Discovery of the day: This cool J-Pop music video. The lyrics are made of all the Japanese tongue twisters (or so the comments say). I really like the vibe. Check the original song by Mono No Aware also! 

Nor nationalist nor military music are my kind of stuff, and discovering Turbofolk through pure randomness, I didn't expect learning about this particular aspect of the Yugoslav War.

I was converting "Harmonique" to Katakana and googled the result (ハルモニク). I was surprised to see a Japanese wikipedia page of a band. My Japanese isn't that good yet so I switched to English and felt curious about what I just discovered. 

Atomik Harmonik is a turbo-folk music group from Kamnik, Slovenia. Their debut single "Brizgalna Brizga" stayed at #1 in the Slovenian pop charts for several months. Their other hits include "Hop Marinka", "Na seniku", "Od hr'ma do hr'ma", and their European hit "Turbo Polka", which hit the charts in Germany and Austria, bringing the group fame across Europe.

I never heard about them before. I searched for their hit song on YouTube and was pretty amused by it. It sounds like a country-side party song. Harmless in a way. 

I dug a bit more and read the opening paragraph of the Wikipedia page on Turbofolk:

Turbo-folk is a subgenre of contemporary South Slavic pop music that initially developed in Serbia during the 1990s as a fusion of techno and folk. The term was an invention of the Montenegrin singer Rambo Amadeus, who jokingly described the aggressive, satirical style of music as "turbo folk". While primarily associated with Serbia, this style is also popular in other former Yugoslav republics.

Again, sounds pretty harmless, right? I searched a bit more and found some modern music videos who made me think of Rosalia. Not my stuff again, but searching a bit more, I actually ended up watched a 23 minutes explanation on the origins of Turbofolk and how the Yugoslav war shaped the style as well. During wartime, this style of music was also used by artist promoting nationalist ideas, joked (or boasted) about war crimes. Absolutely terrible and disturbing.

In the comments, YouTube user @n.d.1926 says:

Dude, I'm so glad I discovered your channel! This was a great video. As a Serbian, I gotta recommend the rock 'n' roll response to the bloody Yugoslav wars! A bunch of rock bands got together and created a rock anti-war propaganda album. It's called "rimtutituki". You gotta realize, there were A LOT of people opposing the wars, protesting every day. This was their anthem.

Of course, I searched for it. Ah, the vibe is more my thing. I have no clue what the lyrics say though. Looking at the comments, again:

Unfortunately, folk music won. That's why they brought us to this state. (Nažalost pobjedila je narodna muzika. Zato su nas i dovali u ovo stanje.)

"There's no brain under the helmet." The end. ("Ispod šlema mozga nema". Kraj.)

Translation (made by Google) of Rimtutituki's lyrics:

Peace is the most beautiful girl that not everyone can have
If I can't fly, I won't crawl
Because when I crawl, I can't fuck
Peace! Peace, brother, peace!

We won't let folk music win
I love you young more than they give me a gun
Peace! Peace, brother, peace!

Dirty fights in love bags
Shoot less, fuck more
Peace! Peace, brother, peace!

You're too young to drink 'lad
There's no brain under the helmet
Peace! Peace, brother, peace!

Where don't you all go, too
Because whoever betrays will be a damn cunt
Peace! Peace, brother, peace!

You can't escape something that's there
Omnipresent...
Peace! Peace, brother, peace!

Rimtutituki...

How many of you are there?
How many of you are there?
Count them in pairs!
First! Second! First! Second!..
Peace! Peace, brother, peace!

Closure. 

I heard recently that Allen & Heath released (without too much of a bang) an updated version of their Xone:92 DJ mixer. This mixer is one of the greatest and the Xone sound is so, so great. One night in a club, I remember Objekt starting his set on a Xone mixer while the previous DJs were playing on a Pioneer mixer. That sound difference was crazy. While Pioneer's sound was all flat and crispy, the Xone sound was punchy, breathy, and lively. 

The MK2 apparently solves some issues the original one had around noisy filter activation. The Xone:92 had some issues: activating the filter is now clickless. 

I am pretty tempted to replace my very old Rane TTM56s.

The now legendary Hessle Audio label with a release from Pearson Sound. Groovy, Psychological, and Acid all at the same time. Great great stuff. 

Dither Boy is a software that produces very cool dithering effects on images. You can pick from multiple algorithms and customize them. Pretty cool! I wish I would have the same kind of things but for vector content. That is definitely something I keep in mind for my plotter art.