Currently listening to...

It's a bit of a summer 'punk pack' at WC towers at the moment as I've been delving into my old record collection. Well, I would if I could but half of it was nicked when me and a friend moved flat in around 1996 and the rest of it is 1000s of miles away. However, technology provides....

MySpace really does have everyone on it doesn't it; The Dead Kennedys were one of my favourite bands as a handsome, strapping teenager (lanky streak of piss). I once went on a 'date' after buying the album Frankenchrist. 'OOh it's got a free poster', I exclaimed sitting opposite my datee,'What's it of?' she asked as I unfolded it.... have a look.

Also been listening to Fugazi and Nomeansno, two of my favourite live acts from that time. At these kind of gigs you'd often see people into straight edge. Very strange.....

Cameron cf. Blair on Time Trumpet

....and yet more brilliant 'cutting' in a more VJ style from new (superb) Armando Ianucci comedy 'Time trumpet'. Enjoy.

Pro X Fade ad

Saw this on my chum Cut Thumb's MySpace site. It really is lovely stuff :)

Durrrrrrrrr

I seem to be surrounded by all manner of stupidity/uselessness these days (I include myself in that assessment obviously). What is it with people? :stickstongueintolowerlipandgoesuhhhhh:

Here's a couple of tips from Windcheater to any would be promoters out there;

1. Try and make an effort to say hello to any DJs you book for an event.

2. Try and say thankyou to any DJs you have booked for an event.

3. Go wild, actually approach and introduce yourself to the DJ you've booked for your event. Hey, you're in the same building/room!

Hardly rocket science is it? I've tried to pick out three key failings in a recent event that GHB did. Do you think I'm onto anything there? And let's not mention the fact that GHB lugged down his mixer and set it up for everyone to use and had to cope with flack from unhappy punters whilst at the same time not being able to stop playing as there was no other DJ around etc etc....

In the words of Jacques Derrida : 'Sort it out'.

getting down hardcore at weedmarch 04

roodness

What?

So, we're in an Izakaya. One where you can't see outside, and there's all this rumbling nonsense going on outside. Thunder? Nah, surely the trams rolling by (despite the fact I can also tell there is something flashing very brightly fairly often). It was all a bit reminiscent of the Geiyo earthquake that I was living slap bang in the middle of 2 months after arriving in Japan. Oh, must be the underground I thought as the ground underneath did a good impression of making me look drunk. Problem is there is no underground (well there are 3 statons) in Hiroshima, let alone tiny little Hiro where I was walking at the time. I'm digressing, what I mean to say is, as I didn't think much was going on then, and I didn't think much had happened in the mere 20 or 30 minutes since we noticed the first rumbles inside the Izakaya. Then we went outside....pissing down. Not annoying pissing down, but laugh out loud, bloody HELL pissing down. Bikes strewn all over the pavement, roads completely flooded, pissing down. The whole day had been blazing sunshine and blue skies. Not one hint of even a cloud all day and then the cycle home was like something from a natural disaster weather report. My feet got all wet dammit! Hope no one got hurt/had homes wrecked. If that's the case, it was a lot of fun :)

The photo is of just ouside my apartment block. It didn't even come close to that wet during the massive typhoon of a couple of years ago. All in half an hour. Hardcore weather.

Summer is finally here. Rainy season was unusually long although it did seem to take a break for a mini summer in the middle for a couple of weeks that had me all confused, and royally pissed off when it started raining again. But it’s all gone and I can start playing football again and sweating like a pig. In fact, the first proper post on this blog was made as last year’s Tsuyu finished. The WCblog is a year old, coinciding nicely with the season of WC family birthdays; brotherWC, me, NieceWC and sisterWC all in the space of two weeks.
In fact it’s been a few weeks of Japanese summer type stuff. 3 weeks ago I went with work to the Island of Ninoshima. One of the many great things about living where I do, and something I don’t take advantage of enough, is that I can cycle 20 minutes down the road, hop on a ferry and in 20 minutes step onto (and back in time into) the world of a Seto Inland sea island. Ninoshima is great. We took the kids to an outdoor pool and watched them splash around for a couple of hours, had some curry then walked over the mountain and through a town that couldn’t be more removed from the city centre of Hiroshima and anywhere in urban Japan. Nasty sun burnt legs though.
Last weekend was the Lotus gig which wasn’t as well attended as the last one but was pleasant enough. I was a bit late owing to the Ujina port fireworks which were fantastic. How the frig do you make shapes out of fireworks? I’ll always curse the fact that Guy Fawkes tried to blow up parliament during the winter. Twat. Didn’t he realise he was condemning us Brits to fireworks in winter? Muddy fields filled with terrifying young children and their poorly constructed ‘Guys’, fairground rides that have clearly never heard of a safety check and burger vans. Summer is the time for fireworks and the ones 2 weeks ago were stunning. Wish I’d taken my sampler. There were some fantastic kick drums to be heard ;)
And then this weekend it was work again and summer camp. It was at a mountain park that has a small farm with animals, fields of stuff to pick and various other foresty type stuff for little ‘uns to run around in without getting mauled by bears. Very tiring but very very pleasant as all the kids were great and the weather was lovely. Hot o’clock though. I whittled my own chopsticks. Extremely poorly it has to be said. I was shown up by an 8 year old. The lucky kids also got to see a rabbit eat it’s own baby bunny. I decided not to watch at 7.30 in the morning with a slow burning hangover.

Back in the 'studio' I've now got some lovely new monitors that sound ruddy bloody good. I've even started to work on a new original track.....it's been a while.

