Saturday 28 February 2009

Kissy




It is a shame that the night felt so corporate, the offices of Gibson Guitars were sparse, the temporary stage was plush and a select audience were there to knock back complementary drinks, oh, and also celebrate the upcoming release of Kissy Sell Out’s debut album with a rather intimate performance.

The fact that so many people had politely positioned themselves behind an invisible barrier or were still at the make-shift bar claiming more Moscow mules did absolutely nothing at all to deter Kissy Sell Out nor wipe the insane grin off his face, he genuinely loves what he does and goes about it with such glee that his enthusiasm is infectious.

Kissy has taken himself from being an art student putting out white labels, through to being the remixer of choice and flavour of the month for a time, an excitable and entertaining club DJ before being picked up by Radio 1 and now has positioned himself at the helm of a live band that he lends his name to.

And what could easily be just another indie-electro crossover band in skinny jeans ultimately wins you over with their warmth and coy charm offensive, the secret weapon is Kissy’s kooky and cute as a button cousin, Danimal Kingdom, who displays the mannerisms of a shy school-boy pleased to be on-stage as he plays bass and performs shared vocal duties, a laptop provides backing, as do live drums and interchanging lead guitar and key-tar is played by Kissy himself.

Four songs deep and the people that really want to move break free and dance down the front while the rest of the room just observes and maybe tap their feet a little to the short set of feel good dance-pop hybrids complemented and completed with cheeky lyrics and misfit grins. And then, by 9 o’clock it was all over.

Kissy Sell Out’s trendy and charming live sets are bound to go down a storm when it hits sweat-box venues and festivals, and if he takes this much pleasure from performing for a group of people that didn’t even have to pay to see him then his excitement will likely be uncontainable when real fans and music lovers are throwing themselves around to his sounds.

Friday 27 February 2009

short notice

sorry for the late notice on this one, only found out about this one on wednesday and maybe should have posted a heads up a lil sooner, but better late than never.

Tonight at the Royal Festival Hall, a whole bunch of emerging artists spanning a wide range of genres will be performing, jus take a peep at the video below!

and joining them will also be special guests, Chipmunk, Natty, Scroobius Pip and Tom Middleton, all of that and for a bargain price too, makes me a little sad that i already have plans for tonight.

tickets and info here.

Wednesday 25 February 2009

skankin'

it has already been over a month since i originally intended knocking a post up about Littles, back when the sound of his mixtape was still fresh in my ears, the mixtape may have been a little overlooked recently in my burgeouning generic mp3 player but one tune that has stuck in my head the whole time since is one that was only featured as a snippet.

Skank Out. can't say i know an awful lot about it other than it was recorded by the ever present (in my life anyway) Akira The Don in his studio, Akira also provides backing vocals and pops up in the vid, alongside members of Son Of King Rebel.

what a tune tho




this may also be a good time to bring up the fact that i've remixed Littles and Akira, this was originally a track from Akira's The Don mixtape and didn't quite make it onto his follow up remixtape, but cos i'm a caring sharing guy, here it is...

No Matter What Ft. Littles (Hunchbakk remix).mp3
Free file hosting from File Den

Sunday 22 February 2009

Flamboyant Bella




why has more not been said of Flamboyant Bella's first London headline gig?

i've had a quick google around and seen nothing reporting on thursday night apart from a bunch of excited comments left on the band's myspace.

i'm gonna step up to right that little injustice right now, because it seemed to me that there were an awful lot of clued-up people already aware of Flamboyant Bella, enough that they haven't needed to kick around the backrooms of london bars and instead made a bee-line right for the Islington Academy, and although many bands choose to start small and build a fan-base around the capital Flamboyant Bella seemed to have had no problem in drawing a crowd.

Taking to the stage with debut single 'Touch', they were instantly able to make the crowd move with their jangly off-kilter take on indie, electro and pop. A young and devoted audience were all too willing to lose themselves to a bunch of songs, often about subjects that they realy shouldn't be old enough to have experienced, but Flamboyant Bella and their songs are a perfect soundtrack to everything that being youthful, vibrant and fearless is all about, whether you like it or not.

And although the songs references may read like a 'Skins' script the performance put in by the band comes across as good clean wholesome fun, perhaps it's the thrillingly beautiful dual male and female vocals or the fact that you can't help but want to dance to their glossy up-tempo pop gems that occasionly take a twist into rave, much to the audiences delight.

Just to look at the band between songs, you could tell that they were genuinely overwhelmed by the response and that so many people had turned up just for them, yet they never let this get in the way of playing a polished set of songs old and new, slow and fast before finally encoring with the rapturously recieved 'Absolutely Wankered'

and the only downsides that i'll try not to hold against them, they didn't play my favourite song 'Break Away', and all ages gigs make me feel old.

