Blog — Page 121 of 282

How the World Thinks: A Global History of Philosophy

Allen & Unwin

In this turbulent day and age, the question how the world thinks is an interesting one and Julian Baggini’s endeavour to determine a common denominator behind what fuels beliefs and forges answers to moral questions intrigued me.

Now, no matter how troublesome things get, the debate around who can lay claim on how to do philosophy properly dates back to ancient times, i.e. orthodox Greeks critiquing that the discipline could have potentially emanated from Egypt or had sources elsewhere. The debate has only intensified over the last five decades with, with one school of thought claiming that philosophy is an exclusively Western phenomenon, which constitutes a borderline imperialistic viewpoint.

What Julian Baggini accomplished with his tome is that he sheds light on intellectual traditions in a chronological manner, which allows for both the luminaries as well as the uninitiated to access essential information as Baggini manages to simmer the essence of conflicting voices down to core arguments.

Not surprisingly, once scales of extreme positioning is stripped away, it becomes transparent that the underlying moral questions are fundamentally congruent between cultures – a conclusion that makes sense if, as Baggini does, philosophy is not approached as a merely academic discipline, but one every individual delves in, with local, societal, cultural and timely contexts being influential factors.

I specifically like how polarities between Eastern and Western approaches are not the end but the starting point for Baggini to eventually arrive at a deeper understanding that distinctions help to determine commonalities and the nuances that come with them.

The book is a written plea for dialogue and a rebalance by sketching the outline of a greater self-consciousness that has a tangible impact on our ethical and moral choices, without denying the existence and necessity of paradoxes.

In simplified punk rock terms, the take away from How the World Thinks is that it is not about where you are from , but where you are at and the need to learn how to become self-aware and willing to enter productive dialogue in a bid to not get caught in myopia.

The Formative Years - Weird System Records

This new series will be focussed on bands, labels and people that proved to be immensely influential during my formative years as a juvenile delinquent, and Weird System shall be the first entity to be shed light on as its focus had always been firmly set on careful curation of its catalogue and releases, which helped to broaden my horizons and exposed me to facets and nuances of punk rock.

It must have been around 1990 that I dialled the numbed that was listed on the Keine Experimente compilation. I found myself quickly engulfed in vivid conversation with a gentleman by the name of Mansur Niknam and subsequently fall even deeper in love with a German punk record label that has maintained a near flawless catalogue to this day. I was in my early teens and as I was still labouring with puberty vocal change, my go-to was to rough up my voice by puffing several unfiltered Gauloises to rough it up and transform it into what I perceived to a more bassy, world-weary older scenester voice.

It was long before the advent of the internet and in order to find out more about something you felt passionate about, you either had to travel there, send a letter and pick up the phone to get info from the horse’s mouth.

Mansur could have not cared less about my age and after some introductory exchange of pleasantries took the time to answer the myriad of questions I had burning under my nails not only about his label and the bands on it, but how he got into punk rock and the scene at large.

Needless to say that it only intensified my appreciation for Weird System and the man behind it but set me on a mission to collect all of its releases.

Weird System’s first release was the legendary compilation Waterkant Hits from 1983. As the name suggests, the focus was firmly set on bands from Hamburg and in many aspects, it is the Northern German equivalent to the fantastic KZ 36 compilations, which covered the early punk scene of West-Berlin. While the compilation is comprised of a potpourri of bands indulging in different styles, one could tell that there was an idiosyncratic common denominator to those bands that appealed to me instantaneously.

A favourite release of Weird System and one of my all-time-favourite punk records is SS Ultrabrutal’s ‘Monstren Mumien Mutationen’. While the name initially had me think that the sonic emissions must be akin to Finnish ultra-hardcore vacuum core releases of Rock-O-Rama of the time, musically the record is rooted in classic ’77 style and pervaded with a well-calibrated sense of humour that was not often found in the early days of German punk, as there was hardly anything to be found between the poles of  political hardcore and non-sensical, insignificant fun punk.

The two volumes under the  ‘Keine Experimente!’ compilation, an homage to Konrad Adenauer’s bonmot, should be recommended to anyone remotely interested in early German punk rock as the featured bands are the crème-de-la-crème of what the country and specifically Hamburg during the Cold War.

Razzia was a band whose influence on the sound of the scene has to be ranked amongst trailblazers like Slime and Toxoplasma. Their debut ‘Tag ohne Schatten’ is still on rotation to this day, along with literally all albums by the unique Blut+Eisen, who musically and lyrically took things to the next level.

