Sound Art Experiment number 11

Music can be a powerful force when used correctly.

Full of the joys of summer and the sounds of diplo I made my mixtape comeback with the latest instalment of Tayalarz, and the news of Dr Dre finally delivering on his long-awaited promise of a new album that fans have been waiting more than a decade for had prompted me to make a start on a 'Compton' influenced mix.

And even tho that creation may be in the extremely early stages and may eventually be lost to gestation, with the computer fired up and the hours growing small I chose to revisit a few neglected folders on the harddrive.

Lo and behold did Saturday morning creep up on me and shake me from my bed with a new desire.  

In this age of stealth albums nobody was expecting the penultimate SoundArt to grace the world with its presence.  Very few people were even wanting it.  But regardless.

The SoundArt project was a simple idea.

Instead of giving my brother my music and asking him to produce artwork influenced by the sounds he heard we would flip the script, he would provide artwork and I would be influenced.  12 images and 12 tracks produced over 12 months to create a full length experimental album within a year.

Track 1 debuted in December 2008....

(ahem)

SoundArt11 is a curious creature.  Staring at the stars and asking the ultimate questions as the artwork seriously suggests that we are not alone.

Other tracks have been much more of a sound collage, this perhaps could have been but now sounds more of a sound presentation... Taking it's musical cue and liberally borrowing Doorly's dubstep remix of Calvin Harris' 'Not Alone' as theories jacked from YouTube play out over it.

Previous instalments have heaved with creativity, either pulling things apart or putting them together, SoundArt11 was always intended to play out that way too, but the whole ethos of this expression of art was to let it find it's own way...

Only this morning was the majority of this track spun on its head to give it a more complete feel, choosing to play with a larger chunk of the original remix than originally intended and then swinging by the buena vista social club to provide a backdrop to a healthy discussion on the intelligence of our species that had been longing for a dancing partner for a long time.  The last piece of the puzzle fell from the sky, hailing from a planet that no longer exists.  I rented Man Of Steel two years ago in order to reuse a message that seems to resonate throughout this track, and also through the entire project.

the return of.

Something like sunshine was seeking to stream through the slithers left undefended by the black out blind in the spare room as I awoke from slumber in the spare room, driven to the second-hand ikea sofa-bed again by my fiancé's nocturnal wheezings and mumblings as a cold got the better of her and my desire to sleep undisturbed had got the better of me.

Yesterday was something special.  It really was going to take something to top that.

Oh, how about some international airplay?

The second-hand ikea sofa-bed was unwilling to relinquish me just yet, so I instead reach for my ageing gizmo and fire up the emails... A missive from half the world away causes seismic smiles to ripple through my body and across my face.  Those guys that had been good enough to seemingly pick my remix of The Enemy from thin air a number of years ago had pulled it out of the bag yet again.

Fraserhead and The Herbalist, fantastically named audio adventurers and known Anglo-philes had responded to a fleeting email I had dropped their way (their way being over 11 thousand miles away in Queensland, New Zealand) and said yes.

Yes. They would play my latest track. My miserable slice of realism. My dark downturned beat and it's message of ever promising negativity. In the land of sunshine and mystical sea monsters.

In some strange parallel universe that exists at least one sunrise away is a sunny Saturday afternoon that is soundtracked by 80s legend John Carpenter, pioneering proto-dubstepper Burial and myself, with my near-undanceable budget-tronica...

Stranger things have happened, but they don't always happen to me.

The return of cyber Monday, heralding the return of cynical christmas download

Waking up yet again to the 'news' that today is Cyber Monday reminded me...

