November 3, 2013Things have been crazy-busy lately, especially for Paul Ackroyd who dedicated the better part of last month getting The Dead Albatross Music Prize up and running. More on that later, but we got to shout the man out for existing on barely any sleep and creating brilliant radio along the way. Double archive from the Awkward Movements Show on NTS…
October 31, 2013One of the annual events in which my inner-cerebrate fan boy is allowed to surface is Festival Of Dangerous Ideas (FODI). That’s right, I dreamed of being an intellectual too once, but unfortunately when I hit around twenty-three the ambition started to manifest itself in to bitterness as opposed to excitement for change. Events like TED and FODI are as much…
October 30, 2013The mark of a good music documentary is to present it in a way that people with no prior interest in the topic will find as engaging as those with a die-hard love and all the cynics in between. I got to watch Northern Soul: Keep The Faith last night and it’s definitely one that needs sharing. Big ups BBC and…
October 28, 2013As the musical collaboration of Ekoplekz and Baron Mordant, eMMplekz on paper and in practice is right up our alley. There’s a new album that should be appearing in shops some time this week, titled Your Crate Has Changed, marking the 67th release on the Baron-run Mordant Music label. The best introduction to the circuitry and spoken word rabbit-hole existence…
October 24, 2013Vangelis, Van Man, The Vangelis, The-Bearded-Chap-Who-Was-Here-Earlier-In-The-Week, Vanlengis (that one’s often shouted through an open Phonica office door) – all wonderful names for the man we simply refer to as Van. As a walking library of club wax and Phonica mainstay, Van’s pretty spot-on for selecting, as well as being an overall legend of a nice guy. An ex-metal head of…
October 23, 2013One of the most genuine and interesting cats out there has got to be Bass Clef aka Ralph Cumbers. Never met anyone who’s personality comes across so well in their range of music and live shows, never afraid to look at things from a different angle purely to see what sound it makes. Casually dropped two days ago comes two new…
October 21, 2013Really dig what Morley does. The LA based street artist has recently been brought back to our attention via The Outsiders, Steven Lazarides’ gallery / tribe / shop for his select group of exhibiting artists with uniquely urban ethics. Morley, as a wheatpasting king of sorts, has been exhibiting since 2011 and active much longer. Armed with positive slogans and wicked…
October 17, 2013We’re big fans of Robin the Fog. As a producer / engineer / presenter of some of the finest radio for his own shows on Resonance FM and BBC, his activities from blogging to recording are a constant source of on-point amusement and often fascination that spirals in to an additional hour or so of personal research. Check his most…
October 15, 2013Only seven hours left on this so it’s going to be a quick post. The good folk at Open Music Labs are using Crowd Supply to produce a final made-to-order run of the Mixtape Alpha, a credit-card sized polyphonic 8-bit synth with some quality features for it’s size. The ability to record and playback sequences is particularly nice, as are…
October 14, 2013From the man behind the Radio Olympics – over twelve hours of music from all competing countries – we now have The Dead Albatross Music Prize. Paul Ackroyd aka Kamikaze has polled our most respected music heads and created the twenty album list for the inaugural event, which can be followed here: http://www.deadalbatross.com/ An alternative to once quality but now…