Blut+Eisen formed in Hannover and it was not only Maximum Rock’n Roll who acknowledged that what they channelled with their debut in 1984 was one of the most intense and hardest-driving riffs-heavy albums to ever emerge from the old world. A band with a flawless catalogue of hits.

Torpedo Moskau could be claimed to have been on all-star group and albeit short-lived, their classic ‘Malenkaja Rabota’ album brought an interesting melodic tinge to the mix, which at times was reminiscent of The Wipers – a band that Weird System exposed me to later on as they re-released the first two albums of the iconic band from the Pacific Northwest.

Even more melodic was Neurotic Arseholes’ ‘Angst’, whose song-writing skills and lyrical prowess added another dimension to a scene that was on the verge of becoming stale by carbon copying the same old formula.

As the Nineties approached, Weird System Records branched out a bit and amongst locally focussed releases and compilations, such as the fantastic retrospective ‘Paranoia in der Strassenbahn - Punk in Hamburg 1977-83’, stylistically and geographically more diverse bands found their way onto the roster, by which time my interests had meandered elsewhere, i.e.  American and Japanese hardcore.

Over the following years, great compilations like e.g. ‘Slam-Brigade Haifischbar - Punk in Hamburg 1984-90’ continued to document the history of Teutonic punk rock and many moons later with its 44th release, the stellar  ‘Wenn kaputt dann wir Spass - Berlin Punk Rock 1977-1989’ compilation documented an era in a dedicated and thorough manner that only Weird System could.

Reworked and enhanced re-releases of classic German punk rock albums followed, e.g. Slime’s early back catalogue and retrospective discographies of bands like Abwaerts, Zerstörte Jugend, Vorkriegsjugend, The Buttocks, Toxoplasma, Inferno and the fantastic and criminally underrated Middle-Class Fantasies.

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image from label website

Hot Stuff - Dingo Sauce Co.

There is no shortage of novelty “hotter-than-thou” sauces that do damage but severely lack in the taste department. How nice is it to come across a brand that is being driven by a chef with over two decades of experience under his belt?

Dingo Sauce Co. was founded in North Fremantle in 2016 by chilli-enthusiast Leigh Nash, whose cuisine has harboured a weak spot for the intricate flavour balance Asian cooking brings to the table, i.e. the calibration between sweet, spicy, hot and sour.  Having grown his own chillies and his dissatisfaction with ready-made sauces plagued with additives, Leigh started to experiment with local produce, finetune and eventually bottle his own variant of his favourite Sriracha sauce.

What started as a hobby, evolved to a professional and commercial level once local demand surged and the outcome of a crowdfunding campaign allowed for the acquisition of equipment to take the operation to the next level and the rest is history, as Dingo Sauce is now widely distributed and has become a favourite amongst chilli-evangelists for a reason.

My first exposure to Dingo Sauce Co. ( https://dingosauceco.com/ ) was their Thai style Chilli Jam, which with the chilli paste having been slow cooked for over ten hours, is an explosion of flavours. It not only adds moderate heat but a flavoursome dimension to any dish with the textured melange of shrimp paste, fish sauce and tamarind that add a nice level of sweetness and depth to the foundation of the Caysan chillies.

What I like about Dingo Sauce Co. are their specialised sauces that authentically take detours from the tried and tested hot sauces trail. An example par excellence is the Korean BBQ sauce, which as the name suggests uses gochujang (Korean chilli paste) and a blend of sesame oil, soy, rice vinegar and honey. Perfect for marinading and dipping, it has become a favourite go-to and allrounder for any grill related exercises.

Given that Dingo started as a riff on Leigh’s favourite sriracha sauce, I was intrigued as to what his reimagined Super-Hot Sriracha was going to be.

Dialling up the heat with the addition of ghost pepper and scorpion chillies, this baby is a tad more intense as the compound impact of red jalapeños and Caysan would suggest, however, heat is not an end in itself as one can tell that there is a delicate balance between the different heat sources and how they are dialled in.

Now, if you really like it next level hot, Dingo’s Widow Maker Hot Sauce will be your go-to as you might have witnessed in an episode of Hot Ones’ season 11, where it was featured. What we got here is an all-out heat attacked fuelled by the unfiltered hotness of six peppers, e.g. Naga Viper, Carolina Reaper, Moruga and Ghost.

