hop-frog's fatwa:  the Silk Road   (URCK 2016) 

Release Date 12/2004  $8

track samples, nur HIER klicken:     1. few pleasures 2. you can't do that to me, i'm an american!  3. 2016 a space atrocity 4. persian multiplication perfume 5. sweet child ov mine 7. underevolution 8. the earth's mustard  6. bakshish  9. paxil rows

"Music for Minefields (and the children who play in them)"

The Silk Road is the first project from the musical collective hop-frog.  This work was recorded under the name hop-frog’s fatwa, a project intended as a guerilla action against the upbeat, positive, and highly overproduced “World Music” of late, yet retaining the members’ passion for musical traditions of various cultures.  The album is set in an alternate near-future in which the characters find themselves on an endless journey along an ancient silk trade route.  Many obstacles and states of mind are experienced, including encounters with countless mutant variants of the next generations of “smart” mines and their victims.  It is a barren wasteland in the East where artists deemed “decadent” are banished to, able to survive by taking jobs such as clearing minefields by hand.  This is a metaphor for the treatment of artists in a society dominated by corporate totalitarianism, as well as cultural blandness and unchecked materialism.  It is also ironic since artists have been forced to flee from the same region by oppressive forces in recent times.  The journey along the Silk Road is an examination of the creative process.  The characters are finally able to see the world with pharmaceutical-free clarity, and are able to endure the creative process with all its explosive pitfalls and rewards.

"Valmara!  It is a lofty beacon of light illuminating the path of Allah" 

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