Netil Radio Weekly - End of The Year pt. 1
#066
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Words - first of two “end of the year” editorials is focused on politics
New Music - tips from our residents, for you, with 💙
It Takes Time EYO list - Tony Poland’s 2022 highlights
Listen Back - last week’s best show according to NR presenters
Words
Hello & welcome back,
We were so close to the winter pictures of my childhood memories last week. A quiet, bright and dreamy atmosphere, with such unique acoustics. A family of snowmen appeared on the market and the sounds of snowball fights coming from the park reminded me that it was time to do something that used to be a morning routine back home - cleaning the pathways through the snow. Took a moment to recalibrate the muscle memory of this activity, a few slides while no one was watching and I felt like after a good meditation.
While the rare snow appearance in London brings joy, it’s weaponized to terrorise people in Ukraine. Oh yes, the terror attack on Ukraine is still happening. It’s a historical breaking point which will determine the future of our society while affecting our daily life through politics and the economy, so it’s the first of two wrap-up editions of our weekly info pack. It’s a longer read, so take your time…
The war in Ukraine is not a conflict between two countries, but it’s also not simply a result of NATO aggression against russia. It’s an open war between two opposite visions, two system models currently used across the globe - authoritarian (one perspective, no discussion) and democratic (many perspectives, freedom to discuss). The result of this war will set a new path for the way we live together on this planet and Ukrainians are willing to fight the actual fight for all of us.
It all started in 1999 when the new russian president needed to gain attention and power by planting bombs on civil targets in his own country, saying “Chechen terrorists” were responsible. The world was watching the first real test of the current world’s order since WW2. The test was so successful that ten years later came another, more ambitious one in Georgia. The rest of the world did say something, but cheap gas and oil are... cheap gas and oil. The genocide in Ukraine is the final stage of this process.
The European democratic countries paid €120+ billion to the imaginary empire in the last 294 days for fossil fuels alone. The cheap money created using natural resources, rather than products with technological or intellectual values, is the key element connecting us to this war. More precisely, the money democracies are helping to hide. Germany’s dependence on gas is directly linked to the ex-chancellor working for the russian state’s gas company and plays a big role in the current energy crisis. If we hypothetically surgically withdraw oligarchs' (not just russian) money from the UK, the entire economy and property market collapses. The same goes for the Swiss bank system or European cultural and educational institutions. People who rob resources of their own countries realise that they can buy respect and enjoy the benefits of democracy in Europe at the expense of people living in their authoritarian regimes. And why do they do so? Because there is no fundamental freedom and sense of justice in a dictatorship, even the richest oligarchs can lose all their wealth in a blink of an eye and fall out of the window. Corporations are doing the same here, and the only limit holding them on a chain is democracy itself. The weaker the democracy is, the more profit goes to corporations.
And that is the difference between these two worlds. While democracy became lazy, sleepwalking in the comfort zone of imaginary peace, the dark powers were working hard to dismantle our values and beliefs in institutions designed to protect our rights with an option to recalibrate when needed, driving divided society into chaos in which they can break us to accept the “tough hand” of a “strong leader” who will “deliver the order”.
The austerity Tories are “delivering” is designed on unequally shared wealth, hidden from the eye of the public, protected by laws based on human rights, but bent to serve those who can just simply buy it. Every change in the law since Brexit takes inspiration from autocrats. Proposed public order bills, the crime bill, or immigration laws… The list is long. Everything that democratic society had to fight for over decades is being dismantled by corrupted populists who are deliberately stealing our freedom for the sake of selfish greed, and not even hiding it anymore.
The genocide in Ukraine is the final stage of this process where corrupt politicians, dictators, and organized crime syndicates, united like one big family with shared interests, are against basic principles of humanity and nature. What is our answer to it?
Deep thoughts for the festive time, dedicated to hope, require a good soundtrack. As always, we have you covered.
