Wednesday 30 December 2009

dig this

so my review of The Shindig Addicts should be dropping through letterboxes all over enfield, and incase you don't have the good sense to go check out their myspace i thought i'd post up their video so that people can see what the fuss is about and then have this song stuck in their head for a while



I'll be linking to and posting the article in full soon

Monday 28 December 2009

Never Ending Story




ok, so i missed my own personal deadline of having afew more things finished by christmas and the end of the year, my own album seems to have stalled while i work on SoundArt and afew other bits, SoundArt itself is getting a little behind schedule and there have been a handful of other tracks that i was hoping to have had done by now.

so as we start next year i'm gonna post a couple of works in progress, pieces that are in an unfinished state for one reason or another.

and i'm also looking ahead to a bundle of things that i want to cover in my new Enfield Advertiser articles, the next of which should start dropping through local letterboxes from this wednesday... so finding the time to write and blog and create music is a real juggling act

along with that i intend to have my head stuck in some comics for a little while, either ones that i have bought and haven't got round to reading yet and also afew new ones that i got for christmas, i'm realy looking forward to getting my head round some Grant Morrison shaped weirdness!!

and there are also DJ sets to plan for!!

and never enough hours in a day, nor days in the week!

Friday 25 December 2009

mistletoe and whine....

this year i kinda brought myself up to date, getting myself joined up to facebook (the real me, not the fake me) and since the death bell seems to have been ringing for myspace i haven't been pushing my christmas single in the same way i was last year

so i thought since i was wishing all the people in the big wide world of internetwebdom a very happy merry christmas i'd also remind you of the gift of music i give

merry christmas one and all (unless you're on facebook, in which case go and hug your family and leave the computer alone)

www.xmas.com and 6 instalments of the SoundArt project are available by right clicking the links below

www.xmas.com
Free file hosting from File Den

SoundArt1
SoundArt2
SoundArt3 (unfinished)
SoundArt4
SoundArt5
SoundArt6
Free file hosting from File Den

www.xmas.com cover

and if that isn't enough christmas joy for those perusing this fine christmassy day, here is also the video of my possibly all time favourite christmas song (tho i am still debating)



"God bless us, every one!"

Wednesday 23 December 2009

da ba de, da ba da

looks like i'm going to see Avatar tonight. see if its worth all the fuss thats been kicking up and if it revolutionises the cinema experience.

but how did he get funding for such a huge, astronimically expensive project?

never fear, this video provides the answers

Sunday 20 December 2009

Sound Art Experiment Number 3 (revisited)

Last year Ian Byford Art posted a handfull of my tracks to download that he had designed the sleeve artwork for, this year for Blogmass he has been re-upping this years SoundArt tracks, the first of which originally debuted as part of 08's Blogmass Advent calender.

All the tracks to date are now online to download for a limited period, now there should supposedly have been a new track completed every month, meaning that a full 12 track collaboration album would have been available this december - but some things just don't quite go as planned, instead there are 6 tracks available, including the 'incomplete' SoundArt3



SoundArt3 (unfinished)

SoundArt3 is a short track that i intended to expand when i had got more material to flesh it out, it was conceived as a reflection on the links between music and art and included just a few interview clips cut up over a rather minimal backing

I was thinking that i would do more interviews to broaden the scope of the track and increase the running time, but in hindsight i now think it serves as a short aside, almost a brief interlude while some of the other tracks i experimented with have been surpassing the five minute mark (and then some...) which i very rarely cross with my usual tracks i produce, and this in turn has meant that the when the SoundArt project is complete it may be quite a long listen, so the brevity of the third track may be no bad thing

i may change my mind again, i may expand SoundArt3 to a 17 minute sonic symphony if the fancy takes me...

but in the meantime perhaps you should all be right-clicking and kicking back to enjoy the SoundArt project so far

SoundArt1
SoundArt2
SoundArt3 (unfinished)
SoundArt4
SoundArt5
SoundArt6
Free file hosting from File Den

Wednesday 16 December 2009

all the rage

ok, it seems to be a very nice sentiment, and it certainly would be fun to stick it to Simon Cowell, all you people that signed yourselves up to the facebook group to get Rage Against The Machine to christmas number one realy are rebelling against the system!



but i'm sure Simon Cowell will still be getting a nice big fat christmas bonus from Sony after they announce their bumper sales figures towards the end of the year, you see, not only is SyCo music a part of Sony, but Killing In The Name Of is published and released by a subsiduary company of Sony.

this is indeed rebel music!

and proof that no matter who makes it to number one, their is only ever gonna be one winner.


now, i'm not knocking the campaign entirely! it sounds like a funny idea and is obviously the reason so many people joined the group leading the campaign (now lets see how many people are gonna follow through after showing their initial support - because you must be well aware that EVERYBODY does EVERYTHING they say they will do ALL OF THE TIME!!)

and Killing In The Name Of is certainly a popular and iconic choice, it has featured in many a Bubblegum Stomp DJ set - and will probably continue to if we're not all sick of the song by january

but don't break your back (and your already overstretched wallets) to download it, there are chart eligible sites offering it a darn sight cheaper than i-tunes 99p (amazon currently have it for 29p)

and also consider the worthy charity being supported by this campaign, asking anyone that downloads RATM also donates to Shelter and it has emerged today that Tom Morrello will also be donating his own royalties to charity

so go out in force and make history by keeping X-factor off number one if that is your intention - but please also consider stopping watching the show altogether if this campaign and the effect it has on music means anything to you!!!!!

