Thursday 30 April 2009

delays expected



anyone that follows my blog with any sort of regularity may be aware that each coming month brings with it a brand new track from the Sound/Art collaboration, those same people may also have gathered from previous posts that not all of the tracks are completed on time

and cos i wouldn't want to let anyone down, SoundArt5 will be no exception

the reason for the hold up is down to the artwork provided by my litte brother, and with the latest track i realy have felt that i need to stretch myself to produce something truly reflective of the art, to explore and experiment with music in ways that i had not considered before

it's coming, it'll get here eventually, but for now i shall leave up SoundArt4 until i have something new for you

SoundArt4

Wednesday 29 April 2009

another random internet find



any number of weird and wonderful (and sometimes geeky) curiosities can be found on the ever updated my[confined]space, i can't even remember how i stumbled across the site itself anymore, and here's another that realy stuck out.

it was hard choosing just a handful of sculptures from Joseph Seiganthaler's many displayed on his website, but i thought i'd stick with these two and leave you to discover anything more in your own time.

gurning above is Argo, and below is an enchanting feature piece that would certainly brighten up any home and provide a unique talking point for guests..... erm, if you could actualy stomach (no pun intended) having your telly propped up on this


Monday 27 April 2009

you turn me on...

you'll hear more about this nearer the time, but here is advance warning of a lil shindig goin down at Bar Form next week

it's named after my favourite track from Don't Believe The Truth, it also marks the return of Bubblegum Stomp (hooray) and has a pretty snazzy looking flyer



see you all there?

Wednesday 22 April 2009

hello kitty




i'm plotting to make good my escape again, this time on a 12 hour flight.

another getaway, another distraction to look forward to, another reason to forget about real life for a little while.

and if i can build up my fanbase between now and then, who knows, i may be greeted by crazed fans on my arrival!!

Monday 20 April 2009

my naked body failed to fetch 20p in online auction

possibly the most crushing post title ever??



here's how the story begins:

i think that when you are making music, and trying to make a name for yourself, it's kinda interesting to know where your name actually ends up, which means that a little bit of narcisistic googling is perfectly acceptable...

but it came as a bit of a surprise to find one of my promo CDs had been listed on ebay

www.xmas.com had been personally sent out to a handful of radio DJs and given to a few close friends, there realy ain't too many of these knocking around but somehow one made it's way into the hands of an ebay trader from Stoke-on-Trent
there is even an image of the promo CD, and yep, there i am, kit off, playing with my.....


presents!!


what a shame that a promo CD (that i had been giving away copies of) of a song (that was available to download for free in december) by a virtually unknown artist failed to sell and that they made no money at all from something i had no intentions of selling!!

and who tries to sell a christmas song in april??

seriously, if anyone wants copies of my music just get in touch, leave me a comment or contact me through myspace and as long the demand isn't too high, i'll be happy to oblige

get in quick before my music is worth more than 20p!!

Friday 17 April 2009

where is the love?

in shrewsbury, that's where it is.

didn't expect to find it hiding there did you?

nah, neither did i.

after escaping the city for the easter weekend to catch up with a friend and his wife in sleepy shresbury i was surprised by two things:

1) that by escaping the city we had also escaped some pretty miserable weather

2) that there is an epidemic of nice graffiti sweeping shrewsbury

last week i revealed my slight obsession with graffiti but shrewsbury definetly does it a little bit different to, well, anywhere



seemingly all over the place were smiling hearts, swarming round construction sites, hiding behind bins, beaming from back alleys, completely and utterly unavoidable and all bearing grins that were infectious in the glorious sunshine

and unlike the urban artwork and works of vandalism that colour city life, these hearts daubed everywhere were rendered in childlike and almost completey inoffensive chalk, ready to be dusted away if anyone gets upset by the innocent ornamentations

Wednesday 15 April 2009

random internet find

culled from my[confined]space, a rather bizarre and slightly bewildering/disturbing experiment but perhaps worth giving a go if life has just been far too dull and normal since going back to work after a long weekend



for a lil more info, click here

Sunday 12 April 2009

insert egg pun here




Jah bless Tesco and it's amazing lack of choice in easter eggs, and obviously celebrating Easter is all about giving chocolate eggs and nothing else at all.

and in this crazy mixed up world it's always good to be individual, that is why a small number of close friends and family recieved completely un-purchasable hand crafted Hunchbakk Easter Eggs, except i didn't hand craft the chocolate, only the packaging, but it's the thought that counts, eh?

