Saturday, December 30, 2006

Lips 2 Da Floor

WC favourite Dubbledge and this fantastic video.

Ouch

Friday, December 29, 2006

UK biznes and ting


I won't bother buying presents in Japan this time...nah, get them in England, I'll be there for a week before xmas....ARRRGGHH How could I forget the full horror of Christmas shopping? Agitated people clutching at scraps of paper, frantically bleating 'Have they got 'Little Britain'?' at their offspring. I woke up really early the day after arriving and went in to town at around 10am on a tuesday morning. It was rammed. Horrible.

Things I miss #1 - Bread....mmmm brown bread and marmite with a nice chunk of cheddar on the side

Things I don't miss #1 Screaming kids in shopping centres. Great quote today 'I'M NOT SHOUTING!!' from one little lamb. Although it's not the kids that bother me really, it's the aggressive parents.

Ofcourse we've got the festive serial killer here at the moment too. Some guy has just been arrested. I was quite surprised at the full on profile this bloke received in the Guardian, but that was nothing compared to the tabloid's headlines. One of them screamed 'SUSPECT WAS AN INTERNET WEIRDO'. I didn't read the article obviously but it turns out that this guy has a MySpace site. Surely this doesn't make him an internet weirdo? As I said I didn't read it but I wouldn't be surprised if that rag is reeling off his 'People I'd like to meet' as some kind of FREAKISH SEX FESTIVAL LIST to the kind of tadpoles who read that stuff. Ho Ho Ho!

edit: I flicked through the story in the WH SMith's later and yep, the fact he had a MySpace site made him a freak. Perhaps a good time to link to my MySpace site?

Things I miss #35 - Clubs in the UK - Last week I went down to Brighton for Supercharged. A-Skillz and Skool of Thought were on duty. Had a great night. Packed, up for it Brighton crowd, great tunes, I almost wanted to be back in Brighton....but then the selection of food on offer in the shop I went to after put a stop to that.

Things I don't miss #46 - The weather. It's been almost exclusively grey since I got back. A foggy winter's day can be fairly atmosperic....for a bit. Not a whole bloody week.

Other than that, I have mostly been staying in and playing Pro Evolution Soccer 6 and watching the superb Peep Show. A typical Christmas as you can get. DVDs are very cheap here.

The full horror of New Year's Eve is almost upon us. The night that all the people who don't know how to go out, go out, get horribly horribly drunk in bars that charge you to go in and spend more money, before they all spill out in to the streets to spew up and fight to the strains of Auld Lang Syne under town clocks the length and breadth of Britain. Tradition is a wonderful thing.

I'm dragging myself away from PES6 for one night to go to Bust the Box. I'm not expecting any fighting.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Is who'st a word?

Merry Xmas you bastards

Watch the rest of it here

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Help!

'tis the season to write wanky articles about Christmas in Japan with the sole purpose of making yourself appear a bit of a thinker. A 'wa' would be appropriate right now, although I'm not talking Japanese particles, it's just that 'nker' at the end of thinker was looking almost spot on.

Good god, I've landed back in Western Xmas and it is a nightmare. Really. The shopping ethos here makes a trip to shinjuku look like a picnic. Never again will I think to myself, ooooh Hondori is a bit busy on a sunday. Fucking hell. Hordes of people, out buying any old tat, anything, to make up the numbers. I've just been in the longest queue I've ever experienced in a shop. Thank god for the two pints and the novelty factor of watching people getting so worked up over buying gift vouchers. Japanese kids spoilt? I hear it all the time...well, they get a lot of love and attention. Surely better than 57 presents on the 25th of december?

And relax. Cut Thumb does it much better than me though....

Sunday, December 10, 2006

DJ Kentaro - Loop

I should sit down and write something one day rather than just posting Youtube videos, but hey, it;s DJ Kentaro. Great clip.
PV HIFANA - Fresh Push Breakin'

Finally a vid on Youtube where you can really see what Hifana do :)

Sunday, December 03, 2006

human beatbox

Saw this a while back. Amazing beatboxing, beats, bass, fx and vocals!

Monday, November 20, 2006

Some people


Nintendo's Wii has been launched all over America :snigger: and I was delighted to read about this chap :

The first buyer, Isaiah Triforce Johnson, had been waiting in line outside the store for more than a week. He wore a Nintendo Power Glove, a wearable controller that came out in 1989, while shaking hands with Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime after buying the first Wii. Johnson said he had legally changed his middle name to a reference in Nintendo's "Zelda" game series.

Wonder if he's got a girlfriend? Having said that , I wasted hours and hours of my life playing the Legend of Zelda on the N64 and I got very nostalgic looking at that map above. It really was an amazing game.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

fuck off

Two Simple words I often want to say, especially after reading certain people's blogs...