Friday 20 February 2009

Special Thanks....

special thanks go to Biglife management, they not only didn't manage to get my tickets out in time for last nights gig, they then managed to also leave me off the guestlist, which i was meant to be on as they hadn't managed to get the tickets to me in time.

extra special non-ironic thanks go to the kind person on the door who managed to help us out a little.

when i eventually got in, it did prove to be a good gig, and as is becoming customary around here i'll try and do a brief write-up soonish.

honourable mentions also go to all the newsagents that seem to have shut early, meaning i couldn't top up my empty oyster, and the one newsagent that was open that told me his oyster machine was having difficulty connecting, and then directed me to another newsagents that was shut.

Wednesday 18 February 2009

Wankered

tomorrow night, synth-pop upstarts and personal faves of mine, Flamboyant Bella finally put in an appearance in London, playing their first ever headliner in the capital at Islington Academy. I've had my eye on them for a long time now and had even planned to venture away from london in order to catch them live, only for the dates to clash with prior plans.

and cos everyone loves a freebie, they're currently offering up a download of newly-recorded Absolutely Wankered as a lil taster, via a handy little widgit



aren't technological advances great, i remember when widgets were only found in beer cans, now it can offer you a free download, show you a video and direct you to a bunch of websites. i love living in the future

Monday 16 February 2009

Sound Art Experiment Number 2

The approach I take to the SoundArt is different to how I usually choose to work, I wait for a jpeg to arrive in my inbox and upon opening it I try to draw inspiration from the art and only the art, not knowing anything about the artwork until I’ve downloaded it to my computer helps, it is an instant in which I don’t know what to expect from my expectations and then must think quickly to harness my own reactions.

The time that follows is the real decider, the image that I have looked it intently survives on memories and reminding glances, this is where the real creative process takes hold and a track can grow from itself with only a memory of its initial influence.

This is where I have struggled too, because I have been unsure how faithful I need to be to the artwork that is spawning the music, but an essence of art is all about the perception, in creating a piece of art, especially in such modern/post-modern times, there is no need to follow a given set of rules to meet somebody else’s standard of what is acceptable and what is not and what is truly ‘Art’, with this openness in mind I could provide my own interpretation and extract what I needed from the original inspiration.



download SoundArt2

this post is shown in full on the myspace blog
if anyone has any issues viewing myspace (work blocks, etc) then please leave a comment if you'd prefer longer blogs posted in their entirety.

Sunday 15 February 2009

One drop, two drop, three drop, four




Expectation can be a heavy burden to bear, so I tried to approach Buraka Som Sistema with none. I’d seen the articles in magazines and I’d even downloaded one track of theirs, but that was enough for me, to go in with an open mind and a lack of information and still pay full price for a ticket may be too much to ask of some people but I was willing to give it a go.

A collective that for live duties consists of a DJ, 2 drummers (one for the live drum kit, another for the drum machine and other percussion) and 3 MCs doubling up as dancers has to be a perfect recipe for a good time, doesn’t it? Buraka Som Sistema are the next step in the rebirthed and fashionable fascination with World Music that follows in the footsteps of acts like M.I.A and Bonde Do Role, transplanting the sounds that have been reverberating global ghettoes into an energetic live shows.

You may doubt that February is the perfect time for a water fight but when a large super-soaker style gun is produced on stage and turned on the crowd, it splashes afew heads but does absolutely nothing to dampen the party mood, and even tho it’s snowing outside, inside Kings Cross’ Scala, things are really heating up, every track keeps the crowd moving as if carnival season has arrived early to defrost the harsh winter weather for everyone.

Friday 13 February 2009

communique



it frustrates me to click back at websites i like to follow only to find that they haven't been updated, in this fast paced world we always want more information and after you've checked your emails and your myspace/facebook/twitter/bebo, the internet can be such an exhaustingly overwhelming chasm that the only thing you can manage to do is check the same five websites that you only checked half an hour ago.

so here's my update, a brief one at that, i checked out Buraka Som Sistema live last night (which may make its way to becoming a full post), Ian Byford Art has unveiled the second installment of the Sound/Art project (which i will definetly be dedicating a full post to in the near future), i have started work on SoundArt3 and am also piecing together the parts for another two tracks which i intend to be a kind of single release.

'til anymore substantial posts come along, feel free to download SoundArt2 or perhaps head over to my myspace where both SoundArt1 and 2 are in the player for you to sample.

Wednesday 11 February 2009

And on the 11th day, he rested

Well not exactly, as I’ve already made a start on the follow up, SoundArt3, but for now I can say that the second instalment of the SoundArt collaboration project is complete. It comes to you ten days overdue, as the original intention was to complete each new track for the first of each month, but with planning and making a fancy dress costume and a trip to Paris taking up large chunks of January I’m quite proud of the fact that it was nearly on schedule.

And that also meant you had ten extra days to download SoundArt1.

I’ll let my brother unveil it, and a full post dedicated to the new track will follow soon.

Tuesday 10 February 2009

has Disney lost it's magic?




Disney must surely hold a special place in most people's hearts, and even if they have grown older and more cynical they must still take a little joy in the film's that made them smile as a kid.

the thing about Disney is that it shouldn't just make kids smile, it should hold a warmth and charm that can captivate any audience, but Disney's monopoly on these fuzzy feelings is slipping. Other studios have been muscling in, notably Dreamworks, whose Antz trampled all over the rather limp Bug's Life way back in 1998. Since then Dreamworks have hardly looked back, birthing the Shrek and Madagascar franchises and more recently, Kung Fu Panda. 20th Century Fox has also managed cross-over appeal with Ice Age and it's sequels.

