Wednesday 7 December 2011

The 2009 Fadeout Podcast Archive-get them while stocks last!

In order for me to make room to hold all the forthcoming 2012 Fadeout shows, I'll be removing the 2009 shows at the end of December, so if you want them you have until 31st December to grab what you want. After that, if you're missing any from your collection (you never know, there are some people out there who are like that), please contact me and I'll see what I can do.
Obviously I'm not just wiping them from history or anything so terminal. They'll be locked away in a little safe deep in the bowels of Fadeout Towers and guarded by Molly, the resident feral Siberian house-tiger. And if you fancy your chances of getting past her, please let me know who I should send the flowers & sympathy card to...

Friday 2 December 2011

On Clarkson, And On How Perspective Is Better Than The Cure (keyboardist)

This week the British press has been alight with the news that Top Gear presenter and all round geriatric Right Wing half-wit Jeremy Clarkson had said a big bad on telly, of all places.

On November 30th, a large proportion of the public sector went on strike in protest of the government's changes in their pension scheme. I won't go into the already well-documented technicalities of it; that's really not the point of this blog.
On the same day, Jeremy Clarkson was due to appear on the live, prime-time, three-legged donkey that is 'The One Show' on BBC1 to plug some DVD or other which will be going on sale at Christmas. I've no idea what it's about, but it probably involves cars & saying out loud what some people only think quietly to themselves, normally in a quite non-politically correct manner. This is what he does year after tired, formulaic year, much like a drunk uncle at the family Christmas party once the only booze left in sight is what mouthfuls that people have abandoned in their glasses on the buffet table next to the stale quiche.

Bearing in mind Clarkson's already proven track record for foot-to-mouth related comments, The One Show presenters (no idea what their names are, which speaks volumes about the show) asked his views of the public sector strike.
Probably quite predictably, he said:

"I'd have them all shot. I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families. I mean, how dare they go on strike when they've got these gilt-edged pensions that are going to be guaranteed while the rest of us have to work for a living?"

Now, bearing in mind his idea of having to 'work for a living' involves driving around in expensive cars and commenting on them in print, this wasn't going to come across well, even if he was renowned as the UK's most productive coal miner, midwife and part time lion tamer. Predictably again, around 4000 complaints lit up the BBC's phones like petrol had been poured on them and ignited by Clarkson's smouldering cigar stub being tossed out of his car window as he left the studio.

The union body Unison wanted to see him hung from the highest tree by his gonads for these understandably offensive comments, to have him sacked from the BBC and were actively consulting legal advice on how to have this outspoken, offensive character out on his arse at the soonest convenience. In short, it was going off like a good 'un in the media; news websites headlined with it, social networks were coated in layers of thick witch-huntery, and I watched all its activity with a curious eye...

Yesterday I undertook an act remotely akin to placing my testicles on a table already occupied by a precariously stacked pile of housebricks. The act? Speaking my mind out loud. Or 'lighting the blue touchpaper and standing well back'. Either way, it was going to be either of the two.

Based on the previous evening's events, I proposed the following three theories on Twitter, having not seen them proposed anywhere else online at the time (I was at work and had to be seen as actually 'doing' some work-that's my excuse anyway):

1. "The One Show producers knew what they were doing last night. No other explanation for putting Clarkson on a dying format prime time show."
2. "J. Clarkson=21st Century Alf Garnett. A 'fictional' character who no more believes what he says on screen than Warren Mitchell."
3. "Sorry Unison; I imagine your members would like to see you spend their money on s'thing more practical than a tv witch hunt. Move on."

