:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Saturday, July 16, 2005 ::

Chilcompton Village Day

I mentioned a while back that I was planning to visit Chilcompton Village Day, in Somerset, mainly because I wanted to see ferret racing. We were there today and amongst other things we ate too many burgers, had some really nice cakes, drank more Butcombe Bitter, saw lots of animals, saw lots of Venus Fly Traps (all doing a lot better that mine), heard some local folk singers, and, of course, lost some money on the ferret racing. (I did win a cheap packet of sweets on a hand-eye-coordination game thing though.)

Here are some photos:

:: Dan 16.7.05 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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After a night out and a curry, Mrs P suggest we stop by the store she works at and see how the all night opening is going for the Harry Potter book launch. We get there about 10 to midnight. There are about 60 people hanging around waiting for copies, mostly middle aged women in brown knitwear. Very few kids. The free bacon sandwiches have gone down a storm. I turn one down as I've been told in confidence that the bacon was due for disposal. The local skater youth seem unaccustomed to the bright lights but pleasantly surprised by the convenience of having a store open 24 hours, selling beer and giving away food, in their car park of choice.

I watched from a safe distance, gently swaying and trying not to look as drunk as I was. I watched the rush for copies (about 60 sold) and I smugly did some shopping that didn't include the book (safe in the knowledge that the Amazon order will turn up before I get up in the morning).

As we leave a family are walking in with a young teenage daughter who looks mortified by the embarrassment of being there. She walks hiding her eyes behind an overly long sleeve, like someone leaving a courtroom avoiding the paparazzi.

All for a children's book whose contents has been kept secret better than most government departments could manage. [Link via Ripley] Although that didn't stop the store management all reading the last two pages when the delivery came in yesterday morning. Dumbledoor dies. The end.

:: Dan 16.7.05 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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If you don't want to pay Warp a tenner for a 5min DVD (albeit with a 42 page booklet) then you can watch Chris Cunningham's freakish Rubber Johnny here [SWF]
Warning: Maybe NSFW
Music is Aphex Twin Afx237 V7 from Drukqs (Warp)

Venetian Snares Szamár Madár video, from Rossz Csillag Alatt Született (Planet Mu) by David O'Reilly from Colonel Blimp

Cursor Minor live @ Acid Skiffle last week, 09.07.05

RePhLeX Disco Assault 02
Video of a complete Aphex Twin live set, in three very large and fairly poor quality parts. Various formats.

Some stuff I'm hosting for people, bandwidth permitting:
Chevron live on Resonance FM 30.05.05 [94 MB Ogg]
Aphex Twin live acid set 06.04.05 [112 MB MP3]

LA based Darkmatter Soundsystem, home to some of the best DJs in Breakcore, including Baseck/Sonic Death Rabbit, Minion, and Diskore, now has its own website. Downloads coming soon, keep an eye on it.

:: Dan 15.7.05 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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This years Great Western Maze in Bath opens today.
Presumably it's another Adrian Fisher design, although I'm only guessing.
I'll be visiting soon.

:: Dan 14.7.05 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Inspired by the Virus Syndicate - Slow Down video.
All text and figures by Nadmai.

Mark One needs to go to a 'how to throw convincing hand gestures' class, the lad's heart just isn't in it. A waist height hand throwing just isn't acceptable in today's video land, it's got to be a full over the shoulder preferably with at least three rolls. Only trained professionals should attempt a hand throw with only one finger and thumb being presented; amateurs should stick to either the two fingered 'crippled man digging' motion, the one fingered 'gun point' (elbow should be level with the ear for this one) or the full hand 'carefully chopping a lolly stick' motion.

I have made this informative presentation for your delectation, could take a while to load though. (Sorry if I got the names of people mixed up, it wasn't deliberate.) What I hope to present here today is a brief overview of hand throwing, using the Virus Syndicate's new video as source material. It's a very useful overview highlighting some classic examples of the genre, alongside some errors that people should watch out for when training. You can see Mark One is still a bit wet behind the ears here, but it's his first video he can only grow from here. Anyway...


Right, school boy error right off the bat from Mark here, the hand has been thrown too early, before anyone has even started rhyming in fact. It's the first thing you learn - "don't bust a move before the fat man starts talking".


Ah a common mistake here, indecisive fingering, with such a wide range of throws on offer, it's not surprising that sometimes we get caught between several.


Another rookie mistake here - everyone else in the crew has just thrown down and you're still caught as to which move to bust, don't worry, timing will come....in time.

