The pix on my profile started off prinipally as either cell phone photos or as appropriated portraits from various online swingers sites. Regardless of source typically these images were then heavily manipulated and often collaged in Photoshop.

I have two prinicipal objectives the majority of the time..

At a purely aesthetic level I try to create a psychoactive experience for the viewer by way of color selection, pattern and contrast. I am influenced in this regard by the irridescent and inherently psychedelic qualities innate to materials such as mother of pearl, peacock feathers, mohair and orchids.

At a subjective level I try to accentuate the positive aesthetic of the images I use. I look for the love behind the lust. I seek to highlight the commitment and trust behind the superficial pursuits of hedonistic pleasure that often make up my subject matter. I not only modify images, I generally modest - ify them too. (Worst made up word ever).

All of these pix were done over the course of the last four - five months.

HIP HOP

Lady Sovereign - Vertically Challenged (Sri Lankan Guerilla propaganda mts London Grime)

The Coup - Pick a bigger weapon (epitaph) (Oakland/Vallejo's finest socialist Hip Hop outfit with prisitine modernistic production).

E-40 - My Ghetto Report card (Bringing the sound of HYPHY to the rest of the country)

Mylo - Destroy Rock and Roll

anything by Spank Rock ( Baltimore's finest) -(Dirty electro freaked raw hip hop with occasional Beach Boys Sample)

Hollertronix - various 12" singles

Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott - various 12 " singles (This woman is a genius)

Edan - Fumbling over the words (Lewis) (the history of hip hop condensed into a single track over the funkiest of echoplexed beats)

Keek da Sneek (w/Dj Shadow) - 3 Freaks (Super stripped down electro/sound fx track with Oaklands own Keek da Sneek jabbering on atop.



SOUL AND FUNK

Darondo - Let my people go (Oakland pimp makes good with this set of impassioned Soul torch songs)

Jaheim - Ghetto Classics

Girl Group Sounds - Lost and Found box set - VA



ELECTRONIC

Richie Hawtin - DE : Transmissions

AFX - Chosen Lords

Tiga - Sexor

Gomagang #3 - VA

Fat Freddys Drop - Based on a true story

James Lidell - Multiply (warp)

Death in Vegas - Fabric live

Lindstrom and Prins Thomas - Prima Norsk Vol 3 (studio produced Italo disco inspired music from scandinavia)

A.R.E. Weapons - Free in the Streets

Betty Botox presents G4 Faggot - (simple raw disco electro tracks that somehow add up to more than the sum of their parts)

Alexander's Dark Band - 'Eponymous' - J Saul Kane aka The Octagon Man aka Depth Charge aka Founder of the epic DC Recordings takes on a new guise and returns to his earlier Depth Charge esque style of Electro/Downtempo/Dub inflected tunes. A truly amazing double album. Animal noises, analog synth groans, bird calls and Horror movie samples compete for yr attention against a backdrop of fierce Linn drum programming and ever changing sound sculptures.

Egyptian Lover - Platinum Pyramids ( A return to form from one of the progenitors of Electro)

Emperor Machine - first 3 releases on DC recordings (J Saul Kane's imprint) Disco/Moroderesque punk)

Will Powers - Adventures in Success (reissue) (Masterful Linn drum machine programming)



EXPERIMENTAL(post punk)

This Heat - eponymous


AFRICAN

Lagos Chop-up - VA (Honest Johns) With the exception of Ebenezer Obey, nearlly all the Nigerian musicians of the 60's thru the 80's on this comp are little known. Yet the endlessly inventive guitars, the horns and voices and, of course, the percussion are a revelation. The shit.

Geraldo Pina and the Heartbeats - Heavy Heavy Heavy (pre Fela - impossibly funky afro beat) Fela on Pina "This man was tearing Lagos to pieces. Wooooh man he had all of Nigeria in his pocket. This motherfucker had a devestating impact live. After seeing this Pino, I knew I had to get my shit together and quick!"


