Taliban: Made by the USA and Detention Without Trial
By Eye
Blatant Propaganda
Send $5 for each CD to PO Box 1327, Woden 2606 ACT, Australia, or visit <http://on.to/propaganda>
REVIEW BY MARK ABBERTON
"Taliban, Taliban: Made by the USA. Osama bin Laden became a bird of prey, with money and guns given by the CIA, and it is innocent people who have had to pay." So begins the first track of Eye's latest EP, and Canberra's biggest selling self-released music project.
The combination of spoken word commentary on the role played by the US in Afghanistan and its catchy industrial hip-hop sound makes "Taliban: Made by the USA" an effective "(anti)-propaganda" song.
Eye outline's how the CIA funded the terrorist groups that evolved to become the Taliban. They expose the hypocrisy of the "war on terrorism" that has killed more people than those killed in the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington. Much of the information used in the very informative lyrics was derived from Norm Dixon's articles from Green Left Weekly (they are also posted on the Eye's web site).
Taliban also includes the documentary landscape "Project Artichoke", an indictment of a CIA project that existed during the height of the Cold War, until the end of the 1960s. The CIA spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on brainwash and mind control experiments.
The extremely relevant title track of Eye's 2001 release Detention Without Trial charges that the Australian government's policy of mandatory detention of asylum seekers "sounds just like the hell from which they [refugees] fled".
The song ridicules the notion that Australia is the "land of the free, a fair go and democracy" with lines like: "Mistaken refugees, thought that our country was civilised enough to treat them with humanity. But what do they find, imprisonment without trial."
A further mockery of the Australian government's anti-refugee policy is made with the spoken-word "Welcome to Australia".
"No Mandate!", "The Pangea proposal — nuclear waste (demo)", "The Senate, part 2" and "Does this look like science 2 u?" are all indictments of other social injustices.
Eye's distinctive social and political comment, combined with quality and varied tunes influenced by industrial to drum 'n' bass and acid jazz to punk has meant they have received wide airplay on community radio stations around Australia.
"No Mandate!" was album of the week on Brisbane's 4ZZZ and Canberra's 2XX. However, Triple J has refused to play it, apparently due to the song's sampling of John Howard.
While filming the video for "No Mandate!" which was shown on various national TV programs, Eye was threatened with arrest for jamming and dancing in grim reaper outfits, gas masks and John Howard masks outside Parliament House.
Funds raised by the sale of Detention Without Trial will go to the ACT Refugee Action Committee.
From Green Left Weekly, February 13, 2002.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.