In the UK they are active in urban centres - mostly London, Manchester, Glasgow and Hull.
The three main groups are the 14K, which is strongest in Birmingham and the north of England, Shui Fong (also known as Wo On Lok), which is dominant in London, Glasgow and the south coast, and Wo Shing Wo, which has its powerbase in Manchester.
~
oh, this is a really nice Robert Johnson page
Tuesday, 12 October 2004
Saturday, 9 October 2004
THE TOP HAWTIN PARTIES IN FULL
- The Hard Parties, various Michigan locations, 1993
Hard, Harder and Hardest. Reacting to the fluffiness of the nascent scene these were ultra-intense affairs.
> Spastik, Detroit, 1994
The first to cover everything in black plastic. Dancing in a pitch-black void you are truly consumed by, and lost in, the music.
> Jak 1 & Jak 2, Detroit, 1995
No advance word whatsoever and the Hawtin debut of The System (one moment when Hawtin couldn’t focus on his records because his eyeballs were wobbling and people were throwing up off the wall of bass inspired the Plastikman track ‘Sickness’).
- Jak O’Lantern, Windsor, Ont., 1995
More black plastic, orange snow fencing on the ceiling and a generator that needed cooling with water all night.
- Consumed, Pontiac, MI, 1998
Venue: old Masonic temple. Themed rooms and mikes that recorded conversations upon entering, playing back your own talk as one climbed the stairs.
- The Hard Parties, various Michigan locations, 1993
Hard, Harder and Hardest. Reacting to the fluffiness of the nascent scene these were ultra-intense affairs.
> Spastik, Detroit, 1994
The first to cover everything in black plastic. Dancing in a pitch-black void you are truly consumed by, and lost in, the music.
> Jak 1 & Jak 2, Detroit, 1995
No advance word whatsoever and the Hawtin debut of The System (one moment when Hawtin couldn’t focus on his records because his eyeballs were wobbling and people were throwing up off the wall of bass inspired the Plastikman track ‘Sickness’).
- Jak O’Lantern, Windsor, Ont., 1995
More black plastic, orange snow fencing on the ceiling and a generator that needed cooling with water all night.
- Consumed, Pontiac, MI, 1998
Venue: old Masonic temple. Themed rooms and mikes that recorded conversations upon entering, playing back your own talk as one climbed the stairs.
Friday, 8 October 2004
1. Ali Farka Toure, Ali Farka Toure, Mango/World Circuit, 1988.
1. Timbarma (traditional)
2. Singya
3. Nawiye (traditional)
4. Bakoytereye
5. Tchigi Fo
6. Amandrai
7. Kadi Kadi
8. Yulli
9. Bakoye (adapted from Arabic praise song)
10. Amandrai [live]
Ten tracks of elongated vocals and unfussy instrumentation that pack an emotional punch; sounds this good should perhaps be criminalised.
i adore how he holds it on ‘Singya’.
1. Timbarma (traditional)
2. Singya
3. Nawiye (traditional)
4. Bakoytereye
5. Tchigi Fo
6. Amandrai
7. Kadi Kadi
8. Yulli
9. Bakoye (adapted from Arabic praise song)
10. Amandrai [live]
Ten tracks of elongated vocals and unfussy instrumentation that pack an emotional punch; sounds this good should perhaps be criminalised.
i adore how he holds it on ‘Singya’.
Thursday, 7 October 2004
Wednesday, 6 October 2004
an Amnesty International UK press release detailing their ("extremely rare") decision to make a written submission to the House of Lords, concerning detention without charge.
the full text of the submission is here.
the full text of the submission is here.
yesterday evening, at about 7.30 british time, channel 4 news broadcast previously embargoed footage shot from inside the cockpit of a USAF fighter jet flying over Iraq.
the pentagon had confirmed to channel 4 news the footage was genuine and belonged to them - and had, indeed, sent an email overnight the previous night to channel 4 news assuring them it was not 'recent' footage, rather footage dating from April 2004 - and the audience doubtless watched with interest as the cameras rolled.
the fighter pilot asked colleagues if he was to proceed with the target and was told to proceed (a man from Jane's was later worrying over what he called the short length of time it took to make such a crucial decision; Jane's not a publication known for its firebrand pacifists).
as the bomb or missile or crateload of anvils or whatever it was, was released, the viewer shortly after saw a very large explosion on the city streets.
immediately after blowing to bits about thirty other human beings the pilot was clearly heard to remark oh dude.
a local medic and representative of Doctors for Iraq told channel 4 news the dead were civilians, "women and children", trying to take cover, running down a street from the strafing of American snipers.
