#Arnold de Boer

[earaercircular]

These green start-ups indicate the way to a circular chemistry without oil

Relement is working on Bio-Aromatic Conceptual Factory

They make paint, fuel pellets, phosphate for fertilizers and flame retardants, biodegradable and biodegradable plastic. Not from oil, but from sewage sludge, waste water, alcohol, bacteria, plants and agricultural waste. To help them grow faster and guide them through the valley of death, the first Green Chemistry Accelerator offered five green start-ups a 100-day training course. “You determine the future of chemistry.”

The chemical industry is facing a gigantic transition. In 2050, companies can no longer emit CO2 and they must be fully circular. Therefore, they must stop using oil and gas. This means that processes must be electrified and that alternative raw materials for oil must be found. This requires green start-ups, entrepreneurs with the courage to innovate, so-called game changers. They are the catalyst for change.

Death Valley

In recent months, five of these start-ups have received help and guidance from the Green Chemistry Accelerator[1] (GCA), an acceleration program of the Green Chemistry New Economy (GCNE) [2] platform, Invest-NL[3]  and the Regional Development Companies (ROMs) [4]. Experts and coaches helped them with a tailor-made plan to shape their company, make a better business plan, set goals, find customers and attract financing and investors so that they can build pilot plants or go to market . It's all about speeding up. Otherwise they will end up in death valley, that messy no man's land between the start-up and scale-up phase, between testing and applying techniques, between the drawing board and customers, between the first subsidies and new necessary investments. Many start-ups die an early death there and the initiators of GCA want to prevent that.

Future of chemistry

Five start-ups were selected for the program: Torwash[5], ETB Global[6], Paques Biomaterials[7], Relement[8]  and Susphos[9]. These are all promising game changers for greening chemistry. “You are the companies that determine the future of the chemical industry. Not only in the Netherlands, but throughout Europe. You are the new economy needed for this transition. We are here to help you make this happen,” said Arnold Stokking, chairman of the Platform Green Chemistry, New Economy (GCNE) [10], to the start-ups during the conclusion of the acceleration program at Change Inc. in Amsterdam.

Susphos is looking for building locations

Using a patented technology, SusPhos extracts phosphate from incinerated sewage sludge (sludge ash) from waste water and uses it to make fertilizers and flame retardants. The latter is the most high-quality reuse. Flame retardants are in everything from furniture to curtains, from electronics to insulation material. The company of CEO and founder Marissa de Boer already has a pilot factory in Friesland and has fifteen employees. Now it is looking for a place for the first large-scale factory that will extract 50 million kilos of phosphate per year from sludge ash: the Susphos 1. The start-up is looking for funding for that. Susphos prefers to build close to the suppliers of sludge ash, the sludge incinerators in Dordrecht and Moerdijk, and the customers who will purchase the phosphate. That's difficult. “But we found three locations in the Netherlands that meet this requirement. Now we will work out the details and see which one suits us best,” says De Boer.

ETB Global is Alice in Wonderland

ETB Global produces bio-butadiene, an important raw material for plastic and rubber in products such as Lego, car tires, latex gloves, medical devices, computers, construction helmets, perfume and paint. Not from oil, but from bio-ethanol: alcohol from plant residues. The start-up moved from Moscow to Chemelot[11] in 2020 and progressed slowly until entrepreneur Ernest Lempers became a shareholder and CFO. The company wants to have the first demonstration plant in Geleen[12] operational by 2026, for which a European subsidy has almost been secured. Lempers compares the start-up's journey to the fairy tale of Alice in Wonderland. Venture investors who only ask more questions play the role of the Mad Hatter, the adviser that is of no use to Alice. Oil companies that do not look for green solutions at all, but only want to sell oil, are the evil Red Queen.

According to Lempers, ETB Global, like the other start-ups in the program, learned not to immediately look at the end goal, but more at the next step that needs to be taken. “We're starting to understand the venture capitalists a bit now,” he says. CEO Noah Trembovolsky: “We can now explain to our partners throughout the chain why they should get involved now and not in three years' time. We are currently talking to five investors. We want to hear a clear yes or no in the coming months.”

Relement outsources production to Solvay

TNO spin-off Relement not only makes paint more durable, but also of better quality. The start-up is making a biobased alternative to the ingredient that makes paint more scratch-resistant: an aromatic, in this case bio-MPA. Not from oil, but from furfural. This is made from agricultural residues such as corn cobs, grain husks or sugar beets and cellulose fibres from the paper and clothing industry. “We want to change the world, starting with fossil-free paint. That is our mission”, says CEO Roger Blokland. Relement itself does not invest in pilot plants or production, but has outsourced this to chemical and paint company Solvay[13]. Production started on Monday 20 February and the first pots of paint will be delivered at the end of this year. “All tests so far have been very successful,” says CTO Stefano Iannacone. Now the start-up has to look for customers. With the help of the accelerator program, the company is also looking for this outside the paint industry, because the bio-aromatic can also be used in glue or polyurethane foam. Relement has found two new customers in that market. “We get new insights every week. We just received great results for adhesives,” says CCO Monique Wekking.

Torwash satisfies heat hunger with waste

Start-up Torwash – also a TNO[14] spin-off – can turn the dirtiest and wet waste into biofuels. Whether it is sewage sludge, agricultural residues or vegetable waste, Torwash turns it into flammable pellets or cakes in a high-pressure reactor. Because sludge incineration costs the water boards[15] in the Netherlands 150 million euros per year, the start-up wants to focus on that market first. That is where the most profit can be made. In CO2 reduction and reuse. Together with TNO and various water boards, Torwash is building a demo factory at the sewage treatment plant of Water Board Aa en Maas in the Land van Cuijk[16]. At the end of this year, it will process 500 kilograms of sludge per hour into fuel. Eneco[17] will be the first customer to burn the pellets in its biomass plant in Groningen. “In 2030, the world will need 500 petajoules[18] per year in heat. This requires 33 million tons of our material. We only make 1 percent of that. So the market is big, but the question is, how do we get there? We have to scale up for that,” says CEO Levien de Legé. In time, Torwash wants to sell the technology under license. “Through this program we learned how to make money from whom and with what. We now have a clear picture of that,” says project leader Pavlina Nanou from Torwash.

Paques Biomaterials builds factories

Paques Biomaterials makes biodegradable bioplastic from sewage water: Caleyda. It has the same advantages as regular plastic, but not the disadvantages. It is not made from oil and it does not decay into microplastics that pollute nature and the oceans. The start-up enables bacteria in waste water to make fatty acids from the organic material. You can turn that into PHA, a natural building block for plastic. “We actually use the power of nature. We let the bacteria do the work,” says CEO Joost Paques. The start-up opened its first demo factory[19] for the extraction of PHA from the bacteria in Dordrecht last year and wants to open a factory in Emmen[20] next year that will turn it into Caleyda. There is already an owner in the picture for this. It will make a decision on the investment this year. In addition, the start-up needs buyers. The contract for the first customer is already ready, but he still wants to see tests. “Only one customer is much too dangerous, so we are looking for more customers on both the supply and demand side,” says Paques. During the accelerator program, his company managed to achieve 70 percent of all set goals.

Paques builds PHA extraction demo plant in Northern Netherlands

Biggest Trip Cup

During the graduation day, all start-ups received a certificate and the audience of entrepreneurs, investors, coaches and other experts selected the start-up that has completed the greatest journey during the accelerator programme. That cup went to Relement and Paques Biomaterials.

The five start-ups have gotten to know each other better in those 100 days and have realised that they all face the same challenges. That is why they are determined to form a network and continue to work together. “Together we form a circular strategic circle. Let's stick together," says De Legé of Torwash.

Source

André Oerlemans, Deze groene start-ups wijzen de weg naar een circulaire chemie zonder olie, 20-02-2023, https://www.change.inc/industrie/deze-groene-start-ups-wijzen-de-weg-naar-een-circulaire-chemie-zonder-olie-39589

[1] The main goal of GCNE is to remove barriers to scaling up, so that (disruptive) initiatives in the field of biobased raw materials, recycling and process electrification can scale up to industrial volume. With this scope, GCNE has now defined a number of new value chains with impactful scaling-up initiatives of (established) companies and starting entrepreneurs, the game changers. https://groenechemie.nl/green-chemistry-accelerator/?_ga=2.99953117.238681896.1677428230-1472931476.1658240840

[2] The Green chemistry, new economy platform aims to accelerate the sustainable transition in manufacturing chemistry. A green chemistry, in which innovative technologies and business models with game changers are given the opportunity to realize a new economy based on non-fossil raw materials. https://www.change.inc/bedrijven/groene-chemie-nieuwe-economie-gcne

[3] State investment fund Invest-NL was established in January 2020 by the then Ministers of Finance and of Economic Affairs and Climate. The fund focuses in particular on major social themes such as the energy transition. The organization employs approximately 60 people. https://www.change.inc/bedrijven/invest-nl

[4] The Netherlands is bursting with startups with revolutionary technologies to make chemistry greener. But how do you help investors and financiers to grow and build pilot plants? How do you help them to suppliers and buyers? Within the Green Chemistry platform, the Regional Development Companies (ROMs) in the Netherlands take up this task as a driver.https://www.change.inc/industrie/groene-chemie-startups-kunnen-niet-zonder-hulp-van-regionale-aanjagers-39267

[5]

The world is full of unused waste that is transported to waste incineration at high costs. We think that is a shame and do not see these streams as waste, but rather as valuable raw materials. TORWASH offers a set of unique, patented processing methods for sludge, wet clippings and mixed plastics and converts them into biofuel, biogas, fertilizer and raw materials for new plastics. Three variants: (1) TORWASH-for-Sludge: energy-neutral dewatering of sewage sludge, creating a beautiful biofuel and recovering phosphate, (2) TORWASH-for-Agro: wet clippings and agricultural residue (straw, grass or aquatic plants) are converted into high-quality biofuel.(3) TORWASH-for-Plastics:. Biodegradable plastics, such as polylactic acid (PLA) are reduced to their monomer, which can be made suitable for making new plastic. https://www.torwash.com/?_ga=2.54527720.238681896.1677428230-1472931476.1658240840

[6] ETB developed a process to produce Bio-butadiene with state-of-the-art conversion and selectivity from bio-ethanol.https://www.etbcat.com/?_ga=2.54527720.238681896.1677428230-1472931476.1658240840

[7] Paques Biomaterials provides a solution to microplastics. It produces Caleyda, a natural material replacement for Plastic, with the major benefit of being fully biodegradable in all Earth environments. Caleyda consists of PHA polymers  produced by natural microbes that can be used in a wide variety of applications. These polymers offer better end of life options compared to other plastics, always preventing  accumulation of microplastics in the environment.

[8] Relement is a Dutch pioneer in the emerging industry of renewable chemistry. We create and produce valuable and special bio-based aromatics from renewable non-edible biomass residues. This results in better aromatics, better end-products and above all: a better world. Bio-based aromatics are the missing renewable element for many difficult-to-recycle products such as coatings, adhesives, lubricants and specialty composites. Our products provide an unmatched combination of sustainability and improved performance. All elements matter. https://www.relement.eu/?_ga=2.166709629.238681896.1677428230-1472931476.1658240840

[9] SusPhos is a pioneering company focused on upcycling of phosphate rich waste streams to generate high-quality alternatives to replace current fossil-sourced products. https://www.susphos.com/?_ga=2.166709629.238681896.1677428230-1472931476.1658240840

[10] The Green chemistry, new economy platform aims to accelerate the sustainable transition in manufacturing chemistry. A green chemistry, in which innovative technologies and business models with game changers are given the opportunity to realize a new economy based on non-fossil raw materials. The platform wants to contribute to improving the innovation and entrepreneurial climate in collaboration with the clusters in the regions. New connections are essential to realize a circular and sustainable economy. https://groenechemie.nl/?_ga=2.201665618.238681896.1677428230-1472931476.1658240840

[11] Chemelot is much more than just the name of the large industrial complex around the intersection of the A2 and the A76. Some 8,000 people are currently working on the site and a multiple of these are connected to Chemelot as a supplier. From confectioner to cleaning company, from transporter to landscaping. In addition, it is important that people know what is happening on the ground, which activities take place and what happens when they are flocked and what is that intended for? And what comes from the big cooling towers. https://www.chemelot.nl/chemelot-en

[12] Geleen is a city in the southern part of the province of Limburg in the Netherlands. With 31,670 inhabitants in 2020, it is part of the municipality of Sittard-Geleen. Geleen is situated along the river Geleenbeek, a right tributary to the river Meuse.

[13] https://www.agro-chemie.nl/nieuws/relement-schaalt-bio-mpa-productie-op-met-hulp-solvay/?_ga=2.201206253.238681896.1677428230-1472931476.1658240840

[14] TNO is an independent research organisation made up of units, boards, and a services organisation. https://www.tno.nl/en/

[15] In the Netherlands, a water board, water council or water authority (Dutch: waterschap or heemraadschap) is a regional governing body solely charged with the management of surface water in the environment. Water boards are independent of administrative governing bodies like provinces and municipalities. In general, they are responsible for managing rivers and canals, issues with the flow of watercourses and drainage issues, water collection, flood and erosion prevention and provision of potable water. They manage polder systems, water levels, water barriers and locks, enforcements, water quality and sewage treatment in their respective regions.

[16] Land van Cuijk is a municipality in the province of North Brabant, Netherlands, formed from the merger of Boxmeer, Cuijk, Sint Anthonis, Mill en Sint Hubert and Grave. The municipality came into existence on 1 January 2022. It belongs to the region of De Peel. The municipality is mainly oriented towards the city of Nijmegen.

[17] Eneco, the trading name of Eneco Groep N.V., is a producer and suppliers of natural gas, electricity and heat in the Netherlands, serving more than 2 million business and residential customers. Eneco headquarters are located in Rotterdam. It also carries out energy trading and is involved in sustainable energy projects. Eneco is the largest power company in South Holland.

[18] A petajoule (PJ) is 1 000 000 000 000 000 joules (a 1 with 15 zeros). A joule is a unit of energy equivalent to 0.24 calories. One PJ is equivalent to 31.6 million cubic meters of natural gas or 278 million kilowatt hours of electricity.

[19] https://www.ad.nl/dordrecht/een-wereldprimeur-demofabriek-hvc-maakt-echt-afbreekbaar-plastic~a6dc9800/?_ga=2.201206253.238681896.1677428230-1472931476.1658240840&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.change.inc%2F

[20] Emmen is a city in the Dutch province of Drenthe. It is the largest town in the eponymous municipality of Emmen (107,902 inhabitants). The town itself had a population of 56,640 on January 1, 2021.

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 7, Number 3

Black Country, New Road

One of the funniest parts of Martin Amis’ Inside Story concerns an up-and-coming novelist, constantly asked at literary festivals to differentiate between his short stories and novels and just as consistently coming up with new ways to say that the short stories are, well, shorter.  Same deal with Dust.  These abbreviated reviews are, indeed, shorter than the full-lengths, but otherwise well worth reading.  And, hoo boy, are there a lot of them this time.  Contributors include Ian Mathers, Jennifer Kelly, Bill Meyer, Tim Clarke, Patrick Masterson, Arthur Krumins, Eric McDowell, Justin Cober-Lake, Andrew Forell, Ray Garraty, Jonathan Shaw and Bryon Hayes.  

Aarktica and Black Tape for a Blue Girl — Eating Rose Petals (Projekt: Archive)

Eating Rose Petals by Aarktica and Black Tape for a Blue Girl

Aarktica’s Jon DeRosa and Black Tape for a Blue Girl’s Sam Rosenthal have known each other for a long time, but this release is the first time they’ve actually worked together. Rosenthal was so struck by the title song, one of the few from Aarktica’s 2019 release Mareación to feature DeRosa’s vocals, that with the latter’s permission and participation he created the almost 19-minute “Fleeting Rose Petals”, which features the original track backwards with wordless additional vocals from DeRosa, plus additional material by Rosenthal before and after it. The original (also included here, along with the closing “Valley of the Roses” which features Rosenthal further reworking the additional material from “Fleeting Rose Petals”) already felt like a single lambent moment in time suspended and held, and by reworking and reconfiguring that material over a full 37-minute span that effect is only intensified. 

Ian Mathers

 Altaat & Euter — Split (Ikuisuus)

split by Altaat / Euter

Two experimental drone outfits from Finland play extended abstract compositions on this split LP. Altaat’s sidelong “Palava Palaava” sounds like an orchestra tuning up in a wind tunnel as it splices long bowed tones with the rush and whir of large machinery. But however, chaotic that may sound, the actual effect is quite serene, the om of dissonant overtones melting into a white noise background of rattling, humming, whooshing mechanical sounds. Altaat’s Niko Karlsson and Miki Brunou, along with Jari Koho, subsume the noisy clatter of the post-industrial era into a dream-like, beckoning hiss. Euter, also a duo but not willing to give up personal names, works a less organically grounded sound, filling an expansive, echoey space with chortling, wobbling synth cadences, metallic clangs and staticky, between-stations blare. The long “Slowly Underwater,” unfolds in chilly surreality. You get the sense of vast metal furnaces blowing out corrosive chemical clouds, of mechanical sensors picking up and sending signals and of chittering, hurrying life amid ruins. (No, I’m not hearing anything especially watery.) “Magnetic Mammals,” which follows, is similarly machine-like and ominous, picking up vast, sirening sounds as if from a distance with bubbling bursts of radio interference in the foreground. Altaat’s side is certainly closer to conventional Western classical music, but Euter finds some intriguing, disquieting spaces. Makes you wonder what they’re putting in the water up there in reindeer land.