I still have my christmas single that I like to trot out each year in the hope of spreading a little christmas joy to all the girls and boys that are writing out their lists for Santa


Bah Humbug

'tis a lie, as much of a lie as the newspapers and media force feeding you this Cyber Monday baloney...

when they 'report' on this being the busiest shopping day online pre-xmas, all they are really doing is fanning the flames for Internet based vendors who somehow managed to convince journalists and the like that reminding people to 'get there arse in gear and get onto amazon pronto to spend some of your hard earned' is actually a valid news item... it is not, it is simply another cog in the wheel of commerce

and when I say that my christmas single is hear to spread joy, what I really mean is that you should really check out my cynical bleatings about the shallow commerciality of this joyous time of year, whilst an unrelenting electronic beat grumbles and pulses with all the christmas spirit of landing arse first in a bushel of holly...

wow, glad I got that out my system...

and relax, I'm not that grumpy about the whole thing really, but I will call a spade a spade, and I will offer you this festive gift once again as an alternative to the usual standards from Noddy Holder and Mary Carey...

Hunchbakk - www.xmas.com

welcome to my life.

welcome to my past.

or perhaps a former present.

whatever way you choose to view it, Anubis Horror, to me, is a memoir. it is a certain time, transposed and reproduced via music.

and music should be all about interpretation, which has left a question mark over how far I should go in explaining my own motives and my own decisions when creating this music.

it has been a long, strange journey, and one thing that I am certain of is that the Hunchbakk saga is not up to date, in an alternative reality, the Hunchbakk album would have been completed a number of years ago, I'd have found the time to work on the music and wrap it up quicker.

as such, when sourcing the spoken word material I restricted myself to trawling through poems from a very specific time frame, Open Myself Up and Teenaging had already been written and recorded, so I simply flicked through the pages until I found these among my original scrawlings and worked my way forward, taking notes of the passing years, as noted on occasion by my past self with great foresight

thankfully, by february 'project resurrection' had excavated a total of ten tracks, each in differing stages of completion, leaving my plans for a twelve track album not so far out of reach, it was then matching these up with my words, what to leave as instrumental, what needs adding, what needs changing and what needs completing.

now, if my memory serves me, then there are no lyrics/poetry on my album that were written any later than 2008 or possibly 2009, and of all the music, every single track on the album apart from one had its genesis in the same back bedroom that I wrote all my poetry in.

the time spent crafting it and moulding it to its final shape has felt like a certain form of regression for me, casting my mind back to my old self, my old bedroom, in my old home, I think the lyrics and the music reflects who I was, and now I'm wondering who it was that I left behind, and who I have become.

living in the past hasn't been easy, and the release felt like an absolution of sorts, a chance to start being me again, right now.


perhaps I shall break down the album further in a handful more posts, but for now, allow yourself to wallow in the past that I couldn't put to rest until recently.br>

debut album, Anubis Horror out now

of course it isn't unreasonable to launch your album from a country other than the one you live in...

a nice glitzy press conference at perhaps a swanky hotel of some sort

and in this day and age of live streaming and digital media coverage, it could be trending on twitter as soon as the first flash bulb pops


except this isn't the way the Hunchbakk album is launched


Anubis Horror, the debut album from Hunchbakk, released on the 29th June 2013



i picked the date specifically, the 29th being the last day that i am 29, my last day in my twenties, alongside the book that I have written, completing and releasing an album before my 30th birthday on the 30th of June seemed a rather achievable goal to aim for after declaring that it would finally see the light of day this year.

except nobody was informed of the release until late on the 30th June, when I sat down in Byte Burger in Alexanderplatz, Berlin, with my girlfriend and finally found myself gifted with wi-fi.

the album had already been online for over 24 hours, and as my sinister phone connected i had to fend off a barrage of facebook birthday greetings before I could finally announce to a small portion of the world that my first opus was among them.

as we were setting off on our journeys last thursday, album set and ready to launch, I did not conceive such an issue occurring, although we had not booked into a hotel with free wi-fi as we had on our jaunt to Iceland, I imagined that I would be checking my emails every time we sat down to eat, I did not imagine that it would be a struggle to use my credit card every time we sat down to eat, with numerous bars, restaurants and train ticket machines only accepting cash, let alone leeching off a bountiful supply of complimentary cyberspace.

by contrast, Rekjavic was overflowing with gratis googling and my credit card tailor made for well-travelled transactions was welcomed almost anywhere, whilst the majority of Berlin was depleting our dwindling fund of paper money at almost every turn as the city seemed to be stuck somewhere in the Eighties (although the lack of dividing wall and my advancing years seemed to argue otherwise).

and so concludes my masterclass in how not to market an album successfully, remember to leave your worries and your mobile network at the airport and abandon all contact with social networks, heck, even old fashioned means of communication may not be possible if you haven't got enough Euros for a postcard and stamp.

but now back in the UK, I can finally publish this post and possibly hop on the campaign trail.