While this one is solidly in heat territory with 682,000 SHUs on the Scoville Scale and not recommended to administer in large doses, again there are nuances of lime, smoke and garlic that give this sauce a fiery yet even-tempered, controlled burn.

As Dingo Sauce’s portfolio is consistently growing, I am looking forward to tasting how they are going to channel their alchemy in the future.

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images from company website

The Story of Looking

Mark Cousins

Allen & Unwin

We are drowning in images and the accessibility and affordability of smartphones with ever improving cameras has massively changed both our approach to taking photos and our behaviour in them.

In this book The Story of Looking Mark Cousins examines across the realms of history, art, film, photography, science and technology how our view at things has (d)evolved from the cradle to the grave, illustrating his viewpoints with examples along the way.

Cousins’ reference points are eclectic, thematically often freely associated and resemble a tour de force through history, following his own stream of consciousness with juxtapositions galore that should prove to be thought-provoking for anyone remotely interesting in art and media.

What Mark Cousins achieves with his tome is that it makes one take a step back and reassess the act of looking, something that in itself is usually just taken for granted and not usually being assessed as compared to the respective object being inspected. A direly needed impulse in a turbulent and narcissistic age where the selfie has effectively replaced the self-portrait and both the banality and number of images produced to see ourselves in the world and shared via social media is ever increasing.

Centred around the span of a lifetime of an individual, The Story of Looking is many things depending on what you take away from it. On a deeper level and with its focus on detail, I found it triggering questions about perceptions and attitudes at large as the power of images continues to shape associations and thought processes.

A thought-provoking and engagingly written book that highlights in a deep yet playful way that the world we live in has become much more finely grained and how much the brain is ever updating the visual field, no matter how differently we look at things.

Water of Life – Kavalan Port Cask and Distiller’s Reserve Rum Cask

Where do I start with Kavalan to give the uninitiated a faint idea of what they have been missing out on?

Based in Yuanshan, Taiwan, Kavalan has firmly established itself on the firmament of top distilleries that consistently surprises and surpasses expectations with their continuous release of quality drops.

The Port Cask expression, part of their flawless Solist series, is another example for their excellence that emerges from the pot stills in Eastern Asia: Upon approach, the fabulously spicy yet sugary and citrussy aromas are captivating as they are punctured by highlights of cherries and other dried, dark stone fruits. One can tell from the get-go, that this cask strength variant has a lot of character, which unveils itself in a layered manner.

What materializes on the top of the roof is a very defined melange of oakiness that is complimented by summer berries and vanilla-forward malty undertones that rest on a foundation of milk chocolate. I specifically like the textured mouthfeel, which is defined by a nuttiness on one end of the spectrum, and red fruity berries at the other end.

As the ABV of 58.6% suggests, the Port Cask Strength packs a punch, however, it is so well calibrated that the high alcohol content is dangerously subdued and with the elongated, resounding finish culminating in a crescendo of citrus fruits, leather and zesty lemon. A powerful, rich single malt with an incredible flavour profile that will have you reaching for another dram in no time.

Now, as if Kavalan’s Solist expressions are not enough, things are taken to yet another level with Kavalan’s Distillery Exclusive Rum Cask, which – as the name suggests – is due to its rarity difficult to get a hold of with only 400-450 small bottles being bottled.

Not unlike with other Kavalan expressions, the information provided is granular and gives the opportunity to not only arrive at the cask number but also details as to when exactly it was bottled. Transparent as can be.

Compared to the aforementioned Port Cask, the Rum Cask is more subtle and, dare I say, velvety smooth with honey, vanilla and notes of pear, mango and caramel reeling you in through the nostrils. Again, despite the relatively high alcohol content, it is attenuated to the extent where it is devoid of the sting you’d get from expressions from less sophisticated distillers.

Not surprising for a Rum Cask, what materializes on the palate with a creamy mouthfeel is sweet, with sugary notes derived from the molasses and lovely balanced flavours very much reminiscent of peppery rum and oaky spice.

The finish ties in with what one would expect from a rum – not terribly long, but sweet with nice tart notes and sugary with raisiny highlights.

Summa summarum - two fantastic expressions hitting high notes on the claviature of completely different flavour profiles with the common denominator being a consistently well-calibrated, complex and simply delicious level.

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Images from company website