• Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Youtube

VIDEOS

Music videos VHS Mixtapes


  • 2012

    SALLY DIGE / DOPPELGANGER @ Web Developer

    Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

  • 2011-2014

    Websoham @ Exclusive Admin

    Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

  • 2009-2011

    Templateclue.com @ Lead Developer

    Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

  • 2010

    SUMFINK LIKE DISCO @Level

    Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

  • 2013-2014

    College of Awesomeness @ passed

    Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

  • 2009-2013

    College of Informatics @ graduated

    Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

PHOTOGRAPHY

NIKON / CANON / SMARTPHONE


THE BLOG

The cool things in Life, and other junk.


Sunday 28 August 2011

Yakuza Heart Attack / MP3

Yakuza Heart Attack / MP3


Just so taken with this little tune. It resembles a early NES game soundtrack, with elements of prog and math rock. Doesn`t sound accessible on paper/on screen but this track has got fun written all over it. These guys know their instrument well, but that doesn`t get in away of the song - every flash of technical skill adds to the playfulness. Give powercore a listen, and dare you not to download it.

BANDCAMP / MYSPACE / FACEBOOK



DOWNLOAD

Parallel Animals / MP3

Parallel Animals / MP3




Like a couple of virgins eases in with some nice guitar chords and keeps it laidback for the duration of its stay. Parallel Animals weave electronica and indie music senses, and hits the spot on this track. Are sitting you comfortably?

A good song to see out the summer .. well if you could call it a summer.



DOWNLOAD / FACEBOOK / WEBSITE / SOUNDCLOUD


George Carling In Concert

George Carling In Concert


The lengendary George Carlin, a personal favourite of mine, passed away in 2008. But he delivered a top class performance for his 14th HBO special in that year.  This is the follow-up to his previous HBO special Life is Worth Losing. Carlin had been working on this material since ending his "Life is Worth Losing" Tour.  He never lets up during this show, and it seems mad watching it that he would die of heart failure just a few months later. 

But he has left us a great body of work, and a few wise words. Thanks bro.

`It`s bad for ya` will hold it`s weight for years to come. There`s been a lot things that have happened since his death that would not surprise George in the least - he`d been shouting about it for years. (He would have some fun with the Murdoch/News International scandal) 

Anyway, onto the show. I can blog this to you because bright spark has uploaded the full concert to the net, so fill your boots while you can before the entertainment police come knocking at google`s door.


Oxford Fucking Squirrels MP3

Oxford Fucking Squirrels MP3


Three MP3`s this sunday, it`s a sunny day ... and I`m stuck inside. Great! But work is work, eh? So I`m going to imagine I`m outside in the park, drinking a milkshake, having a smoke. The three that need seriously downloading today come from all over the shop. From Spain we have Oxford Fucking Squirrels, yup... puzzled me too! With a name like that, I nearly,nearly overlooked them. Just as I was about to move my mouse somewhere else.. I thought, "you know, just maybe these might be okay" ...
I was proven wrong, they`re f**king sick!

You need to check out the track "We love rats" .. I was sold from about 30 secs in and then it got better and better. The production and the arrangement are top notch, why these fellas aren`t signed is beyond me. Don`t let the humorous name fool you - these guys know their stuff. I don`t know much more about these guys - couldn`t find a myspace/facebook link to give to you, but you can go to their soundcloud page for their other treats.

I wonder if they`ve ever been to Oxford?



DOWNLOAD

Saturday 27 August 2011

Two Early Documentaries - Kate Bush

Two Early Documentaries - Kate Bush

Here we have two half hour films, one shot in 1979, and the other shot a year later. For somone who has become very guarded about her life and her feelings, these two early films captures the chirpy, younger Kate, who is excited by the thought of touring -  which, by the end of the 1980 tour on which the second film is based around -  had disappeared. One of her roadies, Bill, died during preparations for the tour and it stayed with her. It was her first (and only) tour and both of them were young ....