My justifications for the above comments are as follows:

1. The One Show is a renowned failure in programming for the BBC which despite their best efforts, ought to be taken out side and sh...oooh, better not, eh?
Anyway, for a prime-time current affairs show, it's haemorrhaging viewer numbers horribly and desperately requires something to help boost its ratings. Producers probably sit dejectedly round a table every week, frustratedly discussing what to do to inject some interest, like changes in presenters, more interesting features. Maybe even the rabid spoutings of a right wing geriatr...-hang on. I know EXACTLY where we can get hold of one! AND he's got a DVD coming out! That's the perfect excuse-get Jeremy on the blower right now!
2. It is quite possible that 'Jeremy Clarkson at home' might not actually resemble 'Jeremy Clarkson on the telly'. It's just a theory I'm throwing out to you here. It's been known to happen, and I don't believe that anyone can be that hot-headed & bloody-minded full time without actually dying of a self-induced heart attack before they reach 50 years old. Of course, if Clarkson DOES believe what he said on screen, then off to the lions with him deservedly, but I have a theory, albeit just 'a hunch', that his comments were just for the camera and the benefit of the programme producer's wishes for a brief peak in ratings. I also equate him to Alf Garnett, a popular BBC sitcom character played by Warren Mitchell. You can read about Alf, and draw your own conclusions to my theory here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alf_Garnett (I'm sorry it's a Wiki page but I can't find a better reference anywhere else).
3. Kind of self explanatory. I'm not a union member but if I was, I'd want my fee to be put to good use as a basic requirement of my membership. I don't see a pricey over-reaction by someone who is supposed to represent me as being 'responsible expenditure'.

As normal, my postings were mostly met with thin air, as I would have expected at any other time. Even when I'm at my most ranty, I can muster little more than a witty one liner from my usual suspects, and that's normally good enough for me. However, I was interested in the reaction of one person, who within five minutes or less, encapsulated every bad quality contained within the stereotype of 'hard-left rabid keyboard warrior with very little positive to say about anything'.

Cue Roger O'Donnell, a Twitter follower and probably better known as keyboardist for The Cure.
He wrote; "@CruelBritannia Stop trvialising it... You are becoming part of the problem. His attitudes are ingrained into the mindless masses who follow".

Now, I'd have replied to Roger, but by the time I'd drafted him a message to engage in some debate about the subject and discuss my theory, he'd not only unfollowed me, but to ensure I was not able to 'have a voice on the subject', he also blocked me! On Twitter, and everything!!!

Needless to say, I was heart-wrenchingly unphased beyond belief. So I scratched my bum a bit, then got a cup of tea from the machine & read a copy of The Metro.

Now, if you know Roger at all or read his tweets, you'll know that he can be a little hot-headed himself, especially when it comes to the subject of bankers, online piracy and anything at all to do with pollitics. I'd understand anyone 'unfollowing' me on Twitter due to the sheer amount of rubbish I spout on a daily basis, but for him to feel he needed to 'block' me as though I were likely to be camping outside his house, waiting to attack him with a pointy wooden stick or something seemed a bit harsh.

Or you could read it that he spat his dummy out & didn't want to see anyone else's theory. Defying this rule would result in a blocking and while he's at it, he's got his fingers in his ears, singing "La la la la la I can't hear yooou!" very loudly. Apparently I'm 'taking one for Team Clarkson' in the eyes of a musican who's band charges £150 per ticket for a gig.

I think not.

I think I'm injecting some much needed perspective into the matter. It would be interesting to see what Roger's reaction would have been if Jeremy Clarkson had said "Margaret Thatcher should be taken outside and executed in front of her family". As I've already stated on Twitter, I have no time for close-minded people who find what I post offensive to them. Followers are free to come and go, that is the good thing about Twitter. The very people who choose to hang around and read my often absurd ramblings are the sort of people I would rather be associated with; open minded, in full possession of a sense of humour and when required, diagnosed with some degree of clinical insanity.
At the end of the day, nobody can entirely excuse Clarkson's comments. He was a total idiot (not for the first time) on telly, and has predictably, apologised for his monumental gaffe on the front of every British paper gracing tables around the country. This goes some way to proving my theory that he no more believes what he says on screen than Warren Mitchell believed when playing Alf Garnett. Or if he does believe it, lacks the stones to back up his comments with any further debate.

But whatever the truth be, the world will still keep turning. Just the way I like it.

Right, I need to go off and keep the fire going with something; it's bloody cold for December. Where are my Cure Albums? ;-)

Sunday 18 September 2011

The Mashing


It's been a few years now since I was last involved in the dubious activity of smooshing two songs together to make one dodgy song. The 'mashup' business is as thick with contributing artists & DJs as any other part of the the music scene, so it's not like everyone stopped making mashups after I released "Emineldtritch-Without Lucretia". However, I can proudly say that it got airplay both sides of the globe in its time, and that's not something to be sniffed at.
If you've not heard it then all I can say was that it really was as bizarre a combination as it may sound.

