the music of the earth

So a friend of mine, Janus sunaJ (who happens to be quite a scholar of mysticism, particularly gnosticism & hermeticism), asked me to make him a mix of "armenian, sufi qawalli, persian, malian, balkan & morrocan music". i've been tinkering on it this past week and of course added in some other cultures... some tuvan, romani, indian, andalusian, egyptian, kenyan, japanese, native american, etc...

it's become a sprawling 5+ hour mix of beautiful music from around the globe, loosely based around a concept of an initiatory meditation journey. i had quite a lot of fun with it. i hope you enjoy listening as much as i did. each "disc" is approx 75 minutes long. i recommend downloading all 4 and listening to them in order (accompanied by your favorite person & favorite sacrament!)

Michael's Meditation Musics pt. 1 "the surface is scratched"

✓ huun huur tu - prayer
✓ unknown west africa - Karamako
✓ Armand Amar - Song of the Red Dervish
✓ unknown sufi - Ferahfeza
✓ Istambul Oriental Ensemble - Basbasa
✓ Talvin Singh Taksim - Master Musicians Of Jajouka
✓ Sheik Yasin Al Tuhami - Qalbi Yuhaddithuni
✓ Claude Chalhoub - kaa
✓ Nass el Ghiwan - El Gasba
✓ Debashish Bhattacharya - Sufi Bhakti
✓ Shivkumar Sharma & Zakir Hussain - Raga Kedar, Gat In Ektaal
✓ Madjid Khaladj - Dayre
✓ La Notte - unknown
✓ Zakir Hussain - Where deserts meet
✓ Musafir - Moria Badnawa
✓ unknown african - Anklung
✓ Boubacar Diagne - Laye Laye
✓ unknown south african - Domba
✓ unknown sumerian - Hurrian Hymns, 19 And 23
✓ Hideaki Kuribayashi - Shouhin 1

download pt. 1 here

Michael's Meditation Musics pt. 2 "the road is winding"

✓ Djivan Gasparian - My Home
✓ A Hawk And A Hacksaw - Kiraly Siratás
✓ Claude Chalhoub - Track 04
✓ Shri Subhankar Banerjee - Tabla Tale
✓ Hossam Ramzy - Sha-Awit Katie (Katie's Cheeky Playfulness)
✓ Hossam Ramzy & Rafa El Tachuela - Ahlam Ghernatah (Memories of Old Granada)
✓ Gritos De Guerra - Buleria
✓ Gnawa Diffusion - Gazel Au Fond De La Nuit
✓ Slonovski Bal & Krassen Lutzka - Oriental
✓ Boban Marković Orkestar - Magija [Magic]
✓ Rita Abadzi - Prepei Na Skeptetai Kaneis
✓ Romica Puceanu - Unde o--fie puiul de aseara
✓ Taraf de Haidouks - Balada Conducatorolui
✓ Shahram Nazeri - Selfless
✓ Huun-Huur-Tu - Mezhegei
✓ Sussan Deyhim - The Candle & The Moth

download pt. 2 here

Michael's Meditation Musics pt. 3 "the book is blank"

✓ Ensemble of the Bulgarian Republic - Polegnala e Todora
✓ Mohammad Reza Mortazavi - The Will
✓ Trio Chemirani - Le Retour de Molla Nasr'din
✓ Zakir Hussain - Kalpana
✓ unknown touareg - unknown
✓ unknown gnawa - Tramin
✓ unknown tuvan - tongue twister
✓ unknown native american - Beowawe
✓ unknown crow - Crow Traditional Song
✓ unknown african - Lukuji
✓ unknown inuit - girl's game & agnutn
✓ unknown new guinea - spirit flutes
✓ unknown navajo - night chant
✓ unknown northern japan - ainu hero narr
✓ Huun-Huur-Tu - Khöömei
✓ unknown javanese - pangkur
✓ Alemu Aga - Selamta (The Creation)
✓ unknown brazilian - Capoeira
✓ Master drummers of Dagbon - Gurinsi-Waa
✓ unknown haitian - Port-au-Prince Drumming Demonstration
✓ Boubacar Diagne - Dembe
✓ Idjah Gadidjah - Daun Pulus Keser Bojong
✓ Halima Chedli Ensemble - Healing in Morocco "Touhami Dikr (excerpt)"

download pt. 3 here

Michael's Meditation Musics pt. 4 "the child is born"

