Offcast #1 by El Rakkas
Offcast #2 by Rer Repeter
Offcast #3 by Die Hand
Offcast #4 by Re-lay
Offcast #5 by Boris
Offcast #6 by Cxlnk
Offcast #7 by Simon/off

You can also find these mixes on Mixcloud and iTunes.
The first couple of 7″s are scheduled for June!

A series of mobile-clips by grime MC JMD gives a further insight in the daily repression black youth is facing on London’s streets:

More “chatty police men” here.

In August 2011, Mark Duggan was killed by police officers, sparking of riots in many cities all over the UK. There were a few remarkable interviews and comments made, giving some idea on the situation, which eventually led to the riots.

Darcus Howe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biJgILxGK0o
Genesis Elijah: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-rQpkvLuv0
Jahlani: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XSs7Az-TFU
unkown speaker: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmo8DG1gno4

The photograph above was taken in April 2012 in Vienna, Austria. On the left-hand side poster, the multinational company Unilever advertises an ice cream called “Safari Afrika” by its local brand “Eskimo”(sic!). Right next to it, World Vision is promoting a food-aid programm with a rather questionable photomontage. Both advertisments apparently seek to employ as many racist and post-colonial stereotypes as possible. Unilever had already been under criticism for a similar poster in 2009.

Diamantina (antigamente Tejuco)

Casa da Chica da Silva in Diamantina (antigamente Tejuco)

Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Marquis de Pombal; pintado por Louis-Michel van Loo e Claude-Joseph Vernet em 1767

Imagem da Chicha da Silva em Diamantina

Cartaz pelo filme “Xica da Silva” (1976)

Zoom – Filme Proibido: Xica da Silva

Zezé Motta no filme “Xica da Silva” (1976)

Taís Araújo, atriz na telenovela “Xica da Silva” (1996)

The short film by ON Broadcast Communications below illustrates the role of the World Bank in actively supporting land grabbing. According to the film, since 2008 an area of the size of France has been stolen with this practice.

A report by the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) from 2011 indicates that sub-Saharan Africa is subject to approximately two thirds of the worldwide land grabbing. The paper points out, that “the range of interests behind large scale land investments include multinational companies engaged in a variety of investments including biofuels and extractive industries, foreign governments seeking an assured food supply, commercial farmers expanding into neighbouring countries, and financial institutions wanting to broaden their asset portfolio. Domestic investors are also important in many countries, sometimes in partnership with foreign capital“.

And it continues: “The finance sector is a relative newcomer to farmland acquisition. Its interest has been generated by rising prices for food and other agricultural commodities, the perception that the value of land and water is increasing, and the emergence of farmland as a global asset in a portfolio of other investments, offering a return less affected by the latest international financial crisis.”

La Via Campesina in an international movement of peasants, small and medium-size farmers, landless people, women farmers, indigenous people, migrants and agricultural workers from around the world. The European branch of the organisation has issued a press release on April 25th, 2012, calling for solidarity to all people struggling for the preservation of land, the access to land and to the profession. In the text, they particularly refer to ongoing struggles in Mali, where farmers were arrested for working the land of which they were expelled after land grabbing, to land occupations in Honduras and Andalusia and to resistance of farmers against being expelled from their land to make way for airports and high-speed-trains.

You can find an online public database of large-scale land deals at Land Matrix.

Whistla – Enter the Swivel (L2S Recordings)

Another artist collective from the Sub.FM roaster have finally released their long awaited debut album: LHF. “Keepers of the Light” features no less than 26 tracks on two CDs and represent a good overview of the collective’s members No Fixed Abode, Amen Ra, Double Helix and Low Density Matter. The sound, diverse and consistent at the same time throughout the whole album, assembles “Hackney now, Croydon then? India now, Egypt or ancient Greece then? New York a decade ago, New Orleans a century back, Milky Way eternally?” as Martin Clark puts it. The long-player has been released on Clark’s Keysound Records, fans of vinyl must content themselves with the three previous EPs on the label. You can find a recent interview with LHF at The Quietus.

LHF – Keepers of the Light (Keysound Records)

You can catch Whistla each and every Tuesday 8 – 10pm GMT / 21 – 23h CET and LHF’s Amen Ra (as United Vibes together with Vibezin) Sundays 9 – 11pm GMT / 22 – 0h CET on Sub.FM.

Check out the studio-version and Nina Simone’s cover as well!

» After transmissions from Mr Mageeka and Roof Light, Phuture Shock’s fifth release comes from Austrian talent, Simon/off. The ‘Planetary Communication EP’ leans into crisp, taut Techno/Breakbeats rhythms with the Carl Craig-esque title track, while ‘About To See You’ hits a Techy Afro angle akin to recent Kode 9 riddims, and ‘New Basics’ shakes out a Maddslinky-style wriggler. One to watch, this! «
(Boomkat, Manchester)