tracklisting; 11 Lightning Quick 12 Remember You (2) 13 Last Ones A Rotten Egg 14 Fuel The Flame (Spidey Inmsonia Mix) 21 All Of The Things We've Made (Originally by OMD) 22 Wichita Lineman (Originally by Jimmy Webb & Glen Campbell) 23 What A Wonderful world (Originally by Louis Armstrong) 24 Everybodys Talkin' (Originally by Harry Nillson) 31 Press Delete, No Thats Not Right (Demo) 32 We Die (Demo) 33 They Wish To Walk (Lions & Kings - W&K Strange Stains Mix) 34 Mend With Spoons (BEW Remix) 41 Different flights Of Stairs (Kidd Dynamo - W&K The Sight Of Stars Mix) 42 Subtle Talk (KO Box - W&K Plink Plonk Plank Mix)
December Music: Two Faces, Fleda, Palac Akropolis...
So BEC Christmas party on Thursday night. I spent a good bit of time preparing things for this. I'd been asked by one of the directors at the school I work at to put something together. I agreed. It took a little longer than i expected, but I thought it was worth the effort. A piece of the mix I made is/was to be used for "The Glitch", a series of ten-minute mini-mixes played on BBC Northern Ireland's ATL programme.
Sadly the manager of the club 'Two Faces' didn't agree. He came to me during the first tune I was playing (Nullsleep's Silent Night) and told me to play something else, as no-one was enjoying it. He pointed to an empty dancefloor as evidence. It had been empty beforehand too (a choir of teachers were on before me and before that bland house music) but, his comment got to me a bit and I played on feeling like I was in the wrong place altogether. One place to add to the list of places I never want to go back to.
Friday night: Fleda's 6th birthday bash. I was VJing. There were a lot interesting things to hear. Setlist like this:
NARCOTIC FIELDS - A lot like Garbage. Pop, Rock, Techno. Started with a very impressive cloud of noise textures. I felt they were more interesting doing that than their songs, but then again I was in the mood for more variation...They got my head nodding though. Good tones. BULLERBYNE - I didn't ike these guys before they started playing. The guitarist tuned up and started playing blues rock riffs to himself and the crowd. Naff. I was proved wrong as their set got progressively better as it went along. They had a bit of an Alabama 3 vibe (which I'm not too keen on) and nods to Depeche Mode then some drum n' bass stuff topped off with a vocoder fueled version of the Killers 'Mr. Brightside'.
DJ FIVE SPECIAL TURNTABLISM BIRTHDAY SHOW - As Lucas (Level B promoter) put it, 'this guy is the best turntablist in the country'. Yes, multi-source mixing taking in a huge array of styles. THE SCANDALS I heard the male from the Scandals point out flaws in DJ FIVE's set and thought it was a bit rude, and that he'd better to be flwless to criticise such a clearly talented man. Hatred and hilarity ensue. The male Scandal has a great record collection. He couldn't mix worth toffee. He managed to avoid horrid beatclashing in his mix once in the space of an hour and I think that was an accident/coincidence. At first I hate the man thinking he was arrogant and talentless. Shocked that he and his DJ partner were topping the bill that night. Then the female Scandal came along and played more great tunes but with a smooth mixing technique that blew the quiffed chap out of the water. After she has finished playing Mr.Attitude comes back. I actually start enjoying his schtick. On one of their promo stickers it says "out of the way DJ, it's the return of the performers". i came to the conclusion that his aggressive ways were to be viewed as a kind of post-modern pantomime. Less "keeping it real" more "lose yourself in the moment"... DJ DAVE FISH - Fast-paced slick techno. Fleda's gallery here. I'll be back there this Friday for the next Break 4 Beats party.
Saturday night: Sophie took me to Prague (a belated birthday present) to see the Stars of the Lid
We arrived at the palac Akroplois in time to get a drink and find a place to sit and enjoy the music. We sat on the floor in front of the mixing desk and enjoyed the slow, powerful and emotional mix of tones.
The videos I've included here are of quite low quality. They're dark and often out of focus, and i must admit don't do justice to the experience of the live show. I think closing your eyes and enjoying the sound is quite enough though. The two main men of the duo were at the far ends of the stage and the string trio in the centre of the stage with abstract visuals made me feel like no other performers this year. Fantastic.
Nicky and Barry and Prof. E Alvarado - New York 2007
I hacked together a short video from things I recorded whilst in New York this March with Nicky Keogh. The audio is from a Minidisc recorded during an extended improvisation in Central Park. The (very Lo-Res) video is from various locations around the city.
Nicky and I had the film we made with New-York legend Professor Edwardo Alvorado at the last Vis-onic Festival. I found that he has several fans online. This blogger has even more love for him than I.
It was a joy to meet and work with him. There are a few fuzzy snaps of him in action with his dancing dolls in the video posted above. Our afternoon together was unforgettable for me. I wonder if he remembers us and our attempts to get our machines to make music along with him? The Prof, hard at work, yesterday...
So Karlheinz Stockhausen has passed away at the age of 79. There are plenty of places to read about his work, and I don't feel equiped to add much more. I can share a clip of a conversation with him while he was in Belfast at the Sonorities festival.
I made another BEW mix of material for Queen's Radio (Attic session). If you fancy listening the mp3 is available here.
There are a range of other mixes available from these sessions, all of which are high quality. They are available on the site of the man who co-hosts the show Matt Hazley. Go and check out his site, imprint this on your mind.
In other news I've been bashing together a little batch of Christmas tunes for my work party. I've been told people want/expect to dance. This means I feel like censoring myself a little and not weirding out too much with the filters.
I've basicly taken a couple of MIDI files and put some VSTi and breaks on them. You can hear a demo here.
