If I keep smiling...

crikey!

Windcheater ringtones?

Showing just how much attention I pay to things, I've only just noticed that Beatpick have a ringtone of my track Apathetic on their MySpace page. It's free and comes in 3 formats, none of which seem to work on my phone. Hohum.

Don't forget (as if you would) Apathetic is available in it's entirety to listen to and buy (yes buy!) on my Beatpick page.

What are you doing this summer?

Finowfurt, Germany: 1,200 computer enthusiasts from Germany and elsewhere have gathered for a five-day summer camp, Chaos Communication Camp 2007, which describes itself as an 'open-air festival for hackers and similar lifeforms'

Hope they all remember to pack their sun cream.

New track - Long Time Rocker

I've finally put a version of my latest track Long Time Rocker, out there. You can hear it on my MySpace page.

Hopefully it will be the first track you hear when you go there, and it should be at the top of the list.

Any comments, fair or foul, always welcome.

DJ Hype again

After a mental 2 weeks at work, it finally finished late on Sunday night and I went down to Mugen, for DJ Hype who was back in Hiroshima. Last time GHB posted a review on GH, in which he wondered whether the local Drum and Bass scene hadn't hit it's peak. When we arrived on Sunday it did seem that way. Looking at my photos of the last time, it's clear there were a lot more people there, and even from the pictures its also obvious that the crowd were much more up for it than on Sunday. And what is it with the sound in Mugen? This place offered local clubbers a bit of hope when it opened amidst all the raids and other club's closures. It was bigger, better and newer than anywhere else. Unfortunately, noone seems to know how to get the best out of the sound system. Either that or its just a shit. Drum and bass requires, as the name suggests right? a lot of bass. The highs were ear piercing for a lot of the night and you could see Hype wasn't happy at the beginning of his set.

That said, enter the large presence of MC IC3 (WARNING! - IC3's MySpace site is covered in Chelsea pictures). What a brilliant MC. Really funny, really energetic, he transformed the fairly flat atmosphere in Mugen (what happened to lights and smoke guys?) which was no fault of the tunes Hype was playing. I don't think I have ever seen an MC make a night so much. I thought perhaps he's just doing it cos that's what he does but as Hype dropped his last tune, he was asking him to do another hour. Big otsukare to him, if I were one of the D'n'B promoters in Hiroshima I would be getting him back for every night they do.

Also, big big up to the Sleepeye boys who played some fantastic tunes after Hype. I was ready to go home drunk and tired as usually the music gets ramped up even harder after the big name leaves the stage, but not this time. Tanoshikatta.

Good news on the 3K front too as we look to be heading back to our roots sometime in October....will, ofcourse, keep you posted.

www.suiko1.com

Not so long ago, almost back home, I was suddenly confronted by this amazing piece of graffiti. I spotted on MySpace yesterday and so was able to track down the artist. You can check more of his work on his homepage or, if you live in Hiroshima, keep your eyes peeled for more of his stuff around town. There's a nice shop front next to the Ramen place at near the crossing of Chuo douri and Heiwa douri.

Lovely stuff.

Jurassic 5 - Concrete Schoolyard

Summer's here.....

hopefully

Peep Show - Mark has therapy

:)

Plan B- No Good

Justice - D.A.N.C.E (Version Finale)

Haven't heard as good an 'electronic' album as this in ages and I've only listened to the first 7 tracks. Great video.

A NEW POPE

Adam Buxton! Hooraah!

Choo choo!

I love the Shinkansen because it's fast, comfortable and efficient and it usually means I'm going somewhere fun. Slightly different reasons to this guy's enjoyment of the pleasure's of travelling by bullet train...

Excited train buff Koichi Inoue, a 40-year-old civil servant from Yokohama, said before his departure, "No matter what, I needed to be aboard this very first train. During my ride, I plan to examine how much the car will tilt" on curves.

Full story here, although it isn't all that interesting. I just love hearing about fellow geeks :)

The Time The Place, Chris Morris

Never seen this before. The genius of Chris Morris....

blaaah

Cock on your sock. Lovely. Not as good as the 8ish year old girl I saw the other week with SPUNK cheerfully emblazoned on her sweatshirt in big bright colourful letters. Post spunk on chest jokes in the comments section please.

I really have almost finished a new track. Will post it up here when it's done and dusted (probably about October).

Listening to the Breakspoll 3 mix by Ed Solo and Skool of Thought, who I caught at Audio back at Xmas. It is, as expected, verrr good :)

Tou3Kasan

Toukasan is brilliant isn't it? For those of you that don't know, it's a festival here in Hiroshima in which almost everyone comes out in their Yukata. Far more popular with the locals than the dull Flower Festival, it was really nice to hear how excited the kids I teach were about going.

It did mean that Saturday's 3KBreaks was slightly less well attended than the last 2 but when all the women (and Mendel) turn up in Yukatas, who's complaining. The look on 3 guys faces as they left only to see around 6 yukata clad ladies coming up the stairs was very funny....er, should we really go?