(did i mention that i have an album out?)

it's here: Teenaging, the debut single

finally, it's here...

the debut single, a four track package, is now available as a pay-what-you-like download via bandcamp

it has been a long time coming. the release of Teenaging, originally recorded in 2008, heralds the arrival of the full length debut album, Anubis Horror. a trip down memory lane and an industrial take on hip-hop elements, Teenaging follows the path travelled by many as their formative years at school gives way to an errant sense of identity and the prevailing person that we will ultimately become as life shapes us all. the title track of the single is also backed by a chopped up and tortured rendition of the poem 'The Dishonest Truth', the Kaoss pad created and long unavailable 'Base Element' that originally debuted in 2009, and a remix of Teenaging tackled by Tesla aka Matthew Sewell, guitarist and knob-twiddler with North-London djent-metallers UNX, whose debut EP was released earlier this year.



it's been an interesting journey that isn't over yet, but for this release i can't give enough thanks to my brother, Ian Byford, for providing inspired artwork, and to Matthew Sewell, who turned in an amazing remix that really changed the sounds that i have had swimming around my head for so long

so please, download, share and enjoy, and keep an eye out for the forthcoming full length album

I

Anubis approaching

I can't help but feel excited as little pieces of everything (in my creative world, at least) seem to be falling into place.

The resurrection project that began last year has fulfilled its purpose, and then some..

I was genuinely surprised by quite how far along with my music I had come, even if in terms of quantity rather than quality, although that isn't too shabby either, and a full length album didn't seem such a distant stretch of imagination and ambition.

And now I am very proud to admit that the debut Hunchbakk album is at a completely incomplete demo stage.

12 tracks running consecutively that are now just in need of a bit of a spit and polish before they can be unleashed on the world.

As is keeping with tradition, I wanted my girlfriend to be the first person with a copy of the album to listen to... and since the demise of her previous car stereo, we have been rocking a tape deck, resulting in some rather throwback listening experiences and meaning that I had to record my album demo onto cassette for her

She hasn't always been the biggest fan of my style of music, so I was surprised, and I think she was surprised when she actually said that she likes it, probably down to the not quite so heavy presence of the 'soft suicidal' genre of music that I had previously pioneered and she had the good grace of naming.

And while I keep busy with bringing the finished product up to a standard I am more or less completely happy with, I am keeping with tradition in sending my brother mp3s of the full album, so that he is able to toil away on accompanying artwork for the final release.

This is all bloody exciting for me, it may not be the grandest of releases, but it will certainly be a milestone in my creative processes and make what is essentially a hobby feel a little bit more real.

not knowing.

With over a thousand songs being carried around in your pocket, it is astonishing to think that it could still be difficult to find music to suit your mood, yet, quite simply, all this choice can be rather confounding.

And so my story begins on a rather dull January morning, leaving the house and contemplating the working day and how long it is until my next day off, I need something calming, serene, distracting, and I need it now.

I scroll past bands I love, bands I'm bored of, and artists that just don't seem right for right now, and I settle upon the name Frankie Machine.

I remember very little of why, but I remember I liked it, so I choose this, and after a brief offbeat intro, I am reminded of what held so much appeal as the sound of Nineteen Seventy Three is channeled directly into my ears.

A simple acoustic track that I have missed so much that I play it twice in a row, and as I tune into the remainder of the EP from whence it originated, I wonder how I ever came across this in the first place, what website or blog must have convinced me to right-click and save as, and a most audacious thought of all, how, in this highly informed digital age, do I still have no idea who Frankie Machine is.

