Posts by Ed Muzik
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I just had a brief look back at the literature on MAO. This is the seminal paper, one of many the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Study's huge papers - Richie Poulton has got a be a contender for a Nobel based on the work from this group. However, since this paper, a number of other studies have tried to replicate this work with varying levels of success - here, here and here are links to some of the abstracts. I'm not at work at the moment, so don't have access to the full journal articles.
The guy who said the 'warrior gene' thing was Dr Rob Lea. I've had a look through his papers listed in Pubmed, but I can't actually find one that mentions MAO and Maori. From memory, he made the statement at a conference, to the press, rather than via a peer-reviewed manuscript. So maybe he has some unpublished results ... but there is published data about the difference in frequencies between Caucasian and Asian populations - a frequency of about 30% for the low activity gene in Caucasian populations compared to 60% in Asian populations. And since Polynesians are geneticially descended from Asians...
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Ah yes the myth of race
I'm not saying any of this to give people reasons to stoke their own prejudices, I just saw that someone mentioned it in one of the posts above, and thought that I would share a little more information on the genetics side of things, which is something I have an interest in.
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Does any race not have the Warrior gene? Seems unlikely to me.
Well, no. It's a relatively common polymorphism of a gene that every human has. Therefore, it's possible for any human to have it. It just happens that some races have higher frequencies of the gene than others.
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The gene that was mentioned waaaaaaay further up the discussion was MAO (Mono-Amine Oxidase - nothing to do with that guy that killed a whole bunch of yellow dudes). What the paper from the Poulton group suggested was that if you were a carrier of a certain polymorphism in the gene AND were exposed to anti-social behavious as a child (a scientist's euphemism for being beaten) then you would be more likely to dish out some punishment to your own children. These children are also likely to inherit the gene (genetics and all) so the cycle continues.
The MAO polymorphism is found to be over-represented in Maori populations - this lead to some hoohah last year as it was called the ' Warrior' gene.
Personally, I think that genetics is only one factor, and not necessarily a strong one. But there is some science there, and it's certainly fairly interesting, if controversial.
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Oh. If I had known the big man was going to link to this on his blog then I might have made more of an effort! Oh well, I'll just tack on an amendment here.
Get Set Play is the solo project of Mark Holland, lead singer dude from the Tiger Tones. He plays a couple of synths, and with drums provided by a 707 or occasionally Nick Harte (Shocking Pinks). Opened for the L.e.d.s at the Dux gig that started this thread. Plays long, hypnotic prog-pop songs like a love-sick Gary Numan.
Pig Out are possibly the most well known of these bands outside of chch. They've gone off to Europe to follow their dreams now, but in the year before that, they played about a billion gigs of their pseudo-rave material up and down the country.
The big daddy of this movement is really The Shocking Pinks. Though his recorded work never really gets as electronic as it occassionally does live, Nick Harte's DIY work ethic, songwriting and international success have really shown people that you can do things in the music biz, even from little old Christchurch. He was bought out of his Flying Nun contract by hyper-hipster NY label DFA, and he's about to head over there to release his next album. Probably the most important artist to sign to Flying Nun since their glory days, IMO. He's a 'difficult artist', but still, it's a shame that his work is still largely ignored.
In terms of catchy genre names, I like "Ironica" - as in ironic electronica - but that only really covers my music, not the rest.
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Yes, Tom COSM's remix of Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince's "Boom Shake Shake The Room" is amazing.
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No no, offense certainly wasn't taken. Also, my post wasn't meant to detract from what the L.e.d.s do. They are a really good band, and really nice people too. They just don't play enough, for reasons outlined above.
Now. There isn't really a one stop shop for Chch music. If there was, it would be the thebigcity, which is more like a fan resource, run by 'little Blink' Chris Andrews. He is probably the most enthusiastic person in town, going to most of the cool gigs and usually taking some pretty fantastic photos too. Check his site out to see what's coming up in town, and photos / reviews from what's been. Here and here are two photo sets from particularly good parties.
It's hard for me to be unbiased about local bands, as I'm part of that crowd, organising and playing gigs with the etc. But I'll try.
The Tiger Tones are the most exciting band in the country right now. If i was being lazy, I would say that they are the Cure dreaming of being Blondie. They are working on an album for Pinacolada Records for release later in the year, and you can also find their tracks on the last Radio One CD, the last RDU CD, and the Real Groove "Awesome Feeling" compilation.
I hate to use labels, but it's the easist way to do this! Bang! Bang! Eche! are the cutest band in the country. They just competed in Rockquest, which gives you an indication of their ages; only one of them can legally be in the bar when they aren't on stage. The only have a 20 minute set, and they only have one recorded track to listen to, but they are definitely all types of awesome if you like your punk with a dash of synths and MIDI drums.
Frase+Bri have been on three or four Low hum tours already, and are booked for the next. And they've only been playing for a year or so, which is pretty good. Nerdcore keyboards with sweet and endearing narratives.
Not So Experimental are an acquired taste, but a taste that both the Mint Chicks and Die Die Die must have acquired, as they were asked to open for both bands last year. Haven't broken up, but also haven't played for a while, as their drummer is exploring more Emo sound scapes.
And then there's me, but I won't describe myself, cos that would make me a ponce.
There are certainly more bands to look out for, more than I will go into detail about here. They aren't only electro / indie acts, there are plenty of indie / indie acts too!
There isn't any one compilation that takes all this into account at the moment. The best would be RDU's This is not the Christchurch Sound compilation, which came out a few months ago. It was mixed together by Dr Hitchcock, and isn't available for purchase. But if you send an email to the station, they might send one to you.
I really shouldn't write posts this long, as it means that when I finish, I can't be bothered updating my own site! But I'm happy to answer any other questions or point you all off in other directions.
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Hey all,
I'm surprise that this BZP thing still keeps being a story, and one that keeps escalating, with more media heat being applied. I wrote this song BZP almost two years ago, and nothing much has changed since then. It's still a storm in a pee cup.