In March 1979 – The Tour was to open officially on April the 3rd at the Liverpool Empire but first there was a preview at the Poole Arts Centre near Bournemouth to iron out any last minute hitches. Everyone was naturally very nervous but the show went tremendously well and afterwards, Richard Ames recalls, “We went back to the hotel having a few drinks, everyone was very up. And I got the call from the hall that Bill had run back up to the top of the auditorium where the (Lighting) desk had been and where he’d been running the show. He was doing the ‘idiot check’ – you rush up after everything’s in the truck to make sure nothing’s forgotten. Someone from the auditorium had lifted up a panel from the flooring on the very last step of the aisle between the seats and placed it on the step below the top step. Bill rushed up, tripped over it ‘cos it wasn’t lit very well, and went head first down 17 feet onto concrete. 
 He survived for a week on a life support machine, but there was little hope. He had only been involved in the tour for a matter of days, drafted in during final rehearsals to assist the over-extended Jackson on lighting duties, but such was the nature of the 'Tour Of Life' party that he was already one of the gang. He was just 21. The band were already back at the hotel when they got the news, and Bush was absolutely shattered. "It was terrible for her," says Brian Bath. "Something had happened to her little baby. Kate knew everyone by name, right down to the cleaner, she was so like that, she'd speak to everyone. I suppose it's something you wouldn't forget, but we just carried through it. We got into the mood of the show and the [tour] just kept rolling."
Under the Ivy - Thompson


Her 1980 album `Never for ever` has a song dedicated to Bill, one of my favourites off that album. I wasn`t aware for years as to who `Bill` was or the story behind the song  `Blown Away` .Thanks to the Kate Bush Forum where I got the above image from. This gig wasn`t recorded or televised so this programme is the only record of that night. There are performances on both films, well worth a gander for historical reasons. 


Cover Version: Army Dreamers




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Filmed for BBC Nationwide:



1980 German filmed Documentary:




The songs performed are:

"Room For The Life"
"Fullhouse"
"Strange Phenomena"
"Violin"
"In The Warm Room"
"Hammer Horror"
"Kite"
"Wuthering Heights"

EMI loses the case against `MP3 cloud` lockers

EMI loses the case against `MP3 cloud` lockers









EMI have lost a case against MP3tunes, a online service that lets you put your mp3`s into a cloud. What the labels are pushing for is a license fee for holding the music that they own the copyright to , but the law isn`t having it ...

Music industry under pressure after landmark MP3tunes copyright ruling - Telegraph:

'via Blog this'

Which artists and record labels have been affected by the riots?

Which artists and record labels have been affected by the riots?

The riots hurt a lot of people, and it hurt a lot of small labels whose stock was destroyed by fire. The Guardian have compiled a list of artists who have been directly affected by the Sony/PIAS arson.

Which artists and record labels have been affected by the riots? The full PIAS list | News | guardian.co.uk:

'via Blog this'


Saturday 20 August 2011

October Surprise

October Surprise

I`ve just got back from visiting the family down south, and was gutted to have not had the time to bring a certain album with me. "No Delta" from October Surprise, found on a random trawl on the net is what I`m listening to right now, but when the nights grow longer and colder this album will be just perfect for any walk home. The duo come from Massachusetts, making music that`s more sophisticated than any pair of 21 year olds should do - and that`s whats striking about them.

DOWNLOAD

DOWNLOAD

DOWNLOAD


My standout track has to be "The Mute"  The simple 70`s disco bassline in that song  gets me everytime. October Surprise deliver a slick, downbeat, lo fi  feel to all their songs. But this isn`t hispter, or post - anything.. The songs have substance and hold their own against anything I`m hearing on the radio.

Go get their album "No Delta" .. it`s on a pay for what you want basis.


BANDCAMP

Friday 19 August 2011

Two Disco Offcuts from the "Sumfink Like Disco 3" Mixtape

Two Disco Offcuts from the "Sumfink Like Disco 3" Mixtape

For reasons of time and continutity, not every edit made it into that mixtape .. in fact there are quite a few, that have been waiting in the wings, but by the time I`d finished doing the third in the series, my appetite to do another disco type mixtape had diminished somewhat.

I`d suffered data loss on files that I had worked in 15 hour shifts to edit bar after bar.The results are fun, but actually .. it did my head in, that I wont be doing something as involved as the sumfink project for a long while.

So today I give you these, the next two remix offcuts.