✓ Philip Glass & Foday Musa Suso - suso's song
✓ unknown ghanan - apatampa
✓ Ali Farka Toure - Savane
✓ Mamadou Sidibe & Jongo Traore - Prenpreni (Bush Spirit)
✓ Unknown Kalahari Bushmen - Nxai
✓ Umalali - Luwübüri Sigala (Hills of Tegucigalpa)
✓ Salif Keita - The Mansa of Mali
✓ Corale Corse - Paghjelle
✓ unknown indian - unknown
✓ unknown indian - unknown
✓ Carmen Amaya - unknown
✓ Toumani Diabaté & Ballake Sissoko - Kita Kaira
✓ Raul Garcia Zarate - Suenos
✓ Fernandor tor - unknown
✓ Qing ge le, Da ri ma - Jujube Tree On THe Holy Hill
✓ Unknown Tibetan Buddhist Monks - Nyen-seng
✓ Forward Kwenda - Mbira Spirit Ceremony "Tadzungaira & Gonamombe Rerume"

download pt. 4 here

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two dubstep mixes...

the first mix is called "dubstep a to z". it's a simple and quick concept mix... a challenge to my flexibility. each artists name starts with a, b, c, d, etc... in order. certain songs were picked for me because i only had 1 "x" artist and 1 "y" artist... other letters i had limited choices so i had to build the mix based on what worked for what was there. it's a pretty chill dubstep mix... not a lot of pummeling... i wouldn't exactly call it ambient, but it's percussive, textural and skankin'. i'll definitely do more of these if i could find some more "x" and "y" artists!

26 tracks. 55 minutes.

the track list is as follows:

Aardvarck - "untitled"

Boxcutter - "rusty break"

Coki - "all of a sudden"

Disrupt - "true creators"

Eleven8 - "static (promo mix)"

F - "phantom"

Giant - "rain mind"

Hurtdeer - "vasopressin"

Indigo - "cosmos"

Jack sparrow - "the chase"

Kromestar - "my sound"

L-wiz - "prayer room"

Martyn - "natural selection"

Nokea - "cassava"

Overcast radio - "vendetta"

Pangea - "bear witness"

Quest - "deep inside"

Ramadanman - "revenue"

Shackleton - "el din (pt. 2)"

Truth - "revelation"

Untold - "discipline"

Vibesquad - "clowncollege"

Wiley - "ground zero (devil's mix)"

XI - "distress signal"

Youthman - "bombs over baghdad"

Zomby - "strange fruit"

download "dubstep a to z" here!

the second mix is called "pummeled". this mix is short, dirty and VERY heavy. full contact bass-sauce mixed high and noisy... some of the blends are a little sloppy and or adventurous, but i think it fits the style... this mix was an outlet for my interest in more aggressive sounds that are absent from the a-z mix. i tried to capture the essence of a small but dedicated dancefloor of dubstep fiends... sweaty, raucous and LOUD. not for the faint-hearted... especially the end!

13 tracks. 21 minutes.

tracklist is as follows:

kromestar vs. hatcha - "twin towers"

the widdler - "froggy style"

ultrablack - "you need jesus"

guns n' bombs - "riddle of steel" (12th planet & teaLong remix)

max ulis - "soundkilla"

ganja white night - "strawberry cough"

borgore - "guided relaxation dub" (edit)

noah d & babylon system - "examination of time" (VIP mix)

distance vs. benga - "chokehold"

16 bit - "texaco"

bar 9 - "murda sound" (VIP mix)

reso - "beasts in the basement"

nero - "end of the world"

download "pummeled" here!

