www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqsP3dw-CjE

NuWORLD -- Gary’s own brand of electronica, industrial strength

Music Interview: Gary Numan

By SallyB on Aug 4, 2009

Be still our beating hearts. It’s not every day that Londonist gets to interview heart-throb superstars. Thirty years ago we’d have been up there with the rest of them throwing items of intimate apparel at Gary Numan on stage (well, probably not that, to be honest). We’re fans. And we’re dead impressed that he is still turning out fun and original electronica after all those years in the business.

Following his recent London gigs, which included an appearance at Lovebox, we tracked the cult king of synth-pop down and to get some insider stuff on both him and his 2009 tour.

Synth-pop seems to be stronger than ever: what does it feel like to be one of the founding fathers?
It’s very flattering. I seem to be considered a founding father for most forms of electronic music, from Synth-Pop to Industrial, which is recognition I’m not entirely sure I deserve but it’s nice that people think so.

What (or who) inspires you?
It will probably sound corny but life itself inspires me. Everything I write comes from the various experiences that life throws at you and it’s never ending, and constantly evolving. Each day brings something new, some of it good, some of it not so good. The not so good stuff is what fuels the desire to write it all down and turn it into music.

What’s your favourite London venue?
For big shows the O2 Arena in Greenwich, for medium shows Brixton Academy and for smaller gigs the choice is vast but I’ve seen some great gigs at the Barfly in Camden.

And your London secret?
I was once stabbed in Broadwick Street on my way to see a band play in the old Marquee Club.

What’s your earliest London memory?
My Dad used to be a London bus driver so my earliest London memory is sitting in his bus, with my Mum, driving down Regents Street looking at the Christmas Lights.

You’re known for your cyberpunk image: do you dress like that off stage as well?
Mostly, unless I’m feeding our sheep in which case I’ll probably put on my wellies. Can’t afford to get sheep shit on my New Rocks.

Tell us something funny that has happened at one of your gigs?
Nothing funny ever happens at my gigs. A bit of the ceiling fell on my head once but I didn’t think that was funny, although everyone else seemed to.

Touring must be pretty tiring: how do you keep up with it all? What do you do to relax? We know you like flying…
I don’t find touring tiring at all. We all treat it as one huge party from the moment we get on the bus till about two days after we get off it. I love it. Can’t imagine a better way to live your life than on a tour bus, with your best friends, playing music each night to people that love what you do. On longer tours we often play ten or more gigs back to back with no days off. When you’re doing something you love why would you want a day off?

What’s on your iPod right now?
Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails

What London artists should we be watching out for?
I really like IAMX at the moment but I’m not sure if they come from London or not.

Are friends electric?
My wife seems to think so, whenever I’m away. I have a business account with Duracell to cater for her demands.

Have you ever been sick on the tube?
Yes. I can’t remember why though as I don’t drink.

Gary Numan’s next London gig is at the Indigo 2 on the 3rd December, part of his Pleasure Principle Tour. AND he has a new album, Dead Son Rising, which is rumoured to be coming out some time this year….

Source: The Londonist

Basim Usmani is bassist for The Kominas, a group that blends traditional sounds with punk rock beats.

They’re young. They’re punk. And they’re rocking both their Muslim and American worlds with their music, lyrics and style.

“A lot of times people say, ‘Oh wow, look, brown people playing music’ [but] it’s more than that,” said 25-year-old Pakistani-American Shahjehan Khan, the lead singer for a Muslim punk band, The Kominas.

The Boston-based band is one of a handful of Muslim punk bands that emerged in the United States in the past few years.

The members of this four-person rock group with South Asian roots hold varying views on religion. One says he’s an atheist; three others identify as Muslims — both practicing and non-practicing. For them, punk music is a way to rebel against their conservative cultural upbringing and the frustrations of growing up a young Muslim in America.

“We aren’t [just] some alternative to a stereotypical Muslim. We actually might be offering some sort of insights for people at large about religion, about the world,” said 26-year-old bassist Basim Usmani.

Blending traditional South Asian rhythms with punk rock beats, they sing in both English and Punjabi. (Kominas means “scum-bag” in Punjabi, according to the band.) Their songs can be at once political, serious, satirical and insinuating.

