All done....

I've been working round the clock to bring music to the masses the last month. Well not quite round the clock or to any kind of mass but I did have a kind of deadline and 3 tracks to get ready and by george, I did it.

Of greatest interest to anyone with any kind of interest in what I do is the new remix I have just done of Apathetic. Thought I'd have a go at reinterpreting it to celebrate it's cinematic release and I'm kind of happy with the results. You can see what you think for yourself by shooting your chuff over to this link. Comments are always welcome. If you are living in the dark ages and have some kind of slow connection you might want to try my MySpace. There's a nasty 160kbps version on the player there.

You can also have a listen to the finished version of Ooh Yeah. Just a tighter mix. Nothing too exciting, just no bongos panning all over the shop :)

All these tracks should be getting released in the next few months. I will ofcourse post up details when I get them. I am now off to try and hold a beer in my RSI ravaged hand....

DEADSTOCK @ Mugen - Fri 22nd May

After drunkenly falling around behind the decks at Mugen last Sunday it will be nice to return and restore some pride this coming Friday at DEADSTOCK.

Me and GHB did this event a while back and apart from the fact it's on a Friday (work the next day, bleurgh) it's a lot of fun. Or it has been the couple of times I have been.

Starts at 10pm.

It's a￥１０００ to get in and you get a drink with that.

Come on down, the beats are right.

Hug a Speaker @ Mugen Tonight

I'm taking a break from making music tonight to, er, play other people's music at Mugen.

Starts around 10pm 'til late. Expect a mix of reggae, dub, dubstep and breaks. And ladies get their first drink free.

《HUG A SPEAKER》
@MUGEN5610
2F start 22:00　　

DJs

FILTER KINGS
JAH LOVE IS SWEETER
3K BREAKS
2DA RUDE BEATZ

SOUND:REGGAE DUB BREAKS DRUMandBASS

※もちろん入場無料 ！ さらに女性の方には1drinkサービスです！！！ぜひぜひ

Charlie Brooker on Gordon Brown. Again.

I linked to a previous piece about Gordon Brown by the excellent Charlie Brooker a while back. Dunno why his descriptions of the doomed British PM make me laugh so much but, there you go....

Here's the bit that I really liked;

If real life were a movie, instead of a cruel and horrifying string of random unfolding events, the mortifying slow-motion car crash that is Gordon Brown's premiership would inspire pity in all but the most stone-hearted audience member. Assailed from all directions, stumbling, bumbling, droning, punch-drunk, hapless, hopeless, and aching with palpable misery, he increasingly resembles a depressed elephant, slowly being felled by a thousand pin-sized arrows fired into his hide by a million tiny natives, still somehow moving forward, trudging wearily toward its allotted graveyard-slot with morose resignation.

The whole article can be found here.

Tonight at Cover Bar

I will be DJing at Cover tonight (Friday). Not sure exactly what time but I will be down there from about 10pm if anyone fancies popping in.

It is ofcourse, free.

:)

Golden Week in 広島市

My insides and my bank balance might not agree, but have just had an excellent Golden Week holiday here in Hiroshima.

Lots of good things on, I decided to take advantage of the lovely 8 days off I had.

First up was ex Deee-Lite man Towa Tei at restaurant-come-club for the night Suiren.

It was kind of bizarre getting the lift up to the 7th floor in the same building as The Shack to walk into what felt like a very smart club in Tokyo. Where did all these beautiful people come from?

It was good though. Lots of people, nice atmosphere, great sound and the tunes weren't bad either. Have to say though, after DJing for 20+ years TT's mixing left a lot to be desired. Not that I can talk or that it really matters (it's all about the music baby!) it was just a bit surprising. After Towa Tei came Susumo and Daiji of Sleepyeye and my only regret was that I had one gin too many and stumbled out a bit earlier than I would have liked.

For a complete contrast to Suiren's style, you can't get much further away than Chinatown and Dove Pro Wrestling....

