NEU! NEU! NEU!

The Manreads shows have been great so far - I'm very excited about this project. Seems weird playing these kind of shows again, something I didn't really see myself doing again. I'm still struggling to get back into punk rock although I have spent a few weeks approaching records I used to love.

Particularly this band, TEN GRAND. Never really paid much attention to the production of this band, it was always about the drums and guitar work that I loved. Listening back to it now, it's surprising how contempory their album sounds today with the whole Shoegaze revival (did it ever really go away though? Let's just say back into the mainstream)

I've been thinking of ideas for the recordings of the Manread EPs. The initial idea is to produce a number of "sides" from a 7" vinyl record but release digitally and get as many people involved as possible. I just hop we're resourceful enough to get away with it.

Lucasse album is finished but Andy's touring the states with Dave House....'nuff said

LIGHTS - vocals are coming in and sounding great. Watch this space

Right, i'm off to carry on training for the Great South Run. When drunken jokes turn bad, seriously! FUCK THAT SHIT!

N>O>P

I uploaded a new song on myspace titled N>O>P - Sort of a tribute to a friend who passed away recently. It's a dark song and originally meant for vocals, but I gave up approaching vocalists as their all flakes.

Hope you enjoy it - LISTEN HERE

DFL

FINAL FURLONG

NEARLY THERE!!! Good work Telling!

MAN READS

Use this link from now on! I got it wrong in the last post like a fat prick...

Manreads

First gig tonight as well, funny times!

IT DRAGS

Slooow day today, hence the blog!

LUCASSE

Album is FINALLY done! I listened to it last night and something dawned upon me..."how on earth do I play all those drums?!" - Dave House done a fantastic job mastering the thing and Andy's off doing the touring thing with him. I managed to catch them as a 2-piece not so long ago and loved it but now they're now a full band (yeah, i know it's confusing)

Artwork also looks great...I'm sure there will be some huge, no, momentous release when it's finished finshed. Already working on the new EP, expect drums...lots and lots of drums and percussion!

MANREADS

This has finally kicked off now - check out the myspace page RIGHT HERE.

I posted a demo of a demo of an album. It's only drums and bass but mixing the thing was a pleasure! I spent a long time on the bass sound as I had a lot of room to play with, I doubled it up. One track I cut the mids and highs, the second track was widened and put through a JCM800 amp sim. The Drums are another story all together! 2 crap mics infront of the kit and played the song off memory, it's fill heavy so you can't really hear the Tom's but I'll let that go for the time being!

The entire mix was then put through an interesting exciter and came out sounding well, unexpectedly good!

LIGHTS

I'm now a "DJ"...if you call playing songs in front of people "DJing" then so be it, but that's now what I am doing...DJing 90's crap house music to be precise.

Still waiting on Vocals from people, patients is a virtue I guess!

HUH?!

Lucasse LP is nearly there, sounds and looks fantastic! Can't wait...

I sent a beat a wrote to a local MC, he was one of the vocalists in Swamp Glow, a half decent Alt-Rap crew who floated around Pompey for sometime. I approached him and he gladly accepted my offer of throwing some rhymes over the top. It's a very intriguing project in all honesty, hopefully something i'll follow through with in the future.

Anyways, http://www.myspace.com
/misterjosefmotley Check him out...very creative stuff, great sound collages as well.

Working on a James Yuill remix of the track "No Pins Allowed" - I'll posted on here once the mix is complete.

NATHAN REAL

My current obsession lies with NATHAN FAKE, a dinky little chap from Norfolk, UK. Suppose overall, you could call him Techno although I've him referred to as Progressive House even though I'm not too sure what's progressive about house in the first place?!
Anyways, he's entirely live - everything he does is through Ableton, his latest album Hard Island (which is an absolute revelation) was performed and edited in Ableton Live and it's the most organic electronic-dance album I've ever heard. Very easy to come back and listen to as a full piece as the variation is so great within each song.
I urge you all to check out BORDER COMMUNITY which is the label owned by fellow Techno-Bleeper James Holden - great for inspiration!

NATHAN FAKE - OUTHOUSE

HAPPENINGS

Exam periods gone - summertime's here at last and I'm already burnt!

Anyways - LUCASSE is finally seeing the light of day. This is something I've been involved with for the past 2 years, I play drums and take care of some of the production but it's largely the work of Andrew Telling. A fantastic Graphic Designer, Musician, Video Editor from yeah, you guessed it, East London.
I particularly enjoy browsing his BLOG every once in while...his photography is great, if a little generic (don't want your head to inflate too much son!) and he has a keen eye for a good, often great tune.

