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Something good is brewing in the small hip hop Irish scene, and the latest offering is the new project by ex-Exxon Valdez Leigh and Blake. While this is not as groundbreaking and innovative as the outstanding export of the Irish scene – Melodica deathship (who were one of Uza's best albums of 2010), this is a fine example of underground hip-hop, highly reminiscent (and, obviously, influenced) of the American tradition.

The bastard (Leigh & Blake) – The bastard (Bandcamp, 2011) http://thebastard.bandcamp.com

Paris suit yourself – I lost my girl (from: My main shitstain, Big dada 14/02/2011) www.myspace.com/parissuityourself

In an interview to interview magazine (link), bassist Marie Boye said:

"Brutality without elegance is like trying to fit a square inside of a circle... a waste of time, and a good way to render yourself ridiculous. In a more or less controlled way, we try to make the audience re-become animals while remaining ourselves at the height of their dignity".

Amen to that!

Arms & sleepers have taken a drastic change of direction in their new EP and they land firmly in the neo-classical, ambienty soundtrack territory. If you happen to be into Michael Nyman or if you enjoy staring at Anthony Hopkins in a period piece, looking thoroughly contemplative, then I guess you're in for a treat. Can't say that I'm a huge fan of that metamorphosis, but it's good to see a band flexing its muscles and embracing new projects. Kudos for trying, meh for execution.

Arms and sleepers - Nostalgia for the absolute (Expect candy, 04/03/2011)

Piano/Melancholy - "Lovers Arctic" by Arms and Sleepers

Orchestral/Dramatic - "Nova" by Arms and Sleepers

A German researcher reports a new aspect of the cognitive processing of symbolic representations. He wanted to explore the connection between words and their corresponding digits in texting. He chose digit sequences that "code" for only a single real word and words that don't require pushing the same button twice in a row. The words were divided into groups of positive (e.g. liebe = 54323) or negative (angst = 26478) meanings. Subjects were given only the digit sequences they were to dial and their cellphones' keypad had only digits on it. After having dialed the numbers, subjects were asked to describe their ensuing feelings. The general trend was that subjects enjoyed dialing "positive" numbers over "negative" ones, and the conclusion the author reached was that merely creating the digit sequence was enough to evoke the emotional effect the words themselves have. While the author uses the concept of embodiment to explain his results, my interest here is in the cultural effect of number symbols. A widespread concept in the study of cognition is called the mental number line, the idea that humans represent numbers along an imaginary line that goes from left to right, such that small numbers are connected with left representation and actions and large numbers are connected to the right hand side. It was argued that this mental number line is fundamental to human cognition, but it was obvious (and then empirically demonstrated) that this link between numbers and space is culturally based, and subjects from societies where the writing is not left-to-right do not display this link. The same goes here: one could argue for a link between numbers (the digits on the keypad) and both words and space (the location on the keypad), but that, again, would be culturally based and nothing more.

Topolinski S. 2011. I 5683 you: Dialing phone numbers on cell phones activates key-concordant concepts. Psychological Science. 10.1177/0956797610397668

Meet your meat and don't eat

This calls for a happy happy joy joy dance: a new track of the new album by the awesome Dangue fever. If only their success were as pandemic as the origin of their name…

Dengue fever - Cannibal courtship (Fantasy, 19-04-2011) www.denguefevermusic.com

Sample the album here: www.concordmusicgroup.com/albums/Cannibal-Courtship/

Or watch this to understand why you should be wetting your pants right about now

Sroeng Santi - Kuen kuen lueng lueng (in: Thai? Dai!: The heavier side of the Luk Thung underground (Finders keepers, 24/01/2011) www.finderskeepersrecords.com/discog_fkr044.html

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The stepkids - Shadows on behalf (2011) http://thestepkidsband.com/

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Princeton - To the Alps (2011) www.myspace.com/princetonmusic

Kimbra - Settle down (2011) www.myspace.com/kimbramusic

Grails – All the colors of the dark (from: Deep politics, Temporary residence 22/02/2011) http://grailsongs.com

In terms of popular science, the effect a biological field of study has on nonprofessionals, and the gap between scientific knowledge and its social perception, neurology is the direct heir of genetics. Just as genetic knowledge (even the one available at the time) has been unfortunately ridiculed and grotesquely portrayed by preposterous ideas such as the selfish gene, so does neurological knowledge get twisted and wrongfully represented to both scientists and laymen. The current state of affairs is that there are (at best) brain regions or (at worst) neurons dedicated for a single purpose (be it real or ludicrous) and virtually every aspect of behavior can be broken down to the operation of an atomistic unit. I won't go into a thorough analysis of why this representation is misguided and wrong, and for now I would like just to highlight the gap between the basic science of neurology and the extreme lengths that the thin layer of available knowledge has taken neurological theory. A team of American scientists reports a groundbreaking observation: neurons are a two-way transfer system. Neurons (nerve cells) are made of a cell body and several connections to other neurons. These connections are divided to dendrites that handle incoming electrical stimuli and to axons, which are responsible for the outgoing electrical stimuli. The axon of one neuron transmits its electrical charge to another neuron's dendrites, and thus propagate messages across the neural system. The intersection between an axon and a dendrite is called a synapse. This division of labor has been considered fundamental in neurology, but now the new research shows that axons are actually a two-way street since they can conduct current also back to the cell body. This study continues to reveal also that axons can perform autonomous computations prior to sending a current back to the cell body, and that these computations are three magnitudes slower than dendritic ones.

With computation taking place now at two different elements in the neuron (and with a considerable difference in speed) and communication being a two-way road, much of what we know about how neural systems has to be reconsidered. Basically, it was demonstrated that a neuron can continue to fire (send messages) long after the original stimuli had stopped. What it all amounts to is a form of cellular memory.

This paper also describes another novel neuronal behavior, for which the authors have no explanation: when one neuron was stimulated, firing was detected in another neuron, without any dendritic activity. That means that the axons themselves were communicating, i.e. another piece of data that goes against the grain of current knowledge.

Sheffield MEJ et al. 2011. Slow integration leads to persistent action potential firing in distal axons of coupled interneurons. Nature Neuroscience. 14 (2): 200-207