Hahahaha what a day of funny emotions... the album is finally out and live on iTunes!!! After all the randomness proceeding it, the concept, the first tune being made to the eventual completion and mission it was to get it done and up, it is finally there. I've literally had iTunes up for an hour just looking at it and laughing my arse off... who would have thought a random in joke would have gone this far!!! I'm so happy to see it there yet it's a strange feeling, but yeah I'm just sitting about having a few beers and giggling to myself lol. If you go on iTunes and search for Widen Cartel you will find it there, or failing that check this link to be taken directly to the store: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=304092963&s=143444
Times are good in the world of Gareth :)
Tuesday 17 February 2009
Saturday 14 February 2009
Valentines Record Selection Part 3 - Lauryn Hill - Ex Factor
Final record selection for the weekend... I think everyone who has been in a messy break up can identify with this record. This record still plays with me when I listen to it to this day, great great tune. Perfect Valentines comedown material... absolutely love this track, even if it still feels weird listening to it. Say what you want about her, Lauryn nails it with this :) Happy Valentines peeps! Gx
Valentines Record Selection Part 2 - Reks - Day 2
Reks - Day 2 from my favourite album of last year, Grey Hairs... two albums this year from Reks on ShowOff, More Grey Hairs which is extra bits that weren't used on the first album and then an as yet untitled album of brand new material. Highly underrated but one of my favourite, Reks we salute you!!!
Thursday 12 February 2009
Valentines Record Selection Part 1 - Zero Tolerance feat Steo - Refusal (Calibre remix)
Soooo sooooo soooo sooooo good :) Calibre is a genius!
Wednesday 11 February 2009
Moooorning all!!!
Well, after another sleepless night (doh) I'm up bright and early for a wicked day of uni. Even though I am half dead and really really really could do with some form of sleep I'm really up for today!!! Got to learn about the circuits and theory behind the distortion pedal I'm building, then in the afternoon a nice easy lecture/practical of another project I've got to do which involves chopping up and rearranging a song in Peak (made by Bias, basically the Mac equivalent of Wavelab/Soundforge... not used it yet but got my hands on the manual and highlighted the bits I'll need to reference, just differences in the layout etc). Should be really easy considering I do that kind of thing for fun anyway at home but at a much more advanced level.
I've decided to have a chop about with Bad Company's often overlooked classic 'Colonies', from their 1999 debut album 'Inside The Machine' (incidentally one of my favourite drum & bass albums ever!). As I've been up pretty much all night I've planned out how I'm going to do it and written out a step by step guide to what I'm going to do with the chops and FX... just shorten it to 2 minutes, do some cheeky edits and filter automation and try and do a slowed down half tempo choppy bit as well rearranging the drums around. I was originally going to do something vocal and lively (Rick James - Mary Jane or Earth Wind & Fire - September were my original ideas) but I figured I'd take the edity option and go with electronic music as a) I can get more technical on the edits and b) the tempo will be locked instead of fighting with a human drummer to keep the transitions smooth. Add to that the fact that vocals come in and out all over the place and that restricts you to merely rearranging the song pattern and cutting stuff out, I think it makes for a much more interesting proposition :)
Coffee, cigarette, shower, grab my stuff and I'm out! Take care people :p
G
I've decided to have a chop about with Bad Company's often overlooked classic 'Colonies', from their 1999 debut album 'Inside The Machine' (incidentally one of my favourite drum & bass albums ever!). As I've been up pretty much all night I've planned out how I'm going to do it and written out a step by step guide to what I'm going to do with the chops and FX... just shorten it to 2 minutes, do some cheeky edits and filter automation and try and do a slowed down half tempo choppy bit as well rearranging the drums around. I was originally going to do something vocal and lively (Rick James - Mary Jane or Earth Wind & Fire - September were my original ideas) but I figured I'd take the edity option and go with electronic music as a) I can get more technical on the edits and b) the tempo will be locked instead of fighting with a human drummer to keep the transitions smooth. Add to that the fact that vocals come in and out all over the place and that restricts you to merely rearranging the song pattern and cutting stuff out, I think it makes for a much more interesting proposition :)
Coffee, cigarette, shower, grab my stuff and I'm out! Take care people :p
G
Monday 9 February 2009
Sleep would be nice
Well... it's 2.45pm on Monday and like a complete twat I have managed to stay up all night for not all that much reason at all... got myself some new toys and drums to play and sat making drum loops but somehow I'm still up sat in bed watching Jerry Maguire (which incidentally I remember being funnier and less soppy... bollocks!!! lol). What have I been up to all weekend? Not too much, but I have been doing some preparation work for the latest uni assignment I've been set, which is to conceptualise, design the circuits for and build a distortion pedal. It will be a really good thing to both understand the concepts and build the thing. I have the greatest concept too, got an old broken SNES at home so going to take it apart and use the case... I've drawn the concepts out and it will be incredible (if not the geekiest thing ever hahaha). Shame my soldering skills are pretty wank lol... oh well at least they'll be hidden :)
What else is going on... hmmmm... I've got about 5 days to get my brother a birthday present... fuck knows what I'm going to do, why are relatives so hard to buy for? At least my mum isn't too hard at the moment, she's always got some new gadget I can get an accessory for at the moment but what do you get a 28 (eeeek nearly 30 Stuart hahahahahahaaaa) year old with his own apartment in a different country? I'm sure I'll find something but if anyone has any ideas then give me a shout!