MGMT - Electric Feel (Punk Rock Kick Disco Broadway Edit)




DOWNLOAD

K Klass - Let Me Show You (Punk Rock Kick Disco Jam)





DOWNLOAD
They`re a bit on the rough side, but good enough to get you on the dancefloor.





Wednesday 17 August 2011

History of the 1979 Iranian revolution

History of the 1979 Iranian revolution



This film has been put together from various docs, mostly from the BBC. It tells the story of the Shah, how he came to power and how the seeds of the 1979 revolution were sown. He was on a mission to `modernise` Iran, but ending up with Iranians bubbling with resentment, with Khomeni waiting in the wings to eventually take power. With interviews from the key people from the time, including the Shah`s son, who commited suicide this year (as did his sister a few years ago).


The 1979 revolution was the first to be caught on film, and is well documented, in contrast to the media blackout of the green revolution that was crushed by the authorities. The current rulers learnt all the lessons from 1979 and made sure that the world saw very little of it. This film, although crudely put together in parts, has interesting footage for different sources.




BIG BANG BIG BOOM - The tale of Evolution wall-painted animation

BIG BANG BIG BOOM - The tale of Evolution wall-painted animation





Superb live animation, telling the story of our world in one space. It`s great to see art like this telling you a story, and not trying to sell you a car, as most of us only get to see great pieces of video like this when connected to a selling a product.


BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.


direction and animation by BLU
blublu.org
production and distribution by ARTSH.it
artsh.it
sountrack by ANDREA MARTIGNONI



Great Respect to BLU.
DVD available at: http://www.artsh.it/shop1/index.php/

Friday 12 August 2011

The UK riots - Press mute then press repeat.

The UK riots - Press mute then press repeat.



The riots over last week have taken a lot of people by surprise, but not everyone. People in the Youth workers, Youth Offending teams, Teachers, the police will have seen something of the chaos that we saw on the street on a day to day basis. The riots throw up many questions, but not many people in authority want to hear the answers.

We`re a capitalistic society, and what we saw this week was the feedback from the obession we have with material things and the status that they give us. But it isn`t the full picture. We have a underclass of people who dont belong, and don`t care what happens to them, that isn`t the full picture either. We have another instance of a black person killed by the police, with misinformation and legal procedures not fully adhered to inflaming communities, that isn`t the full picture either.

It`s all of them.

live london breaking news riots sky tv croydon on fire out of control Pictures, Images and Photos


Not all the rioters were unemployed, not were all of them were in gangs, not all were kids, not all of them lived on estates some were graduates, professionals, students, they were all different colours but they loved the arse off JD sports.

It`s been rollercoaster for myself watching the events unfold this week. When the riots came to my town, and I was a hundred miles away it really got me very, very f**kin angry. I hated the comedy texts I got, and just felt embarrassed that it was my people doing this to their own town. Twats.

Watching the politicians fight for capital over this thing is disheartening. Hearing the Prime Minister describe social housing as "a privilege" that could be taken away I find alarming. (I`m not overly keen on evicting people over this because if things go horribly wrong for the evicted, then the council will still have to step in anyway) The rolling news, with it`s talking heads and pumped up, pompous politicians, have been more interested in displaying mugshots and addresses of the convicted has been more or less been dismissive of any kind of deep exploration into why this happened in 21st century Britain. Last night, on a phone in show, someone made a good point. Psychologists study murderers and other serious convictions to find out more about the causes behind the behaviour - not because they agree with it - they do it to understand it, in the hope that preventative measures can be taken if those same patterns are observed again and crucially, to share that knowledge with other professionals who may be better placed to see the early signs.



The cuts to youth provision through activities, youth centres and the EMA`s play their part.It just adds to the landscape of hopelessness that young people are surrounded by today.But it isn`t the reason behind the riots - its just one of them.

People are going to get locked up, people are going to get evicted and that`s the price they`re going to have to pay. I don`t agree with evicting parents when it`s their kids that have done the looting - that`s incredibly unfair. But to quote Weller,"the public wants what the public gets" and I don`t see many people being sympathetic about this.