I've began working on the new-ish ManReads Demo - drum takes are done and sounding fairly Lo-Fi. I'll put together a semi-launch type affair once it's complete...

LIGHTS project is still busy, collaborations are coming in at the moment and sounding great - I plan on posting some demo's up on the myspace page in the near future, Oh and I haven't had the chance to play around with the new Ableton Live 8 yet! If anyone's got it already, let me know your opinions!

Word
DFL

MOUNTAINS

This is something I produced as a live performance using some racks built in Ableton and a couple of midi controllers.

The idea was to a create a song in 4 parts but keeping it as lively as possible:
P1. EGR
P2. JNGFR
P3. MNCH
P4. JNGFRJCH

IDM/Glitch-hop of sorts, it's fairly rough and unmixed as the thing was played live so bear that in mind!

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zzwizzyyznh

Thanks for listening/downloading

PEACE OUT PLAYA'S

BRAAAP

Feels like ages since my last post! Revision mode is in full swing at the moment, hence the lack of posts for all those who are fully engaged in my random mumblings (few and far between I expect)

Been doing my usual bit of obsessing over a certain genre at the moment, following on from my recent love for Martyn I discovered Ital Tek, more Dubby-atmospheric-beats. I think it's the huge amounts of percussion these guys use and their love for Acid-house style pads on their synths. So much Sub-bass is used which i'm guessing is the influence Dubstep is having on most modern electronic music these days.

Although, I'm the least interested person in dubstep I know of...it's difficult to ignore the genre and name check at least 2 or 3 decent tracks. I recently picked up the Four Tet/Burial Collab titled Moth/Wolf Cub which is one of the most emotional pieces of music I've heard in recent times - Listen Here - I'm seriously in love with this record!

This is one of the best pop songs I've heard over the past 5 years or so - If MGMT were any good, I'd imagine them to sound like Passion Pit. For once, a band that lives up to the hype? Great Video and a great song! They are going to be HUGE...

MONITORS

What a difference they make!! EP's nearly done - Weeeehay!

Current:

Martyn

WHEN TIMES ARE SHIT

Times seem pretty bad for everyone at the moment, whether it be unemployment or otherwise. Being the young breaming Accountant that I am, all I can do is sit back and watch certain people draw copious amounts of money out of a business then sit back and watch it fail along with numerous employees. It's very demeaning and selfish but what else can I do apart from passing a "restricted comment" whilst hoping not to get sacked?

Anyways, recent listening lists:

Bullion - Listen to Young Heartache especially, very clever use of sidechain compression. Not something you hear being used so well in Hip-Hop...

Shadow Dancer - I can't seem to recommend this enough to people! Signed to Boys Noize Records, I like how they manage to keep the songs interesting but also loopy, like listening to pumping late 90's techno but with a contempory, electro feel to it.

Death Cab for Cutie, The Open Door EP - This is a band I got into fairly late as I always found them kinda weak, but I persisted with The Photo Album and eventually began loving it as I 'got' what they were trying to achieve. Thankfully I saw them before The O.C got wind of them but that said, I still love the band and thought their last album was incredible! As far as I know, this EP contains cuts and B-sides from the takes that didn't fit the last album's dark and proggy undertones. It feels very much like the Death Cab from the early days! Go Buy Kids!

EP is very, very nearly done too! Sweeeeeeeet!

CACTUS CLUB

Hello,

Rough mix on myspace - song's called Cactus Club...title taken from a time I walked past a church hall and saw a sign promoting membership to the local Cactus Club. I didn't join unfortunately, as much as I live Cactus' I just couldn't find it in me to take the time to grow, nurture and ultimately show off a bloody plant...Funny that!

PLEASE...NO MORE 909'S!

Bloc Weekend was a great success, if completly messed up on a grand scale!

Modeselektor played a fantastic Techno set which I found unusual given the Hip-Hop/Grime/Dubstep influenced Hello Mom! and Happy Birthday.
HudMo completely killed it though, the kid is so gifted and watching the crowd go crazy when he dropped Ooops! was a highlight for me...

The past week has been spent listening to Indie-Rock - sniffing it out and trying to re-aquaint myself with the genre. In all honesty, not much has changed in my opinion however I have stubbled across a couple of great bands, most noteably Phoenix and Welsh wizards Future of the Left

Finally...guitar music worth listening too!

SOMETIMES I DO WORK

Yes!!! Brand spanking new Simian Mobile Disco joint straight outta the early 90's Acid-House Rave Scene, it's a shame Warner Bros. probably own the rights to the yellow smiley faces (NB: owing to the release of the Watchmen film) as i'm sure we'd see those being projected onto the wall instead of black and white dots!

