Missing in … Somerset

It is amazing how life can suddenly take over and you find all your time has gone. Hence, no posts for a couple of weeks. Tres poor show! But in these weeks my mind has been distracted by: a new bike; possible beaver introduction in Devon; deer issues in Dorset; our lovely upland areas being in a state of cash crisis; how our fair countryside is being polluted (or not); Rugby; making tunes; the decline in our bee populations; and, just general stuff. So…






Did you see the programme the other night about Andrew McAuley solo adventurer who tried to kayak across the Tasman sea? If you did then you might, like me, be having recurring horrors about it and if you didn’t watch it you missed out on one of the best documentaries/ snuff movies produced.

If you want to watch the documentary then you can here

It all got me to thinking. A few years back I tried to cycle round the world. Having made it across Europe I realised that :
• I am not best with my own company
• I would go mad left alone for too long
The people who do this kind of thing are quite likely already a tad mad
• I am not keen to try such silly nonsense on my own again. Best to go down with someone else (excuse the potential phnar!)



Looking at the picture I can’t help but get a tad whimsical about what it WAS to have HAIR.

I guess with the current recession then there might well be an increase in the amount of people off adventuring. I guess this shows
a) People have the money to take time out
b) There will be less competition for jobs over here
c) There will be more space to go around
d) There will be more people going “oh India is just sooo amazing in June. You really must go”.

May hap as long as people don’t try kayaking across the Tasman sea then all will be good.

And so a bit of music. First off is to make sure you have the new tune from my favourite band "A mountain of one" on your radar. This has just been released on their label and is solid spaced out Balearic business called "Incident of joy". You can have a listen on their myspace and buy it from here.

For a bit of nostalgia then look no further than this. We are hoping to spend a weekend raving. Well more older person raving where the emphasis is more on making sure there is somewhere nice to sleep and we have ear plugs to drown out all the noise. bless. Anyway this tune from the Ragga Twins has one of the slickest beats and funny sireny kind of sounds. i heard this (20 years ago!!!!!) and haven't stopped dancing.



And to top it all is a sneak preview of the tune i have been working on. It has some "borrowed" samples and is getting there. any thoughts welcomed. this is up for 7 days from ... NOW. i will change the system soon so they stay there forever and ever :-)

Pablo - Aha-a-hite

I will post an 80s mix over the weekend.

have fun

Nostalgia gets better with time

All the recent musical flashbacks to the 80s, along with a few "snowdays" and a good bit of industrial action is getting me all excited about the things i did and didn't do "back in the day". I have general obsession with music from the 80s (OK to be fair the 70s and 90s get a pretty good look in too) and it is great to find things that were once loved and bring them back into my life. One such instance is a favoured tune from Alphaville. Big in Japan is hardly likely to win awards for innovation or technical mastery but they did capture the zeitgeist (look at me with words beginning with z :-) ) of the era. I foolishly had a read of the lyrics and figured that some things are best left alone. "Big in Japan, be tight ..." i mean really.



I have picked out the bits of vinyl that are required and will be posting an 80s mix in the next couple of weeks. I will try and sidestep the likes of Wham and Duran Duran to give you the electro-synth pop vibe that has stuck with me all my life.

One good thing about looking back is the chance to adopt something you never watched or knew about but on finding it wish like mad you could have been a fan of at the time. This exulted position this week rests with "Shark Hunter". With lead man Franco Nero and classic Italian electronica Shark Hunter is "doing alright". The only difficulty was trying to choose which clips to post.





Where i didn't watch Shark Hunter i did watch Man from Atlantis. Admittedly i watched in a French and never understood a word of what was said but ... it did mean that i still have an affectation for making a crazy underwater swimming motion. To this day i will still swear i swim faster using this technique which is now excuse for looking like an utter prat.



To round off nostalgia Sunday is a clip from my all time favourite cartoon, "Battle of the Planets". I am embarrassed to say that my first ever crush was for some pencil drawn girl coming from the mind of a geeky cartoonist. But hey, to this day Princess is still hot.



Have fun