in mind! The thinking behind the Dreamachine is not new – an almost identical Alpha wave induction process is performed in Western medicine (the electroencephalogram), North African tribesmen entered trance states by rapidly moving their hands & fingers in front of their eyes whilst facing the sun & Sufi mystics described similar visions. There are now many companies retailing “Brain Machines” (utilising light & sound to achieve specific wave
states) & the effects
of light flickering through trees on
drivers has even led
engineers to “reconsider the use of evenly spaced trees
to line long stretches
of straight road”.
Gysin was an influential & well-connected figure on the underground; primarily a painter & writer, he had introduced Burroughs to the “cut-up” method, been expelled from the Surrealists (by Breton himself) & hung out with the Rolling Stones (introducing Brian Jones to the legendary Master musicians of Joujouka). Upon hearing of his visionary experience, his friend & collaborator Ian Sommerville (an electronics technician & computer programmer, amongst others) built a device to reproduce the flickering effect that Gysin had described. He described the result to Gysin; “I have made a simple flicker machine. You look at it with your eyes shut & the flicker plays over your eyelids. Visions start with a kaleidoscope of colours on a plane in front of the eyes & gradually become more complex & beautiful, breaking like surf on a shore until whole patterns of colour are pounding to get in. After a while the visions were permanently behind my eyelids & I was in the middle of the whole scene with limitless patterns being generated around me. There was an almost unbearable feeling of spatial movement for a while but it was well worth getting through for I found that when it stopped I was high above the earth in a universal blaze of glory. Afterwards I found that my perception of the world around me had increased very notably. All conceptions of being dragged or tired had dropped away...”.
Excited by his friend’s success, Gysin carried on developing the Dreamachine throughout 1960, obtaining a patent in 1961. Descriptions of the experiments were featured in the arts publication “Olympia” in January of 1962, a contributing factor to the interest in purchasing the patent expressed by several large companies (including the electronics giant Philips). Although initially excited by Gysin & Sommerville’s invention, these companies soon lost interest in the project - when Gysin told them that the device “made more people awake they lost interest. They were only interested in machines & drugs which made people go to sleep”.
FURTHER READING -
“Dreamachine Plans” (Temple Press, 1992)
“Flickers of the Dreamachine’ (Ed. Paul Cecil)
www.inter-zone.org
www.permuted.org.uk
www.10111.org/dreamachine
www.noah.org/science/dreamachine/
dreamachine@yahoogroups.com
VARIOUS - “PIXELATION” (MP3 - Bitcrusher)
Free compilation from UK netlabel Bit Crusher (run by Usedtobecool). There’s a lot of what I think
you’d call “chiptune” music here, most of which
isn’t really to my taste. However, there’s definitely some interesting stuff here to keep the more experimental listener happy. Standout tracks for me are those from Machinochrist, Mothboy, Phuq, Usedtobecool & weyheyhey !! - 3.5 / 5
AUTECHRE - “ANTI EP” (CD / Vinyl - Warp)
1994: The Criminal Justice Act loomed near & Warp Records was still an interesting label,
releasing this wicked EP from the consistently
innovative Autechre. Pissed off by the ridiculously
draconian CJB, they produced the track “Flutter”, in their own words “...programmed in such a way that no bars contain identical beats & can therefore be played under the proposed new law...” The track itself is surprisingly calm, flowing along nicely (especially considering the necessity for constant variation inherent in such a project). The other two tracks, “Lost” & “Djarum” are classic “repetitive” ae of the period. All in all, this is a wicked record (& all profits were donated to civil liberties charity
Liberty too) - 4.5 / 5 (music) 5/5 (concept)
THE TUSS - “RUSHUP EDGE” (CD / Vinyl - Rephlex)
Causing much muttering of another Aphex-conspiracy upon first release (although apparently the work of a Cornish couple), this is an eminently
likeable record, possessing as it does some really beautiful composition, combined with some suspiciously familiar-sounding synth & fx goings on to result in a sound something akin to “timeless”(!). Big props go to the gleefully rueful “Last Rushup 10”, the crazily wonky disco of “Shiz Ko E” & the
hyper-percussive & darkly optimistic “Rushup I Bank 12”. Play it real loud innit - 4.5 / 5
DOC COLIBRI - “PO...PÔ...POPP!” (MP3 - Love Love)
France’s Julien Chastagnol delivers a solid all-rounder here for Love Love, showcasing his flair
for using interesting sounds & toying with the
confines of the breakcore & braindance paradigms to produce a distinctively good humoured & refreshing take on the genres. We’re particularly
digging “Faya Bumbaka” & “Le Plaisir Des Aiguilles”, but all four tracks are good fun - 3.5 / 5
“MUM & DAD” UK, 2008, Steven Sheil
At first glance at the cover blurb, you’d be forgiven for passing over the debut from writer / director Steven Sheil as yet another “Hostel”rip-off (someone kill that “genre” now!). However, it’s a pleasant surprise when it turns out to be an imaginative, well paced & effective horror;
imagine a sort of cross between “The PeopleUnder the Stairs” & the original “The TexasChainsaw Massacre”, if you will. A Polish girlworking as a cleaner at Heathrow goes home with an apparently friendly colleague, only to discover that her family are seriously fucked - 4 / 5
“THE LONDON NOBODY KNOWS” UK, 1967, Norman Cohen
This obscure documentary (presented in patronisingly awkward fashion by actor James Mason) is an altogether fascinating glimpse of sixties London. Thrill to such delights as crazy buskers, rag & bone men, meth-drinking tramps, a Victorian public toilet (for some reason featuring a live-in goldfish), unfortunates at a Salvation Army hostel, “sewer-ventilating” gas lamps, “inefficient buildings”, the tunnels under Camden Freight Terminal & more! As a special bonus, the soundtrack is a crazy mix of music hall standards & psychedelic oddness. Brilliant - 4 / 5
LUKE REINHART - “THE DICE MAN” Harper Collins, 1971
Now here’s a book I’ve bought for at least ten of my mates! A classic of modern writing, this book documents the (fictional?) transition of Dr.
Lucius Reinhart from dissatisfied traditional psychiatrist to radical ontological terrorist. Our hero hits upon the notion of giving himself over to the hand of chance - listing various options for himself, e.g. cheating on his wife, playing with his kids, acting spiritual, getting drunk, etc. Gradually he ups the stakes, always listing at least one course of action his conscious self is loathe to do, such as rape & murder. Veering between personalities wildly, he eventually attracts a horde of followers (& much attention from the authorities & media), establishing the T.A.Z.-like “Dice Centres” for experimenting with social realities. I find this book particularly rewarding upon repeated reading, working well both as anarchically amusing fiction & philosophical parable; always making me draw parallels with my own notions of consensus reality - 5 / 5