Anyway to cut a long one short, I knocked up two mashups recently, so seeing as they'll only get up to no good sitting on my hard drive, I thought I'd give them to you lot for safe keeping under the collective name, 'The Mashing'.

Tracks:
Sisters Of Mercy Vs. Sir Mix-A-Lot - Baby Goth Back
The Cure Vs. Duran Duran - Girls In A Forest



Saturday 10 September 2011

Cruel Britannia's Haunted Wardrobe

I decided a few weeks back that 'The Other Fadeout' on Nightbreed Radio had run its course quite successfully and to try a new format for September. I wanted to create a show which focused primarily on the goth/darkwave/deathrock scenes more than previously, and to leave the broader spectrum of music that I air completely in the hands of 'Fadeout' on Phoenix Radio, where it all began.


With that I bring you Cruel Britannia's Haunted Wardrobe; an hour of great tunes from the aforementioned genres, with a little more 'spook' in the mix. I hope it goes down well with you.





September's show playlist looks an awful lot like this:
Snake Dance-In Your Arms I'll Die
Sex Gang Children-Beasts
Bauhaus-Boys (live)
Siouxsie-Loveless
Fear Cult-If You're Watching
Hatesex-A Rose Without Eyes
The Cure-Fascination Street
Death In June-Break The Black Ice
Killing Joke-The Raven King
Kooper Kain-You Had It Coming
Xymox-Evelyn
Garden Of Delight-Spirit Lovers
Vendemmian-Heaven
Death Party UK-She's So Hot


Update:
I can announce that The Haunted Wardrobe will also be heard on Tampa's famous Deathrock Radio. More ways to hear the show are always a good thing in my books.

Monday 15 August 2011

Forthcoming Ankst Remix and more...

This weekend I finished off the first remix I've ever done since 2007 for South African Gothic rockers Ankst.
It's for a track called 'Natal' from their forthcoming EP 'Epitaph'. It'll join several other remixes done by various artists, and as yet I have no idea who else is joining in on the project, so stay tuned to see what else the remix will be rubbing shoulders with on the release.

The last one I worked on was 'All You Used To Be' by The Faces Of Sarah. Since then, I had done some pre-production mixing of tracks for Kidderminster based industrial metal outfit Oak, due to them liking what I did for their first release 'Torn'. It turned out that I taught them a few things mix-wise, and was called into their studio for further guidance. Not bad, considering I know bugger all regarding the technical aspects, and rely solely on what my ears have heard over the decades.

I'm currently waiting on the remix stems for a track by US Deathrock legends Kommunity FK after frontman Patrik asked for me to contribute a remix. Once again, watch this space for details.

During a period when I'm beginning to look back on my roots as a musician rather than solely be a DJ & radio presenter, this is a nice segue into what hopefully might be a return to the stage one more time before I fall off my perch...

Saturday 16 July 2011

Sleaze On Toast; last night's playlist


Cheers for all those who made it on the night, I hope you had as good a time as we did DJing for you. Thanks also to those who couldn't make it but were keeping up with the live playlist on Twitter too.
I've taken a few minutes compile the #sleazeontoast Twitter trend into a comprehensive breakdown of the night's music, who played what, and save for one or two chronologically inaccurate artistic licence choices (it's not a crime is it?), we made people feel very, very old to the following soundtrack...