(you know who you are - you turncoats!)






funnily enough, there is also another christmas song doing the rounds!
my own!
and you can download it for nothing!!
please show a lil support for a srtuggling unsigned artist - i ask nothing more than that you take it and you listen to it, i'd be super pleased if you actually like it too!
and if it makes you feel any better why not donate the cost of a download to a charity while you're at it

www.xmas.com
Free file hosting from File Den

www.xmas.com cover

see, nice warm feelings all round!

Sunday 13 December 2009

The Sound of Art

not only am i letting you lucky buggers get your hands on my christmas single for absolutely no pounds and no pence at all (that is for free for the less mathematical amongst you) but as of saturday the previous SoundArt tracks are being uploaded daily over at Ian Byford Art

soundart

today being sunday means that both SoundArt1 and SoundArt2 are now available to download, and from around about midnight tonight you'll be able to get your hands on SoundArt3 (and so forth)

soundart2

now i'm afraid that this can't last forever since at present there are only 6 entries in the SoundArt project available for public consumption... although i am considering rounding off the week with a sneak peak of a slightly incomplete SoundArt7 since i've kept you all waiting so long

www.xmas.com

SoundArt1.mp3

SoundArt2.mp3
Free file hosting from File Den


so don't forget to check Ian Byford Art for the latest downloads, and also for his current Blogmass that will run until christmas with a post every single day up til and including christmas day


and i'm also considering trying to get my arse in gear so i can have a little treat prepared on my blog for christmas....

Monday 7 December 2009

holidays ain't the only thing thats coming!!

back in march i was blogging about the comic-to-movie Kick-Ass and also felt the need to refer to it as being Kick-Ass, i am over that now, please forgive me, it got old real soon...

anyway, a little while ago this trailer emerged and it was brand new and i was gonna post it right away but i was probably too busy geeking out over something else

so this isn't brand new, but for those that haven't seen it yet, or those that want to indulge themselves again, knock yourself out with this little gem while we await the flick hitting the big screen

Sunday 6 December 2009

save yourself 35p

ok, for those not in the Enfield area or have rubbish delivery people that only decide you get a paper once every three months, there is another option!

here's my best Martin Lewis style money saving tip...

why not read the online edition?

until wednesday you'll be able to load up this weeks paper, flick on over to page 26 and there is my first article in print but not in print, but on your screen

(click here to launch, see how easy i made this for you!!)

and if you're a little late with these things, fear not, they also have an online archive accesible from the same browser loady thing - just look for the edition dated 2.12.09

Thursday 3 December 2009

newsworthy

so did you see it? my first article for The Enfield Advertiser? well of course it was gonna be the music column, what else did you expect from me?

who hasn't seen it? why not, quick run and grab yourself a copy, page 26!
only 35p from our local shops for local people if you haven't had it through your door!

so is this the start of a new rock n roll lifestyle for me? will i be getting recognised in Nandos and Bar form? of course i'll sign your copy of the Enfield Advertiser!! please, no photos tho...

ok, onto the real stuff... i'll be doing my best in a kinda regular monthly-ish slot to expose people to bands that may have passed you by so far, now Flamboyant Bella are definetely no strangers to readers of my blog, but to the rest of enfield?

so lets start righting some wrongs.

here i present the 'director's cut' of the article, ok, some of the writing has a slight whiff of cheddar, but i'm trying to find my feet while ticking all the right boxes that the enfield advertiser reading demographic need ticked, it's a role i'll grow into.. stick with me!



Flamboyant Bella, Upstairs @ The Garage. 23.11.09
or as the paper titled it
For Teenage Kicks This Is Hard To Beat

If you haven't heard of Flamboyant Bella yet, fear not, you are probably not the only one, but lets fix that right now.

The Hertfordshire band have been picking up quite a following as they have bounced around the country getting teens dancing to their unique brand of sex, drugs and synth-pop.

These three guys and one girl are strong supporters of getting kids into their gigs, whether it is ensuring their shows are 14+, arranging special matinee gigs or playing at the Underage Festival earlier this year.

And in return, the youth of the nation have been showing their support for 'Flambo'.

It's perhaps a shame then that their gig last week fell upon a school night as the young four piece were back in North London headlining the intimate Upstairs section of the recently re-opened Highbury Garage venue.

The turn out fell short of previous outings in the capital but Flamboyant Bella still turned on the charm for the diminished yet dedicated crowd.

And it's easy to see why they could still get so excited, because this was nothing like a band playing to an empty room of shy, shuffling foot-tappers, everyone wanting to enjoy this gig was as close as they could possibly get and singing every word back to the band.

Their sound is hard to pin down, a unique amalgamation of pure pop spliced with post-Arctic Monkeys and Libertines indie, with shades of Friendly Fires, Klaxons and Kate Nash bleeding through while their lyrics are brash and acutely honest, yet always delivered with mix of humour and sincerety.

“call me politically incorrect, call me foul mouthed or call it tourettes” – the opening salvo of Sex for Procreation (sadly missing from the night's set) - is a fine example of their wit and attitude and an almost perfect summation of a band with tongue firmly in the cheek of a mouth that needs a good washing out.

This provides the perfect soundtrack to everything being youthful, vibrant and fearless is all about, with the audience dancing around to songs with subject matter that you pray the youngest crowd members have no experience of.