If we as a country want to not have these things come around again, then we need to rethink the way WE live our lives. We focus on money and celebrity, we build people up to knock down in our media, our politicians were on the take, which they went to great pains to cover up, we have an organisation that bribed, blackmailed and illegally listened to conversations from the monarchy, heads of state and the police to murder victims and their families, obstructing murder cases and yet heads never roll, we have a police force who at the top were having dinner with people they were investigating and getting kickbacks in terms of gifts and jobs after retirement from the force, we have a prime minister who in his youth was in a gang who would trash peoples businesses, only to throw a wad of money afterwards to show their superiority.



This is what our kids see. They didn`t fill their heads with brands and x-factor, we did.

You buy a 12 year old a £300 smartphone or £100 trainers then wonder why you struggle to show them the value of working for £5.90 an hour when they reach 16, and blame them for not having a good work ethic. They know politicians never talk to them, they talk about them. Every bit of authority they should look up to, they don`t, because they can`t.

I don`t want this happening ever again. It was f**king embarrassing to see people who look like me and talk like me act like scavengers in the very streets I grew up in. Maybe, it`s too late for some, this is the way they`ll live their life forever and we`ll be locking them up forever - that`s nothing new - but we need to hear the voices of the ones who want a way out, not shout them down because they`ve broken the law. Once they`ve paid their debt, they need to be able to make a plan to get ahead and move forward .. otherwise guess what it`ll happen again to US .. not to the politicians but to OUR property. when they shout down someone who is trying to dissect the motivation behind the riot, they are not serving our best interests.

Personally, I think they`re twats, they`ve hurt soooo many working class people, some losing their jobs or their homes or their lives. They haven`t hurt the authority they were kicking against, they`ve hurt their own communities. But let`s learn from this, learn from them and get on with earning our daily crusts on this treadmill we call modern life.


Thursday 11 August 2011

Philadelphia Slick / 'Gonna Get Over'

Philadelphia Slick / 'Gonna Get Over'

Pictured: Philadelphia Slick Location: Philadelphia

Hip Hop / Laid back / Live Instrumentation

Taking their name from own of their home town`s industries, these guys make flowing hip hop , touching on different genres along the way. The production is tight - and the musicianship  is of a high standard. These guys may look chilled - but they know their chops when it comes their instrument. This is a party tune, and it has been out awhile - but it marries what a good hip hop tune should be and also have a neat grasp of lock down a groove LIVE in the studio. You catch a bit of a disco flavour with this `un - and you know how much I appreciate disco. For more of the good stuff, the website is here


Philadelphia Slick - 'Gonna Get Over' by Paper Garden Records

What happens when your bass player fucks off? UPDATE

What happens when your bass player fucks off? UPDATE


The  story of Dexys midnight runners and the two Kevins are best explained in a 6 minute interview with Kevin Archer, with new info I wasn`t aware of, and to be honest it broke my heart a little watching this. All my info came from interviews and documentaries done with both Kevins BEFORE this one, annd even though I said they`d patched things up at the end, things have changed since - and I`m not even sure if thats true anymore. Archer, you`re a fucking gem. You`ve gone through a lot of  stuff  just to make music for us to enjoy. As a side note, Kevin wasn`t the only casualty in this affair, big Jim Patterson, co - writer of nearly every dexys song has on two occasions broken down in tears in TV interviews over his dismissal by Kevin Rowland.  I`d rather not paint to dark a picture  of rowland - he was a very driven individual and he is very much a marmite kind of guy - you love him or you hate him - and to an extent thats how he treated band members too, - if you  were in, you were in, if not, you were frozen out. Even removing band members from recently reissued album artwork years after the fallout.


