Perfect Timing

With my third year Criminal Evidence exam being a mere seventeen hours away, perhaps now is not the time for writing a pointless blog post, one which will be read by very few, and cared about by even less. And yet, strangely, it feels like there has never been a better time.

For one reason or another my time jockeying discs for DJ Dan and his War On Boring DJs at Propaganda and Ramshackle has come to an end, and although I realise it was a bit of a faux pas to play for them, and my credibility has been questioned (rather upsettingingly openly) because of it, I did enjoy playing for Props. I grew up going to it religiously, and stuck with it even through the "Oh Props is so old now, it's all about..." phase, because I really love the people there, and regardless of whether you enjoy Mr Brightside or not, it's always a bloody good atmosphere. Was pretty psyched to be playing their NYE do, and had even started a new song to debut at it, but it seems that wasn't to be. Goodbye Props, I'm sure we will see each other again through a drunken haze, and although neither of us really want it to happen, I will inevitably end up back inside you.
Anyway, onwards and upwards and all that hideous optimism, at least I have more time to concentrate on producing some decent sounding noises and playing at some specifically electronic events, hoping to get myself up off the ground properly when the naughties have come to a close.

Been having one of those moments where you take a metaphysical step back and look at your life a lot recently, and I find myself thinking, is this really what I want? I mean don't get me wrong I have an amazing girlfriend, my hair is pretty much in good condition and my phone features a qwerty keypad, but I can't see myself going anywhere. Been thinking a lot about what I want to do after university, and I really regret what I'm doing at the moment, in words more befitting of Carles, I wish I was doing a more altdegree. After university I want nothing to do with law, I hate it, I hate the idea that some people made up some rules which we all have to abide by, I hate the idea that there is nowhere in the world where you are not governed by someone, and most of all I hate the fact that this is the situation from the moment you inhale your very first optimistic breath, right up until the moment you exhale your last disappointed breath. Really wish I had taken a year out, taken more time to think about what I wanted to do, I mean I know now, but I'm so busy treading water on this Law Degree that I don't have the adequate amount of time to put into formulating a decent application for what I want.
Also the television isn't helping at all. Whenever I see an advert for Gamestation and it says: "When we're not selling games, we're playing them" my brain screams: "There! That's the life for you! Bloody hell that sounds amazing!" Saw an online advert not long ago for a tattoo course at the Univeristy of California, it was a stupidly low amount of money (for a course) and guaranteed a job afterward, what could be better? Gosh I wish I hadn't spend god knows how many thousands of pounds that I don't have living in a city I don't like doing a degree I don't want.
But on the bright side Busy P did a law degree, and he seems to be doing alright at the moment?


In other news I got my new phone, a Samsung Genio Qwerty. Took me a while to get it all sorted (which inevitably caused some problems) but it's up and running now, I got a new number with it, so email me for that and then you can text me and be one of a number of people who get annoyed at me for forgetting to reply. Really enjoying my new phone, feeling pretty bloody alt now that I can Tweet wherever I like on my sexy qwerty keypad, and I'm really enjoying sticking two fingers up to the Blackberry community. My phone does everything yours does, and it has a coloured back - boom.


Sandwiched between two exams, like the icing sugar I enjoy putting in pork pies but feel so guilty about, is the Academia DJ Battle this week. I agreed to do it a long time ago, and not long ago my exam timetable was released, telling me that I'm not going to be getting much sleep this week. When I agreed to do it I was looking forward to it, and it sounded quite fun, but now hype has built up mad. There are loads of confirmed guests, there is a website launching at it, it is being recorded for podcast and there is talks of the winner receiving custom headphones worth like £280ish - all seems like a lot of pressure now, it's going to take a lot of hairspray to cope with that kind of pressure, a lot of hairspray, and a lot of awkward grinning. So eyes peeled for that when you come down (you will be coming down yeah?) Promises to be a top night, come listen to me and Sam White bang out some ground shaking songs, and if you ask nicely, I might let you feel how much hairspray I have on.

Finally, isn't it annoying when your girlfriend, who you love unreservedly, has been with one of your heroes. Makes you feel a bit inadequate, no matter what she says, doesn't it?


DJ Dan
Propaganda
Just Call Me Blu
Academia DJ Battle
Totally Radical Awesome

Cold and Ill, I Hate Winter.