SLEAZE ON TOAST @ THE HAYGATE, TELFORD 15TH JULY 2011

JIM HAWKINS
New Order-Blue Monday
Art Of Noise-Close To The Edit
Landscape-Einstein A Go Go
Japan-Quiet Life
Joy Division-Transmission
Magazine-The Light Pours Out Of Me
Bill Nelson-Do You Dream In Colour

CRUEL BRITANNIA
Duran Duran-Friends Of Mine
Echo & The Bunnymen-Back Of Love
Gene Loves Jezebel-Desire
The Cure-A Forest
B-Movie-Nowhere Girl
Clan Of Xymox-A Day
March Violets-Snake Dance

JIM HAWKINS
Cult-She Sells Sanctuary
Killing Joke-Love Like Blood
The Mission-Wasteland
Sisters Of Mercy-This Corrosion
Fields Of The Nephilim-Moonchild
Siouxsie & The Banshees-Spellbound
Zodiac Mindwarp & the Love Reaction-Prime Mover

CRUEL BRITANNIA
Tenpole Tudor-Swords Of A Thousand Men
Bauhaus-Kick In The Eye
All About Eve-Every Angel
The Bolshoi-Away
Wah!-The Story Of The Blues
Psychedelic Furs-Love My Way
New Order-Everything's Gone Green
Ultravox-Sleepwalk

JIM HAWKINS
Nine Inch Nails-Head Like A Hole
Ministry-Jesus Built My Hotrod
Iggy Pop-Lust For Life
Rob Zombie-Dragula
The Normal-Warm Leatherette
John Foxx-Underpass
Kraftwerk-The Model

CRUEL BRITANNIA
Soft Cell-Torch
Cardiacs-Is This The Life?
The Cult-Go West
Sisters Of Mercy-Temple Of Love
Siouxsie & The Banshees-Cities In Dust
New Model Army-Vagabonds
Killing Joke-80s

JIM HAWKINS
Julian Cope-World Shut Your Mouth
Joy Division-She's Lost Control
Rosetta Stone-Adrenaline (Hard Mix)
Soft Cell-Sex Dwarf
Bauhaus-Bela Lugosi's Dead

CRUEL BRITANNIA
Depeche Mode
-
People Are People
Gary Numan-We Are Glass
Furniture-Brilliant Mind
The Cure-In Between Days
New Model Army-225
Danse Society-Somewhere
Human League-The Lebanon
Smiths-This Charming Man

JIM HAWKINS
Pigbag-Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag
Visage-Fade To Grey
Eurythmics-Sweet Dreams
Siouxsie & the Banshees-Spellbound
Shakespears Sister-Stay
Rob Dougan-Clubbed To Death (Kurayamino Variation)

Wednesday 1 June 2011

An interview with Sylvia Lancaster about S.O.P.H.I.E


Sylvia speaks to DJ Cruel Britannia in a phone interview about what the S.O.P.H.I.E. Campaign is up to now, new developments & strategies, and how she appreciates the support & contributions of the Goth Community. Click the player below to listen (requires Flash).




Sleaze On Toast; an Alt 80's night in Telford!


A blatant excuse for both Jim & I to crack out the 'diet goth' for a night and entertain the folks for whom all that suff was the soundtrack to their lives before the kids, the marriage & the day job? Maybe.

But it's all for charidee, mate.

We're planning a similar fundraiser event in Shrewsbury for the S.O.P.H.I.E campaign in September, so watch this space.
UPDATE: it seems that the magic of the t'interweb is available to us onstage; this will enable us to be able to 'tweet' our playlists as we go, so you can see what we're playing more or less live on the night. Hopefully that will magically encourage those of you who are elsewhere on the night to haul ass down to the Haygate for last orders or sooner.

Let's face it, it's either that or the telly, and you're not missing anything on the idiot box on a Friday night...


UPDATE #2: I'll be sticking QR codes around the pub which, if you possess a smartphone and a relevant app, will magicly transport you to the Twitter search string for any posts with the hashtag "#sleazeontoast", which is what we'll be putting after each tweet containing a song we've played. Once again, this is entirely dependant on the gods smiling on us tonight and allowing us the internet connection to do it...

Friday 20 May 2011

May, World Goth Day and all that stuff.

I haven't blogged for a bit, mainly because I didn't have much to say and didn't want to write anything just for the sake of it. However, World Goth Day is creeping up fast (only just over a day away now from this point) and I feel slightly obliged to get a few words down.

This year, more events have been announced than in 2010 and from a personal perspective, I'm very pleased to see the Middle & Far East also announcing events in Beirut & Singapore. Not the most likely of places on the planet, granted, but that's got to be half the charm.