The Mighty SoundCloud hits 5 million users. Great Stuff

The Mighty SoundCloud hits 5 million users. Great Stuff

soundcloud Pictures, Images and Photos
Congrats to all who work at soundcloud, and the tumblr intergration that they collaborated on has been a brilliant additiion to us music bloggers. Although I haven`t got `into` the soundcloud community too much I have made some good connections and it has made working with people I don`t have to time to record with usually much more easier. Thank you, you do more for music than any major label has done for a long time.
Having said that, there`s a few things that do my head in about it.
Firstly, one huge gripe that I have  with the service is the piss poor search feature - it`s just too cumbersome to find what you`re looking for.
If I search for all the bands in my city Leeds during one week, and I listen to  7 or 8 pages or tracks, when it comes to the following week, I can`t jump to page nine and carry on where I left off, I have to keep clicking "next" to get where I was. So, If you`ve listened to 22 pages out of 6540 and you`re bored shitless of pressing "next" 22 times to carry on where you left - well that`s put paid to you checking out the songs that have been uploaded in the past - You`ll just "find" songs somewhere else, by other means.
If they can get that sorted, THEN  joe public will have a better experience on the site if they`re  a crate digger - trawling through music to find that `gem`. A good feature in soundcloud is their music groups, it works like a mini community, and yeah, groups are a great way of finding what you want - The groups  focus on a particular style, or a genre or sometimes on a  location, but a popular group will still suffer the same problem if they have masses of pages that music lovers have to wade through.
My other bone of contention - with has nothing to do soundcloud itself, is the hit and run followers. There`s a breed of soundcloud user who are just in the numbers game. they follow you, you think "Cool, I`ll check them out and if they`re good I`ll follow back" , as soon as you start to follow them, they unfollow you. You never find out when someone unfollows you, so you`ve been duped into making someones followers stats look good.
How Piss Poor is that?
Not only does it NOT make you want to check out your sounds in future - it just makes me unfollow you. I`ve been lucky that I`ve been able to pick up around 4 followers a week, sometimes, occasionally I get that in a day. It`s nice, but it`s not my goal to have loads of followers just for the sake of it -  you get zero downloads. What  I`m not doing is  the scratch my back thing - how will  you ever know I rate you as a musician?
Having a Soundcloud account is like being in love -
YOU SHOULD ONLY FOLLOW YOUR HEART.
Join it for the music and follow for the love of interacting with other musicians. Don`t do it for fame.
FAME IS SOOOO 20th CENTURY. YAWN.
[MY SOUNDCLOUD PAGE]

Madonna .. Material Girl or Theiving Cow?

Madonna .. Material Girl or Theiving Cow?

Whilst doing a bit of research on publishing, I came across this website. Its been put up by a very pissed off songwriter who has had a run in with madonna over plagiarism of her work. Aisha, the songwriter has taken quite a `shine` to Madonna (to put it politely) by revealing some interesting similarities between her and other peoples work, also revealing courts cases that have dogged her  from the beginning of her career until now in which she has paid off people to keep quiet.

There is a little bit of trolling here, but, as someone who has grown up with madonna, some of the stories of court cases (she provides links) and the similarities to other artists work are interesting. what I found striking is that, a lot of her styling in the last couple of years seems to have come from Kylie Minogue and NOT the other way round. I`m not some big fan of either woman , but that`s batshit crazy - it`s not the perceived wisdom  at the very least .... .



I don`t think everything that Ashia says is bang on - she accuses madonna of ripping off the film `metropolis` for 1989`s "Express Yourself". Which is a bit unfair, directors often borrow from cinema and that happens in every discipline of film making - and music videos borrow from the silver screen all the time.  So ignore that, but do check out how much litigation there`s been. She has an habit of claiming songwriting credits to her advantage by changing a line or two.

What a shame. I`d always given the lady much respect for being a great songwriter and producer and business woman ... but I might change my mind about Madonna. She`s more clever than I thought. But not as cool as I thought she was. Worth a look anyway.


Mixcloud VS Mixcrate : Two websites who do the same thing in a slightly different way.

Mixcloud VS Mixcrate : Two websites who do the same thing in a slightly different way.

At the momemt I don`t have a premium souncloud account to host my mixtapes. Really, I shouldn`t put anything up on there as the RIAA have got on soundcloud back forcing them to put some kind of software that scans audio files to pick up whether it`s copyrighted material. soundcloud then have to  remove the track, then they let you know. Bye bye stats!!
I will still purchase an account this summer, I mean, come on, I  spend a year  worth subs of souncloud on weed every week .. (cough) .. But anyhow, there are different ways to host and promote your mixes if you haven`t got the cash.