Saving the filthiest for last, Flamboyant Bella finish with the rowdy Absolutely Wankered, that captures the excesses of the 'Skins generation' and has the excitable front rows leaping and chanting the expletive littered lyrics, bringing the short, sweet and suggestive set to a suitably climactic close.

Tuesday 1 December 2009

Countdown

this is for those of you that opened the first door on your advent calender today, for those that are willing to start hanging up decorations and get a little festive now that december is finally here. this is for those that have been waiting 11 months so that they can legitimately watch Elf again...

yes. this is my christmas present to you!

my 2008 contribution to the pantheon of christmas songs is available to download all december long, and it won't cost you a penny!

so stick it on your generic mp3 player and give it a spin everytime Mariah and The Pogues get a bit too much for you.

now this may never be as ubiquitous as all the other christmas standards but i would appreciate it if you cared and shared this mp3, tell all your friends, download it for your grandma, demand choirs sing it...

look, i even got naked for the cover of my christmas single...
thats how much i'm willing to suffer for my art...

enjoy.

www.xmas.com cover

www.xmas.com
Free file hosting from File Den

i was also considering blogging every day until christmas to rival my brother, but then i decided i wouldn't, so if you wanna see new stuff every day go over there, if you wana see new stuff every few days, stick with me.

Sunday 29 November 2009

it's the most wonderful time of the year

how polite, apt and indeed neccesary of my brother to point out the fact that 'newspapers are losing there power to bloggers, Twitterers and social networkers' in the same week that i wrote my very first article for The Enfield Advertiser

yeah, thanks for that.

and his response to this sign of the times is to produce his own online non-press release... hang on, it was only afew months ago i was knocking up a press release for him that got him exposure in The Enfield Gazzette!

anyways, while my little brother continues to undermine everything i'm doing i shall be supportive of my family unit and reprint his non-press release for you right here


young talented sexy artist Ian Byford (well someone must think I'm talented and sexy) is embarking on an advent blog fest he calls blogmass from december 1st -25th

Ian Byford will be blogging daily (unless my computer throws a wobbly) at www.ianbyfordart.blogspot.com

in this period Ian Byford will be
- opening a new web shop at www.zazzle.co.uk/ianbyfordart*
- launch new products (well you can't have a shop without stuff in it)
- posting new festive stories from his distopeian scrapbook
- making mp3s by Hunchbakk, from their sound art project available for free download

Ian Byford's Blogmass will show you why this super duper artist with overwhelming talent and charisma (maybe I went over the top there) is making a name for himself with his art work taking to the street in the form of wearable products and taking to the air in the form of music crafted by the talented and innovative Hunchbakk based on original art work by Ian Byford, in there collaborative soundArt project.


aaah, there's a little praise, that was nice of him!

so keep an eye out for blogmass starting this tuesday, along with the return of my christmas single

and if anyone wants to repost or share the non-press release in an online viral fashion, please go ahead, aah, go on...

Wednesday 25 November 2009

where the stray sofas are

this blog is facing a bit of a backlog, there are still afew more videos i want to toss your way, a handful of poems that are waiting for their time and any other number of random bits and bobs that i think 'aaah, i might blog about that!'

which also means it has been a while since the stray sofas turned up on here

and they are back with a vengeance

seemingly taking refuge together, a small tribe of stray sofas, chairs and general bric-a-brac have gathered not far from Brick Lane

and it may look like a dump, and street life can be tough, but for now the leadership of this tribe doesn't seem to be in question




Saturday 21 November 2009

heroes in a half shell

blogs bore me when the only updates are full of videos, but as i said, i found some stuff i thought would be great blog fodder that would appeal to your inner geek, and i thought that if i mix it with a little chit-chat at the same time you may overlook what could be seen as lazy blogging

sometimes there is so much buzzing around my brain that i think may be worthy of blogging, but i don't think i reach enough people to update more than a few times a week, so only the most deserving, the most relevant, the most important... actually probably the most geeky stuff makes it onto this blog

now i can't remember the last time i was excited about the Turtles, i'd definetely lost interest by the time they were releasing the transforming wave of figures, those samurai figures were cool, but i digress...

everything revolves in cycles and ideas get regurgitated for new audiences and i don't know what kinda crap kids have had to put up with maquerading as the Turtles these days, but what they watch certainly isn't what i watched... but in some super geeky mega-cross-over style thingy the turles i remember are teaming up with the latest incarnation, and by the looks of things also run into the old-skool black n white original Turtles from their gritty comics debut....




ooooh.

little bit excited
(in a nostalgic kinda way)

Wednesday 18 November 2009

sick mind

sunday night i found myself in a delirious state as i groaned to myself and contemplated reaching for the whiskey again (purely medicinal of course), revelling in a fully functioning external hard drive and the return of my i-tunes library, suffering from a barely functioning immune system and sat in front of a computer screen scrolling through the new look topless robot

a strange side effect of the lemsip seemed to convince me that i was infact Tim Curry as i laid round reading geeky articles and watching random youtube videos, i did decide tho that a couple of these finds may make great blog fodder

and guess what... i was right

(about the great blog fodder, not about being Tim Curry)

Sunday 15 November 2009

solder

another poem? why yes, cos i was feelin a lil inspired last night and didn't want to sleep...

fueled by a couple of JD and cokes that i had slowly been sinking in an attempt to ease the fluey symptoms that had been crawling up my chest and scratching at my throat and pinching at my nose

and when there was no whisky i moved on to medicinal raki to clear my sinuses while those around me rotted their brains with a late night run through of x-factor



3 o'clock
and i'm willing the clock to stop
a lungful of liqueur
i shudder and shiver
i already dread what the morning will bring
an aniseed yawn and the alarm bells will ring
but write now i'm wired
and the alcohol solders
and i regret that my generation ever got older
while i try my hardest to claw at my youth
while you're sewn into sofas
your tubes watching proof
of a degrading of spirit
of body and mind
and i'll watch you
and ignore you
and be glad it's not mine




.

