“Basically Dave Cameron’s moving into a new house soon and he’s inviting us all over for a house party, its kind of a joint house-warming/job promotion thing so bring champagne and whatever food you can, Nick Clegg should be over at some point to co-host it but its mainly Dave’s mates so bring whoever you like really. Obama is DJing, and Boris Johnson is holding a dance off. Invite any of your friends, there’s plenty of room in the house.”

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=125293800820360

Pirate Party UK are fielding nine candidates in this general election and although they have fewer than 900 members, they are still looking to stir up mutiny among sections of the electorate unhappy with “criminalisation” of file sharing, “excessive surveillance” and what it sees as limits to free speech.

Andrew Robinson, the party’s leader hopes to make enough of an impact in 2010 to build momentum for the next European Parliament elections (likely to be 2014) and equal the success of their Scandinavian inspiration.
Sweden’s Pirate Party was founded in 2006 and has more than 50,000 members, making it the country’s third-largest political party in terms of membership. It also secured two MEPs in last year’s European Parliament election.

Essentially a single issue party the Pirate Party is opposed to copyright controls on the internet, it wants people to be able to download any song or movie free on the internet as long as no money is changing hands and wants it to be decriminalised. It takes its inspiration from the well-known Pirate Bay, whose founders were last year found guilty of copyright infringement and sentenced to 12 months in jail.

Pirate Party UK, and similar organisations springing up around the world, share the same core policy principal that copyright law should be changed to allow file sharing over the internet.

Here is what Mr Robinson has to say…
“Internet copyright laws have to change, or else you are criminalising a whole generation. […] Sharing music over the internet for example, shouldn’t be considered an offence, as in reality it is free advertising for the band in question.In the old days record companies would pay a plugger to get their music on the radio, today it is all about people listening to it over the internet, which a far more democratic process.”

In addition to decriminalising file sharing, Pirate Party UK wants tougher rules to protect people’s privacy on the internet, requiring the police to get specific warrants before they can monitor an individual’s communications.
It also wants stricter limits to prevent companies from keeping excessive personal data on their customers, and laws to prevent government censorship except in the most extreme circumstances. On a more prosaic note, it wants internet users to only have to pay for the actual speed they get from their provider, and not what was advertised.

Whether you agree with them or not they are here.

For a more full article check out:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8644834.stm

Now you can make music while you dance or even jog (minimal techno lovers!). And for the skeptics amongst us this is is apparently all 100% for real! Quite how this came about is astonishing! “Apparently wishing to tout the bendable qualities of its new footwear, Nike enlisted sound artists to transform its product into a musical instrument. The shoes get plugged in, switched on, and mixed up, battle-style, as they sense when the shoe is flexed or moved in space.”

One thing is for sure, this level of creativity, and probably persistence is to be admired and deserves to bee seen by all. Creative Digital Music even have the Max patch to prove it. One of the Shoe-J’s Daito said that he used flex sensors and accelerometers to make the shoes interactive and then processed the control signal and converted it to sound using the modular visual programming environment Max/MSP and Ableton’s Max for Live.

Sources:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/16/crazed-turntablists-transform-sneakers-into-sound-controllers-r/

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2010/04/16/bendable-musical-shoes-for-nike-and-how-they-were-made/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+createdigitalmusic+%28createdigitalmusic.com%29

Anyway, what do you expect when a older white man gets on stage with his national health style glasses, a slightly flabby midriff and a distinctly ordinary dress sense? Pure magic, that’s what. Its impossible to describe the impact. He danced, he jumped, he MC’d he DJ’d beautifully, he educated like a teacher in dub, he sung, he chanted , he span back from in front of the desks while speaking on the mic. It was non stop, seamless poetry in motion. BUT, most importantly, it was the best bit of entertainment(and education) I’ve had in a club probably ever. This man shows up every boring no talent DJ for what they are. He plays the rootsiest, most historically important tunes of the dub and Reggae genre, knowing most of the artists who made the records and in many cases with the artists name checking him on their records. BUT, he plays no 1 chart records as well ( from the 60s of course) and ends with JONNY CASH “ring of fire”. The place was going ape shit. This a predominantly young crowd with an average age of no more than 20-25. Totally mental. I managed to fire off a few shots while he was performing but none of my words or pictures can come close to giving you the reality of a David Rodigan performance.

