Ron Kurti's Website

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Back in the late nineties (holy shit! That was more than 10 years ago!!!) I was living with Ran Pink, my childhood friend, soul mate, and only the second guy I knew who had all his tracks on vinyl. On the couch lived Herwig Maurer, one of the sweetest, nicest, most productive humans in this solar system, and the first guy I knew who had all his tracks on vinyl.

These two gnarly bros left Berkley Music School and moved to LA to start a production company. In the process they came up with a concept band called Mankind Liberation Front (LaLa). MLF quickly signed a contract with one of those archaic companies (ie: a record label) and were soon making music videos and appearances.

I was working in a design firm at the time, but I spent the majority of my spare time hanging out in the studio with them, working on their website (1999), smoking weed, then smoking Ran’s weed, and helping out. When the guys started practicing a live show they recruited me to be the backup keyboardist. Mostly because I was free, eager, did not require the limelight, and followed directions well.

The rest of the details are pretty hazy.

MLF’s sound combined rock music with electronic beats. At the time the record label didn’t really know what to do with them. I wonder how they would have fared now in the age of online marketing and self-promotion. I imagine they could have gained a pretty large following of young fans.

Soon thereafter Ran’s younger brother, Tal (creator of Dopetracks.com), came on board and added another layer of vocals to the mix.

You probably never heard of MLF, but if you heard them today what would you think?

High contrast clouds covered the big sky as we geared up to fly from Melbourne to Sydney.

I love this part of an airport. The airplane… docked.. being prepped for its journey. I have a child-like obsession with this kind of big mysterious technology. Why?

The physics of flight is simple; in theory. Wing surface area + Air pressure. But… this is just a big metal thing!! How can it float like that?

There’s something about airplanes. I can’t quite put my finger on it; it is a combination of mysterious technology coupled with their size and strength.