| Editorial |
Several pints of blood, sweat and tears later, we can present the second issue of Toxin – also cunningly known as Toxin 2. It’s been a funny old summer and in Toxin we’ve tried to cover some of the bits that matter (to us, at least).
Notably, a key event in the festival calendar – the Big Green Gathering – was cancelled at the last minute, raising immediate accusations of political manoeuvring and sabotage by the local council and police force. Toxin contributor Kate J(B)ones ...
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| Big Green Thorn In The Arse Of The Orwellian Agenda |
 | Eco-revolutionary festival versus the Police State? The Big Green Gathering was billed as 'The world's premier and award winning Green Festival', and after some troubles in 2007 and a respite in 2008 it was all systems go this year, or so it seemed. Over 15,000 people were expected on 29th July at Fernhill Farm near Cheddar, Somerset, but something suddenly happened to this stalwart of the UK festival calendar. Founded in 1994 as a flowering offshoot of the Glastonbury Green Fields, it provided...
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| Secret Garden Party 2009 |
23rd-27th July 2009. Abbots Ripton, nr Huntingdon Outside here, in the twilight blue,You don't find the way, the way finds you. Bubbling acidic, I stumbled onto these words in Secret, and they summed up the Garden for me perfectly. This is a festival where, try as you might, you are not in full control of your experience. I saw very little of what I planned, and was shown much more than I expected. My plans were constantly overturned by better things; things stumbled upon, drifted into, dragged ...
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| We are ALAN |
 | 8th May 2009 @ Hidden, VauxhallALAN stands for Awareness, Love and All Nighters. It aims not only to entertain through music but also inform through bringing a host of NGOs to the table, which reminds me of the currently dormant Synergy Project/Luminopolis event. On paper at least, ALAN sounded very good, but would it stand up in real life? Words: Will PoolePics: Provided by the ALAN CrewALAN can be described in one word; mental. On entering the event at Hidden, in Vauxhall, it felt like you had...
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| Peyote Experience |
It's a strange feeling to find yourself in a place you never imagined yourself in, about to do something you'd never conceived of doing. I was in the desert of Real de Catorce in Mexico, searching for a peyote button so I could take part in a ceremony with a few of my friends. Dried out, fissured ground interspersed with strange geometric shrubs stretched out beyond us to the horizon. We were encircled by a chain of mountains and there was nobody in sight; a cloud of charged silence enveloped us...
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| Glade 2009 |
 | 15th - 18th July 2009, Matterley Bowl, HampshireWell, you wouldn't write home about the weather. Festivals generally go one of two ways - you're either sweltering for four days in baking heat, where you end up red and sunburnt with the complexion of a Dorito, or you're treated to constant rain and mud, leaving you with a horrid case of trenchfoot and little yellow mushrooms between your toes that could, if dosed correctly, leave you tripping for days. But Glade fell somewhere in the middle - yea...
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| Most People Hate The Government? |
Most people hate the government. Most people believe in democracy. According to democratic theory, people control their government. So something has gone wrong somewhere. Words: Luke RoelofsPics: Will JobbinsTo come at the same thing from a different angle, why do about half the adult population not bother to vote, nor engage in much other political activity? It's not enough to say that they are lazy or uncaring - if half the population are so foolish, how can we have faith in 'democracy' anyway...
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| Acidic Records Launch Night |
 | Parker McMillan, 12th June 2009
If you're setting up a new, groundbreaking record company, there are a few promotion options available to you. Rent a helicopter with a big flag underneath with your logo all over it and fly it over London. No? Well how about dancing girls in skin tight costumes handing out flyers made of silken moonlight? Or, alternatively, you Words: Will Jobbins Pics: Will Poolecould launch your label with a big event at Parker McMillan near Barbican, showcasing your best tal...
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| Xinjiang Riots - Commentary |
The Xinjiang Riots, China, July 2009
Ruth is a lecturer and freelance writer who spent several years working and travelling around China. Her works include two books about student protests and the Tiananmen massacre. She visited Xinjiang several times, gaining valuable insights about the situation of the Uighurs in this disputed territory, and she keeps up to date with the ongoing disputes and conflicts in the area. July 6th 2009. I wake to hear news of rioting Uighurs in Urumqi and vicious att...