Media interest has been healthy, with regular articles appearing in Dominion Magazine and hot off the press so to speak, LA Weekly, and as recent article from renowned US blogger Bryan Reesman.

It occurred to me that the few writeups I have haven't been properly consolidated, so here is what there is so far which relate to World Goth Day that I can find:

Bryan Reesman's latest WGD Blog:


Thrash Hits (from 2010):

Fadeout will be a 2-hour World Goth Day Special on both Phoenix and Nightbreed Radio at the following times:

Because I'm that kind of guy, the show will be made available as a podcast at http://fadeout.podomatic.com the following day.

Anyway, have yourself a lovely World Goth Day and if you happen to take & some photos of what you've been up to and put them online, send a link over to info at worldgothday dot com where I'll try & compile all the links on one page.

Wednesday 20 April 2011

How to add a Nightbreed Radio stream shortcut to your iPhone/iPod Touch

Convenience. You can't beat it. Coffee, food, all sorts of things accessed by the single push of a button.
So it made perfect sense for me to figure out how to access an internet radio station from the single press of a button.

I suppose that you could trawl the Apple app store to find one that would allow you to access Nightbreed Radio, maybe even charge you for the privilege.
OR you could just follow the steps below that I knocked up through a little bit of tatting about.
The simple instructions below will make a direct shortcut to Nightbreed Radio's stream on your iPhone/iPod Touch-just press & listen, like radio should be accessed in my humble opinion...

Once I've figured out how to attach the Nightbreed logo icon " " to this shortcut I'll let you know (this option already works for adding a shortcut to the Nightbreed Radio website to your homescreen)

1. Open http://nightbreedradio.com in Safari on your iPhone/iPod Touch
2. Scroll down the page until you reach the 'HOW TO LISTEN TO THIS STATION' section.
3. Press & hold on the Radionomy .M3U link until options for it pop up from the bottom of the screen.
4. Choose the 'Open in New Page' option.
5. A new page will open and the stream will automatically start playing through Safari's Quicktime player plugin.
6. Press 'Done' in the top left-hand corner of the screen & a blank screen will appear.
7. Press the middle button at the bottom of the screen which looks like an arrow pointing out of a box.
8. Select the 'Add to Home Screen' option
9. Name the shortcut something relevant, like 'Radio Nightbreed' or 'Nightbreed Player'
10. Tap the top right-hand 'Add' button and you're done!

Friday 15 April 2011

Dominion Magazine: interview with DJ Cruel Britannia about World Goth Day

Taken from Dominion Magazine, April 14th:


The Crazy World of Cruel Britannia on World Goth Day

By Cassandra on Apr 14, 2011 | In Features | Send feedback »

World Goth Day according to Cruel Britannia.
World Goth Day is quickly approaching. To those few people not in the know, it's on Sunday May 22 and it's a world wide phenomenon. I spoke to Cruel Britannia, the man behind the initial idea of this weird and wholly wonderful venture. The result of my enquiries is what I expected of Cruel: a tongue-in-cheek and rather amusing insight.
I asked Cruel ''why on earth did you think that us down-trodden Goths were worthy of a World Goth Day?''. He said ''In short, why not?''.

Initially the concept was started by a weekend special of musical genres on BBC 6Music back in 2009 and the day that concentrated on goth music was May 22nd. They ultimately made a good job of it from what I heard on the radio. The first I heard of it all was on the Whitby Gothic Weekend forum when a scout from the BBC posted a thread on it asking if anyone took the goth scene into their day jobs, such as dentists with black aprons and suchforth''

''Either way, something went 'clunk' in my mind one evening (probably too much caffeine) and I brainstormed a blog on Myspace about how the whole country should have a 'Goth Day' and celebrate what the goth scene means to them, rather than it just being constrained to a commercial radio special. I even hit photoshop and created what we now know as the Goth Day Smiley that evening so that people could print it out and splash it around their home or workplace''

