A weedy florilegium

Playtime: roughly 63 minutes
Released: March 1st 2004
Favorite tracks are bolded.

Tracklisting:
01 Some Electric
02 Flux and Form (192 kbps)
03 Catherine Holly
04 The Understudy
05 Charles Street
06 Blue Thread
07 Sleep Trick (192 kbps)
08 Anvil Point
09 Copenhagen
10 Tycho
11 Nineteen

Review:
From Bangor, Northern Ireland, we are given Tracer AMC. Comprised of members Jonny Ashe on guitar, Alex Donald on bass, Michael Kinloch on guitar and Keith Winter on drums, our Irish ensemble produces music of sonic charge and carefully tangled melodic thoughts in their debut full length, Flux and Form.

Their compositions trail a great distance in style from your standard radio rock sessions; however, anyone moderately attentive to the up and rising post-rock movement will tell you this band is just one amongst many. This would not be a very accurate description of the thoughtful and spellbinding music that comes from this album. Of course, it is, from head-to-toe, intensely and completely instrumental, but, like with most post-rock bands, that does not remove any greatness from the music itself, even if you may consider it a guilty pleasure. No, it is less than arguable that we have been given a pleasant new perspective into understanding the truth of musical beauty. And surely, Tracer AMC does not fail to please.

From this relation to the genre to which they are generally filed under, we venture into the first track, “Some Electric,”—the beginning of how they differ—, other notable tracks and some general thoughts on this album.

“Some Electric” introduces the album with a melancholy of melodic dual interwoven guitar riffs and soft cymbals as a noticeable crescendo slowly breathes in its air. Eventually soft crashes of cymbals and toms and subtle flickering guitar melodies become warmed over in the presence of a complementary violin. The build up continues as the sounds of each instrument bolster into a sort of wall of sound until we are met with an explosive release of noisy intent and driving guitars. Soon after, the track shrinks down to sounds of distinct melodic humility and warmth.

The first track gives us a review of the structure of noise to come as the rest of the tracks, remarkably, with the exception of a few purely sweet lullabies, keeps to the format of progressive and blending soft-loud segments. Throughout the drumming is also crisp, clean and controlled, supportive of the whole of the ensemble and never deviating into tangents. Many of the tracks like “Some Electric,” “Flux and Form,” and “Blue Thread” enjoy moments of blasting walls of sound, as described previously, sometimes more furious and moving than loud, other times simply loud and moving.

Sleep Trick is a crowd favorite, neatly fit under the “lullaby” category for this album, it lulls but deceivingly lures you into a soundscape of beautiful and playful, swirling guitars. This sound is by far the most accessible of the album.

The three epics “Catherine Holly,” “Copenhagen,” and “Nineteen” each consist of chapters in themselves of progressive rock tendencies, raging movements of sound and equally present soft riddling themes.

Flux and Form expresses a valid control over musical composition and transition. It is a work of art carefully attended to from corner to corner, no single track breaking its ultimate train of thought.

Series Website – Wiki – Google Video

Jonathan Miller visits the absent Twin Towers to consider the religious implications of 9/11 and meets Arthur Miller and the philosopher Colin McGinn. He searches for evidence of the first ‘unbelievers’ in Ancient Greece and examines some of the modern theories around why people have always tended to believe in mythology and magic.
–Description of Part One – Shadows of Doubt

Shadows of Doubt, 59m 3s (originally 490MB)

A brilliant introduction to the history of disbelief. Uploaded because this needs to be available as a shining light of the historicity of reason midst the dark depths and oceans of media absurdity and religious propaganda. So few representatives of atheism provide a compelling and earnest account for unbelief, let alone with the lucidity and intellectual vigor of Jonathan Miller. He is sincere and moving in this attempt to explain and understand the origins of disbelief in his own life and for us all.

Should the BBC or the producers find it inappropriate for me to have uploaded this video, I will gladly remove it upon their request. Otherwise, enjoy. I will be uploading part 2, Noughts and Crosses, soon, but not part 3, as part 3 is readily available through Google Video at the moment.