Jennifer Kelly

 Rrill Bell — Ballad of the External Life (Elevator Bath)

ballad of the external life by Rrill Bell ////// aka The Preterite

One of the challenges of early electronic music was its labor intensity; it could take months of recording, processing, card-punching and pondering to come up with a few minutes of music. But tools change, and with them, opportunities for access open up. The music of Rrill Bell, a German-based American musician, makes that lengthy process shake hands with instant performance. Originally trained as a percussionist, he works mainly with tapes, which he records, uses in performance, and in the course of performance, records over and re-uses again. But in concert, he tends to improvise with these materials, making split-second decisions that occasionally get preserved for potential re-visiting.  

If that sounds like a recipe for frenetic sonic action, it’s not. Mr. Bell’s tastes in original sounds tend towards bells and environmental captures, and he rarely crowds the mix. Tones squiggle and unspool, unidentifiable bumps appear and disappear, and birds chirp at the periphery. It’s easy to characterize this as ambient music, since a low-volume listen is pleasant but undemanding. But keep in mind that successful ambient music must be interesting as well as ignorable, and the dream-like sound walk of Ballad of the External Life still delivers.  

Bill Meyer

Black Country, New Road — For the First Time (Ninja Tune)

For the first time by Black Country, New Road

“Sunglasses” erupts out of a blare of feedback, a roar of guitar noise that splinters and disintegrates as you trace its melody. Synths sound like police sirens. It’s all very slow and ominous, and for a minute, all those Slint comparisons make sense. And then it resolves into something like an indie rock song, spoke-sung over thunderous drums by one Isaac Wood, he of the tremulous voice and the unreliable narrative, whose art song proclivities may bring bands like Wild Beasts to mind, though without the fey falsetto. The song is a marvel of bravado and doubt, working the soft seam between ordinary male adolescence and mental illness, and the sunglasses play a key part. Says Wood, “I am looking at you with my best eyes and I wish you could tell/I wish all my kids would stop dressing up like Richard Hell/I am locked away in a high-tech/Wraparound, translucent, blue-tinted fortress/And you cannot touch me.” (Also, later, “I am more than adequate/Leave Kanye out of it,” which strikes me as brilliant for reasons I can’t fathom.) The point is that there are startling, riveting lyrics here, of the sort that you could make a case for leaving it unadorned, but Black Country, New Road is not interested in simplicity. The rather large ensemble includes not just the regular rock instruments but saxophone, violin and synths, all knotted up in proggy complexities and paced by a drummer (Charlie Wayne) good enough to give Black Midi’s Morgan Simpson a run for his money (the two bands are aligned and friends and Black Midi gets a name check in one of the songs). Indeed, the opening track of this six-cut collection is aptly titled “Instrumental,” a whirling gypsy klezmer cubist fantasy that is, if anything, nervier and more complicated than the vocal tracks. This is exciting, volatile stuff that could go anywhere from here.

Jennifer Kelly

 Deniz Cuylan — No Such Thing As Free Will (Hush Hush)

No Such Thing As Free Will by Deniz Cuylan

Everything about Deniz Cuylan’s solo debut is understated. Six instrumental tracks running to just 27 minutes, released on the fittingly named Hush Hush Records, No Such Thing As Free Will seeks to evoke something subtle and universal out of minimal ingredients. There’s a robust architecture to this music, generating a sober, contemplative mood. Arpeggios on nylon-string classical guitar cycle around in precise arcs, gently bolstered by piano, clarinet and cello. The space in opener “Clearing” shyly invites the listener in; the record reaches a modest peak in the bright harmonics of “She Was Always Here” and the almost joyful elegance of “Flaneurs in Hakone”; then the music recedes into a melancholic fog on the closing title track. It’s telling, therefore, that Cuylan has worked as a soundtrack composer — his music feels complementary, receding modestly into life’s scenery rather than commanding the spotlight. 

Tim Clarke

 Arnold de Boer — Minimal Guitar (Makkum) 

MINIMAL GUITAR by arnolddeboer

Somedays you just don’t do what you’re supposed to do. At the end of the last summer, Arnold de Boer decided to extend his holiday by a day and take a walk around town. When he got back home, he sat down, picked up an instrument and listened to the music that came out of his fingers. The music was no more expected than the activity that preceded it. Instead of the rough, voltage-enhanced intricacy of the music he plays with The Ex or his one-man band, Zea, de Boer played a set of acoustic guitar solos. Neither ostentatious nor self-consciously rustic, de Boer’s playing tends to zero in on an idea and see where it wants to go. Each rhythmic pattern, decaying harmonic, or rap on the body proposes an idea, which de Boer either explores or restates with minimal variation. Ah, there’s that word. This isn’t a study in minimalism, but an appreciation of how little you need to do if the original idea is sound. 

Bill Meyer

Dusk + Blackdown — Rinse FM Mix January 28, 2021 (Rinse FM)

Rinse FM · Keysound (100% Keysound Production Mix) - 28 January 2021

I’m not sure there’s a place left on the internet better suited to explaining the rise of grime, dubstep and its attendant mutations than Martin Clark’s aging Blogspot under his Blackdown alias. From ground zero in London, Clark has been documenter, eyewitness and participant alike, a true lifer fully evidenced by his longtime partnership with Dan Frampton, aka Dusk, showcasing new music on their monthly Rinse radio show and Keysound Recordings record label. They’re an essential part of the culture, so it’s especially pleasant when they serve up some of their own riches. After the traditional December year-end roundup show, Dusk and Blackdown came roaring out of the gates in January with an all-Keysound broadcast in the middle of the night that features gobs of unreleased rollage over its two hours. It’s a nice reminder that though time may pass, URLs may cut out and memories may dim, some are still putting in the work one release, one radio show, one listen at a time. The sound is the key is right.

Patrick Masterson   

 EKG — 200 Years Of Electricals (Bandcamp) 

200 Years of Electricals by EKG (Ernst Karel & Kyle Bruckmann)

Most things don’t hold their value. Why should time be any different? So, if Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote 100 Years of Solitude in the 1960s, EKG might as well proclaim 200 Years Of Electricals in 2021. EKG is Kyle Bruckmann (double reeds, analog electronics, organ) and Ernst Karel (analog electronics, microphones). The duo first convened in the mid-1990s, when both men lived in Chicago, and Karel was mainly known as a trumpeter. They’ve carried on in sporadic fashion ever since, playing increasingly rare concerts as each man moved away from his original home base. They’ve turned snippets from these shows into subdued musical constructions, which they’ve issued on a number of compact discs over the years. For their first release in over a decade, the duo, who currently both live in the Bay area, have ditched the trumpet and the physical album format, and incorporated some of the field recordings that have become Karel’s main sound material in his solo work. But in other respects, this effort is every bit as concerned with iteration and inevitability as Marquez’ book. When you flip a switch, something hums. When you layer quiet sounds, they don’t necessarily get louder, but they do exert a stronger magnetism upon your ear. And you when spread your quietness over a vast stretch of silence, efforts to follow the sound inevitably do strange things to your sense of time. Wait, how many years have we been listening to that crackle? Why stop now?

Bill Meyer  

 Michael Feuerstack — Harmonize the Moon (Forward Music Group)

Harmonize the Moon by Michael Feuerstack

Montreal-based singer-songwriter Michael Feuerstack sweeps aside all extraneous fluff on his new album, Harmonize the Moon, zeroing in on precise finger-picked guitar parts, vivid lyrical imagery and a stark, affecting tone. He has a knack for smuggling blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments of understated wonder into traditional-sounding folk songs you’ll imagine you’ve heard somewhere before. Indeed, he wryly admits to recycling the past in the opening song: “I used to be a singer, bumping around in the astral plane / Picking up astral trash, to polish it up again.” Though the foundation of guitar and vocals carries most of the weight, there’s tasteful reinforcement from vocal harmonies, electric guitar, lap steel, bass and drums. Amid these clean, spare arrangements, some of the lines stop you in your tracks, like the following from “Too Kind”: “The world is broken mirrors, traps and triggers / And cold blood pools in the kindest eyes.” With 10 finely honed songs running to just over half an hour, everything is measured and rather lovely. (Beautiful cover art, too.) 

Tim Clarke

Michael and Peter Formanek — Dyads (Out Of Your Head Records) 

Dyads by Michael and Peter Formanek

Virtuoso bassist, stalwart sideman, solid bandleader, fearless improviser, intriguing composer — Michael Formanek is all of those things, but he’s also a cool dad. At least that’s what it looks like from the outside. Not only did he include his son, Peter, in his musical activities from an early age, giving the youngster a chance to sit in with the likes of Tim Berne and Jim Black. Upon Peter’s return home from college, he joined him in a working duo. Dyads is their first recording, and it is testimony to the merits of giving the kid first-hand experience in the family business. Peter, who plays tenor saxophone and clarinet, has learned the merits of having a bold tone, a flexible improvisational approach and a way with a tune. Their performances unfold with a combination of patience and pith, which permits the listener to savor the elegance with which each musician supports the other. 

Bill Meyer

 Chris Forsyth & the Solar Motel Band — Rare Dreams: Solar Live 2.27.18 (No Quarter)

Rare Dreams: Solar Live 2.27.18 by Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band

Chris Forsyth teams with Sunwatchers Peter Kerlin and Jason Robira at London’s Café OTO for expansive, incendiary jams that will remind you like a physical ache of what you’ve been missing in live music this awful year. “Dream in the Non-Dream” is a wide-horizon, endless vamp, driven ever forward by Kerlin and Robira in lock-sync, while Forsyth ratchets up tension with a car jack, then spins it off in wreckless, fiery abandon. “The First Ten Minutes of Cocksucker Blues” similarly balances rigor and open-ended-ness, marking off the measures with a hammering, repetitive cadence that becomes a mantra over time. There are also two Neil Young covers, both tending towards the electrified, Crazy Horse side of things, a slow by blistering “Don’t Be Denied” and a raucous “Barstool Blues” from Zuma. It’s all great stuff, and it might hold you for a month or two until we can all crowd up to the stage again.

Jennifer Kelly

 Alexander Hawkins — Togetherness Music (Intakt)

Togetherness Music by Alexander Hawkins

Whether you listen to him in duos with Evan Parker or Tomeka Reid, small bands like the Chicago/London Underground or Decoy, or leading his own ensembles, English keyboardist Alexander Hawkins accompanies and improvises with an astute perception of the situation’s requirements. The title Togetherness Music can be taken several ways. The six-part suite combines parts from two different commissioned pieces, and it brings together elements of free and conducted improvisation, scored chamber music, and some discrete electronic interventions. Passages showcasing Evan Parker’s intricate soprano saxophone lines and Mark Sanders’ kinetic percussion contrast and coexist with rich and patiently evolving string passages executed by the Riot Ensemble. This music feels less like a sum of differing approaches than the expression of a cohesive in which all Hawkins’ good ideas fit together. 

Bill Meyer

Russell Hoke — The Melancholy Traveller (Round Bale Recordings)

The Melancholy Traveler by Russell Hoke

This release follows up on the archival compilation A Voice From the Lonesome Playground from 2016 of Hoke’s material from small run releases of the 1980’s. With the new material here, Hoke delves into the unadulterated sound of voice and guitar or banjo, with mainly his own songs of loneliness and also the singularly bittersweet moments of existing as yourself, free and detached from society. Also covering two beautiful takes on Sandy Denny songs, which fit into the UK/US traditional direction of the rest. The album rests in the same delicate territory as other folkies such as Connie Converse, Jackson C. Frank, or even the more sedate songs of Daniel Johnston. What brings the album together is the expressiveness in any given moment of a song. The tact and execution consistently bring the emotion of the songwriting home.

Arthur Krumins  

 In Layers — Pliable (FMR) 

Pliable by In Layers

In Layers puts up a middle finger against anyone who thinks that European unity is a passed fancy. The quartet’s members come from Portugal, Iceland and Holland, and their collective experience encompasses Nordic music theatre, lyric free jazz and the tooth-powderingly loud trio, Cactus Truck. But the music they make doesn’t really sound like any of that. Guitarist Marcelo Dos Reis, drummer Onno Govaert, pianist Kristján Martinsson and trumpeter Luís Vicente improvise music that is spacious enough to frustrate viral transmission, but composed of elements hefty enough to tip a scale. There’s plenty of bravura playing, but the displays are subordinate to the music’s abstract cohesion. You won’t hum it, but you won’t forget it, either. 

Bill Meyer

 Just For the Record: Conversations With and About “Blue” Gene Tyranny

Composer, writer and pianist Robert Sheff, better known as “Blue” Gene Tyranny, collaborator with everyone from Iggy Pop to Robert Ashley, passed away at the end of 2020. Just before that, David Bernabo’s documentary about Tyranny’s life and work, and more generally about the avant garde world Tyranny was a vital part of, how much of it almost vanished and the ways it continues to be vibrant even today, was released. For a while Just For the Record was available to rent, but this year Bernabo made it available for free on UbuWeb Film. It’s a wonderful watch for anyone who’s a fan of “Blue” Gene’s work, for sure. The conversations with him are near the end of his life, but his evident joy in music and art and people shines through, and the conversations with Joan La Barbara, David Grubbs, Kyle Gann and others cast new light on both his history and work and importance and the group of artists that he worked with and around. There’s so much here you almost wish for a miniseries instead (one episode on reissue labels and blogs, one on Robert Ashley’s operas, one on Tyranny’s time as a Stooge…), but given how overlooked artists like “Blue” Gene Tyranny often are, it still feels like a gift to have what’s here.

Ian Mathers

Kariu Kenji — Sekai (Bruit Direct Disques) 

Sekai is a COVID-era exercise in circumstantial lemonade-making. Kariu Kenji’s band, OWKMJ, executes intricate, quick-changing jazz rock with aplomb. Stuck alone at home, he has made a solo record that never betrays his prodigious dexterity as a guitarist. Instead, Kenji has fashioned an album of low-key, keyboard-heavy bedroom pop. It is low key, almost to a fault, since you could easily miss the subtle fault lines between clean and distorted sounds, let alone the moments when he unobtrusively pulls the rhythmic rug out from under a song. The songs poetically render small memories and quietly absurd scenarios, which are considerately translated for the benefit of people who won’t understand Kenji’s all-Japanese crooning. 

Bill Meyer

 Kid Congo and the Pink Monkeybirds — Swing from the Sean Delear (In the Red)

Kid Congo Powers has been in more great bands than anyone I can think of — The Cramps and The Gun Club to start with, but also Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds, Divine Horsemen and, just last year, the Wolfmanhattan Project with Mick Collins and Bob Bert. That’s exalted company all round, and his latest, with Pink Monkeybirds, is no slouch alongside any of them. It begins with a vamping, churning, soul-funk-psychedelic “Sean DeLear,” which commemorates the recently deceased Bay Area punk-fashion icon in exultant, chandelier-swinging style.  All three side one cuts are bangers, spinning out Sam & Dave bass-and-drum foundations into dayglow garage extravaganzas, but the 14-minute b-side “He Walked In” takes things in another direction, slowing the pace down and letting the music smoulder, a trippy hippy flute weaving through heat-shimmered desert psychedelia. Like the opener, it’s an elegy, this time to Gun Club front man, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, a haunted surf rock dreamscape where spirits dwell.

Jennifer Kelly

 Katy Kirby — Cool Dry Place (Keeled Scales)

Cool Dry Place by Katy Kirby

Katy Kirby makes a stripped down, lofi pop that aspires to bigger things. Even low-key, acoustic strummed, bedroom ballads like “Eyelids” are always on the verge of busting out into flute-y, melismatic diva choruses. Even the tender “Cool Dry Place,” dreams of a big pop payoff and gets there in the end. And the single “Traffic!” is strung through with the tension between its muted, all-natural melody and the crescendoing climax that waits at the end. Here Kirby’s plain, wholesome voice gets threaded with fluttering autotune, not because she can’t hit the notes, but because that’s how big pop songs sound. This is the opposite of Katy Perry doing carpool karaoke. It’s acoustic, unadorned versions of songs that long for mainstream gloss and glamor.

Jennifer Kelly

 The Koreatown Oddity — “Breastmilk” b/w “My Name Is Dominique” (Stones Throw)

Breastmilk by The Koreatown Oddity

“I got the hook-up from my baby mama / While you fetish freaks get it off the black market.” If the cover art left any room for doubt, the lyrics soon make it clear that Dominique Purdy’s approach to the subject of his latest single is every bit as literal as it is cartoonish. While albums like last year’s Little Dominiques Nosebleed put the Koreatown Oddity’s powers as a storyteller on full display, the rapper’s rhetorical mode here is ostensibly argumentative, with appeals to the all-naturalness — and deliciousness — of his preferred “regimen”:“You looking at me like I’m a strange human / But you drinking cow’s milk — fuck is you doing?” In the space of just two and a half minutes, he also achieves a hilarious upending of a range of hip-hop tropes, from the objectification of women to the glorification of illicit substances, not to mention MC braggadocio. There may even be a comment on fatherhood in there, too, for anyone who really wants to go looking.  

The b-side of the 7” offers something different altogether, a stiff-legged but hypnotic beat beset by periodic electronic splatters and the somewhat manic refrain: “My name is Dominique and I’m a fresh musician.” Indeed.  

