exponentiation ezine: issue [3.0: culture]
Music
Aphex Twin-"Selected Ambient Works 1985-1992. Vol. 1" (2002 Pias America)
Volume alternates between uplifting minimalist ambient techno and more rhythmically oriented club fodder. Songs here are clearly designed to meet pop expectations of electronic music, with incessant 4/4 beats, heavy repetitive bass lines, and airy synth patches now familiar to the genre all rendered in spacious clear production values. In other words, one might be inclined based on this description alone to totally dismiss this album as knob-twiddling tripe. Not so. While some tracks do verge toward populist, style-over-substance tendencies, the better ones here show micronarratives of thematic shift within the kind of consistent sonic patterning characteristic of ambient music. Most of these pieces consist of a pair of dominant melodic themes: one anchoring rhythmic structure and the other a tangentially developing phrasal pattern floating into aural space to carry the initial motion to its final conclusion. Minute details flush out the rest: pauses and subtle manipulations of timbre to provide the contrasts necessary to keep the listener's interest. Like the best ambient, it's about using details and subtly developing thematic counterpoints to give more depth and complexity within consistent mood as if going from viewing a two dimensional picture of a scene to actually being immersed in it. Highlights: Tracks 1-3, 9.
Aphex Twin-"1994 Selected Ambient Works Vol.2" (1994 Sire/London/Rhino)
It isn't until this second showcasing that we see more consistency in quality along with some degree of aesthetic advancement from simple ambient techno. The bass-heavy techno rhythm tracks have largely been replaced with more subtle percussion, or often, a total lack of it in order to emphasis the newfound sense of negative space that brings us another dimension of musical expression.
Overall this is a more contemplative affair, featuring fluid melodic soundscapes of digital yet warm tones that gently ease their way into the listener's framework of perception. While still minimalist, this release employs somewhat more complexity in detail of layering. Prominent musical devices, as heard on tracks like to achieve this are delay and volume swells allowing fragments of minor key melody to overlap and momentarily express their significance in new ways while driving bass counterpoints may enter to resolve direction of mood under these shimmering textures of sound.
The mood of the album tends to be darker in comparison to the former yet there is still a variety to be heard, perhaps to a greater extent. Songs like Cliffs and this reviewers favorite, Z Twig are uplifting singular moments of musical ideas enwrapping each other in baths of echo. Other tracks like Hexagon and Weathered Stone weave gentle melodic phrasing with brainy bass riffs as if contrasting humanity's tendency toward the earthbound with their desire to aspire toward the higher yet less gratifyingly tangible. In fact this could be the common theme that unites all of Aphex Twin's best ambient works providing the conceptual ground for their composition and elevation above that which is merely wall paper being passed off as ambient. Highlights: 1,3,5,7 of CD 1 and 1,5,6,7,8 of CD 2. - No Fun
Ashtorath - "Darkstorm Entwined" (2002 Independent)
Unheard of and celebrated only by underground dark ambient fans, Ashtorath is a unique ambient project coming out of Canada. While most ambient artists, at the time this album was recorded, used synthesizers and various technical editing to achieve an ambient atmosphere, Ashtorath focused on physical instrumentation and thereby actively engaged with the music itself to form a coherent listening experience. With delicate and noble emotion, Ashtorath set out to form a concept of classical music meeting metal.
Ethereal and magical is the atmosphere found in these dark and romantic pieces that explore the romanticist side of life. Hanging ambient key tones flow between high and low points, switching from far away to close distance, serving as leading melodies to inflict an emotional mood upon its own basic structure. The rasping sound of a nail shaking a guitar string with ease fill the sometimes wondrous void, as a communicator of magical worlds and immersive myths and legends.
Because this is what Ashtorath is a master at; creating magical moods and the ability to set the listener into a distant world where time is an illusion and romanticism is reality. The beauty stems, not only from the harmonies between ambient and metal, but also from the spirit of classical music that arises within each piece. The collaboration between the distant, fading sounds of guitar strings, blowing wind and soft church bells define each moment as special and unique, drenched in darkness.