Saturday, November 11, 2006

AFRA - Kazunori Kumagai - Beatbox vs Tap - HUMAN BEATBOX

Friday, November 10, 2006

Akala-Bullshit

the mother fucking weather in Britain :)

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Osaka



It's been barely a month since my last blog of a big building with a kind of round shaped thing in the middle, so here it is. The Umeda Sky building in Osaka. The two 'projectile' thingys sticking through the hole are the 'see through' escalators up/down the last 5 floors. Now, I'm not very good heights and the description of these two contraptions being see through didn't exactly fill me with confidence. 'Will I be able to come back down again if I don't want to go up it?' I whinged, terrified that the lift would open to reveal these dreaded staircases with no turning back. As it was/is, you can't see through the escalators themselves (ofcourse) but you are able to look out all around you which I avoided doing by staring at SH's chest. So, I made it, but, there was still the roof to go and this is open air. I crept up the final staircase and approached the edge as slowly as possible to find......at least 10 meters between the barrier and the actual edge. Phew. I'd done it. I could then strut around cockily and laugh at the DISGUSTING green wedding dress a blushing bride was wearing. Hope she doesn't read the blog.

Osaka is an odd place. It gets a lot of good write ups and so it should, Osakans are pretty friendly and there's loads to do but I find the gaijin who live there a very weird breed. I have mostly been to fairly typical run of the mill bars/clubs (one search for a nice little bar ended in the usual wandering around looking up at buildings wondering where the fuck it is) but some of the characters I've seen..... Best of all was Mr Cliche. Buzz Lightyear in sunglasses and open shirt, a fist of grease in his hair and mission to annoy as many Japanese women as possible in the shortest span of time. You really had to see him to believe him. Perhaps if he took the glasses he could see the girls mouthing 'help!' to their friends and trying to suppress their laughter. Then again if you are like him you'll probably be telling yourself they love it. Saw a couple of fights too. Well done chaps! SH had a chat with a guy in one of the clubs about their licenses and if they'd had any problems recently a la Hiroshima/Tokyo. I won't mention th club's name, let's call it 'Pete and Joe's'. It was clear to both of us that that club was illegal under Japanese law but he was having none of it. 'Don't bring any trouble here' was one thing he said. Fuck's sake, people eh? I'm alright Jack.

Perhaps what always suprises me about Osaka is it's size. It's massive. I know that should be obvious but for some reason I always forget. It's bloody ugly but at the same time has some fairly cool big buildings. Still, Hiroshima looked lovely when we got back. The locals seem very up for having a good time though and perhaps next time I should make the effort to check out a 'proper' club. Talking of which we went to a very bling Hip Hop night. Hilarious. I love Hip Hip but there's some fucking shite out there (like most genres I know) and some of the people who listen to it are cocks of the highest order. Me and SH were the only people in their smiling. They didn't play any UK hip hop for some reason......

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Scary Moves

So much to talk about....

First up Halloween which I don't have any photos of but was pretty good fun. Me and GHB or whatever his name is these days were very restrained this year and the dancefloor seemed to be fuller and for longer than last year. Less acts seemed to make the night much smoother for Nanja's Jamie and Natasha and the atmosphere seemed way less overly drunk than the last time (although I heard one story I'm struggling to get my head around) and most people seemed to enjoy themselves. I was very disappointed to see Charlie Brown in a Stitch hat this year though.

And then there's the dance thang. Today saw the publication of two articles by SH in The Japan Times and on GetHiroshima. I'd like to make it clear to the authorities that I have never met SH in my life, have never spent any time with him and if he were to introduce himself I would run away with my hands over my ears shouting LALALALALALALALA :joke:
Seriously though readers, my mother inlaw is so fat... etc. Seriously, there are a lot of answers to a lot of questions in the GetHiroshima article. The whole situation has produced a lot of rumour. Partly down to a natural, and I think especially Western tendency to spout off with only a basic grasp of the facts involved, but also due to the deafening sound of silence that has rolled out of official land. The Police have said come and speak to us, but then again I only heard that through City Hall. At least they did speak to me though. I originally mailed the Mayor and my mails were passed on to Hiroshima City's Citizens Safety Promotion Division. I won't go into our discussions cos any information I got out of that you can all read in the two articles SH has written. It was all very polite and I do genuinely appreciate the time they spent on replying to and meeting me. The situation was still very confusing though and after the raid of Cover I fired another, I suppose fairly strong email to the Mayor. I was well aware he couldn't comment on Prefectural Police procedure but what the hell did he think about it? What voice did the citizens of Hiroshima have? No reply, although once again the good people of the Citizen's safety thingy got in touch. Obviously the Mayor is a busy man and replies to emails are handled by various departments. Fair enough. I know he's a busy man, and I'm all for his messages of Nuclear disarmament and peace. Too fucking right I am. Imagine my surprise then when I found out that although the Mayor is too busy to reply to my emails, my name (real one, I don't think he's downloading my tunes) is being bandied about amongst his friends as if I have some kind of vendetta against the city of Hiroshima and am trying to 'blackmail' the city. Their word not mine. I was pretty shocked, angry and I have to say, slightly scared. I don't know any of these people and yet they are using my name as if I am public enemy number one. I suppose it's all in keeping with the times though isn't it. Just as The War Against Terror (T.W.A.T) labels anyone as anti-American for daring to criticise it and British fuckwit tourists can get innocent people thrown off a plane for looking like wrong uns (my favourite rant from my chum's blog. Don't loook if you don't like, er, humour), get angry about Police actions ruining the nightlife of Hiroshima and suddenly you hate Hiroshima rather than loving what's been taken away. Ofcourse nightlife being shut down ain't the same as being suspected of being a terrorist just cos you're browner than the pasty, lardy wankers covered in egg and chips (they were obviously jealous) but you get the picture. Still, two can play at that game and now I've put it on my blog, the whole world knows, yes they do!!!! Bwahahahaha.....

