jason (FMA Admin)

At a Monday night Death By Audio show a couple years back, Greg Fox, one of Teeth Mountain's four percussionists, passed along a sampler from his new Infinite Limbs label. This hand-painted cd-r introduced me to so much good music from the likes of Prince Rama of Ayodhya, Twisty Cat, Liturgy, Ducktails, and one Willy Weird...

Willy Weird, now known as Thick Business, is the solo project of frequent Infinite Limbs collaborator Tyler Dussenberry. Take a listen to the bad acid electro-surf jam "French Beach" (off that Infl comp), and the aptly titled, trance-inducing layered minimalism of "Smoothest Runes" (originally posted by 20 Jazz Funk Greats)!

The Infinite Limbs compilation also featured a track from Greg's solo project 5 Limbs, now known as GDFX. Greg's early solo stuff applied a percussionists' approach to loop pedals and sequencers to create hyper-active beat-oriented composition. Take a listen to the epic Altered Ego -- especially the 23rd and 24th minutes...

Lukas Ligeti really caught my ear in 2008 with Afrikan Machinery, his second release for John Zorn's Tzadik label. The avant-composer's brilliant solo percussion album was performed on the Marimba Lumina -- a MIDI percussion synthesizer built by Don Buchla. The Marimba Lumina is also featured in Ligeti's newest project, Burkina Electric, whose debut album Paspanga is out now on Canteloupe Music.

The label calls Burkina Electric "the first electronica band from Burkina Faso," which is slightly misleading since Ligeti was born in Austria and resides in New York along with the majority of the six-piece. But in this era of 140 character bite-sized thoughts and music that defies categorization, it gets the point across about this unique collaboration.

The idea for Burkina Electric started in the mid-90s, when Ligeti met guitar Wende K. Blass, and vocalist Maï Lingani in Burkina Faso. The new album also credits backup vocalists Vicky and Zoko Zoko as "dancers", alluding to a fluidity of music and movement that is charactaristic of West African musical traditions.

Expanding the electrified elements of Burkina Electric is legendary German new wave pioneer Kurt "Pyrolator" Dahlke. Pyrolator was a founding member of the D.A.F, and co-founded the seminal Ata Tak label. In April 2009, Pyrolator stopped by WFMU for a DJ set and live performance on Daniel Blumin's show, which can be heard here. Pyrolator's live performance incorporated the Lightning II, another MIDI controller built by Don Buchla. This one's sort of like a lightsaber, check it out.

Hear all these elements at play live on KEXP from New York's Cutting Room Studios. "La Voix du Boulgou" was engineered by Anthony Gallo, and originally broadcast on Jon Kertzer's The Best Ambiance program at KEXP.

Founded in 1979, the downtown art band Ike Yard created a new sound by tapping into the UK post-punk dub of PiL and Joy Division, the Neue Deutsche Welle of DAF, and the krautrock experimentation of Can. Their 1982 album 'A Fact A Second' (released on Factory Records) has stood the test of time and is considered a classic in the minimalist genre. -John Allen/WFMU

Ike Yard disbanded in 1983, but reunited a few years back in conjunction with their 1980-82 retrospective CD on Acute Records. The lineup features three of the four original members -- Stuart Argabright, Kenny Compton, & Michael Diekmann. On January 29, 2007, WFMU's John Allen hosted a set of new music from Ike Yard.

A track from that session, "Traffikers", will be released on a new Ike Yard full-length titled Nord, coming spring 2010 from Denmark's Phisteria label.

This month, Phisteria releases the Öst EP -- the first new Ike Yard recordings in 27 years. The 10'' is limited to 250 copies, with two new Ike Yard tracks, and two remixes from Phisteria acts Waldchengarten and Hinsidan.

In the interim, Ike Yard founding member Stuart Argabright has had many other projects. His short-lived group The Dominatrix wrote the techno-clash song "The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight" in 1984, and the music video was featured at the MoMA's Looking At Music series. He has also done significant -- even Emmy-nominated sound design and soundtrack work. Argabright visited WFMU in 2009 with Outpost for a tribute to JG Ballard. Enjoy a first-wave Ike Yard clip after the jump

:: In the aftermath of #musicblogocide2k10, the Electronic Frontier Foundation offers Practical Advice for Music Bloggers Worried About DMCA Takedown Censorship

:: Talking Fair Use :: Future of Music Coalition evaluates Public Knowledge's proposed Fair Use fix [PDF] from a sound recording/music perspective. A look back at the "Girl Talk riddle" and a call for discussion (link)

:: "Joel Tenenbaum, the second P2P defendant to take his case all the way through trial, is on the hook for $675,000 in damages. But according to his lawyer, Tenenbaum only caused the record labels $21 in damages." (ArsTechnica). Tenenbaum could have settled for $3,000-$12,000, but decided to take a stand. With the support of Harvard University professor Charles Nesson, Tenenbaum was back in court this week to push for a new trial in this landmark case.

:: We've known the former Tears for Fears-founder was a CC supporter since his 2008 interview from the Creative Commons blog by Cameron Parkins (link). Yesterday, Mashable interviewed Curt Smith about Twitter and Creative Commons. (link). In a blog post "About Creative Commons" (link), Curt Smith wrote: "One misconception I should like to clear up about Creative Commons is that all music released under a CC license is free....I invested a great deal in the recording and release of [CC-licensed album] Halfway, pleased, and charging for it is a way for me to recoup those expenses and to have the funds to invest in making more music."

:: youtube yanks the original rickroll video. why cant the rec biz figure out how to monetize it? http://bit.ly/ayywNV#copyrightfail (via WFMU Twitter)... it's back now!