Eric McDowell

Bobby Lee — Origin Myths (Tompkins Square)

Origin Myths by Bobby Lee

A swamp-gassed shimmer hangs over Bobby Lee’s electric blues, as notes bloom and waver and subside like ghostly lights in a humid dusk. Bobby Lee, the man, lives in Sheffield, England, but his music dwells in some lysergic delta, in the south but not entirely of it or anywhere else. Listen to the way that notes flicker in the steady runs of “Broken Prayer Stick,” a regular cadence of them left to warp and wander in steamy sunshine. Or the way that sustained tones drift like seaweed in “Looking for Pine and Obsidian,” losing themselves in thickets of overtone and echo. Bobby Lee would likely find a kindred spirit in Tarotplane’s PJ Dorsey or in William Tyler in a transcendental mood. Like them, his blues drift towards revelation but very, very slowly.

Jennifer Kelly  

 Nashville Ambient Ensemble — Cerulean (Centripetal Force)

Thinking of Nashville doesn't typically bring to mind ambient music, nor does the image of pedal steel guitar typically suggest the work of an electronic composer. Nashville Ambient Ensemble, though, mixes those elements. What makes the group's debut album Cerulean feel special isn't its oddness — other acts, of course, do this sort of dreamy work — but that the Nashville elements remain so present. Pedal steel player Luke Schneider does much of the work to create that feel. The instrument itself has long since moved out of its traditional settings (a quick dip into the music of Susan Alcorn, for example, can prompt a fun rabbit trail of the guitar far removed from Western swing), but composer Michael Hix and this group enjoyably maintain the country signifiers even while moving into far spacier terrain. Some of the album pushes toward psychedelic swirls, but the ensemble restrains these gestures. As they head west out of Nashville, they resist simply playing a given genre with a gimmick. Cerulean isn't spaced out country, and it isn't twanged-up ambient. Instead, the group develops its own curious space.

Justin Cober-Lake

 Neutrals — "Personal Computing” b/w “In the Future” (Slumberland)

Personal Computing by neutrals

The clever punk lifers in Neutrals upload two incisive songs about technology here. The a-side, “Personal Technology,” bashes antically through a tale of a young man with an, ahem, very committed relationship with computer paraphernalia, amid crashing, Clash-like chords and rumbling bass and drums. As noted when Neutrals’ 2020 EP Rent/Your House pried Dusted’s Jonathan Shaw away from black metal mid-last year, the front-person Allan McNaughton retains a Glaswegian accent, despite decades stateside, which gives these two cuts a rough Northern post-punk glamor. But the obsession with last year’s state-of-the-art, the excruciating torture of “loading,” is all Silicon Valley, enjoying BDSM with its peripherals. The b-side takes a somewhat more expansive view of technology, asking a la Dan Melchior what happened to the flying cars we were promised. Both are sharp and stinging and utterly catchy. I’d call it old school except for its fascination with the new.

Jennifer Kelly

 Nun Gun — Mondo Decay (Algiers Recordings/Witty Books)

Mondo Decay is the audio component of a recent collaboration between Algiers’ multi-instrumentalist Lee Tesche and visual artist Brad Feuerheim (who drums on four of the tracks). The two bonded over a mutual love of 1970s Italian cannibal zombie films and their soundtracks. Joined by fellow Algiers member Ryan Mahan and a roster of guest vocalists including Mark Stewart (The Pop Group), ONO and Mourning [A] BLKstar, Tesche reconfigures the soundtracks to make explicit the connections between present conditions and the socio-political turmoil that informed the original films. Musically that means claustrophobic dub inflected industrial grind, hip-hop influenced cut-ups, mutant disco and plenty of noirish saxophone. Nun Gun emphasizes atmospheric atrophy and deliberate decay with great and pointed effect to create a terrifically dark soundtrack to accompany the book of Feuerheim’s bleak photographs of post-industrial malaise.

Andrew Forell  

 Oui Ennui — Virga​/​Recrudescence (self-released)

Virga/Recrudescence by Oui Ennui

In the words that accompany the release of Jonn Wallen’s second album of 2021, he says that “when rationalizing yet another synthesizer purchase, I've often remarked to myself, ‘Well why wouldn't I want that color? I'll have it.’” It’s that attachment to messing around with new toys, a mass of streaks of rain appearing to hang under a cloud and evaporating before reaching the ground (“Virga”), the recurrence of an undesirable condition (“Recrudescence”), and what seems to be a whole lot of Brian Eno (“Oblique Strategies”) that informs these two extended avant-garde digressions. “Virga” is a roaring 24-minute star birth that veers into plinking helicopter rotaries without warning at one point, while “Recrudescence” covers more ground both literal (it’s 39 minutes) and figurative (woodland creatures, Space Age percolations and various rhythms sprout up throughout). Likely better experienced at high volume in a small club setting, we’ll have to settle instead for our headphones barely handling another intriguing development in the ongoing Oui Ennui experiment. How long before DFA co-founder Jonathan Galkin stops lurking in his Bandcamp buys and starts offering him a deal, I wonder? 

Patrick Masterson 

 Payroll Giovanni \ Cardo — Another Day Another Dollar (BYLUG Entertainment)

At some point in his career, Payroll Giovanni switched from worker to boss. His new album with the producer Cardo is another chapter in the Boss of All Bosses saga. Songs on the CD approximate the language of business manuals and the cheap sloganeering of workers union reps. Work harder, save more, invest, save again — the usual tips handed down to the unfortunate few who didn’t make it like Payroll did. By the middle of the album, you start to feel like you are at a stakeholders meeting where the CEO went for rapping instead of a PowerPoint presentation. When the rapper fails, it’s hardly the producer’s fault, so Cardo just plays up to Payroll with lazy, muzak-ish beats. 

Ray Garraty

 Rio da Yung Og \ Nuez — Life of a Yung Og (Southern Giants/Ghetto Boyz)

Rio da Yung Og has been working with a lot of producers (and quite a few of them later got their fame because of it), but up until now he hasn’t released a collaboration with a single producer. His EP with Nuez came out of nowhere but it is a nice change of beats. Up to now, Rio has mostly recorded his raps with very bassy beats. Nuez provides a Southern vibe, more relaxed and less heavy on the bass, which allows to Rio shine. At this point it’s evident that Rio da Yung Og saves his best lines for his solo work (just compare this EP with simultaneously released Heatcheck EP, a collaborative work with artists of varying degrees of talent). In fact, the whole 21 minutes seem to be recorded in one single sleepless studio session with Rio freestyling his way through under the heavy influence of lean. This is Rio at his most desperate, just before his five-year bid in the federal pen. On “Whatchu Need” and “Last Call” (thanks to Nuez’s production) he sounds close to the early Scarface in a paranoid mode. 

Ray Garraty 

 Ben Roidl-Ward and Zachary Good — arb (Carrier) 

arb by Zachary Good and Ben Roidl-Ward

A decade back, bassoonist Ben Roidl-Ward and clarinetist Zachary Good were students at Oberlin College. The two friends formed a duo, The Arboretum, which performed new works. Nowadays they teach and perform separately, but share an apartment in Chicago. When the city got locked down and their gigs dried up, they revived the band, after a fashion. The six pieces on arb (named after that first project), which clocks in at just under half an hour, focus on a single musical phenomenon. Each musician plays sustained multiphonics (a technique whereby a horn player sings or hums a note while playing another) that are pitched close enough that their sounds interfere as well as blend with one another. The interactions can be dramatic; on “Guby,” the clarinet sounds like it is keying morse code into the fabric of the bassoon’s timbres. Listening to this music is a bit like staring at a heat mirage; the harder and longer you focus, the less certain you are of your own perceptions. 

Bill Meyer.

 Rotura — Estamos Fracasando (Self-released)

Estamos fracasando by Rotura

This new EP of melodic anarcho-punk from Barcelona is deceptively breezy stuff. Rotura’s guitars have some crunch and the rhythm section is tight — think Subhumans c. Rats meets Orange County in 1982. But the alto vocals of Silvia (no last names provided) are clean and tuneful, and there are seductive hooks galore. All the musical excitements and pleasures contrast with the intense reports of misery and struggle in the lyrics. “Pisadas (Confinament)” sounds like a COVID-period song, documenting the sound of footsteps resounding through a network of deserted streets and abandoned shops; “Sobrevivir”engages the manifold alienations and inhumanities that attend the refugee crisis in Europe’s Mediterranean nations. Upbeats subjects, those ain’t. But the music keeps your hips shaking and your head nodding. Rotura constructs lively sonic spaces in which to encounter some sharply political punk discourse. One of the EP’s best songs is “Palabras,” which sets to music a poem included in Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich’s The Unwomanly Face of War (1987); like much of that book, “Palabras” speaks in the voice of a female combat veteran of the Soviet Army, one who served in World War II. It’s a terrific song, from a very good punk record.

Jonathan Shaw

 Sahara — The Curse (Regain Records)

The Curse by Sahara

Argentine miscreants Sahara bill themselves as a “stoner doom” band, and one wonders why anybody would willingly self-apply a label so surpassingly stupid to music they made and presumably care about. The middle-schooler-with-a-magic-marker degree of technical polish on the art for the cassette’s j-card doubles down on the crispy-fried semiotics — but sort of lovably so. This reviewer was rather charmed. If you can penetrate the choking layers of weed smoke and unironic hesherdom to press play, you may be pleasantly surprised. Sahara’s songs don’t evoke Kyuss or Acid Witch nearly so much as Blue Cheer, and that’s a really good thing. It’s power-trio, bluesy-boogie music, played by dudes who cut their teeth on Master of Reality and No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith (with just a little Physical Graffiti in the mix, for the boogie). While no wheels are being reinvented (or competently balanced, for that matter), there’s a winning rawker quality to the enterprise, kicked up a notch or three by the unambiguously great time these guys are having playing the tunes. It won’t be for everyone: it sounds like it was recorded in someone’s Dad’s garage, and the songs have titles like “Altar of Sacrifice” and “The Curse (instrumental).” But if you love the fact that they included “(instrumental)” in parens, it could be for you. Buyer beware: when listening, you may find yourself suddenly craving a sheet of brownies. The entire sheet.  

Jonathan Shaw

 Bernard Santacruz / Michael Zerang — Cardinal Point (Fundacja Sluchaj)

Cardinal Point by Bernard Santacruz & Michael Zerang

French bassist Bernard Santacruz and Assyrian-American percussionist Michael Zerang have encountered each other in larger ensembles on either side of the ocean since the turn of the century, but it took them until the autumn of 2019 to record a distillation of their musical concord. Beyond their shared history, they are matched in depth of experience. Both were born in the latter half of the 1950s, and each has passed through a myriad of improvisational settings on their way to developing their respective styles. Santacruz is an economical player with a beautiful, rounded tone. Zerang can supply whatever rhythm you need, but whenever freed from time-keeping requirements, he gravitates to sounds that project the movement and friction required to make them. So, while this is a record made with drums and a double bass, it’s by no means a groove-bound affair; melodic fragments confront seething ruptures, and strings and skins knot together into thickets of texture. Each man maintains his individuality while they jointly solve the problems of collaborative music-making.

Bill Meyer   

 Ignaz Schick & Oliver Steidle — ILOG2 (Zarek)

ILOG2 by Ignaz Schick & Oliver Steidle

 These two German gentlemen lay down a bizarre yet intriguing hybrid of free jazz, hip hop and musique concrète on their sophomore effort as a duo. Schick is a serial collaborator who divides his time between turntablism and saxophone skronk. Steidle, on the other hand, is rooted in the free jazz world as a drummer. Together they conjure two distinct modes: ADHD-inspired percussion-and-noise workouts and atmospheric electronics-forward soundscapes. Between these two disparate personalities, the more aggressive one tends to dominate. It’s in this high-energy state that the duo dwells in the worlds of hip hop, jungle and free jazz. Steidle’s drumming is out in front, as he deftly throws himself around the kit with the enthusiasm of Lightning Bolt’s Brian Chippendale. Schick takes an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to noise-making. His Bomb Squad-meets-Pierre Schaeffer method of weaving snippets of speech, instrumental passages, drones, and blasts of noise is the perfect foil for Steidle’s frenetic skin-pounding. Schick and Steidle tug at the outer limits of beat-making with their unusual blend of electro-acoustic sound, and while they let a slight touch of the ethereal temper their blaze, the sparks still fly. 

Bryon Hayes 

 John Tejada — Year Of The Living Dead (Kompakt)

Year Of The Living Dead by John Tejada

On Year Of The Living Dead, John Tejada chases the human through machines, seeking the traces of connection and shadows of loss blurred by the conditions we continue to live through. His minimal dub-inflected techno is immaculately produced and composed rather than constructed. Suffused with warmth and emotional depth, Tejada employs a sonic palette the elasticity of which makes his music generously expansive and resonant. Melancholy chord progressions, heartbeat percussion, a bottom end in turns ominous and cocooning.  The 4X4 structure provides a framework in which Tejada is free to focus on the granular aspects of tone, pitch, ebb and flow so that while on the surface his brand of microhouse may sound “all the same” there is both plenty of interest for home listeners and danceable beats for the more active. There’s no abrasion here, no confrontation, little to challenge but Tejada’s music moves along with the relentless soft power of molten molasses.

Andrew Forell

 Tree — Soul Trap (self-released)

SOUL TRAP by TREE

Tremaine Johnson is one of those heads who’s been around the block. He’s gotten that MTV airtime, he’s done records with Chris Crack and Vic Spencer, he’s outlasted a car company that sponsored one of his EPs, he’s performed at Pitchfork. But maybe more than anything, the Chicago rapper and producer wants to make sure he doesn’t forget his roots as the father of “soul trap” — and you don’t, either. Following steadily on from 2020’s abbreviated The Blue Tape and nearly two years on from his last proper full-length We Grown Now, Tree has lost none of his step as he rounds 40 years aboard this tainted orb exuding the confidence of a relaxed auteur rowing through verses and songs at his own pace; his sandpaper vocals sound at ease with his beats as he addresses negotiating parenthood, bills, the creation and maintenance of his art. Though these tracks had reportedly been sitting around for years before Soul Trap’s release, listening to this album only goes to serve the greater point that the man has a style out of step and time with his contemporaries. That’s worth more than remembering; it’s worth celebrating.

Patrick Masterson

 Dave Tucker / Pat Thomas / Thurston Moore / Mark Sanders — Educated Guess (577 Records) 

Hale, hearty, and steeped in the lore of a multitude of American underground art movements, Thurston Moore always seemed like a guy who was creatively rooted in his native soil. But he seems to have found solid footing since moving to England. On this record, he fits right into an improvising ensemble that is composed of Café Oto regulars. Keyboardist Pat Thomas, drummer Mark Sanders and guitarist and electronic musician Dave Tucker, who convened the quartet, are all long-standing members of London’s improvised music scene. But Moore, a punk from way back when, was probably quite tickled that Tucker played with the Fall for a brief spell in 1981. The sound they develop over the course of this set is pleasingly unbounded, with fragments of monster movie sound design and some jungle-style drum machine beats that could have been pulled from a pirate radio broadcast in 1994 sharing space with cavernous prepared piano, restless percussive exploration, and Moore sounding just like himself, but respectfully restrained when the moment demands. 

Bill Meyer

 Karima Walker — Waking the Dreaming Body (Keeled Scales)

Waking the Dreaming Body by Karima Walker

Karima Walker’s second album considers the full-ness of empty space. Her songs, if that’s what they are, arise out of soft, slow drones that fluctuate in a natural way, like tides or winds or aurora borealis. They incorporate natural desert sounds captured from near at hand as she locked down in Arizona, and they unfold in a sublimely gradual way as if, like the growth of plants, the movement of continents, the melting of snow, they cannot be rushed but must proceed on their own terms. She sings, a bit, in brief, dream-haunted phrases that seem as distant and unknowable as the organ tones that swell around her. “Reconstellated” best represents her eerie blend of human and electronic sounds, internal dialogue and the wide spaces of the natural world. She murmurs, “Sonoran sky plays a movie/Draw a line to the stars inside of me/Write it down, tell your friends/I know where I am but I can’t tell where I started,” against a blipping, percolating atmosphere. The title track is, by contrast, several orders folkier and more conventional, a gentle conjunction of acoustic guitar and Walker’s clear, trilling soprano, as she considers the way the ineffable intersects with the mundane. “Seems every morning starts the same way, waking the dreaming body,” she croons in this track near the end of the album, coming up into the daylight after a long nocturnal exploration.

Jennifer Kelly

 Whisker — Moon Mood (Husky Pants)

Moon Mood by Whisker

Bassist Andrew Scott Young and multi-instrumentalist Ben Billington are luminaries of Chicago’s experimental jazz and electronic scenes as members of Tiger Hatchery, soloists and collaborators with a range of local groups. In Moon Mood  the duo performs two lengthy improvisations for double bass and electronics. Young’s bass is to the fore, and his bow work is particularly expressive as he explores the registers of his instrument. Billington works a number of patches to interpolate all nature of blips and plinks and squelchy runs that respond to and interrogate the bass. The workouts are as much an investigation of sonic limits as a demonstration of the sympathetic interaction between natural and artificial sounds, if that is even a worthwhile dichotomy these days. Moon Mood is a fascinating conversation well worth eavesdropping on.  