If one could use the word "art", one would apply it to "Darkstorm Entwined", and that rightly so. The influences from classical music is at most times benevolent and real, and gives the music a clear vision of what it tries to present. Lively but ambiguous, this music works at both an emotional and philosophical level; there are no restrictions regarding the expression of the music itself, only endless possibilities.
The new guitar techniques found on "Darkstorm Entwined" were, at the time of the creation of this album, new and inspiring for numerous underground ambient and metal projects to come. As felt and heard when the finger rides on a string after a note within a larger melody is being played, these techniques are used to the advantage of the artist and turned into melodies themselves, voices of birds from afar.
The sound of icicles meeting, thunderstorms roaring and strings played upon by a creature unhuman, unknown, are but few of the ways in which Ashtorath keeps the overall mood going. This gothic monument is as ethereal as it is enchanting and moving; there is no lack of emotion and dedication to art in this album. Competent, but not the least, true to itself and its creation, the words trying to express the poetry found within each statement are mere attempts to reach the height of abstraction felt and lived by the music and creator. When day turns to night and time passes, there will be nothing left but the echoes of a dimension beyond this one, upholding experiences that transcend physical reality.
Breathtaking. - Alexis
Cocteau Twins ñ "Garlands" (1982 4AD Records)
An adventure into the darker realms of ethereal music, this 1982 release from Cocteau Twins blends together elements of post-punk, punk and new wave to create endearing atmospheric music with a heavy Gothic sensibility. The music on Garlands is more straightforward and cut from the mold of the early post-punk scene than are later Cocteau Twins releases. Its atmosphere is less dreamy than future albums and is instead darker and grittier, however elements of this bands trademark sound can be found tucked away in nooks and crannies of this release.
The bass guitar is the dominant instrument on this album, it shifts tones in the Gothic rock tradition while a guitar that makes full use of arpeggios and pedal effects layers ambient and ethereal atmospheres behind it. Simple and metrical drumbeats add backbone to the swift and haunting guitar melodies, but they also have a tendency to degenerate into simplistic dance beats that cover up the beauty of the harmonic sections. This is a minor gripe, as it does not do enough to detract from the beauty of the music as a whole.
Of important note on Garlands is the wonderful vocal performance presented by Liz Fraser. Fraser's vocals are playful and unique and add dreamy qualities to the guitar created atmospheres. As always Fraser's vocals are one of the strongest aspects of Cocteau Twins' music. There are not many vocalists in the world that have quite the dynamic range and beauty of her voice and her presentation is one of the most unique in all of music; her vocals are less about making lyrics audible and are more about creating unique sounds and sublime verbal textures. While Liz's performances are always unique, her presentation on Garlands, though not her best, is one of a kind as she adds many laughs and giggles into the music that heighten its otherworldly qualities.
While a great album in many ways, Garlands exemplifies a young band still finding its own voice. Musicianship here is more than competent, but the relationship between the instruments is not as integrated and harmonious as later Cocteau Twins albums, this is in part what causes this album to be less dreamy. The repetition of harmonies, melodies and rhythms can be this bands strong point as these musical elements lend themselves to creating a transcendental atmosphere but they can also be a weak point, as they can grow monotonous if not integrated properly. For example the repetitive drum section on Garlands has a tendency to undermine the harmonics. It occasionally becomes too pronounced and drowns out the ambient and melodic sections. Luckily on future albums they improved and downplayed the role of the drum machine.