''What I wasn't expecting was for people to take notice and do exactly what I'd ranted on about. I'm used to being ignored the other 364 days of the year, so why that day? Gawd only knows. Nowadays, the Myspace blog is long gone now along with my Myspace account, but the concept stuck. Last year Martin Oldgoth and I decided to bother the whole world with it using the tried and trusted methods of social networking, a forum and a website with freely downloadable stuff (because let's face it, everyone follows the free cookie trail).The results were more than satisfactory, what with several events ranging from full blown goth nights to picnics, barbeques and themed Race For Life participations all over the world''

The common mis-conception and continual wind-up is the outsiders view of Goths, I asked Cruel if he thought that we Goths were happy to be miserable and down-trodden, or to appear to be. His reply was that he didn't think so at all. ''Most of the goths who were there from the start simply aren't comfortable with being insular and moody anymore, they've matured a little with age and, dear god, developed a sense of humour that they don't mind showing in public''

''I think the stereotype of the self-harming, heartwrenched bedroom poet that outsiders tag us with has been whipped off our Bauhaus t-shirts and given to the Emos to be honest. Even Robert Smith is looking slightly jolly nowadays, and not just in the waistline''

When I asked Cruel what he thought the National Anthem should be I didn't expect the answer I got, which was Europe's 'The Final Countdown', however, he elaborated after apologising profusely and said ''seriously though, I'm probably one of the worst ones to ask that question of; as a DJ I have a new favourite song every ten minutes. To think of a song that encapsulates and celebrates the very essence of the goth scene, AND be good and catchy enough to sing along to is nigh on impossible''.

''However, I've just now had this spontaneous mental image of the 1970's Coca Cola advert where, instead of there being a hill full of hippies singing about how they want to teach the world to sing, a thousand goths are all atop a sunny mountainside throwing shapes to 'Shadowdance' by Eyes Of The Nightmare Jungle.''

''The current crop of post punk and dark edged indie bands that we see now have given the scene a light we can all follow, and for a long time there hasn't been a light to follow other than one we thought to have been carried by someone who turned out to be quick enough to disconnect himself from the goth scene (No hints needed here on who that is). But I reckon that one of those bands will come up with an anthem if anyone can.''
Cruel would really like the idea of World Goth Day going even more global and like our youth, lasting for an eternity. Martin and Cruel sound like they've been chucking various strange ideas around about it and they both appear to be taken by the idea of wearing gold lame tuxedo jackets to present the World Goth Day awards, worryingly I can visualise this.
''Ultimately, I want to see WGD being celebrated yearly without me having to push it so hard from behind a Twitter account, I'd like to see it take off by itself and for promoters to go ahead and create events for people to attend because they know May is coming each year. Pure and simple. We've planted a seed together, I'd like to see us nurture it for the rest of the life of the goth scene!''
You will no dounbt have realised that Cruel Britannia has a rather active imagination and a fairly healthy outlook on life, the universe and pretty much everything to with Goth. Some of his ideals are slightly less achievable, such as ''a total ban of the use of the Comic Sans font in all school letters to parents''. Failing that ''I'd quite like the leaders of all nations to recognise the goth scene as a nation in itself, offer us an island which we will predictably call 'Goth Island' and we can all move there to live in perfect harmony and bring up our gothlings in peace without any intolerance. On Friday afternoons, we'll set aside 5 minutes to throw ridiculous shapes to 'Shadowdance' or something. Oh yeah, I'd like to see the minimum goth DJ fee to be set at £1000''.

''Lastly, when I finally fall off my perch (which hopefully won't be too soon), I'd like my gravestone to be engraved with 'World Goth Day; it was partly his fault'.''
Dominion has it's own World Goth Day event - World Goth Day Dominion Magazine Show on May 22 but there are things starting to pop up all over the place, keep your eyes and ears open for something happening in your bit of the world.