I literally know nothing at all about him, other than his name, and due to a couple of skits on the EP, that he had been played on radio 1 by John Peel in the era in which emails were being used by the late fan-favourite presenter.

And you know what? I actually kind of like it that way.

it would take next to no effort to google the name, possibly finding more info than I would need to know, but I won't, cos I actually like having nothing more than my own admiration of a few pieces of music to satisfy me in this age where almost everything is shared, re-posted and ubiquitously linked to facebook.

edit:  since it has always been my intention to share music, i did precocously approach google with caution, purely with the sole intention of letting you hear what i heard

i also believe that the whole EP can also still be downloaded, although i didn't hang around to find out

new years resolution....

i don't like making new years resolutions

they seem to be futile attempts to change things that tend to be quite short lived, such as gym memberships and stopping biting your fingernails

i like to think that i spend the majority of my life being the best me that i can possibly be.... but this year i want to make a change i've made a resolution to work on more music

i feel that i've been getting far too behind on quite where i wanted to be with making music, not that i expect to be topping charts and headlining stadiums, but simply being creative on a regular basis has eluded me, so it's time that i get my groove back.


so after getting in from work i fired up my computer, loaded up a handful of tracks that have been in limbo and was pleasantly surprised to find that afew tracks were further along the gestation period than i realised, and within a short space of time i managed to throw a few extra sounds together and saved a number of works in progresses as mp3s, christened them as demos that will make up part of my debut album, vowing to return to them soon to flesh them out a little more

to date, i have not publicly shared any of these album tracks, yet with a new brace of 'demos' nestling on my harddrive after what turned out to be a satisfying evening, i felt it was only right to prove my worth with a little 'show and tell', and since i've done the telling, i guess i should probably do some showing...

so here it is... a short demo of what is provisionally titled 'computer music'

 

honest opinions

'I gave a listen to your christmas song'

..........

'It's bloody depressing, I couldn't listen to the whole thing, I had to turn it off!'

so said a former work colleagues husband as we all met up for a pre-Xmas drink together, and despite it not being the most positive review of it, I was more concerned with the very first part of his statement, 'I gave a listen to your christmas song'.

regardless of what he actually thought of it, I'm bloody glad that someone took a little time out of their day to give it a listen, even a truncated listen.

what higher compliment is there than provoking a reaction? I'm well aware that not everyone will find my music accessible, and I hope for those that do, that the experience is all the more rewarding, to embrace music that others have shunned for the sake of it not being the 'traditional' take on music.

when reviewing music for glasswerk, I would much rather feel compelled to hate a track, and form a vehement opinion against it, rather than having it pass me by, if I can't love music I would much rather acknowledge it's existence as opposed to not caring enough to notice it.

and truthfully, despite proclaiming that my festive effort may lead you to slit your wrists (hopefully not, although my girlfriend did once label me with the unique genre of 'soft suicidal'), he did sit back and say, 'well, at least I've listened to it....'


and for that I thank you!

Hunchbakk - www.xmas.com

happy cyber monday!!

you heard the news, right?

that it was 'cyber monday' today? the name given to what is reportedly the busiest online shopping day of the year...

of course, the cynical part of me believes that this is part of a plot to harness the media to do the dirty work of online retailers and boost sales amongst all those that had so far been dithering over what they shall be ordering over the net, just a little push to remind them to part with their cash on an all important day like today... and of course we believe the hype and swallow the news down with a sip of mulled wine

and how strangely apt that this morning, as my journey to work began, too uninspired to choose what to listen to for myself, I set my generic MP3 player to shuffle and lo and behold, the second track spewed out by the machine's random mind was my very own jingle bell laden Christmas track, www.xmas.com

I had only been considering the track earlier as I heard the 'news', feeling that the opening line was extremely appropriate in the circumstances...


so, if you have blown the budget today and saddled yourself with some wonderfully festive debt to be faced in the new year, then rejoice, as my song costs absolutely nothing... and will remain free every December for as long as it seems viable to do so..

basically, until hmv or amazon decide to license the song for an advertising campaign and the prospect of repeat royalties every year finally flows my way

But until then, join in if you know the words...