Thursday 12 November 2009

Insulated

i'm insulated.
neither loved nor hated.
up through the hatch, i am in the aloof.
you won't find me when you're looking for proof.
i've been rolled out and i've been laid.
the less that you hear is the most that i've said.
between the gaps i've been the filler.
first word spoken, conversation killer.
save the planet, lower your bills, keep the warmth inside.
out of sight, out of mind, is where i reside.






.

Friday 6 November 2009

monster mash

so is there anything worth reporting in the world of Hunchbakk this week?

absolutely

i have been faced with frustration everytime i try and get any ideas moving, but i'll keep coming back to the music i'm making and with any luck i'll have something to share with you guys...

anyone paying any attention will have noticed the fact that the SoundArt series seems to have ground to an abysmal halt but it is something i am still toiling on, and is fast proving to be a real sore point. SoundArt 7 is next in line and particular care is being paid to it in order to get it just right, but getting it just right only seems to be the start of my problems with it...

not being able to do things the easy way means i try it the hard way and still get it wrong, or maybe both are the wrong way, or maybe i haven't actually figured the right way just yet, but either way, whenever i set aside time to knuckle down it only results in two hours staring at the computer screen and achieving nothing. and yet other times i have a little mess around and seem to have progressed before it falls apart again

but it is heading in the right direction, it is just taking longer than expected

another idea likely to cause me grief is another christmas single, i'll make no promises that this shall ever be completed in time or even see the light of day but the intention is there

and there is another side-project that is nearing completion that may very well be worth unveiling in the near future... we'll see...




but also of relevance is the triumphant return of Bubblegum Stomp last weekend, embracing the chance to dress up and get drunk and play loud music to a receptive crowd

we've DJed at parties that have sometimes been a bit hit and miss but this time we were realy able to get stuck in to the night and it makes it all worth it to have people dancing and appreciating the effort being made... and it goes both ways, the more up for it a crowd is, the more you feel that you need to give them as DJs

and considering out of the three DJs sharing the decks, one tired and jetlagged DJ brought no CDs at all, another brought just one CD and the other (me!) brought plenty it could have all gone horribly wrong but instead it couldn't have possibly gone better, resulting in a messy night of face paints, too much alcohol, pitched up tracks and a drunken attempt by a hall full of people to do the Thriller dance

and after all that excitement we're planning our costumes for the New Year's Eve party!

Saturday 31 October 2009

goodbye, my 15 seconds of fame

back in may, me and my brother got all zombied up for the Dawn of Don gig, all so we could be extras in the crowd scene of a music video/mini-epic

and i said i'd give it a shout when that video reared its undead scabby head and the time is... now

except there is no sign of any of the gig at all....

hopefuly that footage will make its way onto the interwebnets sometime, but for now sit back and enjoy Akira The Don's extremely high concept new video

Thursday 29 October 2009

the welcoming comitee

thats it, the holiday is over, the reminiscing is over, and something like normal blogging should resume although i do feel that my music has taken a bit of a back seat lately so perhaps i should make posting a little less frequent until there is at least a little Hunchbakk news to speak of

now, i have never had anyone waiting for me at airport arrivals with a board with my name on it, but Enfield certainly seems to know how to welcome me back

it was as if the sofas had been waiting for me, two in the same day and then a family of abandoned chairs a couple of days later, as well as a dumped divan bed and mattress slumming it with a shopping trolley

oh, and since then, a new addition to the end of the street gang - a burned out car (no photos of that one just yet)








Enfield, i love you but you're bringing me down.

.

Sunday 25 October 2009

tokyo: hey hey, you you

avril hey hey2

Clubbing in Tokyo is a curious thing indeed, a city that has a notorious reputation for one of the most expensive places in the world does little to dispell the myth when entry to a club is usually between 3000 and 4000 yen (anywhere between £24 and £32) and most of the clubs in Shibuya co-exist within a very small radius that is only a short walk from an area of 'love hotels' where couples that have only just met can choose to stay for afew hours.

and apart from the happy hour that we seeked out in an empty bar in Roponghi, last saturday was the only night we'd been out drinking in Tokyo and also our last night in Japan. With our flight at half 11 in the afternoon, this meant we had to be checking in for our flight at half 9 and catching a bus to the airport at 7 in the morning.

Starting with a couple of cans of Asahi bought from the AM-PM across the road and consumed in our room before moving on to the extortionate hotel bar and their lavish cocktails served with Titanic style icebergs.

