We’ve just got back from a week of festivals (more on that later) only to find that the lovely ali jamieson has encoded an old ambient drum and bass mix I did about 10 years ago (maybe more) from it’s original cassette format into mp3s (in two parts, so you can enjoy that “turn over the tape” moment again) for you to stream, download and listen to. Hope you appreciate it in all it’s glorious mid rich TDK AD90 Dolby quality.
In other news, after a small prod from the lovely Penny Jones I’ve just uploaded an old bootleg of mine on to soundcloud – The remarkably silly “Bring the Schnauss” is now available free of charge to you, dear reader.
Ok, so festival No.3 – Big Chill Festival at Eastnor Castle – is now out of the way, and I’m half way through the festival line up for the year. Playing at the Big Chill has always been a highlight and without their support I doubt I would’ve continued DJing for so long, or had the career that I’ve had. The majority of my friends have all come about because of The Big Chill, so the emotional ties are stronger with The Big Chill than any other organisation. No other organisation has had such a profound effect on me, and that effect will last for many years to come.
Earlier this year Chillfest, the company behind The Big Chill, went into liquidation and it was looking decidedly dodgy for their future. In stepped Festival Republic (the organisation behind, Leeds, V, Reading, Latitude, The Electric Picnic and Glastonbury to name but a few) and they bought the brand, keeping on creative director Katrina Larkin. With such a corporate company stepping in to save it from dying two things were obvious:
1) The Big Chill wouldn’t die, it would be around for a long while yet
2) It would be radically different from previous incarnations.
So it was with a curious and skeptical eye and ear that I attended this year. Sadly, my role as a Compere had vanished so I’d ingratiated myself into the Big Chill Radio crew, but I was also booked as a DJ in one of the cocktail bars – The Monkey Shoulder Treehouse (see pic. thanks to Debbie Keen). The following text is what I posted on the Big Chill Forum as part of the feedback about peoples experiences ( http://forum.bigchill.net/index.php?/topic/698769-big-chill-2010/page__view__findpost__p__2290334 ) :
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On the whole: Not bad. I had a good time.
It’s certainly gone through a radical transformation in both the front and back stage areas and often it felt that some one had pretended to put on a big chill, building the site up from photographs from previous years.
Goodings
The site seemed to work quite well, in moving people about from one end to the other and it looked lovely, with many little touches like the ziggurat and the globe lights. The Enchanted Garden certainly had a lovely vibe about it and I’d wished I had more time and energy to explore it in greater detail than I did. I loved the lampshades on the festoon lighting
The loos (and this only applies to in arena public ones) were on the whole, fine. Mostly well stocked, and with wash basins out side and lots of that instant handwash. They were well lit and I rarely had to queue.
The Bars seemed busy but service was quick and the staff seemed happier too.
Crumpets. NOM!
Explosions in the sky, Thom Yorke, Massive Attack on Friday was just fantastic line up. I was so happy.
Toddler T at the Starburst stage. AWE + SOME.
Tracklisting TSO’s ambient set. Double Plus Great.
I had one of the best DJ experiences in my life up at the Monkey Shoulder Bar on Saturday night. It was the first time playing out with Torq and it went really well (in so much there were a couple of technical issues, but I fixed them and it worked fine from there on in). The view from the bar was beautiful, overlooking the whole site and there were plenty of smiling, gurning, gyrating punters at the bar, dancing in the sunset and occasional showers. Nice drinks too.
Camping in Production was such a great escape from the festival and it meant I could get decent spates of sleep as and when required between my radio shifts.
Working on the Radio was awesome. Made new friends, worked hard, listened to awesome music and have a million and one stories to tell. For instance, I tracklisted Sir Norm’s set on Sunday so managed to watch him in action, move from a quietly unhappy and hurt man, to a smiling, ebullient and chilled musical genius. A genuine rare and unique opportunity and I was proud to be part of the crew that turned his experience of the weekend around. And it was a top set too.
A lack of gas & balloons.
It was great to catch up with so many good friends, many of them I only get to see in a field these days.
Lots of very nice people saying how much they missed me talking between acts on the main stage (you made me cry)
It was great to see so many young people on site. You’re the future of festivals and it’s great to see you coming along.
Disco Shed – one big throbbing love for you guys.
Katrina resplendent in Blue (clothed).
My van.
Baddings
It seemed that the programming was done by people with no idea of who the actual artists where are where they would work best, and more about how much each artist had been paid.
There seemed to be an incredible lack of respect for artists – Norman Jay being soundchecked over, the late night DJs on the main stage playing a half an hour after the last live band, and then the stage crews working with work lights striking the stage down for the night while they played – Joe Goddard played to an empty, rubbish filled field; Bonobo (a 12 piece band) playing on the smallest stage you have ever seen. Chillfest always made you feel special and welcome at any of their events, it appears that Festival Republic couldn’t give a sh1t about them.
The Clash Stage was so small it was beyond a joke. It looked like some teen with a rich daddy and no class had knocked it up. Burn it. Seriously.