Anyone reading? Oh well.

And what of the situation at large? The treatment of Ricardo and Hideko stills makes my blood boil. The arrest of Cover's owners and bar manager stank aswell but the Police can always fall back on the ' they were breaking the law' line. There's nothing really you can say to it. Well there is, it's just that noone will listen. If you read SH's article on GH you'll see that he basically asked the fuzz, if the activities of a lot of bars/clubs in Hiroshima had been illegal, why have they only recently been targetted. The offical line is; The police have always acted against bars when information has come to light that illegal activities happened. Obvious bollocks. Anyone with a brain knows that Bars and clubs have been allowed to operate as they had been.....until recently. And if the police are so concerned about the law why the hell weren't they doing their job properly before? Any former police chiefs/officers gonna get arrested for negligence. Ofcourse not.

Still, they have the law on their side. Obviously, and as it is, finally it's clear. And it's shit. Embarrassing for any modern thinking country. Just as the UK was the laughing stock of Europe (the world?) for it's archaic drinking laws, if this continues Japan will become similarly laughable because you can't dance after 12/1am? The Japan Times reports that similar things are happening in Tokyo. One might hope that the anger generated by people over the recent raids might make the police step back from the club scene. The clampdown is designed to target some of Japan's seedier businesses and the activities of organised gangs. Great, go for it. The trouble is, young people who like dancing in night clubs are being lumped in with all the other shit and as of now the police don't seem to care about differentiating. How insulting is that for us?

What is it about dancing that authority figures around the world find so dangerous? Is it just that those in power never got invited to any parties or asked to dance? Probably.

I turned 18 in 1990 living in the UK. Acid House was already a few years old and raves were set to explode across the country. The thing is, we were used to working around the law. House parties, warehouse parties, raves.....we'd been brought up on a nightlife diet of getting around things, and in a way it made it all the more exciting. But, to be here, in a country where noone goes out dancing before 12, to be suddenly told you can't do that after that time.....how depressing? The law needs to be changed, but when you look at how long British drinkers had to wait until they could drink like adults rather than idiot teenagers, I don't hold out much hope. In a way, thank god it is happening in Tokyo. It's far more likely to gain a bit of movement when one of the most exciting cities in the world is being told to sit down at 1am. We'll see.

And that my friends, is the longest post I've ever done.

Monday, October 16, 2006

3KLounge - Sat 21st @Lotus

We're at Lotus again for a 3KLounge night. This saturday, the 21st of October from 10. Ca2 and Moco will be joining us for the evening so come along and listen (not dance) to some of the best breakbeats you'll hear in Hiroshima. Entry is, as always, free.

www.3kbreaks.com

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Tokyo


I've waxed lyrical about Tokyo before on the blog and last weekend I took my kind of yearly trip eastwards.

I stayed in Shinjuku this time due to the arrival of my friends lovely baby girl some 10 months ago. Old business hotel which ironically had more room than any others I've ever stayed in. Enough room to swing a guinea pig. If they had tails.

Anyway, did all the usual drinking, catching up stuff AND went to Odaiba. I suppose it's really a bit of a naff out of town (reclaimed land in Tokyo bay) entertainment development but, has the advantages of, the Fuji TV building (pictured), superb views of Tokyo (also pictured) and the scariest Haunted house in the whole wide world (too scared to picture it).

I've never been so terrified in all my life. Me and my friend crept round this tiny little attraction clutching a torch and each other, shouting at the top of our voices when the horrible, horrible little child ghost came running round a corner or behind us. Before we went in they showed us a set of rules which we scoffed at. 'Don't attack the ghost'? Haha, very funny.....until we were in there and I wanted to smash the torch on her creepy creepy little head. We said a lot of rude words, very very loudly, and when we emerged back into the showa themed shopping centre, sweating with hearts thumping, a little crowd of people had gathered to watch us come out, 'Kowakatta?' (was it scary?).

We had to sit down and gather our thoughts for 5 minutes. And noone believes us. If you are ever in Decks in Odaiba, try it out and let me know if it really is that bad. Or am I really pathetic?

Thursday, October 05, 2006

SPINS at alice-garden

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Oh the irony....


