Tree of Sores

Tree of Sores rightfully take their place amid the sea of awesome bands of almost every ilk spewing out of Leeds at the moment (See Eagulls, Antares, Slowcoaches and Humanfly for an interesting cross-section). The order of the day is pounding, atmospheric walls of sound that owe a lot to Times of Grace/Through Silver in Blood-era Neurosis with suitably grim male and female vocals. The overall atmosphere is most certainly dark and rarely seems contrived, the possible exception being the fourth track From Within. The brooding vibe conjured up by Tree of Sores pays off and the band have shaped for themselves a distinctive sound despite obvious influences. Closing track Silent Scream transcends it's slightly cheesy title and provides a satisfying end to a well-rounded release.

If Tree of Sores worked on how they could better incorporate their supposed crust influence and introduce more varied and unpredictable tempos then they would stand out as something really special. As it is, their self-titled EP (out on Witch Hunter Records on February 21st) makes for a really entertaining listen and shows some real signs of potential and ability. It's definitely worth purchasing the release when it's out and I look forward to catching them live sometime soon

Witch Hunter Records

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Blogspot Reshuffle

My current affairs ramblings will now go on ATTN Magazine. What will get posted here is reviews and anything else that takes my fancy. Adam.

Flatlands

Flatlands
The fact that I've only heard two albums made in 2010 that I've not been involved with is made bearable by the fact that one of them is the final Flatlands release. For the uninitiated, Flatlands were one of the most original and unrelentingly heavy English bands. After years of touring, two albums and a number of EPs, splits etc. they split up in the summer and have moved on to other things.

Their self-titled EP is a fitting obituary for the band. The crushing riffs, accompanied by trademark screams that one can only assume are on the subject of the Lincolnshire countryside, fade into equally haunting clean passages. All the elements that have helped to make Flatlands the most exciting English band for the past few years are present and accounted for. One of the main developments in Flatlands' later work is the incorporation of guitarist Gareth Hughes clean vocals and, while the vocals on the final track (South by South Holland) bear more than a passing resemblance to many iLiKETRAiNS songs, these efforts help to add another dynamic to the Flatlands sound.

The breakup of Flatlands subsequent to the recording of this EP serves to add poignancy to their final recordings. And really, who couldn't love a band with a song called "This is Woodhall Sparta". 9

The International Court Jester

On this week's BBC Question Time, the final question was (as far as I can recall) "Julian Assange - hero or villain?". The general consensus among the panel was "villain" though the NUS president and Amir Kahn shrouded their vague approval in some freedom of speech-based rhetoric. While I feel that the Wikileaks disclosures increase international uncertainty and I'm confused by the particular dogma of "freedom of information" that supposedly guides the Wikileaks movement, I think that the portrayal of Assange as a villain based on the Wikileaks revelations alone is misguided.

Firstly, a quick note on the use of language. The "hero or villain" dichotomy seems to have spiraled out of control in relation to the Wikileaks story. The hero-villain rhetoric is most familiar to journalists (three Guardian articles on December 9th described someone as a villain and two as a hero) but the actors within the story aren't shying away from the hero talk. Julian Assange described the source of the leaks as an "unparalleled hero". Those in favour of and in opposition to Wikileaks are keen to smother the detail of the story in a good vs. evil narrative.

There is no question that if the allegations of sexual assault against Assange are true then villain would be a suitable title however, curiously, none of the members of the Question Time panel chose to mention this. The claim made by many of the panel that the Wikileaks disclosures constitute an act of villainy credits Assange with villainous motives. A quick google search throws up this definition - a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel. Assange doesn't seem to be a man "devoted to wickedness" but rather someone bent on pursuing a grudge held (rightly or wrongly) against the American government by the means available to him. Assange is the global equivalent of the disgruntled court jester who has just stumbled upon the royal arsenal. To credit him with villainy is to abstract and distort the motives behind the Wikileaks disclosures into the realm of good vs. evil when, in fact, the vendetta is a deeply personal one. Assange clearly has no regard for the consequences of his actions on the stability of international diplomacy (his answer to "JAnthony" in a recent Guardian Q & A session shows his disdain for well thought-out observations on the topic - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2010/dec/03/julian-assange-wikileaks) and probably has little interest in the impact of the disclosures on the affairs of many of the nations involved.