A lack of love/joy/care from the top of the chain that just filtered down to all the staff. I didn’t meet many working people (both paid and voluntary) would wanted to be there, nor who felt that they were wanted.
No flexibility from event staff.
Being forced into buying a live in vehicle ticket that I didn’t actually need. :/
‘There is no “Last Year”‘.
Watching a head honcho ball out menial staff in full view of everyone over trivial, minor matters. Get a grip.
“Alan” but yea, ok I was young once too and damn I was a precocious brat at that age.
My showing of First Light (360 degree edit) was (on a personal level) incredibly disappointing.
Sailor Jerry’s “brand new” shanty town bar, with security. This was the new Rizla stage and I didn’t want to be part of it.
Sky TV adverts.
No screens or cameras on the main stage. The sound system on that stage had been ramped up too, and I have no idea why.
A distinct lack of visuals.
But on the whole I did have a good time at the Festival, I just didn’t really think it was a “Big Chill” festival. Faux Chill, more like.
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Anyway, that’s enough Big Chill navel gazing. Next week is Green Man and then the weekend after that is Festinho and Solfest, so expect a little radio silence until September. Until then, here’s this weeks
Tracklisting:
The Orb – Live ‘93 – A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld (Loving U)
Echaskech – The Calm
Wagon Christ – Receiver
Magnetic Man – I Need Air
Dark Sky – Something to Lose
MJ Cole – Sincere (Nero remix)
Joy Orbison – The Shrew that could’ve cushioned the blow
Todd Edwards – I might be (MJ Cole remix)
The Books – Chain of Missing Links
School of Seven Bells – I L U
Vital Substance – Roswell
Lusine – Everything under the Sun
Zero 7 – Sleepr
The Books – A Wonderful phrase by Gandhi BTM20100812 by machv
So Festival number 2 is now done (in a series of 6) and what a weekend it was! This one was The Secret Garden Party in Cambridgeshire and I could not believe the transformation. I last went to SGP about 6 years ago when it was a rather rough, simple affair with 3 entertainment areas, about (rather posh) 1200 punters and an awful lot of rubbish – not my ideal weekend, it had to be said. Over the last few years friends have been increasingly speaking highly of the event, much to my skepticism so, riding on the coat tails of Echaskech (another day time gig so I happily took the role of roadie for the weekend again) I went with low expectations. At least this way, I figured I wouldn’t be disappointed. Though to be honest, I would have had some pretty princessy expectations to come away from this feeling let down. The site has expanded to accomodate at least ten times the audience I’d seen previously, and comfortably at that, The weather turned out in spectacular fashion, as did the beautiful festival people who attended the weekend. The site crams in so much entertainment, blending stalls and stages next to each other interwoven with many pieces of site specific art. It’s so difficult to describe the vibe of the place, but if you took Bestival and dragged it through the Green fields of Glastonbury you’d get close to what it’s like there. A lot of organically grown fun. The musical line up might not jump off the page on first glance, but with so much going on round the site at any one time, it was pretty easy to find something of interest. Anyway, it comes highly recommended. Big thanks to CJ, Toby, Dave and Dave, Erin, Penny, Chris, Chris, Ginny, Sarah, Vera, Saul, Alex, Liz, Chloe, Jools, Roger, Rupert, Nick, Hugo (hope I got everyone) for helping make the weekend very special and special thanks to Dom and Andy for being the best techtronica band on the planet and playing an absolute blinder on Sunday. Anyway – as mentioned on the show below – it’s Big Chill next weekend so, no show next week, but in the meantime here’s this week’s…
Tracklisting
Stornoway – Watching Birds
Radiohead – 15 Step
Animal Collective – No More Running
Underdog (save me) – Turin Brakes
Beak – How a Hot Air Ballon Works
Tunng – it’s because… we’ve got hair
The Long Lost – Amiss (Tunng rmx)
Shugo Tokumaru – Mushina
Cornelius – Watadori
The XX – Islands
LCD Soundsystem – One Touch
Hot Chip – Hand Me Down Your Love
Datassette – Humans
Jonsi – Animal Arithmatic
Dntel – In which our hero is decapitated by the evil king
Datassette – The Aviatrix
Sarah Jaffe – Under
The Village Orchestra – Love Theme from “Two Man Rumble”
Freescha – The Sun Is Still… Still
The Field – I have the moon… you have the internet
No time to chat, just enough time to tell you the..
