Aphex Twin’s Alberto Balsalm Covered by Steel Drum Band

Holy guacamole this is so many kinds of awesome:

Be Strong Like Water

What kind of strength does water have? Is water strong?

Here’s a quote from a site about water called Be Like Water:

Like water, be gentle and strong. Be gentle enough to follow the natural paths of the earth, and strong enough to rise up and reshape the world.

– Brenda Peterson

preciouswater.com.au

Autechre Sydney Gig Review

update: My friend Jim has also written an excellent review of this gig at Feral Kid.

Having missed them when they last toured Australia in the mid-90s because they only played Melbourne, I leapt at the chance to go to Autechre’s Sydney show last night.

First it must be said the sound at The Forum was gorgeous. Siesmic sub-bass penetrated everything like a layer of warm oil. The jarring cracks and clean surfaces of white noise were rendered pristine with every colour of the spectrum. It absolutely pumped.

The crowd was laced with computer geeks and various nerds perched in the mezzanine perfectly positioned to drool on the galaxy of equipment arrayed on stage.

Rob Hall’s support set ranged wide and deep across electronic dance genres without fear of making a few sharp turns and I thought it was underappreciated by a crowd that, among other things included a guy with a Frankie Goes to Hollywood T-Shirt reading a slim volume of the writings of 19th Century German Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. I kid you not. For those who came only to hear Autechre and nothing else, the start time was after midnight.

Finally the English duo came on and remained virtually immobile on an almost dark stage for about 90 minutes. The sound, however was dynamic and bold. The emphasis was on percussive programmed breaks with signature subtlety and a hybrid vibe of mechanistic and organic structure. There wasn’t much of their ambient scapes to be heard, but there was a cavernous orchestral resonance in the sound. The groove was always there on a very laid back, downbeat substrate which they exposed at regular intervals, breaking it down perhaps to reorient those of us who had folllowed the hairy dendrites of noise far from the basic hip-hop chassis.

Here’s something I captured during the set, in brief:

Autechre
It’s like Satan got a drum machine
and broke into the cathedral.
In the blackness,
A trancendental financial transaction.
Backed up on a warped tape.
Beats so fat it makes you laugh.
Rude I heard say. Rude beats.
I can smell freshly cut timber
in my eardrums.
Fucking awesome.

It seems difficult to nail down Autechre with words or pictures and I think they like it that way.

Samurai or Rice Picker?

If you were in an entrepreneurship class and a successful millionaire asked you whether you want to be a samurai, being truly free to execute on your dreams and achieve greatness, or to pick rice all day and only make a small part of someone else’s dream come true, what would you choose?

This is the opening question of Jason Calacanis, TechCrunch 50 co-founder and CEO of Mahalo, to a class of 50 Penn State University students when prompted unprepared to talk on entrepreneurship.

Jedi Knight or Drone?

… I train people to be Jedi Knights. I need my light sabre. Emily, get my light sabre please.

Jason Calacanis annoyed me when I first started watching his video podcast This Week In Startups. He seemed too self-absorbed and often spoke over his guests, telling his own story of succerss and sharing his own thoughts more than letting his guests speak.

But after watching for a while I’ve warmed to him. He is a bit grating sometimes but it’s his shoot-from-the-hip style that ultimately endears him.

This 30 minute bonus episode is the best one yet, not to mention the shortest. Jason covers the ups and downs of his past startups including weblogs inc, publishers of engadget and joystiq which he sold to AOL for a rumored 30 megabux.

Actually, though it is a little rough and unrehearsed, it’s pretty inspiring!