One final note really... a guy I barely knew died last week from back home in Leighton... my thoughts are with his friends and family, I know it's hit a lot of people quite bad and it's been tough for them... it's fucked up how life can so quickly turn around and change in a flash. I've not had this situation happen to anyone close to me, yet every time these things happen arise I always seem to feel that bit more mortal. I guess it makes you thankful for everything you have right now, and in a weird way it's one of the only things that seems to unite people, when it's just too late :( Death is a part of life, something we will all have to face at some point, yet it never gets easier to deal with and so I just hope he is in a better place now. RIP Jack.
Might write some more after I've slept a bit, but until then take care of yourselves people :)
G
What else is going on... hmmmm... I've got about 5 days to get my brother a birthday present... fuck knows what I'm going to do, why are relatives so hard to buy for? At least my mum isn't too hard at the moment, she's always got some new gadget I can get an accessory for at the moment but what do you get a 28 (eeeek nearly 30 Stuart hahahahahahaaaa) year old with his own apartment in a different country? I'm sure I'll find something but if anyone has any ideas then give me a shout!
One final note really... a guy I barely knew died last week from back home in Leighton... my thoughts are with his friends and family, I know it's hit a lot of people quite bad and it's been tough for them... it's fucked up how life can so quickly turn around and change in a flash. I've not had this situation happen to anyone close to me, yet every time these things happen arise I always seem to feel that bit more mortal. I guess it makes you thankful for everything you have right now, and in a weird way it's one of the only things that seems to unite people, when it's just too late :( Death is a part of life, something we will all have to face at some point, yet it never gets easier to deal with and so I just hope he is in a better place now. RIP Jack.
Might write some more after I've slept a bit, but until then take care of yourselves people :)
G
Thursday 5 February 2009
Back to uni!
Howdy all :) Finally back to uni today, managed to not sleep at all (literally awake all night) but still made it in... this semester should be really good (apart from those bastard morning trains... fuck London is shit before 10am and on Saturdays) as one of my big projects is to build a working distortion pedal!!! I'm spending the next week doing a bit of research and thinking of some concepts for the design that won't get me kicked off (unfortunately my first idea of the Dirty Dick pedal shaped as a penis isn't the best idea lol). Going to keep on the perverse lines as usual... might call it the Super Trashing Interface (STI for short lol) or Super Terrific Distortion (STD), or even Silly Levels Uber Trashed (SLUT). The other one that wouldn't be allowed would be the Bargain Bucket shaped as girl parts but once again, can't see me getting away with that (would be great though, could glues pubes on and everything hahaha).
So yeah, conceptualisation is the order of the day there, as well as a making a plan and working out what I need to do and by when. Really looking forward to this, should be both challenging and rewarding, and will hopefully inspire me to take on more DIY projects at home which is a really cool thought :)
In other news, work on the follow up to A Finger Too Far has started, been writing a part 2 to one of our favourite tracks off the first album via email with Tom... going to try and get the beat down as we go as the mood of the song changes but should be really good fun! I've also (Mark you'll love this) started smoking roll ups as I'd find myself getting through 20 decks too quickly, especially when playing with sounds on the computer etc so roll ups are a good counter to that problem.
Oooooh finally before I go, I had some good news today... over the xmas period I had this audio electronics project due in that took me countless sleepless nights to try and get my head around and actually do... now I would have been happy with getting just the 40% and scraping through it but somehow I managed to get an A grade hahahaha!!! That prick who sent me a shitty email when I asked for some advice from others on the course - FUCK YOU MWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!
That's it for tonight, I'm out! G :)
So yeah, conceptualisation is the order of the day there, as well as a making a plan and working out what I need to do and by when. Really looking forward to this, should be both challenging and rewarding, and will hopefully inspire me to take on more DIY projects at home which is a really cool thought :)
In other news, work on the follow up to A Finger Too Far has started, been writing a part 2 to one of our favourite tracks off the first album via email with Tom... going to try and get the beat down as we go as the mood of the song changes but should be really good fun! I've also (Mark you'll love this) started smoking roll ups as I'd find myself getting through 20 decks too quickly, especially when playing with sounds on the computer etc so roll ups are a good counter to that problem.
Oooooh finally before I go, I had some good news today... over the xmas period I had this audio electronics project due in that took me countless sleepless nights to try and get my head around and actually do... now I would have been happy with getting just the 40% and scraping through it but somehow I managed to get an A grade hahahaha!!! That prick who sent me a shitty email when I asked for some advice from others on the course - FUCK YOU MWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!
That's it for tonight, I'm out! G :)
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