if i knew the world was gonna end i'd write about it on my blog

prepare yourselves, not for the end of the world, but for the unveiling of SoundArt4 tomorrow, over at www.ianbyfordart.blogspot.com, and once he's given it it's premiere check back here for my own lil run down of the track

rizla teeth

i thought today was the last day of march, but it isn't, tomorrow is, either way it's all gone by a bit quick.

i think the latest SoundArt is done, though i may have a stab at embellishing the track a little before it reaches the masses.

but before we unveil that at the start of april i think i'll just squeeze in an extra post.

was anyone else disappointed by the latest series of Skins that has just finished on E4 last week? it was enjoyable, but just didn't match up to the two previous series. When there are very few things i actually choose to watch on TV, it really does need to do something special, but by the end of this latest series i just didn't find myself particularly caring about any of the characters nor what would happen to them.

one thing the latest series did throw up was the inclusion of Gang Gang Dance soundtracking some mushroom addled forest raving, the track, featuring rising star of the moment Tinchy Stryder, is a gloriously warped clunking grimy beast with added percussional noise, perhaps an acquired taste, but well worth checking out for any fans of noisenik bands or UK MCs.

wonky

wonky pop, despite their brief existence, certainly know how to pick em, i am yet to make it along to a wonky pop night but everytime i spot an advert or flyer i am impressed with their pedigree, it pretty much does what it says on the tin, giving a slanted take on glorious pop in all its guises, and so far their sparkling resume has championed such rising stars as Sam Sparro, Littles Boots, Tinchy Styder and Esser to name but a smattering.

and heading up the latest role call for the wonky pop tour is much heralded white boy rapper, Example who seemed to be going from strength to strength until the death of his label home, The Beats. Example has remained an underground choice and recently dropped a free mixtape turning his back on hip-hop beats and heading full steam ahead for the dancefloor, i'm looking forward to seeing how this is reflected in future live shows.

joining Example and the wonky pop alumni for the forthcoming tour are personal favourites, Flamboyant Bella (yep, them again) and considering the impact they had on Islington Academy when they played earlier this year the teaming of the two should realy see the place going off like never before and seriously raise the profile of everyone involved.



The wonky pop tour, hits London, Islington Academy on 3rd of June.

storyteller

obviously not content with just being an artist, my little brother has been using his blog ( www.ianbyfordart.blogspot.com )to present his latest creative outputs.

since january he has been working on a project combining artwork with his own short stories, tentatively titled 'distopeian scrapbook' and since i consider these short works of science fiction to be something rather special, i thought it only right that i give over a little space to shed light upon them within my own blog.

it seems that my immediate family all show signs of creativity in one guise or another, my little brother went away to uni to study fine art and sculpture and since returning has embraced his artistic side as much as possible, he is also keen on photography and has helped me out whenever i have needed it with CD artwork and photoshoots, although until the first of these scrapbook stories appeared in late january i had no idea that he had any interest in writing.

and considering that my brother is dyslexic, and considering i know how hard he has occasionally found reading, i was completely blown away by the short story's premise, imagination, and above all, it's complexities.

his condition has meant that not every story conforms to routine storytelling practise and his style may lack certain finesse, but i am proud that he has not let this hold him back, and the five stories so far are shaping an intriguing new world that i would urge anyone to delve into.

the stories so far are:

confusing times
rock hopping
decerday night is all right for fighting
a fist full of euros
and
nickabocka glory

Kaoss Theory

since i posted up that vid of Animal Collective last week i thought i'd treat you to one of my favourite youtube clips of the Kaoss pad in work, courtesy of Beardyman and his duck.

the kids are alright

what a stupid thing to do, start hanging around at a youth centre when you're 25.

but it has certainly been eye-opening to see such a positive force on young lives and a well equipped rehearsal space and recording studio at the disposal of Enfield's youth. and it was rewarding to witness a free gig held at the rehearsal space for all-ages on saturday night, showcasing many of the people and bands that frequent the youth centre in Ponders End.