:: Macedonia: Grassroots Effort to Preserve Folk Music Online :: a very cool Creative Commons-enabled project, spotlighted by Global Voices. The project inspired Brazilian youtuber onesef76 to record a series of Macedonian folk performances like the following (video after the jump)

The law has pretty much steered clear of the grey area surrounding mp3 blogs since their rise to prominence ~7 years ago. Meanwhile, other regulatory forces have helped the blogosphere develop an organic code of conduct that benefits the interests of the music industry and our society as a whole.

Last week, Google's Blogger service shut down several popular blogs accused by the IFPI and RIAA of copyright infringement. Due to a bug in Google's system (for which Blogger later apologized), at least one of the bloggers (the amazing Masala blog, which has since been restored) did not receive notification until after the blog's deletion.

Sure, you can blame Google for that error. But you can't really blame them for following the Digital Millenium Copyright Act to remove allegedly infringing content. As part of Bloggers' DMCA policy Google forwards their takedown notices to ChillingEffects.org where they are available for all to see. Chilling Effects is an incredibly useful resource conceived by Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society (who also advise our work on the Free Music Archive) in collaboration with a group of university law clinics and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Check it out, and you'll find myriad DMCA copyright complaints like this one, each listing hundreds of allegedly infringing Google-powered blogs, and claiming that Google may be liable. Google has no choice but to remove this infringing content, and from there the alleged infringer can file a counter-notification.

This back-and-forth DMCA procedure is far from perfect. But it's designed to protect online service providers like Blogger, who can't possibly be expected to look into each and every one of these claims. It's up to bloggers to defend themselves, and (as long as they are properly informed) there's a relatively clear way to go about it. This way, the inevitability of infringing content doesn't have to take the entire blogging service and all its non-infringing treasures down with it.

Let's leave Google alone for a second (they've got other problems right now) to consider "the inevitability of infringing content." There is still a great disparity between the law and the other codes/norms that govern the blogosphere, and musicblogocide is a great example of how this plays out. Before you read on, take another look at the above diagram, and picture the blogosphere in the middle.

Seems like all the world's a dub these days, and by and large that's a good thing. I've been wading deep into the underwater sounds of DJ /Rupture & Matt Shadetek, Titus 12, and a couple of the world's finest dub-oriented netlabels: LCL (Libre Comme Lair), and Jahtari. A lot of the stuff that's bending my ear lately has veered toward the electronicly manipulated sound. Which is a good thing too. But it's also one reason why it's so refreshing to hear Visions of Psychedelic Ankara, the newest album from Turkey's most awesome contemporary rock band.

I think of Hayvanlar Alemi as a modern continuation of the global psychedelic/folk/rock phenomenon of the late 1960s and early 1970s, an era of when the electric guitar melded with traditional musical influences around the world. Artists like Ersen and Selda in Turkey, Traffic Sound in Peru, Os Mutantes in Brazil, Chrissy Zebby Tembo & Ngozi Family in Zambia, Sinn Sissamouth and Pan Ron in Cambodia...

This first wave of international psych-rock is a major influence on Hayvanlar Alemi's music -- for example, their Demolar 2007-2008 drew inspiration heavy on sounds from "Cambodia, Malaysia, Bolivia and Japan, mutated African guitars, some post-rock ambiance, touches of surf and dub, and a live improv." Dub has always been an element in Hayvanlar Alemi's music, and it's brought to the forefront on Visions of Psychedelic Ankara. I highly recommend checking out all four of Hayvanlar Alemi's free albums here.

I'm working on a mix of dubbed out favorites from the FMA and beyond -- was hoping to make it part of this post but I think I'll take my time with it.

What dubbed out sounds have you been diggin lately? If you're craving more dub, have you checked out LCL (Libre Comme Lair)'s recent adds to the FMA? Holy smokes!

John Henry and Heather of the great Los Angeles band Static Static are in serious legal trouble in Prescott, Arizona, and are facing 5-15 years in prison. Though I don't know all the details about what has happened, I know they have a lot of great things to contribute to society, and they don't deserve to be locked out of it. They go before a judge tomorrow and their friends are trying to raise money so that they can both have proper legal representation.

I wrote more about Static Static (and the artist Keenan Keller, whose Static Static artwork appears in this post) here, when they played live at WFMU on my radio show Talk's Cheap.

Miss Pussycat, a friend of Static Static from their New Orleans days, writes

I have known John and Heather for over ten years. Heather has been on tour with us to sell merch, Static Static has rocked the Spellcaster many times and I love them both and know they have lots of other friends that love them and would want to help out. Lesley, the drummer for Static Static has a Paypal account to direct donations for a lawyer.

Send paypal donations to: lesley.lesley@sbcglobal.net

More info and updates on Static Static's myspace.

As their Octopus logo implies, Human Workshop has many tentacles. They are at once a commercial CD label, a free netlabel, an E-Zine, and a sound design company. Based out of the Netherlands but with core crew members also living in Germany and the UK, HWS is a team of sound designers, music producers, web developers, and composers operating in a range of electronic and organic sound.

On the one hand, HWS has done original sound design and production for companies like Nike and the BBC, and their site offers a mix of quality stock music for commercial companies. On the other hand (the left one), Human Workshop offer gigabytes worth of their catalog for free under Creative Commons licenses. This allows noncommercial producers to make creative interpretations of HWS releases and encourages other promotional use. On yet another hand (or octopus tentacle), HWS keeps an E-Zine for fellow producers, sound designers, musicians, and "intellectual gangsters" -- like Free VST Plug-Ins and a nice article about the FMA.