On Sunday I went to Sumatra Tiger for their 3rd anniversary party. Turned out to be excellent with the Spins in fine form and owner Keisuke-san's other band, whilst not being my cup of tea (think American Metal), putting on an amazing show. It was like watching a stadium rock band....in a pub. The vocalist had some of the dodgiest hair I have ever seen but a really incredible (metal) voice. Drummer had a tache and a perm (yes!) and ofcourse, unlike anywhere else I've been in the world, the women of Japan just refuse to be left out, so there, amidst these 4, hairy, rocking men with their flying V guitars, was one lady on keys.

In a yukata.

Well it was Toukasan after all.

Micall Parknsun- So What

Golden Week shenanigans

Bit late I know but...

Had an enjoyable (fully paid up!) Golden Week. I already mentioned the Kemby's 8th anniversary that kicked things off on the Monday. Fast forward to Saturday and we were at Roxis again for the 3rd 3KBreaks there.

Myself and GHB aren't the most prepared of DJs so in an attempt to make things a bit easier for himself in a week in which he ran 70km (nutter), he took the decks and mixer down on Wednesday and got it all set up. Thursday night, Roxis got broken into and the mixer was nicked. Never prepare kids! Hopefully they'll be some insurance money...The night itself was a real success, especially considering it was the end of Golden Week and that is was pissing down outside. CA2 bought along Sugi (pictured) to spin some broken beats at the beginning of the night. Had no idea what broken beats were but they turned out to be housey/breaksy/funky beats. Very nice guy, Sugi and his mates know how to have a good time. He plays every Thursday at Commune if anyone is interested in checking out the broken beat sound.

Rewind (selector) a couple of days and I also spent a few days in Fukuoka and Nagasaki. I've been to Fukuoka before, it's very nice, you should go. Nice people, nice ramen and very cool places to wander about like Daimyo. I went to Nagasaki for the day so completing my Peace Park pair. It's funny how I can live in Hiroshima and yet know so little about Nagasaki. Bomb history aside, it's a very pleasant place, and quite strange for a Japanese city in that they built on the mountain-sides. Felt almost European. Nagasaki is famous (amongst other things) for being the first port opened to foreigners (I'm paraphrasing here, can't be arsed to check the details) some time ago. Mostly Dutch and Portugese it also means there's loads of churches all over the place, which probably influenced the naming of this car park.

So, fun over, it's back to work (not such a bad thing) and wondering how to shift this waist I seem to have developed.

SONGS OF PRAISE (WITH SUBTITLES)

been trying to post this for ages.....better work this time

grrrrrr

Hisashiburi

For various reasons I haven't had much of a heart for blogging recently but I thought I should try and get back in the saddle, if only, to try and convince the 2 of you reading to come down to Roxis next Saturday for the 3rd 3KBreaks. The last one was a lot of fun so hopefully we can build from that.

What else has been going on? Well, a couple of weekends ago DJ Kentaro was in town. One of my acclaimed keitai videos of the man himself can be seen right here. He was ofcourse very very good, and I was amazed to see him keep it up for at least an hour until he started mixing some drum and bass. Having said that, dance music it ain't and it does lead to a crowd made up of mostly head nodders. Very happy to have seen him in the flesh though.

I was amazed that I was the only noticeably foreign punter there. I was talking about this last night with a friend. When I first came to Hiroshima, at events like this there would always be a healthy group of gaijin but recently people seem to have disappeared. It seems most these days are just happy to get pissed up and go to the usual venues. It's a great shame. Tokyo and Osaka Hiroshima ain't but there are some great nights out to be had if you scratch the surface.

Talking of which, last night's Kemby's 8th anniversary turned out to be great fun. I was wondering whether agreeing to DJ there had been a good idea or not - 8 hours for 6 bands and 4 DJs but despite playing tunes whilst bands tuned up it all went really well and hopefully a few new faces might find their way to Roxis because of it. Best of all was the Taiko group whose name I criminally didn't get. Check out some of their antics on my BlipTV site. Is there any better Japanese 'culture'? I don't think so. Kabuki schmabuki. They created a fantastic atmosphere and I was a bit ashamed to hit play when they had finished. I did enjoy triggering samples as Saemi was trying to MC though ;) Again though, the crowd seemed distinctly different to a usual Kemby's crowd and apart from a group of some of the most obnoxious, tragically unfunny foreigners I have come across in a very long time, the crowd seemed to be mostly Japanese. By the end of the night there was a lot of illegal activity going on (dancing) and a lot of very happy very knackered staff.

One special otsukare to Nochi though who had the nightmare task of doing the sound for all those bands and DJs and even found time (and energy) to DJ at the end. And all with a smile on his face, as always.

Finally, I put a mix up on Yousendit which I think can be downloaded 25 times. Lots of MCs, lots of bass, and quite a lot of tunes in 30 minutes. So stick that in your ipod and smoke it.