Monkeyboy Music

New track

2009-02-04T22:40:00.002Z

Finally managed to get some time to do some music, ride bikes and generally have some fun this last week or so. I must have stored up lots of creative energy because this track popped out of my head and into the form you can hear in literally a few hours!

I hope you like it. Feel free to let me know what you think, maybe even use the swanky comment doodah on the player. Woo!

Monkeyboy - In Bed by monkeyboydj

The Reverend Andy C vs the Holy Ghost

2008-11-17T23:13:00.003Z

Real life has got in the way of music lately but I had to post this up. Absolute genius:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3: (The best bit in all three at 35 secs with the guy at the lectern. Perfect comedy timing.)

If I was American, this would seal my vote for Obama....

2008-11-01T12:28:00.002Z

Sod that ridiculous official 'Yes I can' rubbish. If only all politics was like this:

Finally, Monkeyboy's Monthly Mix Vol.3!

2008-09-14T13:08:00.010+01:00

I know its been a while in coming but I've finally had the time to put together the third installment of my monthly mix series. Went for a little more housey, electroey vibe this time. The usual mix of old, new and whatever popped out of my hard drive. Enjoy!

Listen here:

Download - click here

Metro Area - Miura
LCD Soundsystem - Get Innocous!
Luke Walker - Born in '83
Midfield General - Disco Sirens
Boy 8-Bit - Long Jeanne Silver
Daft Punk - Revolution 909
Tomboy - Synchronise (Dub)
Afrikan Sciences - Charley
Layo & Bushwacka - Life2Live (Jesse's Stripper Dub)
Chromeo - Me & My Man (Whitey Remix)

End of the world tomorrow? Let's rap about it!

2008-09-09T18:42:00.002+01:00

So, they're turning on the Large Hadron Collider tomorrow and possibly creating a black hole that will devour the Earth. What better way to find out exactly what's going on there under the Alps between France and Switzerland than a slightly ropey rap?!

Monthly mix substitute...Christian Ska Bands?!

2008-09-06T09:40:00.000+01:00

OK, OK, OK, So i didn't manage to get an August monthly mix out. Been a little busy on boring other things lately. Still, hopefully I'll get one done this weekend so you'll get two in September instead.

However, to make up for this, I present to you this amazing video of a Christian Ska band performing 'Jesus Is My Friend'. Everything about this is amazing....

vloud - online internet mastering?!

2008-08-13T20:26:00.001+01:00

I spotted this the other day on a forum. It seems like quite a useful little app for doing some quick and dirty processing to getting a mix up to scratch or boosting a quiet track you want to put into a mix. I put a track through it just now but not had time to do a serious A/B test.

Obviously it won't replace a decent mix and master for a track (and it only deals with mp3s right now anyway) but if the quality is right then its probably as good as sticking a cheap compressor/limiter on your master channel and using the 'Mastering' preset for a quick and dirty mix to put on myspace at low bitrates.

www.vloud.com/

They also have a blog with some very sparse details about what they're up to at veryloud.tumblr.com/

Monkeyboy's Monthly Mix Vol.2 - July 2008 - The Dubstep Issue

2008-07-28T23:40:00.000+01:00

Well, I know you were all on tenterhooks wondering if I was going to make it two months in a row but I've proved the doubters wrong and come out with another mix. This time I've gone a bit slower and dubbier heading for a little dubstep.

If you're not familiar with dubstep then the incredibly detailed Wikipedia entry should mean you can bluff your way through a night at FWD without too much bother. Even if you don't get to the end of the mix please, please, please check out Burial's latest album Untrue. It's just been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and it's a work of genius.

You can preview the mix on the player just here:

Click here to download the mp3 (44MB)

Tracklist:

Various Productions - Hater
Clue Kid - Halogen
Zomby - Spliff Dub (Rustie Remix)
Boxcutter - Glyphic
LV - Globetrotting
Benga - Zero M2
Skream - Rutten
LV - Takeover (dub)
Kode 9 - 9 Samurai
Burial - Shell Of Light

Dance music from the 1960s. Seriously...

2008-07-22T19:58:00.000+01:00

Just read this article about newly discovered tapes of work by Delia Derbyshire, the electronic music pioneer who wrote the original Doctor Who theme tune amongst other things.

The most amazing thing to come out of it is this track recorded remember, in the 1960s. As many blog comments have already said, this could be released on Warp records tomorrow and no-one would bat an eyelid. Ahead of her time is an understatement. Absolutely amazing.

Tronic @ Blackfriars Basement, Glasgow or 'How to play live with a computer'

2008-07-06T14:16:00.000+01:00

In the spirit of exploring everything that my new home has to offer, we headed down to Tronic's monthly night at Blackfriars Basement in the Merchant City last Friday. Tronic is a "live music night set up to promote and showcase all styles of innovative electronic music" and there were four acts that all took a slightly different take on how to present electronic music live.

We arrived just in time to catch the end of Araya's set which was just upping a gear and got the crowd nicely warmed up. I was a bit disappointed that it was the stereotypical 'could be checking your emails' electronica set up with a man at a table hunched over a laptop with little interaction with the crowd. This got me thinking about how to 'do' live electronic music because its a really hard one to get right.

