Music and video.

An old song from the bew vaults (originally released on the first Curfew compilation CD) http://download.yousendit.com/38CAB6137C0F0880

The track was pieced together from various low-rez clips of instruments used by microtonal minstrels the Gongs. More intriguing instruments for imps can be found here.

The final touches are being added to the soundtrack for the film made with Prof. Edwardo Alvorado. This is set to be premiered at the Visonic festival in Belfast.

I'll be doing some visuals at Fleda again. This time for the Break 4 Beats team. More info on their parties here.

Work is underway on a set of bass heavy tunes (hopefully for release on acroplane) there are three different takes on one track, which features some samples of Prince Jammy. Working title 'Gwan Versions'. Just invited trombone player Mark Knight to add a little something to one of the dubs - can't wait to hear the results.

A sample can be heard at the bew myspace.

Sounds - out loud.

So i managed to see Eric Truffaz this week. A rather pleasant surprise. I had listened to two of his albums and found them to be frigteningly prog-rock heavy. Sophie wanted to see him though, and I had been told about him by my students the year before, and I've never heard a Blue Note artist play live before, so that and the offer of free tickets pretty much made it a 'must see'.

The venue (Fleda) was totally packed with enthusiastic listeners of all ages. Eric played most of his set with bass, drums and keys. Later on he was joined by vocals and trombone.

There was a pleasing scene in the small bar next to the main concert hall - a trumpet player parping out some riffs being spun by a DJ. Fresh.



Last night I went out to find the Yacht Club. A place I was interested in last year - but unable to find. Thanks to my friend Adam who had been to the university nearby before. He didn't know the place either but was keen to find the club and hear a littl dubstep. I was a little unsure as to what to expect. Thankfully we were not disappointed.



The DJs at the stat of the evening played some clean dubstep and traditional dub tracks. Then came along a young man called NGOMAU with an Apple Mac playing live dub. His sound was a little more tech-y but still fitted well with the material the DJs had played. He broke out some skanking rythmns and some four-to-the-floor stompers with plenty of wobbly tape-echo efects and clanging reverbs.

The DJs returned at the end of his set - managing to totally clear the little dancefloor by playing some R n' B. This was quickly remedied by runing with a return to loud dirty dubstep, which got the rubber kneed punters dancing again. Loads of high quality tracks, and some dodgy, but fun, toasting too.

Visonic

Just confirmed that I can get some days off school to do some gigs.

I've just seen the flyer - I didn't know where in the programme Nicky, Chris and I would end up but it put a smile on my face when I saw the following...



Diston and visonic.

National Noise Day!

I made a five track EP by editing some material on my HD. I had recorded between an hour and two hours of my preparation for the show in the Golden Thread Gallery. I then cut up the resulting stream of audio to make these short tracks.

I was looking for someone who might be interested in releaing such a collection of noise as the one I just finished. Whilst surfing I found a website dedicated to National Noise Day. Happy days.

I found the following particularly useful/funny
(from the Infos/Tips link on the site):

1/ buy a megaphone and use it at all times you have to talk ie; in shops, on the phone, whilst making love and ordering pizza
2/ Slaughter Psytrancers and record the sound on your phone play in a loop
3/ Buy a numatic drill off ebay .. there expeensive but an essential in any studio
4/ buy mr noisy by roger hargreaves and address the public whilst dressed as a town cryer
5/ Eat custerd whilst listerning to death metal/white noise with a trout o your head
6/ Arrange a pneumatic jamboree
7/ Purchase 178367 piezo plates from maplins and place them around the whole of your house then link them to a few patch bays plug it into your stereo and then call the police and say there is a bomb in your house and then turn up the stero full wait till they run in and start searching the house and it will make a nice clanky chaotic noise!
8/ sandpaper down all your mum and dads records and then ask em to play you there old records
9/ email steve > minimal.impact@shitola.freeserve.co.uk
10/ tie a carry cot to the back of your motorbike and drive it round mothercare
11/ visit a barn egg farm and abortuar mic them up via a feedback pedal set to full. mix the signals together and broadcast over a stack of 50 hornmassive horns
12/ get your brother or sisters cd collection and ocver them in yogert leave it for a few days and the mold will create fractal pattern on damage on the cd .. then try playing them
13/ mix decan blues greatest hits with sophie ellis bextor

All good stuff I'm sure you'll agree.
Please get in touch (comments sectopn)if you want to hear my last noise creation, I'll post you a file of mp3s asap. I called it "Feedback and Noise". Probably to be the first in a series.

New Instruments.

Yet more youtube material. A bit of a pattern forming. This clip should show a curious little keyboard I bought last weekend. The reason I have decided to post about it is bebecause it is a little different to most other keyboards I've ever encountered. (I had seen one before but it had no batteries in it).



I bought it in a little shopping district (?) on the outskirts of Brno that Soph and I dubbed "little Asia". A collection of stores full of products from the East; food, household goods, clothes and electronics.

I picked up this keyboard as I had seen one at Phil "Weakling & King" Porter's home studio/dodgy stereo lab. His was a different colour. I thought it would be nice to have something to remind me of my friends and also produce some tones without having to programme everything in cubase. It has been used to create some odd, cheap sounding bleeps on my current project; a new 20 minute mix of fresh material for Queen's Radio.

I also picked up a plastic recorder. Again, it isn't in tune with the standard Western scale and so it must be played carefully (lots of wobbly bent notes, half covering holes...) to fit with the rest of the instruments.

In addition to this I have also borrowed my friend's five string fretless bass guitar. Again, more control is required to stop microtonal pitch problems. It's been quite good fun playing instruments again and adding them to the synths and samples I have on my PC. The results are quite pleasing so far. I hope to have the mix completed and ready for the air in a week or so.



There are a lot of different styles and tones in this in comparisson to the previous mixes I've made for them. Fun for fans of many flavours.

AMEN BROTHER

Another Youtube post! - there are no visuals to speak of - but an interesting (kinda academic) consideration of a small piece of sound and how it has added to modern culture in a way maybe underestimated by some...the last few minutes about copyright make for especially interesting listening.



I'd say this is quite an important piece of history for all aspiring producers.

Back to Brno...

Holiday time has finished - time to get back to the day job.
To keep me in a good mood I've been listening to the musical positivity of Bobby McFerrin. This video of him performing 'Drive' beats the studio LP version in my opinion, the solo at the end sends me up the wall...genius.



I hope to be back in Belfast to play a few shows over the next few months - there have been offers, but nothing confirmed yet. Details will be posted here asap.

blah blah blog blog

I played a few tunes at this shin-dig. Good atmosphere.


Heaviness was enjoyed.


Two types of music. Rock. And roll.

Holidays are good.

The audiopaint 2007 ep is nearly finished. Excellent mixes have been added from Phil 'Weakling and King' Porter, and Chris 'Aln Vs Cln' Allen.

Here are some yousendit links to old bew tunes and remixes if anyone wants them - go for it...

http://download.yousendit.com/3A143B843617E49D adam pharoh

http://download.yousendit.com/103CA11863E36F9A gwan drum n' bass

http://download.yousendit.com/27FF71612BC00876 musicbox bug 2

http://download.yousendit.com/E54BEFC76830E32C sunosis - leap