Was a bit of an idiot today.
Day started really nicely, my beautiful girlfriend came over to drop me my keys i had left at hers, vital considering I was back off to Oxford, but upon clambering upon the coach I felt ridiculously ill.
Finally got to Stockmore and felt even worse after trudging through the cold, but was super excited for Sian because she was sat at James' studio waiting to get her sleeve done. Then remembered how much of my assignment I have left to do (still 100% left to do) and that coupled with my body temperature and illness put me in the worst mood. And I did the worst thing, I let this bad mood rub off on my girrlf ):
So here is my public apology - I am sorry for being a moody idiot this morning.
In other news I was ill at the end of last week (hence the coach relapse today) and had to cancel Ramshackle, all was well and I managed to sleep on friday night, but I was woken up by Sian saying hell had broken loose and they had expected me there, but that she had sorted it, oh I love her! So I feel mega bad about that, going to have to smash it apart this week to make up for it, drop two new tunes I think, need to buy more CDRs though, fully out at the moment, either that or SSL, that's in the pipeline but my Macbook is about as reliable as a feline lifeguard so I need to get that fixed asap.

Anyway check out the beginning of her new sleeve, looks so so sick, when it's finished it will have a cityscape skyline at the top and toxic waste beneath them, extending down to her wrist, dripping down with little hearts and stars and teddys etc embedded in the waste - sick idea! All done at No Regrets in Gloucester hit them up, sickest piercist, James, is there too, go get modded yo.


Also semi finished a song today (yeah sorry criminal evidence assignment) it's sat below in the embedded youtube, let me know what you think, feedback is always welcome, especially if it is in picture form!



Get in touch!

Me on Twitter
Sian on Twitter
Just Call Me Blu
James (No Regrets) on Facebook

Back Blogging

Apologies for a lack of posts recently, poor effort on my part, no excuses /:

Anyway now that's out of the way, big up to the Get Your Geek On crew and Jac the Disco for having me support a week or so ago, was a big night, and shout out to Thames Valley Police for turning up, completely necessarily of course! Jac the Disco played an amazing set, if you haven't done yet i strongly suggest you make it down to their night, Last One In's A Rotten Egg, in London, where the roof has to be screwed back on every single morning after. Shout out to Jay who played an amazing set.

Been promising people a new mixtape for a while now, and I continue to promise that I will record a new one soon, probably more than one, as I want to explore a sub loaded dubstep mix as well. However I have been concentrating my efforts on university assignments and originals recently, not to mention being dragged to see New Moon /: Will hopefully have some previews of originals up soon too, there are like 3 or 4 dubsteppers and a house track - how exciting.
Starting work next week on my first commissioned remix, which is exciting, need to get Criminal Evidence coursework out the way first though eek! It's for a brilliant Bristol band called We Are Tokyo, make sure you check them out and get their recent EP while it's still warm off the press!

In other news, I have never been a huge fan of going out on New Years Eve, thinking I didn't really want to share nightclubs with people who should really be at home worrying about their pensions or something else mildly ageist. And it's for this reason I've never agreed to play on 'NYE', as I believe it is shortened, however this year I will be tearing apart Bristol Academy 2 all night, so come and lose your mind at a place where you can be sure you won't bump into your Mum trying to get into some lager lout's Levis in the gents!
And if that's not enough maybe you should stay in, watch Jools Holland pretend he likes everyone, and play connect four with your Mum on the sofa?

Get on Board!


Get Your Geek On Facebook
Get Your Geek On Twitter
Jac The Disco Myspace
Last One In's A Rotten Egg
We Are Tokyo Myspace
Ramshackle vs Propaganda NYE

Epic Fortnight

I'm not sure how, or why, but somehow, what I thought was going to be the longest 2 weeks of my life turned out to be one of the most amazing fortnights ever.
It all kicked off with the usual Thursday and Friday night residencies, but then I had to rush down to Oxford to meet Jig and head out to Get Loaded on Clapham Common. When we were wandering in Jig recognised the muffled noise coming from the back of the tent nearest to us as being that of Marina & The Diamonds so we went to check her out, and were one of like 100 (max?) people there watching her, but she was amazing! On a festival line up that hosted some huge acts I'm glad we caught her, and I'd pick her as the 'festival surprise'. There seemed to be loads of drum 'n' bass heads there as Blame + Chase and Status rammed out their tent, but when Magnetic Man (who I had been looking forward to for months) were set to come on the tent emptied, allowing us to get right on the barrier! They were amazing, glad they are talking to people about signing, their stuff is set to be amazing. Other festival highlights, without boring you with every act, were; MSTRKRFT, Steve Aoki, BBS, Crookers and Peaches.
So after that incredible day it was back to Bristol on Wednesday to play at the Props Festival. The line up was amzing, Mystery Jets, Jaguar Skills, Pendulum, Futureheads, Killa Kella, Dave Remix, Jinx, Jon Weldon, Gash DJs and Matt Horne. Played my set, to a half full/empty room, just before Gash DJs went on, then slowly got drunk and watched them empty the room for about half an hour, although I don't know why, they played a tidy set. Went over and caught Jon, Jinx and Rich killing it at Syndicate, before trekking back over to Panache to watch Jaguar Skills in the electro room. Tom Maddicott was on before, and I recognise him from killing it at Simple and Slide in Oxford, and he killed Panache as well, dropped two originals, 'Ravor' and 'Boomstick', I think they are both available now on Juno, and definetely worth buying, they are huge! Jaguar Skills was really good, but by all accounts, he played hip hop? Which meant the room quickly emptied, and he lost my attention too. So I went over to the Mystery Jets, and after lending them my headphones, I became the first person they had in their room! So after a while of appreciating their amazing set, we ended up taking it in turns putting a song on and dancing on the dancefloor while getting through their Rum rider ha
So yeahh, even though people complained about relatively low numbers in some rooms, I can honestly say I had the best night of my life!