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| Interview with Richie Balboa & Will Streetwise |
 | We caught up with two of the most influential heads in the breakbeat dance music scene, and picked their brains about music, the universe, life and everything... well, mainly music.Toxin: For our readers, who are you and what do you do? Words & interview: Will JobbinsPics: Supplied by kind permissionRB: Richie Balboa, DJ and manager of NSB Radio, the world's #1 breakbeat station. WS: Will Streetwise DJ, producer and owner of Streetwise Music.Toxin: We occasionally hear people whispering that...
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| Notting Hill Carnival |
31st August 2009 Notting Hill Carnival is widely acclaimed as the biggest multi-cultural street festival in Europe and the second largest in the world, after the Trinidad & Tobago Carnival held in the Caribbean itself. Words & Pics: Will Jobbins Flourishing in the forty-five years since the first Carnival back in 1964, Notting Hill has expanded and is held on a massive scale over two days - the Bank Holiday weekend towards the end of August. The vibe is mainly Caribbean and Latin Amer...
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| Flush |
 | 25th April 2009, Flush @ Public Life, Shoreditch, LondonFlush could be best described as a jewel in the rough, and the night is as quaint as the venue itself. The aptly-named Flush takes place in East London at Public Life - what used to be an underground public toilets for the ladies and gentlemen of ye old Victorian London. The whole place has been refurbished, but there's still very much the feeling that where you were Words: Will PoolePics used by kind permission of Arjuna Subanandan arj@MA...
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| The Best Laid Plans... |
I don't really like telling anecdotes where everything goes according to plan. I don't really make plans anyway (because they always go wrong), so I have very few stories of this nature anyway. You've guessed, then, that this is an anecdote where everything seemed to go wrong. I've been working at the festivals this summer with a café/stage, and there've been lots of times when everyone arrived, did their jobs, and despite a few hippy histrionics, Words & Pics: Dani Reddeverything happened ...
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| Goodmorrow Goodfellow |
 | Goodmorrow goodfellow,Pleasant day to you. I am writing from the centeroftheworld, and I have some important things to say to you today. These are things that resound. That echo. That glisten. I want to say them plainly, but I have no mouth for words like these. Instead, I dreaming HUGE Words: Tyler McGee greatness and sometime I act greatness (okapi-rare), and thistime I write of greatness in silly wordlings that think justice would let them eatcake. Truly, nowords can speak truth, and thesewor...
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| Production Tips #1 |
Part 1 - Introduction and Getting Started. Words & Pics: Joe Sheldrick, aka Cellardore This is an introduction to music production and how to get started making your own tracks. This first issue is aimed at people who have just started - or are thinking of starting - to produce their own music, but whatever level you're at there is something for everyone. First of all I would like to share a few thoughts on how I see the modern DIY electronic music production world. Today, anyone with a sm...
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| Essaouira, Morocco |
 | Words & pics: Will JobbinsAfter a few days spent exploring the bustling labyrinthine souks of Marrakech, a trip to Essaouira - a port town on the Atlantic coast of Morocco - is, in comparison, a real breath of fresh air.While Marrakech is deeply traditional and feels rather like nothing's changed in five hundred years, Essaouira is funky, laid-back and rather modern. Art galleries, surf shops and vegetarian restaurants line the narrrow, cobbled streets. Rooftop bar terraces offer cocktails a...
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| Reson8 |
Reson8 - Pauline Amos & Jeff CloakPauline Amos has risen into the public eye recently, after hitting the tabloids for the astronomical Words and interview: Martin WoodsPics: By kind courtesy of Pauline Amos and Jeff Cloakprice tag of her work "Opera Paese-Rome" and more recently for allowing the audience to paint her naked body at the end of a live art performance. I wanted to look beyond the headlines and also investigate the eerie accompanying music that Jeff Cloke creates with his softwar...
