Soul Ambition - Kick Up The Arts

Soul Ambition - Kick Up The Arts, Blick Studios, 27.09.08

Soul Ambition is a life coach operation. Not something I would usually have a lot of time for, but I found it interesting enough to give a few hours on a Saturday afternoon. To open Tracy Dempsey asked up the people in the room to take turns to introduce themselves; they gave their name, relationship to the music industry in Northern Ireland and what they hoped to get out of the event. Some familiar names and some new. Mostly musicians of some kind, and some people who worked in more than one area related to the business side of things as opposed the to creative side of things.

An ineresting man called Davy Sims then gave a short provocative talk based around a quote from himself circa 1983, "There is no music industry in Northern Ireland" He then put forward a case to suggest that this was still the case, which led to speculation from a few people that this was due to a lack of management skills and busines knowledge. The positive outcome of this is that there wil hopefully be some speakers and instructive sessions involved in similar get-togethers in the future.

There was a bit of moaning about venues, promoters, people's attitudes (which has been covered before, elsewhere) and a comple of heated exchanges when certain people (in the media)'s names were mentioned. Thankfully it didn't go on too long.

I don't have photos on this PC (I have some I may post later) but I should have some images of the 'Kick Up the Arts' event (blog links) and the Heavy Trash (feat. Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray.) gig in the Kings Head, and maybe even some video to go along with a bit of feedback on Friday's ECKER at the Front Page.

In other news I'm continuing to write reviews of other people's records in a hope that I can keep my ears open to critical listening exercises before I make some decisions about editing my own sounds.

There is a chance to hear some of these quite new sounds (heavily influenced by older sounds) this Friday at the Black Box, Belfast as part of the Oscillations festival. BEW will be doing visual tricks as the other electronic artists play audio and then playing an audio set at about 12pm. Also that evening, an opening of a show of screen print poster art.

bew - gig info

Friday's set times!

8 - 8.30 - deadman
8.30 - 9 - iso9
9 - 9.45 - the vichy government
9.45 - 10 - deadman
10 - 10.45 - brian robinson
10.45 - 11 - iso9
11 - 11.45 - bew

27 Jul 07 @ the Black Box
8pm. adm £3.

Sadly the Black Box website's "forthcoming events" section says nothing about the show.

Just put together two new tunes for this - I hope people are in the mood for fast (180 bpm) electronic music. One's a Dubby number using a few 'Prince Jammy' samples the other is a bootleg re-hash of local techno-rock messers 'Alloy Mental'. Ready to rumble.

Saturday gig details!

Oh Yeah Computer, July 28, 2007, 8pm £7

1. Airbag –* The Jane Bradfords*
2. Paranoid Android –* Barry’s Electric Workshop*
3. Subterranean Homesick Alien –* Iain Archer*
4. Exit Music (For A Film) - *Conor Mason*
5. Let Down –* Driving By Night*
6. Karma Police -* Joe Echo / Ciaran Gribben*
7. Fitter Happier (Polish version)
8. Electioneering - *Angelfall*
9. Climbing Up The Walls –* Amy Mc Garrigle*
10. No Surprises –* John DÂ’Arcy*
11. Lucky – *Lotion*
12. Tourist –* Catoan*

I have been told that it is to be an all ages show, so I expect there to be no alcohol. As far as I know each band/artist will play a song from the album with a short break between 'sides'. Other songs may be played from the different acts own repertoires after the album has been played. Ex-Cecil's Flea Circus brothers Peter and Steven Quinn shall be providing visuals. Should be interesting.

Both of these gigs are thanks to Trans Belfast.

Gigs on the horizon

BEW with 2 microphones - 13.07.07 - Photo - Tim Redfern - More Mantua pics

The Mantua festival went well - I had to change my position on the bill as I missed my slot before the Digital Mystikz (I didn't have a watch - D'oh) - but a great, bass-heavy time was had. Super thanks to the Alphabet Set. Great to work with them again.

More shows coming up in the near future thanks to Paul 'Iso9' Moore. He and his Diston connections have offered me a few slots at different shows in Northern Ireland.