the pentagon had confirmed to channel 4 news the footage was genuine and belonged to them - and had, indeed, sent an email overnight the previous night to channel 4 news assuring them it was not 'recent' footage, rather footage dating from April 2004 - and the audience doubtless watched with interest as the cameras rolled.
the fighter pilot asked colleagues if he was to proceed with the target and was told to proceed (a man from Jane's was later worrying over what he called the short length of time it took to make such a crucial decision; Jane's not a publication known for its firebrand pacifists).
as the bomb or missile or crateload of anvils or whatever it was, was released, the viewer shortly after saw a very large explosion on the city streets.
immediately after blowing to bits about thirty other human beings the pilot was clearly heard to remark oh dude.
a local medic and representative of Doctors for Iraq told channel 4 news the dead were civilians, "women and children", trying to take cover, running down a street from the strafing of American snipers.
Tuesday, 5 October 2004
the only bright spot in this dismal story is the detail that Italian officials quoted by AFP news agency said they were allowing arrivals from Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia access to the asylum process.
also on the BBC Online site, an archived piece about the 'little Senegal' on the outskirts of Brescia.
also on the BBC Online site, an archived piece about the 'little Senegal' on the outskirts of Brescia.
Monday, 4 October 2004
Thursday, 30 September 2004
via The Rambler, Obsidian Wings asks everyone to post a link to their take on attempts by Republican lawmakers in the USA to, essentially, legalise torture.
The provision Rep. Markey referred to is contained in Section 3032 and 3033 of H.R. 10, the "9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act of 2004," introduced by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL). The provision would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to issue new regulations to exclude from the protection of the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, any suspected terrorist - thereby allowing them to be deported or transferred to a country that may engage in torture.
absolutely incredible.
The provision Rep. Markey referred to is contained in Section 3032 and 3033 of H.R. 10, the "9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act of 2004," introduced by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL). The provision would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to issue new regulations to exclude from the protection of the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, any suspected terrorist - thereby allowing them to be deported or transferred to a country that may engage in torture.
absolutely incredible.
some days ago, it was reported that a deal had been made between the Italian and Libyan governments on curbing flows of migrants into Italy (Libya being a common staging post for many, mostly African, migrants attempting to reach Italy).
i wonder if Silvio Berlusconi has read this op-ed, written by Kenneth Roth and Julia Hall of HRW, which raises many pressing issues around the 'Fortress Europe' debate.
the part about Libya's continued deportation of Eritrean nationals was especially interesting.
meanwhile Herr Schily, the German Interior Minister, is bringing a new, energised and decidedly unwholesome approach to the already dubious off-shore 'processing centre' proposal.
i wonder if Silvio Berlusconi has read this op-ed, written by Kenneth Roth and Julia Hall of HRW, which raises many pressing issues around the 'Fortress Europe' debate.
the part about Libya's continued deportation of Eritrean nationals was especially interesting.
meanwhile Herr Schily, the German Interior Minister, is bringing a new, energised and decidedly unwholesome approach to the already dubious off-shore 'processing centre' proposal.
interesting Telegraph article from the 26th of the month, by Tom Parfitt:
It was just after 5pm on Saturday two weeks ago when Anzor Machiev, Alikhan Vitaev and a third friend from their Chechen town approached a junction with the main Grozny road in their battered Lada.
At the crossroads, several vehicles with blacked-out windows were waiting. As the Lada braked, six figures in camouflage and masks got out and unleashed a hail of automatic gunfire into the car. Then they calmly walked up to the wreck and fired a "control shot" into the head of each of the unarmed victims to ensure that he was dead.
A handful of stunned taxi drivers watched as the attackers - thought to be security forces loyal to Moscow - lingered for a moment before driving away, leaving the bodies sprawled on the road.
A month after the Beslan school siege in North Ossetia, in which more than 340 people died at the hands of mostly Chechen militants, Russia's reign of terror appears to be continuing in neighbouring Chechnya.
The people of Sernovodsk - a ramshackle former spa town of 15,000 inhabitants, 25 miles west of the Chechen capital, Grozny - say that execution, torture and kidnap are a familiar part of their lives.
Since the Beslan attack, they have noticed a military build-up in the once prosperous holiday destination for Soviet functionaries. Less than a week after the siege ended in a bloodbath, a unit of 100 Omon (police special forces) troops was dispatched from Perm, in western Russia.
President Vladimir Putin came to power with a promise to resolve the Chechnya problem by force. After the 1994-96 war with Moscow, Chechen rebels made a fresh bid for independence in 1999 - a campaign quashed by Mr Putin to popular acclaim.
