feel me, touch me, heal me, come take me higher

New legislation in China bans gold farming. What does this actually mean, in terms of gold farmers' presence in MMOs? Likely not a lot. Still, it's at least a formal acknowledgment of the problem.

And Edward found a bizarre little video of someone dancing with a mirror to "Roustabout" by Beats Antique.

Edward also found a permanent (for now) installation in New York called Civilization. Watch that thing at least once, all the way through; see how many movies you can identify.

But going back to Beats Antique, it seems a lot of their music is more tribal, less steam...save, at least according to my definition, that's definitely part of it: the culture that rose addicted to the rest of the world, not home; that went out searching for the exotic, the strange, the different, and ofttimes brought it home in fabric, in style, in furnishings, in perceptions.



(Zoe Jakes and Beats Antique perform at a charity show; photo reserved to Beats Antique and taboomedia.com.)

Beauty Beats (performance video of Beats Antique in San Francisco)
Battle (more a meditation video than anything else, but it does let you listen to the song)

From the description on their main site:

"BEATS ANTIQUE, an oakland based group featuring ZOE JAKES, DAVID SATORI, AND SIDECAR TOMMY, which has stumbled down the rabbit hole and emerged anew on the other side. BEATS ANTIQUE forges a curious alliance between middle eastern traditions and potent west coast circus, underground hip hop, breakbeat brass band, downtempo, glitch and dubstep."

Sounds fascinating. And they really do sound fascinating, at once vintage and modern, tribal and technical, an amazing melange of the ordinary and the universal. "Electro-acoustic", they call themselves. "Belly-dance electronica", they've been called by others.

Properly Chilled has this to say:

All tracks derive from a common musical tree with so many branches that go as far as to touch the scholastic tradition of some jazzy oldies while keeping a curious ear to the North African Gnawa music, a mixture in its own right of afro-Arabic religious rhythms, combining music and acrobatic dancing.

Obvious highlights include the untreated version of "Roustabout", a sickening, demented, and maniacally fun track that has so many Halloween-like features that film director Tim Burton would surely appreciate. But also "Slapdash Era", which starts off with what sounds like a bell and a tick-tack clock, and releases some menacing ambiance midway through the game. The remixed version of "Roustabout" is credited to San Francisco-based Bassnectar, a band who Beats Antique have certainly taken a few production cues [from].

(Different shot, same event, Zoe Jakes and Beats Antique perform at a charity show; photo reserved to Beats Antique and taboomedia.com.)

Caterpillar (slideshow of bellydance images, but you can hear the song)
Zoe Jakes performing in Brooklyn (as the poster says, no idea where or when, but it is intriguing to think of her dance movements as inspiring clockwork sounds)

They have two albums out, Tribal Derivations and Collide.

They also have a last.fm page, a Pandora info page, and a MySpace page. Sidecar Tommy also has a MySpace page, as does David Satori and Zoe Jakes. Boy, are they covered, press-wise. I'm not even covering half the places they show up on the net.

Hear that, Egress?!? PUT SOMETHING OUT! My gods.

All in all, Beats Antique come highly recommended. Their version of tribal fusion goes down very, very well. They have two albums; I'd be shocked stupid if they didn't come out with a third, at least...if not more.

(For anyone who's unaware, a brief definition of terms: downtempo, glitch, and dubstep. You're welcome.)