Ja ne

Dizzee Rascal Dream

great video :)

DJ Kentaro - Shuriken Cut

sorry I meant to 'blog. this mother ;)

SSTV Station ID

It's a bit of a cheat filling my blog up with youtube clips but sod it.....it's DJ Kentaro!

3KLounge

Yep, we're back at Lotus again this Saturday. The last one was a goodie so come on down for free breaks related choons. More information can be gleaned from here :)

Things I love about the internet #274

Winding up right wing twats on message boards. There was a time, fresh to the web when I would engage in discussion and heated debate. Then I gave up. Arguing with someone who uses text speak to 'discuss' the finer points of immigration (=spit bile) is a pointless and unecessary waste of my time. Making them spit bile at me though is both amusing and heart warming. It's also very easy. Right wingers are thick. Fact.

Roots Manuva - Witness

My blog's got a bit boring of late so what better way to spice it up by linking to Youtube.

Today, the best Hip hop MC there is, Roots Manuva. Shite sound quality but fantastic video....

Alan Partridge

Alan's drum loops

Chooooooooooon!

I've finished a tune. Bit of a cheat really as it's more of a remix but of a track I'd kind of binned so I reckon I can call it a new one. Can't I?

Can't be arsed putting it on my homepage so if you GO TO MY SOUNDLIFT PAGE you'll find it there.

It's called -Back track- and any comments on it will be most welcome :)

More Windcheater in cyber space?

If you don't get your fill here or at www.windcheater.co.uk, get your arses over to www.3kbreaks.com the blog/site of Hiroshima's finest break's night out and Windcheater's very own MySpace page. The next Arctic Monkeys? Doubt it but if you have a page of your own why not 'add' me and do all those other fun things you can do on MySpace. Let me know what they are when you do.

3K on tour

Well it was a long one but a good weekend that felt pretty satisfying. Hey I even fitted some work in somewhere along the line.

On Friday night GHB and myself hosted 3K again at Edge with special guest Dangerous Drum's ED2000. It wasn't full but then again we never expected it to be on a friday (always a funny night here in Hiroshima). However, the small crowd that did come down did enjoy it and ED2000 did what he does best and what a lot of DJs fail to do round these parts, get people dancing. Even the head nodders were up and that's no mean feat. Apart from anything, it was just great to meet such a nice guy. Hopefully we can hook up with DD again sometime. At 3am we took to the decks. I didn't expect anyone to be there at that time and was preparing to play to an MD recorder. In the end though, little pockets of people kept coming back and my god they were dancing too. It does seem that there are people who want something a little different to drum and bass. Many thanks to CA2, God Fxxx and MC Ali too who provided us with a couple of other great sets.

So, that was Friday out of the way, onto Saturday.... It's taken me 33 years to work out if I don't drink I can get through most things the next day. Work was a breeze and at 3.30 GHB and myself boarded the bus to Tottori for the San In beach party. What a great event. I haven't been before so can't compare it to previous years but I was really impressed with the set up, the beach and the weather. Many thanks to Steve and Tom for having us along (GHB is a bit of a regular). Two nights, two international DJs, on Saturday we shared the bill with Silva,a former Jpop idol now house DJ and singer. Her set was a kind of walk through of remixed party classics but putting snobbery aside she had the crowd loving it, mixed well and has a fantastic voice. To sing over records and not sound shit is not going to be easy. I had to laugh at the end when she was doing a call and response thing with the crowd and she would sing something that noone at the party could get anywhere close to. I did get the impression that on a different night she might play slightly differently as she dropped in a couple of less well known, slightly edgier tracks that didn't go down as well with the crowd. Unpretensiously she gave the people what they wanted. Then again what do I know, maybe she plays like that always.
Pretentiously me and GHB dived straight into the breaks and scared most of the dancers away :) After a while though the crowd seemed to noticeably change as a different breed crawled out of the dark and to our relief, lapped up the dub heavy bass that carried a lot of our set. This was all after a scare at the beginning when my laptop wouldn't switch on. If any of you have a Vaio out there, make sure the lock switch on your battery is switched on! At the end of the night we were approached by a couple of promoters from Osaka and asked to play in July, a date we can't unfortunately make. Nice to be asked though and I guess it can't have been all that bad.

At 6.30 and after only 3 hours sleep the previous night we crawled into our tents.....and woke up at 8.30. What? After dragging ourselves back to Hiroshima it was straight out to watch Japan vs Croatia.......hardcore!

Weekender

Criminally I haven't mentioned the San In beach party on the blog. It's this saturday, a bit of trek but sounds excellent. It also comes the night after Dangerous Drums, and that's the night after England's 1am kick off game against Trinidad and Tobago. Throw 3 days of work into the mix too and you've got one very very tired WC indeed. Oh well, rock and roll and all that.

WC in print

Future Music published a short review of Apathetic in their reader's demos section this month. It's not that long so here's what it said in full :

This is another track that has a catchy intro but the verse then lets things down by plodding along a little. The instrumentation is great though, and the bass carries things well. Overall, this is only one or two hooks short of greatness.

Can't really decide whether or not to be pleased about that. What do you think? Nice to see Jun's artwork (see above) included though as it should be.

Right, I'm off to look for a hook...

ED2000 exclusive mix

In the run up to the Dangerous Drums vs 3KBreaks night we've got an exclusive 30 minute mix from the man himself ED2000. You can go to GetHiroshima yourself to get it or you can just click here. Download, stick on ipod, enjoy, come to 3KBreaks. It really is THAT simple. :)