Although Moscow insists that its activities in Chechnya are part of a continuing "anti-terror operation", many locals say that the reverse is true. The Russian forces' brutal treatment of civilians is a driving force behind young men and women's decision to seek revenge by joining separatist terrorist groups.
Criminal cases are sometimes opened into the raids but the investigations rarely yield results. In the chaos that has engulfed the republic since its Moscow-backed leader, Akhmad Kadyrov, was assassinated in May, nobody knows which of Chechnya's many fragmented security forces are to blame.
Several units of Mr Kadyrov's personal guard are believed to be working independently as rogue militia. Compounding the chaos, soldiers and police officers - many of them local men, in line with Mr Putin's policy of "Chechenizing" the conflict - often act with impunity.
At the funeral of Mr Vitaev - a 24-year-old construction worker who had been hitching a lift with his two friends - his father summed up Chechens' feelings of desperation.
"If only they just told us why they did it - a criminal act, a blood feud, something," he said. "Then maybe we would be able to accept it with dignity. Like this, we have no idea why he was killed."
His murder on September 11 was more brazen than most. Locals claim that the masked men in uniform usually come under cover of darkness, driving military or police vehicles without registration plates. They rarely say who they are, or give details of their victims' alleged crimes.
In the past year, 17 people have disappeared without trace from Sernovodsk. Security has been stepped up this month in spite of the fact that there has been no heavy fighting in the area for more than four years.
Many local people expect a turn for the worse. "We are sitting on a powder keg," said Dano Gubanova, a lawyer investigating several suspected abductions in the area. Last week a full-scale "cleansing operation" was in progress in the neighbouring village of Assinovskaya, a sign of a fresh crackdown since Beslan.
Troops blocked all roads to the village and young men were taken to a police checkpoint for questioning. Previously, detainees have been hit or tortured during questioning, villagers say. One favoured technique involves forcing a man to drink large amounts of water before beating him around the kidneys.
Rather than deterring Chechens from joining the guerrillas, such treatment often has the opposite effect. "They are only breeding resistance and terrorism," said Baudi Magomaev, the deputy director of the Sernovodsk agricultural college.
His brother Khamidi, a 48-year-old farmer, was dragged from his fields last month by masked men and has not been heard of since. His younger brother, Shadit, disappeared in similar circumstances two years ago. "If someone is accused of something, the security forces could arrest him, charge him, take him to court," said Mr Magomaev, 55, who denies that his brothers were linked to the militants. "Instead, they kidnap men, who are never seen again."
He added: "I was sorry about what happened in Beslan; the way children got treated. But here we also live in fear."
Malika Saidullaeva, 28, a housewife who lives with her extended family in Sernovodsk, still has a scar on her hand where she was shot by a man wearing military fatigues during a night raid by an armed gang last month. Her brother, Imran, did not survive.
During the raid he was shot in the leg, and allegedly responded by stabbing one of his assailants, although the family denies he had a knife. Miss Saidullaeva said that as Imran was being treated later at the local hospital, the armed men - whose leader said he was a senior police officer - came to the ward and killed him.
"He was trying to lift himself up between two beds and one of them just put a Kalashnikov to his chest and fired," said Miss Saidullaeva. Police returned her brother's corpse after 600 people protested at their HQ.
Sultan Irbayev, the Sernovodsk director of the human rights group Memorial said: "Putin is talking of increased security measures but all that will mean is more repression."
At a conference in Chechnya on Friday, pro-Russian Chechen officials made an unprecendented attack on the widespread abuses against civilians. Taus Jabrailov, a senior member of Grozny's pro-Moscow government, denounced "10 years of war which destroyed 80 per cent of the infrastructure, killed thousands of people and trampled on Chechens' rights.
Separatist fighters are accused of assassinating a series of pro-Moscow officials in Chechnya. The more radical rebels have long since switched their energies to launching terror attacks across Russia.
It was just after 5pm on Saturday two weeks ago when Anzor Machiev, Alikhan Vitaev and a third friend from their Chechen town approached a junction with the main Grozny road in their battered Lada.
At the crossroads, several vehicles with blacked-out windows were waiting. As the Lada braked, six figures in camouflage and masks got out and unleashed a hail of automatic gunfire into the car. Then they calmly walked up to the wreck and fired a "control shot" into the head of each of the unarmed victims to ensure that he was dead.
A handful of stunned taxi drivers watched as the attackers - thought to be security forces loyal to Moscow - lingered for a moment before driving away, leaving the bodies sprawled on the road.
A month after the Beslan school siege in North Ossetia, in which more than 340 people died at the hands of mostly Chechen militants, Russia's reign of terror appears to be continuing in neighbouring Chechnya.