Andrew Forell  

 Wode — Burn in Many Mirrors (20 Buck Spin)

Burn In Many Mirrors by Wode

The guys in Manchester-based band Wode play black metal, but they don’t wear corpsepaint or futz around with severed goat’s heads and candelabras. That’s a good thing, because their music has bombast aplenty. Any additional theatrics might send the project over into a species of irritating kitsch. When Wode’s music works — as it does on “Lunar Madness,” the first track on the band’s latest LP, Burn in Many Mirrors — it’s muscular stuff, with terrific momentum and gut-thudding energy. Throughout the song, vocalist Michael Czerwoniuk does his usual stuff, chewing the sonic scenery, plentiful groans and gurgles punctuating all his shouting. Even in the maximalist context of black metal vocals, he’s a handful. But on “Lunar Madness,” there’s enough interest and excitement generated by the rhythms and riffs to offset his histrionics. A couple songs on the record are shaped by oft-handled forms, and rely overmuch on Czerwoniuk’s outsized presence; upon listening to “Fire in the Hills,” you may find yourself flashing on the self-parodic antics of Jim Dandy Mangrum, or on metal heroics that were already tired on records like Bark at the Moon. That’s too bad. When Wode clicks as a unit, they can make compelling sounds. “Sulphuric Glow” moves at a dead run for nearly the entirety of its five minutes, and while Czerwoniuk’s vocal stylings are still a bit much, the riffs are fluid and furious. If he could just dial stuff back to 11, folks might be able hear the rest of the band. They’re pretty good.  

Jonathan Shaw

[bluestownmusic]

Recensie: Arnold de Boer - Minimal Guitar

Arnold de Boer – Minimal Guitar Format: CD – LP – Digital /  Label: Makkum Records Release: 2021 Tekst: Peter Marinus De Nederlandse band the Ex staat al jarenlang bekend om zijn eigenzinnige experimentele rock. Wars van welke muzikale trend dan ook blijft deze band zijn eigen gang gang. Arnold de Boer is de zanger en gitarist in the Ex en ook bekend als Zea, onder welke naam hij al diverse…

[carnalesferales]

Los orígenes del estado profundo y los entresijos del poder en la época contemporánea

Desde los imperios de la vieja Babilonia, el poder siempre ha tratado de ocultar su verdadera cara tras la mascarada de estructuras estatales formales para seguir perpetuándose y tener un escudo de protección contra detractores y rebeldes. Históricamente varias facciones han venido disputándose dicho poder, desde el imperio babilonio o el egipcio, pasando por el fenicio-cartaginés, el romano – asociado luego al cristianismo -, sus descendientes – Bizancio, Imperio carolingio, Imperio otomano -, hasta llegar a la nobleza veneciana, luego anglo-veneciana, convertida en Imperio anglo-holandés y finalmente Imperio británico. 

Estas estructuras han tenido sus facciones rivales, fundamentalmente en élites regionales que querían desembarazarse de su dominio, y en pueblos que querían ser libres. Tradicionalmente, tras cada rey o emperador una camarilla de sacerdotes, militares y mercaderes ha marcado el rumbo de reinos e imperios. Es lo que se ha denominado, ya en el siglo XX, como estado profundo, o lo que Roosevelt (presidente de los EEUU en los años 30 y 40) denominó, en una versión actualizada de lo mismo, el “complejo industrial-militar”. Dichas estructuras de poder llegaron al culmen de su sofisticación y modernización en los siglos XIX-XX, estableciendo la democracia liberal como mascarada para dividir y separar a los oprimidos, a quienes sufrían su poder, y colocar a títeres ambiciosos como blanco del descontento para que nunca llegara a tocarse la esencia del poder y de quienes lo manejaban realmente, apartados de la vista pública. Generaron ideologías y religiones, históricamente, para que la gente se matara por dios o alá, por la izquierda o la derecha, por el marxismo o el liberalismo, por la dictadura o la democracia, la monarquía o la república,… pero nunca cuestionara el poder ni a quien lo manejaba realmente.

Dicho estado profundo, no es sino una parte más del estado, su motor, siendo el estado formal solamente su superestructura. Cómo ha ido evolucionando dicho estado profundo será algo a tratar en un futuro cercano, cómo se ha forjado desde la segunda revolución industrial hasta nuestros días es algo que vamos a analizar a continuación.

Convencidos de que el poder nunca cambia, sólo cambia quienes manejan los hilos, queremos presentar este análisis no para desear que el estado formal, “legítimo” se imponga al estado profundo “ilegítimo”, sino para demostrar que si solo cambian las formas pero no se elimina de raíz el fondo, seguiremos siendo lo que somos como especie: rebaño en manos de unos psicópatas que nos pastorean.

El Movimiento de la Mesa Redonda

El movimiento de la Mesa Redonda sirvió como centro intelectual de las operaciones internacionales para recuperar el control del Imperio Británico y adoptó varias encarnaciones a lo largo del siglo XX. Trabajó en tándem con el Coefficients Club, la Fabian Society y el Rhodes Trust, todos los cuales vieron cómo sus miembros entraban y salían de las filas de los demás. El historiador Carrol Quigley, de la Universidad de Georgetown, escribió sobre esta cábala en su publicación póstuma “Anglo-American Establishment”:

“Esta organización ha sido capaz de ocultar su existencia con bastante éxito, y muchos de sus miembros más influyentes, satisfechos de poseer la realidad más que la apariencia del poder, son desconocidos incluso para los estudiantes cercanos de la historia británica.

Esto es aún más sorprendente cuando nos enteramos de que uno de los principales métodos de trabajo de este Grupo ha sido la propaganda.

Planeó la incursión de Jameson en 1895; provocó la Guerra de los Bóers de 1899-1902; estableció y controla el Rhodes Trust; creó la Unión Sudafricana en 1906-1910; estableció la revista sudafricana The State en 1908; fundó la revista del Imperio Británico The Round Table en 1910, que sigue siendo el portavoz del Grupo; ha sido la influencia más poderosa en All Souls, Balliol y New Colleges en Oxford durante más de una generación; ha controlado The Times durante más de cincuenta años, con la excepción de los tres años 1919-1922, dio a conocer la idea y el nombre de la “Mancomunidad Británica de Naciones” en el período 1908-1918, fue la principal influencia en la administración de guerra de Lloyd George en 1917-1919 y dominó la delegación británica en la Conferencia de Paz de 1919; Tuvo mucho que ver con la formación y la gestión de la Sociedad de Naciones y del sistema de mandatos; fundó el Real Instituto de Asuntos Internacionales en 1919 y todavía lo controla; fue una de las principales influencias en la política británica hacia Irlanda, Palestina y la India en el período 1917-1945; tuvo una influencia muy importante en la política de apaciguamiento de Alemania durante los años 1920-1940; y controló y todavía controla, en gran medida, las fuentes y la redacción de la historia de la política imperial y exterior británica desde la Guerra de los Boers. ”

Para entender el pedigrí del movimiento de la Mesa Redonda, tal y como fue desvelado “oficialmente” en 1910, como el formador ideológico de las políticas y el paradigma de la nueva “clase directiva” de los imperialistas internacionales dedicados a la salvación del Imperio Británico bajo una “Federación Imperial”, sería necesario retroceder unas décadas antes, hasta 1873-74.

1873-1902 Imperio al borde del colapso: Reorganizarse o perecer

Durante este mismo periodo, a una agrupación de intelectuales imperiales conocida como el “Club X” (fundada en 1865), centrada en Thomas Huxley, Matthew Arnold, Herbert Spencer y Joseph Hooker, se les asignó la responsabilidad de revisar las estructuras ideológicas de control del Imperio Británico que habían demostrado estar desgastadas. Cada uno de ellos se especializaría en diversas ramas de las ciencias y todos promoverían interpretaciones gradualistas del cambio para contrarrestar las explicaciones que requerían saltos creativos. Este programa se aplicó con la intención de salvar el imperio que se derrumbaba y establecer los cimientos de una nueva religión científica basada en el modelo altamente materialista de Charles Darwin de la Selección Natural como explicación de la evolución y diferenciación de nuevas especies. Como el cofundador del X Club, Herbert Spencer, llegó a elaborar el sistema de “darwinismo social” como la consecuencia lógica del sistema de Darwin en los asuntos humanos, la intención detrás de la propagación del programa darwiniano nunca fue “el liberalismo ilustrado en batalla contra los dogmas ignorantes de la religión”, como tan a menudo relatan los historiadores populares de la ciencia. Más bien, la “revolución de la ciencia” iniciada por el Club X no fue más que la reedición de una idea tan antigua como Babilonia: El control de las masas por un sistema de dominio oligárquico, simplemente bajo un nuevo tipo de dictadura científica. Pero, ¿cómo el mundo aceptaría ahora estas nuevas condiciones de esclavitud mental y política exigidas por el imperialista en una lucha de sistemas fijos (es decir, contra otras facciones del poder)?

Este era el reto en el que los jóvenes de Oxford pondrían sus energías creativas utilizando el razonamiento “científico” establecido por el Club X de Thomas Huxley y al servicio de las familias oligárquicas gobernantes de Europa. Todos los jóvenes de Oxford de esta época, estaban muy influenciado por las ideas de esta red, y las utilizaban para justificar la “inevitabilidad natural” de la hegemonía de los fuertes sobre los débiles. En este caso, la raza superior anglosajona dominando a los pueblos inferiores de la tierra.

Uno de estos jóvenes de Oxford fue Alfred Milner, un personaje que desempeñó un importante papel como catalizador de la formación del Movimiento de la Mesa Redonda. En 1876 Cecil Rhodes, dejó Oxford para hacer fortuna en una plantación de algodón en Sudáfrica. Milner y Rhodes estaban también muy influenciados por John Ruskin, el líder de la rama “artística” de la inteligencia británica dirigida por la “Sociedad Prerrafaelita”.

Las ganancias de la fortuna algodonera de Rhodes se multiplicaron muchas veces por las incursiones en la industria de los diamantes de Sudáfrica, propiciadas por la casa Rothschild, lo que le permitió ascender a alturas gigantescas de poder político y riqueza, alcanzando su punto máximo con su nombramiento como Primer Ministro de Ciudad del Cabo y Fundador de Rodesia. Los actuales cárteles mineros centrados en Londres, Rio Tinto, De Beers y Lonrho, que ahora saquean África, así como el legado del Apartheid, que ha manchado gran parte de la historia de Sudáfrica, son dos aspectos de la cicatrizante herencia que Rhodes ha transmitido a los tiempos actuales.

Entre 1876 y su nombramiento como Alto Comisionado en Sudáfrica en 1897, la trayectoria de Milner se desvió ligeramente de la de Rhodes. Milner fue contratado por la Pall Mall Gazette y se convirtió en editor asociado poco después. La función de la Gaceta se recogía en el Pall Mall Gospel, una breve declaración de intenciones que se exigía a todos sus empleados: “La Federación del Imperio Británico es la condición de su supervivencia… como Imperio debemos federarnos o perecer”. El evangelio también hacía propaganda a favor del “destino inevitable” de que Estados Unidos y Gran Bretaña “se unieran”. El papel que desempeñó el Pall Mall en la coordinación de una visión cohesiva del imperio fue el modelo que siguieron más tarde Milner y sus secuaces al dirigir las publicaciones periódicas de la Mesa Redonda. El director de la Gaceta, Stead, fue reclutado oficialmente para el gran diseño en 1889, instigado por Rhodes y su patrocinador Lord Rothschild.

Tanto Milner como Stead se habían convertido en miembros activos de la agenda establecida por Cecil Rhodes. Pero, ¿cuál era esta agenda? En una serie de siete testamentos escritos entre 1879 y 1901″, Rhodes, el racista sin disculpas, expuso sus diseños para la reconquista del mundo y el adoctrinamiento de las jóvenes élites en su diseño:

“Formemos el mismo tipo de sociedad, una Iglesia para la extensión del Imperio Británico. Una sociedad que debería tener a sus miembros en cada parte del Imperio Británico trabajando con un objeto y una idea, deberíamos tener a sus miembros colocados en nuestras universidades y nuestras escuelas y deberíamos ver a la juventud inglesa pasar por sus manos, sólo uno quizás de cada mil tendría la mente y los sentimientos para tal objeto, debería ser probado en todos los sentidos, debería ser probado si es duro, poseedor de elocuencia, despreocupado de los detalles insignificantes de la vida, y si se encuentra que es así, entonces elegido y obligado por juramento a servir por el resto de su vida en su País. Entonces debería ser apoyado, si no tiene medios, por la Sociedad y enviado a la parte del Imperio donde se considere que es necesario”.

En otro testamento, Rhodes describió con más detalle su intención: “Para y por el establecimiento, la promoción y el desarrollo de una Sociedad Secreta, cuyo verdadero fin y objeto será la extensión del dominio británico por todo el mundo. La colonización por parte de los súbditos británicos de todas las tierras en las que los medios de subsistencia sean alcanzables por medio de la energía, el trabajo y la empresa y, especialmente, la ocupación por parte de los colonos británicos de todo el continente africano, Tierra Santa, el valle del Éufrates, las islas de Chipre y Candia, toda Sudamérica, las islas del Pacífico que hasta ahora no han sido poseídas por Gran Bretaña, todo el archipiélago malayo, estas tierras de China y Japón, y la recuperación definitiva de los Estados Unidos de América como parte integrante del Imperio Británico”.

Bajo este designio específico de crear un sistema de adoctrinamiento de jóvenes discípulos con talento, el sueño de Rhodes de apropiarse el mundo y reconquistar América, se estableció el Rhodes Trust a su muerte en 1902.

El modelo de la Mesa Redonda consistía en un órgano central de coordinación en Londres, con sucursales estratégicamente situadas en toda la Commonwealth, con el fin de proporcionar una visión y una voz a la joven y talentosa “clase directiva superior” del reformado Imperio Británico. Parkin, Peacock, Lord Alfred Milner, Sir Arthur Glazebrook, W.T. Stead, eran los componentes iniciales de la Mesa, a los que se añadieron Arthur Balfour y Lord Nathan Rothschild como cofiduciarios.

Trabajando en conjunto con los eugenistas de la Sociedad Fabiana de Sidney y Beatrice Webb, Balfour había fundado la primera Conferencia Internacional de Eugenesia en 1912 junto a entusiastas reclutas como el joven miembro de la Mesa Redonda Winston Churchill. El primo de Charles Darwin y fundador de la eugenesia, Sir Francis Galton, murió pocas semanas antes de poder pronunciar el discurso de apertura de la conferencia. La Sociedad Fabiana y su organización hermana “The Co-efficients Club” contaban con otros eugenistas destacados como Bertrand Russell, Halford Mackinder, H.G. Wells y George Bernard Shaw, y más tarde Harold Laski y John Maynard Keynes. Las listas de miembros de ambas organizaciones se solapaban con frecuencia.

Gran parte del trabajo sucio llevado a cabo por el movimiento original de la Mesa Redonda fue dirigido principalmente por el grupo de jóvenes de Oxford que se iniciaron en la gestión de los asuntos imperiales a las órdenes de Milner durante la supresión de la sublevación del Transvaal (Sudáfrica) en la Guerra de los Boers, entre 1899 y 1902. De este grupo de jóvenes, Philip Kerr y Lionel Curtis se encargaron de coordinar las ramas canadienses desde Londres (con Parkin y Peacock dirigiendo desde Canadá). Aunque Oxford había sido durante mucho tiempo el centro de adoctrinamiento de las jóvenes élites durante siglos, ahora, con el programa de becas Rhodes, se había iniciado un nuevo nivel de normalización. El nuevo programa ofrecía becas a jóvenes talentos principalmente en toda la familia anglosajona de naciones que Rhodes anhelaba ver reabsorbida bajo un paraguas ario. La Sociedad Fabiana había fundado la London School of Economics (LSE) con fines similares. Tanto la LSE como Oxford han trabajado mano a mano en la elaboración de agentes del cambio imperial durante todo el siglo XX.

Cada estudiante, al ser seleccionado, recibía una beca en la Universidad de Oxford, un generoso estipendio y un tratamiento de alfombra roja en las altas esferas de las redes sociales oligárquicas gobernantes, si el estudiante así lo deseaba. Cada estudiante regresaba a su país de origen inflamado por un ardiente deseo de cumplir los objetivos del Imperio Británico y avanzar en la “gestión científica de la sociedad”. Sus talentos se expresaron en cargos electos, trabajando en la administración pública, los medios de comunicación, el derecho, el sector privado o en el mundo académico. En la mayoría de los casos, estos eruditos actuaron según el método fabiano de la “teoría de la permeación”… impregnando lentamente todos los niveles de las estructuras de control de la sociedad para dar forma a la percepción y desplazar las estructuras invisibles que controlan el comportamiento de las masas, acercándolas a una lucha materialista por la supervivencia, competitividad tan propia del sistema capitalista pero no sólo. Cada año se concedía una beca a cada una de las provincias canadienses y 32 a Estados Unidos. Hasta la fecha, se han concedido aproximadamente 7.000 becas con una apertura cada vez mayor a los países no arios para servir a la agenda imperial.

El primer intento fracasa: La Unión Imperial 1911-1923

La primera encarnación de la agenda del Gobierno Mundial para acumular el poder había sido la tesis de la Unión Imperial en torno a la cual se había creado la Mesa Redonda. Esto implicaba la creación de una Federación de naciones unidas bajo un imperio, en la que los representantes de varias colonias podrían tener representantes dentro de un Parlamento Imperial, muy parecido a la estructura de la Unión Europea que encadena a las naciones bajo la Troika hoy en día. La misión obvia bajo esta estructura era la participación de los Estados Unidos gobernados por los “realistas económicos”. Bajo las estructuras parlamentarias, existe poco más que una ilusión democrática de participación y soberanía popular mientras que su naturaleza burocrática permite un control óptimo por parte de una oligarquía gobernante.

