Jonty Skrufff's Blog

Archive for January, 2010

Click on the picture for John Lilly speaking- fascinating

Cambridge University Professor Simon Conway Morris warned that aliens could soon turn up on Earth, this week and suggested the ‘‘greedy, bullying extra-terrestrials’ could be planning to colonize the planet and plunder our natural resources.

“Extra-terrestrials . . . won’t be splodges of glue … they could be disturbingly like us,” the professor of evolutionary paleobiology told the Times, “and that might not be a good thing – we don’t have a great record.”

The Professor was speaking in advance of a two day scientific conference examining the latest information on potentially habitable planets and the implications for Earth and struck a chord with the view of techno veteran/ sci-fi obsessive Jeff Mills.

Chatting to Skrufff four years ago, Mills admitted believing in aliens, citing the size of the universe and humanity’s level of inter-galactic ignorance as factors underscoring his belief.

“There are things out there,” said Mills, “and I think it’s probably just a matter of time (before we meet them). Things (encounters) may have happened already and these things were maybe held back from the public or things will happen in the future and maybe some people know, some people don’t know,” he speculated.

“But this planet is not protected by anything, we are basically floating in space like all other things, so at some point there should be some contact with something, good or bad,” he warned.
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click on the picture for more from Barefoot. . .

Barefoot Doctor: “You can remain free of it only when you’re centered within, aware of your body, of your breathing and of your presence in general, rather than being scattered in your thoughts with attention unfocused so you don’t notice what’s going on between you and others.

Everyone hypnotizes everyone else. That’s how we gain the attention of others in all the various aspects of our lives, it’s necessary to be part of the everyday game of life and survival.

We all emit signals through body language, posture, facial expression, vocal tone and cadence, clothes, actions and so on – we do this automatically and usually unconsciously. These signals essentially boil down to ‘buy into my story!’

We each have a story going on inside – our life stories – and we all assume everyone else is in, or should be in, our story rather than vice versa.

We come together and create wonderful things by merging stories – or we come together and create horrible things, depending on the relative balance of creative or destructive energies in the mix of stories.

However once we wake up to this dynamic, once we become cognitive of doing it, we simultaneously become cognitive of everyone else doing it too.

As soon as we’re aware of any such syndrome, we break its compulsive aspect and are hence free to exercise options, the obvious one of which in this instance, is to remain centered and observe how the other is hypnotizing you into their version of reality or story, as a witness-bearer rather than colluder.

This ability comes about through practicing being in a meditative body-aware state on a daily basis, mostly achieved by remaining aware of your breathing and being sure to keep breathing slowly while conversing or interacting with others. As simple as it sounds, it’s all you actually need to keep you centered and aware of your own path, instead of being absentmindedly pulled off into theirs.”

Discover the Taoist super-skills and find out more about the Barefoot Doctor at

http://www.superchargedtaoist.com

Bursting onto the global stage in 2005 with his debut album ‘4 Da Loverz’, German/ Iranian electro-house producer Sharam Jey immediately consolidated his standing with a 2 year non-stop DJinh world tour.

Calling a (semi) halt 12 months ago, he returned to the studio to work on new album In My Blood and as 2010 starts is about to unveil it on his own label King Kong Records. Including contributions from electro/ rock stalwarts Princess Superstar and Tommie Sunshine, the album features a vary selection of high energy big room electro-house stompers with a distinctly maximal, pop flavoured accessible vibe. Chatting to Skrufff this week, Sharam’s focused and enthused and upbeat about his new album’s prospects.
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Click on the picture to hear Judge Jules' latest show on Radio 1 (my new remix is the second track)

http://tinyurl.com/yz57o9h (Judge Jules on Radio 1, UK)

I just completed a new remix this week of Dare and Haste’s Ghost Machine and Judge Jules has played it immediately on his show on Britain’s Radio 1. You can hear the remix (called Jonty Skrufff’s Gothic Horror Remix) by clicking on the link above- it’s the second track and is about 5 minutes in.

Click on the picture for more from Principles of Geometry

“We’d rather speak about ‘hasard’ than accidents. ‘Hasard’ takes a huge place in our music. ‘Hasard’ makes life what it is. So does music.”

Asking French electronic geniuses Principles Of Geometry how big a role happy accidents played in the creation of their melancholic masterpiece album Lazare elicits an unusually thoughtful response, reflecting the equally considered complexity of their music.

With neither Guillaume Grosso or Jeremy Duval speaking English fluently, each is careful to define what they mean, discarding online translations of ‘hasard’ including  ‘chance’, ‘hazard’ and ‘luck’ (and indeed ‘accident’).

“We tried to find the right English word as a translation for what we mean but couldn’t,” the pair explain. ‘Chance’ for example, means ‘luck’ in French and we didn’t want to speak just about luck. Rather we wanted to highlight the fact that sometimes things just happen, as part of fate. Destiny is what you make it. And after that comes luck.”

Given that Principles Of Geometry created one of the greatest albums of the last decade (Lazare) in 2007 only to see it languish in underground obscurity seems more than a little unlucky though both are impressively cheerful about the album’s so far low impact fate.

“What we set out to achieve was to create a piece of music that we wanted to hear and what we wanted to hear with Lazare is ‘Life’,” they explain. “What we mean by that is life in its most simplistic and naked sense. Light, Darkness, Love, Rage. A sort of truth we’re both focused on,” they say.

“We don’t mean an absolute truth statement about humanity, we swear, rather it’s about summing up our personal feelings and emotions on an album. By doing that Lazare comes alive and has in effect its own life.”

