Bruce Falkian is a world famous contemporary artist who exhibits at the world’s most prestigious art galleries and fairs. Bruce Falkian moonlights as an agent of espionage against the Terrorism Industrial Complex. Wait… what?

To understand Bruce Falkian we first must understand the link between image and war. In the late 1800s the precursor to the video camera was invented. It was directly inspired by guns, specifically, Samuel Colt’s Revolver. It borrowed not only its barrel mechanics, swapping bullets for exposures, but its terminology too. Load, point, scope, aim, shoot, flash. The camera and the gun, united by cordite, would go on to prove the most efficacious tools in shaping the modern world.

The 20th century was a laboratory when it comes to killing and image making, glorified through Hollywood and the Western genre. Propaganda would prove highly effective in creating and sustaining support for militaries fighting for ideological global control. Devised first in the aptly title ‘Propaganda’ (1928) by Edward Bernays a nephew of Sigmund Freud, Advertising and Public Relations became the leading media industries, learning how to control the population through images, usually just to buy random crap they didn’t need, but other times to overthrow democratically elected politicians in foreign countries. Eventually Western Liberal Democracy assumed domination, built of course on the enslavement of all peoples and nations who didn’t fall in line with its specific ideas of living. The Red Scare inspired countless anti-leftist, anti-communist works of art throughout the Cold War, notably and most bizarre, funding the abstract expressionist movement as a non-ideological alternative to socialist realism art. When the Soviet Union fell, Western Liberal Democracy was able to promulgate its unhindered views around the world through its various media empires and actor states. Is it a coincidence that a third of the almost $85 billion dollar global camera equipment market is represented by the greatest propaganda beast the world as ever seen, the USA?

Guns are dangerous because of the obvious. Images are dangerous because we are bad at perceiving what is real (as any jump scare, deepfake, newsreel will attest to.) Videos aren’t technically real, they are only a collection of rapidly changing static images which give the illusion of movement. It’s easy for us to collectively decide that a video is real, because that’s the way our brains perceive reality. People who lead the world of media understand this which is how they are able to control us, make us invade foreign countries, vote for specific politicians, feel ugly or fat etc. However, ubiquitous as they are, it seems that the image is in crisis. It seems that we’ve run out of them. Or perhaps our understanding of an image is changing, with the aid of near instantaneous text-to-image AI technology. So what does this mean for guns. What does this mean for war? How will images be used as an aid to war in the 21st century? It remains to be seen, but Bruce Falkian will be a useful agent. 

https://soundcloud.com/antinote-records

PREMIERE⚡️Bruce Falkian - N9 [Antinote]

Wandering through recordshops and flea markets, looking for French rarities and yet to be discovered records, Quentin Vandewalle has gathered thousands of dancefloor-friendly tunes of all eras and from all over the world.

Zaltan has been djing for more than a decade and he makes a point of honour to deliver mixes as surprising and versatile as the label he runs. If you show yourself at a party where he plays you may find yourself falling into a maelstrom of Caribbean bangers, French proto-house tracks, dark electro fantasies and god knows what else he’ll take out of his bag.

Follow artist - https://soundcloud.com/zaltan-dance
Follow label - https://soundcloud.com/zaltan-dance

253⚡Zaltan

https://soundcloud.com/slowglide
https://soundcloud.com/vanishingpointlabel
https://soundcloud.com/laforgemusique
Artwork: https://soundcloud.com/greta-motif
🔊 https://youtu.be/n74Duz9XSfQ

Since 2013, Slowglide has been creating a unique sound which recalls ancestral mysticism, altered states of consciousness as well as cyber-tech fantasies. With a special emphasis on sound design, he crafts uncanny atmospheres, dense rhythms and otherworldly soundscapes. Fed by psychedelia, electronic hybridisations and non-Western music, he’s constantly in search of fresh and unusual techniques to renew his sound palette. After a breakthrough 12” on Antinote in 2018, Slowglide’s music has found its place on labels like Comic Sans Records, Global Warming, Vernacular Records or his newly founded imprint Vanishing Point. He’s also part of the Reims-based techno collective La Forge, considered by Tsugi as “one of the most talented French labels” in 2020.

