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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

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

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

teh update

hey! nothing too much to post, just a few wee things:

speaking with SoundPerformance today, and looks like the Magnetism vinyl will arrive next tuesday on the 6th. I was hoping to get it before the weekend, but theres a french bank holiday on thursday (dunno what that has to do with anything, the actual pressing plant is in Holland, but thats what i was told), and with the UK bank holiday, looks like tuesday will be the earliest. I plan to get all the pre-orders mailed out to everyone the same day. rar! If all is good with the finished vinyl, i'll be sending off quite a few new pieces to them over the next few months. Current vinyl schedule is looking like: Funckarma, Tigrics, Fisk Industries. There are more planned but these ones are all pretty much ready to go.

The Wire radio show on Resonance FM will be happening this thursday, May 1st. Same details as before - me and mat should be in with a couple of records to play and speaking about the label - www.resonancefm.com - tooon in!

Been speaking with a new venue opening up here in London, and hopefully sounds like we might have a new monthly night doing a more ambient/drone/experimental evening. fingers crossed on that, as the venue is lovely.

I've been looking around and trying to arrange a few more UK shows for Funckarma in June while they are over for the record release party - if any of you can help or know of something suitable, drop me a mail via the contact address listed on our About page.

Labels: gigs, radio, upcoming releases, vinyl

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, March 27, 2008

pressing issues!

So i got the "Magnetism" masters back from twerk over the weekend, and quickly put together my package with the audio and artwork masters together to be sent my vinyl pressing broker, SFH UK.
Send them off first thing on tuesday morning, and mailed Kerem, my contact there, to let him know i had sent them. Got an email back on tuesday night however - the company had closed up. fsck!!
I've been calling and emailing other pressing plants to find someone else to use, and while doing so i also heard that Independent had went into receivership. I figured the closures might be related, like not enough money in being a broker or something.
I was googling round this morning to see if i could find any news about them..
Read here - dang, turns out they got busted as part of a £5m pirate CD sting. It sounds like a somewhat clouded case, and I know Kerem who works there is a great guy, so we'll see how it works out. However, yeah, in the meantime i need to find a new pressing plant to get the vinyl Magnetism out the door!

I've started burning the CDR versions, and should hopefully have a page up on the site this weekend where you will have a chance to pre-order the vinyl, buy the CDR, and choice of buying WAV or 320kbps MP3s, and also a download for free 128kbps.

Labels: downloads, gossip, new releases, pressing, upcoming releases, vinyl

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

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

the "Magnetism, That Electricity.." record release

hey! as this things tend do, the original idea for "Magnetism, That Electricty.." has evolved greatly! At first i had imagined it as a DVD-r compilation akin to last years "Analog For Architecture", with the four EPs, plus a load of extras. I trimmed that idea back to just a CD compilation with only the four EPs, which seemed more in line with the actual "Magnetism.." gig coming up at the Luminaire. Putting something out as a CD these days though, is a dodgy gamble - its a solution that only works for certain projects, and i didn't feel it would do this project justice, so i started looking into pricing for a double 12" vinyl release. It *is* kinda expensive, but with the idea growing in my head, it seemed like the loveliest format and most fitting to the four EPs - So yeah, we've settled on a double 12" vinyl package for the upcoming release!

Two discs in black paper sleeves, housed in a clear PVC outer container - one side per artist:

disc one will have a lush 20 minute drone opus from Mandelbrot, backed with four tracks of low-end electronics from Fisk Industries.

disc two will have a 20 minute monster from The Village Orchestra, and be backed with several Marcia Blaine School For Girls tracks.

Limited to 300 copies, each with hand-written certificate/postcard, and should be selling for £10 direct from the site here, plus going out via the normal distribution channels. I'm super excited - I think these are going to be amazing! stay tuned for more updates - i'm due all tracks by this weekend, then quickly get it mastered and off to pressing, so i would expect release date to close to the end of February..

Labels: fisk industries, mandelbrot, marcia, upcoming releases, village orchestra, vinyl