Category: Music

Daft Hands

You have to give it a minute or so before it gets going, but have patience, it’s worth it. It’s just really simple and charming, but a great bit of technique and something someone’s obviously put a lot of work into.

I can see it getting copied and used and abused a bit like that classic Dylan thing with the throwaway bits of paper (my memory seems to think it’s some kind of video for Subterranean Homesick Blues, but surely they didn’t have pop videos back then, did they?).

Rainy Saturday In The Loft – A Mix

loft

Well the weather has been vile all weekend so I did something I’ve been meaning to do for ages. I got some tracks I like, I climbed up into the loft and I put a mix together. I don’t really know how to describe the style. It’s definitely electronic, but it doesn’t really sit neatly in any pigeon hole I can think of. It’s a bit too laid back to dance to, but it’s still got a bit of ‘chug’ to it.

Oh well, I was quite pleased with it in the end.

Here’s the tracklist:

  1. i’m like you – dub tractor (city centre offices)
  2. dutch flowerz – skream (tempa)
  3. poor people must work (carl craig mix) – rhythm and sound feat bobbo shanti (burial mix)
  4. shiro – ame (sonar kollektiv)
  5. miles away (sascha funke remix) – paul kalkbrenner (bpitch control)
  6. i don’t know? – chelonis r. jones (get physical)
  7. the difference it makes (superpitcher remix) – the mfa (kompakt pop)
  8. kumquat – zwicker (compost black label)
  9. i try (jamie anderson beatless mix) – francois dubois (urbantorque)
  10. migracion (fujiya miyagi mix) – lopazz (get physical)
  11. tides (ripperton mix) – beanfield feat. Bajka (?)
  12. vuoi vuoi me (henrik schwarz remix) – mari boine (lean/universal)
  13. alsoran (original mix) – e.r.p. (frantic flowers)
  14. run into flowers (jackson remix) – m83 (groom)

You can download this mix from: http://rapidshare.com/files/40491832/Rainy_Saturday_in_The_Loft_-_June_30th_07.mp3

Most of the tracks were bought from the excellent Beatport.com so if there’s anything you particularly like I’d urge you to support the artists and buy some of their stuff.

Sometimes I Wonder…

…how old I really am. I know my age, I’m just not convinced that I’m very mature.

Here’s an example, there’s a singer who’s been promoted heavily on TV, his name is Robin Thicke – this makes me laugh every time I hear them read it out. That’s quite childish.

Anyway I saw his name in the Observer today – small chuckle. Then my eyes panned right and…

robin thicke and willie colon

I sounded like Beavis AND Butthead for about 2 minutes.

The Electro Plankton Quartet

The Electro Plankton Quartet

As part of Russell’s Interesting 2007, I got to play as part of ‘The Electroplankton Quartet’. Although we’re likely to get very big and very famous, I thought it was worth setting up a MySpace page just to prove that we existed (just in case we vanish without trace).

www.myspace.com/theelctroplanktonquartet

Then I noticed I’d made a typo and the URL is now missing an extra ‘e’, oh well at least Nintendo might not be able to sue us now…

Thanks to Curtis for the photo.

Chemical Brothers ‘Shop’ in London

Not sure quite how I feel about this. I like it. But I’m not sure it’s a very good use of money. I’m trying to make it a better use of their money by blogging about it.

Chemical Brothers Shop

The Chemical Brothers have taken over a disused shopfront to promote the launch of their new album ‘We Are the Night’. It’s basically just a shopfront with a screen in it showing a video. And you can also text in to get sent some mobile goodies. And you’re supposed to be able to turn on bluetooth to get sent a free download. Which I tried. But nothing seemed to come. Which was a shame.

I’ve used Google’s nifty MyMaps feature to create: Google Map that shows exactly where it is (in case you care).

Loop Festival Brighton

Loop Festival

A celebration of Digital Culture they say – I reckon some crappy music coming out of laptops and a knackered old projector that no-one can see properly in the sunlight.

Actually I reckon it’s going to be rather good. Some of the musical turns that are appearing are quite spiffing.

The Loop Festival – Saturday 18th August. I’m going. But then it is just down the road from my house in Brighton.

User Archived Content

From my occasional series of ‘here’s something from the musical archives that’s pretty cool’ posts.

I love the fact that YouTube allows for the sharing of this kind of content. It’s probably not strictly ‘legal’. And it’s not strictly user-generated either, more sort of user-archived. But I think we shouldn’t underestimate the massive power of user-archives.

I started to think about how many VHS (or Betamax) cassettes there must be in lofts, attics and cupboards around the world. And what hidden gems must be on those tapes. Gradually fading away as bits of magnetic stuff lose their strength. It’s kind of sad really. But thanks to YouTube it can all live again. And find its way into the brains of people who care. Which is the opposite of sad.

Anyway, back to the clip. Donna Summer’s ‘State of Independence’ has got a really well known bit in it featuring a choir. But I had no idea who was in the Choir, I’d never thought twice about it. But this clip shows it’s probably the Carlsberg of choirs:

Via awesome MP3 blog: Dilated Choonz

Strings of Life

A few reasons to post this clip:

  • It’s one of the greatest techno records of all time.
  • It shows the value of experimentation, and how a ‘mistake’ can create something incredible.
  • When he talks about the making of the track you realise that he must have just sat there listening to that loop over and over and over again.
  • Derrick May’s description of the Eureaka moment is great. The fear of realising that he’d just made something that would profoundly change dance music forever. It makes me want to have one too.