diary

James — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:37:00 +0000

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.

James — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:32:00 +0000

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.

James — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:49:00 +0000

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

James — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:03:00 +0000

nathan fake - you are here video

James — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 12:06:00 +0000

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

James — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:09:00 +0000

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..

James — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:38:00 +0000

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

James — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 12:53:00 +0000

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.

James — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 21:53:00 +0000

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.

James — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:42:00 +0000

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?

James — Wed, 30 May 2007 15:19:00 +0000

technics cd players: why? i have never seen such a badly designed piece of music gear in all my life. so if the set on sunday in berlin seemed a bit sub-par my apologies, i was busy sweating and fighting with the shiny-but-unreliable machines.

my point isn't just a whine + excuses however - it seems like there are two streams of post-vinyl dj-gear - the stuff that tries to emulate vinyl and saves you carrying a record box around (technics cd players, serato..) and some stuff that tries to go beyond (pioneer cd players just about, traktor..) and i just don't understand the point of the first lot. if i wanted to be limited to the mundane act of fading between two records i'd carry vinyl around.. good for the stomach muscles and luddites think you're cooler.

a short chart:
1. caribou - niobe
2. metope - braga/breep
3. barbara morgenstern - vermona yes the whole album.
4. franco battiato - energia (from the 'fetus' album)
5. this music-blog
6. yard - long rolling hills (karri o's trafalgar)
7. dan deacon - wham city

see, told you it was short.

James — Sat, 19 May 2007 13:52:00 +0000

the problem with vinyl is: google desktop search doesn't work on it.. i've been hunting for my vinyl of 'spooky - stereo' for ages. it must've been one of the first 12"'s i bought but is probably lost for ever in the chaos of my record collection..

anyway a couple of weeks ago i got sent spooky's new record, which is nice but too shiny for me, but while reading about them i discovered they've managed to get the rights back to all their old records and now have them on sale on a bunch of digital shops. so go buy them! 'stereo' is one of dance music's highpoints i think..

James — Fri, 18 May 2007 13:39:00 +0000

there's a tony conrad gig in london coming up. i can't go as i'm playing somewhere that day, so i'll have to content myself with his cds and website. he writes interesting things, i think. also i wish i'd heard the faust/conrad recordings when i was learning violin, he makes it sound like a very cool instrument.

James — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 15:24:00 +0000

i got lucky last week, music-wise. thursday, kieran hebden & steve reid totally blew us away - like the best rave-music set ever, and entirely played live. that's live as in: no sequencers, which requires balls.

i left that gig thinking they'd made me want to dance more than any dj i'd seen for years and a bit dispirited about techno which lasted until saturday when dj koze musically slapped some sense into me. he's the best dj of all djs. and also the funniest living german too. and his new song 'all the time' is amazing, beautiful post-techno.

finally, unrelated: the inquirer's take on the apple/emi/drm story is right on, if a bit ranty.

James — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:18:00 +0000

happy new year! i don't really know where the last few months have gone.. all i can remember is:
1. marvin suicide is an excellent radio show on resonance fm which also has a podcast. the music played is all netlabel releases, and some real treats are in there. for example:
2. bad comfort - he uses buzz in a really good way. i think it's his phonocake release that i fell in love with.
3. sorry barcelonians. it was a booking mixup and by the time i found out, i'd given my passport to the colombian embassy to get a visa.
4. david lynch. 'inland empire' is ace, and we've been watching twin peaks lately. and on the subject of twin peaks:

bob from twin peaks sven
5. central america is great. incredibly beautiful, i feel lucky i got to go there.

James — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:58:00 +0000

"�for ages it didn�t even have a name, it was just producers� wouldn�t it be wicked if there was no scene, no name for the music�just a couple of clubs and some tunes. You�d go there and every tune would be different, no formulas.�

some wise words from an interview with Burial.

James — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 11:28:00 +0000

On Tuesday this week I went to the Resonance fm studios to play some guest selections on 'The London Ear'. I hadn't listened to Resonance much, as although it's a London station it doesn't seem to reach our house, but having made the effort to check it out before I went on I can only wholeheartedly recommend it - you can listen online and there are a few podcasts.

Luckily the show I was on isn't archived.. I'd been up all night and had little max/msp patcher boxes floating in front of my eyes, so by the time the hour was up I'm pretty sure Ben the presenter and a whole load of londoners thought I was a bit of a moron. But anyway..

'The London Ear', which is Tuesdays at 2pm, is a good place to start, an hour of excellent music. But the best thing is tuning in at random times - the station ranges from serious to surreal, so you're as likely to get an hour of talk on climate change as you are an hour of mental comedy noise experiment. There are specialist music shows for types of music I never thought of checking out, and there's nothing better than realising you like a new kind of music.

James — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 12:17:00 +0000

the coolest circuit bent synth ever

and, my mum and dad have given me strict instructions to remind everyone i have a mini-album coming out today. in england. elsewhere you have to wait a little longer. which i understand might be annoying, so my apologies..

James — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 20:49:00 +0000

Good record shopping this week:

Judith Juillerat - Slack Time - Extended version (Shitkatapult) - I love how this is warm and cold at the same time. That looks stupid written down but whatever, it's a very beautiful song.

Spenza - Dia - from the Prox EP, which is digital only apparently. Also very nice, I think the right word would be: loveable.

James — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 13:24:00 +0000

Lately we've been talking a lot in the bc office (ie our sitting room) about how people making music get influenced by the feedback they get. It comes up a lot with the nearly-there cds in the demo pile - how can you communicate help to someone without squashing their individuality? So many of the not-good demo cds are not-good because they only sound like someone trying to get signed, trying to make what they think a label or a dj or the general public want. This is pure foolishness.

Worse, however, is this. Please read and disregard, entirely.

Music isn't made to order, by committee (exceptions from communist china and major labels don't count, because they are awful). And the idea that music can be constructed from popular memes from the scene is the reason that dance music evolves so painfully slowly. The waves of novelty and rejuvenation never come from people trying to use 'the formula' or fit in, but from the malcontents trying to do it their way.

So, demo-senders, in the spirit of the above, here are the rules for any demos you might send to bc:
1. You must have a personality. And a soul.
2.

That's all.

PS: no offence meant to the foem people, what they do is admirable..

James — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 21:41:00 +0000

seems like only last week i was writing about the emd label, who i thought were dormant, but no! there's a new kotai record! and it sounds a bit like arab strap... happy

James — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 16:51:00 +0000

most exciting record of the month: black devil disco club - 28 after (lo recordings)

(here you can listen to some clips). i love it, basically because disco is very much like trance, but less irritating.

other good records:
guns and roses - get in the ring
mountain of one

and

interview with a myspace roleplayer (i'm posting this only for brian, obviously.)

James — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 10:31:00 +0000

nothing to do with music this one, but it's my blog and .. etc. a while ago google sightseeing stopped off at the ryugyong hotel in north korea. and from that, i found this holiday diary by a russian visitor. i have nothing more interesting to add.

James — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 03:45:00 +0000

owls are keeping me awake tonight. pretty sure they're owls anyway. fake and/or eulberg would know. but where are they when you need them?

anyway, killing time, i found: this. brian, i love you, but stop complaining and get yourself 'myspace.com/iamtherealbrianmay'.

of course that wouldn't work. there is (/was?) a fake-me myspace asking for votes in some silly dj-poll, which i found even more embarassing than the time a fake-me spelt thanks with an x. i wonder what the fake brian mays were saying...

ps here's a link to brian's blog which is (a) far far better than mine and (b) mentions hedgehogs further down the page. thankyougoodnight.

James — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 10:56:00 +0000

in a better mood this week, because my steve reich cds arrived and i discovered sergej auto's old albums - check the song 'eureka' which is available on kompakt's mp3 store.. thanks petter.