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Upcoming live shows

The VIllage Orchestra, Erstlaub, Mandelbrot Set, Fighting Kites
2008-08-31
Cafe Oto, Dalston, London, UK
click for more info

Production Unit
2008-09-05
w/ Various Production, Jackmaster
Sub Club, Glasgow, UK
click for more info

The Village Orchestra, Production Unit
2008-10-23
w/ A.R.E. Weapons, SJ Esau
Last.fm/Netaudio night at Shunt, London, UK
click for more info

the Highpoint Bloglife

Thursday, May 22, 2008

updates and links (boring stuff!)

loads to be working on at the moment - Funckarma are going along to the pressing plant next week to oversee the laquer cut at RecordIndustry in the Netherlands. That *might* even speed up the process as the plant won't need to send me a testpress if they can approve it on the day. rar!
Hopefully booking their flights today as well which will be one less thing i can stop stressing over!

Been sending out loads of Magnetism vinyl - dropped off a load at Phonica records last saturday and bundled up a batch for our distributor, Cargo, which went out this morning - you should hopefully see it turning up a few more local stores. If your local record store doesn't have it, ask them to pick it up from Cargo - the more orders Cargo get the better for us.

not found anything too amazing to listen to recently. Still digging through J Dilla's back catalog which i'm enjoying immensely, but its not satisfying my craving for new sounds.
Heres a few things i've come across on the interneds lately (Linked to the blog i came across it on):

Flying Lotus interview 1

Benga on how to make dubstep

How to setup your own pirate radio station

rar!

Labels: gigs, links, magnetism, new releases

Monday, May 12, 2008

milk factory review and funckarma release + shows..

yo, bit of quietude on here - just back from a lovely five day trip to glasgow.

straight back in at work today which was like a cold shower wake up call! Actually it was pretty fscking warm in the office, so thats not the best analogy. but aye, loads going on!

magnetism is moving out - lovely review over at The Milk Factory - "Not quite a compilation but more than just a simple roster showcase, Magnetism, That Electricity demonstrates the wide angled approach of Highpoint Lowlife and its utterly modern vision. With only three hundred copies of this double EP pressed on vinyl and a hundred CDRs, this is yet again a released that should be snapped up before it’s gone for ever.". A few others in the pipeline too, which i'll post up as i hear.

Funckarmas' "Dub Stoned EP 1" is now underway. Mat finished the artwork yesterday and i received the audio masters tonite, so i'll check over everything and get that sent off by wednesday. I want to make sure we have that pressed and ready in time for the June show. I've managed to confirm a Bristol show as well at The Cube cinema - same lineup with Ikonika and Fisk Industries too. I'll confirm all detail on it and post more details, date should be friday the 27th June.

aight, well, i've been packing orders all evening and fancy a wee sit down relax for a while now!

Labels: dub stoned, funckarma, magnetism, new releases, reviews

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

brilliant!

fucking brilliant! I was so relieved when the vinyl turned up today - feels like a long wait though it is pretty much what i guestimated. Very please with how it has come out, the whole package feels ace once assembled with pvc outers, artwork and numbered card.

I'm off up to Glasgow for a few days, so i won't be able to mail out any new orders till monday tho...

When i get back, i'll be getting a move on with the Funckarma 12", need to make sure its ready for the June dates. Quite a few other exciting wee projects bubbling up too!

Labels: magnetism, new releases, vinyl

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

comic books and listening

By late evening last night, i ended up lying back on my bed reading Ultimate Iron Man while listening to that Scuba album. Such an excellent combination!

If you're sitting at the computer working, i find it too easy to ALT-TAB to itunes and change track or album depending on whim, which means not giving the music its full due and listening attention. Lying reading comics however, seems to have the perfect combination of having switched your attention off enough to let the album play out, but also still having enough concentration on the music to let it sink in fully.

I've never been a massive Iron-man fan, but recently read Warren Ellis' Iron Man: Extremis, which was incredibly good. I've been a fan of all of the Marvel Ultimate series so far, and finding Ultimate Iron Man in the library, was quite intrigued to pick it up. Not sure how familiar most of you are with the Marvel Ultimate universe? Its the Marvel universe basically updated to Now, with each character being rewritten as if they were just coming out for the first time, and usually with an excellent writer/artist team. The origins are completely revamped and updated, and the Ultimate Iron Man collection doesn't fail to deliver either. Loads of twists and turns and again beautiful artwork.

