December 06, 2005
Great Mash-Up Album
Not blogged much for ages, but this has prompted me. I love a good mash-up album, but I can't help but think that most sound like they've been done by a spotty 16 year old on a cracked copy of Acid (the music sequencing program). Now 50 Cents was never my bag...moody post-gangsta noodling, but now I realsie it's not the rapper it, the crap tunes he had underneath. Now stick Queen's greatest hits underneath and you have a veritable don of rap on your hands worthy of the praise lavished on the half dollar-ed one of late. The first album I've downloaded lately and listened to in full several times, I cannot reccommnd this enough, especially track 1 "This is How We Bite The Dust". Was John Deacons finest bassline ever designed for anything else but a hiphop tune? Didn't he kind of nick it off Chic's Good Times anyway? Who cares the track rocks.
There's plenty more where that comes from, with some inspired sampling that matches the mood of both bands at times.
just grab it...it's a naught free bootleg, that might just possibly be the greatest album 50 Cents never released (borrowed rent-a-quote).
June 20, 2005
Interesting and silly uses for an iPod
50 Fun Things To Do With Your iPod (kottke.org)
I just got one of these sexy 20 GB beasts, and filled it up same day, and it rocks. The only thing is that it's an older 2nd generation model and lacks a little functionality that the newer ones have, still this list gives you a good idea o what I'm missing out on, plus a few silly ideas should I get bored with the sexy silvery white box.
May 18, 2005
Britney Covers Armstrong
Oops I Did It Again: The Original
Ooops I Did It Again was originally recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1932, but at the time was forgotton relegated toa dusty old warehouse until Britiney Spears matde it a hit in the 90's
Er....no he didn't....this is a very funny and clever cut up anyway.
March 31, 2005
Palestinian Downtempo Hiphop Electronica
It's funny that you sometimes bump into the most interesting links from the most unlikely places. Take tonight. I just pm'd a guy on Soulseek to compliment him on his music collection and he points me to his site which contains a load of his work which has a nice down-tempo feel reminiscent of Warp Records, but with a unique Arabic twist to it.
Well, I'm always up for giving interesting music a plug so check the site and download some of Boikutts stuff.
March 30, 2005
BBC Radio Player
One of the best things about getting ADSL is the ability you suddenly have to listen to streaming music without it cutting out every 5 seconds, due to lack of bandwidth. Now I can listen to Radio Nottingham in the heat of the Songkhla summer. Why I enjoy this I do not know as I used to hate it back in England.
By the way if you're still on shitband..the BBC radio Player does work fairly reliably, but the quality of the sound is a bit variable.
February 23, 2005
More bad album covers than you can shake a 12" at
Museum of bad album covers: the worst album covers ever!
I've blogged about three of these kind of sites in my time...I love bad album coves but these feature some of the worst even by the standards that have come before.
Here's a couple of my faves.
February 15, 2005
A Blag Entry For iSMN
Just a quick plug for my mate Parf aka iSMN back in Nottingham.
He's got a band called The Good Livers and they've got a new album out and he'd really like lots of people to go and check out his site and listen to the samples on there.
So do it alright?
Right, I'll have me cheque now then mate.
December 30, 2004
Soulseek Inspiration
Music-Map - The tourist map of music
This is briliant if you can't think of anything to download (as I frequently can't) when confronted with a search field on your favourite P2P app.
Enter your favourite artists and a whole bunch of related artists will start ogranising themselves according to how likely you are to enjoy them based on your first search.
July 25, 2004
Learn Thai Through Music
Thai Music, Thai Lyrics and Thai Songs - Learn Thai through music
Great idea, found via the excellent Learning Thai site. I think it might appeal to my students more as a tool for learning English, as sorry, but Thai pop just doesn't do it for me, though I was interested to discover some of my fave Thai hiphop artist Dajim's lyrics on there which I might go an annoy/amuse my wife with upstairs now.
ใครเกิดวันนี้ขอให้มีอันจะกิน
krai gert wun nee kor hai mee un ja gin
If you were born today, I hope you will be wealthyขอให้รวยล้นฟ้ายิ่งกว่าคุณน้าทักษิณ
kor hai ruay lon fa ying gwar koon na tuk-sin
I hope you'll be richer than "Uncle Thaksin"ทั้งคนหนุ่มคนสาวขอให้เป็นดาวดวงเด่น
tung kon noom kon sao kor hai ben dao duang den
For all the young ladies, I hope you'll be a starมีชื่อเสียงโด่งดังยิ่งกว่าบินลาเดน
mee cheu siang dong dung ying gwar bin la den
Have a big name, and be more famous than Bin Laden
July 16, 2004
Blur Mashup
For those of you who enjoyed this collective's last effort, the Clash Tribute - London Booted, wil be happy to know that Blur's Parklife Album has been mashed into Parkspliced. Get it whilst it's hot and please think about donating to the charities at the top of the screen.
I love illegal music.
June 25, 2004
Whistle A Different Tune
The 365 Day Project was compiled in 2003. Everyday a rare or obscure old track was added to an archive in MP3 format. Definately worth a download or three.