Mixcloud and Mixcrate are the most prominent in hosting DJ mixed sets (and in Mixcloud`s case podcasting too, although Mixcrate really isn`t about podcasting - and neither am I -  so I wont concentrate  too much on that)
Mixcloud:
  • Provides no downloads of your mixtape
  • Looks mint.
  • Has a high media profile. Has industry backing.
  • artists get paid when your mix get played
  • Full facebook integration. Likes and any tweets of your mixtape builds your profile onsite
  • You follow and gain followers.
  • If you don`t have an offline following, it`s hard to create one from scratch. You need to get to work!
Mixcrate:
  • Provides unlimited downloads of your mixtape (once registered)
  • Looks mint, not as good as Mixcloud, but cool enough
  • Under the radar, legally in a grey area in terms of copyrighted material
  • You can place links on facebook, but you will be redirected to their site if you click upon the link
  • No followers, you can `favourite` tracks, which builds your profile - the more you get, the more likely you will get more prominence
Both are free. Both have a community built around them, although, it is a bit like tumblr you find that it`s really hard to get your stuff featured, reblogged etc. You really, really have to work your online skills to get noticed, or have a sizable offline following to get any kind of traction.
I have placed a couple of mixtapes on both  their facebook pages for over a year, and each one  just laid there,  untouched pretty much.
There is another site though, called House-mixes.com. It looks a bit dated style wise. I have no idea why they haven`t given it a facelift, because  it`s popular and  it works really well. What`s also different is, because you haven`t got big name DJ`s on it, there`s actually a real community feel around the site.

I`ve placed mixtapes on there - and I  did nothing to promote them  as I wanted to see how much of the plays/downloads were actually just down to the activity on the site - and within days I got over 200 plays, which suprised me, I just wasn`t used to that kind of reaction, People left comments, followed your profile like you can on soundcloud and mixcloud, you could see who played your track (a premium feature on souncloud)  and you can do facebook like updates on any topic you like.
Again, the look of it isn`t great, if the embeddable player/downloader looked decent, then I would be using that to host my mixtapes on this  blog.
I`m a member of all of them, I think the best way to go about using them is to use mixcloud and provide your own download links via megaupload or mediafire.
However, I have noticed mixrtapes creeping into Bandcamp.  I`ll be releasing an mixtape through there this summer, just to test it out. My gripe is this: I`m not a fan of the bandcamp player. It`s slow as fuck to load up. That`s if it does load up.  Sometimes it will not load up on  firefox browsers when it`s fine in chrome. My studio releases albums through Bandcamp as well as physical CD and half the time our readers of our blog who are firefox users see a blank oblong instead of a player. Not good.

Backyards / White Horses (Recorded BBC Introducing York Session)

Backyards / White Horses (Recorded BBC Introducing York Session)

A song for the bright early mornings, bubbling with rhythm. Sincere and honest. Backyards fuse indie and electronic sounds, but far from being cold and mechanic -  Backyards have an heartbeat running throughout all their songs.

I hear that they may lean more towards the more electronic side after this EP.  I`ll be getting my hands on a Backyards Track to do a remix, I`ve been waiting for a few weeks for the recording stems to arrive - due to their really busy guitarist, who has just moved house and hasn`t unpacked his gear yet!


3) White Horses - BBC Introducing York by Backyards

Five Muso Slag Offs / Take off those headphones and stick on your boxing gloves.

Five Muso Slag Offs / Take off those headphones and stick on your boxing gloves.


1. Oasis on other bands:
Bloc Party "a band off University Challenge"
Coldplay 'music for bedwetters'),
Pete Doherty "if he wasn't shagging a supermodel, no one would give a shit"
Kaiser Chiefs "they sound like The Monkees'",
Scissor Sisters "'weirdos on stilts'"
Kylie Minogue "demonic little idiot"

2. RazorLight on The Kooks:
"The Kooks sound like they're rolling over and begging Radio 1 to fuck them"

3. Lilly Allen on Cheryl Cole
"Cheryl, if you're reading this, I may not be as pretty as you, but at least I write and sing my own songs without the aid of Auto-Tune. I must say, taking your clothes off, doing sexy dancing and marrying a rich footballer must be very gratifying, your mother must be so proud, stupid bitch."