Play on YouTube

LAYER #354 | Slowglide

KARMA SHE the forward thinking witch, is an artist working with video and performance. She is also an electronic music producer, vocalist, poet and dj. She creates energetic live sets that combine her unique beat productions with live vocals that lure her audience into a sensual alternative multiverse. Her mission is to light up unapologetic femme-forward flames with her liberating energy to keep your hips whining and your spirit shining. Imagine a bold and tender approach of rap and techno making out while being showered with magic golden sparkles.

https://soundcloud.com/karmashe
https://soundcloud.com/antinote-records

PREMIERE⚡️Karma SHE & Lily Haz - Jungle Time [Antinote]

Nicolas Motte, aka Nico Motte, is first and foremost a graphic designer, working at the Check Morris studio in Paris which he founded along with partner Mathias Pol in 2004. For ten years Nico was involved in the art direction of French label Antinote, a label on which he has also produced and released several albums; Three under his own name, Life Goes On If You Are Lucky, Rheologia, and most recently (at time of writing), 2023's The Missing Person. He has also released a record with Raphael Top Secret and Zaltan, a collaboration under the name 18 Rays. In addition to music production and his extensive graphic design work, Nico has also hosted a radio program called Depeche Motte on LYL Radio, and the mix that he has kindly submitted to The Sunrise Mixtapes is from that radio show.

Nico has selected some lovely obscure ambient percussion records by the likes of Giuliano Sorgini and William Loughborough, gradually progressing into wonky left-field digital reggae, including Romie Singh's classic 'Dancing To Forget', Desmond Coke's 'I Need Somebody', from his 1989 LP Let's Chase The Sun, and of course Sexy T.K.O.'s 'Touch Me, Take Me', just to mention a few.
A Big thanks to Nico Motte for his superb contribution to The Sunrise Mixtapes

Track list:

Implodes - 'White Window'
WM Loughborough - 'For The Big Horn'
Giuliano Sorgini - 'Masai'
Jean-Claude Deblais - 'Le Golem' 
Implodes - 'Down Time' 
D*Note - 'Solomon's Dub'
Romie Singh - 'Dancing To Forget'
4Hero - 'Escaping Categories'
Sexy T.K.O. - 'Touch Me, Take Me' (Magic version)
Desmond Coke - 'I Need Somebody'
Family Fodder - 'The Big Dig'
I.A.O. - 'Feel The Forgotten Sense' 
He Said - 'Pump'
The Solid Doctor - 'Lights On The Vibe'
Gary Wilson - 'Chromium Bitch' 

Artwork by Nicholas Motte, from Nico Motte's Life Goes On If You Are Lucky LP (Antinote)

Nico Motte (Antinote)

WhyPeopleWar Fundraiser for Ukraine: https://whypeopledance.bandcamp.com/

The Why people dance question was asked for the first time in Lithuania back in 2013 but it gained a worldwide echo in its 8 years of existence. Run by @pauliuskamblevicius with the help of @experimentsserial and a network of collaborators, the online electronic music platform and label keeps its heart open for new friends and treasure finds but its filter tight and deep underground. Tune into WPD channels on Soundcloud, YouTube and Bandcamp.

Music is the cure

Premiere requests - shapes.electric@gmail.com

Plastic Fantastic (NO)
Phil Mison (UK) - Café Del Mar
Andy Pye (UK) - Balearic Social/Music For Dreams
Helene Rickhard (NO) - Cosmic Oslo
Coyote (UK) - Is It Balearic? 
Faint Waves (US) - Dream Chimney
Paul Hillery (UK) - BBE Music
Studebaker Hawk (US) - Peace & Rhythm
Sanky Was Here (US) - Love International
JAZ (US) - Death On Wax/Pinchy & Friends
Basso (DE) - Growing Bin Records
Nico Motte (FR) - Antinote

Forthcoming guests:

Coyote (UK) - Is It Balearic?
DJ Trujillo (VE/DE) - Apersonal Music
Frinda Di Lanco (DE) - Avec Plaisir
Rune Lindbæk (NO) - Drum Island/Cosmic Oslo
Andy Pye (UK) - Balearic Social/Music For Dreams

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