NOTE: none of these mixes contain any of the tracks on "tower of babel" which is my dubstep inspired opus mix... that mix wont progress until i work out some bugs with my ableton setup. but some day! in the meantime i hope you enjoy these mixes, and let me know what you think about them.... and come see me play records!

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that veiled gazette issue #325

photograph of tinfoil i shot recently...

MUSIC, MP3, ALEXANDRIA IS OPEN: bolachas grátis is back! beat does it better (albums up for three days only). local (to pittsburgh) hip hop dj archives his tape collection... recently i've been downloading great stuff from torrentech... it's invite-only, but if you love electronic music and are cool with uploading to stay on (need to upload 30% of what you download...) email me for an invite. great research into some dubstep sample sources here (and right on time, apparently). and MUZAK FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY!!! anyway, here are this issues mp3s, all .zipped up on mediafire like usual...

(mp3) atom™ - "insulting the dj" - cheeky minimal banger
(mp3) lv - "takeover (dub)" feat. dandelion? - beautiful epic dub reggae
(mp3) dj mujava - "township funk" (radioclit remix) - funky hipster shit
(mp3) alarm will sound - "4" - 20-piece orchestra covering aphex twin

ANARCHY, BABYLON, POLITICS: i definitely believed some of these 5 myths about U.S. prison growth. pentagon hiding torture information from obama. speaking of obama, you can track how he's doing on his promises here at the obamameter. at least he's bringing back the FOIA. given that 8 in 10 corporations use off-shore tax havens, it's pretty cool that swiss bank accounts may not work so well anymore. iran's people are A LOT more moderate than their overlords. this article about french radicals is both hilarious and disturbing. confrontational graffiti on headless fuck-object advertisements. other people are pissed off at virgin mary fashion spreads and pron spreads. and did you know you are being lied to about pirates?

ART, ARCHITECTURE: the architecture of takis zenetos is profiled in bldgblog... fragile, desert dwellings and nice canyon turbine design there... i recently touted the art on basic_sounds, but if you haven't seen it check it out (albums there, too...) this art is sure to piss some people off, but the event that inspired it was one of the best performances of 2008. following the election... a group of people turned bush street in SF into obama street. incredible, colorful graffiti from guatemala. the designer's republic is dead, sort of. if you aren't familiar with their (mostly awesome design) work, you can see some here.


ECO, TECHNOLOGY: riding a bike is great for the planet, but it's a lot safer with a laser bike lane (pictured above). google's powermeter seems cool. this person seems to think it's better than wind and solar energy combined. also, 7 "green" daily show moments. the first video is classic, if infuriating. i've blogged about living buildings, but this may be easier to implement: living walls. i met solar cooking designer bart orlando at the oregon county fair... watched him boil water with the sun. there is a very non-eco side of me that loves insane research vehicles like the maximog and the unibox. btw, bush actually did something cool before he left office.

WEIRD, HUMOR: one of my favorite headfucks is telling people about the pagan origin of the days of the week. rufus is awesome at slingshot. far out lindy hop. terry pratchett becomes a knight. this woman clearly isn't afraid of scorpions. cracked occasionally has awesome content, like this "6 insane discoveries science can't explain". finally some potential justice for this weird tale of geronimo's bones. and of course, drunk pigs.

VIDEO: steal video off youtube with pwnyoutube. and here is great darbouka playing, great mouth playing and great editing... triple great!

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art & music (of a certain style)

the music on basic_sounds tends towards a minimal electronic raster-noton aesthetic, and the art towards pictures of people with things covering their faces... but there are exceptions to both. beautiful blog, even if i kind of don't like most of the art or the music.

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that veiled gazelle digest issue #306

well, despite the atrocity in gaza (and the ufo-believer's sex orgy being canceled!) 2008 ended up pretty well, all things considered. the greek riots gave hope to anarchists everywhere (and made me obsessed with no-go laws...) 2009 looks to be quit exciting. it's the international year of astronomy, for instance, and international year of natural fibres... most importantly though, it's the year of conflict resolution... i hope your year is filled with beauty (and underwater bliss-scapes!)


