A few weeks ago I attended Contakt, a yearly event hosted by the people from Minus. I came out feeling completely blown away, and the memories of the event flashed obsessively through my head for many days after. But apart from the musical side of things I was most taken by the visuals, the work of Ali M. Demirel and Burak Arikan. In a similar way to Minus’ sound, these visuals were MINIMAL, but had a catastrophic impact that was jaw-dropping.

Here’s an interview that might give you an idea of how Ali plugs into the Minus team.

One of the setups they made was based on a grid of dots, each with their own small square-shaped boundaries, watch it in action here, made by Burak. This is one of many other ideas based on a single concept called Meta Control: “Collection of visual/kinetic performative artifacts. These software pieces have a single organizing principle: their control mechanisms are not hidden and often exposed.”

The grid idea in particular has been stuck in my mind since I first saw it, probably because it was one of the few that I managed to figure out, so yesterday I tried to re-build it in Flash.

Stupidly, before I started building it I didn’t look for a video to refresh my memory, in fact I’ve just realized by watching this video that he didn’t actually use any vertical/horizontal lines to connect the dots, which is how I built mine.

Anyway, you can check out my first version, which I’ve creatively named MinusGrid here. Maybe I’ll upgrade it one day.

I also made a mac screensaver: download

Smokin Jo and her new project, TRNSSTR, are going to be performing live over the next few months, starting towards the end of December. So she asked me if I fancied doing some visuals for the event, and I immediately said yes.

I’ve been doing the odd bits of visuals for small parties here and there, using a mixture of “static” animations and physics-based graphics (all in Flash). But for this event I really wanted to use some real footage, especially as I have access to an EX1 camera through my brothers’ production company, which is a lot nicer than the camera I usually use (FX1). It has a variable framerate that can capture between 1 and 60 fps, which means that you can do some nice slow-motion stuff, and it also gives you the option of changing the lens, which gives the footage a real filmic look, losing a lot of digital traces..

So the other day, on my 1-hour break from a Flash project for Orange, I wrapped myself in clingfilm and set-up the camera (maybe it wasn’t in that order), with the help of brother #1.

We agreed that the clingfilm wasn’t right, and that if shown to a crowd of [temporarily] mentally and emotionally fragile people, would have been the perfect way to empty the venue - as well as crushing the poor souls of those who happened to be there.

However the lighting and the feel is just perfect for what I imagined, so based on this idea we’re going to shoot it again next week, with the help of my friend James who knows a bit more about lighting and styling than I do. I’ll be behind the camera this time. And Jo’s hidden the clingfilm.

I often play records together with my good friend (and now flatmate) Robbie on his decks in his tiny little bedroom. The other day, after playing straight for three or four hours, Robbie had lay down on the bed, exhausted, while I continued playing.

Banging techno isn’t really the most favourite thing for someone trying to sleep, but for Robbie it’s actually not that bad. In fact he often falls asleep listening to the sounds of Richie Hawtin and Anja Schneider. Nonetheless, I felt compelled to play something with a bit of warmth.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

download

I like to think of this mix as an abstract representation of Robbie’s Sleep that day: it starts off low and warm as he’s drifting off, then gains pace while he’s fast asleep, and as he begins to wake up it ends with one of my favourite ‘morning tracks’.

REBELRAVE is always wrapped in drama, and this episode has been no exception. This was meant to be released a couple of months ago (or maybe more), but my computer’s hard-drive suddenly died just a few days away from the video being released. The files for this episode had disappeared, but miraculously made it back without a scratch, thanks to the help of a bunch of crazy technicians with white frizzly hair who live in a tiny basement of Spitalfields. You can read more about this story here

This episode of REBELRAVE has a slightly more developed format than the other episodes. We have been wanting to upgrade the format into something more cultural and a bit more appealing to people who aren’t necessarily techno-heads.

One of the additions to the format is that we now have a presenter, who also happens to be my girlfriend (what are the chances?), Anna Bosworth. Having a presenter gives the video a new dimension, and gives me a lot more to play with both when filming and when editing. There is now a story.

Another new element is that we don’t just focus on the club experience. From this episode you will see an interview with Seth, and a quick chat with the illustrator behind the Crosstown Rebel record sleeve designs.