Al final de la Primera Guerra Mundial, las fuerzas dentro de la Mesa Redonda temían el fracaso de este programa, y habían resuelto dedicarse en su lugar a la doctrina de la Sociedad de Naciones, mediante la cual se podía lograr esencialmente el mismo resultado, pero con medios diferentes. Bajo este cambio de marcha, se dispuso que la Mesa Redonda fuera eliminada gradualmente en lugar de algo nuevo. Dos veteranos controladores del grupo de discípulos de Milner que se escribieron en 1931 pusieron este problema sobre la mesa e incluso propusieron una solución:

“Como hermandad hemos perdido el interés por el Imperio y ya no somos competentes para ocuparnos de él. Creo, por lo tanto, que si la Mesa Redonda ha de continuar, debería cambiar definitivamente su carácter, eliminar su subtítulo y convertirse, lo que es mucho más adecuado en la actualidad, en una publicación relacionada con el Real Instituto de Asuntos Internacionales… todo el corazón y el alma del movimiento de la Mesa Redonda se está agotando y realmente no sé si representamos algo en particular hoy en día”.

Fue con este fracaso de su proyecto original en mente que el Movimiento de la Mesa Redonda comenzó una conversión en su nuevo disfraz con la creación del Instituto Real de Asuntos Internacionales (RIIA) en 1919, seguido inmediatamente después con ramas en los Estados Unidos bajo el título del Consejo de Relaciones Exteriores (CFR) y el Instituto Internacional del Pacífico (IPI). El CFR, impulsado por el clan Rockefeller y que aun perdura en la actualidad dirigido por este clan y por Henry Kissinger, y el IPI contaban con miembros cruzados del RIIA, el CIIA, mientras que la financiación se realizaba a través de la Fundación Rockefeller, la Fundación Carnegie y el RIIA. Aunque tenían nombres nominalmente estadounidenses, estas organizaciones y sus miembros eran totalmente británicos.

El fracaso del segundo intento: La Mesa Redonda Transformada 1923-1930

Tanto la RIIA, como el CFR y el IPI fueron financiados a través de grandes subvenciones de las fundaciones Rockefeller y Carnegie, que a su vez fueron creadas simplemente como instrumentos financieros para promover la agenda imperial británica (no olvidemos que Rockefeller, Carnegie y Morgan, ascendieron a la cúpula del poder como albaceas en Estados Unidos de la Casa de Rothschild, los contables de la corona británica y de su imperio) al mismo tiempo que el Movimiento de la Mesa Redonda se dio a conocer en 1910. Estas fueron dos de las principales fundaciones que se utilizaron para financiar las leyes de eugenesia y las premisas “científicas” basadas en la estadística que justificaban su aplicación política. Quigley documenta en sus obras el amplio apoyo financiero que estas organizaciones “filantrópicas” otorgaron a sus controladores londinenses.

La colaboración de algunos líderes de las ex-colonias británicas (canadienses, irlandeses, indios,…), muchas veces representantes de la oligarquía regional opuesta a la global, en contra de la política imperial fue clave en la derrota inicial de la Mesa Redonda en varias de estas ex-colonias del Imperio. Pero la batalla no había terminado y la Mesa Redonda seguía aspirando a implantar un gobierno mundial bajo liderazgo británico y estadounidense.

1932-1935: El New Deal estadounidense vence a la Sociedad de Naciones

Antes de que F. D. Roosevelt, representante de otra facción oligárquica del capitalismo (la partidaria del industrialismo nacionalista enraizado en la tradición norteamericana hamiltoniana continuada por el esclavista reconvertido Lincoln), llegara al poder en 1932, Estados Unidos estaba de rodillas tras cuatro años de Gran Depresión inducida a su vez por el estallido de una burbuja inmobiliaria construida artificialmente por agentes británicos de Wall Street, como el secretario del Tesoro estadounidense Andrew Mellon. Fue durante esta época de miedo y necesidad cuando la población estadounidense se mostró más crédula, aceptando en gran medida la propaganda de que la inmigración y los malos genes eran la causa de la criminalidad desenfrenada en estos dolorosos años. La gran mayoría de las leyes de esterilización aprobadas y la simpatía fascista cultivada se produjeron durante esta época de miedo.

Franklin Roosevelt aglutinaba a la población hacia su bando y trataba de resistir la injerencia británica mediante la implantación del crédito público emitido a través de la Corporación Financiera de Reconstrucción, una entidad encargada de implementar medidas contra la crisis económica y de evitar la caída en manos de Londres de la economía estadounidense.

La estrategia imperial británica era clara, someter a los gobiernos díscolos a su programa a través de la guerra o de crisis económicas. Para frenar las reacciones de las élites opuestas, las RIIA que dirigen sus redes en Canadá y sobre todo en Estados Unidos tuvieron que reajustar sus programas. La renovada fe en los poderes del gobierno de Roosevelt para llevar a cabo un cambio progresivo estaba evaporando la creencia de que el gobierno mundial era la única opción para asegurar la paz. Sin embargo, el cambio para un imperio no siempre es f��cil, y después de décadas de invertir energía en su reconquista de Estados Unidos, los británicos hicieron un violento intento de aplastar a la otra facción opuesta, liderada por Roosevelt y compuesta por industriales nacionalistas de diversos países que se oponían al globalismo financiero y a la mentalidad imperial británica.

Una sorprendente revelación recorrió la prensa en 1933 con el desvelamiento público por parte del general Smedley Butler del intento, respaldado por Wall Street, de dar un golpe de Estado contra Roosevelt utilizando 500.000 legionarios. La revelación del plan del general Butler para instalarse como dictador títere fue relatada en el famoso libro de Butler War is a Racket. Este intento de golpe de estado ocurrió pocos meses después del frustrado complot para asesinar a Roosevelt (del que se dice que fue instigado por la masonería), que resultó en el asesinato del alcalde de Chicago.

Según el escritor e investigador Pierre Beaudry: “No fue una mera coincidencia que, al mismo tiempo que los británicos promovían a los nazis en Europa, en 1934, los intereses financieros sinarquistas de Lazard Freres y J.P. Morgan en Estados Unidos estuvieran organizando un golpe dictatorial fascista similar contra Franklin D. Roosevelt, utilizando las mismas agrupaciones de Veteranos de Guerras Extranjeras descontentos con operativos de la Croix de Feu francesa desplegados en Estados Unidos. Al final no lograron capturar el liderazgo del general Smedley Butler, que puso fin al complot estadounidense denunciando públicamente la conspiración como el golpe fascista que era”.

Tras haber fracasado estrepitosamente en la aplicación del fascismo agresivo en Estados Unidos, como se estaba haciendo en Europa como “solución” a los males económicos de la depresión orquestada por los agentes del Imperio Británico en Wall Street, las redes de Rhodes decidieron que la única posibilidad de derrotar a sus enemigos era mediante el viejo método fabiano de infiltración y cooptación. Se hizo todo lo posible para infiltrarse en las instituciones del New Deal a toda costa, de modo que su cooptación total pudiera producirse relativamente sin problemas a la primera oportunidad de la caída de Roosevelt del poder. Para ello, se utilizaron las teorías del eugenista John Maynard Keynes, líder de la Sociedad Fabiana, para imitar primero la forma exterior del programa de Roosevelt sin nada de su sustancia. Recuperar su programa económico para usarlo contra la facción rival.

Hay que destacar que no es que Roosevelt o la élite nacionalista fuesen amantes de la libertad ni de las clases oprimidas, sino que su nacionalismo les impulsaba a buscar lo que creían mejor para su país, que era lo que más beneficiaba a esa élite nacionalista, ni más ni menos que una independencia económica del imperio británico y una sociedad con un moderado bienestar material para su población que evitase conflictos sociales y revoluciones que pudiesen apartar a estas élites del poder. Un modelo, si se quiere, más suave que mantenía los mismos parámetros que llevan a la gente a enfermar y a estar sometida: gobierno, trabajo, supremacía científica y tecnológica, “progreso”,..

Este escenario iba a empezar a dibujar, ya en 1935, lo que iba a suponer un paso más en este enfrentamiento entre élites y que se plasmaría en la II Guerra Mundial, donde no fueron únicamente dos alianzas (la de las democracias liberales más la URSS contra los totalitarismos fascistas) entre países las que se enfrentaron, sino dos facciones capitalistas por encima de naciones y estados. Tras esta guerra, se finiquitó el antiguo acuerdo de Westfalia de 1648 que fundó el sistema de estados-nación y que paradójicamente había permitido la ascensión del poder anglo-holandés en forma de imperio (lo cual demuestra que mientras exista el estado, competirá con otros y aspirará a crear un imperio global, como ha venido sucediendo de manera contínua a lo largo de la historia) y se introdujeron los acuerdos de Bretton Woods, que iban a permitir imponer el modelo globalista basado en la reorganización del imperio británico con Estados Unidos como potencia dominante y centro de ese imperio, ahora anglo-americano. Roosevelt y su facción habían sido derrotados. La Mesa Redonda había triunfado gracias a la Sociedad fabiana y su modelo. Ahora, con el modelo Bretton Woods obsoleto y modificado varias veces (1973, 1991, 2001,…) entramos en una nueva era del enfrentamiento entre estas antiguas facciones por ejercer su dominio mundial.

La Mesa Redonda pues, es la plasmación del estado profundo moderno (que no deja de ser parte del estado, una cloaca, si se quiere, de él) y trabajó estrechamente con otro de los primeros “think tanks” llamado la Sociedad Fabiana con el fin de avanzar en una agenda que requería la destrucción del sistema de Estado-nación soberano que se había fundado en el Tratado de Westfalia de 1648. Esto quedó ejemplificado en el “discurso de Chicago” de 1999 del activo fabiano Tony Blair, cuando declaró que el mundo debía embarcarse ahora en un “orden post-Westfalia”, preparando el escenario para el 11-S y la nueva era de cambio de régimen que pronto se desató.

Marx y Smith: Dos ofensivas ideológicas imperiales

Nuestros más recientes 500 años de historia universal han sido impulsados principalmente por el temor ardiente de la oligarquía británica a la verdad aplicada de los principios de auto-organización de la humanidad en su conjunto y por su intento, al mismo tiempo, de apartar del poder a otras oligarquías que también buscaban su propio beneficio con un proyecto igualmente tiránico. Todas las innovaciones del Imperio Británico desde entonces, se han llevado a cabo específicamente con la intención de deshacer la verdad que saltos singulares, como la recuperación o el redescubrimiento de conocimientos ancestrales que fueron aplastados históricamente por el imperio romano-cristianismo y sus herederos medievales, en el potencial implican para el verdadero destino de la especie humana.

Para oscurecer la verdad y aupar al poder absoluto a la oligarquía británica (mediante la vieja estrategia de la polarización) dos programas fueron formulados por mentirosos y tontos directamente bajo la paga y el control de los principales sacerdotes del Imperio Británico. El primero fue conocido como la doctrina del libre comercio de Adam Smith, tal y como se elaboró en su Riqueza de las Naciones de 1776. La segunda fue la doctrina del comunismo de Marx, elaborada principalmente en su obra El Capital de 1867 (cuya edición fue costeada por Nathan Rothschild). La Riqueza de las Naciones fue una respuesta a la Revolución Americana, proceso que sirvió para la independencia de gran parte de las colonias británicas en América, y sirvió como marco para seguir controlando económicamente a la nueva república independiente. Se centró el el hedonismo y el individuo ególatra por encima del bien común. Por el contrario, El Capital de Marx sirvió como argumento sofístico para tratar de controlar la revolución industrial y minimizar los daños que podría generar el descontento social y la miseria que la industrialización generaba. Era un intento de canalizar ese descontento hacia el socialismo marxista (tras el fracaso que supuso el intento anterior con el socialismo utópico), ideología que entroncaba con las aspiraciones de la élite: ciencia y progreso, gobierno centralizado, banca nacional, etc… El Capital se centró en el “Bien” utilitario del conjunto a expensas del individuo.

Ambos sistemas, el de Smith y el de Marx, no sólo se basan en un empirismo radical (creencia en la validez de las impresiones de los sentidos), sino también en el corolario necesario del empirismo: que el hombre no es en esencia más que su carne material y su capacidad de adaptación a su entorno material, tanto político como físico. Así, en contra de la visión holística, el empirista, de izquierdas o de derechas, concluye que el hombre es en realidad una bestia. Los saltos creativos la mente humana libre y los conocimientos milenarios que buscan la unión del hombre y la biosfera, son asumidos por el empirista como pseudo-ciencias, meras anomalías quiméricas que deben mantenerse tan oscuras como sea posible para la masa del ganado humano.

En la época de Marx, la tesis de Darwin de la selección natural como efecto de una lucha constante por la existencia había proporcionado un nuevo combustible para la visión del mundo del imperialista y había alimentado la tesis de Marx. Después de leer El origen de las especies, Marx envió a Darwin un ejemplar firmado personalmente en 1873 e hizo dedicar una edición alemana “En profundo agradecimiento a Charles Darwin”.

Ambos sistemas también comparten la mentira común de que, dado que los principios universales son incognoscibles, la única métrica que una sociedad puede utilizar para juzgar el valor es una mezcla de “placer” y “utilidad”. De los dos, Smith fue mucho más explícito en sus escritos sobre este punto. En su Teoría de los sentimientos morales (1759), escribe:

“El hambre, la sed y la pasión que une a los dos sexos, el amor al placer y el temor al dolor, nos impulsan a aplicar esos medios por sí mismos, y sin ninguna consideración de su tendencia a los fines benéficos que el gran Director de la naturaleza quiso producir con ellos.”

El fabianismo: El fascismo desde la izquierda

Es un hecho que la historia reciente ha sido moldeada por agencias, estatales y para-estatales, que operan fuera del campo general de percepción de la mayoría de la población, dejando las estructuras gubernamentales formales como meras mascaradas, pantallas que sirven para la distracción y que reciben el aplauso o el descontento mientras el núcleo de poder permanece intacto y muchas veces a salvo de la ira popular.

Como se ha documentado anteriormente, tales agencias se han expresado en forma de dos polaridades que operan desde una mente de Oxford durante los primeros años del siglo XX. Esas dos operaciones eran el Movimiento de la Mesa Redonda que atendía a los llamados anglófilos de “nueva derecha” del mundo, por un lado, y una secta de “nueva izquierda” conocida como socialistas fabianos, por el otro. A través de sus diversas manifestaciones a lo largo del siglo, ambas organizaciones han trabajado juntas para crear estructuras de pensamiento, creencias y leyes que encierran a sus víctimas en un mundo en el que se abandona la mejora creativa del hombre y la naturaleza mediada por la razón autoconsciente.

En este mundo de no cambio, no se puede evitar el hecho de los rendimientos decrecientes, ya que no pueden surgir nuevos recursos excepto los que ya están en práctica. En este sistema de escasez, el capitalismo, la necesidad de la esterilización, y el asesinato de los no aptos basado en consideraciones materiales (tanto genéticas como ambientales) se hace real, y las leyes de Malthus se vuelven hegemónicas. La hegemonía del análisis de sistemas en la actualidad se debe directamente a las redes de la Sociedad Fabiana y a los aliados del Rhodes Trust que trabajaron a través de los sistemas soviéticos y occidentales durante la Guerra Fría.

La Sociedad Fabiana fue fundada por una camarilla elitista de propagandistas darwinistas en 1884 que vieron el sistema recién publicado de Karl Marx como el vehículo perfecto para llevar la lógica de Darwin a la estructura de creencias de las masas. De hecho, todos los miembros eran racistas devotos obsesionados con el problema de convencer a la humanidad de que se sometiera a una limpieza racial según las líneas prescritas por el darwinismo social de Herbert Spencer y el campo de la eugenesia de Francis Galton, el primo de Darwin. Tanto Spencer como Galton estaban estrechamente dirigidos por el Club X de Thomas Huxley, en ese momento totalmente a cargo de la política científica imperial. El espeluznante símbolo fabiano presenta un lobo con piel de cordero.

Los miembros fundadores más destacados de la Sociedad Fabiana fueron Sidney y Beatrice Webb y George Bernard Shaw. A este grupo se unieron pronto varios influyentes aspirantes a sacerdotes del Imperio Británico, a saber, la destacada teósofa Annie Besant, el protegido de Huxley H.G. Wells, Bertrand Russell, Arthur Balfour y el fundador de la geopolítica Halford Mackinder. El nombre “fabiano” se eligió por el general romano Fabius Maximus (también conocido como “El Retrasado”), cuya fama se basa en haber vencido a Aníbal sin entrar nunca en combate directo, sino por pura resistencia y desgaste. En el documento fundacional de Fabián estaba escrito:

“Hay que esperar el momento oportuno, como hizo Fabio con mucha paciencia, cuando guerreó contra Aníbal, aunque muchos censuraron sus retrasos; pero cuando llegue el momento hay que golpear con fuerza, como hizo Fabio, o su espera será vana e infructuosa”.