Audio slide show: On tour with Muslim punk rockers »

Their risqué lyrics and provocative song titles such as “Sharia Law in the USA,” “Suicide Bomb the GAP” and “Rumi was a Homo” — a protest song against homophobia in the American Muslim community — have drawn the attention of Muslims, non-Muslims, fans and critics alike.

“You sort of have to throw it in peoples’ faces and be shocking in order to give people a different way to think about stuff,” said Usmani.

“[Punk] allows them to rebel against society and their own culture at the same time,” he said. iReport: Is Islam at odds with American values?

Before the Islamic punk movement in North America had a voice, it had a story. The Muslim punk scene began to gel in 2003 when novelist and convert to Islam, Michael Muhammad Knight self-published his book, “The Taqwacores” about a fictional Muslim punk scene in Buffalo, New York.

The book opens with a poem called “Muhammed was a Punk Rocker” and describes both conventional and unconventional characters including a Shi’ite skinhead, a conservative Sunni Muslim, a burka-wearing feminist punk and a Sufi who sports a Mohawk and drinks alcohol.

“The punk rock kids I would hang out with weren’t even Muslim,” 31-year old Knight recalls. “They were so fiercely individualistic — I wish that I could be a Muslim in that way: not be ashamed of my confusion, not be ashamed of my doubts. Just be myself and be proud of who I am.”

The novel’s title, “Taqwacore,” is a hybrid word stemming from the Arabic “taqwa,” meaning “god consciousness,” and “core” referring to “hardcore” — a genre of punk music. It’s now a general term for Muslim punk rock.

The popularity of the book, which Knight said was born out of a search to find his identity as a Muslim-American, grew in underground youth circles and online.

It didn’t take long before real-life “taqwacore” bands like The Kominas began blooming across the country.

“It makes sense why punk has been the music of choice for young, politically active Muslims who are musical,” said LeVine. “The straight edge movement in punk which was about no drugs, no alcohol, was clean yet very intense and political. It’s a way for them to rebel against their families in some extreme ways yet still be ritualistically, ‘good Muslims.’ ”

“Taqwacore” gave voice to many young Muslim-Americans who felt muted by circumstances and created an opening for bands like Al-Thawra, Vote Hezbollah, and Secret Trial Five — an all-girl punk band out of Vancouver, Canada.

In the summer of 2007, five of the taqwacore bands organized a “taqwa-tour” of the northeastern United States. They played in city after city, traveling in a green school bus with TAQWA painted on the front bought by Knight for $2,000 on eBay.

This summer, The Kominas continue to strike a chord with audiences around the country, hitting cities from San Francisco to New York on a multi-city tour.

The taqwacore movement has also inspired two upcoming films – a dramatic feature film based on the book and a documentary.

Many conservative Muslims may peg young taqwacores as heretic for their suggestive and irreverent lyrics. But the musicians say they are just trying to show both cultures how broad the spectrum of belief can be.

Like many young adults balancing their religious beliefs with American culture, some young Muslims in the United States say it’s a constant struggle to be accepted in both worlds.

“I had a lot of conflicted feelings growing up a Muslim in America,” said 25-year-old Kominas drummer Imran Malik. “It was hard not being able to do the same things that everyone else around you is doing without feeling guilty about them.”

Knight, who grew up with a Catholic mother and white supremacist father, converted to Islam when he was 16. He said his message is not one of blasphemy but rather an extension of his discontent with the rigid etiquette that dictates certain practices within Islam and the stereotypes of Muslims in American.

“Muslims haven’t been fully accepted as Americans but the American experience hasn’t been accepted as something that can contribute to the Muslim world,” said Knight.

Knight said writing the book helped him and others connect through shared experiences.

“When I first wrote it, I felt like there would never be a place for me in the Muslim community and that has really turned around a lot,” he said. “The book gave me the community I needed, it connected me to all these kids that were also confused and who also went through the things that I went through.”

That connection is vital to taqwacore music, bassist Usmani said.

“The music is great, but the conversation is the key to all of this. The dialogue that we have inspired is really invaluable.”

“I don’t think Islam is ever going to go away, I’m just trying to see how it best fits in my life.”

Punk meets Islam for new generation in U.S. – CNN.com.

