tap tap

the return of the hands

to iain's point, hands in the air is alive and well. did it ever go away? slip back into sweaty basements? or did i just stop going out? witnessed at a trentemoller gig a couple of weeks ago, it takes a minute or so but them hands sure do rise up, mine too.

band experience

it's been a bit quiet around here. i've been busy. working and travelling and being a dad. i've had no energy for blogging. i was in Helsinki last week and we took a group of clients to see the Stones at the Olympic stadium. now i'm no big stones fan but it was a lot of fun. a big cheesy rock n roll audio visual experience, air guitars and all. and that's what it was, an experience, a combination of tangible elements mixed with good vibe, suprise, suspense and a bit of magic (ronnie woods was outstanding). we all crave it and live music on its day delivers true experience. check the moving stage, awesome

my glastonbury highlights

friday night...the awesome arcade fire

then the ace Trentemoeller

saturday afternoon: rain, pear cider and css

saturday night: africa express...5 unbelievable hours and this is The Aliens, my new favourate band

Youtube is ridiculously good, it's like a big brain of visual memories, that seems to remember everything you're looking for. mental.

play that funky bit of wood now

i've been putting my N93i to much use. here's some interesting music performance at stokefest, london on sunday and here's some in Hanko, Finland, last week...

i'm very much digging experimentation in the musical instrument category.

best album ever...

tricky to read as i was on the bike. it says - 'the most important album you could own'? really? why? how? I own some important albums already.music marketing can often still feel wildly off the mark. i remember doing a load of focus groups for a music magazine about 3 years ago, and what was clear then was a growing distrust for magazines support for record company releases and the 'best album ever' hype scenario. i can't imagine things have got better since then. i'm sure their album's great but quotes like this kind of turn me off wanting to know more. wierdly. there's probably a term for this. negative endorsement or something.
anyway all this ranting made me have a look at their myspace page
Just seeing the total plays (nearly 1.5 million!) has got to be a more interesting message than a quote from a music magazine surely?

Zunami

busy busy as a bastard bee. vaguely back. this popped in my inbox today. i'm very curious about zune, i do a lot of work in the mobile area, it will be interesting to see how microsoft plays this one. they've done all sorts of web based pre-release activity which is nice and plugging creative expression and sharing is all good i s'pose. i'm wondering how the zune sharing dynamic will develop? will zune to zune sharing between strangers on a bus or walking down a street become a reality? it's a nice vision but a tough one to crack in reality, particularly when drm and monetizing are key objectives. peer2peer file sharing on the web is what it is because of the lack of restrictions or need for compatibility. got a fast web connection? you can get anything you want. for this to really kick off in the mobile world there's going to be a need for a hell of a lot of zune's in people's hands. beware.

desktop turntablism

the macdaddy sent me this. its a fun app, really easy to use which gives you a pair of virtual turntables and a mixer and allows you to drag and drop tracks from your itunes and mix them up - and it's idiot proof, the step up is that it includes pitch controls and a fader and it's fairly responsive. I tried to use headphones to cue up one track but this

suggests i need a another plug in. anyway big up to these guys for the work, look forward to a headphone cue solution soon!

hot hot chip

love hotchip. saw them last night and they rocked it. what gets me is the sheer enthusaism for what they're doing and the fact that you can chill at home to their stuff or jump up and down like a loon in a sweaty venue. the same songs but a bit of tweaking and knob twiddling provides a total different experience. genius. how many other bands could be on stage doing a bit of last minute soundchecking without anyone in the sold out crowd noticing? brilliant. and i love joe the big guy's dance moves. non stop. doing a lot of work at the moment on brands and music. how different category brands try to align themselves with music or increasingly create music properties or experiences. it's a cluttered space which in my view needs really meaningful thinking and commitment for long term success. the hotchip brand experience will take some beating.

And Vinyly...

so the idea here is when you die, these guys take your ashes and press them into a piece of vinyl with a recording for your family, or your favourite soundtrack...