Also, here is a listing of the quotes used throughout the series: Quotations Page

View second and third parts: Part 2 – Part 3

A recent late night poem, written (you guessed it: on July Fourth, exactly one month ago) after I read some depressing news regarding…well, you know.

From a shift in earnest to democracy,
Wars of affirmations of independence,
Lived briefly… We have thrived pitifully
In our dissent to perilous plutocracy, only
To find ourselves enduring the media
Corruption birthing an autocratic theocracy.
And we are content with unrest and distant
Unfathomable turmoils, cascaded by legislation,
Writs to alienation and intellectual disease;
It is the beauty of our nation.
God Bless America.

Generalizations abound; redundant and nonsensical.

Imperial Presidency Can Now Promote Religion

Fasten your seat belts, kids. The stacked Supreme Court is careening to the right, and taking our Constitution along for a very bumpy ride. The Court on Monday ruled the president may do what Congress cannot–use federal tax dollars to promote religion without chance of taxpayer challenge or court review. [...]
–FFRF, http://ffrf.org/news/2007/heinstatement.php

This article is in regard to the court case Hein v. FFRF.

Brief History of Disbelief homepage

“In this first ever television history of disbelief, Jonathan Miller goes on a journey exploring the origins of his own lack of belief and uncovering the hidden story of atheism.”

Also check out: The Atheism Tapes

“Jonathan Miller meets up with some of the key contributors from his three-part Brief History of Disbelief in these half-hour extended conversations.”

List of interviewees: Arthur Miller, Colin McGinn, Steven Weinberg, Richard Dawkins, Denys Turner, Daniel Dennett

“I discovered that it was simply philosophy on its own that had played the very much larger role in the gradual erosion of belief.”
–Director Richard Denton shares his thoughts, link

I’m going to start working to get this special on our local PBS station. The Houston local PBS station is provided through my University so it shouldn’t be too difficult. In the meantime, here is a link to part three of the documentary on Google video.

We must first make note that Epicurus (341-270 BCE) never actually wrote any literature stating the argument, but rather it was formulated as a riddle and passed along through oral tradition. The riddle first appears in De Rerum Natura, a powerful philosophical epic poem written by Roman poet Lucretius Carus (99-55 BCE), a strict disciple of Epicurean philosophy.

What the problem of evil (POE) represents is an atheistic proposition for why an omnipotent, omniscience and omnibenevolent supreme being cannot logically exist. It is an argument stemming from the highlighted contradiction of such a being. Keep in mind that this argument was presented by an ancient Greek philosopher almost 300 years before the establishment of Christian Rome and 300 years, more or less, before Moses began writing the religious text which defined and saw to existence the Abrahamic God of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Original proposition:

Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to. If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not want to, he is wicked. If God can abolish evil, and God really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world?–Epicurus, as quoted in 2000 Years of Disbelief

David Hume restates the original proposition given by Epicurus in his Dialogues concerning Natural Religion.

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? then is he impotent.
Is he able, but not willing? then is he malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? whence then is evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
–David Hume, quoting Epicurus

Now for the counterargument, with its theological muscle, strengthened under the disciple of theodicy, it supposedly refutes the paradox of problem of evil completely.

Counterargument: http://www.christian-thinktank.com/gr5part1.html

Briefly, the author-theologian restates the Problem of Evil for further analysis.

1. The world is characterized by vast amounts of intensive and extensive suffering and evil.

2. After enduring a life of hardship and pervasive suffering, many (if not most) humans will end up in hell, where they will be actively tortured forever and ever.

3. All of this was known ahead of time by God, before He had even created ANYTHING or ANYONE.

4. For some reason or motive, He “went ahead” with the plan anyway, but could have chosen to not implement it (or to start a different one altogether) or to interrupt it before it “went bad”.