Tracklisting
Fennesz – Black Sea
Dntel – In which our hero begins his long and ardous quest
The Village Orchestra – Jacob/Bad Hand at Cards
Datassette – The Aviatrix
LCD Soundsystem – You wanted a hit
Booka Shade – Teenage Spaceman
Posthuman – Ottowa (echaskech remix)
Datassette – Micro
MJ Cole (Nero remix) – Sincere
Dntel (Thaddeus Valk rmx) – Casuals
Aphex Twin – Delphium
School of Seven Bells – Half Asleep (Lusine remix)
The Field – Yesterday and Today
Unai – Oh You and I (trentemoeller rmix)
School of Seven Bells – Babelonia
Stornoway – I saw you blink
Festival Season kicked off last weekend with a journey into the country to visit Blissfields, who were celebrating their 10th year of festivalling – a worthy birthday to celebrate, especially in this “current climate” which has seen so many well loved festivals die a horrible death. Blissfields have kept going by staying small and true to it’s roots and more power to it. Sadly Echaskech were booked to play during the daylight hours so not much for me to do this time, but I did make up for it by djing on The Bubblebus again, which was a lot of huge fun – thanks to Caro, Jasper and Tom for their hospitality and generosity. Anyway… Here’s this weeks
Tracklisting
Lusine – Ask You
LCD Soundsystem – Dance yourself clean
Gorillaz – Empire Ants
Little Dragon – Never Never
Murcof – Memoria
Bonobo – Eyes Down
Pantha du Prince – Lay in a shimmer
The Village Orchestra – Lo Pencil
Beaufort Scale – Dreaming in Perivale (echaskech remix)
School of Seven Bells – Windstorm
Beak – Limozeen
Drexon Field – Limoncello Liquor is wonderful
Stornoway – The End of the Movie
Apparat – Over and Over
Echaskech – Every Touch
Digitonal – Emberkreiss
The Orb – Star 6 & 7 8 9
Sorry for the lack of update and podcasts lately, life’s been super hectic and with the festival season about to kick off I will admit that these shows might become a little irratic (tell us something we don’t know!) over the next few months and for that I appologise. Let’s hope I can make some amends to you with the
Tracklisting:
Eluvium – Amreik
Daisy – Erin Lange
The XX – VCR
Fever Ray – Coconut
Transient – forest zone
Bonobo – Prelude & Kiara
Computer Saw – Elektrocentric
Jonsi – Lilikoi Boy
Dan Deacon – Surprise Stefani
FUR – Friends (Drexon Field rmx)
Caribou – Odessa
Panthu du Prince – Bohemian Forest
Bonobo – 1009
Underworld – Luetin
Ace of Clubs – Classid 1
LCD Soundsystem – Dance yourself clean
Kelpe – Eye Candy Bath
There’s definitely something up with my track recording set up – at present I manually update the track titles in Nicecast and that gets picked up by a console log file but it’s not picking up each one and it seems to be getting worse… hmm. something more to sort out… anyway lucky for you, dear podcast listener that you get the full and proper (but probably misspellled)…
Tracklisting
Snowblink: Don’t stop till you get enough
Massive Attack: Psyche
Lost Idol: Lightwerk
Alucidnation: Technically Warm
Helios: Halving the Compass
Lusine: The Thick of It
Prince: 17 Days (Professor LaCrois remix)
Justice: New Jack
Prodigy: Wake Up Call (ft Kool Keith)
The Gossip: Spare me from the Mould
Yacht: We have everything we wanted
School of Seven Bells: White Elephant Coat
Red Snapper: Lagos Creepers
LCD Soundsystem: 45:33 (Prins Thomas diskomix)
Kraftwerk: Music Non Stop (LIve version)
Flight of the Conchords: Inner City Pressure
Telefon Tel Aviv: Introductory Nomenclature
Booka Shade: Havana Sex Dwarf
Not much to say today as I’m horrendously hung over, so here’s the
Tracklisting
Jonsi – Tornado
Dead Can Dance – The Host of Sepharim
Snowblink – PYT
Goldfrapp – Voicething
Cocteau Twins – Bluebeard
Ochre – Raido
Bonobo – Eyes Down
Burial – Distant Lights
Mint – System Cost (Echaskech Remix)
Working for a Nuclear Free City – Innocence
Q-Tip – We Fight/The Love
The Durutti Column – Brother
The Lost Idol – We can find love
Drexon Field – My Little Snowflake – Dandelion Councils God Made The Wind and The Snow Mix
Verülf – Nocturn in Noise
School of Seven Bells – Half Asleep (Alternate Version)
With me borking the recording last week I intended to just play through the tracklisting from last Wednesday as, apart from it being distorted, it wasn’t too bad a set, and with my back playing up I wanted an easy ride for this show. However that idea lasted about four tracks in when I got distracted (SQUIRREL!) and confused and couldn’t find the next planned track in Torq so I wandered off the path… and in a most delightful way . Here’s the…
Tracklisting
Verulf – Reprise
Dead Can Dance – mesmerism
Animal Hospital – Nostalgia
Transient – Kingdom of Fluff
Wisp – Daffodil
Drexon Field – August
Sigur Ros – Flugelfrelsarinn
Peter Broderick – Broken Patterns
Lunar Testing Lab – Black Sands
FUR – Friends (Drexon Field remix)
Boc Scadet – Lumen
The Durutti Column – Nina
Tunng – Sweet William
Ruxpin – Her Body Smells like Cinnamon
Isan – Cinnabar
Working For a Nuclear Free City – Over
Working For a Nuclear Free City – Dead Fingers Walking
No show from me this week, as I managed to bork the recording. Instead, by way of recompense, get your teeth into the next in the Isolated Mix series, this one coming from the man behind both Lunar Testing Lab and Secret Station Records, Eric Watson.
