Sunday 27 February 2011

how i've rolled...



this week may not have been the most productive from a creative point of view

but they are things on the go and ideas up in the air (and articles to write)

i am still tinkering around - on acid - with a remix idea that i didn't find enough time to devote to this week, all the essentials of the finished piece are in place as far as i'm concerned, but now comes the hard graft and spit n polish that should see the track come through the other side as a fully formed remix ready to tackle the blogosphere (tho it will more likely become buried beneath a bundle of other un-inspiring remixes that have already been doing the rounds)

and i have also made prelimanary preparations for another three pieces of music, a couple of which shouldn't take too much time to complete, but then things very rarely, if ever, actually go to plan, so perhaps it would be best not to hold your breath waiting for a prolific splurge of new material from Hunchbakk.... those that hang around shall be rewarded eventually, and the wait shall be cluttered with mutterings, utterings and obviously videos of a geeky nature....

and what of my writing in general?  well, last week i had a preview copy of Beady Eye's debut album posted out to me, and my review should be up on glasswerk in the very near future, i'm also considering knocking together a piece on Liam Gallagher's new band to share between the Advertiser and my new blog, Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle, which is kind of like this blog, but for those with more discerning tastes that perhaps don't want to deal with all of my ramblings and obsessions... yes, it is a music blog in the more traditional sense

talking of music, and blogging, and music blogging, and also talking of the Enfield Advertiser, i have a couple more write-ups to be getting along with, one of which is the long-overdue 9Blind piece, and the second (tho it will likely come first) piece shall be on The Fetts, another local band, that have just self-released their debut album and who played at last week's Sel-out gig at Bar Form at which i DJed, all by myself up in that little triangle window...

the gig was hardly over-subscribed, but it was a nice little turn out for the band in an intimate environment, and without the pressure of trying to please a bunch of willies who have quite clearly turned up to the wrong night, shouting 'play something funky!' i could get a little bit self-indulgent and truly eclectic with my choices, knocking out a set choc-full of tracks i wouldn't usually play or perhaps have neglected, mixed in with a handful of old standards and crowd pleasers, even if the crowd hadn't considered it when they were heading for a night out, they did seem kinda pleased to hear boom-shak-a-lak

the nature of my DJ sets and the obscurity of my tastes did actually prompt a request for a mixtape of decent mixes, which is the third of its kind that i shall have to get to work on, and also brings me back quite nicely to the concept of blogging, and in particular back to Seeking Susan Boyle, for although the content may be pasable for now, i do hope to up the game a little bit, some artwork and an overall style aesthetic is being analysed as we speak, as are plans for a bit of coincidental merch, and also a monthly mxtape, for those that prefer their music in bulk, as opposed to drip fed weekly... all very exciting stuff... if only there were more time to do it all in....

oh damn it, better get started on these other articles......
but do check back, and check Seeking Susan Boyle

and consider yourselves updated
thank you

Saturday 26 February 2011

this must look bad...

it looks like a nightmare down there just below.

look, forget it, head over to Go Home Production's website since he seems to have got it embedded and playing ok...

as i was saying...

always enlightening to see someone else, particularly someone who's work i admire, using youtube to find samples and using acid as his weapon of choice, this is exactly how i roll.....

www.gohomeproductions.co.uk

how i roll.... (re-upped)

so this is what most people witnessed of thursday's post


when what you should have seen is a video of Mark Vidler (aka Go Home Productions) talking us through a little tinkering he did.

i guess i could have just re-upped the video, but i thought perhaps i should just acknowledge the flaw instead of glossing over it and pretending it never happened (consider it a blooper or an out-take perhaps, or evidence of how frustrating the internet can be at times)

so let's try again then...

how i roll...





Thursday 24 February 2011

how i roll....



always enlightening to see someone else, particularly someone who's work i admire, using youtube to find samples and using acid as his weapon of choice, this is exactly how i roll.....

http://www.gohomeproductions.co.uk/

Thursday 17 February 2011

reBirth

the text was from Mike Straight, it read:

do u want ur computer back?

or words to that effect


this was practically a month ago, and my poor machine had been in respite for a dreadfully long time before that, and i had shunned it terribly, so very sick of even contemplating dealing with all the hissy fits it tends to throw and the bouts of illness that it has been prone to.

other things were keeping me busy, moving was one of them, and then decorating after that

but as time has worn on and i have settled, it became abundantly clear that i was lacking something from my life


while the girlfriend seems quite content with the television for company to wile away an evening, the hateful telly-box leaves me feeling quite empty and wasted if i am sat in front of it for too long

and it is times like these that i need to delve into my musical endeavours, though hardly an accomplished musician, i do feel a sense of acheivement when i have been able to create something

some attempts are more succesful than others, some tracks have travelled round the world, while others languish incomplete on my hardrive


when i'd handed my computer over to Mike, the only thing that really mattered to me was salvaging a handful of the tracks that i had been working on before it's almighty crash, these tracks were not Hunchbakk tracks, they were a sound of freedom and experimentation, they made very little sense and were purely something i had messed around with for the sake of messing around with and trying new and different things

i wasn't entirely sure what to do with these tracks, i hadn't played them to anybody, i didn't particularly feel the need to as i was unsure that anyone would actually understand them, but they were a new identity and a new outlet for my creative frustrations

when the computer was returned, it was accompanied by a handful of dvds of all the data that Mike had managed to salvage from the diseased beast, including all the unreleased tracks, all disjointed and fractured and leaving me with the humpty dumpty-esque task of putting them back together again, as the files used are scattered amongst the many gigs of data that had been building in the files on my computer


and so we are coming to the end of the tale, and to the reBirth, a new light on the dark days and a new realisation to actually organise the way my music files are saved incase of another such unnatural disaster

it will take time to restructure those un-lost pieces of musical experimentation, but in their stead i decided to let loose a small taster track that was put together over the course of a few hours last saturday, built only using samples that came with a computer music magazine my father bought me for christmas, rediscovering a little simplicity and refusing to commit days to refining a three and a half minute track when i am less than refined myself

witness, the reBirth of Giles Babel

Giles Babel - The reBirth Of A Footsoldier

Wednesday 16 February 2011

can you hear the tumbleweed??

not even my girlfriend could believe that i hadn't posted anything at all in february so far

and that i had not posted anything at all since january 28th


i'm not particularly proud of how quiet things have been around here, but good quality posts of the highest calibre that you have come to expect from Hunchbakk - music and musings take time, and i simply have not had enough time to pass off my random thoughts and observations in the form of witty blog posts

i fully intend to commit myself to a bit of writing tomorrow

but for now, to fill a gap, i thought i should post something that encapsulates so many of the things i love (and 1 thing i hate)

yep, COMICS! MOVIES! and A MASH-UP! all in one video, ch-ch-check it out



b-b-b-but what is that? at the end?

in 3D??!!!

i HATE 3D!!! seriously! can't you guys just get over it now...

(grumble grumble)