Not the first time I have blogged about these utter nutters but last Sunday's fight fest was as always, great entertainment, one fight even spilling out into the street at one point :)

Lastly and not leastly was Masashi Osaku at Sacred Spirits, put on by the lovely boys at one of WC's favourite bars in Hiroshima, Cover. Now I had never heard of Masashi Osaku but his mix CDs can often be heard at Cover and very good they are too. It's a little dangerously close to the kind of plodding trance beat that I'm not keen on but he's a lot better than that and manages to get a good groove going. Particularly impressive as he does it for 5 hours. At the risk of repeating myself, the Sacred Spirits sound system is fantastic and with a lot of people in there up for a good time it was an excellent night, depite the hippy decor ;)

So it's back to work :( and I've also got to get my arse in gear for not 1 but 2 upcoming releases on Dangerous Drums. Looks like I'm going to be infront of my computer even more than usual, if that's possible, but it is, as they say, all good.

New Track - 'Ooh, Yeah'

Just finished off a new track and have stuck it on my MySpace page. It's called 'Ooh, yeah' and is at the top of the my player there so should start up the minute you 'arrive'.

Am always keen to hear people's thoughts so if your ears survive the fantastic quality that a MySpace music player provides, let me know....

よろしく

Hug a Speaker @ Mugen This Sunday

Have been DJing at this monthly Mugen 'ladies' night for a while now but as of this week, it's changing days from Wednesdays to Sundays, which is, for me atleast, excellent news.

The music is pretty eclectic, but, one thing that does bring them all together is the bass. And lots of it.

Expect a lot of dub and reggae and a bit of dubstep and breaks from me and ghb.

It's free and the girls get a free drink with one order, hence it's 'ladies' night.

I'm looking forward to this as I can often be found out and about on a Sunday and this gives us another option in Hiroshima on an understandably quiet night.

Oh, and from then on, it's every 3rd Sunday よろしく

4月19日(SUN) 《HUG A SPEAKER》
@MUGEN5610 2F start 22:00～ 　　

DJs
FILTER KINGS
JAH LOVE IS SWEETER
3K BREAKS
2DA RUDE BEATZ
SOUND:REGGAE DUB BREAKS DRUMandBASS

※もちろん入場無料 ！ さらに女性の方には1drinkサービスです！！！ぜひぜひ

And the Oscar for best contribution to a soundtrack goes to...

Me. Maybe. If that category existed. Why, because my track Apathetic is going to be used in a film called 'Please Give' (click for details), starring Catherine Keener amongst other people I have never heard of, although, it does seem they are fairly famous so perhaps some of you with a better memory for names of actors than I may know them.

Beatpick again sorted it out for me, so many thanks there. Thanks again to Susan for singing so lovely-ly on it. This is starting to sound like an acceptance speech! :sobs: More thanks to Messyman for the mastering. :breaksdown:

If you fancy a listen, click on the Beatpick link above and search for Windcheater - Apathetic. You can even buy it if you want ;)

Might have news of a single release soon too. Will let you know when I have more details.

よろしく！

Stuff I Like VOL1 - Hip Hop

Started doing a mix recently and was getting fed up trying to work different genres together and so did what all hard working artists do. I gave up. Instead I just made a one genre mix of music I like. This first one is a hip hop mix. A few new tracks in there but mostly stuff everyone's probably heard before. No surprises, just the kind of Hip Hop I really love.

Get it here if you fancy - Stuff I Like VOL1 - Hip Hop

Depth Charge - Depth Charge vs Silver Fox ( Feat MC Alkaline )

I used to have this on vinyl. My favourite track from the brilliant Depth Charge (J Saul Kane) - Silverfox Featuring MC Alkaline.

Anyway, somehow it got lost. How do you lose 12 inch records? I blame the son of one of my old landlords. He always used to play this when he came over and I don't remember having it after I moved out.

Obviously YouTube doesn't do the bass justice. Great to hear it again though. If anyone knows where I can get an MP3 of it....

New year, New track

Hello. Happy New Year. Bit late I know but....first post of 2009. I seem to have lost the urge to blog recently. Not that it was much of an urge in the past, but you know what I mean. My resolutions this year are the same as last year which tells you how successful I was, hohum.

Anyway, I have stuck a new track up on my MySpace. Certainly not a soundsystem banger but have a listen if you fancy. It's called 'Wallflower' and should start up rudely uninvited as soon as you visit the page....

