Bass

Wiley’s Treddin’ on Thin Ice at 20: revisiting a blueprint that continues to shape grime

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 25, 2024

The MC’s first full-length project after years of releasing tracks and performing at raves and on pirate radio, Treddin’ on Thin Ice is undoubtedly a foundational part of grime’s history.

Key Points: 
  • The MC’s first full-length project after years of releasing tracks and performing at raves and on pirate radio, Treddin’ on Thin Ice is undoubtedly a foundational part of grime’s history.
  • April marks 20 years since the release of Treddin, now considered a seminal grime album.
  • Alongside Dizzee Rascal’s Boy In Da Corner (2003), Treddin’ On thin Ice is considered to represent a blueprint for one of Britain’s most exciting music cultures.

It’s not garage

  • Eskibeat – Wiley’s own term for his early sound – was a “defiantly low-rent mass of jabbing rhythms, crude samples and rumbling bass frequencies” that established a powerful aesthetic model for future artists.
  • Treddin’ marked grime’s separation from garage and other prevailing musical trends.
  • Wiley establishes a musical meta-commentary on the evolution of grime from garage in the album’s first single Wot Do U Call It?

Grime: from infancy to adolescence

  • Wiley is credited with not only fuelling grime’s emergence from the British underground’s post-garage music scene but also for carrying the genre from its infancy through to adolescence.
  • He mentored pioneers Kano and Dizzee Rascal, as well as grime’s second-wave heroes Skepta and Stormzy.
  • He also did much to pioneer grime’s early methods of production, distribution, promotion and consumption.
  • Wiley, however, has fallen from grace following a torrent of antisemitic remarks he made on X in 2020.


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John Pierce O'Reilly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Large retailers don’t have smokestacks, but they generate a lot of pollution − and states are starting to regulate it

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 25, 2024

Carriers in the U.S. shipped 64 packages for every American in 2022, so it’s quite possible.

Key Points: 
  • Carriers in the U.S. shipped 64 packages for every American in 2022, so it’s quite possible.
  • That commerce reflects the expansion of large-scale retail in recent decades, especially big-box chains like Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Home Depot that sell goods both in stores and online.
  • While mail-order commerce is convenient, these centers also have harmful impacts, including traffic congestion and air and water pollution.

Indirect pollution sources

  • The company played a prominent role in the 1970s as Congress expanded federal power to regulate air pollution nationwide under the Clean Air Act of 1970.
  • To meet those standards, in the mid-1970s lawmakers and regulators considered adopting transportation controls that could address indirect pollution sources – entities that did not generate air pollution themselves but attracted large numbers of sources, such as cars and trucks, that did.
  • One of its executives, George Hite, was a leading spokesperson against regulating indirect pollution sources.
  • Hite asserted that because shopping centers were one-stop destinations for consumers, they actually reduced air pollution from consumers’ trips.

Big-box boom

  • These companies relied on a new type of warehouse: the distribution center, which used computer technology to make supply chains more efficient.
  • Compared with earlier warehouses, distribution centers were larger and focused on efficient movement of goods rather than storage.
  • In the 1990s, communities across the country began organizing to slow the expansion of big-box stores.
  • State and local officials refused to reconsider the deal they had reached with Target, which included grants and other tax subsidies.

Probing retail’s environmental costs

  • Target and other retailers are meeting new opposition, including pushback from environmental justice groups, which argue that these companies’ operations increase traffic and degrade air quality.
  • In Southern California, the powerful South Coast Air Quality Management District, which regulates regional air quality, has taken this step with Rule 2305.
  • This regulation is the first in the U.S. to address emissions generated by trucks traveling to and from large warehouse facilities.
  • Point targets are based on each facility’s size, number of truck trips and other factors.