4.Courtney Love on Dave Grohl
"Dave Grohl slams me every time he's on your show, implying that Kurt wrote all my songs. I'm not going to slam him, but I've written a song about him: 'When the drummer tries to sing, everybody better hide/When the drummer tries to sing, let's all go inside.'"

5.Johnny rotten on Ozzy Osbourne
"Ozzy is clearly a victim, and selling that loser lifestyle shit to other people equally victimises them," he added. "That's a shame. Ozzy's a working-class man, like me, yet he allows that to happen. By acting like he does all the time, he implies that we're all stupid, the working classes. But we're not, you know. We're not! We're the proper Britain, us lot."

Irap TianTian / 不可动摇

Irap TianTian / 不可动摇

HIP HOP FROM SHANGHAI, CHINA


EVEN BETTER THAN THE REAL THING







Chinese Hip Hop, it`s not a thing you hear a lot of in the west. It`s the thing of, `do you rap in English?` like your heroes or `do you stay with your mother tongue?`...

TianTian, coming from the great metropolis that is now Shangai, chose the latter. I`ve heard rap in a few different tongues and accents and dialects, but it`s suprising how much it flows in this language. There`s not much more to tell you about this guy, as there`s no more info than his name ... I mean, hell ... I don`t even know what the title of the track is.

Other than that, the beats themselves do the business .. it just goes to show tha hip hop is truly bigger than the sum of its parts. It`s not a US game anymore, everyone can play.

Respect to TianTian.




[Streaming Only]

.

I-Lo / Wordplay (prod. Johnik)

I-Lo / Wordplay (prod. Johnik)


Hip Hop from Gothenburg, Sweden. 21 year old rapper I-Lo .. which is his real name backwards. has been rapping and performing for four years. It was a tough one choosing between this tune and "Bragging Rights" to post to you, but I want to keep an upbeat summer vibe going so I`ve gone for "Wordplay" .. headrocking and hands up in the air affair.. and as a bonus I`ve found a short vid of him - it`s just  him in the back of a car, but it`sa cool track that I can`t find a download link too. However his soundcloud has plenty of giveaways, so have a look ... `cos this kid is no toy.

DOWNLOAD
SOUNDCLOUD

I-Lo - Wordplay (prod. Johnik) by I-Lo

Placement / Flicker Fish

Placement / Flicker Fish



A gentle ambient track from Placement, taken from their compilation album, Collected Locations available for free download from their bandcamp page.
Placement are a duo from England who make a form of locational ambient music they call ''Landscape Music".
Formed in 1997 the pair typically combine found sounds, field recordings and an array of instruments both electronic and otherwise, with tape effects, prepared systems and improvised playing. Their albums are largely themed geographically to evoke a particular area or feature and the tracks themselves can vary from large scale impressionistic pieces to more focused and intimate studies.
If you hav e 5 minutes to steal yourself away from the world, download, listen and close your eyes...



Flicker Fish by Placement


DOWNLOAD MP3
COLLECTED LOCATIONS ALBUM

The Vita Ruins / Seven Suns

The Vita Ruins / Seven Suns





Ace song from last year from Washington DC. It`s rock and indie and electronic - but it`s got a party vibe to it, with dark undertones. Having just found the track today by random, I was a bit gutted to find out there was no more to come. The Vita ruins played their last gig last month (July 2011) and have gone their separate ways, leaving this wee letter on facebook.

We wanted to take the time to thank everyone for their support over the years – you have made it a lot of fun for us. With that, we wanted to let you know that we will be playing our very last show as The Vita Ruins on Saturday, July 9, at the Rock and Roll Hotel. After 5 years, we have decided at the conclusion of recording our last EP, ‘The Towns,’ that it was time that we pursue other musical paths.

Our music has been an ever evolving collaboration between us through out the years and it has been an enjoyable ride but we have decided it’s time for something new. At our final show on the 9th, we'll be playing some of the new songs from the EP as well as some of our old favorites.