Monday 4 April 2011

Radio Fadeout: The Mix Archive

To cut a long story short (though i don't really need to ; it's my blog, dammit), I got a new car over the weekend. After many years of driving round in rudimetary automobiles that barely have an engine & wheels, I've finally joined the ranks of drivers with cars that have central locking and - amazingly - a CD player.
To take full advantage of the latter, I knew I had to do what is almost expected of me; fill the entire car with CD's to listen to. Not quite like some people who have them spilling out of every crevice & compartment that the car possesses, but definitely enough to temporarily quell my insanely short musical attention span.
That's when I remembered Radio Fadeout.
Back in the days of my old weekly goth night Hex In The City, I used to create a podcast consisting partly of tracks played at 'Hex' to give people a bit of a taster as to what they should expect if they turned up. At the same time, I'd burn these mixes of music to CD to use during the first quiet hour or two of the night where maybe only a few people would be in. I'd stick it on & go round saying Hi to people, asking how they were, etc. It was that sort of night; a welcoming atmosphere where you could come in, feel at home & more inportantly, want to come back next week as well.
Anyway, many years after Hex, the CD's I made all sat in storage, never seeing the light of day. I had made 22 of them in total running from September 2004 to December 2006. I'd lost the very first one to the pub Hex In The City was hosted in; I'd lent it to the landlady & never saw it again. However, the rest are still in good condition & waiting to be stuck in a CD wallet in the car. But not before I ripped them to single MP3 format mixes first.
I'm still wading my way through the labourious task of individually typing out & embedding the playlist into each file-I'm on number 9 at this point-but when I've finished, I'll upload the lot to my 4Shared storage for everyone to have (if you want it of course), so you can own a little piece of Hex In The City history. All 21 mixes, weighing in at just a few seconds under 21 hours.
Owing to the amount of playlist info & dates, I think I'll probably create a web-page of download links so you can have a bit of a read while you're downloading. I'm nice like that.
Watch this space.

Monday 14 February 2011

Dominion Magazine Profile


Apparently I'm interesting (interesting, not important I hasten to add) enough to be the feature profile in the online version of Dominion Magazine.
I'm in a category called 'Movers & Shakers' which will feature many of the top goth DJ's on the planet, right now it's my turn.
You can read it here:

Thursday 10 February 2011

I couldn't give a Flying Lizard.

Here's three things about the seminal cover track 'Money' by The Flying Lizards you might not know.

(1)
The single version of 'Money' is a convenient 2 minutes and 32 seconds in length, whereas the album version is a whopping 5 minutes and 52 seconds long.

(2)
The latter end 3 minutes and 20 seconds of the album version is not only longer than the single edit by nearly a minute, but reduces into a mish mash of out-of-tune dub basslines & general monkeying about with the echo effects, and not in a cool 'Bela Lugosi's Dead' kind of way either.

(3) I'm still going to be quite annoyed about the 3 minutes and 20 seconds of my life that I'll never get back when I go to bed tonight.

The rest of the album was shit too.

Friday 28 January 2011

A New Mix:Disturbia.

This week I put the finishing touches to a new mix born out of a need to create, experiment and the knowledge that it's been some time since I last made one.
"Cruel Britannia's Disturbia" is a combination of the more sinister leanings of a previous mix "Uneasy Listening Vol.1", random segues of noise & dialogue and the often ingeniously haphazard styles of music the late John Peel would air on his shows.
All the tracks in 'Disturbia' are of electronica, industrial and alternative (back when it was deemed 'properly' alternative music) genres, interweaved with oddments of noises & sounds from Brass Eye, Jeremy Kyle shows, ang god only knows what else. It's definitely not just another 'goth mix', it was never intended to be.
Whether it makes the grade of 'listenable' is purely a personal thing-it was certainly a bit disturbing when I played the whole mix back to myself (hence the name 'Disturbia'). At times it comes across almost like an amateur take on one of  P.Emerson William's Necrofuturist Transmission shows but with with a decidedly British sense of humour throughout.
Listen out for it on Nightbreed Radio in February. You'll either love it or hate it, but either way you couldn't ignore it.

Wednesday 5 January 2011

RIP Mick Karn; 1958-2011



From Mick Karn's official homepage:

"Mick finally lost his battle with cancer and passed away peacefully at 4.30pm today, 4th January 2011 at home in Chelsea, London. He was surrounded by his family and friends and will be deeply missed by all."

Japan was one of my primary favourite bands during the 80's, and the almost snake-like sounds Karn's fretless bass made were so unique that almost nobody could imitate him. He was one of the main artists responsible for me wanting to play bass. RIP MIck.