Windcheater's MySpace

3Kurismasu @ Enjoint Bar Cover

Have to say I am looking forward to this. Our first time in cosy Cover bar with it's great hosts Ton-San and Tsuitty, it's often a lively little bar.

Just little ol' me and GHB will be there from 12 til late. We'll have plenty of tunes and I've even finally got round to burning some of my old hardcore tunes :)

:whistleposse:

It's FREE ofcourse and, well, I've already said the rest....

Hopefully see some of you down there.

Read all about it

I've made it on to my hompage. And, no, I didn't just go into internet options and change my home page setting to http://www.windcheater.co.uk/ . Nope, Hiroshima features in the travel section of today's Guardian and for once the focus is on the city's livelier aspects.

The Guardian's Alex Hoban who is living here in Shikoku contacted me to ask a few things about the night life here and we ended up meeting at the Aba Shanti I gig at Mugen a couple of weeks back. Also featured are 3K friends Sleepyeye , Wide Island's Goto Izumi and some kids down by the river. The raid stuff is all a bit old hat for us living here but I suppose it makes some interesting reading for people who don't know about Japan or the city.

It's pretty positive though, as Alex himself was, and it's always nice to see other sides of Hiroshima portrayed to the world.

I do feel a bit bad as the great photo that is used on the front page was taken by my mate Paul at GH but has been credited to me. You only have to take a quick look at my snaps from last weekend's Halloween party to know I wouldn't have managed to get such a great shot. Then again, my beautiful visage has been cruelly snipped from the edge.

Anyway, read the whole article from here.

Hiroshima, Japan

I thought I should blog about my nice weekend but wasn't really in the mood. That was until I happened across probably my least favourite EVER blog, and what I read there was so arse clenchingly awful, so toe curlingly embarassing, that I felt I had to. Well, that's a bit strong, this post ain't gonna end the credit crunch , but after reading such abysmal head-up-arse, 6 form

student, musings upon Japan, I felt a normal view of 'stuff' here deserved to be belched out into cyber space. Or the blog-o-sphere, Whatever. Yes, I'm normal. I'm not a freak with a bloated opinion of my er, opinions. I also like to stick to talking about stuff I know. You know, not like, making things up? Or scaring girls.

So, lets start with the weather, cos it's fucking gorgeous right now. That bit's for my readers back in the UK ;) Anyway, it was a long weekend here in Japan, not that it makes a lot of difference to me

as I always have Mondays off but, that long weekend spring was evident in people's steps. Saturday started in the lovely Organza and then took me to Mugen for Aba Shanti-I. I escaped with my hearing intact. Fuck it was loud, and obviously bass heavy. There was some guy from Osaka with the longest dreads I have ever seen who I enjoyed the most. Maybe not one for the purists, but fuck purists. Bloody luddites.

Back to Organza on Sunday to meet and then move on to Aina Haina for a gig, which, turned out to be pretty good. Couple of

pretty impressive bands with the ever rotating Hiroshima indie circuit musicians in evidence. How do they find the time to write material and practice I always think. One band was particularly impressive (used that word again, not good style) and featured Noodle out of Gorillaz.

After the gig we were invited along to a nice little party at Edge featuring a very elegant looking Minyaco who's energy always

astounds me. Bit of nabe and bedtime....

Today was yet another perfect day and even I thought I should atleast get out for a bit so headed off to Chuo Kouen to look at, well, lots of T-Shirts hang out on washing lines. The photos I had seen kind of captured my imagination but it was a little bit of an anti-climax. Gorgeous weather though so who's complaining?

In the early evening I played Futsal which was fun and I managed to find my shooting boots again :) No aggression, whilst not pussyfooting about, girls playing aswell without anyone acting like twats.

Dub, eccentric cafes, live bands, parties, art and football. All with the minimum of attitude, healthy doses of creativity and talent, and not a wanky blogger in sight. (Apart from me)

It really was a very pleasant weekend.

Carp again

I just blogged about the Carp, but hey, I'm no writer, and I know fuck all about baseball and the history of the team. This is a nice article from the Daily Yomiuri. Thanks to GH for pointing me there.

Oh and they beat Manche...Giants tonight.