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| Climate Swoop |
 | 26th August 2009, LondonWe don't have to save the world. The world is big enough to look after itself. What we have to be concerned about is whether or not the world we live in will be capable of sustaining us in it..." - Douglas Adams.Words & pics: Will JobbinsWe're all aware of the impending doom we face as a result of climate change, right? Even the most blasé of environmental analysts are admitting that we face some very choppy waters ahead. As the planet warms, so the ambient temperatu...
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| Banco de Gaia at Dingwalls |
20th September, Dingwalls, London. Banco de Gaia has been a stalwart of the global dance music scene for nearly two decades now. During that career he's released well over a dozen albums, compilations and singles, plus countless guest remixes and edits of other people's tunes. His releases are widely diverse in nature, from the floor-shaking club favourites I Love Baby Cheesy or Zeus No Like Techno, through the euphoric Obsidian and melancholy Last Train To Lhasa, to the more mellow, chill tun...
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| Nozstock 2009 |
 | Words & pics: Kate J(B)ones I must have been near Wales because the sky was shitting bricks, but at least we were finally on our way to our only festival of 2009. After the terribly disappointing cancellation of the Big Green Gathering (see my report here), we were at a loss of what to do with our weekend...where to go? Many whispered of alternative gatherings in West Country campsites, many mooted a trip to the Isle of Wight to support the Vestas action, but what we really wanted was the fe...
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| Mission Immoral |
Mission Immoral: Foreign Policy and the Distortion of Liberal Ethics When giving an opinion or perspective that relies strongly on moral values one must take into consideration that, living in a liberal democracy, we accept that a variety of viewpoints are prevalent and that there is room in our society for all those who share our belief in certain integral values. The value I wish to define briefly before discussing with you is that of hypocrisy, which according to my dictionary is defined as '...
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| Waveform in the City |
 | 5th June 2009 - Waveform In The City @ Club Colosseum, Vauxhall, London With festival season right round the corner, this was the last chance to have a knees-up somewhere in the city, before all the parties packed up their sound systems and wellies and headed off out to muddy fields for the summer. After taking a quick look in our calendars we decided where better than Waveform In The City, the warm up party to the Waveform Festival, which we reviewed in our last issue? After taking one look at...
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| Altered Beast |
Altered Beast presents NOXSHI and support - 229 Club, 28th July 2009. Variety is the spice of life, so somebody important once said. And it's important to bear in mind that, while at an outside glance we at Toxin appear to be interested solely in rave music and electronic beats, our tastes are actually wildly divergent. Words: Will JobbinsPics: Aminah Islam and Stella Arsenis The single recurring common theme runs along the lines of originality. We like anything that's a bit different; a truly ...
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| Drum Camp |
 | July 9th - 12th 2009, Hulver Farm, Suffolk It was Thursday July the 12th and the weather in London was fine and sunny. I left my flat in with blue skies overhead and headed for Peckham where I was meeting my friends who were taking me to my first ever Drum Camp near Bungay in Suffolk. I was heading South of the river in order to then go north again, but they had the car, the camping gear and loads of enthusiasm for this event - so much so that they go every year. It features percussion artists a...
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| HOMmega at Matter |
14th August 2009- HOMmega at Matter, London When I got the invite to the HOMmega event I was genuinely excited. HOMmega was joined by the Alpha Omega crew which includes some of the best guys from the psytrance scene. I had missed their first launch party months earlier, so I was keen to get myself to their next event. HOMmega themselves are a label from Israel whose artists include some of the more world renowned artists like Astrix and (soon) even Infected Mushroom. But more importantly, I was...
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| All In A Night's Rave |
| Words: Tyler McGee{source}<div id="main" style="width:600px;"><div id="1" style="margin-left:75px;"><p class=MsoBodyText><i><span lang=EN-GBstyle='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial";color:blue'>I kissed the wind and<br> it gave up its<br> secret .<br> It is not a sloppy <br> kisser &...
