Tag: music

I love music. Making music, listening, talking about it and anything else too.

KDJ-One

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I backed this device on Kickstarter a long time ago, I mean a really long time ago. It was really late, and, to be honest, I’d wondered if it would ever arrive, but it did, and here it is.

But it’s here, and it works. It is actually better sounding than I expected it be. The keys are actually velocity sensitive and the touch screen is huge. I’m still getting to grips with it, and I think that’ll probably take me some time.

In some ways it reminds me of an updated Yamaha QY type device, which is, in my opinion quite a good thing. The other really interesting thing about the KDJ-One is that it has a whole bunch of apps that go with it. There’s a macOS app, an iOS app, and an Android app too. So far I haven’t found a way to get everything working together, but that’s on my personal roadmap.

Goodbye Allihoopa

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https://videopress.com/v/VFOmPVdi?preloadContent=metadata

It’s a great shame that Allihoopa has now gone dark. It was a great service. I made some good use of it, but not as much as I would’ve liked. I guess that’s a bit of a reminder for me. That is just the way it goes of course.

So I thought I’d grab all of my content from the site before it went down. I rendered all of my tracks to video, and then I added them to a 1 second video mash up. So here’s one minute and 20 seconds of tracks I uploaded to Allihoopa.

Robyn’s Rocket at Cafe Oto

Posted by on in Events, Music, Places1 Comment

On Wednesday I had the rare privilege of playing live at Cafe Oto with the amazingly talented Robyn. She is a gifted trumpet player and had a whole night of acts at Cafe Oto. I’ve been there many times and seen some amazing artists, so to play there myself was incredible.

It was a really great night too. Robyn was, of course, amazing. My small part was to bring some improvised electronics in the form of a couple of Bastl Instruments Kastle synths. To be precise a 1.0 and a new 1.5 Kastle. These little synths are amazing and incredibly versatile. There’s so much you can do with them.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get some of the footage and sound from the gig. When I do, I’ll be sharing that.

Record Store Day 2018

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Last year I skipped record store day as I’d been queuing at Sister Ray Records in Soho for about 3 hours and at the end of the process I’d got 1 7″. That was all. I wasn’t terribly happy about that at all, as you can imagine. So I said to myself that I wouldn’t do it any more. I’d give it up. And I did, I didn’t go in 2017. Then I saw the list for this year, and on it was a David Sylvian album that I really wanted to get, and that I knew I would be really annoyed not to own.

So I decided to do it again. However, as I was going to be out late in London the night before I thought that the most civilised way to accomplish the task was to get a hotel room nearby and stay in town. So I did. I stayed at a very nice hotel on Brick Lane which was very reasonably priced too. It meant I could get up really early and walk down to Rough Trade East before 6am.

And my forward thinking paid off. I was probably around the 100 mark in the queue and got inside at about 8:30am. Not bad. I also got everything that I wanted too.

The most important of course being “Dead Bees on a cake” by Sylvian.

So maybe I will go again next year, at least I’ll give it a chance anyway.

Blues Brothers Banned

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I’ve been a big fan of the music of the Blues Brothers for a very long time now. Since I first saw the film. Many years ago I saw the original band at the old Town and Country Club. It was an awesome gig. But they don’t tour so much these days, and not all of them are around anymore sadly.

However, you can go and see the Blues Brother Banned. I’ve seen them before, and yesterday they were playing at the 100 Club on Oxford Street London. It was a good gig and the 100 Club isn’t a bad venue. It’s small, you can get close to the stage very easily and the beer isn’t bad at all. What else could you ask for?

The gig was fine. They played a lot of favourites and a few more obscure tracks too. Given the time of year it was also a bit of a party gig, and whilst that was ok, I’d have rather that they played more stuff from the film. But never mind. I enjoyed it anyway, and I’d probably go see them again if the chance comes up.

Goodbye Holger

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I found out yesterday that Holger Czukay died on the 5th of this month. It is so sad. I have been listening to his music and collaborations for over 30 years now. Some time ago I went to see him live at the Roundhouse in Camden. It was a great show. He had so much energy. It was such a fun show.

I will be listening to his music over the next few days and enjoying it, remembering what an incredible innovator he was, and how he influenced so many creative people. He’ll be missed by many. He will be missed by me.