El programa de la sociedad fabiana se centraba en amplios programas de bienestar social, como la sanidad universal, la educación de masas y la mejora de las condiciones de trabajo, que estaban pensados para atraer a las masas privadas de derechos y reconducir su descontento. Bajo el programa fabiano, tales programas no tenían sustancia en la realidad, ya que el verdadero medio para justificar su creación estaba prohibido a priori. Es decir, la activación de la razón autoconsciente en todos los miembros de la sociedad.

Esta artimaña fue diseñada, pues, para someter la voluntad de las clases bajas a la influencia más profunda de una oligarquía gobernante mediante la promesa de un “socialismo democrático” y un ideal ingenuamente utópico del “fin de la historia”. Todo lo que las masas tienen que hacer para recibir sus golosinas, es aceptar ser gobernadas por un sacerdocio científico que gestionará sus vidas y eventualmente las matará si las considera demasiado numerosas o molestas para mantenerlas. Este sacerdocio gestionará la riqueza preexistente de la manera más conveniente para aplacar a la multitud, pero no permitirá la creación de nueva riqueza a través de la auto-organización, la creatividad, la libre asociación y la cooperación, ya que eso obligaría a cambiar los parámetros de los canales fijos del sistema que pretenden gestionar como dioses. Los controladores del socialismo fabiano no son, ni han sido nunca, “socialistas democráticos”, sino brutos darwinistas sociales. Como dijo la teósofa Annie Besant al partido del Congreso de la India:

“Pero la idea general es que cada hombre debe tener el poder de acuerdo con su conocimiento y capacidad. […] Y la nota clave es la de mi Estado de hadas: De cada hombre según su capacidad; a cada hombre según sus necesidades. Un socialismo democrático, controlado por los votos de la mayoría, guiado por los números, nunca puede tener éxito; un socialismo verdaderamente aristocrático, controlado por el deber, guiado por la sabiduría, es el siguiente paso hacia arriba en la civilización.”

Bajo estos parámetros ninguna promesa de medidas de bienestar social es duradera. Cualquier limosna de este tipo desembocará necesariamente en una crisis Ponzi-piramidal que, por su propia naturaleza, forzará la lógica del triaje y, por lo tanto, el fascismo en los incautos que permitieron democráticamente su hegemonía. Todos los argumentos actuales para recortar la seguridad social, los planes de pensiones, la sanidad y la educación se derivan de esta función. El auge del ecologismo como “nueva religión post-industrial” hoy impulsado por un New Deal verde tiene una agenda de despoblación que hiela la sangre detrás de su disfraz socialista nominal.

Trabajando estrechamente con las principales figuras de Oxford, y especialmente con el Rhodes Trust, los fabianos crearon su propia escuela con la financiación de Rothschild , el patrocinador y protector de Cecil Rhodes (quien, como ya se ha dicho, había salido de la Universidad de Oxford y fue enviado por el imperio británico a Sudáfrica para supervisar las plantaciones de algodón y terminó dirigiendo una red de extracción y tráfico de diamantes, financiada por Rothschild, que le convirtió en multimillonario, en uno de los hombres más poderosos del planeta, en el presidente de Sudáfrica y en el creador de la República de Rhodesia) llamada London School of Economics (LSE) en 1895. El marco ideológico empleado por los agentes de la LSE y de Oxford siempre fue formulado por Cambridge, que hasta hoy sigue siendo el núcleo intelectual de las ideas podridas del imperio. Oxford y la LSE siguen existiendo principalmente para establecer programas que “aplican” esas ideas “puras” formuladas en Cambridge a la práctica general en interés de la oligarquía gobernante. Destacados controladores fabianos que reclutaron jóvenes talentos en la LSE fueron Bertrand Russell, H.G. Wells, John Maynard Keynes y Harold Laski.

Cinco años después de la creación de la LSE, se creó el Partido Laborista como partido político oficial fabiano. Su función era esencialmente asumir el papel de la izquierda de los liberales en la oposición al gobierno conservador, que hasta entonces habían sido los dos partidos hegemónicos en Gran Bretaña. Uno de los miembros más perversos del movimiento, el dramaturgo George Bernard Shaw, expuso el método de permeabilización que había regido el éxito fabiano para impregnar las instituciones sociopolíticas influyentes:

“Nuestra propaganda es de permeabilización -instamos a nuestros miembros a unirse a las Asociaciones Liberal y Radical de su distrito, o, si lo preferían, a las Asociaciones Conservadoras-, permeamos las organizaciones de los partidos y movimos todos los hilos que pudimos tocar con la mayor habilidad y energía, y lo conseguimos tan bien que en 1888 obtuvimos la sólida ventaja de una mayoría Progresista llena de ideas que nunca habrían entrado en sus cabezas si los Fabianos no las hubieran puesto allí.”

Esto es exactamente lo que se hizo. A lo largo del siglo XX, la LSE ha condicionado a decenas de jefes de Estado, a decenas de miles de funcionarios y a varias generaciones de académicos.

Más funcionarios del gabinete de Barack Obama habían estudiado en Oxford y LSE que en sus homólogas estadounidenses Yale, Harvard o Princeton. Esta es la esencia del Estado profundo que ha tratado de derrocar a todos los que se le han opuesto, incluído recientemente Donald Trump, representante de la élite industrialista nacionalista, sucesor en cierta medida de Roosevelt y opuesto a esta élite, en una pugna por obtener el poder mundial entre estas dos facciones históricas: la global financiera unipolar partidaria del gobierno mundial y la industrial nacionalista multipolar partidaria del poder mundial compartido en regiones. Lo que ésta última ignora o quiere ignorar es que “el poder no se comparte, se ejerce” (Coronel Pedro Baños) y que lo que ellos buscan ya lo establecieron con el tratado de Westfalia en 1648 y condujo precisamente a la creación de un imperio (el británico) y una era (la del capitalismo) que se han ido reconfigurando y reorganizando para conseguir y mantener el poder hasta nuestros días. Parece ser que, si no lo remediamos, estamos condenados a ser gobernados o bien por malvados o bien por ineptos, pero siempre gobernados, al fin y al cabo.

Este método de “impregnación” funciona (haciendo una analogía con la falsa teoría microbiana de Pasteur, dogma parte de la ofensiva cultural malthusiana-darwinista de la ciencia industrial de la élite) a un “virus” que se apodera de los glóbulos blancos de una víctima. Al principio, la presencia del “virus” en el sistema es apenas perceptible, pero cuando los órganos comienzan a funcionar mal de forma inesperada, la persona irreflexiva puede optar tontamente por no buscar ayuda, sino esperar el punto inmanente en el que ha pasado el punto de no retorno. Esta infección tuvo lugar hace miles de años, y aunque la humanidad produjo estallidos de potencial dirigidos por el genio creativo a lo largo de las generaciones, la especie humana todavía no ha aprendido la lección.

Deshacerse de los grilletes

Es absolutamente necesario que ahora, incluso en esta fecha tardía, se aprendan las lecciones de los errores del pasado antes de que el resultado legal de este “virus” siga su curso y mate a su huésped. La esencia de los problemas de la humanidad no se deriva de ningún defecto de nuestra naturaleza, sino de nuestro codicioso anhelo de “progreso”, que nos aparta de lo natural y nos hace sucumbir a manos de la Autoridad. No se deben a nuestra fija “naturaleza egoísta”, ni nuestros problemas se resolverán adoptando un sistema “sostenible” científico – tecnológico bajo “Nuevos Tratos Verdes”, mucho menos volviendo al pasado o a la “vieja normalidad”. Un sistema así sólo existe en la mente delirante de un oligarca o de sus víctimas, pero no en la naturaleza. Si tal sistema se impusiera en nuestra sociedad del siglo XXI, como se impuso en los siglos pasados su opuesto, que nos ha traído hasta aquí, el resultado sería un genocidio de magnitudes mayores que cualquier cosa que Hitler pudiera haber soñado.

Así que dejemos de lado las teorías procedentes de la élite, la política, la ciencia reduccionista cartesiana e industrial del capitalismo, con la medicina a la cabeza. El camino más rápido para volver a despertar es darse cuenta de que dejar la vida en manos de otro, de que obedecer ciegamente, de que desentenderse de la naturaleza es caer por el precipicio. No existe salvador ni redentor. O dejamos de ser ganado listo para ser guiado por un pastor o acabaremos en el matadero.

Referencias:

John Kendle, The Round Table Movement and Imperial Union, University of Toronto Press, 1975

Carroll Quigley, The Anglo-American Establishment, Nueva York, Books in Focus, 1981 (www.archive.org/details/TheAnglo-americanEstablishment)

George Parkin, Imperial Federation: The Problem of National Unity, Macmillan and Co., Londres, 1892,.

Jeffrey Brison, Rockefeller, Carnegie and Canadá: American Philanthropy and the Arts and Letters in Canada, 2005.

A.M. McBriar, Fabian Socialism and English Politics, 1884-1918. [1962] Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Matthew Ehret, Origins of the Deep State in North America, Canadian Patriot, 2019. (Traducción en www.mentealternativa.com)

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MOTION PICTURES

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Parasite

HYAE JIN CHANG / Chung Sook YEO JEONG CHO / Yeon Kyo WOO SHIK CHOI / Ki Woo HYEON JUN JUNG / Da Song ZISO JUNG / Da Hye JUNG EUN LEE / Moon Gwang SUN KYUN LEE / Dong Ik MYUNG HOON PARK / Geun Se SO DAM PARK / Ki Jung KANG HO SONG / Ki Taek

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Joaquin Phoenix, Joker

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Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

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TELEVISION Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series The Crown

MARION BAILEY / Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother HELENA BONHAM CARTER / Princess Margaret OLIVIA COLMAN / Queen Elizabeth II CHARLES DANCE / Lord Mountbatten BEN DANIELS / Lord Snowdon ERIN DOHERTY / Princess Anne CHARLES EDWARDS / Martin Charteris TOBIAS MENZIES / Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh JOSH O’CONNOR / Prince Charles SAM PHILLIPS / Equerry DAVID RINTOUL / Michael Adeane JASON WATKINS / Harold Wilson

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Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series Sam Rockwell, Fosse/Verdon

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AVENGERS: ENDGAME Marija Juliette Abney Janeshia Adams-Ginyard George “Gee” Alexander Derek Alfonso Nate Andrade Christopher Antonucci Randy Archer Brandon Arnold Steven S. Atkinson Ben Aycrigg Jennifer Badger Christopher Balualua Danya Bateman Loyd Bateman Kelly Bellini Joanna Bennett Carrie Bernans Felix Betancourt Gianni Biasetti, Jr. Mike Bishop Tamiko Brownlee Troy Butler Jwaundace Candece Marc Canonizado Janene Carleton Elisabeth Carpenter Sean Christopher Carter Kevin Cassidy Hymnson Chan Courtney Chen Anis Cheurfa Fernando Chien Alvin Chon Tye Claybrook, Jr. Marcelle Coletti David Conk John A. Cooper Brandon Cornell Thomas Joseph Culler Jahnel Curfman Gui Da Silva-Greene Chris Daniels Keith Davis Martin De Boer Robbert de Groot Isabella Shai DeBroux Holland Diaz Josh Diogo Jackson Dobies Justin Dobies Cory Dunson Jessica Durham Justin Eaton Jared Eddo Katie Eischen Kiante Elam Jazzy Ellis David Elson Jason Elwood Hanna Tony Falcon Guy Fernandez Mark Fisher Alessandro Folchitto Colin Follenweider Glenn Foster Simeon Freeman Shauna Galligan Monique Ganderton Johnny Gao Jomahl Gildersleve Denisha Gillespie Daniel Graham Ryan Green Carlos Guity Califf Guzman Dante Ha Akihiro Haga Garrett Hammond Lydia Hand Daniel Hargrave Kandis Hargrave Sam Hargrave Regis Andrew Harrington III Thayr Harris Zedric Harris Jimmy Hart Alex Hashioka Zachary Henry Danny Hernandez Mark Hicks Maria Hippolyte Bobby Holland Hanton JT Holt Crystal Hooks Niahlah Hope Damita Howard Justin Howell Jacob Hugghins Lindsay Anne Hugghins Michael Hugghins Tony Hugghins Scott Hunter James Hutchison III Pan Iam CC Ice Sarah Irwin Mami Ito Duke Jackson Michael Jamorski Kirk Jenkins Preshas Jenkins Floyd Anthony Johns Jr. Richard M. King Ralf Koch Khalil La’Marr Matt LaBorde Danny Le Boyer Matt Leonard William Leong Bethany Levy James Lew Marcus Lewis Jefferson Lewis III Eric Linden Scott Loeser Rachel Luttrell-Bateman Adam Lytle Tara Macken Dave Macomber Julia Maggio Ruben Maldonado Richard Marrero Rob Mars Andy Martin Aaron Matthews Tim R. McAdams Taylor McDonald Kyle McLean Crystal Michelle Mark Miscione Heidi Moneymaker Renae Moneymaker Chris Moore Tristen Tyler Morts William Billy Morts Marie Mouroum Spencer Mulligan Travor Murray Jachin JJ Myers Anthony Nanakornpanom John Nania Nikolay Nedyalkov Carl Nespoli Paul O’Connor Marque Ohmes Olufemi Olagoke Noon Orsatti Rowbie Orsatti Jane Oshita Leesa Pate Natasha Paul Gary Peebles Nathaniel Perry Josh Petro Lloyd Pitts George Quinones Taraja Ramsess Greg Rementer Antjuan Rhames Meredith Richardson Bayland Rippenkroeger Ryan Robertson Christopher Cody Robinson Donny Rogers Carrington Christopher Eric Romrell Michelle Rose Corrina Roshea Marvin Ross Elena Sanchez Maya Santandrea Matthew Scheib Erik Schultz Jordan Scott Joshua Russel Seifert Brandon Shaw Bruce Shepperson Joseph Singletary III Tim Sitarz Dominique Smith Dena Sodano Robert D. Souris Jackson Spidell Daniel Stevens Jenel Stevens Diandra Stoddard Milliner Granger Summerset Phedra Syndelle Mark Tearle Hamid-Reza Thompson Tyler J. Tiffany Aaron Toney Amy Lynn Tuttle Tony Vo Todd Warren Kevin Waterman Amber Whelan Aaron Wiggins Joseph Williams Matthew M. Williams Thom Williams Zola Williams Mike Wilson Tyler Witte Michael Yahn James Young Marcus Gene Young Woon Young Park Casey Zeller Keil Zeperni

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JazzX5#177. Tirudel Zenebe - Mesele Asmamaw - Andy Moor - Arnold de Boer: Gue (Ililta! - New Ethiopian Dance Music) [Minipodcast]

JazzX5#177. Tirudel Zenebe – Mesele Asmamaw – Andy Moor – Arnold de Boer: Gue (Ililta! – New Ethiopian Dance Music) [Minipodcast]

Por Pachi Tapiz.

“Gue” Tirudel Zenebe – Mesele Asmamaw – Andy Moor – Arnold de Boer: Ililta! – New Ethiopian Dance Music (Terp Records) Tirudel Zenebe, Mesele Asmamaw, Andy Moor, Arnold de Boer

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JazzX5 es un minipodcast de HDO de la Factoría Tomajazz presentado, editado y producido por Pachi Tapiz. JazzX5 comenzó su andadura el 24 de junio de 2019. Todas las entregas de JazzX5e…

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LA RAPIDA SCALATA DI AARON WAN-BISSAKA VERSO LA GLORIA

Il giovane terzino del Crystal Palace è ad un passo dal Manchester United, dopo una grande prima stagione in Premier League. 

”There wasn't much choice, if he hadn't played, I don't know who would have played there” (“non c’era molta scelta, se non avesse giocato lui non so chi avrebbe giocato”).

 Il 25 febbraio 2018 il Crystal Palace fa visita al Tottenham per la 28esima giornata di campionato. Per i londinesi non è per niente un buon momento: le Eagles sono al 15esimo posto, e alle difficoltà sul piano della classifica si aggiungono una serie infinita di assenze ed un calendario abbastanza tosto, con Spurs, United, Chelsea e Liverpool da affrontare nell’arco di un mese.

Roy Hodgson, che siede sulla panchina dopo aver preso il posto di Frank de Boer, deragliato nel suo progetto tecnico durato solo quattro partite, si trova privato tra gli altri dei terzini destri alternati fino ad allora in campionato, Tim Fosu-Mensah, Joel Ward e Martin Kelly. L’ultra 70enne allenatore lancia allora nella mischia il giovane Wan-Bissaka, da poco aggregato alla rosa della prima squadra e fino ad allora comparso soltanto una manciata di volta nelle distinte di gara, come ultimo panchinaro.

“Il giorno prima della partita hanno esposto la formazione sulla lavagnetta, io ho guardato prima i nomi in panchina, partendo dal fondo, ma non c’ero. Non so chi mi ha toccato la spalla, ma questo mi ha fatto guardare in cima alla lista ed ero lì, terzino destro”, ha dichiarato ripensando a quel momento.

Per il suo primo tackle è sufficiente aspettare dieci minuti, quando rincorre Ben Davies per qualche metro e recupera palla in scivolata. Inizia così la carriera in Premier League di Aaron Wan-Bissaka, uno dei più chiacchierati e promettenti giovani inglesi, destinato a far parlare a lungo di sé da qui in avanti.

