Remix Inspiration

Here's an interesting video about the inspiration behind a great remix of Mayer Hawthornes "Green Eyed Love"

The Making of Mayer Hawthorne's "Green Eyed Love" Waajeed Remix from BLING47 on Vimeo.

Oh yeh

Should have mentioned the Mos Def gig on Sunday night. Mos definitely kicked it with his two djs and live drum kit, which he played himself, kind of worringly positioning himself as the Phil Collins of hip hop. Luckily he didn't have his jacket sleeves rolled up although ironically I did have the sleeves of my cardigan rolled up by my elbows as it was quite warm in the sell out crowd.

Standout track of the Ecstatic album



Standout track of the show had to be



And Phil Collins, although he doesnt appear to have his sleeves rolled up in this one, just like the track in a highly cheesy way. Plus it reminds me of a town in Brasil where for some reason they were screening this entire live show on screens in the town square one Saturday night whilst I was there. Random. And quite annoying.

Slacker/Not Slacker

Am I a slacker or am I not? I haven't posted for AGES but I have been super busy with course work amongst other stuff. And the good news is, progress is being made. At least I think so.

As such, here is some of the music/sounds that have been inspiring me recently in my work. It's my way of saying, to quote Abba, "Thankyou for the music" I guess.


And they say hip hop is dead?












And for me this is the remix of the year. To take a shit, not to mention, unnecessary, cover version of a timeless classic and then make it sound essential and new is damned clever in my book.



And my advice for the time being? Squeeze some lime in your orange juice. It is fucking delicious.

The Punk

A classic from the Discovery album. Great use of space on this track, it's really simple; bass line, drum beat and a little synth with simple lyrics. Its the use space that ties it together though.

CDR

I made a mad dash to be at CDR at Plastic People last Thursday. Its a night where unsigned artists bring along CDRs of their music and the DJ spins it. This guy had the stand out track of the night. One to watch I reckon, nice future soul and hip hop beats.

http://www.myspace.com/franklaws

London Music Collective

I started watching this and have to admit, I thought it was a load of bollocks. A bloke ripping a piano to pieces. Kids could have used that piano to learn to play on. But, when you close your eyes and listen, it does sound pretty cool.



Although I'm still not convinced it is a good use of a piano.

Soundscape-Inspirational Listening

Inspirational pieces I have been listening to for my production piece in Soundscape. Starting off with the Daddy of ambient music, Brian Eno.



Talking about his Ambient 1:Music For Airports "I thought it would be much better to have music that said 'well if you die it doesn't really matter'........you were suspended in the universe and your life or death wasn't so important."
Brian Eno






Pauline Oliveros coined the phrases "deep listening" and developed a theory later called "sonic awareness" which is the ability to consciously focus attention upon environmental and musical sounds.



Delia Derbyshire was responsible for creating the Dr Who theme tune in the 60s, amongst hundreds of other TV scores, incidental pieces and theme tunes.







John Cage is best known for his silent composition " 4'33" ". He studied Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism and in a 1957 lecture, Experimental Music, he described music as "a purposeless play" which is "an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living"