Monday, December 11, 2006

PPP 666 999

What an unproductive week, i went to see ppp's exhibition last weekend, twas ace anyone who hasn't seen the anti monotheist monutments get your arses down bloc in sheffield.

I turned up and had to help stage manage the bands and human canonball etc..

Then as soon as the first band had finished they took the mics so i spent the rest of the evening in town cryer mode with a dormant unplugged mic for a prop.

The band were meet for a dark day, who i did like though the lead singer suffered from shrinking violet syndrome, full of bravado off stage and then a little downplayed once on a stage, the crowd were into though and the mmic was plugged into a guitar amp so maybe that had a lot to do with it. Straight after was the human canonball which after a drum roll, a spotlight on a rooftop and a precariouis looking hammock the dude missed by miles, slammed into the brick wall at the back and was susequently carried off.

Next up were My name is Bronwin, one of the guys from these used to be in Fights, Swintons finest, so i was looking forward to this one. It was mental, no really mental, no discernable music but funny outlandinsh electro boy / trash performance inside what lookied to be an elevbated blazing church. If they had kicked into a sloid beat after the initial choas the place would have gone mental, as it was they just turned a little clinically depressed.

Then Chora, i have played a few arthouse gigs with this lot and they do their thing consistantly and with verve. Heard the boys are moving to Peckham pretty soon, they should do a grime remix set with some mans dem.

Then following loads of free beers and a spot of urban drinking we hit a bar on the way home, i had completely forgotten about Weekend nights in Sheff, something i don't miss. Had a good time though and the beer is so cheap! i bought 3 gin and tonics and got a 20 spot out of my wallet.

Then i managed to meet the boy band "No XXXXXXX Use" who decended upon me with battle lyrics, always a pleasure 'cept when you get put in a head lock by a backing dancer every time you say something against them. So having been told numerously that they come from Sheffield (as though it takes any skill to pop out of a pussy anywhere ((and where do they think i'm from?)) I took it upon myself to walk away, shame though i would have been into a cypher with two of the cats but considering i was drunk and i had a cru in the pub i feel the bigger man for not sparking that backing dancer out for the headlocks.

In all it was a pretty typical night in sheff, went charity shopping the next day and picked up some vintage dinner service, had a damn fine fish and chips and the tap water is the best in the country by far.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Back to Business

The rawcreation fam have put their collective stumps together and slappe dthe site back up with updates. We now have a dedicated web designer so expect some avant guard steeze come the 1st of Jan its here at www.rawcreation.co.uk
There are still a few of the limited edition 7 inches left so email the cats through the site to bag a deal.
We are back on focus style to get 2007 rolling form day 1. Also i will be calling out to artists who we like to submit a little something something so if you know me turn your phone off innit.

Didn't do ny recording last night with Steve, the Dr was ill, how ironic. Instead me and Wifey cooked all the veg that needed eating into a stew and a curry that should last us for about 2 weeks. My orignal idea was to make a meat and veg pie, i bought some of the cheapest stewing steak from tescos, by the time i got it form the fridge it had gone brown.....ghetto steaks....Never again!

SO back to being a veggie for a little bit, its no big thing, meat isn't much of an extra and considering i didn't eat any of it for years i have been devouring some most unsavoury offal of late.

Off to Steves tonight to do some grafting, as always i will update you.

Hines was in town last night at a VIP club in Kensington and met the Cat from Red Dwarf.

POW and out CLEV

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Labels, Pen Friends, and Smokers Cough

Me and the good Dr are hooking up tonight with SO Clear to pen some new imagineer misses ish, that lazy sod has no job so is just rolling around like a bohemian while some of us have to get the 9-5 grind on.
Met up with Newborn (beer & rap), Metroplois (Beggars), Jim (queensbridge), Dr syntax, So Clear and Wifey last night for a few pints. Metropolis has some next level evolution steeze going on, the man has no arm hair, bizarre, my arm hair used to get me served with booze when i was a youth.
As always i will spill the beans on how it goes tonight but i know Steve has the heat and a bit of healthy competition should give me and synners enough to get the flows rolling.
I'm off up Sheffield this weekend and it got me thinking about the south yorks remix me, Menace (hoodz), Doyen D and kid acne are supposed to be throwing down. I'm going to myspaz all involved and try and get everyone to get it done before the years out. I ought to ask ed first but last i heard everyone was down and had verses so we should hook it up.
My indie label rawcreation has been languid for som etime now since putting out a couple of 7's which were met with a decent reception. We have had a site ready to go live for months but all of us have been that pulled out with other projects and real life crap that we have let things slip a bit. I am endevouring to help the guvnor (one of the hardest working drummers in the biz) to get the site up and updated regularly as well as getting some new artwork up.
I just felll off the wagon this mornig too and smoked a cigarette at work, damn it was nice.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

SLACK

Well, what can i say? I didn't do anything of any worth over the weekend, literally drank gin played pro evo 6 which So Clear was kind enough to bring round, in repayment i made him a mackrel cous cous salad. Turns out he doesn't like half the ingredients i put in and it was the first time he has had mackrel, can you believe it, and i saw him eating it like a chicken drumstick! he was sucking on the tail ... urgghh i must have overlooked it when i was chopping it up. Poor bloke had a heavy hangover too, lucky he didn't redecorate my lounge.