Today, just received my copy of Hudson Mohawkes' new 12", "Ooops!", ahead of his upcoming Warp release. Its a bugger i missed the launch party here in London the other weekend, heard it was excellent.

Up on the Heatwave blog today, they posted a live recording of Warrior Queen, live in Manchester. Been seeing Warrior Queen out quite a lot these days, usually with The Bug - she's super good live, and this set gives a good taste of it! read and download it here.

Also - just off the phone from the vinyl pressing plant - due my Magnetism test presses next wednesday and full delivery should be soon after, assuming everything is good with the TPs. can;t wait!

Labels: comics, heatwave, hudson mohawke, iron-man, magnetism, warrior queen

Thursday, April 3, 2008

cold lampin'

aiight! been too busy to blog on here the past week - all is very good tho!

i'm totally in love with the new website look - need to buy mat quite a few beers for that! Getting it live and finishing tweaks took up most of last weekend, but we pushed it all through so we could launch with the "Magnetism.." release this week, and do a big press push on everything at once.

thanks for all the enthusiasm over the Magnetism release - loads of orders have come through and been mailed out. I don't forsee the 100 cdrs lasting for very long! Nice to see so many people opting for the vinyl option - its gonna be worth it! Its going to be deluxe with a capital 'D'.

We've had a few early articles and reviews already - Wired magazine's Listening Post blog did a nice post about the launch and its tiered pricing model, and then first review came in this morning from boomkat, who said some very nice words about it, but my favorite part was "chronically out of fashion post-Autechre beat narratives" - in the context, i think its meant as a complement - but i love the idea of being chronically out of fashion!

In the absence of SFH for vinyl pressing, I shopped around loads last week, eliciting as many recommendations from friends and labels as possible, and chose to go with Sound Performance in the end. Not sure if it was a strictly scientific reasoning behind going with them (although they did actually offer the best price too), but based on the recommendations and from speaking with them on the phone, i just got quite a good feeling from them.

more soooooooooon.....
thor

Labels: magnetism, new releases, website

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

sneaky previews!

hey!

i've uploaded the new "Magnetism, That Electricity.." tracks to lastfm. No downloads yet, till the record comes out, but you can have a cheeky listen to each of the EPs at:

Mandelbrot Set
Fisk Industries
The Village Orchestra
The Marcia Blaine School For Girls

Labels: fisk industries, magnetism, mandelbrot, marcia, new releases, previews, village orchestra

Friday, February 29, 2008

upcomings and a month of gigs

First thing: "Magnetism, That Electricity.." is now well and truly under way!
I got all finished tracks, and they're all damn ace! They're now with Twerk being mastered for vinyl. Approx timeline is around 6 weeks - they'll take about a week to be mastered, then the redbook discs will be sent back to me, i send them on to the pressing plant, and if everything goes well, we get 300 copies of shiny double disc heavyweight audio goodness back!
I got some supernice flyers printed up for the release, which should be in the Hyponik flyer packs at the upcoming Bloc weekender - look out for them in your chalet if you're there.

And... super BIG news! I've been dying to announce this, but wanted to make sure we had it all in hand first - FUNCKARMA - yes, the genius Funcken brothers, Don and Roel, also known as Cane, Shadow Huntaz, and Quench - we have a 5 track 12" EP in the works by them named 'Stub Dane EP', which should be out very shortly after the "Magnetism.." release - all the tracks are finished, and are so fucking good its unbelievable - dark, off-kilter, heavy instrumental hip hop with a unhealthy overload of bass. Riffing on the idea of dubstep, basically these 5 tracks are Funckarma's take on dubstep.
If you head over to their site at http://www.funckarma.com/ you can hear one of the tracks in their flash player on the site. Again, its gonna be another heavyweight vinyl release!

aiight, well, almost time for the weekend! In fact, this is the start of a rather amazing month of music coming up - tomorrow sees Rustie here in London with Cylob, sunday Ikonica is playing; tuesday is Autechre; wednesday is the Magnetic Man gig, a collab between Skream and Benga which could be either amazing or total shit!; friday i'm off up to glasgow for Redshape at Numbers with Production Unit and Village Orchestra; and then the following weekend in Bloc! ouch!