i had feared that a live music scene in Enfield was long dead, but perhaps i had just been looking in all the wrong places, which isn't particularly surprising when finding any council born information turns into a labyrinthine quest to uncover the truth.

now i have found it tho, i am looking forward to getting further involved with the project, making new friends, and hopefully helping to enrich a few lives a lil as i have been asked to asked to take part in workshops that will have more of a focus on dance music.

wish me luck.


photography by Gemma Platt

sometimes i have good days

you know the type of day, right? the type of day that only comes along once in a while, the type of day when things just seem to go right, i had one of those days yesterday.

the sunshine was streaming in through my bedroom window all day, i rose early and busied myself clicking round afew websites, working on music and reading comics.


if only every day could be like this...



and obviously the music is what is important to me, and if you pay any attention to my blog at all then you are deserving of a little update.

one track in particular seemed to fall into place easily and i'm realy happy with it so far, I'd had the inspiration last week to sample Adele for a new track and, for probably the first time ever, i could end up with a finished track that resembles what i initialy imagined instead the more accidental results that usualy characterise my output.

vampire dogs

looking over the book shelves in WH Smiths and there seemed to be a pattern emerging, in the charts we have Marley and Me (Now A Major Motion Picture), the interest in the film obviously means that if they stick Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson on the cover they will flog a few more copies, but afew places below it was another book about another dog and then again further down the shelf was yet another book about yet another dog, hmmmmmmm.....

and then along to the youth/children's chart, way up there is Stephenie Meyer's Twilight (also now a major motion picture!)and the other books in the Twilight series, and much like The Da Vinci Code was followed by a bunch of doppelganger books with similar themes and identikit covers a fair chunk of the same chart was filled with books that look like they are about young sexy vampires by P.C and Kristin Cast with strikingly similar covers.

So now i propose my idea for a book to compete in this current market, Vampire Dogs.

it has no story yet, it is in an embryonic state, but as long as it doesn't get too gory i feel there may even be a movie deal too (Hotel for Dogs, Bolt, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, what is it with dogs this year?) and just for good luck i may also make one of the dogs a descendant of Christ.

girls, girls, girls, girls, girls i do adore

i'm sure everyone and there gran (if she is particularly internet savvy and follows internet hype and music blogs) knows about Animal Collective these days, and if you don't, why not? especialy since i heard a rumour that there latest album Merriweather Post Pavillion actualy includes vaguely singable real songs, i can neither confirm nor deny this, but i do know that My Girls is an absolute storming track made up of bits of sunshine...

and, if you look closely at the vid, made up of Kaoss pad also!!

joy all round, much celebration for the Kaoss Pad

now all i need to do is find you video evidence without relying on YouTube since Google got a lil precious about a lil thing called Copyright, and other seemingly non-important things like Royalties that matter little to people living in the real world

hello Vimeo

tire tread on burst stomach

my girlfriend showed concern (actually she didn't, she complained) that my blog seemed to be filling up with geeky stuff, too many posts on comic books and comic book movies.

but i didn't wanna go out quietly, so here comes a bumper Watchmen post!!!!

so the film has been and gone and hasn't caused too much of a stir in the real world, Watchmen is possibly THE most important superhero story ever, but the film only seems to be treading on The Dark Knight's toes. most of the reviews and opinions i've read since posting my own seem to have picked up on the same issues i did, some with more vehemence than others, some with mild irritation, some with amusement.

one thing that didn't quite fit for me was Rorschach's voice, Jackie Earle Haley's growl seemed to be aping Bale's recent Batman more than it matched the monotone muffled grumble i portrayed in my head.

and the reason i'm mentioning this? cos before the film came out i came across this video of creator/writer Alan Moore voicing Rorschach, and i'm thankful this isn't the voice i hear in my head.