ALEXANDRIA IS OPEN, GREATSITE, MUSIC: there have been a couple of HUGE music archives found recently... pretty much all the trojan reggae box sets are available on this site. props to rupture for locating that. the boxes are great, especially if you need help learning about the various forms of reggae. a ton of (pre-2008) grime hip hop albums can be found here. in thanks for uploading a request of mine on extra music new, i uploaded the entire ernst catalog here. they are some of the first records i bought (1999!) and i love them. a deep minimal tech/house series by thomas brinkmann. you can really hear the evolution of his sound. fun stuff. a couple other music blogs i've been digging recently are disturbed beats, which is full of fidget house and bassy dance stuff (thanks conway!), blog to the old school, which is a spectacular service that uploads vinyl rips of old jungle and hardcore records (run by devnull!) and the elephant's child is loaded with videos of mostly modern african & middle eastern music. in the too much music category... i plan on posting my 7 reggae mixes from 2001 soon... i gave them to my local pizza shop and they bump 'em all day some times.

MOVER, MUSIC: 2008 saw the passing of odetta... brief eulogy and 1963 folk songs album here. also, miriam makeba passed away... brief eulogy and her debut album is here. others (like teo macero) passed, but those two i had just learned about...

MUSIC, MP3: alright, here's some track i've been diggin on. some really different stuff here, this time. some chunky, faltering house, an old illbient track, 1 serious epic pounding dustep tune, more, all .zipped up on mediafire again.

(mp3)passion pit - sleepyhead (streetlab mix)
(mp3)mokobé feat. mohammed lamine & mory kante - africa tonik
(mp3)babylon system & noah d - examination of time (VIP mix)
(mp3)qaballah steppers - the conqueror and the mute sea
(mp3)mwamway & radioclit feat m.i.a. - rain dance
(mp3)a made up sound - sunday

ART: if you are unfamiliar with swoon, (and even if you are) you might want to check out these videos of her work... sort of like a paper-cut-out banksy with a lot less myopic view... these snow sculptures (sort of bas reliefs, really are amazing. i found the image on this guys front page cool, but the rest is fairly boring (and very NSFW). yulia brodskaya's paper work is unique. i like the text ones mostly. demakersvan made an awesome lace fence. make your own fractalized photos with this plugin (windows only, :( ) also, i never saw this olympic water cube... gorgeous (as was the opening ceremony, which i finally saw)...

BABYLON, POLITICS, SCANDAL : even if you escape to a beautiful monastery, world politics will surely find you. it's hard to be surprised any more by popular newscasters slinging bullshit, government contractors exposing military people to toxins, or google unnecessarily disrupting music bloggers (ripley covered this too). but what about people with intimate knowledge of rove, bush & cheney dying mysteriously? also, on a brighter note, this is an idea whose time should come.

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, WEIRD: clump together rat's neurons and they can learn to fly an airplane. seriously. cool, but i'm much more impressed by scientists making matter out of pure light. or if they pull off MAKING a fucking STAR.

NATURE: the world's oldest cat, mischief, the world's weirdest animal, adorable miniature creatures, natural aphrodisiacs and potential ARMAGGEDEON (probably not?).

ECO: only thing that crossed my radar was an improvement in passive;y heated homes that allows the heat to be captured during ventilation so that you can be warm and breathe at the same time (with super low fuel costs). article.

LEFTOVERS: top five visualisation methods of 2008. top ten astronomy photos of 2008. how to travel the world for free (basic, but good stuff if you don't know it already...) woddy harrelson and co blog. poem/video thing from said blog (it's good!). oh, HUGE machines.

VIDEO: dj fly dmc winner 2008 (anyone see any dubstep at the dmc? seems like jungle took over after craze... anyway, he's fly!

