אהוב יקר, רונית שחר, גל ירוק

Beginning with the end; the spirit of Jose Gonzales creeping through these lovely pluckings. Back but yet it’s time to go…

Blindsided, Bon Iver (For Emma, Forever Ago)

I’m going to break a rule this time: two tunes from the same fella. But what a fella! Truth be told, every song from Bon Iver’s debut merits a place on this list; it’s been on repeat ad infinitum. Top five dead or alive and that’s just off one LP. For now I’ll make do with Blindsided…

The Rules, Saigon & Statik Selectah (All in a Days Work)

Saigon + Statik Selectah = Dope. This album was done in 24 hours. Even so, it sounds slightly too preened. No matter – even a slickened Saigon is doper than your average emcee. This is the difference between me and them…

Electronic Renaissance, Belle & Sebastian (TigerMilk)

It’s those keyboard twerks at the beginning, giving way to the gorgeous melodies and driving rhythm. Perfect for some movie about a past decade, the sound of people getting perky right away, irrepressible smiles.

Frankly Mr Shankly, The Smiths (The Queen is Dead)

I have to confess that somehow this was stuck on 3 stars on my iTunes until a few months ago when I realized that it’s perhaps the best song ever. As the SB says, it’s all about different registers…

It’s Alright (The Guvnor’s Mix), East 17 (Walthamstow)

This tore shit down at The World’s Greatest Ever 90s Party, reminding me of my days as a teenage rapper. East 17 were better than Take That, period.

Fox Song, Alice Music

My favourite correspondent with her unparalleled melodies; a hypnotic sound first heard late at night at the Gaon’s place.

What If? feat Nas, Jadakiss  (The Last Kiss)

Jada’s back with yet another concept record, ably assisted by Nas.  What if indeed?

Underground Ambassadors feat Afu-Ra, Krumbsnatcha (Hidden Scriptures)

The black rap messiah’s back, deeper and darker, but still scurrying through the darkness carrying his torch, Afu-Ra by his side. Eyes and ears the fuck open: this hits hard.

Shake This, Royce da 5’9

And they say Primo’s a one-trick pony?!? Epic hip-hop record, Royce letting it all come down on wax, orchestra by his side, preparing us for Street-Hop…

Reality Check feat Black Thought, Jay Dilla (Jay Stay Paid)

OK so there’s a dubious morality about posthumous records, but I can’t see Jay minding Black Thought ripping this ridiculous instrumental. This. Is. A. Jay. Dilla. Beat. RIP.

Death Final, Bonnie Prince Billy (Beware)

This is what death music should sound like: celebratory, loving, ambiguous about whats next, optimistic about humanity despite it all. Bonnie Prince Billy wins. Simple as that.

Son’z of a Loop Da Loop Era

Another 90s classic: old-skool is the genre of the hour. Those sentimental pianos, the wheeeeeeeeeeeeew, and the drop of the beat. Hat-Tip to Schlags and Seth.

חלומות של אחרים, Idan Raichel (Within My Walls)

This is music for the preliminaries, burning through wintry sheets while the air-conditioner does battle with the window.

Re: Stacks, Bon Iver (For Emma, Forever Ago)

“This my excavation/and today is Qumran.” The sound of a man heading out on the road, catharsis completed, possibilities multiplying before him. Where would we be without Bon Iver?

Subject: When we kill protesters, we normally do it with tear gas canisters…

A benevolent presence indeed.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-kashmir-rape9-2009jun09,0,899322.story?track=rss

Re. When we kill protesters, we normally do it with tear gas canisters…

Need lessons from “the most moral army in the world” – cluster bombs, white phosphorous, dogs feeding on a child’s corpse…

Re. When we kill protesters, we normally do it with tear gas canisters…

It’s not about lessons; it’s about the simple fact that I acknowledge what my government is doing and try and do what I can to change it (raise awareness, go out and confront outpost builders, tours of East Jerusalem etc etc), whereas you claim that the Indian presence in Kashmir is somehow benign.
A

Re. When we kill protesters, we normally do it with tear gas canisters…

The Glass House proudly presents Alex Stein on the Indian Occupation of Kashmir,
Mr. Stein chose to aquire Israeli citizenship, but not because of persecution or economic hardship. He has served in the army that oppresses the Palestinian people.
Next we will present Ms Louise Woodward on “The wickedness of nannies who talk over the phone with their boyfriends when the baby is crying”
Ms Woodward was found guilty of killing Sonny Eapen when she was his nanny.