....just as I have a big (well deserved) moan up about what's happening in Hiroshima right now....I go and have one of the best days+nights out in ages.
Sunday morning at 9am is a time I like to be nodding off to sleep not arriving in Alice Garden. It was well worth it though. I often poke fun at my friend ghb (pictured sending small children running to their mummies with hands over ears) for his never ending energy for doing stuff. He and his wife are having a baby next tuesday for god's sake and he goes and decides to have a festival the week before. Thank god for people like him though. Only interested in the buzz of doing something that others enjoy rather than the buzz of being 'known' for doing something that others enjoy.
It really was a massive success. Starting out with the new sound system he'd bought (again, quality planning) which was excellent. If only we had a place to permanently use it...right through to the curry and the massage I had. Loads of people turned up and the day was brilliantly rounded off by the Spins who featured in the very first post on this blog. Everything went just right, from the mix of the bands to the various stalls. People were dancing in Alice Garden! And no I don't mean Para Para :)
Very tiredly I dragged myself to Chinatown, the supposedly last bastion of dancing in Hiroshima, for Andy C. I like drum and bass but a whole night of it usually does my head in. Fuck me though, Andy C and MC GQ were really really good. A brilliant night. Massive respect to the Heartbeat of Dragon crew.
And our lovely local coppers want to stop it all.

Lots of youtube vids from Sunday on the GH blog. Why can't I blog youtube stuff at the moment?

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Nekomushi at Alice Gardens 24th Sept 2006




Nekomushi at Alice Gardens 24th Sept

I'm not sure if a beautifully sunny Autumn day really lends itself to the Nekomushi experience but not to worry, Goto Izumi and co have the kind of presence that made the very Urban 'park' of Alice Gardens in Hiroshima look like the residents of a local Obake Yashiki where wandering around on their lunch break. With their instruments ofcourse.

One of the great things about seeing Nekomushi is watching the reactions of people who have never seen them before. Even more so in a venue like this one where bemused shoppers would slowly wander past, stop for a bit....then stay for the whole set. Not many people ignore Nekomushi.

So as Goto Izumi's waiflike voice filled the square, high school boys stopped to stare and puzzled non-Japanese wondered just what film these 4 characters had dropped out of. The only shame was that due to the nature of the stage the Kimono clad Goto couldn't go on one of her walkabouts. Or should that be crawl abouts?

Offbeat percussion, battling accordion and acousting guitar held together by taut bass, topped off with vocal wanderings from all members. If you haven't seen Hiroshima's most 'interesting' band, then make the effort. A lot more enjoyable that a haunted house.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

How to kill a city


If you talk to anyone who has been around Hiroshima for longer than 5 years, it's clear how much the city has changed, and for the better. Whilst the average foreigner's connection with Hiroshima is a fairly transient one, coming and going, getting involved or sticking a nose up at things, the locals in the city have been steadily creating a city that was more than a museum and a park. A city about which it's Mayor has proudly boasted; pointing to Lonely Planet's inclusion of Hiroshima in it's 'The Cities Book' as evidence of it's livability and it's cultural and leisure attractions. I certainly wouldn't have disagreed. I love Hiroshima. It's people, food, climate, okonomiyaki, rivers and much more, but right now a massive part of it's emergence has been strangled if not at birth but certainly in pre-adolesence. Along with all the bars, cafes and restaurants that have sprung up over the last 10 years or so, Hiroshima has also seen the birth of a club culture. Perhaps the most credit has to go to the local Drum and Bass crews. It is irrelevant whether you like the music or not, these guys have created a scene that sees them regularly pack clubs in town, and through a lot of effort and I imagine a lot of money, brought almost every major international Drum and Bass DJ to town. Only last week Dynamite MC was sounding genuinely happy to be in Hiroshima for the first time. Everyone knows the name Hiroshima and everyone knows why, and the local promoters, clubbers, bar owners, DJs, bands etc. have been helping to give Hiroshima a very different image to that of the A-bombed city.

When I first came to Japan, I looked up Hiroshima in a battered old Lonely Planet which said if it hadn't been for the fact it had been bombed there would be very little reason to visit it. Not much of write up! And you can see from the fact LP chose the place as one of the top 200 cities in the world 10 years or so later that the city has taken a giant leap forward.

One leap forward for a city, one big foot to step down on it courtesy of the Hiroshima prefectural police. The last few months have seen the boys in blue clamping down on clubs and bars in the city apparently because of liscensing laws. What's come out is the existence of a ridiculously archaic law in Japan that forbids dancing after 1am. Apparently this is a public morals issue. This in the country where titty bars/soap lands whatever you want to call them are everywhere. Hiroshima police have seen fit to keep owners of El Barco night club and Cover in prison for over a week for liscensing violations. Suspected terrorists are sometimes kept for less time. Perhaps the prefectural police are planning a kind of camp X-ray, bright orange glow sticks for the city's clubbers.

A couple of days ago I popped into Edge to book a 3KBreaks night. No can do came the reply.....no more events.....why?.....because of the recent police actions. And it isn't just Edge, it's most of Hiroshima's clubs. Nice one Cuntstables. You've got the hard working, honest people of Hiroshima scared of running their businesses.

