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Upcoming live shows

Hot City, Thorsten Sideb0ard + Spatial (DJ sets)
2008-12-13
The Foundry, London, UK
click for more info

Hot City
2008-12-16
w/ Love's Tru Flavour
Cafe Oto, Dalston, London, UK
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the Highpoint Bloglife

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

return from Unsound

jings crivens, what a weekend! Starting from the Netaudio festival on thursday which was tremendous, it was an early hungover rise on friday to meet my friend Rupert and head out to Luton airport for our flight to Krakow.

We were picked up at the airport and whisked straight to a bar/club called Pauza where we were to DJ for the next two days. Pauza is really just a nice little bar, and was the unofficial base for the festival organisers over the weeks length of the festival. People were super friendly and helpful, and within minutes of us arriving, we were set up on the turntables with two big cold Zywiec in hand.

We left for dinner about 8pm, and then to see Pan American play in St Katherine's Church, a lush big venue with lovely acoustics, however due to the very quiet nature of the performance and the effects of several beers, we were all feeling a little too sleepy and decided to head out to find the club for the evenings performances, a strange gallery space called Manggha, which we were told was specifically to feature the works of Polish artists inspired by Japanese art!
The first two acts on were pretty decent and got the place jumping as it filled up, but it was really Bruno Pronsatos' set that everyone on the dancefloor going for it, and then finishing with the swiss duo Galoppierende Zuversicht, who were also excellent.

Saturday morning was breakfast and some sight seeing before back in Pauza again. We started off with a much more chilled set as it was early afternoon, playing lots of drone, ambience and dub before feeling like we were being too mellow for a saturday, no matter what time it was. As me and Rupert got more drunk, we started playing around with the effects unit on the Pioneer mixer, and stopped ourselves before we went too far, laughing at how drunken DJs can be known to get too carried away with the effects. We got curtailed slightly short, as there was some problems with the DJ setup at the venue for the main saturday evening club, and the equipment we were using had to be taken over there. Saturday was the big night we were looking forward to - Fuck-buttons, Xiu Xiu, Boxcutter, Benga and Skream, and Pinch.

Fuck-buttons played pretty decenty, and Xiu Xiu were strangely entertaining. We missed all of Boxcutter as we managed to go backstage with a friend for some nice smoke and a needed seat and rest.

Benga and Skream had decided to do a back 2 back DJ set, and we all went out for the start of their set. They were pretty entertaining, with lots of posturing and shoutouts - pretty much just two drunken lads DJs all the big tunes, slugging back on bottles of vodka, and bringing out groupie ladies on stage to parade. It started off well, and i was enjoying their stage show, but as they kept going, the three bottles of vodka they had gotten through seemed to be doing a bit of damage and guess what.. yup! Drunken DJ discovers the Effects unit on the Pioneer Mixer, which was of course, the one we had been laughing about earlier! classic!

all in all, a magic weekend, well impressed by how beautiful Krakow was, and how well run the festival was. I would heartily recommend both a visit to the city and/or next years Unsound festival!

Labels: benga, dj, gig, holiday, krakow, skream

Friday, September 19, 2008

placard headfones

hello!
if you're in London tomorrow, you should drop past Cafe Oto, for the fifth London instalment of the Placard Headphone festical. Full details and lineup over here. Of the many performers, you'll find a couple of HPLL artists and friends, from Mandelbrot Set (whose solo album is currently being mastered by Tigrics), and Tuned to a Dead Channel (side project of Mat/Fisk and myself), our friends Brassica, Cacao and Leafcutter John, plus a load more interesting sounds projects. You can read the full blurb over at the site, but basically its a chance for some immersive listening - no PA, just headphone amps and splitters; you take along your own headphones, find a place to plug in and lose yourself in the sound. Should be good!

Labels: gig

Friday, August 15, 2008

hangover lounge

hello! ICA was fun last night, tho there is something rather dodgy with the sound system in the bar at the moment, so all our tracks had no bass and weird midrange. Should hopefully be sorted by next month's slot. Bar staff were all super nice tho and quite busy, so we had a fun evening!

if you're in London, you are heading along to Wifey on saturday, right??! Should be ace.

Well, on sunday, you're gonna feel rough tho - so get yourself along to the Hangover Lounge, where i'll be doing a laid back disco, soul, dub and indiepop afternoon DJ slot and eating a nice sunday roast!

Labels: dj, gig

Saturday, April 19, 2008

magnetic news and requirements of a modern

I received the "Magnetism, .." testpress copies yesterday - they sound marvelous, so i've given the go-ahead to the pressing plant. Assuming it all goes well at that end, finished vinyl should be back in 10 working days, and on schedule to be mailed out end of April. dang, i can't wait. I went round to my friend Bills house to give the vinyl a listen as he has an excellent sound system - the bass is amazing and the production sound of everything has come out really well. rar!