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zero gravity sound...

i really like zero g sound. they use rapidshare, which is annoying, but the selections are deep. it's easiest to browse back in time with an rss reader like google reader. they are on a classical tip right now, but they love old revolutionary musics...

witness:

talking union
politics, violence and intrigue in trinidad
teacher don't teach me nonsense
german labor songs
word sound 'ave power - dub poetry
songs of the spanish civil war
songs of the international brigade
songs of joe hill
voices of the civil rights movement

tons of other great stuff, african music, reggae, early and influential punk, folk and jazz...

mikey dread
cannonball adderly
bertolt brecht/klaus kinski
nico
sun ra
the ex

dig it.

note: the image above left is a candle flame in zero gravity

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leftover night (or "smorgasbord")

i think i should do this more often so that it won't be as big as this, but...
i'm going to clear out my blog ideas bookmarks.
MOST OF THEM... right now... get ready:

first off, a clear picture of jupiter:

ahh, how nice. and now, teh links:

brain reacts to a hand transplant
weird light sculpture photos here and here
beautiful post it note cascade video
russia newspaper predicts u.s. apocalypse
urb's top ten rap debate songs.
article has funniest. title. ever.
steal back your vote comic.
sheriff refuses to evict people.
martial law imposed if bailout not passed.
8 hacks to make firefox much faster.
the green-collar economy book.
sensors powered by trees.
1 in 4 mammals face extinction.
nytimes ownership gossip.
top ten reasons to become a "new radical".
yet more crow intelligence here and here.
florida gop voter fraud again.
site claims bloggers can make a difference
dems look at policies that wrecked economy.
very interesting color i.q. test... it's hard!
victoria reynolds weird, meaty artwork
cutup collective's baltic work.
rabbi's against the existence of israel video
7 people with real mutant superpowers
do you know about the overton window?
bill o'reilly defends obama... wow.
oops, missed this call to action.
sort of obsolete palin articles here and here.
scholarly article on hedonism.
amazing spraypaint art technique.
drawing every person in new york city.
funny little nature boats, pooh sticks!
trash formed into awesome shadow art.
portable cardboard table... nice design.
guerilla marketing reverse grafitti.
3d, light and geek grafitti.
tile patterns of the alhambra analysis.
awesome layered glass painting of xia xiaowan.
illusions with record covers.
book reccomendations from 17 leading scientists.
boost your memory with the palace technique.
rare brain disease effects creativity, also "bolero"
top ten strange phenomena of the mind.
i don't know if i believe this, but...
the anatomy of sarcasm.
trains that don't stop moving?
teese cheese and ice scream.
i have no idea why i have this link.
vectors for free.
how to trick your printer into using it's ink.
how to get free airport wi-fi.
10 creative ways to deal with junk mail.(make paper!)
how to persuade customer service reps to help you.
25 ways to simplify your life with kids.
article on sharing parenting duties... we do this.
beautiful oak photograph.
9 ways to start a fire without matches.
thousands of starlings do weird things together.
the almiqui... bizarre!
plants prefer their relatives.
urban homesteading article.
marijuana experiment movie and law attempt.
study on inequality and the effects of physical pain
organizing without organizations.
sensible units.
blind 5-year old piano prodigy.
the bodhisattva vows.
geek out about colors
orange jews.
writing excersise prompt.
pirate bay breaks 12 bazillion users.
the unapologetic mexican.
independent bookstore book finder.
call the future.org
online radio guide.
interesting online graphics programs.
everything someone found funny for one year.
dear-god.net, an interesting community blog.
good online arabic-english dictionary.
world's largest flashcard exchange.
make and save images of stacked cubes... album cover anyone?

and if you only ever watch one video on this site, watch this one:



i can't take it anymore... time to stop. anything good?
UPDATE: from the comments, patrice adds some links...

monkey's using robot arms or "what my brother does in Pgh
Off-beat bride. I'm not really an endorser of weddings, but the photos on the cite are always fun to look at. Basically my form of reality TV/Lifetime TV
tiny
twistori
Just Seeds Updates
quick and good
Geek Fun
Surveying the Interstices of Art and Medicine, Death and Culture.
cute
yum
the the other half does
favs
great investment, great guys who designed it, good cause that they put $ to
endless amusement
he was a trainwreck
OH goodness
a friend's new website
next project

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needed a break

i've been working long days of construction for a lot of money, which i will spend on lead remediation so my child doesn't get sicker... blogging has been hard. the bush bailout is an awful idea, as far as i can tell, and we still live in a world with these...

but keep your head up... obama is kicking ass in the polls that count, and this week i'll be back with weird science, great music and scintilating sensorial sumptuousnesses.

photo of me and my baby by ryan sigesmund...