The plan was to carry on our drinking at the J-Pop Cafe but when it looked like it was holding some kind of porn x-factor and were shooed off we crossed the road to the very un-japanese Outback Steakhouse to pass the time.

two tequila and cokes later, with an eye on the time and feeling particularly non-drunk we headed along to Atom, a club that appealed the most since it had a discounted 1000 yen entry before 12 and an RnB/Hip Hop room and where things took a turn for the surreal because the RnB/Hip Hop room chose to play Backstreet Boys and Natasha Beddingfield amongst there more urban selections and the main room was chanting along to Avril Lavigne's 'Girlfriend' and YMCA while packing in and facing straight at the DJ instead of just dancing.

I felt slightly uncomfortable ordering a drink called 'Kamikaze' from the japanese barstaff but as my girlfriend discovered, it seemed to be the strongest thing on the drinks menu and had soon done the trick in pushing me over that edge and had me chanting along with the rest of the japanese clubbers and holding hands with a stranger on the next floor dancing to some 'psychedelic electro' in a room that looked like a grotto lit for a party.

and thanks to the kamikazes i have a very minimal and hazy memory of the superclub Womb, apart from going in was like heading into an abandoned factory, that the music was less than thrilling (at least we'd hit Atom first) and i have it on very good authority that after paying 4000 yen each to get in we only stayed for about twenty minutes. sadly, my carefully calculated plans of club hopping before retiring and seeing out the small hours until the first train in Kareoke-Kan or a manga crash pad were dashed by the demon kamikazes.

now, getting stupidly drunk definitely isn't big or clever and it didn't impress my girlfriend as she had to rush me out of our hotel room in the morning or when we checked in for our flight as i sang 'peanut butter jelly time', but twinned with the lack of sleep, it was extremely effective for knocking me out during the ridiculously long flight, only waking for some mush they called lunch, and going most of the way to resetting my body clock as i tried to make up for lost sleep, snooze off the alcohol and wake up at what the UK would have known as 8 in the morning which was in fact midnight back in Tokyo.

and with that the adventure was over and there was nothing else to do but fill another 6 hours with inflight movies and wondering when it was time for the next 'meal'.

Saturday 24 October 2009

tokyo: a few of my favourite things

that last post was rather wordy wasn't it?

so this one is all about the images, with a short selection of some of my favourite photographs i took in tokyo






Friday 23 October 2009

tokyo: the update



so perhaps its about time i updated my blog and gave you voyeurs more information on my eastern adventure, to recount on this page all the stories i have already recounted to friends but to tackle it in a journalistic manner seems to suck the fun out of the holiday slightly, but i'll break it down and give you the brief re-caps of how it all went down but don't expect the full story in a travelogue stylee, if you know me, talk to me about it, if you don't know me then take in what i have to say and perhaps consider getting out there to see it for yourself.... it's amazing

in no particular order we took in the sights of Shinjuku, Shibuya and Harajuku as well as making it a little further out to Ginza and Roponghi, we threw money away on the arcade games that we could figure out how to play, threw away some money on some that we couldn't quite figure out and after several failed attempts gave up trying to figure out where we bought the metal balls to play pachinko.

we struggled with the language, we struggled with directions, we struggled with the subway system and we struggled to find places where my vegetarian girlfriend would be able to eat.

despite japans non-understanding of vegetarianism and an abudance of non-translated menus we did manage to feed ourselves, whether it was taking chances on bento boxes from convenience stores or a particularly helpful and filling traditional noodle bar, we also searched high and low for a vegan cafe in Shibuya, ate out at Tokyo's Hard Rock Cafe and had the best italian of our lives in a small italian restaurant that didn't seem to actually employ any italian people but did import in tomatoes from italy every day



we tried to cover a wide spectrum of sight-seeing and activities to make the most of our time in Tokyo, local parks, visiting shrines, shopping at the stalls and shops of Harajuku, peeking in the bewildering boutique shops of Bathing Ape and Billioniares Boys Club, watching kabuki in a traditional theatre, using the Shibuya crossing, going to the Ghibli animation studio museum, wondering what we were doing at Tokyo Tower, taking a look at the imperial palace, clubbing in Atom and Womb and a day trip out and about round Mt Fuji which we very nearly missed.... there is probably loads i'm skimming over but i'm struggling to try and keep this brief

it's amazing, the neon tinged pictures don't do the place justice, it wasn't an easy holiday but it was a rewarding holiday full of unique experiences

and i haven't even mentioned the friday night we spent in a cat cafe (yep, a cafe, full of cats) instead of going to a transexual cabaret show.... or the amount of time we spent in kiddyland (too long, on multiple occasions).... or the bewildering selection of songs being played in Atom (i think that deserves a post of it's own).....

or.... ok, this was meant to be a brief post, i'm leaving it there





.

Wednesday 21 October 2009

tokyo: the GodBox has landed



In a city ruled by neon it is a strange and tempting sight when a glowing box suddenly appears outside a shopping centre and invites you to touch it, the word MYLORD sits proudly on the corner of the box as the lights pulse and respond to your touch

is this God?

No, it isn't

and its actually been there since 2007 so i don't know how we managed to miss it for something like three nights in a row

it is an interactive piece of art that sits outside the MYLORD shopping precinct in Shinjuku and has a number of light cycle displays that respond to human contact

and also makes a very pretty picture, don't ya think?

