A few recent and not so recent videos reminding you that certain wars is still going on, political strife and protest are on the horizon, and history just keeps repeating itself…

First from Paul Hardcastle whose created a 25th anniversary version of his 1985 hit ’19′ but of course this time about Afghanistan (apparently now to be released after the election)

Next up Celebrity Murder Party has created a new version of Billie Ray Martin’s Crackdown (with Stephen Mallinder in the song and video), with video and a more political edge with an afro-beat (and even I think a 23 Skidoo) feel:

Missed this at the time – banned by MTV – but a great video showing how all our lives are affected by war, even if it’s far away (and others lives are directly affected who are just the same as us)

Friend to Radio Clash and fellow Year-Zero-n (hmm must work on that collective noun) Celebrity Murder Party has been busy – not only remixing several of the upcoming remixes for Billie Ray Martin’s Crackdown Project releases (both remixes of Just Fascination and Crackdown) but also producing this promo minimix where you can hear some of the tracks, and also a mix for the Mininova release of a few of the mixes from the project (available on all friendly torrent programs at the link).

Not only is it interesting that Billie chose to release tracks via Mininova Content Delivery Service, but also shows the change in the musical landscape between free and paid; between getting people to take notice but also make money; getting what you give basically…torrent sites can either go either way after the crackdown (lol) – either become Napster with a paid model, to start again and fairly irrelevant and outgunned by the likes of iTunes, or offer the ‘free music’ as part of a promotional tool by artists who want to reach fans direct.

I do prefer the latter model, because the genie is out of the bottle – people will expect music for free from now on – but also people will support the music they like, buy special formats, support the artist. Try before you buy, basically…these models are not incompatible, only if your thinking is locked in 20th century thinking of physical formats…it’s still up in the air, but I think it’ll work. I’m drafting in my head a post about music marketing in the age of bittorrent and p2p actually, because although I think marketing is an evil dark art (not in a good way either) and follow Hicks creed, it’s also obvious to me that there are certain opportunities out there that aren’t being followed.

Certainly turning your fans into criminals and banning the sites will not work, as it never has historically. So respect to Billie for embracing the new technology; needs to be far more well-known and unknown people who see it as an opportunity rather than a threat, even if all the bits haven’t totally been worked out yet, it will fall into place.

Anyway on that note here’s one of the free mixes from the Mininova download, CMP’s remix of Just Fascination and mighty fine it is too – loads more where that came from from the bits I’ve heard I hear there is going to be a launch shindig (March 6th?) in Berlin with CMP and Phil Retrospector and others performing live on stage with Billie Ray Martin also – should be good ;-D

I did the dates/BUYBUYBUY spammage in the previous post so you know what to do if you likey. (And if you have a problem with that fair enough, endlessly promospam on blogs annoys me also, but can I point out none of us atm is snorting coke off hookers backs (well maybe Jez is ) and I am hopelessly in debt partly cos of working for free on this frigging site/podcast, so bring on the WAHMBULANCE loaded with cash, plz

We were trying (and failing) to do a sort of mysterious shadowy presence thing as our remix outfit ‘Year Zero’ but it leaked out anyway…which is fine, I was about to blow the gaff as I was fed up with not being able to do promo shizzle.

Anyway hiding in out the sewers with masks and capes wasn’t really all it was cracked up to be

So who is Year Zero? Well it’s me, Ian Fondue (Crimes Against Pop) and Jez aka Celebrity Murder Party, and our first remix is coming out in March as part of Billie Ray Martin‘s Crackdown Project (I previously blogged about this, but didn’t explain the context – Volume 2: Darkness Restored  out on Disco Activisto (on all digital outlets March 15th – already listed over at Juno!) including our mix ‘The Crackdown: Year Zero Remix’. The first volume, Sold Out To Disco is out Feburary 15th.

And you torrent heads aren’t left out cos Billie is collaborating with torrent-site Mininova.org to release free exclusive mixes in a few weeks (January 25) – so no excuse not to go listen, really.

A bit of background – The Crackdown Project is Billie working with Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire on two Cabs songs, ‘The Crackdown’ and ‘Just Fascination’, produced by Berlin tech-house act Maertini Broes. So now you know

What does our mix sound like? Well imagine dubstep crossed with glitch and a bit of an african influence; and you’ll be partway there…part of the manifesto of Year Zero is to treat remixing with the same ethos as our mashup work – a little bit of this, a little bit of that. And given all our diverse influences from dubstep to pop to hiphop to african beats to electro, house and glitch, I think that’s going to be an eclectic mix, and hopefully something different. I’m proud of the mix, but we all agreed it’s only a start and part of what we can do – we’ll see in future months where we go from there

The other very talented remixers involved across the 2 disc set are many names you’d recognise from Radio Clash – Copycat (just heard his mix on Gaydar radio’s exclusive, very good), Celebrity Murder Party (heard early versions of these, very good club choonage),  Divide and Kreate, Dunproofin, Flying White Dots, Phil RetroSpector, Oicho (David Harrow) and Lusty Zanzibar.

Anyway from what I’ve heard both discs are going to be belters and span club action, dark electro to balearic, moody dubstep and nu-disco, and I’m willing to bet a lot more besides.

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Something I’ve been privileged to hear bits from and is sounding great is the remixes of The Crackdown Project where Billie Ray Martin takes and reshapes several of Cabaret Voltaire’s songs, namely Crackdown and Just Fascination – but now joined by names familiar to the readers and listeners of Radio Clash: Celebrity Murder Party, Copycat, Divide and Create, Dunproofin, Flying White Dots, Phil RetroSpector and Year Zero on remix duty via the wonderful AudioPornCentral blog.

Really looking forward to this, as Billie’s blog says they’ll be released as two sets in Feb & March next year – if you like your industrial, electro and dubstep dirty you won’t be disappointed