This is only my personal opinion but it feels as if Disney have perhaps rested on their laurels, the past ten years have seen a number of films that will have the lasting impact that many of the classics had, but it has also produced many that don't hold such a position in the collective consciousness, something that i don't feel has been helped by churning out too many half-arsed 'straight to video/DVD' sequels (something they vowed to scrap in 2007) and spin-off animated TV series that lack (and even devalue) the true spirit of Disney.

Sunday 8 February 2009

in review

after biggin it up, i guess people are gonna want to know how it all went down?



I'd be doin everyone a great disservice if i didn't even give it a mention so here's my opinion of The Freewheelin' Troubadour's first ever gig fronting a full band, honestly, i was surprised, and i think anyone else that has viewed any of the spoken word clips on youtube will have been too.

These weren't just poems set to music, they have been reimagined to form genuine songs, no-one could have expected perfection from such an early incarnation but the performance was certainly full of promise and swagger (plenty of swagger) with a musical identity borrowing from The Doors, Matisyahu and Scroobius Pip.

and to watch someone that i consider as a peer on stage, knowing that this is something he has been working hard towards, also makes me consider my own position, my own love of music and performance, my crippling shyness and how i could possibly begin to translate my own musical ventures to a live setting.




Dion brings his live show to London on Friday 20th Feb as part of his own clubnight, 'The Freewheelers Finally Fight For Freedom' at The Victoria in Mile End.

also stil available, my remix of 'The Night That I Die'
the_night_that_i_die__hunchbakk_remix_.mp3

Saturday 7 February 2009

freewheelin'



if anyone is around the Hertford area tonight, this is a polite request that you consider popping along to The Marquee.

I'm gonna be there to show my support for my friend Dion, under his guise as The Freewheelin' Troubadour, who has been making a name for himself originally as a poet and now through performance, he already has a number of poetry recitals under his belt as has been keen to transfer his act to a different medium and tonight is his debut fronting a full band (good luck).

it's only been away for a short while, but it seems a good enough reason to share my own remix of The Freewheelin' Troubadour's 'The Night That I Die'

the_night_that_i_die__hunchbakk_remix_.mp3
Free file hosting from File Den

tonight is also headlined by The Knaves, so best get there early if you intend to catch The Freewheelin' Troubadour, doors are at half 7.

Wednesday 4 February 2009

foreign tongues




the short trip to France last week left me feeling like a completely stereotypical brit-abroad, leaving the confines of England completely unprepared to speak anything other than English.

OK, slight exaggeration, but knowing the French for hello, goodbye, please and thank you hardly counts as learning another language.

two holidays in Spain in the last few years haven't fared an awful lot better but the fact that we can get by on a handful of words while other nationalities accommodate us in their own countries is rather shameful.

The staff in Disneyland must have been versed in multiple languages to deal with holiday makers and i even overheard a young German girl taking pleasure in reciting the English she had learnt, introducing herself and saying that she likes swimming, fluent and to a degree I was only capable of managing when my secondary school began teaching us German at the age of 11, obviously it must have been a well thought out decision to teach half the new year 7's German, and a very worthwhile effort when you take into account that I'm yet to consider holidaying in Germany.

so now to try and reverse some of the damage done I'm loading my generic mp3 player with language courses with the hope of broadening my horizons, today i was learning how to ask where the gift shop is, not the most necessary question when you are surrounded by them in Disneyland.

and the relevance of Girls Aloud? Girls Aloud are always relevant, and who really needs much of an excuse to watch one of their videos?

Sunday 1 February 2009

more than one night in Paris




Last week was an interesting week, filled with landmarks, bones, skulls, cartoon characters, a graveyard, rollercoasters, and thankfully, no rioting.

I have no intention of using my blog to reveal every detail of my life but I do think that it is of note that I’ve recently returned from being very touristy in Paris.

Me and my girlfriend fulfilled the old standards of going to the top of the Eiffel Tower, visiting the Louvre and not knowing an awful lot of French. We also took the time to see the lesser heralded sights of the Parisian catacombs and Père Lachaise Cemetery. We took in afew more of Paris’ better known attractions and our stay was rounded off with running around Disneyland’s park and studio theme parks, cuddling and posing for photos with cartoon characters and proving that we aren’t really that grown up at all.

The weather was freezing all week and combination of the current exchange rate and Disney’s (and to a certain extant also Paris’ own) exorbitantly inflated culture put a huge dent in our travel money but the bad is weighed up against the fact that at this time of year most queues for rides were no more than ten of fifteen minutes if that and the hindsight that we managed to avoid days when the top of the Eiffel tower was closed due to fog limiting visibility and when most of Paris was brought to a standstill by protests.

All of which should provide enough inspiration for a handful of forthcoming posts.