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great reggae and dubstep resource

datadelic. they have a lot of great dubstep tunes, and some dub fore-runners to the style. i liked this iration steppas track from 2003, "too much war". heavy sinewave bass, but not yet dubstep. "we don't want more war, president bush"

(mp3)iration steppas - "too much war"

earlier:
demolition, travel and dubstep
bass pt. 3 a dubstep primer

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incredible medieval manuscript scans

an incredible amount of illuminated medieval manuscripts have been scanned at the colombia university digital scriptorium. they have highlights, and search function, and high res scans. above is the only entry marked "alchemy" though...

if anyone is interested, i have some information regarding the sufi connection to european alchemy, but i wont jump the gun with that...

via metafilter

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RANDOM specks OUT there

switch heads on some of these links, people...

sometimes spin can backfire. (RE: obama's "bitter" comment)
wind powered mobile sculptures. (beautiful theo jansen work)
news about america imported. (international news sees u.s.)
ten beautiful indian roads. (yes india, not "indians")
favorite world music blog. (flamenco, sufi, asian albums)
incredible piano scale resource. (i like "double harmonic")
lloyd kahn, "shelter" writer. (posting book scans soon!)
bendy and flexy images. (kid dances for laughs)

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great finds, sample sources

how to speak hip... cause you know you need to learn. click on the earlier link to hear this incredible record. some genius on metafilter somehow dug through the javascript to provide direct mp3 links... side one, side two. i know a ton of tracks sample this record. now you can too!

"much hipper just to relax and flip, you know groove with it..."

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the hardest working blogger: whole albums pt. 2

apparently there are others. i just hadn't found them yet. these people post SO much music. wow.


idm trade: intelligent dance music, that worrisome catch-all label for the hard-to-classify electronic music created in the last 15 years. this site has piles of it. a couple great features they have are a drop down menu (under the elephant) of artists, so you can see all the albums for each artist, a tag cloud of genres, and clear try it and buy it links. they post hard-to-find vinyl rips, brand new stuff and some classics. some of the albums i recommended earlier on my dubstep post are available there.

also a little honorable mention to the magic of juju. whoever runs this blog hasn't posted since december, but the music here is very hard-to-find and universally beautiful... great indian ragas ripped from old vinyl (complete with cover scans!), jamaican 7" dub collections and much more. an enticing collection of links, too... i'm sure more gold is through that door.

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the hardest working blogger: whole albums

chocoreve.


wow.

this person has put a lot of effort into putting a lot of albums on the web.

a ton of four disc (some ten disc!) sets, live shows by artists you know, and re-issue compilations.

i've gotten most of the ethiopiques series (highly recommended!), brian eno, philip glass, obscure velvet underground shows, beautiful folk records, turkish psychedelia, sitar beat, doo-wop, can, and album afer album of old psych/garage/pre-british invasion rock comps. but there is TONS more. some electronic stuff, avant garde, motown, rolling stones, james brown...

just browse through the archives at the bottom of the blog. some of the really old stuff isn't up anymore, but some still is (like the "perfumed garden" compilation from december 2005 i'm downloading now). a lot of the older posts use rapidshare (which only lets you download 100 megs every hour or so) but the new ones tend to have stuff in several locations to make it easier to download faster. if you need help figuring out how to unpack his archives, comment, and i'll help.

a brief order of operations i would suggest to get the albums is:

make sure you have unrarx (for mac) or winrar (for windows)
download all the parts
extract the .rar files by opening the first one
the password for all of them is: posted_first_at_chocoreve
enjoy!

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