if this was the voice i heard in my head i don't think i could sleep at night, honestly, this disturbs me....




and so i don't clog up this post with a load of youtube videos and run the risk of turning this page into the kinda display that Adrian Veidt would sit and contemplate from his Antarctic retreat, the rest shall come in the form of linkage, that i highly recommend you click and follow if you get kicks outta this kinda thing.

first up is the latest of the 'I'm a Marvel, I'm a DC' videos, parodying the Mac/PC adverts and the movie outputs of both companies, Wolverine features in both, one alongside Rorschach, and then again alongside Doctor Manhattan. the third video you should check out is Watchmen movie star, Malin Ackerman playing along in a short sketch that shows her flatmate taking advantage of Malin's new found geek credentials.

and the final one is the source of some highly exagerated rumours of a mysterious long-lost Watchmen cartoon, it seems that everybody knew about this before I did, but if this is news to you, or you just wanna watch all over again, click here to view the lovingly crafted Watchmen cartoon title sequence.

shock horror

as a favour i said i'd give a quick plug to a new night launching in Hitchin tomorrow night, i wouldn't just go plugging any old night on the tiles but i do have a handfull of reasons that are all justified.

The organiser/promoter is a friend of mine (even tho i've actualy met her a total of two times)that i originally met when Bubblegum Stomp still had the oppurtunity to DJ and Enfield still had gigs being organised, she was also behind the gig featuring Freewheelin' Troubadour that i mentioned last month, tho i didn't realise it 'til i got there (second meeting).

need another reason? how about a DJ set from Mike Fielding better known as Naboo from The Mighty Boosh, i've met him a few times, mostly when he's been DJing on the same bill as Bubblegum Stomp (back when Bubblegum Stomp still had the oppurtunity to DJ) and not only is he a great geezer, he's also got a great taste in music and takes his sets rather seriously, possibly one of the only things in life that he does.

you still want more? ok then, the headlining band are Model Horror, who take the synth batton from the Klaxons and run with it, they then take that batton and beat thoseresponsible for lazy journalism and comparrisons to a bleeding pulp, they make good music, ok, electro-angular-jerky-fun music, and i had the pleasure of catching them live when they played a night that Bubblegum Stomp were DJing at, back when Bubblegum Stomp still had the oppurtunity to DJ, although that was in Harlow, and they didn't seem to understand us and our eclectic taste.




full flyer and details can be found on the criminal chaos myspace page.

and tickets are available from ticketweb.

i'm glad i ordered the four legged chicken

Watchmen.

so what did i think?

well.... hmmmmmmmmmmm...

not particularly impressed, but i didn't feel as if i'd had my heart ripped out ad callously discarded, and i'm not gonna be spilling a ton of bile upon Zack Snyder...

in fact i kinda felt sorry for him as i sat watching the film, the opportunity to tackle Watchmen and do it justice was something he clearly relished from the start but now that the project has come to fruition it has become rather obvious that it must have been an extremely hard task to fully translate into another medium a graphic novel that so many people hold such reverence for.


the main downfall of the film seems to hinge on afew key elements, primarily the pacing, the panel layout of the comic makes for a great device that keeps the book moving almost like clockwork but most scenes presented in the film felt rushed with little thought for the impact they hold, every detail from the comic that holds ramifications seemed to have been dispensed with at great speed for the sake of running time.

the fact that this is a movie and that you can't just flick back afew pages or chapters or just re-read the whole thing from start to finish means that onscreen it all becomes a little muddled and unclear, especially in the story's most self-referencing moments

this issue with the pacing also presented more problems for itself, it had a deep impact on the way the character's were presented, giving little time to each character's personal situations and circumstances meant that you either didn't particularly care or didn't actualy know what they have gone through and also the swiftness of the story meant any sense of subtlety was thrown out the window so that some sub-plots became almost lost entirely while others were given a rather heavy-handed treatment.



