First came Nitrotracker, a neat little Tracker program for the DS that enabled you to record and sequence on the go - limited as it was. Then the Korg DS-10, a custom synth/sequencer made specifically for the handheld (I have yet to use this one myself), now there is Protein DS, a DJng and sound manipulation app that looks very promising indeed:
Now of course, you need an R4DS card (or something similar) and homebrew to load these things onto your console, but thats still a relatively inexpensive option as most of the software is free... As I noted last year - Nintendo really seem to have sparked a mini-revolution in creativity with their use of touchscreen and wireless controller technology - now if only we had the time to take advantage!
This came out last week - only a couple of days late for a change! It's back to the standard sized Blogariddims with this tasty little dubstep/electronica/techno/reggae set from Owen Howard, whose mixes I first stumbled across last May.
The mix covers some angles of my DJing/listening habits, with somewhat of an emphasis of dubstep, but also propped up with bits and pieces that verge on that territory, while remaining pleasantly immune to convenient pigeon-holing While its not exactly a enourmous in its breadth, hopefully it covers a bit of ground, I get bored either playing or listening to 20 tracks in a row linked by nothing more than the fact that they all came from the same section in the record shop. For me, it was hearing dubstep in a similar context to this that really made it click for me initially, most notably through a few mixes by El Kano and the Gutterbreakz radio series (RIP), taking in techno, electro, breaks and various mangled electronics in addition to dubstep.
Full notes can be found here (our first Blogariddims link to a myspace blog believe it or not!).
Nice little video interview with one of the most mysterious and influential UK hardcore producers courtesy of J-Tek, who, (despite some dubious press releases) seem more and more like the real deal.
So, this epic gig is less than a month away now. There was some confusion over the date of the event due to a mistake on the original flyer, but I can wholeheartedly confirm that this will be on Friday 6th. Outrage of J-Tek fame has also replaced Randall, who pulled out on short notice, but the important thing is that myself and Slug are still playing last, from approximately 3-4am. We've been working on the set for some time now, and its gonna be a '93 stormer, so hopefully that'll keep the crowd awake through the later than usual slot.
This one's gonna be massive. Book your plane, train and bus tickets if you haven't already. All roads lead to Reach on June 6th.
And people wonder why Grime doesn't achieve outside the UK... From Johnny I on IDNB
Unfortunately this gig has been cancelled. We'd like to say as a result of something that was beyond everyone's control, but this isn't the case. Essentially, Wiley went back on his deal in an attempt to extract more money, this made the gig unviable and there's nothing we can do.
This is a real disappointment, it highlights some of the short-sightedness and parochialism which jealously keeps grime attached to certain UK urban centres....
...He found an out in the contract and leapt, little more than 2 weeks before the gig, with the posters printed and some of them up.
But of course he's in the top 5 now, so what does he need with us Irish punters?
I like the change in the listing, though I think they're being a bit hard on him. He probably just got scared when he heard that there's still a large population of foxes over here.
This is a quick note to introduce the newest member of weareie - Executive Steve. Some of you will know him from various forums as 'Tyranny', and regular readers might recognise him from the Slick DJ Naphta interview that was posted here a while back. Steve is a great writer, and is far more up to date with new music than the rest of the willfully ignorant and decrepit archivists that reside here (including myself). I hear that he actually leaves his house to go to gigs and stuff as well! So he should bring a bit of freshness to these increasingly anachronistic pages, and as an executive I expect him to have those two other wasters whipped into shape in no-time!
This should be a good one. I saw General levy a few years back in Germany and he was great - expect a few rewinds of 'Incredible'. Storm is playing an old skool set, Subtle Audio's Code is playing with the Reach lads, and there'll be some serious bass pressure from soundsystem stalwarts Worries Outernational and Firehouse Skank.
Only a few miles outside the city too. if the weather holds it could be a very pleasant day indeed...
To end this string of blogariddims posts on a slightly morose note - some of you may be saddened to hear that the cast is due to end at episode 50 - in approximately 20 weeks or so. There's various reasons for this, the difficulty in finding new and dependable candidates and the amount of time it takes to organise and manage the cast being the main two. It may not seem like a lot of work but (cue violin), the podcast (along with the production of Woofah), has taken up a sizable chunk of my free time this year, to the detriment of this blog and the various other pies which my fingers habitually find themselves in. I'll save the weepy thank yous for the final episode, but it goes without saying that I am tremendously grateful to everyone who has participated and bigged us up over the last couple of years and I have been extremely proud to be involved with this project, and more importantly, extremely happy to have such a great collection of mixes for the archives.
The line-up for the last ten episodes is looking very nice though, and who knows what the future will bring?