Villainy is judged, not by the impact of actions, but by the motives from which they originate. Branding Assange as a villain is unhelpful in understanding what lies behind Wikileaks and ultimately the opinion of the president of the NUS and Liam Fox is unlikely to sway those calling for Assange's assassination or Assange himself either way.

North Korean Swaggering and Robert J. Art's Four Purposes of Force

Where do the recent North Koren military strikes on South Korea fit into Robert J. Art's four purposes of force?

There is little sense in giving a full description of each of Art's purposes of force as they are set out clearly and concisely in his seminal article, To What Ends Military Power (Art, R. J., 1980). A brief overview however is useful in order to save time in consulting the original article. Defensive purposes serve to either defend against attack or reduce the amount of damage that would be sustained should an attack occur. When force is exercised with Deterrence in mind, one seeks to prevent another from carrying out an action by threatening them with punishment. Compellence is the use of force in order to change the behaviour of another; this can be either getting an adversary to stop something that they are currently doing or to do something that they currently aren't. The final purpose of power, swaggering, is defined as "the deployment of military power for purposes other than defence, deterrence or compellence and, as Art states, it is partially a residual category. Despite this, Art attaches to the swaggering category a number of characteristics that serve to shed some light on the recent North Korean military action. Swaggering has as its primary objective the acquisition of prestige (the enhancing of a nation's imagine in the eyes of others). Art supposes that this could have a positive knock-on effect of increasing a state's deterrence, defence and compellence capabilities. Swaggering is normally manifested in military exercises or the development of the most technological advanced weapons. Curiously, Art claims that "almost always involves only the peaceful use of force" (ibid, p.10), presumably leaving swaggering open to involve (in some exceptional cases) the physical use of force and yet later, when laying out the four purposes in a table, Art restricts the swaggering purpose to the use of peaceful force.

North Korean Swaggering
In order to be fully confident of knowing what purpose a state is employing force for one must have knowledge of their motives. As Art states, we can never be fully sure of a state's motives and official statements cannot be relied upon. In the case of North Korea it is especially difficult to assess motives as the sources of information are particularly limited. The North Korean artillery strike on Yeonpyeong island has been defended by the state run media outlet as an act of retaliation against South Korean military exercises near the border. These exercises have been a typical feature of North-South relations and in this case there were no shells fired in the direction of North Korean waters. While North Korea would no doubt classify their actions as either defence or compellence, the usual lack of North Korean military response to these exercises suggests an alternative motive, prestige. As a handover of power is currently underway in North Korea, there is an incentive for the leadership to display to the international community that there will be no seachange in North Korean attitudes to South Korea and showcase its military power and willing. A broadening of the concept of swaggering outlined by Art is necessary to improve the analytic comprehensiveness of his four purposes. As his definition stands, the North Korean military action cannot be seen as swaggering and must be viewed in light of one of the other three purposes. It fails to fit into either of the three categories unless North Korea has undergone a change in policy that deems that military exercises near the border warrant immediate military action, if this is the case then future exercises will likely be met with the same response. The North Korean actions are best understood as a form of "physical force swaggering" that is not accounted for in Art's framework.


It is important to note that Art himself admits that his four purposes are not "descriptively accurate but he claims that they are analytically exhaustive. My argument is that the analytical utility of 'swaggering' (one of the four purposes) is threatened by Art's view that swaggering is non-physical by nature. Art's purposes of force fail to account for the "physical force swaggering" of North Korea's recent military strikes against South Korea. The restriction of swaggering to non-physical strategies limits the term's explanatory power and undermines Art's assertion that his four categories "analytically exhaust the functions that force can serve" (ibid, p.5).