Jesus Malverde

Photo: angelferd

Last night a friend from Mexico told me about a very unusual saint; Jesus Malverde. In the state of Sinaloa, he's known as the protector of the drug traffic business amongst other things. I don't have to tell you that the funky Vatican don't really approve this "narco-saint", but I'm sure the Big Man up in the sky must be pulling some strings once in a while...

Erick D'Orion - Ruined Pianos

L'invention

Millimetrik - I am you are me; remixes and unreleased

Photo: Kim Lessard, layout Pascal Asselin & Geneviève Garneau

I just received Millimetrik's latest album, and it blows my mind ! It has remixes from aKido, Port-Royal, Ixe-13, Deadbeat, Televise and Keith Berry. The album will be in store April 4th, but you can buy it right now on Millimetrik's web site. I received a special stamped edition (#11 out of 222), if you want one, don't wait any longer !

Mutek 2007 - The line-up so far...

Here's some info about the line-up for the 2007 edition of the Mutek Festival in Montreal.

Agnès
Claude von Stroke
Kode 9 feat. Spaceape
Lee Curtis
Miskate
Pheek
Shoboshobo
Matias Aguayo & Roccness
Gui Boratto
Chic Miniature
Cobblestone Jazz with The Mole
Colleen
Digitaline
Gangpol & Mit
Heartthrob
Michael Mayer
Mr Oizo
My My
Rhythm & Sound (+ Tikiman)
Shackleton
Jesse Somfay
Ricardo Villalobos & Friends (special project)
Wighnomy Brothers
Candie Hank
Pantha du Prince
Someone Else

More will be announced on April 23rd...

(Source: Pheek on the RaveMontreal Forum. Link)

Photos Red Bull Crashed Ice 2007 - Finals

Oh their god, I wasn't alone at the Red Bull Crashed Ice 2007 finals (around 75 000 spectators). I arrived too late because I wanted to post the photos of the qualifications.

Fortunately, I got a call from a friend that was at a party in an apartment on Place Royale. We had a decent view of the last stretch of the course, where the skaters seemed to fall a lot. Someone found an almost live feed on the net, so we where able to follow the race.

Here's the photos of the finals:

www.redbull.com/int-en/event-series/red-bull-crashed-ice

Photos Red Bull Crashed Ice 2007 - Qualifications

Here's some photos of the qualifications for the Red Bull Crashed Ice 2007 in Quebec City. They really have balls of titanium to participate in that crazy race. I'm off to the finals, more photos to come...

www.redbull.com/int-en/event-series/red-bull-crashed-ice

Cheshire Moon

Tonight the moon is like the Cheschire Cat's grin...

The Soundry Courter Project

The Soundry Courter Project is the brainchild of Jason Cox, a bored U.S. California state worker (still employed ?). He uses the Windows Sound Recorder to make cut and paste collages of samples. His techno/dance/disco music has elements of noise, grindcore, ambient, trip-hop and countless other styles. While working at his day job, he recorded over 521 songs so far.

You can find his Best of Volume 1 available for steaming or to buy on Insides Music (CD-R netlabel).

XOC - Super Mario World Cover

For the nostalgics, the best (the only ?) cover album of Super Mario World's soundtrack by XOC. Available for download on Archive.org here. A tribute to the great Koji Kondo.

Fimav 2007 passport on sale

The passport (all-access pass) for the 2007 edition of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville (FIMAV) is on sale. Buy it before March 5th and you will save 65 can$ (275 can$ instead of 340 can$). The website for the 2007 edition will be live on February 12th.

www.fimav.qc.ca

Here's the line-up:

-ANTHONY BRAXTON 12(+1) TET
-JOHN ZORN SOLO
-ACID MOTHERS GONG
-MARILYN CRISPELL / LOTTE ANKER / ANDREW CYRILLE / MARK HELIAS
-CORKESTRA
-JEAN-FRANÇOIS LAPORTE "WAVES"
-MICHAEL SNOW / ALAN LICHT / AKI ONDA
-THERESA TRANSISTOR
-THE MELVINS
-KOENJI HYAKKEI
-JASON KHAN / TOMAS KORBER / NORBERT MÖSLANG / GUNTER MÜLLER / CHRISTIAN WEBER "SIGNAL QUINTET"
-VICTORIAVILLE MATIÈRE SONORE
-LARRY PEACOCK
-CARLA BOZULICH "EVANGELISTA"
-MAGIK MARKERS
-QUASAR / ALEXANDRE BURTON / JULIEN ROY
-ANTHONY BRAXTON CURTON WALL TRIO
-FINE KWIATKOWSKI / HANS TAMMEN
-JOHN TILBURY / STEVIE WISHART / CHRISTOF KURZMANN / WERNER DAFELDECKER
-FOND OF TIGERS
-JOANE HÉTU "FILATURE"
-KEVIN BLECHDOM / EUGENE CHADBOURNE
-DANIEL MENCHE
-KEIJI HAINO / MERZBOW "KIKURI"

Troy Hurtubise's Trojan fully-armored exoskeleton

Will someone please help this poor man :-) Found on Engadget.com, read the article here. www.projectgrizzly.net

Vieux Farka Touré @ Joe's Pub

Before releasing his new album on February 13th, Vieux Farka Touré will be playing at Joe's Pub in New-York City, February 8th.