Shopping carts vs. smokestacks

  • For example, Target touts investments to make its facilities more energy efficient and place solar panels on its stores and distribution centers.
  • Including emissions generated when suppliers shipped these goods to Target’s distribution network more than doubled this figure.
  • In my view, the retail sector’s impacts on air, water, waste generation and Earth’s climate call for national-level responses.
  • Big-box stores may not look like smoke-belching factories, but their companies’ operations affect the environment in ways that have become too big to ignore.


Johnathan Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Hard work and happy accidents: why do so many of us prefer ‘difficult’ analogue technology?

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 18, 2024

Up two flights of stairs, the music machinery on offer includes brands such as Moog and Buchla, as well as modern euro-racks.

Key Points: 
  • Up two flights of stairs, the music machinery on offer includes brands such as Moog and Buchla, as well as modern euro-racks.
  • (From Michael’s fieldnotes)
    I finally locate the legendary Schneiders Buero, a shop selling analogue synthesizers in Berlin’s Kotti neighbourhood.
  • Up two flights of stairs, the music machinery on offer includes brands such as Moog and Buchla, as well as modern euro-racks.
  • (From Michael’s fieldnotes) As academics who rarely go a day without playing or making music, we have spent the past decade examining the extraordinary revival of analogue technology.
  • This means there are now more analogue options available than at any time since the 1970s, the heyday of the modular format.

The appeal of the slow

  • So we dived in.
  • Eventually, these forays became our formal research project, which has included visiting record fairs and conventions around the world, going on photowalks and attending listening evenings, and meeting an array of diehard analogue communities both on and off line.
  • The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.
  • And we expect interest in such experiences to rise exponentially in coming years.
  • Recognising our existential need to occasionally slow down can be the basis for winning consumer strategies.
  • Recognising our existential need to occasionally slow down can be the basis for winning consumer strategies.

Saved from demolition

  • Rather than nostalgia, they are turning to film because of its aesthetic values and a greater sense of creative control over their photos.
  • In response, venerable brands including Kodak, Polaroid and Leica have re-emerged – in some cases, almost from the dead.
  • We literally saved it from demolition at the very last second in 2008.
  • We literally saved it from demolition at the very last second in 2008.
  • He said luxury brands such as Gucci are particularly keen on using film photography as this gives their promotional material a different look.

Work, effort, meaning

  • When it was conceded that digital probably was better for wildlife photography, James cut in:
    That’s to miss the point!
  • The sound might be better but you miss seeing the work that went into the performance, the effort of the players and their crew.
  • Work, effort, meaning – these ideas are all interconnected for users and consumers of analogue technology.
  • However, when asked to compare the two, they talk about the greater weight and meaning they give to their analogue experiences.
  • I think it is the quality of the human voice; it does feel more like someone’s speaking to me.
  • And part of what makes this possible is the process of analogue recording, in which all the sounds being made, including the unscripted noise of the recording process itself, are captured in the final track.
  • To facilitate this sound, some musicians have even started setting up their own pressing plants, such as Jack White’s Third Man Pressing in Detroit.

The joy of happy accidents

  • Half of what you do trying to make music is like a happy accident that ends up sounding better than what you intended.
  • When we started, we didn’t have that technology, so we made mistakes and some of them were happy accidents, resulting in iconic tracks.
  • When we started, we didn’t have that technology, so we made mistakes and some of them were happy accidents, resulting in iconic tracks.
  • It’s these happy accidents that we love.
  • It’s these happy accidents that we love.
  • For example, the opening bass part of Cannonball, the 1993 song by US Indie band the Breeders, accidentally starts in a different key.
  • Bass player Josephine Wiggs began playing the riff one step down, then fixed it when the drums came in.

Digital technology is de-skilling us

  • Over the decade or so of our research, explanations for the analogue revival have shifted from nostalgia, to the desire for something physical in a digital age, to the sense that analogue technology is creatively preferable.
  • Is digital technology de-skilling consumers, leading to a sense of alienation?
  • Using analogue technology is another way consumers can feed this desire to re-skill.
  • Rob told us how his love of music had turned sour with the “sheer ease” of digital, starting with CDs and the MP3 player – and how vinyl had reinvigorated him.
  • For him, the problem came when listening on digital devices without the “sides” of vinyl albums, and then on music streaming platforms whose digital algorithms preference popular tracks.

