Fuck me sideways! Where the hell did this genius piece of work come from and where was I to have stupidly missed it? Without the slightest of blinks this joins the list of the best albums of 2010 and in the top tier. Canadian duo The peptides released their third album and simply nailed every aspect of it. Let's begin with the title and concept: For those who hate human interaction has 25 tracks each devoted to a different aspect of the album's title (those who hate… the human race / each other / the nuclear family / falling tragically in love, etc.). With 25 tracks they have the opportunity to present an odyssey of musical genre, a mind blowing potpourri of influences and hommages that boggle the mind. These guys are beyond talented, dare I say visionaries. Add the simple fact that the whole album revolves around a concept I couldn't agree more with and is rife with killer track names, you have a surefire album of a Gargantuan scale. Uza purrs in delight and gives this one a paw full of whiskers. Simply awesome.
The peptides – For those who hate the human race (From: For those who hate, Self released, 2010) www.thepeptides.com/forthosewhohate/
The fact that Glen Johnson is a giant in our midst is not a secret to anyone. Piano magic has been a fortress of musical solace in a fairly mediocre decade and basically everything he touches turns to gold. The same goes to his label Second language, which now release an ambitious new compilation called Minute papillon. The idea is simple: 60 different artists, generating a minute long track. This is not a new idea but one rarely tackled. The residence did it one and the attest effort 9to the best of my knowledge) is Guy Livingston's Don't panic. Needless to say, the best ever such compilations was the monumental tour de force Miniatures, curated by Morgan Fisher in 1980 (followed by Miniatures 2 in 2000). Miniatures was one of the best albums released that decade and to date stands as a historical document of a time and place of daring experimentalism. Minute Papillon is a bit different as its impetus is the label itself and its artists, rather than a concept or an editorial theme. I'm in early stages of listening to it and absorbing this baffling myriad of styles and approaches, but it's obvious right now that this is an album you should seek out immediately; after all, it has the seal of Johnson on it. Here's a short hand namedropping must have: Opiate, Plinth, Textile ranch, Isan, Felix Kuban, Scanner, Machienfabrik, Jasper TX and many (many) more.
Various artists - Minute papillon (Second language, 21/02/2011) www.secondlanguagemusic.com/SL09.html
Here's a podcast the label made: www.secondlanguagemusic.com/Podcasts/2L_PODCAST_8.mp3
Shona Foster – Love and war (from: The moon and you, Republic of music 07/02/2011) www.myspace.com/shonafoster
The do - Both ways open jaws (Get down, 07/03/2011) www.myspace.com/thedoband
The subs - The face of the planet (2011) www.myspace.com/thesubstrax
Pharoahe Monch - W.A.R. (We are renegades) (War media, 22/03/2011)
Pharoahe Monch "Clap (one day)" feat. Showtyme & DJ Boogie Blind by duckdown
Pharoahe Monch "Black Hand Side" feat. Styles P & Phonte' by duckdown
Remission - Winds of promise EP (React!, 15/01/2011) http://remissionhc.bandcamp.com
The moderna and modern scientific thought beginning with Descartes may have initiated the scientific age as we know it, but they offered no deviation from the anthropocentric perspective, which is the legacy of the monotheistic religions. In fact, it is only in recent decades that scientist dare criticize the ridiculous (and needless to say counter-evolutionary theory) anthropocentric point of view. Within this critique, animal behavior and animal cognition studies play a prominent role. Researchers in those fields are recently looking for a myriad of behaviors that are traditionally considered uniquely human. An example is a new paper in Proceedings of the Royal Society B which exhibits evidence for empathy in hens. The authors claim that hens display significant behavioral and physiological changes in response to stress inflicted upon their chicks. The authors' starting point was the assumption that empathy had evolved to facilitated parental care and as such, exposing offspring to mild stress should generate an empathic reaction in the parents. In the experiment described in the article, hens and chicks were divided to several groups, each receiving a different treatment. In one group, only chicks were exposed to an air puff every 30 seconds. A second group had the air puff directed at hens only. In another group, the animals were subjected to noise only without air blown in their direction. The last group served a control and was subjected to no procedure. The authors report that when chicks received an air puff their mothers became more alert and more vocal. This behavioral response was accompanied by an increased heart rate and a decrease in eye temperature (the physiological monitoring was non-invasive). Such data are of importance not only to the research of the evolution of emotions, but also of high ethical importance: they clearly demonstrate that the conditions in which hens and chicks are in chicken farms waiting to be slaughtered are stressful to them and there is no humanity in their holding conditions
Edgar JL et al. 2011. Avian maternal response to chick distress. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 10.1098/rspb.2010.2701