Fino ad allora, Wan-Bissaka – nato a Croydon nel novembre del 1997, a pochi chilometri di distanza dal Selhurst Park, lo stadio appunto del Crystal Palace – si era fatto tutta la trafila nelle giovanili della compagine londinese, venendo poi aggregato alla rosa della prima squadra con una manciata di apparizioni in panchina. È sempre stato un’ala, dotato di accelerazione ed eccezionale nel dribbling. Quando i suoi allenatori dell’Under 23 lo hanno provato in posizione di terzino, lui non ne era per niente contento. “Non potevo esprimermi andando avanti. Questo non sono io”. Eppure il giovane Aaron non si è dato per vinto, ma anzi ha iniziato a fare pratica nel ruolo e a sottoporsi a delle sessioni di esercitazione difensiva extra. Negli allenamenti con la prima squadra si trova ad affrontare Yannick Bolasie e Wilfried Zaha, e ciò gli permette di affinare due diversi aspetti chiave del gioco difensivo ( la fisicità del primo, la tecnica e velocità del secondo), e i progressi sono all’ordine del giorno. Dove non arriva il talento naturale, arriva la voglia.

Nella più classica delle situazioni in cui o impari a nuotare o anneghi, Wan-Bissaka è stato buttato nella mischia trovandosi nelle sue prime tre partite da professionista ad affrontare Christian Eriksen, Alexis Sanchez ed Eden Hazard. Gioca sei partite consecutive, dalla 28’ alla 33’ giornata, contro Tottenham, Manchester United, Chelsea, Huddersfield, Liverpool e Bournemouth, in un filotto che terrorizzerebbe anche giocatori ben più esperti. Con il temporaneo rientro di Ward torna poi in panchina per le successive quattro gare, giocando però l’ultima in casa contro il West Brom. Anche se a livello di squadra i risultati non sono del tutto esaltanti – la squadra finisce giù al 18 esimo posto, anche se poi si rialza chiudendo l’annata con 4 vittorie su 5 gare – a livello personale si comincia ad intuire che il ragazzo ha del potenziale notevole.

 Il miglior terzino difensivo della Premier League.

Nella stagione 2018/19 è ovviamente un titolare fisso, giocando 35 partite su 38. Hodgson è un allenatore vecchio stampo, la cui preoccupazione primaria è la compattezza difensiva e la solidità. Il suo Crystal Palace, schierato col 4-4-2 o 4-3-3 a seconda di avversario e stadio, è più che altro basato sul fisico, con poca creatività a centrocampo e le iniziative affidate più che altro alla coppia di esterni, Zaha e Towsend. La squadra fatica a costruire azioni palla al piede, mentre si trova più a proprio agio nelle ripartenze e negli spazi aperti da attaccare, e in questo senso non è un caso che siano gli unici ad aver realizzato più punti fuori casa, quando gli avversari attaccano di più, rispetto che nel proprio campo, quando gli viene concesso più possesso palla. In questo contesto, Wan-Bissaka è il giocatore perfetto.

Alcuni esempi di cosa voglia dire trovarselo di fronte. Vittime illustri, tra gli altri, Sané, Mané e Son.

Calcisticamente, la sua qualità migliore è senza dubbio il contrasto. Il dato su questo fondamentale difensivo solitamente è a favore dei centrocampisti, che per caratteristiche e zona di campo in cui agiscono sono portati ad effettuarne in quantità maggiore nel corso della partita. Wan-Bissaka è ottavo per contrasti tentati (139) – l’unico difensore prima di lui in elenco è Pereira del Leicester, altro terzino destro autore di una stagione ad altissimo livello – ma è terzo per contrasti riusciti (129, valore più alto nei cinque maggiori campionati europei tra i difensori), e ciò lo porta ad avere una percentuale di successo addirittura del 93%. Rovesciando il dato, questo significa che è stato superato soltanto 10 volte, il 7%, compiendo soltanto 22 falli in totale. Un dato di per sé incredibile.

Non ha alcuna paura ad affrontare in 1 contro 1 l’avversario, anche in spazi aperti, potendo contare sulle sue qualità fisiche e di comprensione del gioco.

I passaggi intercettati sono invece 84, soltanto uno in meno del capolista Capoue (centrocampista di una squadra molto aggressiva e reattiva come il Watford). 128 le spazzate (sesto tra i difensori, e nella Top 30 tra tutti), 33 i passaggi respinti (32esimo), 30 i cross respinti (secondo) e 16 i tiri respinti (34esimo). Giustificato, in pieno, il soprannome di “ragno”, datogli dai compagni di squadra.

Quello che i numeri ci restituiscono, in campo è molto evidente. A balzare all’occhio sono le sue qualità nel tempismo e nella scelta del momento giusto in cui allungare il piede, con il suo stile di gioco fortemente favorito dalla concentrazione, dall’agilità e dalle lunghe leve, che gli permettono accelerazioni e scatti sia sul lungo che sul breve. È un maestro nel far finire l’avversario in fuorigioco, muovendosi in anticipo, anche se solitamente tende ad aspettare dietro e poi recuperare effettuando il contrasto. Altra cosa che impressiona è la capacità di adattamento: c’è stata ad esempio una partita contro il Burnley in cui la squadra di Dyche ha provato a colpirlo in uno dei suoi presunti punti deboli – i palloni alti – e Wan-Bissaka ha risposto con la più alta percentuale di successo nei duelli aerei della sua squadra.

 Fase offensiva.

Per quanto il punto di forza di Aaron Wan-Bissaka sia la fase difensiva, il giovane terzino inglese è competente anche in attacco. Unisce velocità ed agilità ad una grande qualità nel dribbling e soprattutto nelle finte. Nel suo ruolo è primatista in Premier League, sia per dribbling tentati (90) che riusciti (61), e in questo è molto favorito dal suo passato: “come ex-ala, capisci cosa stanno cercando di fare: in che modo potrebbero andare, come stanno pensando. Puoi anticipare le cose più facilmente”.

Un esempio di disimpegno in mezzo a tre avversari, con pausa e dribbling in un fazzoletto e attacco della linea di fondo.

Alle volte può apparire un po’ goffo sul pallone, o scoordinato, ma è invece molto efficace sia nel controllo di palla che nella successiva gestione. Effettua quasi due cross a partita – nella stagione appena conclusa ne ha fatti 76, con il 21% di successo – che in totale hanno prodotto tre assist, e quattordici key passes. Per quantità, sono numeri di molto inferiori ad altri suoi colleghi (soprattutto nella stagione della consacrazione di Robertson e Alexander-Arnold), ma di nuovo non va dimenticato il contesto, sia come stile di gioco che come livello dei compagni.

Grazie all’ampia falcata, gli bastano letteralmente un paio di passi per creare separazione dal suo avversario diretto. Con tutto quello spazio per calibrare il cross, e con una maggiore presenza in area, le chances di segnare dovrebbero essere considerevoli.

Come detto, nel sistema di squadra del Palace il compito di attaccare è affidato più che altro agli attaccanti esterni, con il terzino che deve accompagnare l’azione ma sempre con un occhio a non lasciare scoperta la sua zona, in una sorta di controtendenza rispetto al calcio di oggi, sempre più orientato all’importanza di quel ruolo all’interno dell’attacco. Data la tendenza di Zaha e Towsend ad accentrarsi verso l’area, ai lati del campo c’è spesso parecchio spazio libero. Il suo utilizzo non è quello di un giocatore in ampiezza, già alto a fare da sponda esterna, quanto più che altro di partire da dietro in accelerazione o con la palla tra i piedi, preferendo correre lungo una corsia interna.

I due assist realizzati in stagione (contro Burnley e Bournemouth), entrambi per Batshuayi, hanno seguito lo stesso copione: Zaha si accentra per ricevere palla, allarga verso il terzino inglese e attacca subito l’area di rigore, attirandosi le attenzioni della difesa – è pur sempre quello che per quantità dribbla di più in Premier League - e lasciando scoperta la zona destra di campo.

Un futuro al Manchester United?

Il talento di Aaron Wan-Bissaka non è ovviamente passato inosservato agli occhi delle Big d’Inghilterra. La squadra che pare più vicina è il Manchester United, che ha visto in lui la pedina perfetta per sistemare un ruolo in cui ha è carente – i vari Valencia, Young, Darmian e Dalot, non garantiscono una stagione ad alto livello, sia per motivi anagrafici che di adattamento al campionato –, andando a rinforzare una difesa iper perforata (54 reti subite in campionato, decisamente troppe) ma al contempo offrendo una copertura totale della corsia destra, anche avanzata, dove tatticamente lo United ha un “buco” avendo sempre impiegato dei giocatori che tendono ad accentrarsi (come Mata o Lingard).

Degli esempi di heatmap di Aaron Wan-Bissaka in occasione delle sue tre migliori prestazioni in stagione a livello di valutazione, contro Fulham, Everton e Burnley.

Il prezzo del cartellino, se confermato, si aggirerebbe sui 50 milioni di sterline bonus compresi: potrebbero sembrare tanti, per un giocatore con 40 presenze in un club di media classifica ed un paio di apparizioni in Nazionale, ma stiamo parlando di un 21enne con un potenziale enorme, e alla fine potrebbero addirittura rivelarsi pochi. D’altronde, solo un anno e mezzo fa fece molto rumore l’acquisto di van Dijk per 75 milioni, ma poi sappiamo tutti com’è andata a finire.

[peterpauldoodkorte]

Koehandel

Cow – Luma Ze is nog maar net bevallen, de koe Luma. De vruchtzak bungelt nog leeg tussen haar poten. Maar hop, daar gaat ze alweer de melkmachine in. Ondertussen geeft de boer haar jonge kalf, buiten haar zicht, melk uit een fles. Net als Victor Kossakovsky’s varkensdocumentaire Gunda (2020) maakt Cow statements zonder statements te maken. Andrea Arnold toont het leven van de melkkoe, dat een…

[antikorpersession]

ZEA & OSCAR JAN HOOGLAND - Summing (Best Of @antikorpersession 2017-2021 #8)  ZEA - guitar, voice * Oscar Jan Hoogland - electric clavichord, piano, record players, synth, megaphones Recorded by Arnold De Boer (Zea) and filmed by Annelies Verhelst May 10, 2020 in a "Kas" - an empty green house where they grow flower bulbs right next to the Katzwijm Studio in Voorhout, The Netherlands Premiere: Freitag 23. Juli 2020 18:00 @prettyinnoise Summing contains 5 tracks in order of appearance: 01. Hyperobjects  (00:00:27) 02.  I Never Threw A Stone  (00:02:37) 03. Pniek   (00:06:54) 04. The Queens Feet  (00:10:25) 05. Trip The Light Fantastic  (00:14:44) Total Time: 00:19:54 Watch the official video: https://youtu.be/1PnweARsspI #makkumrecords #sharonstonedofficial #birdsroperecords #thisisspeedniggs #tortugabarmusic #antikorpersession #antikoerpersessions #prettyinnoise  #cityslangrecords #zea #thelemonheads #evandando #evandandoforever #indepentees #postpunk #punktoo #albumreview #vinyl #record #recordcollection #recordcollector #recordjunkie #bytefm #punktoo #bytefm #punkrockersradio #zeamakkum @zeamakkum https://www.instagram.com/p/CUaadfUsRRq/?utm_medium=tumblr

[smsbongda]

Liverpool bỗng... thôi tạt bóng

Bóng đá chỉ có những cách chơi khác nhau, chứ không có cách chơi đúng hoặc sai. Và tất nhiên, ghi bàn cũng vậy. Cứ đưa được quả bóng vào lưới, cách làm của bạn sẽ là đúng hơn mọi cách làm được cho là đúng trong nỗ lực ghi bàn. Gần đây, khi Arsenal tỏ ra gần như bế tắc hoàn toàn trong việc tạo dựng cơ hội ghi bàn, người ta chỉ vào số lần tạt bóng của họ để phê bình. Vì không còn biết cách nào để tạo dựng cơ hội, nên Arsenal mới phải liên tục tạt bóng, như một cách cầu may. Hoặc Arsenal cứ tạt bóng mãi như thế, thì lấy đâu ra cơ hội ghi bàn! Với Liverpool, câu chuyện lại khác. Đâu mất hết rồi, những quả tạt từng là vũ khí sắc bén của Liverpool? Nói về Liverpool trong giai đoạn gần đây là phải nói ngay đến cặp hậu vệ cánh khét tiếng Trent Alexander-Arnold (bên phải), Andrew Robertson (bên trái), mà có lúc người ta đã cho là hay nhất thế giới. Mùa trước, khi Liverpool lên ngôi vô địch lần đầu tiên trong kỷ nguyên Premier League, sở trường tạt bóng đã kiến tạo thành công cho họ 20 bàn, nhiều nhất giải. Trong 25 pha kiến tạo thành công của Robertson và Alexander-Arnold, có 16 quả tạt. Giới bình luận khẳng định: Arnold-Alexander là “hậu vệ cánh kiến tạo” số 1 hành tinh. Mùa này, Alexander-Arnold chỉ mới kiến tạo thành công 1 bàn, trong 10 lần ra sân ở Premier League. Khoảng này năm ngoái, Liverpool đã ghi 10 bàn chỉ trong những chuyến làm khách ở Premier League, từ vũ khí tạt bóng (nay thì chưa có bàn nào). Hiện Liverpool (chứ không phải Tottenham) là đội ghi bàn nhiều nhất Premier League, sau 12 vòng. Nhưng, trong 27 bàn của họ, chỉ có 12 bàn do chính cầu thủ Liverpool kiến tạo. Nếu như Alexander-Arnold không sa sút, vũ khí tạt bóng được Liverpool phát huy nhiều hơn, họ sẽ càng có thêm nhiều cơ hội và không chỉ ghi 27 bàn trong 12 trận? So sánh với Tottenham, chúng ta thấy ngay khác biệt: có đến 20/24 bàn của Tottenham là do chính họ kiến tạo cơ hội (tất nhiên, Tottenham kiến tạo cách khác, không nhất thiết phải dùng vũ khí tạt bóng). Thật ra, số liệu thống kê quan trọng bao nhiêu đối với việc phân tích bóng đá, thì nó cũng “ảo” bấy nhiêu, trong nhiều trường hợp thậm chí là phản tác dụng. Cứ hỏi Stewart Downing! Từng là tuyển thủ Anh, khoác áo Liverpool trong giai đoạn 2011-2013. Ngay mùa đầu tiên gia nhập Anfield, Downing đã trở thành cầu thủ kiến tạo số “cơ hội rõ ràng” nhiều nhất cho Liverpool. Đa số trong đó là từ những quả tạt bóng. Nhưng rút cuộc, anh không có pha kiến tạo thành công nào! Ngày xưa, đội tuyển Brazil có hàng tiền vệ “đến từ hành tinh khác”. Nhưng tiền đạo ghi bàn quá kém, nên những Zico, Socrates, Falcao huyền thoại rút cuộc chẳng đáng bàn đến nếu như người ta nhìn vào thành tích kiến tạo của họ. Đội tuyển Hà Lan có Marco Van Basten hoặc Dennis Bergkamp kiệt xuất trong việc ghi bàn, nên những đường chuyền dài và bổng c��a Arnold Muhren hoặc Frank de Boer, 90% là sẽ mất bóng, lại trở thành pha kiến tạo thành công, dẫn đến bàn thắng cực kỳ quan trọng. Bóng đá giống với cuộc sống cũng là ở những chỗ như vậy.

Xem Thêm: Về SMS Bóng Đá

[alephkx]

Arnold de Boer @ Home

[sirisastensomeren]

Gedichtenavond met Arnold de Boer in Bibliotheek Someren

Op vrijdag 1 februari droeg Arnold de Boer in Bibliotheek Someren voor uit zijn gedichtenbundel ‘Gedichten & Gedachten’.

[traveltoursrss]

The Perfect Road Trip Through South Africa’s Cape Winelands

The Western Cape is blessed with some of the most idyllic and picturesque wine lands in the world. With its magnificent beauty, rich heritage and delectable wines, there is no shortage of activities to experience in the Cape. One of the best ways to make sure you fit in everything is through a relaxed road trip through the wine lands. The joy of a road trip is not only in the open road ahead, but also the majestic scenery on all sides of you, quality time spent with your loved ones and the excitement of exploring new spaces along the drive. Below are six stops which make for the perfect road trip through the Cape Winelands. It’s possible to see all of these in a day, but you’ll definitely find yourself wanting to spend a few days in this region to truly soak up its beauty and wonderful wines.

#1 Stop: Constantia

Constantia is the perfect place to begin your road trip. Located in Cape Town’s southern suburbs, Constantia is home to gorgeous vineyards just 15 minutes away from the city centre. The Constantia Wine Route dates back to 1685 (the oldest in South Africa) and boasts eight award-winning wine estates for a fully immersive wine experience. Groot Constantia is especially lovely, with a walking trail that takes you over the sprawling lawns and into a shady garden with an ages-old bath. Constantia also offers plenty of great restaurants. Locals love Beau Constantia’s Chef’s Warehouse for their fine dining and scenic views over the valley.

#2 Stop: Durbanville

Take a turn through the northern suburb of Durbanville for your second stop. The Durbanville Wine Valley is home to hectares of flourishing vineyards with prize-winning wines and superb hospitality. Each winery has its own unique charm which means that there are a range of wines on offer, some more intense than others. There are also a mix of homely, intimate dining spots and upmarket restaurants a short distance from the Wine Valley. For those who want to explore further, experience the Durbanville Hills Table Mountain Wine Safari, where you can enjoy a premium wine selection atop Cape Town’s most iconic landmark, Table Mountain.