The music from all four acts was really good. From the chilled electronica of Dextro, polished layered textures from headliner Christ and the more uptempo beats of Satellite Dub who finished up. I was a bit distracted after the first act with how each performer was actually 'performing'

Dextro had a slightly more interactive setup with a side on stance, keyboard and some live guitar although the guitar playing was all done with his back to the audience! This may have been due to the lack of monitors so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Still, I often think the 'man behind a table and a laptop' stance creates too much of a barrier between the crowd and the performer so putting things side-on helped a lot although there wasn't much eye contact still.

Christ went for a slightly different tack. He had a live drummer and he himself was playing keys with both seemingly playing to a laptop based backing track. To provide a bit of visual interest they also had some pre-set visuals playing on a TV in the middle of the stage. It was the most visually interesting so far, with Christ himself rocking out and obviously getting into the music freed from the need to stare at a screen to control samples but it also seemed to lack some spontaneity, giving the feeling that they were both playing over a rigid backing track with little space of happy accidents and looseness that makes live performances really 'live'.

Satellite Dub went for the pared down option of a controller and laptop, I assume triggering samples and scenes from Ableton Live by the look of it. Despite this minimalist approach I thought he got he closest to pulling off a 'live performance'. I couldn't quite put my finger on why - maybe it was because the music was more uptempo, maybe it was because everyone had a couple more drinks but there was certainly more energy in his performance than the others. I also heard what I thought were a few mistakes in tweaking parameters and firing scenes. The thing was, that actually lent a more live feel. This guy was flying by the seat of his pants, you could tell he was, and that seemed to add a certain something to the whole feel of the set. I think the other major thing was that he wasn't engrossed in his laptop screen the whole time. He was controlling most things using just his custom looking controller which is waaaay better in my opinion that hitting keys on your laptop, even if you're actually doing the same thing.

So, how to perform a good live electronic set? Well, its a lot harder than it looks and I have ultimate respect for all four guys for getting up and doing their thing live, whatever the outcome but I reckon there's a few thing that I'm going to aim for when I get round to sorting out a live set:

Don't hide behind a table and a laptop. This might not be possible but I think it just creates a barrier between you and the audience that puts you at an immediate disadvantage. Even just turning the table diagonally so its not straight across helps I think.
Set up your laptop/controller high. Again, difficult if you're at the mercy of the venue but setting things up high enough to be standing up rather than hunched over your laptop helps to give you a stage presence rather than hunched over in the classic electronic musician email checking pose.
Get a mic. This is something that I've noticed from some hip hop DJs like DJ Z-Trip. Even if there's no singing or MCing in your set, just saying 'hi' at the start and 'thanks' if people cheer and clap makes a connection with the audience that just isn't there something with electronic music performances.
At least give the illusion of spontaneity. This is vital I think. If people feel like you really could be checking your emails whilst playing a CD then you're on to a loser with the casual observer. If you're sweating profusely, hitting buttons and tweaking knobs and somehow making it sound as though this is being contructed before your very eyes, this energy will be transferred to the audience pretty quickly. How to do this? I'm not sure yet but you instantly know it if you see/hear it.

So, there's some sage advice from someone who's never played live in their life so please take it all with a pinch of salt and feel free to dismiss it in an instant if you want. I should repeat though that all four acts have balls of steel for doing what they do and they all contributed to a great night. They also inspired me to get my act together and work out a live set for myself.

Definitely going to check out Satellite Dub at Bar Bloc on 24th July so we'll see how the people playing there do it too...

Monthly Monkeyboy Mix - June 2008

2008-06-24T20:38:00.000+01:00

Ok, so here's my first mix. Its a bit of a mix of old and new with a load of tracks I bought since I got back from Canada. Ranges from mid-tempo jazzy/hip hoppy breaks to some more straight down the line 130bpm-ish breaks by the end but I kept it pretty mixed up throughout.

Click here to download: http://www.mediafire.com/?isadr1mlevx

Enjoy!

Tracklist:
01: Lack Of Afro - The Outsider
02: All Good Funk Alliance - REC
03: BMD - Mr Funkaman
04: The Hole In The Wall Gang - Brown Soul
05: Feature Cast - Soul Flower
06: RJD2 - 1976
07: Flash Callahan - Do You Know The Truth (Silver Storic Remix)
08: Riot Baby - Its Allright
09: Calvin Harris - Colours
10: Rockers HiFi - Push Push (M.A.N.D.Y.'s Pusher Remix)
11: Regal - Rock The Funky Beat (Malente Remix)
12: Dan Sykes & Adrian De Clair - Green Compromise (Matt Fine Style)
13: DJ Wood - Eye No
14: Ils - No. 84 Electro Chaos
15: Rennie Pilgrem - Spooky
16: Merka - My Spaceship
17: Kid Circus - Illogical (Disco Dancin' Edit)
18: The Young Punx - Rockall (Phonat Mix)

Testing, testing

2008-06-17T19:47:00.001+01:00

one, two.
one, two.
one, two.
two, two two.
one, two.

Right, that seems to work. So I've decided to get off my arse and start doing some more music and generally being a bit pro-active about these things so this blog is part 1 of my plan to take over the world. Or something.

The plan is to post a new mix on this blog once a month, as well as linking to all my own music and posting random nonsense and links to cool stuff in between times.

Sound good? Well then make sure you subscribe to the blog and I might even try and work out how this podcasting thingy works so you never miss a mix!

First one coming very soon...

Mark