I hope we can at least make some noise about this. I don't see how we can change things without a complete change in the Japanese law, but as for Hiroshima, who's going to want to risk 10 days in prison for trying to host a party? I certainly don't want to put anyone at that kind of risk. Hiroshima's non sex related nightlife has taken a massive blow, one which I imagine will take years to recover from. I'm certainly questioning my desire to live here.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Haiku


I just wrote a trilogy of Haiku about my visit to the shop. Check the syllables, they're all there mother fuckers :)





Tell me why must the
Seven Eleven cashier
always give me bags

----

My onigiri is
difficult to open
due to the sticker

----


My flip flops flop home
autumn sun, man waves gaily
in the word's new sense


I actually went to Family Mart, but Seven Eleven fitted better.

Monday, September 18, 2006

urrrghhh

Had a great time at the Warez closing party last night. Lots of great tunes, bit too much beer and some bad dancing :) The best thing about the night though was it seems like we'll be playing the same bill as Goldie and Adam Freeland in November. Will post it up as soon as it's all confirmed.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Drum an de bass

GHB had a much better time than me at DJ Zinc last night. Perhaps knowing I had to be at work the next day stopped me from really letting my hair down. Also, Chinatown is a bit of a dump, and when we've got a venue like 4.14 here, the sound is pretty shite in comparison. It was also a bit quiet, the big DnB nights I've been to on Sundays have been much busier. The curse of Hiroshima Fridays strikes again. Having said that, Zinc was pretty good, great to see a DJ dancing, and Dynamite MC was superb. I went and bought the double ticket that includes the Andy C night next Sunday.....lucky I have Mondays off :)

oh and heard Adam Freeland is coming to Hiroshima....Brighton and breaks, huzzah!

Monday, September 11, 2006

Where's Windcheater?

That's supposed to be a kind of pun on Where's Wally. Anyway, Beatpick are getting themselves around and about and you might even find a mention of Windcheater if you check out these interviews.

http://www.dogmanet.org/0036aug06_music06.htm

http://www.digicult.it/digimag/article.asp?id=403

Monday, September 04, 2006

I've got 104 friends


been waiting for ages to be able to say that. Windcheater's MySpace page

edit: Typical, go and post that and someone goes and adds me. Atleast it was Dubbledge

Tee hee


Banksy has been out and about again - Read more here

Wow

Digitally created photo, i.e. this 'person' doesn't exist at all

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Don't try this at home kids...


I had a fun weekend last week, with two late-ish return homes in a row. The first one on Sunday morning was so good a decided to record parts of it, with flagrant disregard for the new laws on using your mobile phone whilst on a bike. I wonder if it states what 'using' it means. Anyway, after nosely checking out some Taiko playing in a shrine in town I then set off on my epic journey. You would have thought crashing my bike a year ago might have taught me a lesson.....oh no.

Watch it here if you like.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

This week's toilet-scape

Dancing maids at Eri and Kentaro's wedding party

Just playing with my new vlog thingy. Here are the maids.....

This video was originally shared on blip.tv by windcheater with a No license (All rights reserved) license.

Monday, August 21, 2006

What's it like to see through the eyes of WC? I'm sure is a question you all ask yourself at least once a day. Well, now you can get a glimpse through the medium of phones, internet and video blogging sites.

There are all sorts of pointless 30 second or so, snatches from my life on my newest blog thingy. Have a look. There are dancing maids on it :)

Sunday, August 20, 2006

BeatPick in the press

There's some great publicity for Windcheater's label BeatPick in this month's DJ magazine. You can read the article (by squinting hard) on the Beatpick blog.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Currently listening to...

It's a bit of a summer 'punk pack' at WC towers at the moment as I've been delving into my old record collection. Well, I would if I could but half of it was nicked when me and a friend moved flat in around 1996 and the rest of it is 1000s of miles away. However, technology provides....

MySpace really does have everyone on it doesn't it; The Dead Kennedys were one of my favourite bands as a handsome, strapping teenager (lanky streak of piss). I once went on a 'date' after buying the album Frankenchrist. 'OOh it's got a free poster', I exclaimed sitting opposite my datee,'What's it of?' she asked as I unfolded it.... have a look.

Also been listening to Fugazi and Nomeansno, two of my favourite live acts from that time. At these kind of gigs you'd often see people into straight edge. Very strange.....

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Cameron cf. Blair on Time Trumpet

....and yet more brilliant 'cutting' in a more VJ style from new (superb) Armando Ianucci comedy 'Time trumpet'. Enjoy.
Pro X Fade ad

Saw this on my chum Cut Thumb's MySpace site. It really is lovely stuff :)

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Durrrrrrrrr


I seem to be surrounded by all manner of stupidity/uselessness these days (I include myself in that assessment obviously). What is it with people? :stickstongueintolowerlipandgoesuhhhhh:

Here's a couple of tips from Windcheater to any would be promoters out there;

1. Try and make an effort to say hello to any DJs you book for an event.

2. Try and say thankyou to any DJs you have booked for an event.

3. Go wild, actually approach and introduce yourself to the DJ you've booked for your event. Hey, you're in the same building/room!

Hardly rocket science is it? I've tried to pick out three key failings in a recent event that GHB did. Do you think I'm onto anything there? And let's not mention the fact that GHB lugged down his mixer and set it up for everyone to use and had to cope with flack from unhappy punters whilst at the same time not being able to stop playing as there was no other DJ around etc etc....