I am posting this now because I will eventually completely read the refutation and provide my own critique of it. I have a few initial ideas of why it is incorrect, but I will let them warm over in my thoughts for now.What is interesting, however, is that the author notes the Logical Problem of Evil (POE) is actually no longer a philosophically tenable argument nor is the Evidential Problem of Evil. Granted, he goes through almost excruciating lengths to disprove these two stances, but more importantly, he notes that contemporary philosophers no longer consider it a viable argument for their arsenal. This means that amongst philosophical circles and amongst debates, it should no longer be considered a sort of trump card against or threat to the theologian. This is important knowledge for any casual atheist or agnostic who enjoys keeping a few argumentative cards in his or her deck. The argument of the problem of evil may not so easily convince many people, and you may find yourself, at worst, succumbing to belief. That is, if the only reason for your atheism is the comfort in knowing that this riddle has gone unmatched and undefeated – it would most definitely be a surprise, if you are persuaded by the argument I’ve provided above.

Tarantula A.D.

Danny Bensi (Cello, Violin, Piano, Vocals), Saunder Jurriaans (Guitar, Bass, Vocals), and Gregory Rogove (Drums, Percussion, Piano, Melodica, Glockenspiel, Vocals) comprise the shuddering anthems of Tarantula A.D. Blending classical arrangements with elements of punk and metal, Tarantula A.D. delivers a hypnotic prog-rock sound with an ambient atmosphere. [...]
–Last.fm profile, http://www.last.fm/music/Tarantula+A.D.

When John Zorn dines with an entire pantheon of ancient Roman Gods, this album happens.

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?azz4zmnyzim
Favourite tracks: The Century Trilogy (3 tracks), Who Took Berlin (2 tracks), Palo Borracho

School of Emotional Engineering - Self-titled

The name draws inspiration from a single line in Aldous Huxley’s prophetic social critique Brave New World.

School of Emotional Engineering is a loosely defined ‘band’, more of a ‘project’ created by composer Ben Frost. Primarily Frost, alongside multi-instrumentalist and engineer Daniel Rejmer, bassist and guitarist Andy Hazel, violin player Russell Fawkus and drummer Jova Albers, School of Emotional Engineering (S.E.E) began originally in Melbourne, Australia as a live extension of Frost’s solo work. [...]
–Last.fm profile, http://www.last.fm/music/School+Of+Emotional+Engineering

“…like watching a knife fight in a phone booth.” The album is mostly bright ambient noise and soft keys with tracks blurring into each other, but occasionally heavy, moderate tempo drum beats will burst into the dense soundscapes. Lots of beautiful layering. It’s not so much an album of tracks as it is a lengthy train of emotionally wavering thoughts and musical forces.
Download: http://www.divshare.com/download/402848-66d
Streamable album: School of Emotional Engineering
Website: schoolofemotionalengineering.com (cryptic and creepy)
Favourite tracks: Falling for Sylvia, She Dreams in Car Crashes

Shellac - Excellent Italian Greyhound

Shellac did not release any records between 1000 Hurts in 2000 and “Excellent Italian Greyhound” in 2007, but songs which were to appear on the latter record formed the mainstay of their live-shows in the intervening period - in particular, “The End of Radio”, “Paco”, “Steady as She Goes”, “Be Prepared”, “Genuine Lulabelle”, “Boycott”, and “Elephant” (formerly known as “Repeat The Lie”). Excellent Italian Greyhound is named in tribute to Todd Trainer’s Italian Greyhound, Uffizi; it was released on Touch and Go Records in June 2007.
–Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellac_%28band%29

Why am I so late? This album released in June of this year. It’s signature Shellac – frenetic Albini riffery, powerful Trainer drumming, routinely drilling Weston bass, screaming rambled vocals – and look out for Ken Nordine on “Genuine Lulabelle”. Buy it. This album needs to be heard on vinyl, and like 1000 Hurts, it comes with an unmarked CD, for encouragement to buy it vinyl.
Label profile: Shellac of North America
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?221c1eeqmtb
Favourite tracks: Steady As She Goes, Elephant, Kittypants, Genuine Lulabelle