Since then I seem to just get increasingly more tired and rough looking, but Thursday nights just seem to get better and better ♥
Next Thursday is going to be huge make sure your there, special guest DJ set from the Pigeon Detectives, and extra long dub set from me to send Harry off to university in style!


Tomm Maddicroft Myspace

Fail Day

Yesterday was the most dramatic day of my life, and recently i had my hair cut, so that's saying something!
I was early for my half 7 train to Bristol for the first time ever, and was really excited about the gig as i have always loved Ryan Jarman, even if i slightly want to kill/steal his girlfriend. So when i get to the station i learn its delayed, but i was feeling pretty zen about the whole thing as this is not unusual, but then an extremely distorted voice on the tannoy told us a train had broken down in front of all the other trains on the line and so no trains were coming through until it had been fixed or moved, which could have been anytime from 2 to 4 hours! Which meant the earliest i would get to Bristol would be like 11.30ish, and I was supposed to play at 10! So i rang Ramshackle and explained and they said they'd get cover, so I walked into town to get a bus home feeling pretty miserable as i had felt genuine excitement for the first time in a while. But then Ramshackle rung and said they had found me a lift to Bristol, and if I rang the number that was texted to me all would be sorted, so I opened the text and as i began saving the number my phone died. So i couldn't ring anyone, and I was stuck wandering round town not sure what to do. I thought that people might guess my phone had died when they tried ringing me and they may try meet me at the station as that was the last place they knew I was, so I walked back to the station (this is more walking than I have ever done) and waited for like 45mins to an hour and didn't see anyone, so I gave up and walked back into town where I waited for a bus, which didn't turn up, so I had to get on a different bus and walk ages to get back to my house from where it dropped me. Then when I got to the door I remembered i had lent my keys to my sister, as I expected to be dancing around the academy in a different city all night, and found my parents had gone out. So i was stuck outside my house, still unable to tell Ramshackle what was going on. So i thought i would be proactive and decided I would go see if I could meet my parents in town (they normally only go for dinner at the same place) 10mins down the road realised this was a stupid idea considering I still had a lot of stuff on my back and I am pretty weak, so I walked back to my house, there was still no one home, and so I ended up sitting in the garden where my cat spent the 45mins/hour wait, for my parents to come home, following me round with a dead bird in her mouth.

But on the plus side i did see a never ending train of vans (on the other platform!)

Also my first fully dubstep mixtape has risen to the top of this weeks Dubstep Popular list on Mixcloud, and it's even overtaken Mixmag & Passion Pit in the main chart so i'm pretty bloody happy about that!


In other news I've decided I hate people's boyfriends. They never appreciate what they have and their girlfriends never realise they could do so much better! (:

Ramshackle on Facebook

Haircut

Erghh

Brand New Bootleg

In my opinion both 'Mars' and "Day n Nite' are being hideously overplayed (even Fake Blood only played a stripped down section of Mars at Field Day!) and so I retired both from my DJ sets a few months ago, however the number of requests for both songs has not decreased at all, probably increased if anything, so I thought it would be nice to play out something a bit fresh that people can still slur along to after one too many cheap VK Oranges - hence making this little mash-up.

Day n Mars (130bpm)

Fake Blood Myspace
Kid Cudi Myspace
Crookers Myspace

New Dubstep Mixtape

I've wanted to put out a dubstep mixtape for a while now, and I originally recorded this about a week ago, although the tracklist looked slightly different then, and I tried to transition from ambient melodic dub into more jump up dub. But after seeing Skream and Rusko at Field Day I decided I would re-record it and just bang out jump up dubs, I even managed to sneak in my own track at the end!
Let me know what you think.

Redub by Tomm on Mixcloud

Skream Myspace
Rusko Myspace

This Is Mega Mega Mega

Been Waiting for this track to drop for, what feels like, forever, and now it is here, along with a brilliantly simple video.
What do you make of it?



The Count and Sinden Myspace