Something for the Weekend: Nudge

Very cool music app.

(via Conor)

Escape from Upstate New York

My friend, Flav, is going to Buffalo, New York, for a bit. This mix is in his honour.

The Ramones - Spiderman

The Ramones!

Lovely picture: Kid Acne

Kid Acne is an old favourite of mine, but I've not written about this multi-talented artist/illustrator/musician before. Maybe because I'm jealous. He is an illustrator, grafitti artist and rapper/musician.

I love his style: simple, sweet, obsessed with Amazon women.

Check out a little portfolio of his work here.

Hello Alien Items!

As I wrote before, I am playing bass with Conor’s Alien Items project. Part of the fun of it is taking my creativity in new directions.

Here’s a character I developed, inspired by the music and the project. I have no idea what (if any) part it may play, but it’s here in my mind and now in yours. Enjoy.

Alien Items

My friend Conor has invited me to play bass on his Alien Items project.

Alien Items takes its name (and some inspiration) from a computer game called Elite, that we played as kids. I'm pretty excited about it, for all sorts of reasons.

Elite was a space trading game in which players would fly from galaxy to galaxy trading commodities, dog-fighting with pirates, improving their spaceships and undertaking dangerous missions.

I would describe Conor's music as a kind of melancholy soundtrack to the vast, empty reaches traversed by the lonely space-farer; or to adapt a title from Philip Glass, 'music for space-stations.' I hope you may hear it for yourself in due course.

Simple and compelling, Elite also had a striking aesthetic of wireframe spaceships and planets that was elegant and immersive at a time when 3D gaming didn’t really exist.

I’ve always loved wireframe models - probably because of Elite - so I have designed a font (also called Alien Items) that echoes the Elite aesthetic and the sparse sound of Conor's music, to use on the project's future releases.

Anyone interested in playing the game can download Chris Pinder's Elite - The New Kind (PC) here.

Everything that happens...

On the plus side Brian Eno and David Byrne have a new album out.

Daddybag (Theme from Nadthology)

There is a move afoot, in Irish comic circles, to produce a comic of stories about getting bashed about the tenders. I support this endeavour. Through the medium of song.

Ladies and gentlemen, for your listening pleasure, OK Erok is proud to present... Daddybag. (Inspired by a true story of misfortune, capriciousness and vile fate.)




Lyrics:

You really hurt me in my daddybag
You hit my sack and you made me sad
Little girl why you hate my nad?
What I do to make you so mad?

Daddybag
Daddybag
Daddybag
Daddybag

D to the A double D Y B to the A to the G
A little girl hit me...
D to the A double D Y B to the A to the G
A little girl hit me...

Daddybag etc.

Rick Froberg

I have been alerted to the excellent artwork of Rick Froberg, an American musician and artist/ illustrator.

Froberg works in a variety styles - all displaying his strong graphic sensibilities and beautiful draughts- manship - which seem at least partly inspired by cartooning/ illustration (and perhaps) tatoo art from the 1950s.

Froberg recently illustrated the cover for Irish band The Dudley Corporation's 2008 album, Year of the Husband.

[Via Conor]

Right in the daddybag!

Here is a song I have written, inspired by a recent tale of woe from Bob Byrne.

"I was just standing at the bus stop when WHAMMO!!! this 4 year old girl socked me in the daddybag. That’s all I have to say about it."

How had I never heard the word daddybag before? It had me in stitches the whole day after I read Bob's post and then slowly, as though by magic, a song began to form...

'Daddybag... Daddybag... Oh woah Daddybag...'

Playlist

Having all but given up the possibility of making a decent mix for my friend Conor, I've added the handy last.fm playlist to my blog, which pretty much says what I'm about. I must give thanks to KT for providing me with most of the tracks.

This is playing a variation on the tracks I'm listening to as I run up and down the hills around Dublin.

My actual hillrunning playlist is:

1. Art of Noise - Moments in Love [to relax the pre-run nerves]
2. Boyz Noise - Volta82
3. Antena - Camino Del Sol (Joakim remix)
4. Booka Shade - Tresspas06 [a motivational tool for attacking big hills]
   
5. Ricardo Villalobos - Dexter [classic and raises the hair on the back of my neck]
6. Dominic Eulberg - Potzblitz and Donnerwetter
7. Booka Shade - In White Rooms
8. Vitalic - You are my Sun
9. Ellen Allien & Apparat - Do Not Break
10. Nathan Fake - The Sky Was Pink (Holden remix) [to coast into the finish with]
    

Mix rage

Why must all music software be ridiculously complicated?

When I came across Pacemaker Editor I was excited by the prospect of doing a short mix for my friend Conor. Now all I have is a burning rage and a bitter determination to create this mix, even if it kills me. Not really the spirit of creativity.

Pacemaker's Editor software is intuitive and straightforward, but also has some good functions (a basic hi-lo filter and effects). Unfortunately, it also falls down on two big counts. It does not read all my music files - which admittedly are in sundry random formats - and (while it allows you to upload your mix to the Pacemaker website) it cannot export/render a mix as an audio file, for simple burning.

There is probably a workaround with FL Studio, but my skills with this software are less rude than rudimentary (and it is designed for arrangement, rather than live mixing).

Ableton Live seems ideal, but complex and pricy and I took one look at the Traktor interface and nearly wept.

Finally, in my quest for the perfect mixing tool, I've come across Mixxx, which gets extra points for being open source and having a lovely interface.

I like the fact that the waveform is visible - and arranged one channel over the other, so that it's easy to see whether or not the beats match - and the interface is uncluttered. I dislike too many nobs and switches.

Wish me luck.

Shiny toys for Techno boys...

This is a bit of a departure from the normal subject matter of this blog.

Like most men/boys (and magpies), I like shiny gadgets. I've been yearning for this pocket-sized digital mixer since I saw it advertised on Beatport. You can just load up your tracks or mixes, rock up to the club and destroy the room! Well, in theory.

I'm listening to a lot of old techno at the moment a la Ricardo Villalobos and Richie Hawtin. I'd like to make a mix for my friend Conor, but since I'm trying to be thrifty these days, I'll just try out their free mixing software. Listen to this space.

I no longer feel obliged to keep up with the dance music scene. I've sort of grown out of clubbing - it's okay if I miss the hottest new tracks - but I still love the music. And the gadgets!