... and Future BIG news - i got confirmation for booking Plastic People. Date is wednesday June 25th, and its going to be a launch party for our upcoming Funckarma release called "Dubstoned EP". I'm really excited - without a doubt Plastic People has the best sound-system in east london, and it was the only place i wanted to host the release party. I have Ikonika and Fisk Industries confirmed for support too. The event will be called "Requirements Of A Modern", a snippet of a sentence I nicked from the pages of a Nikola Tesla book i'm reading - I thought it sounded kind of vague enough to be interpreted as you like, but also has a ring of futurism befitting the music!

Labels: fisk industries, funckarma, gig, ikonika, live show, new releases, plastic people, vinyl

Thursday, January 17, 2008

new mix

I recorded this last night, just sorta selecting tunes for DJing at "Magnetism, That Electricity.." next saturday.
A blend of hip hop, electronica and dubstep, just pretty much going for a chunky head nodding set. A lot of these are tunes i been picking up recently which i've been really feeling.
Download the mix here.

Tracklisting is:
1. Cool Kids - Black Mags
2. Modeselektor - The Death Medley
3. Ghislain Poirier - Hit & Red
4. Andreas Tilliander - Stay Down
5. Mic Terror - Gold Around My Neck (prod. by Tony Baines)
6. Jay-Z - excuse me miss (rustie rmx)
7. Loefah - Yours
8. Chipmunk - If Only You Believed
9. Benga - Dominion
10. Madvillain - Accordion
11. Headhunter - Drop The Waste
12. Skepta - Serious Thugs Dub
13. The Bug - Poison Dart (Skream remix)
14. Plastic Little - Crambodia (pink skull remix)

I've been discovering a lot of great chicago hip hop at the moment - the Cool Kids, Mic Terror, Million $ Mano. I picked up the Cool Kids track from emusic.com, and the Mic Terror track is from a mixtape you can download on his myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/micterrormusic. Mat/Fisk has been a big fan of Ghislain Poirier and from what i had heard i was quite into it, but after listening to his recent Bastard Bass mix over at Pitchfork Media, i'm totally sold! excellent mix. Andreas Tilliander's couple of recent releases which he describes as "Acidub" have me totally addicted. The one on this mix is prob my fav, "Stay Down", but also really feeling "Bonnadub". The Jay-Z track - well, like everyone else i get wet finding any new Rustie tracks! I think that was from his myspace page. Loefah is a new one sided vinyl - tho i apologise for the quality of this rip - i need to re-rip it as the bass just sounds distorted. Chipmunk track is ace fun, and then closing the mix with a couple of dubstep tracks and then an excellent track from Plastic Little, which i believe is Spank Rock, Ghostface Killah and Amanda Blank - I'm slightly confused by the credits on the 12" - from the 12 it looks like the band name is called Crambodia, but when i try and google info on it, the band seems to be called Plastic Little.

anyhoo, hope you enjoy the mix!

Labels: ableton, dj, downloads, gig, live show, mixtapes

Monday, December 10, 2007

post-party post

rar! thanks to all came along on saturday evening for the xmas party, and made it such a good night! Excellent sets all round from max, michael, mat, and then an amazing headline set from Mandelbrot. If you enjoyed the Mandelbrot set, then definitely go along and see em this coming sunday at Bardens Boudoir, where they will be supporting the stellar Lullabye Arkestra from Constellation Records. More details at: http://www.last.fm/event/402058.
There were quite a few pictures getting taken, which should hopefully appear on flickr in the next few days - *edit* - Max just posted some pics up at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/_imax/tags/highpointlowlife/ - *edit*

I'm mooching around the office today, not really feeling much like working (the dayjob office at Lastfm, not the Highpoint Lowlife "office"!), but i've been getting a load of new music lately which is keeping me going - the best of which is having discovered Rob Hall's website and his monthly mixes to download. http://www.rob-hall.co.uk/. The December one is up at the moment, however, they're only up for a month and then changed over. With a bit of google searching you can find archives of the last ones tho. The December mix is number eight. Really nice dancefloor mix of old detroit and classic techno, seamlessly worked together in what i can only guess to be Ableton Live as they're so well mixed, with loads of snippets and samples of tracks worked into the mix. Other new musics i been feeling are the Rod Modell album 'Incense and Blacklight' on Plop, which is really ace. Even though i am enjoying the Deepchord presents Echospace material, the Rod Modell album has a wider sound pallette and more diversity to it, rather than just the Basic Channel template that seems so fashionable at the moment. Speaking of that fashionable sound though - i have been really enjoying the Murmur album 'Undertone'. Its perfect cold weather ipod music for enjoying.

In a totally different vein, my other top listen of the week is Kano's Mixtape Bootleg. Not sure how old this is - i found it via browsing plunder.com - but its fucking ace. As much dubstep as i been enjoying, for the most part i'm not into the vocal style of most grime, with the quickfire rapping just seeming like technical dexterity, but not having much actual flow or musicality. However, the Kano material just seems to leave more space to hear whats going on, to hear the actual lyrics and working with the music, rather than just spitting over the top of it. The Kano mixtape has a load of amazing production on the music, but doesnt stick completely to that wobbly sub-bass, and at times veers much more into a real dirty hip hop vein. Well worth checking out!

Labels: detroit, downloads, foundry, gig, grime, mixtapes, party, xmas