tbar 25/06/09

a big night for london town ......first swayzak night since 1998's legendary wonky on kilburn high road . this will be bi-monthly til end of summer then monthly therafter at the Tbar , london town innit ......

fete de la musique

So i finally get orf me lazy ass and blog something.....yes we need more random bullshit in this electro world..

Last gig was in Berlin at the lovely Rechenzentrum. Probably the best sounding club ive been in, housed in a former radio studio next to the river. Every sound from our live set was clear and stereo imaging was excellent. Piss off hifi Dad! But the records sounded AMAZING.. maybe it was the help of booze, but man they were liftin'!!!

So this weekend im off camping with the kids and my mate charlie (person, not powder).. Its a little tradition of midsummer hairdown that goes back 1500 years..the simple pleasure of sky, beer, bullshit and frisbee... Then back on sunday for a mini DJ set outdoors at 7pm, how civilised is that? Im gonna play some wonky hiphop for the dayglo bleeders, then jump up dancehall. super mario right up..

Purchase of the week _ game boy camera €7. some original japanese electro culture in glorious lofi.

chin chin
jt

is this worth writing i am not sure , but five readers all the same !
life is tough in the whatever world we exist in , music of whatever genre you choose to call it . house , techno, tech house , deep house , minimal house , minimal techno, techno pop, electro pop, electro, meenemal (if your spanish), whatever it is its tough .......but not as tough as say living in central africa or the high plains of pakistan ! now that is tough . taleban is coming and i am playing music , i am a dead man . no beard - dead man , etc etc - dead man .......
still i get really fucked off , yes i do ! misunderstood , confused, lost , depair, all spring to mind over the current state of music !
the other night i went to see me old mate peter doherty play (hes not my mate but that sounds cool), he showed up two hours late and then played a blinding set to what may have well been his mates in his bedroom aged 15 . he stumbled about the stage and even played drums (out of time , mind you so was everything) . The people sung along and it was a kind of beautiful chaos and the kids, the kids they loved it . they really loved it . i mean if i had played that shocking it would be all over resident advisor blah blah track 3 18 seconds in is out of sync this guy cant beatmatch !!!!....... but cos peter is a famous drug addict its ok ! and that was his charm , and actually i liked it , it was innocent . he was joined on stage by a guy who looked like columbo , who played guitar ok, all the gear was borrowed and apparently this is babyshambles line up !!!! mental two junkies in stage but they have something i dont ....maybe i need to get hooked on something stronger than herbal tea ?
anyway my old mate kenny (he is) is their guitar tech and i was given the responsibility of looking after the borrowed gear while he nipped out for a draw on a B&H (ten packs were always his speciality)
here i met some real oddballs , hanging out waiting for the enigma that is peter doherty to stagger in . there was a brian jones lookalike, a paul weller lookalike , a big rasta called "the general", an apparently famous tall model type superhuman ( who certainly perked up when pete arrived ) and a Pete doherty lookalike ! lots of image concerned people trying too hard to look cool when the only cool way to be was wasted and not give a fuck , like a glasgow junkie in a skip (check youtube)
or was it him ? no it wasnt cos you know what pete is getting fat .......as frank from shameless says "more drugs now" !

but peter has quite a following and i am impressed by his chaos that somehow is working for him . he is kind of modern day punk to all this safe coldplay college music . which take me nicely to brian eno , i am halfway thru his biography and i am thinking he was a poseur but maybe everyone was in the 60s?

well summer is upon us and people are twittering here and facebooking there, myspace spamming is in full effect (hey am dj crankshaftenhausen,from botulism records buy my tunes on beatport !) as if . of course living in london the sky is grey as usual and the music as moody as the days :) sales pitch - we got some new product coming on our 240 volts label and some new swayzak mixes to come including one from troy pierce aka louderbach. which brings me nicely up to todays rant article:

i fucking hate digital promos , i hate digital djs , i dislike intensely the system that has been created , however you gotta go with it somewhat :( our super deep deep house mix of louderbachs "shine" on minus records ? (can you call them records?) should really be on vinyl but it only appears digitally ......this is all fine and well for richard hawtin and his digital empire taking over the techno world and making super mega bucks $$$$$ . but for lovers of vinyl like me it sucks ......
having been brought up on the joys of linn sondek , naim , rega, nakamichi , quad , thorens, b +W , A+R, revox, i just cant get my head round this non hi-fi world!
looks like we will have to make a new album before the end of the year , but of course we will make it digitally so there lies the juxtaposition !!!! although all the ideas in our heads are strictly anal - og . if i could only live in a anolog world , somehow hark for simpler times like 1930's and the black and white days when nothing was in colour , we all smoked, looked cool , had big tashes and brycreem (andy weatherall) , bring back the 1930's and tweed suits , guys called roger ,binky , and women called diptheria. "last train to paddington is at six darling , i got to rush , cant call later cos i dont have a cell phone they dont exist but i can send a letter . ok love - write soon" . see simple !
eeeeeeeeenough bull , cut to the crap , buy our records we are broke . digital has killed the dj culture of buying RARE vinyl and wowing yer mates . not that any of my mates liked techno, they were into meat loaf and marrilion - jesus help me .............one of them was called ac/dc man . techno wasnt invented then either so what the £$$k am i going on about ?
on a lighter note we are not going to mexico end of this month , i however would like to , i have no fear of flu killing me , just of becoming a digital dj !
please see the noticeboard inside tesco metro n1 for upcoming dates .....and 3 for 2 on the cheese counter this thursday only @_@

podcast

we did a podcast . its at www.swayzak.com..........

MIAMI WMC - THE REALITY CHECK (out) 09

we lounged around miami for a whole 48 hours . i felt the time was well used , had expensive dinner , did a gig and left ! after checking into the philip starcke designed 500 floor 10 star luxury hotel we headed for the hotspots, and discovered men with breasts walking the street , posers driving rented lamborghinis, several 100 roger sanchez lookalikes and and some ladies that the taliban would have trouble with their dress sense. Though we actually got a decent recording of our live set thanks to chahe (the man from SF) recording onto his laptop . i sat on a stool and francesco sported a new haircut .........the crowd was sparse , but "awarehouse" was a great venue and a great sound ! so perfect for a relaxed evening of deep house music .......
of course we were tempted to visit the wild parties (which all got shut early) and the stars but franky we didnt bother and had a nice time chilling , the only other djs we saw were ewan pearson and sasse ......and that was quite enjoyable !
you can check the live set at little white earbuds soon ........
then i flew directly to belgium and liege ......now from philip starcke and sunshine to holiday inn circa 1978 and belgian weather (similar to scottish) ! i hooked up with james and we hung around all evening waiting to play , enjoyed the set of chloe and the beer ......but avoided PERET a local rocket fuel ! our show as ok but i was so tired i dont remember much :(

eno goes to detriot

been a while since the last blog , people going on about twitter etc blah blah whatever. i hear alan mcgee (that c**t that released oasis crap) having a arguement with a brian eno impersonator . i fancy an arguement with myself and often do or perhaps with a impersonator like mike yarwood ! so here we go :

i am reading eno's biography right now and i see a lot of parallels with him although i never made it to art school and my dad wasnt a postman. though i did go to glasgow school of art most weekends for the parties , and my dad was a travelling salesman which is a bit like a postman ! eno was not and is not musically trained which definetely helps when working with u2 and coldplay . i am not and probaby never will be musically trained , but i recently started my own art school. its free to get in and you can do as little or as much as you like .
eno did some outrageous music before meddling with coldpay , such as "my life i the bush of ghosts" , "music for airports" (which we all need when in a stressful bloody airport ) and he was in roxy music , my mums favourite band .........ps i saw brian ferry at the airport and he was reading the daily express ( i mean come on that is poor show) then he went to boots with his girlfriend who was buying ladies products ie makeup . really funny to see a rock star in the queue at boots (crap british high st store that sells toothbrushes) and waiting on what looked like a lady half his age !!!
still he was a coal miners son unlike his upper class git of a son who goes fox hunting with the bourgeoisie. if only my father woz a a postman :(

on another note seems like the world of underground techno is collapsing , the legendary detroit store 'submerge" was literally bulldozed , and clone records from netherlands stopped trading after 15 years . both were responsible for some of the undergrounds darkest tunes much to my pleasure !!!!
sad to see them go , and i remember fondly james and myself walking thru the wasteland that is downtown detroit looking for the submerge store , going thru empty GM buildings with the most intricate 1920's architecture ....beautiful wasteland .
anyway heading for submerge we were tailed by the bums , hobos and crackheads that inhabit the streets of D , which reminded me very much of glasgow in the 1980s though not many spoke glasgwegian . i was quite nervous and we were the only white folks on foot . odd in USA that people drive (even when a walk is easier) we looked like tasty pickings for the homeless underclass . but streetwise enough still we made it to the store and spent $$$ (those trips out in glasgow prepared us :)
on mad records only sold in detroit . but no longer such gems can be had ......
now all that is gone and hey ho you can download a mp3 from wherever.com without fear of your life, how boring is that !!! unless you electrocute yourself !!!!
you kids get out there start a riot or something , this mp3 world is boring as is twitter ......if anyone reads this , but maybe you all gone rioting :)