I started thinking about two new concept tracks for the recording, club 18-30's and Mind Crime are in conception stages so i'll keep you up to date with how they progress.

How long do you think you got left then eh?

Think you got a couple of years left in you do you?

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Close EAR

Yo, i promised an ongoing update of progress so......... i went round to see So Clear last night to record those tracks.
We managed to get the final vocals down on the Jobless Hiphopper which is now ready to go through the post production mill, you should have seen the vocal booth, an airlock sandwiched between two fire doors strewn with pillows and duvets, i felt like ikea asylum lavae. Rup tripped round late on, he was treat to me slapping down the 2nd verse for Masters of leisure which has already become something of a monster in terms of condensed schematics. I was happy to ramble all over the beat (it's a Hines beat which means the structure is more like a symphony than a straight verse chorus affair) but So Clear insisted i try it on 4 12s, welcome to the world of strucural linguistics, when he said he liked Levi Strauss i though he was on about denim.
I have too many rhymes for the track as is, so it's a breather for a day to prune it back a little.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Tracks

I hooked up with So Clear last night on the premis that we should catch up and make plans to record a few bits of work in progress this week. We exchanged stories about the weekend just gone, he was in Colchester with Rup and Stig and Syntax, i was in Glasgow. So we had a few brews and decided slowing down in the run up to Christmas would be disasterous, just about every year at around this time i get dragged out of the zone into the fannying around thinking about Christmas and pulling the slippers on. I'm not done with this year just yet so "The Jobless Hiphopper" and "Masters of Leisure" (on one of Hines' beats) has to get final vocals on this week, then we can look to starting a couple of new tracks and working through next week. Steve's great and Chase has said he is free when i want him to record some of the Signature move Guitar and freestyle biz. As there are so many projects bumping about I have to try and bounce off the energy of the live sets and translate it into energy in the studio. Ended up listening to a few new potential Imagineers tracks which given that me and Synners are hooking up imminently could mean good things ahead. I'll give an honest account of how the recording went this week as it happens.

Peace

Glasgow

So i have just about recovered from the heady night at Glasgow Uni last Saturday. I flew with Fred kaz and Ed into Prestwick, me the only one who hadn't had a couple of pints (the flight was at noon!). Well quick flight and before i knew it i'd teleported to Glasgow city centre. It was my first time on Glasgow and first impressions were based on the fair quality of a chip buttie, the friendly grimeyness of the high street and having been in London for a while it was well refreshing to hear eveyone speaking in the same accent. I saw a Pizza being lifted out of a deep fat fryer in a chippy, that is hardcore. I hit the train staition and the coach station to check getting a transfer for the flight the next morning and i would have to catch a coach 5 hours before my flight to get there in time......stoked.
Hit the underground which is rad, it looks like a Kubric inspired 60's thing complete with brown, orange and beige colourway, and made our way to the promoters house. That was all good and i even met a girl who went to Brinsworth Comp, my old school.
Pub and a couple of ales, well kept i might add and a quick walk up to the venue, decent size club, good backstage, fridge full of beer, i watched as 15 people started to soundcheck. about an aeon later i stepped on the mic checked the levels and set about avoiding booze for the next 5 hours.
Checked out our hosts the Samba yabamba band who took a minute to get things rolling, they dropped a cover of a message to you by the specials which set the dance floor off. They had two mcs who were tight and the crowd were pretty receptive.
It's funny the stress levels in a fair sized band, you can sense some people getting mad some bored, Fred was like a perfect combination of a Mother, a Psychic, a tour manager and director, he could just see straight into what was going on and sorting it before it got too big.
Time to play and in all honesty i don't think the crowd really got it at first, me rhyming all over the beats with a little Noreaga bootleg to open things up. The band were pretty tight and after a bit of singing and Fred warming them up proper everything fell into place for me and i had a laugh and the crowd moved.
Back to the house party which was large and i could open up on some hefty drinking finally, there were 6 of us flying back at the same time so we booked cabs for 7.30 and decided to stay up drinking. Got the cabs feeling a little worse for wear and i fell asleep straight away, we got out of the cabs and mooched into the airport and started looking for the flight check in, nowehere to be seen, then a janitor pushing a trolley of cloths past us asked which airport we wanted...."prestwick" i said, "this is Central, you're in the wrong airport".
"Shit!"
So we got a 60 quid cab to the other side of Scotland and made the check in just in time, then just as we were walking away from the desk they took the tickets off us and said if we didn't sober up we couldn't fly. I ate a rancid Starbucks Sandwich and drank all of 4 mouthfuls of coffee, they wouldn't let me take the coffee through the gate, i mean i could kind of understand not letting me take a coffee through to the plane but not from one patrtician wall to another....beyond. After much eyeballing they let us on and i teleported back home for a sunday roast.