Monday, June 27, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
The Blind Shake
The Blind Shake from Bjornery on Vimeo.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
RIP Martin Rushent (3 January 1948 – 4 June 2011)
via wikipedia: Martin Rushent was an English record producer, best known for his work with The Human League, The Stranglers and The Buzzcocks.
Rushent’s first experience in a recording studio was at EMI House in London’s Manchester Square, when his school band (of which he was the lead singer) had the opportunity to record a demo. After leaving school, Rushent, who had already experimented with his father’s 4-track recorder, worked at a chemical factory before working for his father while applying for studio jobs. After numerous rejections, Rushent was employed by Advision Studios as a 35mm film projectionist.
After approximately 3 months, Rushent began working in the audio department as a tape operator alongside Tony Visconti. He worked on sessions for Fleetwood Mac, T-Rex, Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Petula Clark, Jerry Lee Lewis and Osibisa. Rushent stated that while at Advision, Jerry Lee Lewis threw a tantrum as Yes had been booked into the studio when he was not ready to leave, and chased the studio staff around the complex until they locked themselves in a different studio.
Rushent progressed to senior assistant engineer, staff engineer, and eventually head engineer. He then began working freelance, where he built his reputation and was employed by United Artists (UA). While with UA, Rushent recorded sessions alongside Martin Davies, recording artists such as Shirley Bassey and The Buzzcocks, as well as convincing the company to sign The Stranglers provided that he produced the band’s material. Rushent produced the group’s Rattus Norvegicus, No More Heroes and Black and White albums, before tiring of his commute to London and leaving UA at the end of the 1970s.
Rushent expressed a desire to move away from guitar bands, and bought a Linn LM-1, Roland MC-4 Microcomposer and Jupiter-8 synthesizer to learn sequencing and synthesis techniques. Rushent set up his own studio, Genetic, with Synclavier and Fairlight CMI synthesizers and an MCI console. He spent £35,000 on air conditioning alone, and had a Mitsubishi Electric digital recorder costing £75,000.
Rushent used his Roland equipment to record Pete Shelley’s first solo album, Homosapien. Originally aimed to be a collection of demos, the recordings were signed to Island Records. They were heard by Simon Draper of Virgin Records, who asked Rushent to produce The Human League. Rushent’s work on the group’s 1981 album Dare earned him a BRIT Award in 1982 for Best British producer.
Rushent’s production on Dare frustrated the group’s guitarist Jo Callis, as the only guitar on the album was used to trigger a gate on the synthesizer. Singer Susanne Sulley was also frustrated by the lengthy process of Rushent’s synth programming, who stopped working with the band after Sulley made an off-the-cuff comment toward him. Around the same time, Rushent worked with XTC, Generation X, Altered Images and The Go-Go’s.
Rushent decided to take a break from production after 18 years’ work, and sold his assets – including Genetic Studios. He briefly took up a consultancy position with Virgin, but retired from the industry to raise his children.
Rushent returned to the music industry in the mid 1990s when he established Gush, a dance club on Greenham Common. The club’s opening night was headlined by The Prodigy. Rushent soon began redeveloping his interest in recording, and decided to catch up on the technological advances he had missed.
Rushent built a home studio around a Mackie console, Alesis ADAT HD24 recorder and Cubase 5, with which he produced music by The Pipettes, Does It Offend You, Yeah? and Killa Kela. In 2005, he produced Hazel O’Connor’s album Hidden Heart. The following year, he was involved with the BBC Electric Proms when he recorded Enid Blitz at a 15th-century manor house in Brentford, using a BBC truck as the control room. At the time of his death, Rushent was working on a 30th anniversary version of Dare, remixed as with Love and Dancing but using musical instruments instead of synthesizers.
Rushent was married to Ceri, and had four children – sons James and Tim, and daughters Joanne and Amy. He lived with his family in the Berkshire village of Upper Basildon. Rushent’s son James is the lead singer for the dance punk band Does It Offend You, Yeah?. Rushent died on 4 June 2011.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Small Awesome - Awesome E.P. [2011]
rocky says: don't let that prefer you. yes, these folks are local and yes, i sort of know them. don't let that deter you. b/c this little thing? it's fucking golden. it's so subtle. so smackdown sweet. this record. by way of reference. my first and immediate and only analogue for this upon initial hearing was goosebumps and the serpentine similar (which ranks right up there for me) [is it "serpentine" or "serpenteen?"]. but that's relatively irrelevant. this stands (on four legs) via it's own perfectly realized vision of ms. merit. someone should point out that this party is a duo. PS: they also put on one smoking show, should you ever be in town, when they are on. Stage.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Dawson - How To Follow So That Others Will Willingly Lead (Oh My Godley And Creme Cheese) [1991]
(my rip sounds way better than this clip, but you get an idea...)
