Black Rain - Now I'm Just A Number

Black Rain is just one of many projects undertaken by the legendary New York no wave figure Stuart Argabright of Ike Yard and Dominatrix fame.

The seven tracks that make up Now I’m Just A Number: Soundtracks 1994-95 originally appeared on the Black Rain album 1.0 Argabright recorded with cohort Shinichi Shimokawa at Current Sounds and Shimokawa Studio and is so called as it features music the duo composed for the timeless Keanu Reeves vehicle Johnny Mnemonic as well as an audio book of William Gibson’s cyberpunk novel Neuromancer.

Dabbling in a desolate sound wholly at home on Blackest Ever Black, the Black Rain release is just one of many interesting projects that the label will be releasing this year with new material from the likes of Raime, Young Hunting, Vatican Shadow, Regis and Tropic Of Cancer also promised. The latter two should go some way to appeasing fans of the now defunct Sandwell District imprint.

Blackest Ever Black will release Now I’m Just A Number: Soundtracks 1994-95 by Black Rain late January/early February on vinyl and digital formats.

from Juno

Tracklisting:

1. Lo Tek
2. Night City. Tokyo
3. Lo Tek Bridge
4. Biotechno 1 & 2
5. Lo Tek Bridge 2
6. Now I’m Just A Number
7. Lo Tek Musicm

Another essential release from Blackest Ever Black, dystopian soundscapes of the past for the present. You can definitely hear the influence of this record on Raime's sound.

Their next release will be from Vatican Shadow, who made my album of the year 2011.

Syndicate

This month sees the release of Syndicate, a remake of the classic cyberpunk game "Syndicate" from 1993. Published by EA, the game has been changed from a tactical shooter to a first person shooter. With high production values, the game certainly looks impressive and with people such as Skrillex providing the soundtrack it has the potential to enthuse the cyberpunk genre onto a younger audience.

Released: 21.02.12 on PS3. Xbox360 and Windows.




Plot:

2069: No longer governed by politicians, the developed world is divided up into regions controlled by mega-corporations known as syndicates. These syndicates have revolutionized how the consumer interacts with the digital world. Since the consumer requires a device to access the world's data and control technology, they can do this in the blink of an eye via neural chip implant.

Civilians flocked to be "Chip'd" and enjoy all that their selected syndicate has to offer: housing, medical, banking, insurance, education, entertainment and jobs. One complete package. One complete lifestyle. In return, the syndicates gained unprecedented insights, and control, over the individual and their behavior. With little government oversight, business has become war.

The syndicates will stop at nothing for ultimate market dominance At the first line of this war are the agents, the syndicate's bio-engineered and chip-augmented enforcers. They can breach anything in the wired dataverse, including their enemies, their weapons and the environment that surrounds them, making them the most efficient and deadly technological weapons in the world.

Take on the role of Miles Kilo, EuroCorp's latest prototype agent, and embark on a brutal action adventure of corruption and revenge.





http://www.ea.com/syndicate

We are now living in a cyberpunk novel.

The future has imploded onto the present. There was no nuclear Armageddon. There's too much Real Estate to lose. The new battlefield is people's minds....The megacorps ARE the new governments....The U.S. is a big bully with lackluster economic power....The world is splintering into a trillion subcultures and designer cults with their own languages, codes, and lifestyles....Computer-generated info-domains are the next frontiers....There IS better living through chemistry....Small groups or individual "console cowboys" can wield tremendous power over governments, corporations, etc....The coalescence of a computer "culture" is expressed in self-aware computer music, art, virtual communities, and a hacker/street tech subculture....The computer nerd image is passe, and people are not ashamed anymore about the role the computer has in this subculture....The computer is a cool tool, a friend, important human augmentation....We're becoming CYBORGS. Our tech is getting smaller, closer to us, and it will soon merge with us. 

Gareth Branwyn at a mondo2000 conference on the WELL, 1991

Ugandan Methods - Sixth Method

A1 Beneath The Black Arch 
B1 Between A Sleep And A Sleep 
B2 She Belongs To Eternity

http://www.veto.co.uk/music/AM06m_01.mp3 
http://www.veto.co.uk/music/AM06m_02.mp3 
http://www.veto.co.uk/music/AM06m_03.mp3


http://hardwax.com/65045/