The O2 Arena

I have been to the O2 more than is healthy in the last month - actually only twice but meh... and both times were awesome. Firstly an epic display of how to blow away a stadium crowd by Muse, and secondly Placebo's biggest UK gig to date. I won't go into the pros and cons of Muse - I like them but from the people I talk to they seem to be distinctly Marmite-esque. Having said that I don't think many other bands of the decade can quite pull off what Muse can live in front of 20 000 people. I would put up some photos but we were too far back for my crap phone camera to be effective!

And on the subject of seats... despite booking Placebo a bit last minute we got some funky seats - just above the standing area and on the mid-right. But to the music - the support was mixed with Silversun Pickups putting on a fun and energetic show despite getting a bit carried away at the end of every song. The Horrors however were not as good as when I saw them at Field Day, their first two songs were barely listenable to due to some appalling vocals. After that though I thought they got much better even if popular opinion would say otherwise. Anyway Placebo rocked so all was good. From blindly white stage (white painted amps and Stefan's silver suit) to confetti filled finale they put on a good show, helped along by the nicely excessive live lineup (guitar, bass, keyboards/synths, electric violin and backing strings and that's without Brian, Stefan and Steve). Being quite a fan of the last two albums the setlist suited me fine and of course they threw in some classics. Oh and I saw one of my professors in the crowd - most random. Anyways obligatory photos if you continue scrolling...

Crunchie Boost Layouts

Here are the strip board layouts I am using for the various parts of the Crunchie Boost. It is taking shape nicely now - soon I'll get some funky waveforms to study. (See earlier posts for components).

Power supply...

Preamp (the Boost)...

Tube amp (the Crunch)...

The Noisettes at Shepherds Bush

Went to see the Noisettes at the Empire in Shepherds Bush the other week and so as always here are some photos and musings. I have to say I'm not a massive fan of their album - it's a bit too pop-ish and seems kind of flat which is a real shame since they have a lot of energy live especially Shingai Shoniwa. Her jumping round the stage whilst singing and playing bass made me exhausted just watching. And as if that wasn't enough, balancing on the drum kit and dangling from the first level balcony just about completed the show. Lots of people (i.e. the internet) seemed to think their choice of setlist was not ideal because they put Don't Upset The Rhythm too early but I disagree - there never seemed to be a lull in energy so what's the problem? Anyways add to this a guitarist who, although always slightly creepy, could play the guitar with his teeth and a drummer with an epic indie beard and starry socks, and you have what was a pretty entertaining gig. Lastly I can't not mention MPhO who were supporting and also surprisingly good. They had a certain Noisettes feel about them but with a bit of funky-pop going on. Here are the pics...

(thanks Jess for this one)

So having spent most of the day feeling crap in bed I thought I'd achieve something by posting the latest photos the the Crunchie Boost. After blowing things up and generally taking far too long to assemble what should have been a simple circuit, I now have a power supply. It uses the LT1054 and actually works! With the standard Boss power I get 9.11V and now I have -8.31V in addition. This is perfect for the preamp section and should be ok for the tube too (though not the tube heater). Therefore, next stop - getting some crunch.

Post Fail

I need to rant...

Online shopping in the past few years has become pretty awesome, in fact to the point where you could easily buy 90% of everything you need without ever having to leave the house. Websites are easier to use and payment is quick and less risky than before things such as Paypal. However, there remains the problem of delivery. Most delivery firms are, I have decided, incompetent, unhelpful and while attempting to introduce web-based or automated features are still not addressing the main problems.