(and speaking of Manchester, Brighton beat the richest club in the world, Manchester City, last night.....Check it :)....)

Carp dream of landmark finish
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Fish might not dream, but Hiroshima Carp do. With Hiroshima Citizens Stadium staging its final games, outfielder Shigenobu Shima revealed his dream to The Hot Corner on Monday.
Before the Carp are transported to a new pond, a larger ballpark near Hiroshima Station for next season, the team has some unfinished business to attend to.
"There's no next year here," Shima said of the park that's scheduled to host its final regular season game on Sunday.
"If we get to the Climax Series, some fans will make it to our road games, but so many wouldn't be able to see us play. That's why we need to win so that we can come home in the Japan Series and play again for our fans here.
"We want to do this, and the fans share the feeling. It's pretty special."
Hiroshima Shimin is fairly special as well: a downtown, natural-surfaced, open-air facility, where fans walk or arrive on the streetcar that stops 30 meters from the gate. It is noticeably old and cramped, but it is also intimate. The atmosphere is similar to that at Koshien, but the fans in Hiroshima are perched closer to the action. The only stadium where the fans are any closer is the Eagles' remodeled park in Sendai.
It is a shame the club and city decided a new park was the best option, because with some serious renovation, this little gem could be unsurpassed.
When the Carp moved here in July 1957, the team was already seven years into an 18-year spell in the lower reaches of the Central League standings. That streak ended in 1968 with a 68-62-4 campaign, the club's second winning season, but Hiroshima's fans continued to suffer until 1975. That was the year the club emerged as a powerhouse.
With a mass of talent developed under former manager Rikuo Nemoto, the Carp won it all in 1975, 1979, 1980 and 1984 under skipper Takeshi Koba.
The Carp continued to be a force in the CL, but failed to win the Series in 1986 and 1991, with that last year being a turning point in the team's fortunes. The old guard of the 1980s was gone and new stars were emerging. Third baseman Akira Eto, shortstop Kenjiro Nomura and an outfield trio of Koichi Ogata, Tomonori Maeda and Tomoaki Kanemoto should have powered Hiroshima to some pennants, but the decline of the club's pitching and catching proved too big an obstacle.
Shinji Sasaoka had the stuff and heart to be Japan's best pitcher for over a decade, but the abusive management of Koji Yamamoto turned the dominant right-hander into a journeyman by the age of 27. Under Yamamoto and Toshiyuki Mimura, who skippered the Carp from 1994 to 1998, the Carp burned out one promising young pitcher after another.
Free agency, the inability to keep young pitchers healthy and the organization's unwillingness to pay the cost of keeping successful foreign players doomed the Carp to 10 straight lower-division finishes from 1998 to 2007.
The loss of the team's two best players, third baseman Takahiro Arai and pitcher Hiroki Kuroda, to free agency made things look bleak for a turnaround in Shimin Kyujo's final season. For those focusing on players who were either gone or long past their prime, the Carp had no chance.
But fortunately for the Carp and their fans, names do not win games, players do.
By fighting the owner's desire that every Carp lineup look like an old-timers game, Brown has given chances to younger, faster and more ambitious players.
Instead of having the popular, but lead-footed, Maeda in the outfield as ownership wants, the combination of Shima, Soichiro Amaya, Masato Akamatsu and Alex Ochoa provides a healthy supply of speed, offense and defense.
The addition of league strikeout and ERA leader Colby Lewis (14-7) has helped a fairly young pitching staff be even better without Kuroda.
The new-look Carp have played better and better as the season has progressed and seized a slight advantage in the race for the CL's final playoff spot over the past week.
So while the Carp fans are celebrating the old times, the team is giving Hiroshima a chance to see the old park in its best way possible--as the home of a winning team.
(Sep. 25, 2008)

広島市民球場, Hiroshima Shimin Kyujo

I've always liked stadiums. Even despite the fact there has always been the distinction between the 'cheap seats' and the not so cheap and that in some modern arenas you have to pay a small fortune to get in, I have always find there is something egalitarian about them. Once everyone is in, you're all a -insert team name here- fan, you all want one thing and you all get behind -insert team name here- together. Aesthetically aswell, I just enjoy seeing a full stadium.