perhaps as a mini-series all elements would have been given time and room to breath properly, or perhaps we are likely to see a Lord of the Rings-esque 4 disc DVD set that incorporates every scene cut from the film and fleshes out over details that give the story its identity, the first generation of costumed heroes and each of their fates were barely present and the brief screen time they were given gave little context to the next generation, the technological advances capable in a world inhabited by Doctor Manhattan were poorly and sloppily addressed and the imposing threat of nuclear war or any other impending apocalypse hardly seem to matter when we have seen none of the 'real' people that reside in New York, the seemingly bit-part players that are integral to the story.

the fact that some character's were not as i had in my mind was only to be expected, even when all reading from the same source material, differing views are bound to occur as everyone interprets it in their own way

as i left the IMAX i wasn't angry at the handling of Watchmen, if anything it actualy done more to re-inforce just how important it is to the medium of comics, it seems to exist in a world of it's own creating that is exclusively relevant and also revolutionary to comic book writing, the fact that it does not translate well purely enforces comics' firm place as an important and individual artform with it's own strengths that cannot be easily mimicked.

Sound Art Experiment Number 3 (a work in progress)

the more observant of you may have noticed that a new addition snuck into that little box of free downloads over there on the right, not too much fanfare for it at the moment as it is in an unfinished state, but i thought it might be nice, since i had missed my deadline of having the new track completed by the end of february, to just upload how it sounds right now.

i'm realy quite impressed with how it has turned out so far, so much so that it is tempting to leave the track as it is, but my completed vision will be expanded into a fuller audio collage on the subject of albums and their art work, and the full track will be downloadable right here once afew more interviews have been collected, but for now take a little pleasure in the work in progress and the fact that SoundArt2 will remain online until the next full track appears.

SoundArt3 (unfinished)
Free file hosting from File Den

watching

it seems like a very long time ago that i first blogged about Zack Snyder's film adaption of the classic graphic novel Watchmen, it was only this morning that i finished reading it all over again, and this weekend i actually see the movie, as big and as brash as it could possibly be at the IMAX.

my initial reaction over bringing Watchmen to the screen were resoundingly negative, Snyder's first video blog won me over a little tho my feelings were still mixed. the trailer that accompanied The Dark Knight at the IMAX certainly got my fan-boy heart beating with it's faithfull reproductions of memorable panels, and now with the full release of the film weighing down upon me i am full of fear again.

it could be terrible, which would be a shame.

but what scares me the most is that once i have watched this film, i won't be able to un-watch it.

i fear that the influence of the movie could radically alter the way i perceive the graphic novel, it's characters, the world it inhabits and everything else about it that has stayed with me since i first borrowed it from my local library and was blown away by it's complexities and uniqueness and that keep me coming back to it like few other comics can.

i just hope my fears are unfounded.

sickening violence: just the way you like it!

when i'm browsing over the geekier sites that i occasionaly peruse i have seen a lot of interest about the upcoming movie adaption of Kick-Ass, like an insane amount of over-excited interest, not one to just jump on any bandwagon that rolls along i ignored it.

But all that online anticipation is spilling over into the real world and Kick-Ass warranted an article in the latest issue of Total Film, and it looks, for want of a better description, pretty Kick-Ass!!

tackling a real life approach to super-heriocs, the lead is a a teenage comic book fan that decides to don a costume and fight crime like his fictional idols, nice concept, easy to see why it appeals, what clinches it seems to be the extreme violence, tongue in cheek attitude and send-up of superhero cliches, and it's rooting firmly in todays modern world (Kick-Ass, as the young hero has been dubbed, set up his own myspace profile, and camera-phone footage of him in action has been uploaded to Youtube).

here's hoping that the film adaption doesn't hold back, as writer Mark Millar becomes a rather bankable comics book creator since another of his recent comics, Wanted, was turned into a mega hollywood Angelina Jolie vehicle and other printed works, Chosen and War Heroes have both been optioned by Sony.

