dcom

Ah. LOL. Now you know that I'm also a communist sleeper operative masquerading as a Finnish IDM nerd.

My parents used to be hard-core communists in the 1970s, and that was reflected in a lot of things in my youth: my first foreign language in school was Russian, and up until early teens I was a member of the Finnish Pioneer movement - the Soviet Russia version of Boy Scouts, but with bright green shirts and red scarves, morning and evening flag saluting, studying the little red book etc. alongside other scout-y things; thus I have a very intense personal relationship with Socialist-Communist-Russian things for real, not in the superficially ignorant hyperbolic way e.g. most Americans think of them. I was literally being indoctrinated, but as soon as I reoriented enough brain cells I quit - but it still left a permanent mark in my psyche. When most people talk about Marxism, Socialism, Communism or even Russia, they don't know jack. I do. But I digress, carry on.

Indoctrinated? I'd rather say educated, as an 15-odd year active member of the KGB. That's where he made the connections, built rapport and collected leverage to get where he is now. He's got dirt on everybody.

Contemporary Russia - and Putin - is not Marxist, let alone communist. There are stalwarts in the population who are, but the country is not. There are remnants and an occasional whiff in the pompous military events and decorative proceedings, but otherwise - no.

A friend of mine losslessly digitized his collection of about 2000 vinyl records and then sold the lot. It took him a couple of years in fits and starts, but in the end he got it done, and he hasn't looked back after selling, no regrets.

As an aside, not all my (new) release submissions are endorsements or recommendations, they may be only for information purposes. If I'm recommending something, more often than not I'm explicit about it. I'm also not investing an iota of myself on the submissions, whether someone likes a release or not isn't about or reflecting on me (unless committing an ad hominem, in which case I'll rhetorically eviscerate the perpetrator). Bicker away to your heart's content.

An electro compilation from a label that I wouldn't have guessed would release such a thing, and with top-shelf artists like Client_03, CYRK, and The Advent - and to my surprise, a track from CJ Bolland. Recommended.

No.

AI Update, Late 2020 - dumpster fire (Piekniewski's blog: on limits of deep learning and where to go next with AI.)

It seems that Ossoff and Warnock will win and the Senate will flip.

Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more, say no more - I have many of your t-shirts, too, they're brilliant.

Your design make everything I like even better.

The answer is - of course - it depends. First of all, you won't be getting anywhere near the median price of your collection: if you sell them in bulk, you'll be lucky to get a third of the median price; if you sell them one by one, there's going to be a lot of grinding work involved, communication, packaging, posting, returns, complaints, scams etc. - spending a lot of time and money. Second, there's the subjective value for you and you alone: how much time and effort you've put in on amassing the collection - if you're selling, you need to be ready to let go of all the memories attached to the collection - they're product, and regardless of the fact how immaculately you've curated the collection and how important each one is to you, there will be a lot of items which will not sell and you'll be either giving them away, throwing them in the bin or stuck with them. I've thought about this a lot as I my own collection's median valuation is around 80K € - a sizeable chunk of it is basically garbage taking up space, although I love each and every record to bits - they're a chronology, a physical manifestation of the evolution of my musical taste, tools of the trade (I'm a DJ) - although they're insured as a collection, I would be absolutely devastated if they were destroyed e.g. in a fire, the insurance money cannot replace 30-odd years of my life. I have sold a batch of records from my collection once (to make rent) and I still feel the pangs of regret after 20+ years - YMMV. Then there's the investing part - unless you take it slow and manage the risks, you can get skint in heartbeat. I'm not an expert on matters financial - my record collection stands as evidence of that - so I can't recommend any courses of action, but there's plenty of information available on it, easily digestible. I assume my progeny will be stuck with the collection of well over metric ton (and growing) of cardboard, paper and plastic at the point when I no longer am.

Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine (The Atlantic)

It's originally written by Grant Morrison as a four-issue comic book series, which is awesome. If you're not familiar with Morrison's work, you should be - The Invisibles is his magnum opus in my books; there's been an adaptation to the screen in the works for a while, would be nice to see that one as well - but the comics are already effin' brilliant.

Drainprance FTW

I, too, have to admit that after a couple of listens the material seems much better from what I remembered. It's rather pleasant and unintrusive accompaniment for writing code.

I'm going to commit heresy: the Gescom breaks set is boring, I barely made it through. I'd rather listen to Renegade Soundwave, Meat Beat Manifesto or Skye for applied breaks than an hour of atavistic rhythms for beat freaks.

All that scratching is making me itch.

Addendum: more compilations and some late releases. V/A - ISSXI.I-X (In Silent Series) V/A - 5Y (47) The OST - Per Manum (self-released) Holon - Nothing But Stardust (Subatomic Audio) V/A - Myriad Alias: Myriagon Atlas Remixed (self-released) V/A - Found Sound 2 (Touched) V/A - Defend Your Planet (Avoidant) Paul Hierophant - Utopian Dystopias Part Three (Exalt) Russ Gabriel - Ancestors & Aurology (Exalt) V/A - 005 (Touched Electronix) V/A - XVI (Urban Connections) V/A - Yfory (E.L.M.Collective) V/A - Saciar (Kahvi) State Azure - Snow Drift (self-released) Mod ^ Telepathy - MoT^-eR : 32_ DF^M (Schematic)

I think this will get you started.

Igloo Magazine :: Best of 2020