Even though this album has a few shortcomings in its structure and identity, it still lucidly expresses a band with a vision to create inspiring and atmospheric music. With Garlands, Cocteau Twins have successfully crafted a brooding and ethereal album that transports the mind to a mysterious realm. This is a top-notch album in the post-punk/gothic tradition and it is highly recommended. The music found here should appeal to fans of other 4AD bands such as Dead Can Dance and Bauhaus. - phantasm
Books
"Going Postal: Rage, Murder and Rebellion: From Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond" by. Mark Ames. 284 pages. Soft Skull Press (2005)
It's been one year since Jeff Weise, the friendless, husky teenager with a broad chin characteristic of his Chippewa heritage, murdered ten people, including his grandfather on the Red Lake, Minnesota reservation and high school in what remains the largest American teen-rage murder since Columbine. Last April, as the media storm lingered over the motives (video games) and interests (Goth music) of the sixteen year old shooter, Mark Ames, writing in New York Press, offered a view that was apparently quite ludicrous to his journalistic peers:
"Jeff Weise is the offspring of an exterminated nation whose people suffer from rates of alcoholism, poverty and early death usually found in African countries. His father committed suicide; his alcoholic mother regularly beat him until she crashed her car and wound up a vegetable. It is easy to imagine that Weise connected his personal misery to the larger misery of his people...In that sense, Jeff Weise looks more like an insurgent than a simple psychopath." *
Ames, dismissing the media's generalization of a deranged "Nazi", was only hinting at the widespread culture of bullying and intimidation assumed by America's educational and corporate institutions. His new book, "Going Postal" offers a detailed analysis of the psychology, background and future implications of this largely stateside, middle-class phenomenon. Key to his theory is debunking the general belief that rage-killers, like serial killers, can be profiled. Indeed, Weise, a poor Indian from the reserve is not the only subject to deviate from the common illustrations of white male anomie. Since it's impossible to lock onto a fixed criteria within the lives of these killers, common external factors must be the prime motivation. His argument is twofold; by attributing the contemporary environment of the workplace and high-school, a shift from paternal management toward an intentional climate of fear, to the economic practices of the Reagan presidency ñ cemented during Clinton's term of globalization, Ames contextualizes the dispiriting environments and cut-throat ideals that pervade each generation since.
For most Americans, work exists as a routine, not a vocation of skill. With its atmosphere of petty dictators, snitches, gossip-hags, cursed fluorescent lighting and forced cheerfulness implicit in customer service, employees trudge through their routine day after day, amongst tiers of both the sexless and sexually frustrated. These conditions are concurrent to all office-based jobs, increasing with the scale of the company. It's a real-world sentence involving what Evola called an "artificial increase" of human needs.** For those young enough, lucky enough or willing to take a risk, it may only last a decade before they're able to accumulate some savings and move on to something better. Most won't, no matter the indignity. It's this idea that consumes the second half of Ames argument, which draws comparisons between the contemporary employee and lowly slaves, touching on both the Romans and Arabs, but primarily concerned with America's early history. In the colonies slave rebellions were a rare occurrence. The reason? While those uprisings that did occur were squashed almost instantly, most did not want to leave their masters at all; contrary to the triumphant pictorials of slaves in modern education (read: television). But it was not so much fear of the military or the White Man's law which prevented escape; it was, as Ames reasons quoting Frederick Douglas, a fear of the unknown.
There are many convenient traps offered by America's quotidian model. For one, it fills an otherwise hapless existence with familiarity and responsibility. The same familiarity and defined space that helped keep slaves in tow, leading relatively untroubled lives so long as they conformed. Indeed, most Americans love work! It's built into our National ideal, which in the last few decades has taken on grotesque dimensions. As Ames notes "Entertainment is no longer about joy or escape. It's about reliving life at the office, even if you've just left the office fifteen minutes ago." But for all this dreary life of schlepping and sorting and keying in, it used to be more tolerable; at least American's were well compensated for it, receiving benefits and earned vacation time. Even for the ones privileged enough to receive either of these more humane accommodations today, many are afraid to take the advantage; wouldn't want to look like you're falling behind. Thus, when this rigid, consuming life of eat, sleep, laugh, shit work is disrupted, often in degrading shows of pseudo-strength and corporate apathy, the consequences can be legion. Is this mere rhetoric and hyperbole? Ingest these gems from former Intel CEO Andy Grove and the Wall Street Journal and then think when they were applicable to your life. (Although if you're European, with an average vacation time of six to seven weeks compared to American's ten to fourteen days off, it might be tough).
