Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category

Re-Entry

Too much upheaval over the last few months to have been able to blog, due to moving house (twice) and being generally unsettled. The feed on the right gives basic updates at least. The problem is that I now have about a dozen unfinished (or even unstarted) projects. The Ultramix has stalled, although I did get three more parts to last year’s up – at least another four to come…but WHEN? Let’s say…June? Buh…

No point talking about what’s GOING to happen tho. For now, you may like this re-edit of Goldfrapp’s ‘Voicething’ I spent a couple of hours on. Nothing fancy, just a thumping kickdrum and a little sub-bass underneath.

Recently I went exploring in Sweden (Gothenburg) and Norway (Oslo, Tromso and Bergen). The photos are slowly appearing. A cold and lonely yet inspiring and memorable experience. I did not see the Northern Lights, disappointingly, but the glacial beauty of the snow-covered mountains almost made up for this. Gothenburg and Oslo are lovely places but I enjoyed the nature more than the city environments and the coach journey from GBG to OSL itself was fantastic (wonderful scenery, the most comfortable coach I’ve ever been on – thanks bus4you.se – and imo pretty cheap esp. compared to everything else). I flew no less than five times during the tour which helped ease my flying anxiety after having gone over 18 months without being on a plane. The descent into Tromso was pretty rough tho – bumpiest I’ve had but the view was spectacular as the plane broke through the snowclouds to reveal white land between the gun-metal blue fjords and inlets. Amazing really. Amongst other things I also went dog-sledding and had my face nearly frozen off.

What I would like to do now is try and finish at least ONE track (the second demo from this clip is the leading candidate but it’s been what six months now!), start (re)learning 3D animation for the benefit of the video edits I’ll be doing more often, new Ultramix shit, more 00s mixes and lists of course including a 00s Albums list and the definitive 00s tracks list (based on the five categorised ones I already did). Too much? Never enough!

080910 Items

1. Concerned about how much my confidence in my own ability (probably higher than ever) is not matched by an ease with which I can demonstrate this effectively. Will work harder and faster on this.

2. A lovely new typeface called Hiruko. Some similarity to a typeface I’ve been thinking of having a go at creating (hence the mention). It would be my first if so, but high time such an endeavour was attempted.

3. Lemon Jelly’s ‘Man Like Me’ video from 2005’s ‘64-’95 album.

Overlooked this track at the time but really like it now -- terrific break loop (when it kicks off at 1:10), good use of sample (Ralph Tresvant’s ultra-smooth ‘Sensitivity‘), dreamy tones and of course Airside’s video offers charming, stylish imagery (I like the volcano eyes and the silhouette birds best). They’re due a new album now surely.