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| David Prentice |
More poetry and writing for Toxin 2 courtesy of David Prentice, as featured in Toxin 1 here.Click the titles below to read his work..it started with a smell and a warmth around my feet. Without leaning back I reclined further into the cracked imitation leather of the restaurant booth. I mopped the sweat from my brow and waved to the waiter for the third time. It worked.
‘sir?’‘this water. I asked for flat, not sparkling.’‘I understand sir, but it isn’t sparklin... Read More >> | |
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| Maya Lewis - Bodypainter |
 | I'm 25 and I work as a freelance makeup artist and bodypainter. I have been interested in art since a very early age, and I would paint and draw on anything from walls to furniture to my own clothing. I took a shine to bodypainting as it is the body itself that you are using as a canvas, not paper, rather like a tattoo - although unlike a tattoo, you can wash the paint off afterwards. It's three-dimensional and you can manipulate the way the paint and other material works on the shape of the bod...
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| Cellardore - Step Down/Triple Drop |
For one so young, Cellardore is without doubt a talented music producer. Words: Will JobbinsHey, don't just take our word for it - just check out the crowd he draws to any event with his name on the billboard. With his finger on the pulse of electronic music, Cellardore has an almost instinctive trait for programming sounds that encourage the contents of your average dance floor to hit the tiles with serious energy. His tunes are very crowd-pleasing without sounding commercial, and uplifting wi...
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| Vaetxh - Clipper/Mass |
 | As with any other genre of music, a little too much popularity can stagnate new releases to the point where producers are solely concerned with conforming to the stereotype in order to become a) famous and b) rich. Words: Will Jobbins Dubstep's very much in danger of moving in that direction too, as an endless stream of releases, which sound dangerously alike, hit the stores. But all is not lost, as Vaetxh - aka Rob Clouth - brings a very fresh, exploratory vibe to the proceedings. His beats ar...
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| Neurodriver - Sidewinder/Robofunk |
A brace of classic straight-up psybreaks tracks here from new name (but familiar face) Neurodriver, aka Dom from Far Too Loud. This is techy breakbeat at its best - energetic, Words: Will Jobbinspumping rhythms with some frenzied widdling frequency shifts and the kind of mind bending sound effects that seem to go in one ear, ricochet around the inside of your skull for a while and then exit from the other. Dom's heritage is fairly easy to detect in both tracks and any FTL fan will be enamoured ...
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| Felt - International Observer |
 | Tom Bailey of the Thompson Twins is now as far removed from the UK pop world as possible. Having resided in New Zealand for a number of years he followed their love of reggae, producing under the International Observer guise since 2001. "Felt" Words: Martin Woodsis his second album released on Dubmission records after his 2007 release "Heard". Tom fuses the traditional dubplate style with a modern twist, often plucking the electric guitar beautifully as well employing the obligatory bass, reve...
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| Burial - Untrue |
There never was an artist so aptly named. Burial's sound is bare-bones bleak, gritty urban and yet even sad and childlike at times, and is quite possibly the work of a true genius. The loose pigeon-holing of this release as 'dubstep' doesn't really do it justice... it defies classification in that way that only the best music can. Words: Will Jobbins When listening to Untrue, his second studio album, one can almost feel the paint peeling from the walls of the staircase of a derelict inner city t...
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| Perfect Stranger - Free Cloud |
 | Perfect Stranger's album Free Cloud already had my name written all over it, when I saw it in a little Camden music and clothing store I love to pop into whenever I get the chance. I have a track called Mountain High which is the result of Perfect Stranger's collaboration with Morax, a track which I've always been very fond of. I consider it a warm-up tune to get things moving without being too in-your-face; like a caring parent providing words of encouragement to a meek child as opposed to a ma...
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| Commercial Hippies - From Beyond |
Anyone familiar with Nano Records and The Commercial Hippies will know roughly what to expect from their recent work From Beyond. It's the kind of work that many reviewers might describe as "stomping", "banging" or "fucking right on mate!" But that is to overlook what The Commercial Hippies truly excel at and that is their relentless energy. There is absolutely no let up - they keep pushing you to dance. You might say that this is par for the course for dance music producers (well, most of them...
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