ProXymo

Welcome to the grooveTEK Chillout Session 036

We are pleased to have another outstanding Guest DJ, Evgeny Pakhomov, from Russia, spinning up his new album “ShockWave”.

“ProXymo”, the musical project by russian composer, Evgeny Pakhomov. Evgeny writes music for television, motion pictures and theatrical plays. His range of music from club mixes to instrumental ballads. “ShockWave” is his first album. Analog and digital technologies combined creating interesting sound for everyone. “I create music, in which everybody may find their own history” – Evgeny says.

So you say you want a revolution. All you need do is shake them off!

ShockWave
[Groove Mixer: Guest DJ Evgeny Pakhomov ]
Proxymo “Shockwave” playlist

Tracks/[start time]
1. Intro [0:48]
2. Shockwave [1:45]
3. Feeling (loving time) [6:48]
4. Your history… [11:20]
5. Flash [17:24]
6. Street dancer [21:53]
7. Electronic motion [24:00]
8. Outrospective [30:40]

Music,arrangements and mixing by Evgeny Pakhomov.
Sound engineer Alexey Jadanov.
All tracks mixing and recorded at “Na Sumskom” Studio Moscow.

The next gTEK Podcast Show will be soon.

Listen Now!

Welcome to the grooveTEK Chillout Session 029

The people around world are calm now but for how long? We don’t have the answer you but for now stay in your red house..

Over & Out,

Morpheus & BuddhaBoy

The Red House
[Groove Mixer: Morpheus]

Tracks/Artists [time]:

1. One Love / Cirque Du Soleil [1:19]
2. Submit / Hibernate [4:31]
3. Mistral / Gareth Emery (GTR) [8:27]
4. Chastity / iiO [15:07]
5. 4 Strings Huriccane (Global Warming Remix) / Melnikov Project [24:09]
6. Boogaloop / Ursula 1000 [31:07]
7. THIS IS DJ Drunken Master! / DJ Drunken Master (DJDM) [35:32]
8. Shockwave (Original Mix) / Kanix Cane [40:41]
9. Dream Angels / Melnikov Project [46:40]

The next gTEK Podcast Show will be on Sunday, October 1, 2006

Listen Now!

Pray

Welcome to the grooveTEK Chillout Session 27

So you say you want a revolution. All you need do is shake them off!

Over & Out,
Morpheus & BuddhaBoy

Pray
[Groove Mixer : Buddhaboy]

Tracks/Artists [time]:

1. Raxa-Phenomenom Brainstorm [0:49]
2. Anywhere But Here Human Behavior [6:15]
3. Ruta Mariano Ballejos [11:00]
4. Living Faceless Protest of Reality [18:45]
5. Third Dimension G-licious and Redshift [23:20]

The next gTEK Podcast Show will be on Sunday, September 3rd, 2006

Listen Now!

Watching the world end. Photo unattributed from www.rense.com

Welcome to the grooveTEK Chillout Session 24

So you say you want a revolution. All you need do is shake them off!

Over & Out,

Morpheus & BuddhaBoy

Watching the world end
[Groove Mixer : Buddhaboy]

Tracks/Artists [time]:
1. The Dance Revolution / lee joyes [1:58]
2. PLUR / Ahyun [6:50]
3. Quicksand (Thievery Corporation Remix) / Natalie Walker [15:54]
4. Peace, Love, Dance / Digital Motion [20:27]
5. We Control / Hyper [25:09]
6. My Sweetest Choice / Seduced by Suicide [28:28]
7. Breakout / Prime Number Recorder [32:17]
8. Retro Toy / Digital Motion [34:28]
9. Little White Roses / Paul & Price [38:56]
10. Revolution Beats / Kelvin K [44:55]
11. Dont Let Me Catch You with Your Drawers Down / Koko Taylor [50:34]

Podcast sounds from

http://www.Earthstation1.com

http://www.Military.com

http://www.aviationtrivia.homestead.com/

http://avanimation.avsupport.com/Sound.htm

http://www.helis.com/sounds/

http://www.airraidsirens.com/audiovideo.html

https://www.dugway.army.mil/sites/about/security.asp

http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/sounds/offinstr.wav

The next gTEK Podcast Show will be on Sunday, August 6th, 2006

Listen Now!