Tuesday 20 October 2009

true




i was just gonna crack on with uploading some of the most interesting photos from my holiday in Japan, but instead circumstances and coincidences compelled me to delay it and cover something else instead


after a 12 hour flight, a trip along the Piccadilly line and a bus tour of Enfield i got home and tried to keep myself awake and re-adjusted to UK time by geeking out as only i know how, i started reading Batman: Jekyll and Hyde, that i had gotten out from the library, and as my eyelids grew heavy i decided to get nostalgic and stick on the dvd of Batman: The Animated Series and another happy coincidence left me pleasantly surprised that it was Two-Face that was yet again featured in the episode i was up to

it was strange then that when i got up to the BBC breakfast news that one of their features was a look at a documentary telling the story of Katie Piper, a presenter and model that suffered a horrific attack when acid was thrown over her, grimly seeming to mirror the stories from the previous night

the true story of her ordeal was hard hitting and sickening, that anyone could devise such a way to ruin another persons life makes you despair but the rebuilding of her face and her life shows such amazing strength and its positivity stands in such stark contrast to the fictional scarred dual persona of Harvey Dent that the collision of similarities and differences stopped me in my tracks

unfortunately i can't embed the interview, but it can be viewed on the BBC website here and the Cutting Edge documentary will be show on Channel 4 next Thursday (29th October) at 9pm




credit where its due:

Two-Face artwork by Rawshark

Sunday 18 October 2009

turning japanese...

i actually discovered this video before i went away, who knows what else i'll have witnessed on my travels

those clever japanese, so far advanced with their technology and its capabilities, which means that when someone realised that blowing on an iphone's touch screen could be registered, they decided to produce this app for it....



keep an eye out for my own pics from japan soon....

Tuesday 13 October 2009

I am an Indie Scenester (?)

not being the type that likes to be fitted with a label i took a quiz which does so as a bit of fun, Find Your Tribe is a website that asks you questions about your tastes, habits and brand preferences before deciding which 'youth tribe' you belong to

but the dissection of youth culture into 'tribes' has been conducted quite seriosly, with the original project in 2006 polling over 70,000 people and last year a second survey questioned a further 80,000 + to keep the results up to date and relavant in identifying 26 different tribes with differing tastes and traits

and according to my results...

'You are an Indie Scenester! You are at the forefront on the indie scene – you know all the major players. You’re always ahead of the game – moving on to the next thing once everyone joins in. You like to look good and your icons go beyond the centrefold of the NME – your current look is James Dean meets Grace Jones. Just wait – everyone will be wearing it in a year’s time.'



26 different videos have been produced to further explain each tribe, i don't think that the Indie Scenester description is entirely me but there are definite parts of the description i agree are completely me

another couple of suggestions based on my results said i could possibly also be a trendie or a club kid, and if you mix them all together i'd say thats almost a fair representation of me

tho i definetly would never describe myself as a trendie indie club kid

let me know how you got on with your results!

http://www.findyourtribe.co.uk/

Friday 9 October 2009

oh hell yeah....

is it lunch time yet?



i've scheduled a couple of posts to pop up so this blog doesn't become completely void of fun and nonsense

and you've just had two of them, keep checking for more

credit where it's due:

found this and afew others over on fun vampires

Thursday 8 October 2009

getting hungry...

wikipedia entry for Bento:

Bentō (弁当 or べんとう?) is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables as a side dish. Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquerware. Although bento is readily available in many places throughout Japan, including convenience stores, bento shops (弁当屋, bentō-ya?), train stations, and department stores, it is still common for Japanese homemakers to spend considerable time and energy producing an appealing boxed lunch.

and what could be more appealing than crafting a bento into some tasty edible star wars artwork

yummy....




credit where its due:

ok, i forget where i first saw these, but it was most likely greatwhitesnark or topless robot

Tuesday 6 October 2009

i don't understand

huh?

i never usualy leave it this long between posts...

i've just been busy ok


here, have something geeky to look at and bear with the possibility of sparseness over the next couple of weeks

cos i'm gonna be busy ok




credit where it's due:

i found it here via Bam Kapow

Thursday 1 October 2009

The Manhattan Fantasy (excerpt)

the following is part of a longer poem that seemed to fracture itself, so that the end seemed to sit uneasily with what had gone before it

i may work on a tail to suit the head, but in the meantime i thought i'd post up the original conclusion



The Manhattan Fantasy (excerpt)



dreams slipped 'tween cracks
sigh a mournfull moan
for the passing of the past

an irrelevant future
when you have outlived your fantasies






.

Friday 25 September 2009

stray television

during a spot of very late spring cleaning, an old TV was found that had been sat around doing nothing but gathering dust

it had served its purpose, then after it's years guarantee was over it promptly started going wrong

(i do not have exact dates to substantiate this claim, but we all know that is how it goes)

and out into the front garden it went


today i called the council to arrange for it to be collected and go where all old consumables live out the rest of their days, the soonest pick up available was next tuesday

and i thought perhaps i should get afew shots of the TV sat there looking abandoned in the front garden to add to my growing collection of stray sofas and other household goods

but the TV obviously had other plans, realising it was no longer wanted it didn't choose to hang around


when i left the house it had already gone

Thursday 24 September 2009

learning



i hope i never stop learning

i have an insatiable passion for knowing things, even knowing things about things that i don't like or care little for

i'd like to say that knowledge is power, except i doubt the things i know put me in a powerful position


one thing that has always frustrated me is my inability to actually play musical instruments but last week somebody managed to teach me three chords on a piano and on an entirely separate occasion last week a friend told me how she believed that rhythm could be learnt, before giving me afew hints on how to learn to drum


and it wasn't all one way last week


i also taught my girlfriend how to introduce herself in japanese

Monday 21 September 2009

taking a dump





even tho this toilet has now been forced to fend for itself on the streets, its a relief to know that it is still accompanied by some reading material