"The most important role of managers is to create an environment in which people are passionately dedicated to winning in the marketplace. Fear plays a major role in creating such passion. Fear of competition, fear of bankruptcy, fear of being wrong and fear of losing can all be powerful motivators."
"The workplace is never free of fear ñ and it shouldn't be. Indeed, fear can be a powerful management tool."
This sentiment has become manifest throughout decades in literal monsters like Andy Dunlap and sneering assholes like Neal Patterson down to the callous pit-bosses in Oklahoma, San Diego and Kentucky. And Columbine; for what are today's schools but farming systems for the next crop of drones? Shifting focus from education to selective discipline, aggravated disaster's like high-school were up until a few years ago, a place where bullying was just a fact of life -- preparation for the business world. Always concerned with teaching how not to think, one of the most curious themes explored by Ames is the media's convergence upon racism as a motivation for teenage killers, often in place of the more logical activators, such as humiliation and alternative-less defeat. Says Ames, "It is as if the adult world needs to find racist motives in the school shooters and plotters in order to bracket them as exceptionally 'evil', rather than, as is usually the case, typical". As The Misfit's used to sing, "Blame it all on Nazi Youth!"
*http://www.nypress.com/18/14/news&columns/markames.cfm
** "The turning point was the advent of a new life that...adopted as it's highest ideal an artificial increase and multiplication of human needs and the necessary means to satisfy them, in total disregard for the growing slavery this would inexorably constitute for the individual and collective whole." Men Among the Ruins pg 173. - Smog
Cinema
Repo Man (dir. Alex Cox 1984)
The culmination of postmodern thought is a kind of paranoia that is both figurative and literal: we cannot trust social institutions, or even universal abstracts like "truth" and "good," because they can be manipulated; part II is that, having said that, we have to assume most of our society is not only indulging itself in fantasy but, because deluded, is actually opposed to truth... Repo Man is a movie that makes good on this principle by showing us the empty path of growing up suburban in the 1980s. There is the easy life -- "normal people" as defined by Bud, the anachronistically witty repossessor -- represented by Otto's family, who are living out a _Brave New World_ satiation by drugs, religion, sex and wealth while important decisions are offhand, unnoticed and denied. In contrast to normalcy, which we see is as empty as eating two Big Macs instead of a single (1) quality steak, is the life of the underworld: punkers committing senselessly graceful crime, kids gathering for secret parties at abandoned industrial locations, repo men trying to at least fool themselves into a modern chivalric code. Otto is defining himself by the path he takes through this mess, and his ultimate guiding light becomes a sense of truth "in the Real" as he rejects the sordid amusements, passive untruths, and failing paths of others. Almost every character in this movie comes to self-destruction as a result of losing sight of the pursuit of Realism: Bud shot down as he pursues money, Duke dying in a holdup, Archie fried on a dare, J. Frank Parnell destroyed by the radiation he considered a friend, Leila never gets to examine the aliens, Kevin becoming a pointless toadie to Mr. Humphries. Like most postmodern works, this movie is a subtle assimilation of 18th-century Romantic ideals into a modern sense of duality brought about by the difference between reality as it is described, especially by bureaucratic institutions, and reality as it exists... the indefinable, unbureaucratic _now_. Characters are as much icon as human being, and re-appear whenever their particular traits and failings need airing. Their names are ridiculous, from the customer "Arthur Pakman" (Pac-Man defining the arrival of video games, and soon computers, as trend in the 1980s) to the repo men named after different beers (Lite, Bud, Oly, Miller). Characters and events also satirize characters and events as portrayed by movies: Lite, the macho man African-American male; Leila, the classic insane but passionate movie woman; Marlene, parody of women on shows like "A-Team" who were tough and carried guns but had few ideas. Other incidental parodies include the skewering of generic products, televangelism, new age religions, Hispanic culture, wealth, the emptiness of Anglo suburbs, the astounding ugliness of modern cities. Although it seems an unlikely source, this movie melds macabre humor and post-counterculture insight into a single clear voice, at a time when the world needed such a thing (and coincidentally, a time when the last postmodern works of any quality were written). With the mathematical-scientific metaphor of most postmodern movies, it summarizes how we have gone wrong ("Linear and inverse vectors merge in zero" -- one way of saying if you simplify life into a single variable like money or power, you bring it closer to death through repetition) while making us grin. In theory, it was about nuclear war -- as shown through the duality of harmful/helpful radiation, and aliens existing/being a hoax -- but it ended up being a critique not of an event or tendency but the underlying emptiness of our social and political outlook. Now that we once again have a president who talks fanatically about God while bandying weapons about, it's not a terrible time to view this snapshot of the 1980s that is dramatically relevant today. -vijay prozak
Dawn of the Dead (dir. George Romero 1978):
"When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth"
These haunting opening lines to George A. Romero's epic horror film Dawn of the Dead foretell both the world of the film and the substance of our modern culture. Dawn marks the second film in Romeo's "dead trilogy" and it is the most ambitious and competent of the three.
Dawn of the Dead begins in a disgruntled newsroom full of hectic chatter and anarchistic fray as scientists bicker on the television over what is causing the plight of zombies to raid their beloved society. The cities in Dawn of the Dead are degenerating into hellish prisons and wastelands full of squabbling, degenerate humans and waves of the undead. The film follows two policemen and two media employees as they flee the cities in a helicopter in order to find a safe haven away from the growing chaos and ever increasing legions of the undead.
Their trip takes them to an abandoned mall where they decided to take haven and create a society for themselves. Inside the mall mindless zombies wander aimlessly through the shops and along escalators as cheese-ridden mall music blares over the loudspeakers. While the mindless automatons we see in Dawn of the Dead are flesh eating zombies they are virtually indistinguishable from the living automatons that wander the malls daily. In this regard Dawn of the Dead removes the veil of western consumerism and exposes its hollow insides.
The protagonists of the film eventually take on the consumerist characteristics of the mall culture and begin to revel in the material goods of the mall. They essentially become become the mindless themselves in the process. The filmmaker pulls no punches in making this point known. He has his smiling protagonists run wide-eyed through open stores full of useless junk as if they are kids in a candy shop. The protagonists attempt to create a society for themselves out of all the goodies they have accumulated in the mall while the world outside continues to tear itself apart.
Skillfully the film slows down the horror and terror in these sections and allows us to dwell in this new society along with the protagonists. We, like them, begin to forget about the dark underbelly lying just outside and pressing to come in. The reality remains elusive to them as they indulge in mall junk. Eventually their mall wonder world comes crashing down as the terror on the outside finally manages to leak in. At that point the film resumes the terror in full and implies that as we grow fat on indulgence in the west this same end waits to leak in and finish us off - the illusion is only waiting to be striped away.
Although the film at times makes its critique of consumerist western culture from a manipulatively liberal perspective and loses the subtlety of quality satire in favor of indulging in irony, it should by no means deter from the power of the main point of the film. When the manipulative aspects of the film are peeled away the value of the message shines though and stands as a resolute attack on the lost and materialistic culture we live in today.