'www. amazon and hmv, that's what christmas means to me'


Hunchbakk - www.xmas.com

touch it, bring it

well, having made my intentions clear to try and unearth some of my previous recordings, i have failed to spend any time doing so.

and for that i apologise.

but the good news is that the time that i have not spent searching out the far flung seperate stems of my past endeavours has instead been spent creating brand spanking new music for you, or possibly for me (well, some of the time, not all of it, i have also spent time reading and reviewing and other stuffs)


yes, yet another piece of the puzzle that is Giles Babel has been put together, and this time it is probably the most accessible snippet of music that i have ever produced, being far more straightforward and less ambient than other sound experiments, and even my girlfriend actually says that she likes it, which is a rarity, and may have a little something to do with the sampling of Busta Rhymes' Touch It (which in turn had sampled Daft Punk's Technologic) and giving her something recognisable to grasp on to, and talking of recognisable samples, yes, that is also Yoda at the very start of the track.




and i'm entirely happy with the way this came together quickly, it is not quite as dark and brooding as most of my tracks tend to be, introducing a playfulness to the blend, and yet it still sits alongside my latest collection of tracks comfortably.

enjoy!

credit where it's due:
main image by Cameron Stewart

you do love me

it was as a special valentines day treat that i released a free download of VCR, a cover of the XX song, on february 14th 2010

(back when i was still loading my music up to fileden for sharing)

and last week, nearly two years on from its initial debut i received an email from my soundcloud account informing me that that same song had reached its limit of 100 downloads.

ok, i'm only a small dust particle blowing around in this indescribably huge music business, what i do, i do for fun, and as a hobby, as a passion.  i don't imagine a career as a musician being forthcoming.  but for one of my tracks to be on the hard-drives, iPods or iPhones of 100 people, that is something of a milestone that i am proud to have achieved.

i was thrilled when my remix of The Enemy went global, and bloody astounded when my remix of Radiohead was downloaded something like 5000 times in its first week, and it may be a slow burner, but this cover version is clearly something that at least 100 people felt strongly enough about to click that little download tab that has now been disabled.



with 2053 plays to date, i am still extremely proud of how this track in particular has performed, and the fact that it has completely outshone my spoken word version that i created after my girlfriend cringed all the way through the original version i created and insisted it would be much better if i did not sing.

of course, with just 3 downloads and 82 plays to date, the spoken word version is still available to download for those that may wish to sample it for themselves



which also leads me to wonder if i should not have listened to her when i chose to make a video for the spoken word version and not my sung version, if i can still find the remains of the video on my crippled computer i may need to do something about redressing the balance and restoring it to the most favoured interpretation of VCR.


so thanks guys, thanks whoever you are that have enjoyed my tracks so far, i know i've been rambling on about other things on my blog and really have not produced enough new music recently, but hopefully you'll be sticking around

(and i love you too)

Tinnitus Awareness Week 2012

i don't buy the red tops on matter of principle

but many people that i know do, and i will still find myself flicking through the pages of absurd, lowest common denominator news and celebrity tittle tattle

so it is with some surprise that i occasionally find The Sun actually broaching a serious subject that more people need to be aware of, it is just such a shame that the real story they should be covering is always so brief

and as we near the end of another Tinnitus Awareness week, i thought i should do my duty to highlight the problem again, after my initial piece published in 2010

it was also in 2010 that i read a short article regarding Black Eyed Peas head honcho, producer and solo artist, Will.i.am, admitting that he was suffering from tinnitus, a high pitched ringing in the ears that is caused by prolonged exposure to loud music, and is common among musicians, DJs, clubbers and gig-goers

sadly the article swiftly shifted the focus onto his much-rumoured relationship with Cheryl Cole and his staunch support of that years X-Factor contestant, Cher Lloyd (an expanded article, including more name dropping, but also an opinion from The Sun doctor can be found here)



and then, just last week, almost perfectly timed to coincide with the annual campaign to highlight the causes and prevention of Tinnitus, N-Dubz lead and now solo-artist, Dappy revealed that due to his severe tinnitus he has now had small speakers installed around his bed to play soothing background noises, so that he is less aware of the constant ringing that is most obvious, and often frustrating, when you realise that you can no longer hear 'silence'.