Sunday 20 September 2009

game on

i'm not sure i entirely get the idea of a DJ Hero game, a controller in the shape of a deck seems bizarre and i wasn't realy sure what DJing and gaming could possibly share, i spose it is to DJing what Guitar Hero is to actualy playing a guitar (which is nothing at all)...

i can hardly claim to be snobbish about DJing as anyone that has witnessed a Bubblegum Stomp DJ can testify to our complete lack and disregard of actual mixing

but this trailer has got me curious, and i'm not the type to give over valuable blogging space to advertising a product but Daft Punk's involvement in the game is enough to make me wanna share this with you



and if i had the money and the free time i'd love load myself up with a PS3 and afew games and lock myself away playing Batman: Arkham Asylum, DJ Hero and invite afew friends round for a mammoth session of Beatles: Rock Band

instead i'll just have to settle for being too poor and too busy to do so

Thursday 17 September 2009

make it funky for me

it's been a while since i hit you off with something new, and i mean something realy new, something completely new unconnected from the SoundArt project, yep, the last time you got new new music was back in may

yep, you are getting something so new that at the time of writing only one person other than myself has actualy heard the track...


and now for something completely different

saturday cover copy

I've been trying hard in my music production to push myself and stretch myself to keep trying new things, i've been experimenting to find something new for myself and in particular have been trying to distance myself from composing tracks from pre-made loops

but this brand new track is exactly that, produced as an experiment to see what it was possible to produce from a single sample pack and to use as an example of how music can be built in this way

a sample pack labelled 'funky house' filled me with dread, the finished article doesn't seem completely like the funky house i've heard (where are all the bongos?) but it's an interesting little aside that i started on saturday night and had finished by monday night

help yourself to Hunchbakk's dirty little teaching tool

i present...


(saturday)


Free file hosting from File Den

Monday 14 September 2009

99p stores



alas my cunning plan of ordering some strange USB audio device from Hong Kong didn't solve my increasingly frustrating microphone problem

ok, the ebay listing says something about it making my computer surround sound, but why does it have a microphone input on it if i can't record from it - the singstar mics when plugged into my computer's USB worked fine, i just didn't realy wanna go destroying them by trying to plug all manner of instruments through them before giving them back to my friend

but i guess when it only cost me 99p ($1 to buy it, $0.55 to ship) for the silly little thing i can't grumble about it too much, i could of course take my computer somewhere proper and have it looked at proper but i'm far too stubborn and don't realy wanna incur the cost when i'm sure its probably only something i am overlooking

the frustration continues....

Friday 11 September 2009

The merits of blogging (food for thought)



i'm the type of person that enjoys getting to the cinema in time to see the trailers, and seeing a recent trailer for 'Julie & Julia' sparked my interest when one character announces to another that their blog has been bought for a miniseries...

and it surmises that the film is based upon the story of a blog-turned-book, all about a bored secretary that attempts to cook her through Julia Child's recipe book and documents it online

all of which got me wondering about my own blog, tho i doubt that the HunchBlog is realy something that could translate to the big screen, or the small screen, or anything other than a computer screen... would you skyplus a weekly thirty minute episode of a guy that wanders the streets looking for homeless sofas, writes poetry, struggles to produce some minimal electronic music stuffs and quite fancies Roxanne Pallett?

no, i didn't think so

and it made me ponder the reason behind my blog, i certainly didn't start it to seek fame or attention, the main point was so that i could open up what i had already started on my myspace blog, if i'd got something to say then i didn't think it should be tucked afew clicks away on my Hunchbakk myspace profile where people may never bother to look

myspace is great for music, but having the five latest blog posts appearing on your page means that you have to make every single blog count, or fear that people may never read the older entries if you maintain to keep it updated

i was already familiar with a couple of other blogspots and their layouts, so i thought why not put it all out on here, keep it fresh and interesting and updated and a hell of a lot easier if you wanted to peruse previous posts

instead of dedicating it solely to my music (it wouldn't be updated very often if it was) i decided to use the blog as my own kind of filter, so that i could pass on the details of anything that had informed or entertained me, and that i thought may be of interest to the people that i know and to the people that i don't know that may just happen to find their way here

since then i have continued to post up music as and when i make it, brought you other people's music that i have taken a particular interest in and given you all manner of other random bits and bobs that i have appropriated from my internet trawls

and i have also put a little bit more of myself into my blog, by posting my aforementioned poetry and photography and also giving you little glimpses into the life i lead, as i know that there is a little bit of voyeur in all of us



and anyone thinking of writing their own blogs and putting themselves on display for all the other voyeurs/vultures out there should consider the extent Julie Powell goes to for her next novel, Cleaving, in which she not only takes up a job as a butcher's apprentice so she can follow up her first hit book, but also details the sordid affairs of her and her husband who had both seemed so happy when she was a bored secretary that didn't have a book deal or prying eyes looking into her private life

Wednesday 9 September 2009

a spark



yesterday was an eye opener, a mini-revalation and a reminder of the potential available to me.

i wish i had more time and more dedication to grasp hold of that spark and harness it and make a blaze that can be seen from space on google maps or something!

it was great to actually talk to someone with an idea of where i'm coming from and where i would like to go, instead of flicking through pages of jargon to actualy see something unfold infront of me was an inspiration and a kick up the arse

i'm currently making music using Acid and have been trying to break free from being solely bound to layering up pre-made samples (something evident on the most recent SoundArt tracks), it has served me well and been a means to an end but i have recently tried stretching myself to explore and experiment further and talking to somebody else about software and virtual instuments has refreshed my memory and allowed me to take a look into afew of the areas i had previously been overlooking

this may not exactly be the dawn of a bright new future but it is something else for me to get stuck into as i try to expand the aural world of Hunchbakk...

