“What was it like coming back to America after fighting in Vietnam?” asks an off-screen narrator. A 22-year-old black man nods and begins to talk, his weary expression suggesting this is a question he’s prepared to answer, but one he dreads. “It’s almost the same as when I left, ” he begins. “I say this because when a man goes to fight for his country and then comes back over here and almost have to fight for his life in certain parts of the country, get ridiculed and discriminated, you know, and be less than a man. I don’t think it’s right, you know.” It’s 1967.  This early scene sets the stage for Göran Olsson’s terrific documentary, Black Power Mixtape 1967-195, which premieres on Independent Lens on 9 February. Specfically, it lays out the film’s premise, that the Black Power Movement, building and then suppressed from 1967 to 1975, emerged out of needs to resist injury and endure trauma, and also, to make visible what was going on in America, what remained unknown to people who didn’t have to know. The film features interviews with civil rights figures like SNCC’s Stokely Carmichael and Angela Davis, as well as today’s activists (Talib Kweli, ?uestlove), tracing how the Panthers resisted oppression (see especially, the FBI’s COINTELPRO) and also built a lasting sense community. Looking back, it looks forward, observing from the outside (the Swedish reporters’ footage that makes up the bulk of the film), it reveals what goes on inside.

See PopMatters’ review.

Watch Looking Back at the Black Power Movement on PBS. See more from Independent Lens.

Joachim Dyrdahl, known in the music scene as successful producer and DJ “diskJokke”, has debuted the latest video for his new single “Now Dance”. Initially reaching fame for his imaginative remixes of songs by the likes of David Lynch, Lindstrøm, Foals and Bloc Party, the Oslo-based artist is now coming into his own, creating original, funky sound mixes based in electronica and infused with hints of house, disco and pop.

Below is the most recent video, designed to accompany “Now Dance”, a single that has also been reworked by UK artist Bright Light Bright Light. The song is one of many singles featured in the limited edition 7” series, produced by Oslo-based label Splendour, a brand that has collaborated recently with high profile artists such as His Highness and Shimmering Stars.

After the initial sweeping vengeance of punk took hold after 1977, a sweeping platform of New Music strode in, re-landscaping pop music. In that heady era, all things converged, from Talking Heads and the Records to Joe Jackson and Ultravox. That’s the genre I sense when listening Texas-based the Shadow, who melds punk’s knack for the inchoate and off-kilter with a savvy sense of trad-rock hooks and pop-a-delic fare. To be sure, for every bit of mustered, seething psychodrama they vent, a bit of the Age of Aquarius leaks out with modern flair, pummeling, and agility.

“Punk Rock Agent” slips into the earlobe with persistent charm, easily mustering a week’s worth of humming and silent sing-along head nods in the grocery store aisle. Sure, it lacks roughhewn edges and emotional bullets, but the tune’s caffeinated pulse adeptly combines layers of streamlined surf, titanic pop bombast, and a 1960s urge for danceability and crunchy guitar thrust. If a phenom single cut exists on the album, something for future lore about the band,a breakthrough track—this is it, a proud reign of pouncing pop-punk.

Life is slow moving and mundane, games aren’t. Therefore, games satisfy a need for speedy, direct progress. It’s difficult to point to when the idea that games exist for the sake of escapism was popularized, but in recent years, such an idea has driven much of games journalism and probably a good deal of design as well. It’s odd to think of such an expensive hobby that is so often associated with a privileged class as designed purely for escape. What could such an audience have to escape from?

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, released in 2003 for the Gameboy Advance, however, rejects the idea of games merely existing as a form of escapism. The game acknowledges the idea that many have that games are escapist and refutes it.  It’s a game about gamers and the dangers of escaping into gaming too deeply. The thesis of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is that escapism is not just dangerous to the medium but to those of us that love it.

Released on vinyl in early 2012 as the b-side to a DJ Hidden/Broken Note collaboration, “Obey” sees Ad Noiseam producers Niveau Zero and Balkansky come together for one brief, dirty moment. While the North American mainstream struggles with the cycle of dubstep hype and backlash, this track falls not into its spiral. Rather, “Obey” huffs and puffs and blows down the house with its uncompromising bass and meticulous production. This is not your basic club single. It doesn’t ask you to like it. It commands you to obey, and can smell your fear.