The tickets (15 us$) can be bought at publictheater.org/programs/joes-pub/.

You can have all the details here.

1bit Wonder

Photo: Steffen Bennemann

1bit Wonder is a great netlabel specialized in minimal electronic music (but not limited to it). They distribute their music freely under a creative common license.

archive.org/details/1bit_wonder

Here's a link to my 1bit-Wonder Radio on LAST.FM

The artists on the label:

A'dam
Daniel Stefanik
Endlos
Frank Molder
Franz Eder
Funky Lothar
GuruFX
Igor O. Vlasov
Juno6
Kiorda Däkin
Kultobjekt
Latex Distortion
Le Cantin
Markus Masuhr
Nicorola
Steffen Bennemann (formerly known as Stalker)
Sven Tasnadi
The Noise Tales
Treplec

Pride Tiger + Lesbo Vrouven + Les Georges Leningrad

At first, I was surprised to learn that the show would be presented at the Dagobert, I was kind of expecting to see it at Rouje... The sound and light kit of the Dag is amazing, so no complaints here.

Like true groupies, we arrived way too early, the ticket was stating 9 pm (yeah, right). I did'nt knew Pride Tiger and I was pleasantly surprised. It reminded me of some kind of cock rock with a touch of Iron Maiden. The singer/drummer was a pure concentrate of energy (borderline puppy joy).

I'm glad I finally got to see the Lesbo Vrouven, I missed their previous shows. They offered a kick-ass performance. I particularly liked the bass, it had a NoMeansNo feel to it. The singer/guitarist is a show beast, very entertaining. While buying their album, I learned from the singer that they have something coming up in the future with Les Goules...

Les Georges Leningrad where plenty decadent as always. I would love to see them play in front of a Christian convention. The marvelous plywood bat was there at the back, the sexy echo queen singer was on fire. The ninja/burglar costume of the keyboardist was too good, all I could see was his eyes from where I was sitting. If you never saw those guys in concert, you are really missing something.

Barely 4 hours of sleep is definitely not enough for my poor brain...

Photo: Christian Morin, his review of the show

Blindsight by Peter Watts

Illustration: Thomas Pringle

I've just finished reading the excellent hard SF novel Blindsight by Peter Watts. It's basically a first-contact story between an alien entity and a crew of freaks. The crew is composed by a linguist with multiple personalities, a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultra-sounds, a pacifist warrior whose career-defining moment was an act of treason, a synthesist (an informational topologist with half his mind gone) and a vampire to command them all.

The book has been released under a Creative Commons license and is available to download as a PDF file here. I'm going to buy that book for sure, it's probably the best hard SF novel I have read in a long time.

www.rifters.com

Dis(10)pütes

Here's a very good d-beat band from Quebec City. Their brutal songs mainly talk about our good 'ol industrial chickens. The band members are from such bands as Electrocutionerdz, Traumatism, Mesrine, Fistfuck, Dahmer, Victims Of Corruption, Nourriture, The Toilet, Dis-Eased, Anomalies, to name a few...

dis10putes.bandcamp.com

Back to the future: 1985 BBS post on Engadget.com

I'm crazy for gadgets and can't spend a day without having a look at Engadget.com. They write great articles about upcoming gadgets. It's always well written, often with a tongue-in-the-cheek attitude. They won't miss an occasion to make fun of ridiculous gadget. I've stumbled on the 1985 page, when they were posting on BBS. It's always funny to look back at what we saw as the future... Windows 1.0, a killer app !!! For a bit of nostalgia, click here.

Amon Tobin - Foley Room out in March

There's already advance copies circulating around in the series of tubes that is internet, but the official release of the new album by Amon Tobin is due in March. The album Foley Room will be released with a short DVD documenting the recording process. I can't wait to buy the album !

The X-Dump Electronica Collective

It seems that I'm a lot into 8-bit music these times (a longer post about that to come). I discovered an interesting net label that distributes it's music freely in MP3 and OGG formats. The X-Dump Electronica Collective is composed of 8-bit /electronica / techno / IDM / pop / electro / ambiant artists.
Here's some videos of the artists on the label:

Psilodump

Dorothy's Magic Bag



Lithis



Paza Rahm



Matophonia



The Korvstoppers



Din Stalker



Bethy Ethodd

Anode