22 March 2010
Synth Brittania
This BBC Channel Four documentary about the rise of synthesizer bands in the UK is mandatory viewing! It covers the influences and early experimentation of the first all-synth groups, as well as how the music was eventually accepted and found chart success in the UK and the rest of the world.This was a parallel punk music, just played with machines rather than cheap guitars. These artists were pioneers, and often ridiculed by 'real' musicians and music journalism.
Excellent interviews with the key players. I was particularly interested in how so many of these artists were involved in several of the seminal bands.
Enjoy!
Documentary following a generation of post-punk musicians who took the synthesiser from the experimental fringes to the centre of the pop stage.
In the late 1970s, small pockets of electronic artists including the Human League, Daniel Miller and Cabaret Volatire were inspired by Kraftwerk and JG Ballard and dreamt of the sound of the future against the backdrop of bleak, high-rise Britain.
Enjoy!
Note: This documentary is unavailable to those of us in the U.S., so I have the 10 parts up in youtube. Not sure how long they will be available. BBC 4 already deleted the last of the 9, so I had to find 2 parts from another source to complete it. Thus, the last 30 minutes may have a few minutes of redundancy. Fast-forward is your friend!
Buzz This!
01 March 2010
Google Wants You to Have an Easy Exit
Ars Technica explains how one of Google's priorities is to let their users take their data and leave.This is quite the opposite of how most other companies treat their customers.
"CAGE FREE DATA," they proclaim, which sums up the Data Liberation Front's efforts succinctly. The team's goal is nothing less than to make it simple for people to leave Google's many services, taking e-mails, photos, and documents along with them.
I found this article refreshing - our data SHOULD be easily transferable, and as portable as possible.
Nicole Wong, Google's Deputy General Counsel, told us separately that DLF matters to Google for two reasons: 1) it provides control to users and 2) "when we say our competition is one click away," initiatives like DLF prove that it's true.
More kudos to Google.
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