280205
the zero-g web buziness has been working
overtime of late with four concurrent design projects
on the go. more news as they launch, but check
out the first fruits of our recent labours at
kidconfucius.com.
kid confucius are a nine-piece
funk / soul / hip hop bands from sydney and are
about to unleash their debut album - which, incidentally,
has also just scopped this week's fbi
album of the week.
so with my beautiful wife (and expectant mother)
at the zero-g design helm, it seems that she's
not the only member of the family to gain some
artistic kudos this week. my brother-in-law, matt,
has scopped 'artist of the week' for his photographs
on istockphoto.com.
check out all of his images here
- and why not buy some of them while you're there
:-)
--
250205
it was fifteen years ago today, sergeant ken told
the world to rave off...
from out of the depths of the memory junkyard
>> my former bandmate / flatmate / sparring
partner tim emailed me this week to remind me
that it was precisely fifteen years ago this weekend
that we played our first gig together. it was
a little four piece by the name of 'ken'.
this being (almost) my first band, it was my 'musical
debut' - preceeded only by (literally) bashing
biscuit tins in my bedroom when i was ten with
two of my mates. we had one rehearsal and called
it quits. we were called 'the engineers' after
a track from a gary numan album and we had one
song 'machines talk'. hilarious.
back to 'ken' - so named thanks to teen idols
'bros'. as you might recall, bros had two ugly
twin brothers and one handsome bass player, whose
name no-one seemed to remember. therefore, the
press 'hilariously' referred to him as 'the other
one' or 'ken'. poor bastard, he was of course
craig logan, who went on to (i think) manage /
sleep with both kim appleby and dannii minogue.
the twins went bankrupt, so who's laughing now?
(well, one of them actually appeared as the main
villain in 'blade 2' so we can let him off). we
decided we liked to champion the underdog, so
'ken' became our name.
the band were: tim boy L (vocals, little casio
sampler keyboard, mixing the backing tapes etc),
rod prinz D (drummer extraordinare), doggy (bass
boy) and myself (metal, shouting). influences
were many, but back then in 1990, it was all about
sampling - the klf, pop will eat itself, meat
beat manifesto, einsturzende neubauten, public
enemy - and it was all about taking the piss.
we had no serious songs. we had 'rhythm of decay'
("the natrual rhythm for today"), 'plagiarise
the house', 'where are the yoof?' (down the pub,
apparently), 'hey kiddies' ("you've got four
minutes left to live"), '(i get turned on
by) dead celebrities' and the list goes on.
it was a meteoric rise to fame, helped in no small
part by the fact that tim and i were entertainments
convenor and president of the student union respectively
- gigs were not hard to come by. they always involved
many photocopies of craig logan's head (see above)
and a liberal use of drum risers. (t-shirt note:
this one - me on the left, showing some leg -
was home made, taken from the love and rockets
comic, of hopey's band 'ape sex', complete with
black flag logo). all the photocopying and sample
theivery was vindicated by us sweeping the public
vote at the inaugural 'battle of the bands' at
the union, winning a recording session at a local
studio. and here's what happened:
- KEN perception mp3
that's your truly trying his best john lydon impression.
the acid sample is from meat beat manifesto and
the vocal samples ... well they're from the seminal
80s brit sci-fi series, 'blake's seven'. check
out roddy's drumming on this track, it is 'the
shit'.
a second demo session went down a year or so later,
and the results of that led to our one and only
radio airplay moment, on radio scotland:
-
KEN kenergy (radio scotland version) mp3
after three years,
the days of the 'acid
brassiere' were over.
the kidz, following our explicit instructions,
had slashed their wrists in sonic ecstasy. the
final gig at glasgow's fixx2 closed with our (i
believe "legendary") rendition of the
sisters of mercy's 'this corrossion', complete
with a rap from me. ahhh, the glory years...
here's a pic from that very gig - the t-shirt
was taken from a song i have long forgotten 'heavenly
hardcore shag'. draw your own conclusions...
but the
story's not quite over - tim this weekend is playing
a 'retrospective' gig in glasgow and will be featuring
a few ken tracks in his set (bless 'im). the band
are now far flung, however tim asked me to come
up with an ingenious solution - a "video
duet" for 'perception'. i duly obliged -
here's some screen grabs >>
 
now rave off.
--
140205
for the last two saturdays, i've been tripping
down memory lane, guesting on FBi's
'crate diggers' show. last time i was on about
six months ago, i played late 80s - early 90s
dance music, so i decided to pick up from where
we left off and dragged 92 and 93 kicking and
screaming onto the butchers block. and nice to
hear the presenters of the following show saying
'1993's a bit before my time...'. bastards :-)
here's what i played over the two weeks - mostly
all quality with only a light sprinkling of cheese.
so it goes.
1992>>
STEREO MCS connected
PRIMAL SCREAM movin' on up
THE ORB the blue room
FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON papua new guinea
OPUS III it's a fine day
ORBITAL halcyon on and on
SL2 on a ragga tip
THE PRODIGY out of space
FELIX don't you want me
USURA open your mind
THE CHARLATANS wierdo
FLOWERED UP weekender
MASSIVE ATTACK be thankful (paul oakenfold mix)
CAJMERE feat DAJAE brighter days
RENEGADE SOUNDWAVE rsw megamix: lesson one
THE DISPOSABLE HEROES OF HIPHOPRISY television
(the drug of the nation)
THE SHAMEN ebeneezer goode
LEFTFIELD song of life
APHEX TWIN digeridoo
LEMON INTERUPT dirty
1993 >>
NEW ORDER regret
THE GRID texas cowboys
BJORK big time sensuality (lionrock wigout vox)
THE DUST BROTHERS song to the siren
DRUM CLUB alchemy (orbital remix)
WILLIAM ORBIT water from a vine leaf (spooky's
xylem flow mix)
SVEN VATH an accident in paradise
LEFTFIELD open up (dust brothers remix)
BEDROCK for what you dream of
UNDERWORLD cowgirl
DAJAE u got me up (cajmere's underground goodies
mix)
SUB SUB ain't no love (ain't no use)
APHEX TWIN on
POLYGON WINDOW polygon window
AUTECHRE basscadet
TRICKY aftermath
SLAM positive education
SABRES OF PARADISE smokebelch II
--
080205
so, interestingly, the gig that was going to be
the 'democratisation of music' - i.e. the iPod
club night was, for me, a bit of a non-starter.
i like fuss, i like things being pointed out to
people. with no fanfare or suchlike, for most
of the folks in the bar, we might as well have
been playing CDs from a cheap stereo. maybe it'll
catch on, but if you're going to make a big deal
about it in print, you need to make a big deal
on the night.
that said, the following night at bing
bang bong was a scream, had a great time and
was tickled raw pink to be playing some japanese
music (or at least, some jap-themed music
in places...). here's what made it onto the turning
table....
ALPHAVILLE big in japan
CIBO MATTO about a girl
THE 5678s guitar date
LIMITED EXPRESS (HAS GONE) stop go
SCREAMING SEAGULL KISS HER KISS HER pretty in
pink
TAKAKO MINEKAWA maxi
J.O.Y. sunplus
ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK rock n roll can rescue the
world
PUFFY AMIYUMI teen titans
COM.A feat WICKED ACT no heathen (solo jamm mix)
THE VAPOURS turning japanese
SHONEN KNIFE boogie monster
ZONGAMIN hotel 17
JAPAN life in tokyo
MU tell you something
BUFFALO DAUGHTER cyclic
--
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