I'm also often depressed by stadiums, solely down to the fact that the team I support, Brighton and Hove Albion are still without a permanent home after more than 10 years of waiting.

Sadly another venue I have become attached to won't be lasting much longer as Hiroshima Carp's home, Shimin Kyujo, will be torn down at the end of this season and the Carp move across town to their new stadium.

Now, I'm not going to pretend to be a big baseball fan. I'm not. I have however, grown quite fond of the Carp, and the stadium has played it's own part in that.

For one thing, it's the atmosphere. Loud and passionate, it doesn't matter that the Carp are generally pretty shite, whenever I have been there the fans have been great. And it truly is for everyone. There's none of the overwhleming presence of men as in sporting venues in the UK. The whole family can go. And not in that horribly patronising way some places try and fit families in, much to the chagrin of the 'fellas'. That's just how it is. You can take your 3 year old kid and no one will mind if they climb over the seats. When I went last week there was a family of 3 generations sat infront of me with a small baby. It's the norm rather than the exception and the passion is not diluted for it.

Even after 5 years or so here I still am unsure on all the rules and I doubt I will ever develope a real affinity for the sport but I would definitely call myself a Carp fan. When I first got to Japan I thought I should atleast give Baseball a look in. I decided that I should obviously be a Carp fan, but how else could I try and involve myself in this game I was initially finding pretty dull. The key to my first stirrings for Yakkyu was infact coming across the Yomiuri Giants. The equation that lead to the result of me being able to get into my first Baseball games was quite simple;

Hiroshima Carp = My team + Yomiuri Giants = Manchester United = COME ON CARP!

Instant hatred, rivalry on tap. The underdogs versus the fat cats from Tokyo. Something I could understand and cling to like a, er, favourite hated teddy?

Anyway, the seeds had been sewn and since then I have always looked out for Carp results, stopped to watch when I see them on telly, and sometimes been to see at their home...

Which will very soon be no more. This is incredibly sad. It's always sad when a team leaves an old home but this is Hiroshima. The Carp's stadium is directly across the street from the A-Bomb dome. I doubt there are many other places in the world that have two such contrasting images of their city so close together. I hesitate to use the word beautiful, but on a warm evening, when the floodlights are lit, and people are streaming into the stadium, with the ruins of the dome in the foreground....it is some sight. One I never fail to appreciate. In the space of a few hundred metres you have the best and saddest of the city. It will be such a shame to lose it.

All is not lost though. You could never hope to better the location, significance and atmospere of the current stadium but, the new one doesn't look too bad at all. It is a proper stadium as opposed to one of those horrible dome things. More importantly though, unlike a lot of new stadiums that get built in the UK, this one is still in the centre of town. Not quite the centre like the old one, but next to Hiroshima station. They won't be any long out of town bus rides like there is if you want to go and see San Frecce play virtually out in the mountains and it's not, thank god, being built in some out of town 'development'. Infact, it's going to be easier to get to for a lot of people in Hiroshima Ken. It's never going to match it's predecessor for me, but it looks like it will stay very much a part of Hiroshima and is very much, in Hiroshima. It could of been a lot worse.

So what will go up on the old site? I am past caring really as I'm resigned to it falling way short of Shimin Kyujo and as long as it is at least architecturally interesting and not a shopping centre, it will have to do. For some reason City Officials seem to be ignoring my idea of building a stunning new stadium there for San Frecce. Hiroshima's two sporting representatives right in the middle of the town. Would be fantastic.

Why does nobody ever listen to me?

In the name of the father the son and the drum and bass

Haven't done a YouTube post for a while (not including my tracks) but this is a goody

My all new dance troupe

Not real, but then neither are Gorillaz are they?

Found this on YouTube taken from the game 'Audition' which my track 'Apathetic' was licensed for.

The two on the right don't look much cop.

3K at Lotus and a new mix

On September 6th 九月六日3K will be back at Lotus for one of our semi regular-ish nights. It is ofcourse FREE, starts at 10pm and will go on until 3am.

As a taster you can download the latest 3K mix FROM HERE

It's got a bit of reggae, a bit of dub step, some breaks, some hip hop and ofcourse some sounds from Okinawa on it. Watch your bassbins (I'm telling ya).