To celebrate the new format I have launched REBELRAVE.TV, which will be the portal for all our films.

Hope you enjoy.

Yesterday Damian Lazarus asked me to design the logo for the Rebels’ new sub-label: Crosstown Digital Rebels. It was done in a bit of a rush, as it was meant to be included in the banners I created for the Resident Advisor newsletter, sent out tomorrow!

Click to enlarge.

Screensavers with style are extremely difficult to find: I wanted to find a nice slick one for my newly fixed computer, but after years of occasionally google-ing “slick screensaver mac” and finding myself in very scary websites, I didn’t even go near google. Instead I made my own, based on a clock.

There’s an interface that lets you choose which style to use. You can preview it by clicking on the image below, which will load one of the 4 styles randomly each time it’s opened.

Click here to download (Mac only). Just unzip the file, and open up “The Clock.saver”. It will automatically add The Clock to your list of screensavers.

I’m looking for name ideas, so any suggestions are very welcome. “The Clock” is a bit too Apple, I’d like it to sound as slick as [i think] it looks. Suggestions? “SLOCK”? “CLICK”? huh?

10 days ago, while I was working at an ad agency in Soho, my laptop suddenly died and refused to come back to life. All my latest projects were on the computer and I hadn’t backed anything up (since my external hard drive also died on me just a few weeks earlier!). I won’t go into detail about this now, but it’s been a catastrophy: I lost the REBELRAVE project that I had been working on for the past two month. I had practically finished the video and just needed to export it to web format so that it could go live!

There may be a chance of me being able to recover my hard drive, but the guys at the data-recovery lab have been working on this for the past week without much success.

Anyway, that’s not really the point of this post. The point is that because of all of this I just couldn’t do any work last week, so I came very close to having some time away from the computer to enjoy some thumb twiddling. I wasn’t too comfortable with this prospect, in fact I decided to learn Processing (watch this and this to see what it can do if you’re not familiar with it).
But I got interrupted after a day by an email about Radiohead’s remix contest. I immediately dropped my Processing project and got onto the case, using my friend’s laptop and his Ableton Live (thanks James).

So my remix is now up on radioheadremix.com. Have a listen below, and if you like it please vote!
I’ve titled it “Reckoner (Ripples mix)” as it focuses on the verse of the original song:
“Because we separate like ripples on a blank shore”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download here

Just hit the vote button here:

And if you feel like taking part in this promotional stunt of mine, just copy and paste the following code into your own myspace/forum/blog!

update 29.09.08 15:01: I’ve just learned that the voting system blocks out multiple hits from a single IP, so if you’re in an office you probably won’t be able to vote if someone else in your office has already.

update 30.09.08 19:16: Over the last 10 days I have been receiving regular phone calls from the chap at the lab that were fairly negative about the recovery’s progress, however this morning’s phone call from him was the best news I’ve had in a long time. The data was saved!

The thing I love about all of this is that this whole story has taken me from one extreme to another, from total life crumbling desperation to a massive sense of achievement. But without the initial loss of my computer, I would have never been able to make the track, and instead would have had to work on my ongoing design and video projects. This track might seem like a small thing for most people, but those who are closest to me know how little time I’ve had to make music, and how frustrated I’ve been as it’s ultimately the thing I love doing the most.

update 31.09.08 13:53: I have my beloved laptop back, many thanks to Ian and Mark at Mac 1 - Spitalfields who spent many days fighting to recover the data.

Playing around with WordPress for my own blog gave me enough confidence to tell Smokin Jo that I could do the same for her, building her not only a blog but a website that she could update and manage using the WordPress admin system.

When I first met Jo two years ago I was fairly new to the club scene and I didn’t really know that she was a world-class/award-winning DJ! Over these two years however I have learned much about Jo, and compiling her About page with her was a really nice way to learn about her past and how she got to where she is now.

Lately she’s been producing some extremely hot tracks with Pete Gleadall under the name of TRNSSTR. Their latest release on “As you like it” is one of my favourites yet!