Quiver

David S. Goyer, the scribe behind Blade's and Batman's recent big screen outings seems to be serious about ditching the spandex associated with superheroes and building grittier stories with real edge for fan-boys to dig.

Goyer's previous form has meant that the internet has been buzzing over his plan's to bring DC comics' Green Arrow into the movies, and according to the script details outlined so far, Green Arrow is not gonna have an easy time when he gets his shot at the limelight previously hogged by Batman and Superman.

For the wider world that didn't grow up with their heads buried in a comic book, Green Arrow is essentially a superhero version of Robin Hood, no superpowers, instead relying on his skills as an archer to fight crime, although never a major player Green Arrow has remained a much loved and well respected character.

and now Goyer presents Green Arrow with a twist, instead of chasing across rooftops and sniping baddies with an assortment of functional arrows we will instead view the character completely out of his comfort zone, jailed in a maximum security prison housing supervillians and meta-humans, from which the wrongly imprisoned hero has to break free.

crafting an instantly engaging story as opposed to a standard origin feature film, it will be interesting to see who Green Arrow will be forced to team up with or fight against to get out alive, and with a huge breadth of DC universe villians to pick from to show incarcerated, this really is shapng up to have huge potential and great scope.

ant-man???

it was quite a while ago when i was just nosing around wikipedia, curiously glancing across proposed Marvel Studios films, that i came across a superhero flick that surprised me. Marvel were now handling a bunch of films indepently to try and please the fans, the devotees and audiences, an attempt to stay true to the source material and also turn a mammoth profit.

Sure there were some obvious characters lined up to take their turn in the spotlight, Captain America and The Incredible Hulk being obvious choices for big screen adaptions, while the lesser known Iron Man has certainly proved himself worthy of the silver screen and has since become just as recognisable to the wider world as many of comics' other crossover successes.

And with Iron Man and Incredible Hulk paving the way for Marvels independent venture and also pointing towards an ensemble Avengers movie, it also seems that they have a curveball lined up.

Ant-man.

seriously, that really is an awe-inspiring name! i know nothing of the character, his origins, his powers, his alter-ego, nothing. a little online digging later and i presume the movie will be a Avengers spin-off, but i didn't dwell on it too much.

Now, flicking through this month's Total Film and reading an article on Edgar Wright and what comes up in conversation? his involvement in Ant-man! he has signed on to direct and co-write the script, and who is the genius behind Spaced and Shaun of the Dead teaming up with? none other than Adam and Joe's Joe Cornish.

This is shaping up to be a interesting project, although Wright is quick to insist that the film will not be a superhero comedy i'm still intrigued to see what the pair will bring to the movie, even if it doesn't star Nick Frost in the title role or feature a cast comprising entirely of stuffed toys.

marching on

huh, March? already?

i guess maybe some people are expecting the next installment of the SoundArt project.

i've gotta feeling that part three of the project may take a little longer to take shape than i could manage in one month, but it has a firm concept and i'm awaiting some more input before it can be called complete, but as a treat i might upload a work in progress soon, as i'm already proud of the track as it stands, but would like to flesh it out a little more.

in other news that is directly relevant to me and my musical ventures, i have been tinkering away to try and get 'teen-aging' to a standard that i'm completely happy with, at the moment the demo version can be listened to on my myspace.

once that is complete, i'll be placing it in the hands of others to see how they interpret it, i'm quite looking forward to having my own music remixed and am keen to find new collaborators. talking of collaborations, i've currently got another remix on the go at the moment, and also have a number of tracks in various stages of progress.

and now to look at blogging, been a fair number of musical related posts over the past month or so, so next week i think i'm gonna dip my toes in the geeky territory of comic book movie adaptions, partly inspired by this month's issue of Total Film and partly as a countdown to Watchmen, which i've booked to see at the IMAX next week. keep em peeled for the first post tomorrow.