Dawn of the Dead is a rich allegory about modern consumerist culture and the degenerate and passive lifestyles most westerners joyfully engage in daily while remaining unaware of the doom waiting for them just around the corner. By utilizing the horror medium and turning zombies into a symbol for mindless consumerism, Dawn of the Dead manages to break down the illusionary walls of our modern society to expose the hell and emptiness that roams within. - phantasm
Food
Sourdough Bread
Bread Basics
Leavened bread is known to have been baked perhaps as early as 4000 years ago, by the ancient Egyptians. It's more basic counterpart, unleavened bread, stretches back far further, beyond history. It is not known how the Egyptians discovered methods of rising their bread, but we know they were also brewers, and the use of yeast could have easily been transferred to breads, either deliberately or accidentally. Bread has been a dietary staple across innumerable cultures ever since, being a lasting, portable and (until fairly recently) healthy food type.
When the microscope was developed in the nineteenth century the leavening agent, a single celled fungi named yeast, was discovered and soon began to be produced commercially. With economic pressures, commercial yeasts were bred for speed, stability and lack of strong flavor. Also, another bacteria, lactobacillus, which lives in symbiosis with yeast, was not included in commercial developments of yeast as it was technically unnecessary, despite being present in all prior leavened breads. Combined with ever more refined flours, and the addition of all sorts of fats, oils and sugars, bread continually progressed (or regressed) toward the bland, white, sweet enclosure for sandwiches for know today, which coincidentally happens to be edible. This cheap impostor foodstuff has made baking at home redundant for most people.
Mercifully, one can still bake bread in the healthy tradition, though it now sadly, and ironically, takes more effort than relying upon industrial processes. Baking one's own is nutritionally superior, develops simple but important skills and lowers reliance upon industrial society (if only a tiny bit), tastes fantastic, and cultivates patience. It also makes the kitchen smell fantastic. For these simple reasons it's a rewarding practice.
Knowing the basic processes of leavening can be of aid for the would-be baker. Yeast is a single celled organism that feeds on carbohydrates and excretes carbon dioxide and alcohol. The carbon dioxide is what fluffs up the bread, whilst the alcohol evaporates in a bread-making situation (in a brewing situation it remains and the carbon dioxide escapes). Lactobacillus feeds on by-products of yeast fermentation and excretes lactic acid, which causes the environment to sour. This discourages other microbes from developing, which protects the bread from spoiling. Both organisms are capable of speedy reproduction and are very difficult to kill. The only way to kill off a population is to raise the temperature of their environment to over about 38 degrees Centigrade (100 degrees Fahrenheit). Both organisms are encouraged by sugars and starches, such as potatoes, flours, sultanas or grapes, and are discouraged by salts, fats and oils. A final important component of bread is gluten, which is found in the protein of flour. Gluten is what gives the dough its elastic structure, ensuring the crumb of the risen dough will hold itself together, instead of crumbling like a cake or cookie. Gluten is developed in dough by kneading it thoroughly. Knowing these basics can greatly help you trouble shoot quality issues with your bread making. Sourdough Starter
Sourdough bread making doesn't rely upon commercially produced baker's yeast, but cultivates organisms predominantly already present in the flour (though some maintain that it's caught from the air). It is thus the least reliant upon the crutch of industry. It is however, a more involved process than normal baking, but with heightened rewards. It is recommended that the would-be baker begin with normal bread making to get adept at the other tasks of baking before trying sourdough, but nevertheless, if you're keen to cultivate some free yeast just for the hell of it, by all means have a go.
To begin cultivating a population of yeast and lactobacillus combine equal parts (preferably by weight) flour and water, perhaps 20g each, in a jar, put the lid on to discourage any other life forms and leave it in a warm place (about 70-85 degrees Fahrenheit, if room temperature is far from this, try an idling oven) for 48 hours. Check it after 24 to see if any bubbles are visible on the sides of the jar. If bubbles have formed, you're in business. If none have formed after about 48 hours, discard the slush (though none of your confidence) and begin again. When you've got a visible set of bubbles around your jar, you need to feed your starter. Discard half of it (or even more, there's enough bacteria in a few mL), and to the remainder add equal parts water and flour. Leave again and observe to see if it's frothing up again, and smell it each time also. It should smell sour, and different to its initial smell (i.e. flour and water) and not rotten. The culture will typically not be very stable for at least a number of feedings like this, so don't be in any kind of hurry.
