Break The Code And Scatter
August 31, 2006
 I just stumbled across this great music blog, Scattermish, [via Hype Machine - an audio blog aggregator]. Scattermish is a musician and DJ, using Ableton and Final Scratch to create his mixes. I like the way that he uploads his mix and then links to [mostly] free copies of the individual tracks to download.
It's a nice blend of Hip-Hop/Electro too. He needs to add an atom feed to his Blogger page though I reckon. there are also links to to artist websites, including the inevitable MySpace pages.
Not sure of the legality of Hype Machine, but it's a good idea. It's tag line of "find music you never knew you liked" is pretty fitting. I guess they don't actually host any tunes though. Just links to blogs that do... So I suppose they are in the clear at least! Anyway, I'm experimenting with their Now Playing list, bottom right. It looks a bit untidy, so I may not keep it... I get a feed of all that goes on there in Netvibes anyway.
Check this out! Over at Wired...
"To the uninitiated, modern jazz can sound like a secret language, full of unpredictable melodies and unexpected rhythms. For alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa, however, the idea of jazz as code is more than just a metaphor. Mahanthappa is best known for combining avant-garde jazz with Indian classical music. But for his latest release, Codebook, from Pi Recordings, the artist looked instead to cryptography and number theory for inspiration. [The album's title pays homage to The Code Book, a history of cryptography by the British science writer Simon Singh]."
This is right up my nerdy street... The first track for instance, The Decider, is derived from the Fibonacci sequence. Other parts are constructed from morse code. Niiiiice!
Wired also have a piece on Kami-Robo, hence the picture.
Categories: Music, Books
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Under A Giraffe Darkly
August 21, 2006
 UNDERWORLD
The Misterons Mix
Don't forget to Download your free Underworld [if you've bought the three previous downloads] mix... It's been available for 6 weeks actually, but I didn't notice.
Just got back from A Scanner Darkly, which was bit of a let down. Quite a good yarn, one I wasn't previously familiar with, but everything seemed a bit flat. I didn't think the Rotoscoping added anything to it and the "boiling" added a Roobarb & Custard quality that got a tad annoying after a bit. And that was what I was most excited about seeing! I should have watched the A-ha Take On Me video again!
My attention wandered at least three times... I'm not sure that it was the length of the movie but the editing. It lacked a bit of pace for me. Robert Downey Jr. seemed to have based his speech patterns on Adam West period Batman as well!
Had a nice lunch at Giraffe before [Middle Eastern mezze and a mango, bacon, Stilton and avocado salad [that didn't appear to have any avocado in it!] - Rose Rioja and Brooklyn Beer. Giraffe sell the Putumayo range of World Music CDs as well, which is a nice touch as their menu is sort of an edible equivalent.
Went to The Hive Honey Shop afterwards, to see the bees, but it was shut due to the weather bothering the bees or something. Do they get cross when it rains? The Hive is housed within the shop and is a 5 foot high, glass-fronted beehive, home to 20,000 live bees!
I've just added this kmz file that marks the locations of the various places we visited today in Google Earth. Something I might consider doing for each post or just updating each time to map everywhere we go. Just right click and save as *****.kmz [it defaulted to Win Zip when I tried it!]
Categories: Music, London, Movies, Food & Drink
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Horniman Jerk
August 20, 2006
 Went to the Horniman Museum today to see the new Aquarium - Which was unbelievably busy [it is free] with families everywhere! It's not a huge aquarium though, so it didn't take long to negotiate the gaggles of kids with noses glued to the tanks. Nice thing to have practically on your doorstep though.
On the way in we noticed hordes of folk heading into the gardens as well. Given the cloudy, overcast day that seemed odd, until we saw the sign advertising the Jerk Cook Out! So when we came out we followed our noses and found a dozen or so stalls selling Caribbean food with steel drum accompaniment... Didn't stop it raining a bit though but that didn't spoil our jerk chicken, rice & peas. Bought from Jerk Rock, whose restaurant we later found in Lordship Lane.
The Horniman shop had these great cuddly singing garden birds made by the RSPB. And a large range of the Rough Guide To World Music series of CDs amongst other stuff!
Categories: Music, London, Food & Drink
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BB Beta... Radiosthetics
August 19, 2006
 This Beta/Google/Blogger stuff is getting on my wick logging in...
But still, Pete won BB and that's good... Although the poor lad was too excited to really make the most of his exit.