The people of Sernovodsk - a ramshackle former spa town of 15,000 inhabitants, 25 miles west of the Chechen capital, Grozny - say that execution, torture and kidnap are a familiar part of their lives.
Since the Beslan attack, they have noticed a military build-up in the once prosperous holiday destination for Soviet functionaries. Less than a week after the siege ended in a bloodbath, a unit of 100 Omon (police special forces) troops was dispatched from Perm, in western Russia.
President Vladimir Putin came to power with a promise to resolve the Chechnya problem by force. After the 1994-96 war with Moscow, Chechen rebels made a fresh bid for independence in 1999 - a campaign quashed by Mr Putin to popular acclaim.
Although Moscow insists that its activities in Chechnya are part of a continuing "anti-terror operation", many locals say that the reverse is true. The Russian forces' brutal treatment of civilians is a driving force behind young men and women's decision to seek revenge by joining separatist terrorist groups.
Criminal cases are sometimes opened into the raids but the investigations rarely yield results. In the chaos that has engulfed the republic since its Moscow-backed leader, Akhmad Kadyrov, was assassinated in May, nobody knows which of Chechnya's many fragmented security forces are to blame.
Several units of Mr Kadyrov's personal guard are believed to be working independently as rogue militia. Compounding the chaos, soldiers and police officers - many of them local men, in line with Mr Putin's policy of "Chechenizing" the conflict - often act with impunity.
At the funeral of Mr Vitaev - a 24-year-old construction worker who had been hitching a lift with his two friends - his father summed up Chechens' feelings of desperation.
"If only they just told us why they did it - a criminal act, a blood feud, something," he said. "Then maybe we would be able to accept it with dignity. Like this, we have no idea why he was killed."
His murder on September 11 was more brazen than most. Locals claim that the masked men in uniform usually come under cover of darkness, driving military or police vehicles without registration plates. They rarely say who they are, or give details of their victims' alleged crimes.
In the past year, 17 people have disappeared without trace from Sernovodsk. Security has been stepped up this month in spite of the fact that there has been no heavy fighting in the area for more than four years.
Many local people expect a turn for the worse. "We are sitting on a powder keg," said Dano Gubanova, a lawyer investigating several suspected abductions in the area. Last week a full-scale "cleansing operation" was in progress in the neighbouring village of Assinovskaya, a sign of a fresh crackdown since Beslan.
Troops blocked all roads to the village and young men were taken to a police checkpoint for questioning. Previously, detainees have been hit or tortured during questioning, villagers say. One favoured technique involves forcing a man to drink large amounts of water before beating him around the kidneys.
Rather than deterring Chechens from joining the guerrillas, such treatment often has the opposite effect. "They are only breeding resistance and terrorism," said Baudi Magomaev, the deputy director of the Sernovodsk agricultural college.
His brother Khamidi, a 48-year-old farmer, was dragged from his fields last month by masked men and has not been heard of since. His younger brother, Shadit, disappeared in similar circumstances two years ago. "If someone is accused of something, the security forces could arrest him, charge him, take him to court," said Mr Magomaev, 55, who denies that his brothers were linked to the militants. "Instead, they kidnap men, who are never seen again."
He added: "I was sorry about what happened in Beslan; the way children got treated. But here we also live in fear."
Malika Saidullaeva, 28, a housewife who lives with her extended family in Sernovodsk, still has a scar on her hand where she was shot by a man wearing military fatigues during a night raid by an armed gang last month. Her brother, Imran, did not survive.
During the raid he was shot in the leg, and allegedly responded by stabbing one of his assailants, although the family denies he had a knife. Miss Saidullaeva said that as Imran was being treated later at the local hospital, the armed men - whose leader said he was a senior police officer - came to the ward and killed him.
"He was trying to lift himself up between two beds and one of them just put a Kalashnikov to his chest and fired," said Miss Saidullaeva. Police returned her brother's corpse after 600 people protested at their HQ.
Sultan Irbayev, the Sernovodsk director of the human rights group Memorial said: "Putin is talking of increased security measures but all that will mean is more repression."
At a conference in Chechnya on Friday, pro-Russian Chechen officials made an unprecendented attack on the widespread abuses against civilians. Taus Jabrailov, a senior member of Grozny's pro-Moscow government, denounced "10 years of war which destroyed 80 per cent of the infrastructure, killed thousands of people and trampled on Chechens' rights.
Separatist fighters are accused of assassinating a series of pro-Moscow officials in Chechnya. The more radical rebels have long since switched their energies to launching terror attacks across Russia.
Tuesday, 28 September 2004
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