‘This song sucks’

  • These are the people who want to stretch and break the rules and trigger the happy accidents that create something altogether new.
  • For example, photographers who seek more creative expressions by pre-soaking or “souping” their camera film in lemon juice, coffee, beer, or even burning it.
  • And among this group, connecting digital and analogue technology is also common – combining two completely different systems to generate even more possibilities.
  • Film director Denis Villeneuve’s first instalment of Dune (2021) was initially shot on digital, then transferred to film, before being re-digitised.
  • By combining the two, Villeneuve got a film that, in his words, has a “more timeless, painterly feel”.


For you: more from our Insights series:
How music heals us, even when it’s sad – by a neuroscientist leading a new study of musical therapy

The artist formerly known as Camille – Prince’s lost album ‘comes out’

Beatrix Potter’s famous tales are rooted in stories told by enslaved Africans – but she was very quiet about their origins

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The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Several North Austin Area High Schools Join together for Student Designer Fashion Show

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 4, 2024

This unique event features the creative talents of students from Westwood, Round Rock, Stoney Point, Cedar Ridge, and Cedar Park High Schools.

Key Points: 
  • This unique event features the creative talents of students from Westwood, Round Rock, Stoney Point, Cedar Ridge, and Cedar Park High Schools.
  • Each student is prepared to present original or upcycled designs on Saturday's catwalk, promising a variety of themes and inspirations that showcase the remarkable talents of these young designers.
  • The venue can comfortably seat up to 250 guests, with additional standing room available to accommodate the expected high turnout.
  • Twelve best-in-class designers will advance to walk the runway during Austin Fashion Week on April 20.

Skeeter Boats Announces New WXR2060 Model

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Skeeter, a leader in performance fishing boats, introduced today, a new model within the WXR bass boat line- the WXR2060.

Key Points: 
  • Skeeter, a leader in performance fishing boats, introduced today, a new model within the WXR bass boat line- the WXR2060.
  • The new model will be available through authorized Skeeter dealerships.
  • View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240319356928/en/
    Skeeter introduces a new model within the WXR bass boat line- the WXR2060.
  • (Photo: Business Wire)
    “The WXR2060 truly delivers the best all-around performance in its class,” said Jeff Stone, Senior Vice President, Skeeter Boats.

Dustin Connell Wins Major League Fishing’s Bass Pro Shops REDCREST 2024 Powered by OPTIMA Lithium on Lay Lake

Retrieved on: 
Monday, March 18, 2024

And when you’ve got that kind of support behind you, you can settle down.”

Key Points: 
  • And when you’ve got that kind of support behind you, you can settle down.”
    The top 10 pros at Bass Pro Shops REDCREST 2024 Powered by OPTIMA Lithium at Lay Lake are:
    Overall, there were 132 scorable bass weighing 371 pounds, 6 ounces caught by the final 10 pros Sunday.
  • Bass Pro Shops REDCREST 2024 Powered by OPTIMA Lithium on Lay Lake was hosted by the Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau, and showcased the top 40 professional anglers from the 2023 Bass Pro Tour, along with the top champions and finishers across all MLF circuits.
  • Television coverage of REDCREST 2024 Powered by OPTIMA Lithium will be showcased across two, two-hour episodes, premiering at 7 a.m.
  • For complete details and updated information on Major League Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com .

Aquamar® Names Industry Veteran Guy Lott to Senior Leadership Team

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, April 2, 2024

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif., April 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Seafood industry sales veteran Guy Lott has been named Vice President of Sales for Aquamar®, a leader in surimi and convenience seafood products, including its newly created ready-to-eat seafood line. Lott's seafood industry experience across sales, processing, and distribution as well as his relationships within top multi-unit restaurant concepts, fine dining leaders and major retailers, accelerates Aquamar's go-to-market strategy currently underway.