Again, thank you to our families, friends, fans, former band members, fellow DC and close non-DC bands over the years who have supported our music, attended our shows or shared a stage with us. It has been a great experience for us and we are grateful for the last 5 years of playing music together and having the opportunity to share it with you. A new project is in the pipeline through which "The Towns" EP will be released under a new name, and details will be posted shortly. We hope to see you all there as we take the stage one last time with our friends SNOWMINE and Miyazaki.

Cheers!

The Vita Ruins


You can get more of their tracks from their Soundcloud page. Use thearrow to download, Cheers

The Vita Ruins - Seven Suns by thevitaruins

Wednesday 10 August 2011

Two Funk Inspired Remixes/Blend

Two Funk Inspired Remixes/Blend

Presenting Two Offcuts from the funk mixtape that I`ve now chosen to abandon. Why? Well, it was fun doing themed mixtapes, but after the sumfink Like Disco trilogy and the northern Soul All Stars.. I found myself going into the world of novelty mashups, and whilst neither of these two are novelty, another themed mixtape where I`m mixing well known tunes one after another and my reputation would be toast!



DOWNLOAD





DOWNLOAD

Mixed and Edited by Punk Rock Kick

Cowtown / Shake Your Morning Suit

Cowtown / Shake Your Morning Suit




Cowtown are a three piece from three corners of the UK, based in Leeds, they have been the party band in demand in our city, to the point of turning down gigs, because they felt it was getting too much, too soon. They don`t do bass guitars, it`s synth, electric guitar and drums, and that can really rock the place - I know I`ve seen them play several times. When one band dropped out of a night they were both playing, they took over with no notice and made the whole party swing.

Give it 20 seconds, then it drops into it`s groove. Pop sunshine with matching jumpers.

01 SHAKE YOUR PERSON SUIT by COWTOWN

Lasse Brawn / Mary

Lasse Brawn / Mary





Alas, this three piece disbanded this year..and as far as I know are in different bands now, which is sad but sometimes you said all you`ve need to be said with a group of people and it`s time to move on. I did a brief Photo shoot with them last summer, which are my favourites as they were very simple, with lost of bright natural light.

They recorded Mary and let it be released on my studio`s compilation album " A Collection of Calamity Vol.1" last year. Their Hard, and unforgiven approach to trockm gained them a reputation on the leeds live circuit. Plus, their sense of humour is really fucking dark!

I haven`t seen them in a few months, but as soon as I hear what they`re up to abd can legally blog it, I`ll let you know..

Mary by Lasse Brawn

Sunday 7 August 2011

Documentary /John Pilger - The War You Don`t See

Documentary /John Pilger - The War You Don`t See







A view on how the media played a part in the run up to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. John an esteemed journalist who has devoted his life to uncovering the truth in various parts of the world turns the spotlight on how media ownership and the cosy relationship between politicians and journalists have changed the way news is reported. It chronicles the demise of the investigative journalist from watergate onward. A riveting watch, he interviews people from the ITV, BBC and the guardian and holds them to account. Well worth watching, as seeing journalist being interviewed by another - very seasoned journalist who knows a stock answer when he hears it.













Music Documentary: BBC - Krautrock - The Rebirth of Germany

Music Documentary: BBC - Krautrock - The Rebirth of Germany









Exploring the musical movement in Germany between 1968 and 1977 featuring bands like Neu!, Can, Faust and Kraftwerk, who would go onto influence many genres past the 70`s. As with most BBC Four music docs, this is throughly researched and put together well. It`s full of rare archive footage, and a good hour long.










Documentary / World In Action / The Birmingham Six: Their Own Story

Documentary / World In Action / The Birmingham Six: Their Own Story


Filmed just after they were released, this documentary gives the wrongly accused men centre stage. They retell the whole story, from being locked up,to having appeals rejected, to how being outside of the prison system for the first time in years has affected them and their relationships greatly.
Made by the now legendary World In Action team, now replaced by the joke that is `Tonight` .. this doc reminds you how much hard hitting journalism used to be common on the ITV network. If this was made now, you could expect lots of shaky camera reconstructions, over powering emotive music beds and idiot as a voice over. Good sober journailsm, that freed a bunch of innocent men.




Contact

Get in touch with me


Adress/Street

Leeds , West Yorkshire

Phone number

Nah..

Website

www.johnsmith.com