So did they ever start to feel personally unlucky when Lazare failed to crossover and sell the millions of units it would have done if it had been released by the likes of Massive Attack or Portishead?

“Ah ha, no, not at all. Lazare exists. We know it, we did it,” they laugh. “But having the album distributed in the UK still would be great.”

Instead the album, a subliminal selection of magnificent predominantly melancholic electronic ballads still resides on uber-cool French boutique label Tigersushi, continuing to attract critical acclaim from selected media pundits and the likes of Border Community’s (British) tastemaker James Holden (and me).

“Firstly thanks for loving it, we’re found of love too. And seeing our music being appreciated and shared keeps it alive. It’s the reason it’s there,” they continue, “and James Holden, we love you too.”

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Dirty Dancing (Youtube) clip on the pic: NOT SAFE IF YOU'RE TRAPPED IN A US HIGH SCHOOL!

Officials at Union Grove High School in Wisconsin, USA, published a detailed list of regulations for students hoping to attend the school’s annual winter ball this week and warned that those dancing ‘inappropriately’ will lose ‘dance privileges’ for a year.

“When dancing back to front all dancers must remain upright, no sexual bending is allowed,” the school’s ‘dance policies and procedures’ document declared.

“Examples are, no hands on knees and no hands on the dance-floor with your buttocks touching your dance partner. There will be no touching of the breasts, buttocks or genitals. There will be no straddling of each other’s legs. Both feet must remain on the dance floor at all times,” they ordered.

Union Grove Principal Tom Hermann defended the new sanctions.

“The expectations of dressing appropriately and dancing appropriately have always been in place. What we wanted to do was spell this out to make it as clear as possible,” he told the Milwaukee Journal Times.

“We’re trying to teach kids to act appropriate in a formal setting,” he added. “That’s the point of having a dance anyway.” (http://tinyurl.com/yhuofwa)

http://www.ug.k12.wi.us/ d T(Mission statement: the Union Grove High School Staff, in cooperation with parents and the community, will equip students with the skills necessary for a productive life in an ever-changing world.

Jonty Skrufff (http://skrufff.com): Follow Jonty on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jontyskrufff

Catch Henry in London (weather permitting) on 02.04.10 at the Corsica Studios, in Elephant & Castle

British techno legend Henry Cullen (aka D.A.V.E. The Drummer) endured a nightmare journey back from Bulgaria last weekend after snow storms forced him to take trains, planes, buses and automobiles to get home.

Contacting Skrufff from Sofia airport in Bulgaria, Henry described how his first trip to Varna in December was cancelled after ‘super-snow’ saw his flights cancelled though said he was optimistic flying from Gatwick to Sofia last Saturday morning. Meeting the party promoters unexpectedly when he arrived at Sofia Airport, the acid techno legend said he was feeling positively cheery, before discovering not everything was as it seemed.
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“You can see where this is going can’t you,” he laughed.

“As I’m waiting at the gate in Sofia, Jackrock and Balthazaar appear. ‘Weird’, I think, “these two are Bulgaria’s biggest techno promoters and the promoters for this gig, why are they here? Maybe we are all going together . . . Hooray! But . . .”
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Aaron Mellor, Ben Kelly, Peter Hook, picturte by Kevin Cummins

New Order legend Peter Hook chatted to Skrufff this week about his hugely ambitious plans for new Manchester club the Factory and revealed that he has no concerns about losing face if it fails.

“No not at all, I’m very resilient and some would say two faced, I have a spare, you know,” he chuckled.

“Am I a masochist? All musicians are, it’s what keeps you writing great music,” he laughed, “It’s pain, pain and more pain, bring it on.”

The new three room venue is located in the building where Factory Records’ old head office was located and bears striking similarities to Factory (and New Order’s) previous club the Hacienda. Featuring a mix of weekly indie rock and dance parties spread over six nights, the opening weekend includes performances from Mani from the Stone Roses and Sean Ryder from Happy Mondays though Hooky stressed he has no concerns about repeating his Hacienda mistakes (wonderfully documented in his recent autobiography ‘The Hacienda- How not to run a club’).

“This time we haven’t made the errors which crippled us in the past with the Hacienda,” he explained.

“Last time it was like buying a second hand car and then not putting something aside for the things that you know are going to be wrong with it. This time I’ve learnt from my mistakes and am working with people who have a very practical outlook on running a club,” he said.
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Advanced negotiation techniques for dealing with promoters (click on the picture...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSOjVhJaWeY (another wonderful DJ advice clip)

Laurent Garnier having a philosophical moment (click on the picture to follow him on Facebook)

French superstar DJ Laurent Garnier defended one of his band members this week, after the sound engineer found himself the target of a barrage of online abuse in an unprovoked attack by an American Ebay seller.

Keyboard seller  ‘oldskool*****’ launched a tirade of racist insults against  ‘front of house’ man/ sound engineer Laurent T concluding with a PS line: ‘you know the Ironic part (is) my Grandfather died trying to save you French from the Nazis at the Battle of the Bulge. What did your Grandpa do? Vichy Probably.”

F Com chief Garnier admitted to being amused by OldSkool*****’s message explaining ‘this is not my argument, but I thought I’d forward these emails because they relate to our recent discussions about American and French stereotypes.”

“I suggested to Laurent T to simply answer him the way anyone else would, which is to reply-‘actually; while your grandfather was fighting in France, my Grandpa was screwing your grandmother’,” Laurent laughed.

“But then I saw that this ‘lovely man’ said that he would block all future conversations from Laurent T. So I am thinking about how we could arrange for people to drown him in mails via his Ebay mail address answering him for his rudeness and stupidity,” he mused. “Vive La France! Vive La fuck!” he chuckled.
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