30.4.08
Most exciting week of my year so far.. yesterday Max5, which I'm totally in love with, and today Portishead's 'Third' dropped through my front door. I'm a little way through, but to be honest I'd already decided to like it when I found out The Wire didn't..

This interview with Portishead is pretty good, I found the bit where they talk about being forced to move forward by the context other people have put your old music into very interesting.

While I'm writing - last week was good too.. The night with Four Tet, Fairmont, Sunburned Hand of the Man and Kode9 was great, despite being in the dystopian hell that is London's O2. We'd talked with Kieran previously about the problem of getting people to dance to listening music, and to listen to dancing music, and to do both with the music inbetween.. Always annoyed me the way people stand and stare at a Hebden/Reid gig when, IMO, they should be dancing like acid-addled loons in a 70s psyche-sploitation movie. What's the problem? Dancing doesn't mean you're paying less attention, if anything it's a gentle self-hypnosis exercise.. Even Bach wrote dance music, but that's been forgotten in the geeks vs meatheads battle of the going-out scene. I blame The Wire again...

So Thursday's gig was a nice surprise - despite the future-wetherspoons venue it felt a bit like it was starting to work, all these disparate sounds fitting and flowing together and at least a few people seeing it for what it really is.

14.11.07
it's not often that i decide to recommend an album after listening to the first track (last time was cluster - zuckerzeit) but i've skipped through the rest and what the hell, i'm quite sure i'm not wrong. arp - in light is excellent. well excellent. new-krautrock i guess, but my favourite kind, human and fuzzy unlike the fake-plastic smells-of-plugins-kraut that's been propagating lately. it's on smalltown supersound and they have a very functional mp3 store on their site. ah and in the time it took me to find out how to spell propagating i've got 2/3 of the way through track 2 (really good!) so this counts as an in depth review.

8.11.07
today i am working through my promo pile. the end is near, i'm sure of it. so instead of pointless techno copycat tracks i'm listening to a tony conrad cd i bought ages ago and forgot about. which brings me onto: i don't normally do other people's promotion on here but if i wasn't about to go to the airport for the weekend i'd be going to northampton, as tony is playing the fishmarket this saturday (10/11/07). www.northamptonarts.org

21.8.07
nathan fake - you are here video

20.8.07
i am already looking forward to touring canada next month...

8.8.07
some time ago, at scott (avus)'s house we were sitting relaxing after a long afternoon with a compresser-limiter and he put on pink floyd's live at pompei dvd. cruelly i laughed a few times, still feel guilty now, but watching this (still brilliant) clip might explain why. the reason why i dug that up is: supermayer have a dog on their new album. they also have 13 tracks of total brilliance, as funny as floyd but laughing with not at as they dismantle conservative techno and build something far more charming on top. reading some opinions from the english-meathead-scene it seems its a record that will divide listeners (those that get it, those that don't..) but who cares, nice to know who your enemies are.

(i so wanted to make the word 'meathead' a link but am feeling too fragile for starting fights today..) why are you fragile on a wednesday? well, nachtdigital was a wonderful festival in a magical place and because andre galluzzi's cat died (!) i got to play there and then fill in as supply-teacher for a few hours longer than my frail aging body wanted to.

last thing - we saw caribou last week in london, really sweet live show to match the lovable album. they are about to start a big tour, i would recommend going..

20.7.07
today was a bad day for record shopping. i know this because the best thing i found all day was:



11.7.07
reading krautrocksampler (julian cope's book of the history of that music) i felt quite jealous and sad at being far too young to have been there at the time and missed all these long drawn out acid-soddled gigs. but last night we went to see animal collective and i realised i was being daft. their live show is incredible, properly live and exciting, and much like the kieran hebden + steve reid show i was on about a while ago was completely perfect music for dancing. most importantly though on the way home i felt like i'd just seen something happen.

other things: my excellent brother got me an arduino for a birthday, which is a brilliant toy as with absolutely no knowledge or effort and very little money anyone can build their own interfaces for music stuff - i had max/msp responding to input from mine after half an hour of tinkering last night thanks to the mountains of helpful info on their website. technically it's timewasting, but whatever..

more timewasting:
brian may - who i've linked to before but since then he's started a fight with brian ferry for being in favour of fox hunting..
steve albini - 'the problem with music'. because you can never call a&r men 'scum' too many times. the site that essay is hosted on is an interesting one too - negativland's radio show 'over the edge' is totally brilliant listening.

24.6.07
i just caught a mouse! with a bowl and a copy of 'drowning in a sea of remixes'. add it to the list of things to do with your vinyl after the revolution comes.

21.6.07
sonar (or as i now like to call it, fear and loathing in barcelona) was fun. or at least playing there was - i really enjoyed having the chance to play an afternoon set at sonar-by-day. lucky to have had the chance to play my favourite records in the late afternoon sun in such a nice place. so thanks to those that came and listened. though i feel like a muppet for forgetting to play that caribou record i've been so excited about lately.

and we heard some good music too - especially sunn o))) who were incredible - amazing how focused in intent and execution an hour of music can be. i'd like to see them again.

anyway i'm sounding too positive so for balance: am i the only person who has an awful sinking feeling when i see a poster for a club with 'minimal' in its name?