Re. When we kill protesters, we normally do it with tear gas canisters…

Your arguments have no logical basis. For the 100th time, I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t support Palestinian self-determination. But I do. And I try and actively support it. In fact you find me in the middle of translating a Combatants for Peace report on a visit we had last week to the South Hebron Hills. It’s partly because of my support of Palestinian self-determination that I think the principle should be applied also to Kashmiris.
It seems that you are the hypocrite, as you support self-determination for the Palestinians, but not for the Kashmiris.

Re. When we kill protesters, we normally do it with tear gas canisters…

You have chosen to emigrate to a country that was born by robbing the land of others. You did not do so for economic reasons or because you were discriminated for ethnic or religious reasons. You have served in the army of the robber baron country, so it is utterly hypocritcal to say that you are working for those your country oppresses.

Your presence in Israel, neither by birth nor by necessity, is a slap in the faces of those who really own that land.

Re. When we kill protesters, we normally do it with tear gas canisters…

You can repeat something as many times as you like – that doesn’t make it true. The State of Israel was created by a UN Resolution which stemmed from a result of a demographic reality which meant there were two peoples fighting over the same land. It is a state that is recognised by a vast majority of countries in the world – including your own.
 
It is not hypocritical. Are you suggesting that hosting meetings of Combatants for Peace, translating their materials, taking part in their activities, does not help the situation? I suggest you tell that to some of the Palestinian members of Combatants for Peace, because they don’t see me as a hypocrite or a usurper, and are just happpy to have more people who support their ideas.
 
At least we get to the heart of the issue: your absolute rejection of the right of Jews to have the self-determination you would happily give to the Palestinians but not the Kashmiris. It is you who are the hypocrite, and you who misunderstands history.

Re. When we kill protesters, we normally do it with tear gas canisters…

Back to you, repeating the same thing over and over again does not make it true. Zionism resulted in the western colonisation of people too poor and weak to support themselves, helped by the compassionate response to the very real horrors of the holocaust. Israel is illegitimate.

If you were a a citizen of Britain ONLY, I would respond to you very differently, because your life choice wouldn’t negate your position

Re. When we kill protesters, we normally do it with tear gas canisters…

I notice you don’t relate to my charge of hypocrisy regarding your position on Kashmir, which has nothing to do with my status as an Israeli.
 
Now, you can think Israel is illegitimate all you want – you can think it shouldn’t have exist, or it’s creation was immoral, or whatever. But to speak about its illegitimacy as if this is a fact of the international system is simply false. As I said, Israel is recognised by a vast majority of the country’s of the world – that’s what grants it its legitimacy, whether you think that’s a desirable state of affairs or not. If you want Israel to lose its legitimacy, I suggest you ask countries to withdraw their recognition. Until then, kindly distinguish between your simplistic moral judgements and the realities of the international system.
 
If you’re saying my life-choice negates my position, then you are basically saying that all immigrants to Israel should leave. If that’s what you’re saying, good luck to you, but you won’t be hearing from me again until you learn to extend empathy beyond your Pilger-lite education. It may surprise you to discover, but reality is far more complicated than you try and paint it to be.

Re. When we kill protesters, we normally do it with tear gas canisters…

Perhaps for the best. Should sense and decency prevail, and you surrender your Israeli citizenship, let me know.

Best wishes

From Falsedichotomies to Penguin. There’s hope for the rest of us yet. Check out Seth Freedman’s inimitable analysis of the city here.

Details (on Facebook) here…

Popular Demand, Black Milk (Popular Demand)

Proving once again that the freshest hip-hop is coming out of the mid-west, Black Milk shows he’s ready to inherit Jay Dilla’s crown on this title track from his debut album. Since this came out he’s dropped Tronic and more, but it’s this soulful cut that’s had my attention these past weeks. Bright like birds whispering through the city streets.

A Life Less Ordinary, The Levellers (Letters from the Underground)

Look, The Levellers changed my life, alright? So you can imagine my glee at the nostalgia-fest that’s their latest album. Littered with some of their biggest tunes since 1994’s Levelling the Land, this is the standout track. Inspiration at the end of a long day of work; cries of joy breaking out as the land turns dark.

Girl Thing (Pirate Soundsystem remix) [SUPER ROUGH DEMO]

I picked this one up from Meal Deal and it had me fiending for the UK garage days I never had. I must have listened to this a hundred times already. It’s got groove, zest, zap, and grime – all in one smooth, sexy slice of two-step. Cop it.