Sunday 6 September 2009

out with the old, in with the new

and so life moves on

it doesn't seem so long ago that everyone was singing 'champagne supernova' in the school corridors and now that i think about it so much has been and gone since those days and i barely noticed the time pass by

and it feels stranger and stranger that i am only just noticing that i am getting older, and all of a sudden gig goers seem to be an awful lot younger

I haven't given up on youth yet... it's just that others are more youthful than me now




earlier this year i saw Flamboyant Bella play a 14+ gig at Islington Academy, where kids jumped around to the bands and inbetween sat around discussing who had started wearing bras and who looked old enough to get away with buying alcohol (no lie!!)

and all of this is a very roundabout way of introducing the newest Flamboyant Bella video, for new single 'Get A Reaction', a song that loads of kids are already aware of and you should be too


Friday 4 September 2009

is it realy over?



it feels almost as if i have been an Oasis fan forever, britpop was a unique time for me when any band with guitars and floppy fringes instantly became my new favourite band for the week but throughout it all i was a die-hard Oasis fan

Oasis at Wembley Stadium in 2000 was my first ever gig and it couldn't have been more perfect, it was a momentous night that i'll never forget, it felt as if my teenage years had been building up to that one glorious night (over romanticising it?)

and over the years there have been numerous arguments and bickering between the Gallaghers and in their hey-day they were constantly rumoured to be on the verge of splitting, it worried me just the once, and then everytime since i've just ignored the overblown rumours of Oasis coming to an end, Noel and Liam have never realy gotten on but Oasis seemed to unify them, even if only for the sake of the live shows

But the latest spat seems to have realy broken them if all the reports are to be believed, perhaps i'm still in denial over the whole thing, i don't particularly believe that this is the end, as far as i'm concerned there will always be an Oasis, but i guess time will tell



one Oasis fan that you may not have been aware of has been hit particularly hard by the news that things could realy be over this time,

i know he isn't a good man (far from it) but perhaps you could have a little sympathy for....

Hitler





and if Oasis is over i'm sure it won't be too long to wait for a Noel solo album, probably featuring Andy Bell, Gem Archer and appearance by Paul Weller (you can count on it realy), Noel may have no place for Liam in his life but i doubt Noel would shy away from his life in music entirely

Wednesday 2 September 2009

lonely chair




discarded along with a pile of other rubbish, this lonely chair gazes out at the world beyond the school gates

Tuesday 1 September 2009

hold ups



if all was well with the world and everything went to plan i would be posting up the latest installment of the Sound/Art project, i should in fact be posting up SoundArt9 but things are kinda held up and the best intentions of completing a brand new track every month have been scuppered though a number of factors, mainly an irrational computer that cannot be reasoned with

as it stands i am still working on SoundArt7 which would have been closer to complete if my mic input hadn't been failing

i have taken steps to try and get round this problem and have also been doing a little groundwork for the track, collecting a little bit of audio so that i can crack on as soon as physically possible to do so

and it should prove to be another interesting track as i am trying to flex my musical muscles by stretching myself and working with new ideas and techniques...

keep checkin' bakk for the end result as soon as it is finished

Monday 31 August 2009

market research

it seems that one of the most popular pages of my blog is the one of Roxanne Pallett wearing very little, which seems to be welcoming visitors from google all the time

i can't possibly think why it should prove so popular, but who am i to argue with it

and if it is what the people want, why not give it to them



there is much more to this blog than the occasional lady in smalls tho, and before your sticky fingers tap another hottie's name into the Google toolbar why not stay a while and enjoy a little bit of culture, perhaps read some of my poetry, or download the latest musical/artistic offering, or just peruse the posts and see what has been on my mind recently...

tho if it keeps bringing people to my blog, perhaps there will soon be weekly Roxanne Pallett posts

Saturday 29 August 2009

where are they now?

it's a question usualy posed about washed up film stars, musicians and other celebrity types that once had their fifteen minutes of fame before moving to Wiltshire to sell caravans

i'm guessin the same question being asked in my local rag would be published so that people are able to track down old friends, neighbours or relatives that they may have lost touch with

or possibly not...

as this weeks newspaper tries to help with the current whereabouts of a cat (?!?) who is apparently new to the area, but may possibly pick up The Enfield Advertiser to get up to speed on all the local goings on.


Friday 28 August 2009

my favourite waste of time



and that there is Akira The Don's supreme mash-up that is rocking the internet and tore up Eddy TM's Remix show all time top ten record last week and is now posing a challenge on his own website

Akira spent bloomin ages slaving over this mix last week to cram 210 tracks into 10 minutes

and now is asking followers of his website to try and spot and name as many of those tracks as they possibly can


so i used my time constructively (as u may notice from the comments i left) and i'd like to think i'll be stomping around in a fetch pair of Don Shoes sometime soon