(Works better when turned up loud)

SORT OF LIKE...

....me...in a club...dancing...drunk...

WHOAAAAA

I'm seem to be super excited about everything at the moment

I went to the Stone Throw Tour at Cargo in London - Peanut Butter Wolf played a rather good AV set consisting of the greatest Hip-Hop, Electro and Pop floor fillers heard by the masses over the past 2 decades.
For me though, the night was defined by http://www.myspace.com/mayorhawthorne - very motown influenced soul...great stuff!

Off to Bloc Weekend in 4 days - again, another burst of excitement that i'll need to contain until Friday. Electro-tastic fun...i'll be Ableton spotting for the weekend though, pen and pad to hand!

In the meantime, enjoy this mix. It's old yes, but moulds into such good bassline music! Thanks you Mr Drum!
Machinedrum - Grandmaparty Mix - 4/20/07

THE TALENTED MR HEBDAN

Kieran Hebdan or Four Tet to his lesser known fans has been around a good few years producing some fine beats lying somewhere bewteen Instrumental Hip-Hop, Indie-Rock, Post-Rock, IDM/Glitch, Jazz, Soul, Funk etc. It goes on and on, I've never actually come across anyone that dislikes the man and his music...rarely does something someone produces appeal to everyone but somehow he hit's the spot.

Anyway, couple of remixes for you all...

Sia Remix - This is the chick from the first Zero 7 album. I really have fond memories of that record, so when I checked out Sia's solo stuff I was...well, more than disappointed to say the least! It was like listening to a watered down Beth Orton or PJ Harvey, I mean how can you possibly water down those two and be expected to get away with it?! Anyway, when I first heard this remix compiled on Four Tet's remixes album, the thing that struck me first was the drum intro that lead's perfectly into Sia's vocals - the song build's so skilfully as well...something he's got down to a fine art.

Born Ruffians Remix - This is in the vein of his newer stuff, clearly exploring minimal techno with his twist on the genre. I can't stand Born Ruffians so avoided listening to this remix for some reason, until I bumped into a very very old friend during a drunk night out, that led to the discussion of Mr Four Tet?! I was taken back by my friend's knowledge of the guy and proceeded to download this song immediatly...well, when i got home reeeeally drunk and danced around my room in my pants as you do on a Friday night, I'd say confirming the tune to be a Reet Banger!

HERALDS OF CHANGE

Enjoying this EP a lot at the moment - more Glasweigen Wonky beats from the LuckyMe imprint...this is a joint effort between Hudmo and Mike Slott. Feels like a decent P73 cut with a slightly more British feel I guess, instrumentally it holds up nicely too.



Interestingly...I had my beats scrutinised last night and given the thumbs up with some dude throwing some nice rhymes my way, apparently I listen to far too much "white boy shit" (this, coming from a white boy who came over to steal my indie rock section of my HD?!) and my absolute lack of understanding of what most California rappers from the 80's were going on about at the time, not too mention me not fully understanding their accent!

To be honest, being the cliched-white-middle-class chap that I am, it's not exactly something I can connect to easily which is why (being a drummer) my ears tune into the drums/synths/bass/loops/samples/production in hip-hop of that era.

Although, we both agreed that the 90's was a golden age for Rapper's and MC's if lacking somewhat in originality...but then again, this is something i'm sure i'll continue to miss in the future by not always drawing my attention to vocals?!

Something to note for the future perhaps?

LE MAISON DU FRANCAIS

I seem to be rinsing this guy to death at the moment - PARA ONE

Very cleaverly put together House, very glitchy and noisey but a cut above what I've been listening to recently from this ilk I guess.

DuDun Dun (MSTRKRFT remix)

Worth checking out the original, although this (as you'd expect from the mstrkrft) is an absolute banger...

THE FUTURE

SONG OF THE WEEK - HUDMO YO'!

WUXIA

This is Track 2 from an EP i'm intending on releasing of stuff i've put together over the past year or so.

The tracks called Wuxia, the idea of which fancinated me at the time that a Noun was actually created to describe Martial Arts action heroes!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuxia


Mediafire link:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mdmlytne52y

JUST INCASE YOU MISSED IT...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7846266.stm

We are NOW officially in a recesssion...Jebus Christo?!?!

FRIENDLY LIARS

Possibly the death of my music elitest credibility by posting this video up, but it's a song I genuinely love and the re-recorded version does it some justice. I especially like the video...black is obviously the new white!

Friendly Fires - Skeleton Boy