The Vichy Government – Elvis And The BeatlesI'll be playing with deviant synth ranters The Vichy Government at The Black Box Belfast thanks to Trans Belfast and Flykkiller, who have dropped out for some reason. Also playing will be Brian Robinson doubtlessly weaving his gentle dreamscapes, along with Diston residents Deadman and Iso9. That will be on the 27 Jul 07 - tickets reduced to £3.

I'll also be playing the following evening with a collection of bands.
Oh Yeah Computer: A Radiohead Celebration, July 28, 2007, Oh Yeah, The Outlet Building, 15 Gordon St, Belfast, 8pm, admission £7

In August BEW'll be playing at Home Made Jam '07 in Armagh with a huge amount of others.
" Now in its second year, Homemade Jam is Northern Ireland's only free music and arts festival. Held at a secret location near the village of Derrynoose, Co Armagh, this year's event promises to be an eccentric mix of indigenous sounds and vision.

In 2006, posing as a small, rural producer of traditional fruit preserves Homemade Jam unleashed a barrage of live music, art and design on a 400 strong crowd.

One year on, and the Jam is back. The recipe remains the same - a little bit of oddity, a whole lot of DIY and a face full of non-conformity – but this year we have moved beyond our little cottage industry to bring you an event which is bigger and better than before.

The sites natural ampitheatre is the perfect venue for a night of unique music and innovative design. Food and drink, sourced from local vendors, will be available to all from are fully licensed bar and mega barbeque. Camping and toilet facilities are also available.

Homemade Jam is a free event before 2pm with ticket, or a five pound donation thereafter unless in fancy dress along with ticket. "

Click here for free tickets! - http://www.homemadejam.eu

Homemade Jam Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/home_made_jam

Above info taken from the Diston forum.

I'm currently working on finishing remixes of my older (noisier) tracks for the web label the3rd2nd. I've found it feels a litle like when you look at an old diary when you listen back to old compositions. Renick Bell wants to release things from the audiopaint ep (a track of which was previously available on the Acroplane compilation album VA - Directions) and the harsh missed ep (previously unpublished). I hope to have these finished and ready for publishing asap.

BEW – Audiopaint 05 Cbsm b n w 01

Back in Belfast....

Back in Northern Ireland a week and all is well. The family are healthy and I'm not too busy to be vexed, and busy enough not to be bored either.My niece and I enjoying some pallet drumming...

The gallery opening performance with Nicky Keogh at the Gloden Thread Gallery was quite a success, albeit with some technical difficulties. We were set-up and ready to play for the opening at six o' clock and there were plenty of people in attendence. We played several short improvisations at low volume throughout the evening and "Knocked it up a notch" at the end (around eight o' clock).Some of the audio toys used and abused for the improvisation in the Golden Thread...

Unfortunately the Calor Gas Soundsystem's amp over heated and the last part was cut short. The minidisc recorder we used to record the performances also refused to update it's TOC and so most of the audio documentation was lost. Thankfully I had a spare cassette recorder and I captured a little of the noise from the end of the evening.

I finally attended Bop Yestrum and saw Indian Jewelery at the Pavilion Bar on Saturday night. This was an excellent way to prepare for the show there on Sunday.

The Show with Birds of Delay and Toymonger was a mixed bag. The attendence was low but the sounds were solid (thick, brutal, sharp, fuzz-filled, painful to listen to, occasionaly amusing, sometimes boring ((yes, I know it's supposed to challenge me to indulge in deep listening)). The soundcheck was short thanks to an unexpected private function for a bunch of golfers, but enough to test if equipment was working.

Barry (bew), Peter, and Chris...

As planned there were three parts to the 45 minute show. I started with an electro-acoustic improvisation using stylophone, cymbals, bells, microphone, loop cassette, feedback, and effects.

Chris Allen on bass.

Next I was joined by my colleague from S'Gottabomb, Chris Allen, who played bass and my younger brother, Peter, who played saxophone whilst I played clarinet to realise "Horn Joy", a tune from my unpublished "Harsh Missed EP".Peter Cullen on saxophone.

To finish I played/mangled a selection of my most recent tunes/remixes produced in Brno. Tracklist:
bew - musicbox bug 2 - a demo tune
bew - Crane Crash H&W 2 - a special edit made especially for this gig.
bew - Kookie Loop Dirt Step
Sunosis - Leap (bew remix)
bew - Adam Pharoh
+ lots of my samples.