Key Points: 
  • RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif., April 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Seafood industry sales veteran Guy Lott has been named Vice President of Sales for Aquamar®, a leader in surimi and convenience seafood products, including its newly created ready-to-eat seafood line.
  • The addition of Lott rounds out the leadership team, advancing Aquamar's goal of being an industry leader in seafood innovation in the retail and foodservice markets.
  • Lott joins CEO Daryl Gormley, CFO Eric Wills, Operations VP Sam Metri, and QA Director Ila Dabo.
  • In his most recent position, Lott served as Chief Commercial Officer at Forever Oceans, the world's most sustainable offshore aquaculture company.

Edifier Now Shipping QR65, Desktop Active Monitor with GaN Charger

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, March 27, 2024

RICHMOND, BC, March 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Edifier International, the award-winning audio electronics designer, reveal the QR65 Desktop Active Monitor speakers – a new all-in-one unit that combines the brand's renowned acoustic technology with immersive Lumia light effects and TurboGaN fast-charging capabilities.

Key Points: 
  • As the brand name develops, audio quality remains paramount with the QR65 featuring an advanced Acoustic Architecture.
  • This is further enhanced by Edifier's MazeTube Bass Reflex Channels and TurbMuff Air Noise Suppression Technology which reduces unwanted port noises and acoustic resonance.
  • Overall, the QR65 champions an holistic approach to the audio experience, combining great audio with mesmerising, multi-sensory features.
  • The Edifier QR65 is available to purchase from retailers, including Walmart and Amazon.com , for a suggested retail price of $369.99.

Garmin pro Justin Hamner wins the 2024 Bassmaster Classic championship

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, March 26, 2024

OLATHE, Kan., March 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Garmin (NYSE: GRMN), the world's most innovative and recognized marine electronics manufacturer, is proud to celebrate Justin Hamner as the winner of the 2024 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic, Mar. 22-24, at Grand Lake O' the Cherokees in Oklahoma. With six of the top 10 finishers at this year's Bassmaster Classic—the world's most renowned fishing tournament—running LiveScope™ Plus live-scanning sonar, Garmin is the electronics choice of champions.

Key Points: 
  • OLATHE, Kan., March 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Garmin (NYSE: GRMN), the world's most innovative and recognized marine electronics manufacturer, is proud to celebrate Justin Hamner as the winner of the 2024 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic, Mar.
  • With six of the top 10 finishers at this year's Bassmaster Classic—the world's most renowned fishing tournament—running LiveScope™ Plus live-scanning sonar, Garmin is the electronics choice of champions.
  • Grand Lake is also one of the hundreds of lakes surveyed in the U.S. by Garmin, delivering anglers with exceptional mapping coverage, clarity and detail.
  • "From our entire Garmin team, we want to congratulate Justin on becoming the newest Bassmaster Classic World Champion.

OneOdio Easter Sales 2024: Rev up your Easter Holidays with Unparalleled OneOdio Fusion A70 Series

Retrieved on: 
Monday, March 25, 2024

"Easter holidays provide an opportunity for people to celebrate and enjoy time with family and friends," said Sookie Lau, OneOdio's Marketing Manager.

Key Points: 
  • "Easter holidays provide an opportunity for people to celebrate and enjoy time with family and friends," said Sookie Lau, OneOdio's Marketing Manager.
  • "So, we're gearing up for the Easter season with a special sale on Fusion A70 headphones.
  • Being one of the best-selling models in the OneOdio Fusion series, the A70 headphones have garnered immense popularity among customers due to their versatile usage scenarios, Hi-Res sound quality, and share-port technology.
  • In addition, using the A70 series as a surprise gift for your family will make Easter celebrations even more memorable.