In the words of Jacques Derrida : 'Sort it out'.

Friday, August 04, 2006

getting down hardcore at weedmarch 04

roodness

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

What?


So, we're in an Izakaya. One where you can't see outside, and there's all this rumbling nonsense going on outside. Thunder? Nah, surely the trams rolling by (despite the fact I can also tell there is something flashing very brightly fairly often). It was all a bit reminiscent of the Geiyo earthquake that I was living slap bang in the middle of 2 months after arriving in Japan. Oh, must be the underground I thought as the ground underneath did a good impression of making me look drunk. Problem is there is no underground (well there are 3 statons) in Hiroshima, let alone tiny little Hiro where I was walking at the time. I'm digressing, what I mean to say is, as I didn't think much was going on then, and I didn't think much had happened in the mere 20 or 30 minutes since we noticed the first rumbles inside the Izakaya. Then we went outside....pissing down. Not annoying pissing down, but laugh out loud, bloody HELL pissing down. Bikes strewn all over the pavement, roads completely flooded, pissing down. The whole day had been blazing sunshine and blue skies. Not one hint of even a cloud all day and then the cycle home was like something from a natural disaster weather report. My feet got all wet dammit! Hope no one got hurt/had homes wrecked. If that's the case, it was a lot of fun :)

The photo is of just ouside my apartment block. It didn't even come close to that wet during the massive typhoon of a couple of years ago. All in half an hour. Hardcore weather.

Monday, July 31, 2006


Summer is finally here. Rainy season was unusually long although it did seem to take a break for a mini summer in the middle for a couple of weeks that had me all confused, and royally pissed off when it started raining again. But it’s all gone and I can start playing football again and sweating like a pig. In fact, the first proper post on this blog was made as last year’s Tsuyu finished. The WCblog is a year old, coinciding nicely with the season of WC family birthdays; brotherWC, me, NieceWC and sisterWC all in the space of two weeks.
In fact it’s been a few weeks of Japanese summer type stuff. 3 weeks ago I went with work to the Island of Ninoshima. One of the many great things about living where I do, and something I don’t take advantage of enough, is that I can cycle 20 minutes down the road, hop on a ferry and in 20 minutes step onto (and back in time into) the world of a Seto Inland sea island. Ninoshima is great. We took the kids to an outdoor pool and watched them splash around for a couple of hours, had some curry then walked over the mountain and through a town that couldn’t be more removed from the city centre of Hiroshima and anywhere in urban Japan. Nasty sun burnt legs though.
Last weekend was the Lotus gig which wasn’t as well attended as the last one but was pleasant enough. I was a bit late owing to the Ujina port fireworks which were fantastic. How the frig do you make shapes out of fireworks? I’ll always curse the fact that Guy Fawkes tried to blow up parliament during the winter. Twat. Didn’t he realise he was condemning us Brits to fireworks in winter? Muddy fields filled with terrifying young children and their poorly constructed ‘Guys’, fairground rides that have clearly never heard of a safety check and burger vans. Summer is the time for fireworks and the ones 2 weeks ago were stunning. Wish I’d taken my sampler. There were some fantastic kick drums to be heard ;)
And then this weekend it was work again and summer camp. It was at a mountain park that has a small farm with animals, fields of stuff to pick and various other foresty type stuff for little ‘uns to run around in without getting mauled by bears. Very tiring but very very pleasant as all the kids were great and the weather was lovely. Hot o’clock though. I whittled my own chopsticks. Extremely poorly it has to be said. I was shown up by an 8 year old. The lucky kids also got to see a rabbit eat it’s own baby bunny. I decided not to watch at 7.30 in the morning with a slow burning hangover.

Back in the 'studio' I've now got some lovely new monitors that sound ruddy bloody good. I've even started to work on a new original track.....it's been a while.

Ja ne
Dizzee Rascal Dream

great video :)

Saturday, July 22, 2006

DJ Kentaro - Shuriken Cut

sorry I meant to 'blog. this mother ;)

Thursday, July 20, 2006

SSTV Station ID

It's a bit of a cheat filling my blog up with youtube clips but sod it.....it's DJ Kentaro!

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

3KLounge

Yep, we're back at Lotus again this Saturday. The last one was a goodie so come on down for free breaks related choons. More information can be gleaned from here :)

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Things I love about the internet #274

Winding up right wing twats on message boards. There was a time, fresh to the web when I would engage in discussion and heated debate. Then I gave up. Arguing with someone who uses text speak to 'discuss' the finer points of immigration (=spit bile) is a pointless and unecessary waste of my time. Making them spit bile at me though is both amusing and heart warming. It's also very easy. Right wingers are thick. Fact.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Roots Manuva - Witness

My blog's got a bit boring of late so what better way to spice it up by linking to Youtube.

Today, the best Hip hop MC there is, Roots Manuva. Shite sound quality but fantastic video....

Monday, July 03, 2006

Alan Partridge

Alan's drum loops

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Chooooooooooon!

I've finished a tune. Bit of a cheat really as it's more of a remix but of a track I'd kind of binned so I reckon I can call it a new one. Can't I?

