and again, the world feels a little emptier

i won't bother to blog about the demise of just about every celebrity who's passing is broadcast to me via facebook of twitter

but i will take a little time to remember and celebrate the lives of the occasional person whose death affects me just a little deeper than most


Gil Scott Heron is an inspirational voice that i shall miss, and a voice that will live on forever

R.I.P

cloud above me

i feel that i haven't got much to say, and that can never be a good thing

so i thought maybe i should say it anyway in the hope that it will inspire something a little more profound



i usually have a lot of things that i want to say

i never have enough time to compose my thoughts and ideas


that is usually my life

hurtling along like some bizarre rollercoaster, to fast for me to succesfully manage all that i hope to achieve, except this type of rollercoaster doesn't involve queuing for 50 minutes only for the whole thing to be over in just a couple of paltry minutes before heading off to another 50 minute queue or a pizza hut buffet

perhaps it isn't like a rollercoaster at all

no, i guess it really isn't


apologies for the rambling, i thought that if i could just spill out a stream of consciousness then i may hit the creative stride that i have lacked recently, so apologies for that too, to myself and to anyone else that may take an interest in anything creative that i produce

i haven't even managed to knock out a full review this week, tho i guess i should, as i have a number of CDs that need my thoughts chucked at them for glasswerk, i did slightly regurgitate a number of musings on the music of Daniel Haaksman for publishing in the Enfield Advertiser as i hadn't been in touch for a while, although sending the finished article as my girlfriend slept though Glee on monday night already feels as if it was weeks ago

i guess the only reason i'm choosing to write right now is so that my blog looks a little less barren, sadly i seem to have less and less time to get my thoughts across, although i suppose i have already said that and since time is a premium i should spend less time repeating myself

so, today was for relaxing, or doing something, anything, but typically i just can't get my head right, i've had a stab at putting together a new giles babel piece of music, but it just didn't come together as easily as i'd hoped it would, and other than that, i feel as if the world is slipping away from me as i sit around unsure of what i should really be spending my time doing and trying to not think about the biscuits that are open in the cupboard


i guess it's a blip, i'll throw myself into something else and maybe, just maybe have another biscuit, and hopefully it won't be too long until i'm pulled out of whatever hole it is that i am currently wallowing in

and i hope that the next time my blog speaks to you that it sings a more joyous, more coherent song than you and i have both had to endure today



credit where it's due:


i wanted a moody looking picture for this post, i found one yesterday but the computer wouldn't save it, i found a different picture today, it doesn't have much to do with anything i've said and i've no real idea what it is, but i like it and i found it here

the curious case of odd future

it seems to be getting quite cramped here in this music industry with all this hype surrounding Odd Future taking up so much room.

things have been bubbling up for quite a while now, and it must have been the middle of last year as they were dropping their second mixtape that the words Odd Future first connected with me.

but in the past month or two everything seems to have come to a head for the hip-hop collective as talk of their name and of their members appears to be absolutely everywhere, everyone wants a piece of them, and in the last two weeks alone Odd Future seem to have cemented their current reputation with an NME cover piece and a riotously recieved showcasing slot at Camden Crawl.

and as a person in tune with current trends and eager to latch onto the newest and most exciting music before it is embraced by the wider world, it may surprise you to know (as it sure surprised me) that i have never even heard any music by Odd Future.

i'm pretty sure i should like them, purely the fact that the groups full given name is Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All and that among their members are the fascinating and ridiculous monikers Tyler the Creator, Hodgy Beats and Earl Sweatshirt is enough to light the blue touch paper for me.

Yes, i've read the reviews, they've been hard to avoid, and i'm even aware of the bizarre little news story that Earl Sweatshirt had gone missing from the line-up for months, only to be traced to a 'therepeutic centre' on a Samoan island.

i even decided to scroll through my generic mp3 player, and it turns out that i do have Odd Future's Radical mixtape downloaded from last year, as well as tracks from Tyler the Creator, Earl Sweatshirt and the whole mixtape 'Nostalgia, Ultra' by Frank Ocean that dropped in February this year, yet i have still never knowingly listened to any of these tracks.

but it isn't just the hype-mongering NME that are flying the flag for Odd Future, an innordinate amount of hipster blogs and even America's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon are more up on things than i am.

so, with the possible exception of my girlfriend, who listens to Geoff Lloyd on Absolute, am i really one of the last people on the planet to tune into Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All?

i think it's about time that i popped in my headphones to rectify this glaring oversight and see if i believe the hype.

Tyler The Creator (Odd Future) - Splatter

kurt cobain on steroids

as a fan of DC, i will admit that Thor was wonderfully entertaining, next up as Marvel Studios build up to Avengers is their Captain America movie later this summer, aswell as a look at the X-men's origins in X-men, First Class

as a fan of DC, i can't say that i am pinning too much of my hopes on Green Lantern as he faces up to this threat from Marvel alone (well, actually he'll be backed up by a bunch of CGI aliens, which may actually be part of the problem)

but as ever, we have the wonderful return of the 'I'm a Marvel, I'm a DC' videos that really seem to get under the skin of the entire situation

Daniel Haaksman + kitchen decorating = worktop samba

yet another week is upon us that we find the Enfield Advertiser again without it's Weekender section

yet again a local newspaper does not feature any entertainment, movie, music or fashion news

although a food review from The Gannets seems to have kept it's head above the water this week

the past two week's papers were produced by an alternative staff, whilst the real people were striking, hence the fact that the Weekender went astray for those weeks, but now.... i guess it's a waiting game, i still have more that i want to say and i shall keep submitting pieces in the hope that a space will be found for them

but i didn't really let this worry me as i took a week of off work to spend a little more time doing up the house alongside my girlfriend, it didn't prove to be quite as productive as the first spurt of hard work from last year, hindered somewhat by bank holidays and other plans, but a fair amount of gardening was tackled, contemplations of the spare room and geeky hideout in the attic were made and the kitchen walls were partially painted

and whilst my tenure at the Advertiser seems to be crumbling and my home inches closer to looking less like a work in progress i do also have some other news that had me quite literally dancing around the house

it appears that glasswerk seems to be upping its game in the hands of a new editor who has already hooked me up to review MC Lars when he hits London this month (with my fave, Akira The Don, in support) and provided me with a care package that arrived last week of CDs to be reviewed.

i had already troubled this new editor with a fussy description of genres that i would be willing to write about, in accordance with my own whims that i would no longer put up with some of the utter rubbish that got sent my way in the name of 'journalism', i seem to have less time to call my own these days and wouldn't desire wasting it on trying to find something clever and worthwhile about a release i really couldn't give a toss about

and i fully appreciate the effort made, most of the names were completely new to me, but the discoveries involved in having these on rotation made me realise again just how much i love discovering new music and being a part of the wider music scene through my reviews and blogs

receiving far more play than the other CDs recieved has been the debut album by Berlin based DJ and label boss, Daniel Haaksman, that shall be released later this month, the blistering Baile Funk was exactly to my taste and the carnival flavas made short work of housebound jobs, one particular sight to behold was my rythmic ass-shaking as i stood atop my kitchen units, splashing a vibrant lime green onto the walls that seemed to suit the current soundtrack as i imagined myself in a skimpy sequin costume addorned with peacock feathers.

Daniel Haaksman "Rambazamba"-Album Teaser

so now, a couple of walls in my kitchen are bright green and two of my brand new reviews are already up on glasswerk, here, and here

and read a little more about the artists reviewed over on my new Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle post, along with music streams

credit where it's due:
image half inched from firle artists