Saturday 11 April 2009

holy grail

in this fast paced digital world where everything is on demand and information is only a few clicks away it doesn't leav too much room for those 'holy grail' moments, when something you had been searching for is suddenly revealed to you.

my holy grail moment starts with Miss Odd Kidd, and her mixtape from way back, i probably never even got round to listening to it when it was released on the internet so rectifying the situation last year it was loaded up to my generic mp3 player, bloody amazing it was too...

and one song stuck out, and stuck in my mind, a bizarre little beat and some cringe-worthy lyrics about fancying someones mum, all topped off with an infectious refrain of 'uh-ohhhhhh, uh uh ohhhhhhhh'

yeah, i liked it

but could i find a track listing for the mixtape anywhere?! no, i couldn't!! i thought we were living in the future?! i needed information!!


this situation probably dates back to last summer perhaps, and the answer to my ponderings was found in the unlikeliest places, in a impulsive decision last thursday to pick up a magazine my girlfriend bought in september 2007 (cos when times get tough you fall back on what youve got don't you), retrospectively reading the hot tips of who was gonna be big and i stumbled across an article on Niyi - and a reference to that same track that still lingered in my mind!!!

i'd paid attention to Niyi before, became quite excited by his tunes, but never at the time did i hear 'your mummy'!!?

regardless, holy grail found!! now to download it from i-tunes and give it the hammering it deserves

enjoy...

Thursday 9 April 2009

deep seeded urban decay



another thing that interests me is graffiti in almost all of it's forms, from the extremely artistic mural styles, through Banksy style stencils, the occasional tag and right down to the rather obscure and pointless graffiti existing in the city.

an example of which is above, no idea what it is meant to mean, but the fact that someone took a little time to deface a yellow hydrant sign intrigues me and i'd actually been meaning to photograph it ages ago, as i pass it pretty much daily.

Tuesday 7 April 2009

the garden



as promised, here's a sample of my photography. I'm no professional, my camera didn't cost the earth and i doubt that i'll ever rock the world of photography to it's very core.

i take snapshots, i try to think artistically and i try to look for different and new angles.

i try to carry my camera around with me, i take it to gigs (evidence here,here and here), i take it most places i go, tho inevitably i won't have it when i spot an amazing broken window, gatherings of stray sofas or cuddly toys drinking beer on a polish building site.

Sunday 5 April 2009

frYday 3rd april



i couldn't possibly encourage anyone to rush off to catch frYars live anytime soon, i'm not usually one to be so bleak and enforce such negativity on others or to badmouth a performing artist but, to be rather blunt and completely honest, i'm glad friday nights gig at the Barfly in Camden was free.

i find the music of frYars utterly beguiling and even as i write this i have his myspace player in the background playing his mildly electronic and rather fragile sounding songs delivered in a bizarre but rather fascinating vocal style

the problem is that after a strong start, afew of these songs fall flat live and very little could be done to pick up the atmosphere after it had begun dragging along the floor, although he certainly seems to be a critic's choice he seems to lack any signs of charisma at all and some much needed banter to lighten the mood was non-existent, not even the final song 'happY' could bring much cheer to the static crowd watching.

Saturday 4 April 2009

duzzee need dizzee?

you heard the new Dizzee Rascal/Armand Van Helden track yet?

apparently Dizzee has been playing it live since November last year but this week it hit the radio and has been gobbling up a fair bit of airplay already.

after his Calvin Harris collabo it appears Dizzee is looking to diversify his sound by working with producers outside of his usual grimey two-steppin comfort zone

its respectable that some artists choose to challenge themselves and their fans and expectations instead of sticking to the same formula but i can't help thinking that Bonkers would have been a huge choon for Armand Van Helden with or without Dizzee, its a warped dirty sounding electro beast of a track, not too dissimilar at all to Fake Blood's Mars, that i don't think Dizzee Rascals vocals add an awful lot to

anyways, its gonna be big, still a little early for an official video yet, so instead check out this rather good quality live version filmed in Leeds last year

Wednesday 1 April 2009

Sound Art Experiment Number 4

how about that, on schedule and everything!?

it was only last week that i mentioned my little brother's foray into fiction, and now his latest artwork in the SoundArt project stretches his creative abilities even further, far enough to start treading on my toes with a little bit of poetry.

and it's good, dammit!! ok, keep em peeled for a little bit of retaliation cos i might post up some of my photography in the coming month, but anyway, this is getting off topic...

back to the SoundArt;

i decided to leave behind some of the experimentation that i applied to the previous tracks in favour of producing a rather brooding and moody piece that could quite easily pass for a normal track, i wanted to capture a rather dark and urban vibe that reflects a hard city, full of beats (in the musical sense) and underpinned with paranoia.

not everything i attempted initially made it into the final track, it was going to contain a second part that erupted and kicked off a little bit more to try and channel the violence obvious in the artwork, another idea was to incorporate the words from the poetry, not in a straight forward reading but as if the poem had actually been remixed and the artwork was the original version, tho i decided to scrap this as i had no-one to read the poetry other than myself and i didn't feel that it lent the track the right weight.

if i can right either of these wrongs then an alternative take may appear, but for now, sit back, right click, and enjoy...


SoundArt4
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SoundArt4