Find out more about Smokin Jo by checking out her new website here: smokinjo.com

As well as featuring Seth Troxler and the party in Paris, the 5th episode of REBELRAVE will also show an interview with a Japanese illustrator called Saeko, who didn’t want to be shown in the video.

I had to think of a way of showing her answering Anna’s questions, without letting the viewer recognize her face.
My initial idea was to get Saeko to film herself with a webcam, whose feed got projected onto a wall where Anna was standing. The outcome was pretty impressive (a huge image of Saeko’s face projected next to Anna), but I still needed to conceal the projected face.
It was at that point, when looking for live webcam effects, that I came across Quartz Composer, which is an amazing tool that lets you manipulate the video feed from your webcam.

I added some halftone effects to the video feed, after which I found out that I could also grab the information sent by the microphone. So triggered by the volume of the input audio I made the halftone effect increase and decrease.. The result got me jumping up and down in my bed: as usual it was something like 4am, and this is the sort of thing I do when I can’t sleep..

So now I had managed to achieve a fairly cool way of showing Saeko’s face, with the projection effect throbbing up and down depending on when she spoke.

Here’s some screenshots:

After being satisfied with all of this, I looked down the list of options in Quartz Composer to see what other goodies it may contain: mouse, keyboard and MIDI control! Perfect! I could now insert videos and images over Saeko’s face while she gave her interview, LIVE! No post production needed.
For example when she spoke about Damian Lazarus, I triggered a short video loop of him to flicker on. I also used this so she could talk about specific pieces of her work.

Here’s a screenshot of how the file looked like in Quartz Composer’s… hot!!!!

Well, now that REBELRAVE is taking its first steps into adolescence with its very own hot presenter (Anna Bosworth) and new format, I’ve decided it’s a good time to start saving clips that I can’t use in the final product.

It’s my second day on the edit of episode 5, which is the one that features Seth Troxler in Paris, and I’ve just come across a really funny scene that I can’t just throw away. We went to meet Seth at Sety’s top-floor apartment in the heart of Paris to film his interview. He was really intrigued by my name and kept saying it in full because he liked the sound of it, so here’s one of those times:

It’s been a few months that I’ve been trying to start up this blog, but I was never really happy with my [numerous] attempts of opening it up in a spectacular and fabulous way.

I’ve now given up on that, as I find myself in a not so spectacular nor fabulous situation. Which may bloody well be my golden opportunity to get this blog rolling. Let’s see!

Today is Sunday 10th of August, my mother’s birthday, and I should have landed in Barcelona about an hour ago to meet Crosstown Rebels’ female talent, Dinky. She’s going to be playing at Liquid tonight, along with Damian Lazarus and Pier Bucci, and I was meant to film the event, for the 6th episode of REBEL RAVE.

Instead I missed the flight by exactly two minutes, thanks to the brilliantly thought out Easyjet check-in queuing system. This was at 6 AM. My next flight is at 6 PM. So I’ve been sitting around on uncomfortable chairs for a few hours now, and it’s only just occurred to me that I can only laugh about the situation, especially after what I went through to prepare for the trip.

I don’t know how this happened really, but last night my friends and I decided to catch James Holden and Richie Hawtin at FieldDay festival, a great idea at the time! But I spent the whole evening with the niggling thought that I needed to get to bed early, as I would be waking up at 4:30 the following morning. The niggling eventually became stress and finally panic, when I nervously fell asleep at 3AM, after fighting the double-vision whilst preparing the equipment. Nonetheless I was up on time and got to the airport well in advance. Which brings us back to the beginning of this post and to the present.

I’ve just spoken to Damian about it, I think it’s a bit disappointing for everyone because Dinky and I were flying in early specifically to do a feature of her in some of the cool parts of Barcelona. I feel really bad for her especially, she’s had to get on to a flight at the crack of dawn for no reason at all…

Anyway, I’ve now managed to check in and sit on less uncomfortable seats, and I have been thinking of how we could do a piece with Dinky after dinner and before her set, or more importantly, where. I wanted to film in La Rambla, but it’s a bit out of the way from both the hotel and the club.

I’ve also arranged with a girl who works for Liquid to try to lead a conversation with Dinky for the camera, which should turn out to be quite interesting!