Now let's look at a classic piece of hand throwage:

Here's the pre throw, something that a lot of oungsters these days overlook, but without a good build-up you're building your throw on weak foundations. Look at this, great elevation, good solid angles on the arms, nice hand positioning, it's got all the makings of a classic throw.


Oh! and look at that, a throw straight out of the top drawer there, study well, this lad could go all the way. Unfortunately the pure quality of the bust has psyched Mark out (understandably) and his hand shape has totally gone to pot here.


Mark's taken on a tricky specialist throw here - the 'mini roll' this is where your pre bust build-up practice is vital. The problem here is that the throws coming from almost nothing and looping at just over belt height, I personally only recommend this for rappers in the 20st plus category with at least 4 fingers worth of bling.

Now we'll take a look at the diverse range of throws used by VS during the video:


Oi vey, it's the Jewish mother, often overlooked as a credible throw, shoulder positioning is vital on this one.


This is beautiful combination work from Goldfinger (?) here, throwing the gunpoint and the chop, elbows level, full of conviction - he's a model for the younger generation coming through.


Nika D with a great piece of work showing some of the regional variations that can come out in the field of hand throwing. A simple but effective "who am I?" with the added Mancunian variation, it's all in the pose, look at those angles on the neck and lower back. Great work.


And again the 'not on my manor!" I just wanted to capture the pre bust that's so essential on this move, the tension in the arms that's snapped out on a lovely downward angle.

Finally and by no means least:

You just can't argue with this one, it's clear that hours on the training park have paid off, just look at that conviction, I know that I'd hand over my wallet!

:: Dan 12.7.05 [Arc] [4 comments] [links to this post] ::
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The British Library Sound Archive now online.
"All recordings copyright © British Library Board. The recordings on this site are for private listening only; copying, broadcasting or reproduction is prohibited."
Yeah, whatever.
Get sampling!

:: Dan 12.7.05 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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Michael Ohlsson: Pop Will Eat Itself: China Breakcore
An interesting article on the start of a breakcore scene in China, which acknowledges that it is an imported genre, and hypothesises that it is going to explode.

"Breakcore music is like graffiti -- it will be influential and important -- but it can never be truly commodified, and therefore popular. ... In a world of mobile blogging, podcasting, hacking, and rapid file-sharing, any kid with a computer can remix, butcher, and do sonic graffiti to any popular music within minutes of downloading it -- and then upload it to share with millions around the world. How delightful it would be to destroy (eh, "improve") a new song by the Backstreet Boys, and post it for public consumption to an unknowing audience."
Although that seems to be blurring the lines between the common mash-up and breakcore as a genre in itself.

How big will it get? It defiantly is growing. The audience at gigs has been growing massively over the last six months to a year. I keep bumping into younger and younger kids getting involved in the scene, who say they make breakcore and then ask you if you saw the Snares gig a few months ago. "Yeah," I reply, "and I played a gig with him three years ago." Partly, this makes me feel old. Partly, I worry that our music is slipping away from us, to a new generation. Maybe that's a good thing; the new generation may push this into a new era.

Chatting with Jason Forrest and 1SpeedBike at the last Toxic Dancehall, it was suggested that what breakcore needs to push it into the mainstream is someway to allow it to be easily mixed with other genres. Perhaps by pushing breakcore to 260bpm it could be mixed with 130bmp house?

You can see our Japanese living Australian mate HARDoff (who is also currently working on a remix for us) along with some young Chinese blood in Beijing on the 25th. [Flyer]

:: Dan 12.7.05 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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William Gibson, in Wired, on sampling and reuse of art
"Our culture no longer bothers to use words like appropriation or borrowing to describe those very activities. Today's audience isn't listening at all - it's participating. Indeed, audience is as antique a term as record, the one archaically passive, the other archaically physical. The record, not the remix, is the anomaly today. The remix is the very nature of the digital."
[via Saturnine, fellow Bristolian found via the Gibson message board]

I finished reading Gibson's Pattern Recognition last week. A thoroughly good book. I loved the descriptions of internet/message board culture, which I could really relate to, and the endless hunting for and analysis of media. The 9/11 based subplot about the heroine's father’s disappearance was nowhere near as trite as a feared it could be. The collectors of ancient calculating machines were interesting; I could really see where that was coming from having seen Simon Singh proudly demonstrating his Enigma Machine at the Watershed a couple of years ago. In all, it's very different to other Gibson I've read, but I got more hooked into this that any of the others. Recommended.

:: Dan 11.7.05 [Arc] [0 comments] [links to this post] ::
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