Can't be arsed putting it on my homepage so if you GO TO MY SOUNDLIFT PAGE you'll find it there.

It's called -Back track- and any comments on it will be most welcome :)

Monday, June 26, 2006

More Windcheater in cyber space?

If you don't get your fill here or at www.windcheater.co.uk, get your arses over to www.3kbreaks.com the blog/site of Hiroshima's finest break's night out and Windcheater's very own MySpace page. The next Arctic Monkeys? Doubt it but if you have a page of your own why not 'add' me and do all those other fun things you can do on MySpace. Let me know what they are when you do.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

3K on tour


Well it was a long one but a good weekend that felt pretty satisfying. Hey I even fitted some work in somewhere along the line.

On Friday night GHB and myself hosted 3K again at Edge with special guest Dangerous Drum's ED2000. It wasn't full but then again we never expected it to be on a friday (always a funny night here in Hiroshima). However, the small crowd that did come down did enjoy it and ED2000 did what he does best and what a lot of DJs fail to do round these parts, get people dancing. Even the head nodders were up and that's no mean feat. Apart from anything, it was just great to meet such a nice guy. Hopefully we can hook up with DD again sometime. At 3am we took to the decks. I didn't expect anyone to be there at that time and was preparing to play to an MD recorder. In the end though, little pockets of people kept coming back and my god they were dancing too. It does seem that there are people who want something a little different to drum and bass. Many thanks to CA2, God Fxxx and MC Ali too who provided us with a couple of other great sets.

So, that was Friday out of the way, onto Saturday.... It's taken me 33 years to work out if I don't drink I can get through most things the next day. Work was a breeze and at 3.30 GHB and myself boarded the bus to Tottori for the San In beach party. What a great event. I haven't been before so can't compare it to previous years but I was really impressed with the set up, the beach and the weather. Many thanks to Steve and Tom for having us along (GHB is a bit of a regular). Two nights, two international DJs, on Saturday we shared the bill with Silva,a former Jpop idol now house DJ and singer. Her set was a kind of walk through of remixed party classics but putting snobbery aside she had the crowd loving it, mixed well and has a fantastic voice. To sing over records and not sound shit is not going to be easy. I had to laugh at the end when she was doing a call and response thing with the crowd and she would sing something that noone at the party could get anywhere close to. I did get the impression that on a different night she might play slightly differently as she dropped in a couple of less well known, slightly edgier tracks that didn't go down as well with the crowd. Unpretensiously she gave the people what they wanted. Then again what do I know, maybe she plays like that always.
Pretentiously me and GHB dived straight into the breaks and scared most of the dancers away :) After a while though the crowd seemed to noticeably change as a different breed crawled out of the dark and to our relief, lapped up the dub heavy bass that carried a lot of our set. This was all after a scare at the beginning when my laptop wouldn't switch on. If any of you have a Vaio out there, make sure the lock switch on your battery is switched on! At the end of the night we were approached by a couple of promoters from Osaka and asked to play in July, a date we can't unfortunately make. Nice to be asked though and I guess it can't have been all that bad.

At 6.30 and after only 3 hours sleep the previous night we crawled into our tents.....and woke up at 8.30. What? After dragging ourselves back to Hiroshima it was straight out to watch Japan vs Croatia.......hardcore!

Monday, June 12, 2006

Weekender


Criminally I haven't mentioned the San In beach party on the blog. It's this saturday, a bit of trek but sounds excellent. It also comes the night after Dangerous Drums, and that's the night after England's 1am kick off game against Trinidad and Tobago. Throw 3 days of work into the mix too and you've got one very very tired WC indeed. Oh well, rock and roll and all that.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

WC in print



Future Music published a short review of Apathetic in their reader's demos section this month. It's not that long so here's what it said in full :

This is another track that has a catchy intro but the verse then lets things down by plodding along a little. The instrumentation is great though, and the bass carries things well. Overall, this is only one or two hooks short of greatness.

Can't really decide whether or not to be pleased about that. What do you think? Nice to see Jun's artwork (see above) included though as it should be.

Right, I'm off to look for a hook...

Thursday, June 01, 2006

ED2000 exclusive mix



In the run up to the Dangerous Drums vs 3KBreaks night we've got an exclusive 30 minute mix from the man himself ED2000. You can go to GetHiroshima yourself to get it or you can just click here. Download, stick on ipod, enjoy, come to 3KBreaks. It really is THAT simple. :)

Saturday, May 20, 2006

How did that NWA song go?


I doubt anyone who ever reads this blog and lives in Hiroshima is unaware of the situation at Barco so I will just point you in the direction of the GH blog for ideas on how to help and information about the recent arrest of Ricardo and Hideko.

Even if they weren't such nice people its all complete bollocks and very depressing. As it stands if they were arrested last Saturday for people dancing in their bar then me and GHB should be arrested on charges of inciting people to dance and would be languishing in prison with the owners of Edge and every other owner of any space that saw dancing last Saturday in Hiroshima.