The culture will have a cycle that you will slowly get to know if you persist with maintaining it. As it gets to the stage where almost all of its food is eaten, population growth will slow, and there'll be much waste product in your starter. The smell typically won't be particularly nice, and there may be a layer of brown liquid, called hooch, atop your starter. This is the late stage which you want to avoid. Before your starter reaches this point, you want to have divided and replenished it with fresh food. That said, the culture can still improve from such a state. Remove the hooch, keep a small amount of the starter and feed it normally.
To get a starter ready for baking, aim to rise the starter twice to the point where it expands so much that it collapses of its own accord. If it's nearing the top of the jar, stir it a little so it reduces in volume (but don't count that as a collapse). Once you've done this, you can refrigerate the jar, which reduces yeast activity and means you don't have to feed it so often. Keep it away from the hooch stage though, by checking on it and feeding it once every one or two weeks as necessary.
Rye flour is regarded as the best flour to use for starters; and it tastes great too.
Baking
Baking sourdough takes longer than normal bread that relies on industrial yeast, but if you're a good person, you'll know that in spite of the modern axiom 'time is money', you'd rather more of the former than the latter. What you want to do when preparing a sponge from your starter is mimic the process of feeding a starter, but to increase the volume with each feeding until you have a sponge of about 100% hydration (which is achieve by adding equal portions by weight of flour and water each time) containing about 40% of the total volume you aim to have for your loaf.
Firstly you need to activate your starter, so take it out of the fridge about 2-3 hours before you want to begin, and let it warm up. Then take with 20g starter, and add 20g flour and water each. This should give you 60g sponge after a 3 or so hours fermenting. Then add to this 60g flour and water each, which after another fermenting spurt, should yield 180g sponge. I find that this is enough for a 500g gram loaf of sourdough, though more may be better. Mix the 180g active (it should be very bubbly) sponge with your other chosen baking ingredients. For me this means: a small addition of rye flour, some white flour, more water, 2 tsp of salt and perhaps 50g butter or 60mL olive oil. It is possible to actually make great sourdough from merely flour and water though. The amount of water and flour required are relative to each other. For a normal loaf, 500g flour will require about 300mL water. But with sourdough you need to factor in the water and flour contained in your sponge. I find that it can be easier, particularly if you already have baking experience, to just add your flour up to the desired amount and carefully add water as necessary. For caution's sake, I tend to over water (but only by a tiny amount), as the flour will take up the moisture more as you knead it, particularly if you've got any wholemeal flours in the dough. Next, knead the dough very thoroughly: you should be able to observe the dough becoming more homogenous and elastic as you knead. It should take at least 6 minutes, but if in doubt, keep kneading, it can't hurt.
Leave the dough to ferment for about 7-8 hours (again use an idle oven for warmth), knocking the dough back, re-kneading and shaping it about halfway through. The dough should double in size with the fermentation process, if it doesn't, the starter may need to be worked up to a more vigorous standard, or your dough may need to rest somewhere a little warmer, aim for about 28-32 Centigrade (around 80-90 degrees Fahrenheit). When sufficiently risen, place in a very hot oven (about 250 degrees Centigrade, or 480 degrees Fahrenheit) for 15 minutes. Lower temperature to 200-220 degrees Centigrade (400-425 degrees Fahrenheit) and bake for a further 15 mins. If the loaf appears to be burning at all, lower the temperature a little further.
To ensure that it's cooked, after removing it from the oven, gently tap the bottom of the loaf: if it sounds hollow, you're in business. Turn out onto a wire rack, and don't eat it before it's well cooled. - Fieldmouse