BRAZILIAN (post punk)

The Sexual life of the savages - VA (soul jazz)


BRAZILIAN (Tropicalia)

Tropicalia comp - VA (soul jazz)


ROCK

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

Kate Bush - Aerial (double album of effortlessly innovative music from this always groundbreaking artist)

Maximum Joy - Unlimited (79 - 83)

Tom Robinson Band - Power in the Darkness (EMI) Gay Hard Rock band with biting political agenda from late 70's England

Cardinal - Eponymous (reissue) (the most beautiful harmonies you will ever hear).


REGGAE

Barrington Levy in dub - The lost mixes from King Tubby's studios (Best dub album you will hear all yr. If you liked "Big Showdown by Scientist and Jammy, you will love this album, the newest from Araulux Records. Featuring the ROOTS RADICS. Weak hearts will be bass shattered.


REGGAE/LAPTOP

DJ RUPTURE/KID 606 w/Sister Nancy - Little More Oil (soul jazz) (Just for the laptop glitchy dub mix on side 2)


SOUTH AMERICAN

Mas Rock and Roll - VA Valenzuelan comp that opens yr eyes to the other America's.


ELECTRO/DOWNTEMPO

Alexanders Dark Band - eponymous (Depth Charge new alias) (Effortlessly superb)

Dave Clarke (feat Chicks on Speed) - What was her name? (skint) (Rubbery Electro)

HOUSE

Ultimo Francisco - Ultimo (nature records)

VARIOUS - COMPILATIONS

Pillows and Prayer's
Cherry Red Records 82 - 83

This retrospective from small indie label "Cherry Red" records bears the statement "Pay no more than 99p" on the front cover. If you find this record for anything near that price as is still possible I might add consider yourself very luck. This is probably one of the strongest single label compilations ever released. It features some of the strongest material from....

Everything But the Girl (3 tracks total...Ben Watt solo, Tracy Thorn solo and the band together), Felt, Kevin Coyne, The Nightingales, The Marine Girls (one of Curt Cobains many pet indie fave bands) and the Monochrome Set. Also thrown in are two of the funniest spoken word diatribes ever committed to vinyl. Quentin Crisp (The Naked Civil Servant) makes like Oscar Wilde and delivers "Stop the music for a minute" to close out the record. The Orb sampled this diatribe as I recall...Also Attilla the Stockbroker etches the air with his detailed observations about the tawdry lives innercity living, glue sniffing 12 yr olds.

But the coup de grace has to be Joe Crow's stunning slab of proto electro "Compulsion". So sleek, so economical and beyond melancholy this song features a single chord change over the course of its primitive synthesized life. In spite of this or maybe because of this it attains a perfection in color, tonality and feel that Depeche Mode spent an entire career aspiring towards. Indeed, as I recall Martin Gore did a note for note eerily identical cover of this track on his otherwise drab "Counterfeit" album.

A truly amazing little label and a perfectly compiled compilation, make this record (also reissued on CD) essential. Particularly if you have any interest in learning about what was going on in the indie music world of the UK circa early "80's.

...If you find the history, evolution or science of "Sound Systems" and the evolving "culture" thereof to be "interesting" or "engaging".

I use this "TRIBE" as a repository for any info/pix/stories/anecdotes/factoids on this subject. In the topics section you will find mostly articles etc that I come across during the course of my day to day research in this subject area. I compliment this with some editorial scribblings of my own....if compliment is the right word.

Very heavy on content.
Not so social.
Mediated with OCD overtones by yrs truly
Joe Bob Briggs says...
"Two nipple whippings, one tweeter rape, gratuitous TURBO pornography, crossover infantilism, full frontal PA fetish play on display.....I give it 4 boobs......CHECK IT OUT."

"IF YOU ARE GOING THROUGH HELL...........................................KEEP GOING" -

- "Winston Churchill"

THERE IS NO POINT IN BEING PESSIMISTIC
IT WOULD NOT WORK ANYWAY.