[photo taken by Merlijn Hoek]

Labels: bloc, funckarma, gigs, glasgow, magnetism, production unit, twerk, upcoming releases, village orchestra, vinyl

Thursday, February 7, 2008

small pieces

hello! not too much new to report, although working on loads of things for upcoming releases.
We have the recordings from the Magnetism gig all encoded and uploaded to the server. I'm just letting the artists all hear em first, and give me the go-ahead to unleash em on the world! They all sound excellent, so i don't see there being any problems.

Almost there with all the recordings for the proper 'Magnetism, That Electricty..' release too, just waiting on one more at the moment, and I'll get that off for mastering and pressing.

The upcoming schedule for the year looks like it will be:

- 'Magnetism, That Electricity' double 12" pack
- n.Ln, 3" cd in metal tin box.
- Feld 12" ( you might remember Feld from the two tracks on the 'Some Paths..' compilation)
- Production Unit 12" - not nailed down yet, but speaking with Dave and selecting tracks.
- Mandelbrot CD - an album Keung recorded last year in his bedroom, pretty raw and rawkus, and damn good!
- new Village Orchestra album, upcoming later in the year
- new Fisk Industries album, also later in the year.

All good stuff!

Labels: fisk industries, magnetism, mandelbrot, marcia, n.Ln, upcoming releases, village orchestra, vinyl

Monday, January 28, 2008

woop!

oh man, thanks so much to everyone who came out on saturday night, i was over the moon at the turnout, and the performances were all simply incredible! I gotta admit to being super nervous about it, even though all signs were positive it would go well, but yeah, that was beyond what i was realistically hoping for! We should have recordings of all live sets, and after a bit of editing and letting everyone hear them first, we'll get them up here on the site for free download.
I'm going to blame it on the stress, but by the end of the evening, i was a lil' too drunk, and the details get a bit blurry towards the end, so apologies if i never said goodbye to anyone, or was just making a clown of myself!
We'll be cracking on with the release now, almost all tracks are finished, waiting on two more and then we'll be set - details as they come..
cheers!

Labels: gigs, live show, magnetism, ramblings

Friday, December 7, 2007

the upcoming shiz

hey! aiight, some updates on current projects -
The main thing we're working on at the moment is the upcoming "Magnetism, That Electricity.." compilation and label night. This project got started after being offered the night at the Luminaire this coming january. Rather than just having a gig night, i thought it would be kinda cool to turn it into something bigger, and at first thought i should do a DVD-R compilation along the lines of last years "Analog For Architecture", with some main content and a whole load of extras. The timeline is just a little tight for collecting so much material, so i figured it would be better to focus the time on just making it a three EP collection from the artists playing at the gig. It seems a more fitting release for the event, and should be easier to bring together in time for January. Mat is still working on the artwork, but we think it should be somewhere along the lines of the flyer image, with the red sorta superhero lightning bolt, and musically will have three EPs from Mandelbrot, Fisk Industries and a collection of Marcia related projects. I'm very excited about it!

Following shortly after that, we'll have a new three track EP from San Francisco based Nyles Lannon under his n.Ln guise - a welcome return for the lad, with three gorgeous new tracks. Nyles sent me the finished tracks a few days ago, and they're pretty stunning. Long sprawling ambient indie electronics which i'm sure you'll dig! Artwork/packaging, we're going to release on a 3" cdr in a small metal tin with clear glass window, with some kind of insert to show through the window. I'll post up some ideas when we've got some mockups of the art.

I was speaking on the phone with Chris Motion last night, the creator of our Recon 'White Label' release from a few years back. I haven't seen Chris in about a year, and he's coming up for our xmas party tomorrow, so I'm very excited to catch up with him! He's been crafting away on what sounds like a very interesting project, moving away from his broken dub techno creations, and working with strange loops of lounge and exotica, which in his capable hands I'm sure will produce some amazing results. We're looking into how cheaply we could produce a small run of 7" EPs.

well, theres loads more i could mention, but i'll save some surprises for future postings!

Labels: fisk industries, gigs, magnetism, mandelbrot, marcia, n.Ln, recon, upcoming releases