I thought some companies were ok but I have had shit service from DHL and HDNL to name a couple, and everyone else thinks Royal Mail are rubbish (although I would say they are the best of a bad bunch). One of the main problems is their inability to specify a delivery time, just stating the day on which it will arrive is useless for anyone who does any kind of work. Secondly even if you can rearrange a delivery and find a day that you are willing to waste, I have had a least three occasions where I have waited in only for them to fail to turn up. This is totally unacceptable - you don't expect when paying for something for your credit card to say "oh wait sorry can't sell you that but we'll charge you anyway and maybe you can get it some other time". You then try to contact the branch at which your parcel is being held, but this is basically impossible because they only give you a phone number for the central services. Finally on deciding to go and fetch the parcel yourself you realise that the depot is miles away and nowhere near any kind of sensible public transport and even if you do get there, it has just defeated one of the points of shopping online in the first place.

Rant over. Now someone sort out a better postal service.

I'm back (with a new studio)

Well it's been a long time - mainly due to a lack of internet, the general stress of moving flat and the fact that writing endless stuff for my PhD means that writing for my blog has less appeal. One advantage of moving was that I now have room to set up my recording studio properly and even have space for a couple of new additions. Here's what it looks like...

I'm particularly pleased with my new drum controller (an Akai MPD24) above the keyboard. It's got really good touch sensitive pads and the whole thing feels solidly built which is surprising given that it is only about £150 new. Loads of knobs, sliders and transport buttons too. My other purchase was a second-hand Soundcraft Notepad mixing desk for small scale live use which I can confirm works well outside for micro-festivals but more on that later.

Ramblings of a crazed composer

I have just realised, after actually paying attention to some of the stuff on my iPod, that For Martha by the Smashing Pumpkins has almost the exact same piano part as a song I wrote about 10 years ago. This is most odd because although the song also came out at roughly this time, I doubt I would've heard it not being a fan back then. So this got me thinking how many other songs have similarities but are independently written, where do melodies come from and how do we generate ideas given what we listen to and what instruments we play.

The last point is quite interesting since I think there are things/sounds/rhythms that naturally come from particular instruments so depending on what you use to write a song, the shape of the tune you produce will change. I know there are certain riffs or ways of playing that I like doing on the guitar and I'm sure they come across in what I write. This partly explains the For Martha piano since once you have some basic chords there are some things that feel very natural to play on the keyboard... so of course you scribble them down and there we have the beginnings of a song. Another way to look at this is to see how hard it can be to transpose something to another instrument. I do enjoy a bit of Apocalyptica and knowing how to play guitar and cello I realise how much skill you need to play metal on a cello.

When coming up with an actual melody I am, in some ways, clueless! I like to think I write some catchy tunes once in a while but where they come from I don't really know. I listen to a fair bit of music and also quite a wide range of genres (to put it stereotypically everything from Bach to System Of A Down) so maybe it's all just a mash-up of everything I've heard before, but I hope not. At least when writing a tune to already composed lyrics the words themselves tend to have a melody hidden behind them just as speaking has certain rhythms and intonations. Possibly I always need some kind of lyric in my head when writing a song even if it is fairly subconscious and that, combined with the "science" of what sounds nice together, is all there is to it. Now I just need to know where poets and lyricists get their words from!

PS If you didn't see Goldie compose a classical piece of music for the Proms on the BBC then you should - it was awesomeness... and mash-up.

Field Day 2009!

Field Days attended: 2, Field Days involving large amounts of precipitation: 2. Maybe next year I'll get lucky with the weather. Anyway I saw some good stuff especially when the sun was shining. While wandering around working out where everything was we had a quick listen to King Charles which was muchly enjoyable and we probably should have stayed longer. He did a good job getting both a hot female bassist and backing vocalist! Interspersed with some chilling in the field, other highlights were Wet Paint playing some grungy indie rock, The Horrors on the main stage and Little Boots for that pop fix. I thought The Horrors were pretty awesome and they made the rain stop! However, this didn't seem to enthuse the crowd quite as much as I expected - maybe not upbeat enough. Well here are a few funky photos (at least semi-funky, I am beginning to realise the importance of not using digital zoom at a gig... or ever):

Sian Alice Group

Some fieldage

Wet Paint

A rain shelter... er I mean stage

The Horrors