David you have renewed my faith in the art of djing. Long may you continue to do it. And hopefully I will experience it again in the not too distant future.

The so called “tablet PC” looks pretty cool. It boasts features such as Email, Web Browsing, ibook, Photos, Videos, Maps, You Tube, Contacts on the very sleek and sexy high-resolution, 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS display. It weighs  just 1.5 pounds and is 0.5 inch thin.

It also has a built-in 802.11n, which means it can connect to the fastest Wi-Fi networks.With a few taps it can connect to any Wi-Fi Network. It also boasts Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR Technology, allowing it to connect to devices such as wireless headphones and wireless keyboards.  It wil also be available as a 3G model for internet on the go with superfast data speeds up to 7.2 Mbps.^3.

As for music,  it features of course as an  ipod  on a large 9.7inch scale.  You can listen to your music with the built-in speaker or heaphones. It also allows access to Itunes with 1 tap, giving access to all the msuic, movies, ibooks, tv shows and of couse APPs on the store.   The iPad is available with a choice of 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of flash storage,⁴ giving you lots of room for your photos, movies, music, apps, and more.

Some have called the ipad “a stretched-out” ipod touch, so is the ipad a bit of an anti-climax?  It is by no means a cheap device,  starting price of  $400 in the US and a battery life of 10 hours.  Its definitly going on my Wish List….We shall see!

Check it out here

Leading Big In Ibiza’s Urban Dance revolution are Oh Snap!! & Jen Lasher who have recently been taking on the world with their current record, gaining airplay on BBC Radio 1 amongst others:

Preview the latest track “So Dynamite” here

Hailing from Baltimore, home of The Wire and the Baltimore Hip Hop sound OH SNAP!! and Jen Lasher are major artists in the scene. Now working together on a debut album both are taking time off an extremely busy recording and DJing schedule to create more edgy party hip house / urban dance hybrid mayhem. “So Dynamite” gives just a taste of the way things are going with this dynamic and exciting duo!

Out now on Beatport

The track chosen, ‘Buzz’ samples Buzz Aldrin’s voice recordings from the original moon landing, while the guests at the event were handed a special USB wristband with a selection of tracks from Above & Beyond.

US Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled and named the new space craft at the event, then Above & Beyond treated the guests to an exclusive DJ set, performing in front of over 800 dignitaries, celebrities. Also in attendance were the people that have lined up with wallets bulging with cash in order to be the first space tourists.

With flights into space coming in at around $200,000 it’s not cheap, but it’s definitely one that can live up to the hype, and something you KNOW no one else will be doing for a while! You can find out all the details about Virgin Galactic by clicking here.

Don’t forget that Above & Beyond are playing two very special sets this NYE in Los Angeles and San Fransisco alongside Cosmic Jam.

Yup, Barack Obama shaped Ecstasy pills have hit the streets in America.

The 44th President of the United States Of America, Barack Obama has been immortalised in many ways, but now his face has turned up on a batch of Ecstasy pills that were seized in a recent roadside stop in Southern America.

Police detained a driver after a routine roadside search of his car uncovered a whole host of drugs, including black tar heroin, cocaine, marijuana and several Ecstasy pills in various shapes and sizes – including the now infamous ‘Presidential specials’. Police say the Ecstasy was in brightly colored pills made to look like US President Barack Obama, as well as popular cartoon characters Homer Simpson and The Smurfs.

CBS News reports:

The drugs look like a “vitamin for kids,” police spokesman Lenny Sanchez said.

Well, at least we don’t have to worry about that – who would ever want to touch something in the shape of Gordon Brown?

Well here’s a solution. You can get this very special wall paper from designer Aimee Wilder and turn your bedroom into a faux analogue world. You can turn time back to the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s with ghetto blasters, reel to reel tape machines and good old cassette tapes. It doesn’t matter that you’re still using those imitation analogue plugins and state of the art amplification, the vibe will certainly be bang on.

Of course here at Media we still have all this stuff because we never got round to throwing it out in the first place. Not that we ever use it but hey, we dont have to spend 140 big ones per roll of this wall paper to get that vibe back. We just employ an army of cleaners to keep the dust at bay. Please let us know if any of you are tempted to decorate retro stylee, or if you have the same mountains of old analogue gear send us a pic!