of course, the newspaper was more interested in getting there jolleys by mocking his band's music and thinking up a shockingly bad rhyming headline rather than providing any real support or advice for anyone that may find themselves in a similar situation to Will.i.am and Dappy.

suffering since 2004 myself, i was relieved when i was first handed a leaflet about earplugs while at Glastonbury, not feeling quite so alone and happy to be pointed in the right direction for where to find advice and suitable hearing protection

and i believe that as a duty to fans and gig goers, more should be said about the causes and effects of Tinnitus so that people can hopefully spot the signs early enough to spare themselves the fate shared by not only Dappy and Will.i.am, but also Bono, Trent Reznor, Pete Townsend and Moby, among many others





more information about Tinnitus and Tinnitus Awareness Week can be found in this article by the great Eddy TM and on the British Tinnitus Association website

what's the worst that could happen?

the last couple of articles i submitted to the Enfield Advertiser that were unjustly ignored did not cover a local angle, and i wonder if maybe this contributed to the reason they were not picked up to run, or perhaps they just shunned them regardless.

so i'm making one last ditch attempt to see if my local newspaper has any interest in actually featuring stories on local bands, by submitting this piece on Worst Case Scenario that i have just run over on my music blog Desperately Seeking Susan Boyle

and just to keep you up to date on what i've got going on over there i thought i'd bring it to your attention over here too

so give these guys a listen....

in a band?


broke?


don't worry about it.


shunning expensive studio time, Worst Case Scenario show local bands how it should be done, self recording and self releasing their debut EP.

'Lost In The Element', available through iTunes, is a clear indication of a D.I.Y ethos prevailing and proving how a clear talent and determination can shine through and give hope to other bedroom musicians.


Formed in 2005, Worst Case Scenario have garnered six years of experience performing live and becoming a well respected act amongst Enfield's musical community, and it is these years, along with a recent roll-call shake-up that has lead to the long overdue recording of 6 tracks, that were released in late October.


A laptop with Cubase was set up, a microphone was borrowed, £10 was invested in a pop-shield, a mic-stand was improvised by taping the microphone to the side of a door, and some friends and family were roped in to provide shouted vocal takes that were recorded onto a phone before being added to the final mix


and yet, aside from the EP's interesting and inspiring creation, the music speaks clearly for itself.


Mostly a mid-tempo affair with a number of crowning flourishes, the tracks featuring on 'Lost in the Element' connects the dots between a number of disparate influences, touching on the sounds of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Paramore and KT Tunstall amongst others.


As the EP plays through the opening 'Intro' and into 'Point of No Return' the band lay down their wares as a serious band with considerable talent, showcasing a tooled-up acoustic sound that permeates throughout the release.


with 'Save Myself' and 'This Is Your Truth' the strength of these mature songs, belying the youthfulness of the band, holds strong, whilst the musical direction simmers down until it reaches the stripped back, yet overwhelming, stand-out track, 'Whole Again'.


The EP seems to hinge on 'Whole Again', taking in the listener as the the pace has eased through four tracks out of six, only to be hit by a breathtakingly beautiful track that is all the more fragile through the sliding contrasts that have lead to that very point.


leaving us with only the closing salvo of 'Throw It Away' to once again kick things up a notch and round out an accomplished EP that signposts a promising future for Worst Case Scenario.