Trojan Horse, Bloc Party (Intimacy)

Lustful hope as the cold cuts through the low lying trees. In League with Paton’s right to question the strange line about taking off one’s watch before making love, but it doesn’t detract from an awesome blast of a song. A massive chorus, a killer riff, and all in three and a half minutes. If you want more, check out the rest of the album. Highly recommended.

Magic Doors, Portishead (Third)

I don’t know why I got the Portishead album. I was in an ace mood at the time, and I had always dismissed them as a ‘coffee-table’ outfit. Still, perhaps I was anticipating the dark moments to come. I’m still not convinced, but this works a treat. Only simchas, eh?

Love will tear us apart, Oysterband & Joan Tabor (The Big Session, Vol 1)

It may be sacrilegious to cover the greatest break-up song of all time, but this piece of chutzpah happens to work. John Jones’ and Joan Tabor’s duet creates a fine sound; all the best lines emphasised, all the heartbreak drawn out. And it still somehow sounds hopeful.

Paper Planes, M.I.A. (Kala)

So good I had to forgive the Binge Trader when he leaned over to tell me what this was in the middle of Slumdog Millionaire. Great sample from The Clash, and a subversive interpolation (I love that word) of Wreckx-n-Effect’s 1990s classic Rump Shaker. Yes it’s probably apologetics for terrorism, but at least it proves the Tamil Tigers are sexier than, say, Hamas. And that’s got to count for something.

Darling, Sons and Daughters (The Gift)

In League with Paton describes this better than I can: “I can’t say I’ve really thought that much of Sons and Daughters before – in fact, I found their dark, brooding set in support of Nick Cave at Alexandra Palace a few years ago rather contrived. This is rather fantastic though, with one of the best choruses of the year and a new twist on that Motown stomp so beloved of modern rock groups.”

It’s My Turn, Little Vic (Each Dawn I Die)

I hadn’t heard of Little Vic until I found out that Preemo had blessed him with a beat. This is the stand-out track, though, of the wonderfully titled Each Dawn I Die, the kind of thing Just Blaze might be making right now if he wasn’t getting all jiggy. Perfect for confronting the day.

So Good (Live from the Bar), Statik Selectah (Stick 2 Tha Script)

Statik Selectah is the latest inheritor of the east-coast boom-bap tradition that will never die. The horns do the job, the drums sway breezily, while the emcees all come up with something naughty. The great C.L. Smooth even shows up – listen for how he says granddaddy. This is one for weddings.

Min Nhar Li Mshishti (From the Day You Left) – Idan Raichel (Within my Walls)

A hit song on Israeli radio, and it’s all in Arabic. I have no idea what the geezer’s saying on this, but it sounds lovely and heartbreaking. I remember it coming on HaCovshim, and I just knew straight away I wouldn’t want to get out the car just yet. A hopeful hint of integration in dark times.

Jetstream – Doves (Kingdom of Rust)

This, apparently, is something for the closing credits of Blade Runner. I was cynical at first, but the Doves have proved themselves yet again; a more mature, groovier way to herald their latest project. To infinity, and beyond.

Things got worse before they got better. My time in the IDF, although in many ways personally beneficial, increased my apathy. That elemental desire, the fundamental drive that propelled me to the table to sit and write, was no longer there. I watched from the sidelines, disinterestedly.

But I also fell in love: with the novel. How could I have lived twenty-five years on this planet without realising that this was the ideal form of expression, the closest our dubious civilisation has come to producing a canonical repository of truth? I read voraciously, like a starving peasant at a king’s banquet, leaving all non-fiction to the side. Wisdom was found – to borrow Philip Roth’s words – in the not so that’s so. Then came India, a country that can enliven the most comatose of patients, the muse, the place that made me pick up the pen again. Wandering Satlan was in full effect, inspiration had been found.

Now I’m back in Zion, demobbed and open to possibilities. Optimistic, despite everything, finally ready to begin. Since I’ve been away, the blogosphere got bloated on its own hubris, in the process losing the anarchic spirit that made it was it was in the first place. But it’s still free and vibrant; no structures to follow, no rules to abide by.

On Falsedi 2.0 you will read reflections on a life lived honestly, in Zion, in the twenty-first century. You will read pieces on literature, cinema, hip-hop, football, religion and sex. History, politics. Yes, even Middle Eastern politics. Doctor Who. There will be talkback: questions will be answered, queries followed up. Plus there will be pictures. I like pictures.

Most of all, though, there will be hope, for that is the fuel that powers are lives, that lightens our torch. It’s broken out once more. False Dichotomies is back in full effect. Y’all been warned.