Personally, I'm calming myself down listening to the latest tunes from Benn Loxo Du Taccu, particularly N'Guxi by Paulo Flores. Followed by the Spellbound Theremin podcasts.
I spent a few hours the other night wandering around in Second Life, which looks all well and good, but to be honest, if you have the time to live a "second life" you're not really living the first one...
Nice to see Tom Ravenscroft dipping his toe into "radio", albeit Podcasting, with his SlashMusic show starting next week... Tom's not one to even dare step into his father's footsteps but I imagine JP would be intrigued to see what he turns up though!
Once these tunes are finished I'll be looking at the Colour Of My Sound site...
That's probably me done for the weekend... Enjoy!
BTW, I've been working on a new picture [Photoshop edit/painting] for the site. That's me up the top there... Sorry!
Categories: Music, Web, Blogging
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USB Turntable
August 15, 2006
 I think I need one of these... The problem is, if I get one, when am I going to find the time to sit down and actually transfer all that vinyl to my PC?
I've probably replaced a good deal of the albums with CDs by now, but there are a
ton of 12"s that I could do... given the time.
Damned good idea mind!
Anybody got any office space to rent in South London? Because the Urban Art office needs to relocate. And it would be a shame if that wasn't on next year.
Categories: Music, Art, London
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Netaudio '06
August 14, 2006
 Netaudio’06 is a celebration of the communal effort and productivity of netlabel activists and musicians. The events, running from September 15th - 16th, will offer a platform for artists to display their work, expand their network within the community and facilitate opportunities to improve their skills. Netaudio’06 promises exciting new music from artists whose music has been released through the medium of netlabels. It aims to offer a broad range of electronic music to both existing audiences as well new, introducing and promoting the netlabel format to a wider public.
netaudiolondon.cc is an online platform providing information about Netaudio’06 and other similar events worldwide as well as regularly reviewing netlabel releases. The festival is a non-profit venture initiated by Cenatus Music Projects and represents the collaborative effort of many partners in London and worldwide.
Netaudio'06: Venues
Candid Arts Centre
3 Torrens St, London, EC1V 1NQ
Electrowerkz
7 Torrens St, London, EC1V 1NQ
The gallery and the night club are situated adjacent to each other in a small side street, 1 min walk from Angel tube station.
Categories: Music, London, Web
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Sony GPS-CS1
August 11, 2006
 Looks as though Sony will be bringing out a GPS receiver for a certain amount of their digital cameras. So my next camera may well be a Sony. Either a DSLRA-100 Alpha or a Cyber-Shot H5. Of course they dont say if the GPS-CS1 will be compatible with any other manufacturers cameras, but then they wouldn't!
Still haven't sorted my Geo Tags properly yet. Check the maps page to see how far I've got.
Categories: Web, Photography
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Trying To Fathom Where I've Been?
August 10, 2006
I have just started Geo-tagging all my photos... Mainly because I am holed up with a stinking cold and can no longer sleep without having feverish dreams that are as exhausting as the incessant nose-blowing required whilst awake!
I am trying a few methods so there maybe a few confused results until I settle on one I'm comfortable with. Most of them have initially been done using Google Earth to add to my Flickr Map. It's not 100% accurate, either because I can't remember exactly where the photograph was taken or Google Earth doesn't have pictures at a good enough resolution to place them accurately. Also seems to be a bit hit and miss about what and when it updates.
I am also using GMIF so you can see a GMap tag on each individual photo on Flickr and a pop-up Google Map will appear on that photos page. This has used the information from the process above and there are a few irregularities on things I expected to be spot on! My Brighton pictures have appeared somewhere else in Sussex I've never heard of!
Ideally I'd like a camera with GPS that puts the info into EXIF for me, but there aren't any quality ones out there yet - So I'll have to get myself a bluetooth GPS for my [next] mobile... or get a PDA!
I'm going to try the iTag software as well. This also uses Google Earth, but uses .kmz/.kml placemarks to add data to EXIF. It can also add GPX data for tracing routes etc. Which is handy if you have a lot of photos from a particular journey and already own a GPS [GPX being the XML format for exchanging GPS data between apps]. So would have been great on our Coastal path walk in Cornwall earlier in the year!
iTag does need Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 installed. Not sure what this is going to do to the existing geo data I've already created, but we shall see... So long as I don't have to go through Flickr and manually delete 500+ photos worth of Geo tags.
Categories: Web, Photography
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