#3 Stop: Stellenbosch

Stellenbosch is a wine-lover’s paradise. Only 45 minutes out of Cape Town, you’ll find the  most breathtaking views of miles of vineyards against the backdrop of grand mountains. The town itself was built in 1679 and still retains its quant, old-fashioned appeal. There are countless wineries in this town, most of which offer more than your run-of-the-mill wine tasting ventures. Visit the Waterford Estate where Chief winemaker, Kevin Arnold, teams up with chocolatier, Richard von Geusau, to create this unique wine-tasting experience. If chocolate isn’t your thing, you might also enjoy a visit to the Middelvlei Wine Estate. Here you can blend your own bespoke wine and get a personalised label on the bottle to take home. While you’re there, enjoy the locally loved ‘boere tapas’ (farmers tapas) or grilled specialties by Middelvlei’s braaimaster.

#4 Stop: Franschhoek

The small town of Franschhoek is packed with an array of wine farms, ranging from boutique wineries who produce highly specialised and unique flavours, to large cellars who offer organised tours and tastings for their guests.The fertile Franschhoek Wine Valley is home to some of South Africa’s most classic styles. These include elegant whites such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Chenin Blanc, as well as full-bodied reds of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Pinot Noir and Merlot. The area also produces some of the country’s well-loved Méthode Cap Classiques, all of which can be savoured on a trip along the Franschhoek MCC Route. For a more adventurous kind of wine tasting experience, Paradise Stables offers a horse riding trail where you can soak up the extraordinary surroundings while stopping at different wine estates along the way. This is suited to both beginner and experienced riders.

#5 Stop: Paarl 

Another fabulous destination in the Cape Winelands, Paarl has a varied selection of wine farms to visit. One that stands out in particular is Spice Route. Recently awarded the 2019 Innovation Wine and Tourism Award, Spice Route Destination is home to 13 artisans, including a craft brewery, a chocolate house and of course, the main attraction of Spice Route Wines. Visitors are encourage to purchase the Spice Route passport – a pocket-sized booklet that gives you access to enjoy all the tastings around the farm. The Paarl-based location also boasts some of the best views in the area, and is a must for a sundowner or pizza.

6th Stop: Robertson

As a final stop on your wine tour, drive through the Huguenot Tunnel to get to the Robertson Wine Valley. This is the world’s longest wine route stretching along the famed Route62. A must-see winery on this trip is the De Wetshof Estate. The name De Wetshof has been synonymous with the production of fine wines in South Africa since the 1970’s. As the first registered wine estate in the Robertson Wine Valley, De Wetshof has become known internationally as South Africa’s eminent Chardonnay House due to the pioneering role it played in introducing this noble Burgundian grape to the country. If you’re in a celebratory mood, then a must-stop is Graham Beck Estate. Located just outside the valley, Graham Beck is one of South Africa`s leading family owned estates, in the ongoing pursuit of perfecting South Africa’s finest Méthode Cap Classique. Their tasting room has a wonderful deck, where guests can sit, relax and enjoy a glass of bubbly to end off an incredible roadtrip around the Cape.

Remember, at Explore Sideways, our speciality is putting together curated tours catering to your ideal wish list. If you love the idea of a local roadtrip, get in touch with us and allow our team of experts to make sure you ticket all your ideal locations off that bucket list!

Planning a trip?

Want to know more or have any questions, let an Explore Sideways expert help you plan an experience you will never forget!

Speak To An Expert

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from Explore Sideways Tour https://ift.tt/2JXFrSJ via IFTTT

[exploresidewaystour]

The Perfect Road Trip Through South Africa’s Cape Winelands

The Western Cape is blessed with some of the most idyllic and picturesque wine lands in the world. With its magnificent beauty, rich heritage and delectable wines, there is no shortage of activities to experience in the Cape. One of the best ways to make sure you fit in everything is through a relaxed road trip through the wine lands. The joy of a road trip is not only in the open road ahead, but also the majestic scenery on all sides of you, quality time spent with your loved ones and the excitement of exploring new spaces along the drive. Below are six stops which make for the perfect road trip through the Cape Winelands. It’s possible to see all of these in a day, but you’ll definitely find yourself wanting to spend a few days in this region to truly soak up its beauty and wonderful wines.

#1 Stop: Constantia

Constantia is the perfect place to begin your road trip. Located in Cape Town’s southern suburbs, Constantia is home to gorgeous vineyards just 15 minutes away from the city centre. The Constantia Wine Route dates back to 1685 (the oldest in South Africa) and boasts eight award-winning wine estates for a fully immersive wine experience. Groot Constantia is especially lovely, with a walking trail that takes you over the sprawling lawns and into a shady garden with an ages-old bath. Constantia also offers plenty of great restaurants. Locals love Beau Constantia’s Chef’s Warehouse for their fine dining and scenic views over the valley.

#2 Stop: Durbanville

Take a turn through the northern suburb of Durbanville for your second stop. The Durbanville Wine Valley is home to hectares of flourishing vineyards with prize-winning wines and superb hospitality. Each winery has its own unique charm which means that there are a range of wines on offer, some more intense than others. There are also a mix of homely, intimate dining spots and upmarket restaurants a short distance from the Wine Valley. For those who want to explore further, experience the Durbanville Hills Table Mountain Wine Safari, where you can enjoy a premium wine selection atop Cape Town’s most iconic landmark, Table Mountain.

#3 Stop: Stellenbosch

Stellenbosch is a wine-lover’s paradise. Only 45 minutes out of Cape Town, you’ll find the  most breathtaking views of miles of vineyards against the backdrop of grand mountains. The town itself was built in 1679 and still retains its quant, old-fashioned appeal. There are countless wineries in this town, most of which offer more than your run-of-the-mill wine tasting ventures. Visit the Waterford Estate where Chief winemaker, Kevin Arnold, teams up with chocolatier, Richard von Geusau, to create this unique wine-tasting experience. If chocolate isn’t your thing, you might also enjoy a visit to the Middelvlei Wine Estate. Here you can blend your own bespoke wine and get a personalised label on the bottle to take home. While you’re there, enjoy the locally loved ‘boere tapas’ (farmers tapas) or grilled specialties by Middelvlei’s braaimaster.

#4 Stop: Franschhoek

The small town of Franschhoek is packed with an array of wine farms, ranging from boutique wineries who produce highly specialised and unique flavours, to large cellars who offer organised tours and tastings for their guests.The fertile Franschhoek Wine Valley is home to some of South Africa’s most classic styles. These include elegant whites such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Chenin Blanc, as well as full-bodied reds of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Pinot Noir and Merlot. The area also produces some of the country’s well-loved Méthode Cap Classiques, all of which can be savoured on a trip along the Franschhoek MCC Route. For a more adventurous kind of wine tasting experience, Paradise Stables offers a horse riding trail where you can soak up the extraordinary surroundings while stopping at different wine estates along the way. This is suited to both beginner and experienced riders.

#5 Stop: Paarl 

Another fabulous destination in the Cape Winelands, Paarl has a varied selection of wine farms to visit. One that stands out in particular is Spice Route. Recently awarded the 2019 Innovation Wine and Tourism Award, Spice Route Destination is home to 13 artisans, including a craft brewery, a chocolate house and of course, the main attraction of Spice Route Wines. Visitors are encourage to purchase the Spice Route passport – a pocket-sized booklet that gives you access to enjoy all the tastings around the farm. The Paarl-based location also boasts some of the best views in the area, and is a must for a sundowner or pizza.

6th Stop: Robertson

As a final stop on your wine tour, drive through the Huguenot Tunnel to get to the Robertson Wine Valley. This is the world’s longest wine route stretching along the famed Route62. A must-see winery on this trip is the De Wetshof Estate. The name De Wetshof has been synonymous with the production of fine wines in South Africa since the 1970’s. As the first registered wine estate in the Robertson Wine Valley, De Wetshof has become known internationally as South Africa’s eminent Chardonnay House due to the pioneering role it played in introducing this noble Burgundian grape to the country. If you’re in a celebratory mood, then a must-stop is Graham Beck Estate. Located just outside the valley, Graham Beck is one of South Africa`s leading family owned estates, in the ongoing pursuit of perfecting South Africa’s finest Méthode Cap Classique. Their tasting room has a wonderful deck, where guests can sit, relax and enjoy a glass of bubbly to end off an incredible roadtrip around the Cape.

Remember, at Explore Sideways, our speciality is putting together curated tours catering to your ideal wish list. If you love the idea of a local roadtrip, get in touch with us and allow our team of experts to make sure you ticket all your ideal locations off that bucket list!

Planning a trip?

Want to know more or have any questions, let an Explore Sideways expert help you plan an experience you will never forget!

Speak To An Expert

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The post The Perfect Road Trip Through South Africa’s Cape Winelands appeared first on Explore Sideways.

[murfreesboronews]

Local hometown heroes are scheduled to speak at the Hometown Heroes Walk for Children on Friday morning.

Our own Hometown Heroes, Murfreesboro Mayor Bill Ketron, WGNS’s Scott Walker, and the Honorable Judge Donna Scott Davenport are the featured speakers at the Walk kick-off at Murfreesboro Civic Plaza. CB Cotton from WKRN News 2 will be the Master of Ceremonies. Awards will be presented to local Hometown Heroes by the Child Advocacy Center Board President Terry Fann and Director Sharon De Boer. Local Hometown Hero #10 Boston Red Socks starting pitcher David Price is the event’s presenting sponsor.

The Child Advocacy Center is celebrating Child Abuse Prevention Month with the Hometown Heroes Walk for Children on Friday morning, April 26, 2019 at the Murfreesboro Civic Plaza, downtown on the square. Walkers can ride complimentary Rover shuttles from the Child Advocacy Center to the Civic Plaza from 10:30-11:15 a.m. Registration will begin at 11:00 a.m., speakers at 11:45 p.m., and the Walk will begin at 12 noon. The event will culminate with a picnic lunch, music, and presentation of the “Golden Sneakers” award at the Child Advocacy Center, located at 1040 Samsonite Blvd.

The picnic lunch menu includes grilled hamburgers, hotdogs, fruit, vegetables, and chips. Local Hometown Hero Businesses contributing to the picnic lunch include PATCO’s grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, Lewis Bakery buns, O’Charley’s pies, and Double Tree’s cookies. “The Child Advocacy Center is famous for our homemade desserts, and especially the chocolate room,” said Child Advocacy Center accountant Jessica Wauchek. “You do not want to miss the chocolate room. It is everyone’s favorite thing at the event.”

“The Hometown Heroes Walk for Children is a wonderful way for our community to show their support for child abuse victims. The only thing that would make it better would be if YOU lace up your tennis shoes and join us,” said Child Advocacy Center Director Sharon De Boer.

You can become a Hometown Hero by walking in the event. Register to walk at cacrutherford.org or by contacting the Child Advocacy Center at 615-867-9000. You may also contact the Center by email at jwauchek@cacrutherford.org or mwatson@cacrutherford.org. T-shirts are available to purchase online or at the event for $15.

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Hometown Heroes Scheduled to Speak Local hometown heroes are scheduled to speak at the Hometown Heroes Walk for Children on Friday morning.

[valiantchildstudentme-blog]

Prediksi bola AZ Alkmaar vs Vitesse betting skor bola 26 Agustus 2018

New Post has been published on http://gogoworld.org/prediksi-bola-az-alkmaar-vs-vitesse-betting-skor-bola-26-agustus-2018/

Prediksi bola AZ Alkmaar vs Vitesse betting skor bola 26 Agustus 2018

Prediksi bola AZ Alkmaar vs Vitesse betting skor bola 26 Agustus 2018

Prediksi bola AZ Alkmaar vs Vitesse betting skor bola 26 Agustus 2018 – AZ Alkmaar vs Vitesse Arnhem memprediksi untuk pertandingan hari Minggu di Eredivisie. Baca terus untuk semua prediksi gratis dan kiat taruhan kami.

Baik AZ dan Vitesse telah tersingkir dari Liga Europa pada tahap kualifikasi dan sekarang hanya memiliki kompetisi domestik untuk membidik musim ini. Meskipun kalah di Eropa, AZ telah fantastis di liga dengan dua kemenangan besar di bawah ikat pinggang mereka, sementara Vitesse juga tetap tak terkalahkan di Eredivisie menyusul kemenangan besar melawan Groningen dan hasil imbang di Heerenveen.

Hanya AZ dan PSV yang memiliki 100% catatan setelah dua pertandingan pertama musim ini, dan tuan rumah hari Minggu telah mencetak gol untuk bersenang-senang setelah menindaklanjuti kemenangan 5-0 atas Breda dengan kemenangan 4-1 melawan Emmen yang baru dipromosikan.

Emmen memberi yang sama baiknya dengan pulang ke AZ akhir pekan lalu, dan masih berakhir di akhir pukulan 4-1. Boadu mencetak gol pertama di menit ke lima belas untuk AZ, tetapi Emmen membalas dua menit kemudian melalui Bakker.

Prediksi bola AZ Alkmaar vs Vitesse betting skor bola 26 Agustus 2018

Gol telak tiga puluh tujuh menit dari Ouwejan memulihkan keunggulan AZ, dan ketika Idrissi mencetak gol hanya dua menit sebelum jeda, itu merupakan pukulan besar bagi tim tuan rumah. Babak kedua jauh lebih ketat karena AZ duduk kembali dan menyerap tekanan Emmen, tetapi ada ruang untuk satu gol lagi saat Idrissi menjaringkan golnya di menit tujuh puluh satu untuk membungkus kemenangan 4-1 untuk AZ Alkmaar.

Itu sekarang sembilan gol dalam dua pertandingan liga pembukaan musim untuk AZ, setelah banyak menyarankan mereka mungkin berjuang untuk mencetak gol menyusul kepergian dua pencetak gol teratas mereka dari musim lalu. Boadu dan Idrissi keduanya mencetak dua gol masing-masing untuk musim ini, tetapi waspada terhadap striker Norwegia Johnsen yang sudah melenceng untuk klub barunya musim ini setelah transfer musim panas dari Den Haag.

Heerenveen baru mereka akan berada di pertandingan yang sulit melawan Vitesse akhir pekan lalu, tetapi tidak ada yang mengharapkan para pengunjung untuk begitu mendominasi selama sembilan puluh menit. Vitesse mengakhiri pertandingan dengan sepuluh tendangan sudut ke Heerenveen, delapan tembakan ke gawang tuan rumah tiga, lima belas tembakan dari target ke tim tuan rumah tiga, dan 65% dari keseluruhan penguasaan bola.

Namun, gol Vlap menit ke dua puluh enam memberi Heerenveen keunggulan di babak pertama dan sementara Vitesse akhirnya menyamakan kedudukan melalui Matavž, pertandingan ini akan terasa seperti dua poin yang dijatuhkan bagi tim tamu.

Vitesse duduk di urutan ketiga dalam klasemen dan tampaknya kembali bertransaksi musim ini, dengan harapan minimal menjadi kualifikasi untuk Liga Europa sekali lagi. AZ memiliki bentuk yang menguntungkan mereka menjelang kick-off, serta keuntungan historis berkat catatan head to head yang baik terhadap tamu-tamu mereka.

baca juga : Prediksi bola Heerenveen vs Feyenoord betting skor bola 26 Agustus 2018

Kami yakin bahwa kedua tim akan mencetak gol dalam pertandingan hari Minggu dan bahwa lebih dari 2,5 gol akan dicetak dalam proses. Masing-masing dari empat pertandingan terakhir AZ telah melihat kedua tim mencetak gol dan lebih dari 2,5 gol yang dihasilkan, sementara tiga dari enam terakhir Vitesse telah melihat kedua tim mencetak gol dan lebih dari 2,5 gol yang dihasilkan. Empat dari lima pertemuan terakhir antara dua klub ini telah melihat kedua tim inti dan lebih dari 2,5 gol yang dihasilkan, dan itulah mengapa mendukung skor akhir 3-2 untuk tuan rumah AZ.

HEAD TO HEAD

Pertandingan Minggu menandai ke-50 antara kedua klub ini, dan dengan 25 kemenangan, 10 seri, dan 14 mengalahkan AZ-nya yang memiliki kepala yang sehat untuk memimpin.

AZ ALKMAAR VS VITESSE STATS

Masing-masing dari empat pertandingan terakhir AZ telah melihat kedua tim mencetak gol dan lebih dari 2,5 gol yang dihasilkan.

Tiga dari enam pertandingan terakhir Vitesse telah melihat kedua tim mencetak gol dan lebih dari 2,5 gol yang dihasilkan.

Empat dari lima pertemuan terakhir antara kedua klub ini telah melihat kedua tim inti dan lebih dari 2,5 gol yang dihasilkan.

AZ ALKMAAR TEAM NEWS

Tuan rumah bisa tanpa enam skuad tim pertama mereka sebagai De Boer, Wuytens, Mihálik, Helmer, Vejinovic, dan Stengs semua berjuang dengan cedera.

BERITA TIM VITESSE

Hilary Gong dan Arnold Kruiswijk sama-sama mengalami cedera yang bisa membuat mereka tidak dapat melakukan perjalanan ke Alkmaar akhir pekan ini.

AZ ALKMAAR VS VITESSE PREDICTIONS, BETTING TIPS DAN MATCH PREVIEWS

Kedua Tim Mencetak Skor dan Lebih dari 2,5 Gol Pertandingan

AZ Alkmaar 3-2