It may not have the professional sheen that these songs are clearly deserving of, but this is only the cherry on the top of a very pleasing cake that is missing,  it is still a powerful set of songs recorded and released in a manner that is a testament to one young band's capabilities and conviction.

 stream: Worst Case - Whole Again

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

oh yeah


the christmas tree is up, personally picked and felled in the beautiful landscapes of Morrison's carpark

so it is about that time of year again where i whip off my kit and and allow you to download (for free, i know it has been a tough year for you) my cynical christmas single

and since we are living in a more environmentally aware age, you will be pleased to know that i have been recycling this song since 2008, and that this wonderful digital download has not been manufactured in china and transported across oceans by carbon monoxide fumes

with every year that passes, my sentiments that i sarcastically put into this song strengthen, sick of the christmas that we are having marketed at us every late october through december


help yourself

and please feel free to share



Hunchbakk - www.xmas.com




thanks

paint it black

oh yes, the black paint is out.

and i am back in the attic.

way back when we first moved in we were painting practically everything white, but after a visit to a mate's flat, we saw how well darker colours could look in certain situations and locations.

whilst the aim is to keep most of the house bright and breezy, the attic is a different prospect entirely, it will be my sanctuary, and possibly the boldest decorated room in the house since my girlfriend keeps nixing my proposed murals for other rooms.

yet it does feel slightly odd bringing darkness into what was a rather unbelievably spacious looking attic space, but it will be worth it once all the ideas are in place and come together properly.

my toy collection is growing steadily with occasional additions thanks to charity shops and car boot sales.

and now we are raising questions over what will be done with the fireplace in the front room, i suggested the exposed brickwork should be painted white.... my girlfriend suggested we paint it black.

and i think she may be right

Paint it Black (Paradigm Remix)

before the memory fades

i still can't believe that a week ago Enfield was the heart of trouble kicking off as riots took over the capital for a second night, it felt bizarre and terrifying that this could be happening in my home town and that the few clips that were circulating on the news were of places that i walk past virtually on a daily basis, so familiar, yet so different, transformed by the presence of riot police and organised chaos

thankfully things seemed to have calmed down now, but last week, amidst all that was going on, i tore myself away from the computer screen and wrote a short poem on the feelings that had been stirred inside me, this week, as situations were looking worse, i began expanding on this idea, and on others, to produce a few pieces of music to reflect the times and the tension

this piece is still slightly unfinished, it needs a little more tweaking and polishing to get it up to scratch, but i wanted to put it out before the memories fade


Riot Music EP: Track 1 (unfinished) by Hunchbakk

meeting a hero.

perhaps it is slightly old fashioned to pass on a demo CD to someone.

i like to think of it as nostalgic instead.


and this is the story of how, with clammy palms, i handed over my CD to Eddy Temple Morris yesterday:




so perhaps my own self-promotion has been a little bit lax of late, perhaps my own musical work ethic has been a little lax of late, i have become accustomed to the truth of the mater that these things will happen when moving into a home, my own home, with the other half (well, half hers too actually)

the spare bedroom has one blue wall and one white wall that i have taken it upon myself to paint, the remaining wall is still that nasty possible-magnolia-really? colour that it has been since we moved in, i would have painted it except she has talked about stripping the textured wall paper from the walls and i don't want to have painted it all for nothing

and yes, the room does actually have four walls, but one is entirely taken up by fitted wardrobes, although i did once consider painting them

but this isn't a case of decoration, this is more a matter that i fully intend to move all my kit into that room and it become my little haven to hide in and create whilst she watches television downstairs, but for now the computer still sits around downstairs, leaving my creativity rather stunted when she turns the tv on

plus, once you consider all the time i actually end up watering the garden, cleaning this, washing that, cooking something, and a whole bunch of other household chores that i hadn't really anticipated yet feel duty bound to complete so i don't end up living in a complete shit hole, there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to fire up the machine and start manipulating sounds

and with all this repeatedly happening since last september, why should i waste an opportunity to burn a number of tracks i am proudest of and pass them along to one of my all-time musical heroes?!