Thank you for reading and stay connected
Miro
New Music
Music tip from our residents
Amrisha / A Worldwide Thing - 1st Tuesday of the month 3-5pm
✧ STR4TA - STR4TASFEAR ✧ Chancha Via Circuito - La Estrella ✧ Daniel Maunick - Persistence ✧
Avsluta / Introspective Electronics - 2nd Thursday of the month 1-3pm
✧ Various Artists - No Digging After Midnight ✧ Aspetuck - Inanimate Distraction Object ✧ funcionário - Cavalcante ✧
Gabriel Hops / Snorkelling - bi-monthly on 2nd Friday of the month 7-9pm
✧ Lamin Fofana - Here Lies Universality ✧ Various Artists - Primärward ✧ Various Artists - Anthroposcene ✧
Patricia Doors / Kasmik Flow - 4th Wednesday of the month 11am-1pm
✧ Various Artists - La Locura de Machuca 1975-1980 ✧ Varda Hayes - Grid City Breaks vol.1 ✧ Elena Colombi - Instructions ✧
It Takes Time EOY List - 2022 Was Good Because Of The Following
By Tony Poland
Getting back into writing about music for the Netil Radio substack
Spending the majority of the start of 2022 with Coby Sey’s album on Whities, the majority of the end of 2022 with the rRoxymore album on Smalltown Supersound and most of the months in between with the Cheri Knight reissue on Freedom to Spend
Digging for records at Dizonord, Paris
Listening to lots of music for the first time months after it was released
Experiencing Everything, Everywhere All At Once in a busy cinema theatre
Realising I need to pick up drawing again after a very long time and acting upon it :)
YuSu all night at Pickle Factory
The Banger Dictionary from Finn (1st Edition)
Reading books again goddammit!
The ritual of sloping off the overground at Richmond station and blasting ‘Plonk IX’ by Huerco S ft Sir EU on the brisk walk to my office twice a week
Best Fish Tacos in Ensenada, LA
The Bear!
The Football Cliches Podcast ongoing dissection of R Keys + A Gray
Dark Matters cocktails at Tomo Seattle
Vladimir “Vova” Shlokov’s music video for Kate NV’s “Oni (They)”
Buying up the Tolouse Low Trax back catalogue bit by bit
Anju’s Homemade Vada Pav from Londis N16 - tbh all of Anju’s Homemade food is absolutely banging!
Being high on edibles in LA and making it through around 7% of the Voice Actor non-album on Stroom (it’s 112 tracks long so expect me to finish it sometime in 2024)
Listen Back
✧ Christian Duka in symbiosis with Avsluta in the latest Introspective Electronics ✧ Ready to rave? Joe Roberts got you covered in Ecstasy Garage Disco ✧ Ljubljana’s own Fujita Pinnacle visited our studio while in London ✧ Big Big Leg’s Bits audio message from Berlin ✧ Colour Carver in conversation with Wumzum & Deeby for COLOURWORXX ✧ very dubby Snorkeling edition with Gabriel Hops ✧ Shapeshifting Plantasia with Sarma shaping things solo ✧ JoJo Jones on guest duties for BabyFace Music ✧ Nctrnl & Дезире took over of Pleasure Centre very sharp ✧ Canan Batur invited Edward George to dub out Sunday lunchtime ✧ Formant Value for E2-E8 show ✧ guest sorcerers MaK & llucy Heartfilia in charge of Magical Real ✧ in Trance we trust when area127 invites Toka Mak ✧ Eva Roisin cooking alternative breakfast of champions with Meg ✧ Sybil b2b DJ Winggold 🔥 TIP ✧ Khalil Madovi, Amai Kuda Et Les Bois & Hannah Rose reppin’ their work with Naffi in Lunchtimes ✧ Kristina May b2b Van Dyke Browne in psychedelic mode for Vinyl Hunter Show✧
That’s all for this week, stay tuned
NR team
London’s community voice, broadcast live from a converted shipping container atop of Netil Market - project facilitated and supported by Eat Work Art