June 18, 2004
Zetan Spore
Just as a random change into my old hat, here's a band that caught my eye this week.
Listen to Zetan Spore in Winamp....don't worry it even works on crap Songkhla connections! (Though maybe not in the Wor Zone at midday!)
The first track you come to 'Burn Up' is an excellent example of why I love this group.
I've not raved about hard trance this much since I discovered Lab 4 so many moons ago. Even if it's not your cup of tea, have a go; with live eleectric guitars and digeridoos layered over the top of epic euphoric fast beats, this Cornish band have certainly been keeping a low profile from their first exposure on MP3.com a few years ago, but it seems that this band is finally coming of age, earning rave reviews for their blistering live shows.
This could be the first bunch of official music CD's I'm about to buy in 2 years. I'd love to play this music out somewhere in Thailand.
May 30, 2004
Internet Radio That's Quite Good
SomaFM: Listener Supported, Commercial Free Internet Radio
A shoutcast station that actually streams properly on my crappy connection. Noteworth if only for this fact. The 24k connection is really quite good and the tunes are great.
Banned Album Covers
An interesting collection of banned album covers from the provocative to the silly.
Posted here are the Five Keys whose album 'On Stage' was retouched because the guy at the front looked like he had his dick out and lots of people complained.
May 27, 2004
Ways to Get Great Music From the Internet Part 15
Boing Boing reports on the growing phenomenon of MP3 blogs which are small homegrown sites which offer whatever music is yanking the chain of the site owner that day. Cited as fairer than the online radio stations which attract upto 50,000 people as the distribution circle of the average blog is around 12 people. Comes via Thom's blog which has an extensive list of MP3 blogs to get you going.
I love it, a another new and unauthorised way for me to get great music chosen by people with good tastes. I got a fantastic mix from this MP3 blog last night, and I'm going to play with these sites abit more over the coming days to see what's on offer. Sometimes the unlimited selection offered by P2P gets just too much and I need someone to tell me what to listen to and this suits me nicely.
UPDATE: Whilst perusing this list I happened accross a blog from a gentleman who runs Diffusion Online. He specialises in mashups and other unauthorised bootleg silliness like these splendid drum and bass remixes of classic TV themes like Dad's Army and Jamie and the Magic torch, which apparently have been give plenty of airtime by such luminaries as Chris Moyles. Good work fella!
May 20, 2004
Hercules DJ Console...Drool!
Ok, so veering away slightly from the TEFL theme that this blog is supposed to be about, but hey my mind is wandering, and wandering with sinful lust towards the extremely sexy Hercules DJ console.
Oh dear! DJ LDMA's in love.
Well what is it and why do I crave it so? Well, as you may or may not know, I have been into DJing for a number of years now. My move to Thailand tore me away from my rather loud Acid Techno vinyl collection, and left me relegated at first to CD's which I'd get to play out at random beach bars in beautiful tropical locations and then into MP3s which I mixed using a pirated copy of Traktor 2.0 on my PC using a mouse to cross fade and perform all the usual DJ functions at a couple of dance parties that Aaronious, A (Coffee Mar), Skeletor and I organised here in Songkhla a while back. The only trouble was that the lack of any hardware prevented me from doing anything more inspiring than a crossfade and some bass kills.
None of these options really inspired me. They were better than no DJing at all, and what really got me inspired about the PC/Traktor option was the extent that the technology has come on. I knew something like this mixer would be round the corner, when I heard how perfectly just a mouse could mix tracks like a real DJ.
The mixer pictured above is the answer to all my prayers to the mix-gods. It plugs into my USB port, has a built-in state of the art soundcard, has all the top thingumyjig features that traktor had, and lets me mix all my mp3s with a nice chunk of flashy sexy hardware, cutting and scratching like I'm DAVE the MFing Drummer. Ok, so you might think, mixing stolen MP3s from a computer is hardly Paul Oakenfold, but when no-one else has any vinyl around here, it's the nearest thing we'd have. Works out to about 10k baht before shipping. Mmmmmmmm, definately considering this.
A more extensive review can be found here
April 26, 2004
London Booted
London Booted - A tribute to the Clash
Hot on the heels of the years most controversial bootleg album, Dj Danger Mouse's Grey Album, comes an equally illegal collaborative affair in tribute to classic punk group The Clash's London Calling album. I've only downloaded half so far, but what I've heard has been superb ranging from hip hop mashups like the Grey Album, through to eminently danceable breakbeat and drum and bass choonz. Get it while it's hot (not that this albums ever going to be anything but hot, legally speaking) and if you can please make a donation to the charities it mentions before you download.
April 08, 2004
Rock Against Bush
Rock Against Bush
Probably not my cup of tea, but amusing nonetheless. A collection of Punk bands including Jello Biafra, Ministry, The Offspring, Anti-Flag and Billy Bragg.
February 27, 2004
Method Man and Redman TV Show
Method Man and Redman, two of my favourite hip hop artists are reportedly making a sitcom for Fox. It is being described as "a kind of edgier take on 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' theme".
Full story at
BILLBOARD.
Can't Wait