Eddy TM would be DJing as part of Akira The Don's album launch party, and Eddy TM is a DJ that i have huge love and huge respect for, and i am extremely proud that he has played one of my remixes on his long running Xfm show, aptly named The Remix

so i pondered the structure of the CD, settling on an equal mix of original material and remixes, including The Enemy remix that he had already aired, and a rejigged Akira The Don track, since it only seemed appropriate

now, i have been training myself to not act like a complete fanboy when meeting famous people, but those that i hold in the highest esteem still cause an outbreak of hysterics in me, and it was no different when Eddy walked past me, i wasn't even facing him, and yet i felt his prescence (or perhaps caught him in the corner of my eye) and my heart skipped a beat

the plan was to grab a little chat with him and try and retain a sense of composure, but the gig moved swiftly and i would have felt that i was disrespecting the performer and Eddy himself if i tried to catch his attention and hold a conversation during a gig

and so there was nothing left to do but approach him whilst he DJed, seriously, the guy is a consummate professional, graciously accepting the CD from me and even holding a slightly disjointed rhetoric as he cued up and mixed tracks whilst observing that i wasn't going anywhere just yet

i introduced myself, told him how much i thought of him, allowed him to do what he had to do, and then continued to tell him that he had played a track of mine before, at which point Eddy took a little more notice, looking over the almost unreadable tracklisting in the poor lighting and acknowledging that, yeah, he remembered it

he then remarked that he thought we had met before, blimey! either he is an extremely gracious person making a lucky guess, but i believe that i saw recognition in his eyes, i didn't expect for him to remember at all,  it must have been a good couple of years ago at least, but i'll quite happily live with the belief that Eddy TM not only is a great DJ, but also a great human being with superhuman skills of recollection

we briefly discussed the artwork of the promo, that he loved, and that i admitted to half-inching and not really being able to claim as my own, and then i said i would leave him to it, he had a job to do after all, and i left beaming...

i hope that he will give it a listen and i hope that he will enjoy it, i would be bloody ecstatic if he saw fit to air anything from it but that is regardless, the most important thing is that he is something of a hero of mine and that in the two brief moments that i have been able to converse with him, Eddy has been nothing less than a complete gentleman and an all-round nice guy

and i couldn't ask for anything more than that when meeting a personal hero

Akira The Don - Music of the Spheres ft. Mary Turner (Hunchbakk's dirty elbows mix) by Hunchbakk

a tribute to Gil Scott-Heron

i can't remember exactly how long ago it was that i first heard Gil Scott-Heron's music or all the circumstances around it

i do remember that i was crossing the A10 on my bike, at the lights just outside the tyre place

i do remember that it was being played on my minidisc player (immediately dating my memories somewhat) and would have probably been part of a radio show that i had recorded so that i would have something worthwhile to listen to on my way to and from work, most likely either Xfm's Remix or Steve Lamaqc's monday night show on Radio 1

i do remember being so taken in by the track that i skipped the minidisc back to listen to it again, and used my clever little player's editing function to seperate the track and mark it as something of note and something i would want to revisit

i do remember being momentarily amazed by 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised', simply in awe of, and fascinated by, everything about it

that ever so simple, almost tribal drum beat that sounds throughout

the spoken words, passionate poetry that was underpinned by the evocative percussion that built the sparse track into something oh so powerful and unbelievably unique

it was bold and daring and spoke to me in ways that no other music had done before


i didn't know that it was some 30 years old or so

i didn't know of Gil Scott-Heron until that point


i didn't rush out to instantly explore his back catalogue, but i looked into his past and his music and found something that i felt a real connection to

i couldn't name you all of his albums or recite you all of his lyrics, in all honesty, i have only probably heard just a handful of his tracks, but what i have heard was enough to inspire me


i do think the world is a little emptier without Gil Scott-Heron in it, but at least we still have his music and his influence that will long outlive him


with that in mind i decided to create my own music tribute to the late great Gil Scott-Heron, based upon the classic The Revelution Will Not Be Televised

i did try something else first, trying to create a looped up and sampled backing to sit under the vocals, but it didn't feel true enough to his spirit

it is quite simple in form, as perhaps it should be, and i hope that Gil Scott-Heron will never be forgotten

Giles Babel - go crazy (a tribute to Gil Scott-Heron)