Brendan McNamee at Blunt Films gave me a call this week and invited me to help him with a film he’s got planned for the Bicycle Film Festival. So I loaded up and jumped on the new ‘location bike’ and we went down into South London to help execute the plan.
I’m not giving you any clues about what the outcome is going to be yet but I used some experimental recording techniques with some binaural mics whilst Brendan played polo. Got some really good sounds so watch this space because hopefully it’s going to be a really interesting little film.
Posted @ 7:00 PM on February 22, 2010 by supersim65
My good friends Matt and Chris have been making music for years now. Their latest project with Ayu has started snowballing in the media so it’s about time I joined the band wagon and shared this album.
Condors is a beautiful changing landscape of gentle synths, glitchy atmospheres and powerful rhythms and bass sounds. They have been reviewed as somewhere between The XX and Burial, but I really enjoy the interspersions of guitar and drawn out half-time rhythms more reminiscent of post-rock than a pop/dubstep crossover. Either way, and if you prefer the electronic/dubstep side or the epic post-rock side, they sit on a fence that makes them accessible to anyone who likes good music.
Nedry have just got back from their tour in Japan and have recently signed with Monotreme Records. The album has been properly re-released now and is available from the label, from most good record shops and from Amazon too. They will be on tour in the UK in April/May (partially with 65daysofstatic) and I will be joining them. There are also as yet unconfirmed European dates coming up over the Summer. So check it out.
Hours lost, beers drunk in vein, effort of crossing London on a regular basis wasted and Chris’s reports upon returning; “We got drunk, but I don’t know if we wrote any music”. These were the spoils from the late 2007 practices and acoustic song writing sessions of Music Club, a post-Ekocam project by Chris Amblin, Lewis Baker and Simon Thompson. The lost sessions fell quickly to the back of the cupboard as time went on, while the digital dictaphone recordings of the musical brainstorms, shared via email as a post-meeting reminder of ideas, slipped quietly to the bottom of our inboxes.
Until now that is. Music Club has risen like a phoenix from the digital ashes. The River of Steel EP is a re-mixed, re-ordered, seasoned, marinated and slow-roasted side-order of the band that could have been, giving the world a taste of the main course, ‘the album that never was’. Their time never came, their moment never arrived. But this small insight into the creative talent imprisoned by boose and laziness will open your eyes to… [Lewis interrupts] Oh just shut up and play the f**ing song!
During the last four weeks I have been trying, in vein, to grow a thick coat of hair on my face. ‘Trying’, I thought, would be used in the loosest sense as the whole process would simply involve me not shaving. How wrong I was.
I begun the endeavour by laughing my way through websites such as beards.org which told of the necessary commitment and attention to detail required to grow, nurture and maintain successful facial growth. By the beginning of the second week, I was struggling not to shave of the pathetic fuzz congregating around my chin, my commitment was put hard to the test.
Now I sit proud on the 28th day of my conquest, proud that I have undertaken the task at hand and got through the four weeks, although not entirely so of my unkempt stubble which barely constitutes a ‘beard’ by most peoples standards (picture above). My plan has been for the last few days to successfully complete the task then immediately shave the mild abomination off, but I’ve started to feel a little bit attached to it now, like it is something I have worked hard at and do not want to lose.
So why do I feel like this? What is it that makes a man so proud of an accomplishment that does not seem to require skill or effort of any traditional form? Pictures in the beards.org gallery show happy smiling men with a great sense of pride in their eyes, a feeling I relate to, although do not completely share in. Is it a status symbol? A demonstration of testosterone that makes a man feel strong or powerful in a group of his peers? Pellegrini wrote in his 1973 study, “…the male beard communicates an heroic image of the independent, sturdy, and resourceful pioneer, ready, willing and able to do manly things.” Would people see me that way if I had a thick, full coat of hair on my face? All I know is that I would certainly feel that way, which I do not doubt would go some way to boosting my confidence in life.
It will be a very difficult decision for me tomorrow morning on the 29th day, to give in now at the probable extent of my growth, or to hang in a little longer on something that has brought me such ups and downs and disdain and pride. Whatever I choose, I implore every man (and woman, let’s be politically correct) to go on this journey, 28 days, no trimming, no shaving, no plucking, no waxing, no nothing. It is a voyage of discovery that will make you feel part of a wider community regardless of your successes and/or failures.
Ignugare an distorted electronic fusion of dirty synths, and heavily processed guitars and vocals over four to the floor electro beats intertwined with broken rhythms and intricately sliced samples.
They played their first gig together at Yoyo last night in Notting Hill tonight and I missed it, which is a shame, because I am excited to see how these four guys produced such big sounds live with such a minimal line up. (Minh Le is on drums, Phong Le on keys, Thomas Hyllested will be DJing whilst Tarek Sidki provides vocals.)
You can check out a preview of the sounds they are working on at the moment on their myspace, http://www.myspace.com/ignug, and hear the latest press and news on their blog, http://www.press-ignug.blogspot.com. I gather they have whole lot of material in the pipeline so I look forward to hearing more.
DeleteThe.Net
DeleteThe.Net is the website, blog and online portfolio of Simon Thompson. Music, bikes and sound design.
Brendan McNamee at Blunt Films gave me a call this week and invited me to help him with a film he’s got planned for the Bicycle Film Festival. So I loaded up and jumped on the new ‘location bike’ and we went down into South London to help execute the plan.
My good friends Matt and Chris have been making music for years now. Their latest project with Ayu has started snowballing in the media so it’s about time I joined the band wagon and shared this album.
Hours lost, beers drunk in vein, effort of crossing London on a regular basis wasted and Chris’s reports upon returning; “We got drunk, but I don’t know if we wrote any music”. These were the spoils from the late 2007 practices and acoustic song writing sessions of Music Club, a post-Ekocam project by Chris Amblin, Lewis Baker and Simon Thompson. The lost sessions fell quickly to the back of the cupboard as time went on, while the digital dictaphone recordings of the musical brainstorms, shared via email as a post-meeting reminder of ideas, slipped quietly to the bottom of our inboxes.
During the last four weeks I have been trying, in vein, to grow a thick coat of hair on my face. ‘Trying’, I thought, would be used in the loosest sense as the whole process would simply involve me not shaving. How wrong I was.
Ignug are an distorted electronic fusion of dirty synths, and heavily processed guitars and vocals over four to the floor electro beats intertwined with broken rhythms and intricately sliced samples.