For now, show your support in the ways suggested by Ricardo's wife and others. If you can't be arsed, why not just go and have a drink at Barco. I'm sure the practical support of their businesses would be of help too.

Arse.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

3KBreaks?


Well, we had a lot of people through the door, the music was banging, and there were people dancing, but at the end of the evening GHB and myself felt more like we'd put on a drum and bass night for a couple of the local d'n'b crews rather than the Breaks extravaganza we'd hoped for.

Not that the night didn't have it's positives. Ca2 proved himself an excellent DJ and it'll be good to have him along for the Dangeorus Drums night. There did seem to be a little crowd there for the breaks too. I think if we're going to push things here then we're going to have to boldly go where no man has gone before. Or if I'm doing the more up to date pc Star Trek, no-one. Get the popular local D'n'B DJs in and we're guaranteed a crowd, but it's not really what we're about.

It was interesting to see how, no matter what country your in, people always want to blag something. I don't think it's got anything to do with the money really (especially when our nights cost literally 500yen to go in), just wanky, I'm known around here bollocks. I remember regularly meeting twats in Brighton who would boast about how they could 'get into any club night in this town'. I haven't yet found out what the Japanese for 'SO?' is. Must do that. We did have a lot of people come who seemed to want us to pay for their night out and poor SH had to deal with most of them. Sozz mate x


Right. Enough moaning. Next month see's Dangerous Drum's ED2000 touch down at 3K. It's a Friday night this time so get your dancing shoes on a night earlier and make the effort to come down because if you're not in to Drum and Bass it's not that often you get to see a DJ of such quality out and about in Hiroshima. We'll have a mix of his up somewhere soon....will keep you informed.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Golden Week by phone


A quiet week kicked off with a couple of days in the countryside to relax and set myself up for a frenetic end to Golden Week 2006. Perhaps the highlight of which was Dove Pro-Wrestling at Chinatown. I'm always amazed at America's fascination with one joke but when you've got it happening right in front of your face, with DJs playing hip hop and drum and bass it's pretty compelling....and bloody hell it looks like it hurts. At one point a barbed wired clad board was brought out for the two wrestlers to jump off an oil drum on to. Fake barbed wire naturally I thought, until they got up from it with bleeding backs (and just to check, an intrepid WC pressed his fingers against one 'barb'.....ouch). Quality entertainment.
2nd highlight was a drum and bass night at Tribes. I say 'a' drum and bass night because I have to admit I have no idea who the DJ was although I do remember he hails from the UK. And he's big (in size, no idea about his popularity). Best part of the night for me was a record that Spins DJ Shimomura played. Awesome. No idea what it was though. Superb set alround that featured a very very good Japanese MC who disappeared before I could find out his name.

The udonya was visited 2 nights in a row :)

And to finish it all off, best of all, SH and myself got a photo op with some girls out doing PARAPARA at about 3am infront of a conbini...happy days.



Keitai slide show

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Bugs, itchy trigger fingers and Bobby

I've worn shorts at night, had a few bugs fly in my mouth/eyes whilst cycling, been in a shop that's had it's air-con on and felt cold on a bus. Yep, summer is almost here. Well, summer for a Brit anyway, I know technically it won't be summer really til rainy season is over and done with but when it's 25 degrees of a daytime I am culturally unable to ignore the fact that outside it is NICE. Having said that, I have been moaning like a bastard for the last few weeks because it has rained so bloody much. Far too much like home for my liking. Bring on the sweaty arse crack, it may be humid but better than that waiting for summer to start feeling when you suddenly realise it's October :(

Weather aside, I've been getting ready for 3Kbreaks, buying tunes from here and eating very very nice pizza. It's all go, and, I'm on the way to finishing another WC tune with a little bit of help from my lovely lovely new toy.

The only cloud on my horizon is the fact that 3k is on the same night as the FA cup final which I hope Liverpool win. Having said that, I would also like to see WC's former hero Bobby Zamora play and do well, perhaps nick a consolation goal? God I used to love him...

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

3KBreaks time


As fun as 3KLounge was what we really need for a proper night of breaks is a dancefloor, and at Edge there'll be one. As always. 3Kbreaks returns with another great Line up ;
Kyosan (Infinity Vibes)
Choco B (Bass Instinct)
CA2 (Volt)
Daisuke

will, with GHB and myself , be tearing up the dancefloor from 10 o'clock on the 13th of May. Breaks based music all the way, put on your best dancing shoes and come down. It's still the stupidly priced 1000 yen including a drink.

See you there.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

3KLounge


Yesterday I thought any review of last night would start off something like; 'Well, the weather was horrible...'. When I left for Lotus I couldn't imagine that anyone would want to come out but as it turned out the lure of the company of GHB and myself was too strong to resist ;)
Big thanks to everyone who came and there were a lot of thanks to go round. From 10 onwards Lotus was pretty much full, and my god, some people were even threatening to dance. We kept true to the lounge spirit.....for a bit, then got pissed and played whatever we felt like. The great thing about Loutus is that with a sound system of that quality you can get away with playing quite banging stuff without rendering conversation impossible. So, a ball was had and it was gone 4 when we left. I hope the custom made the later finish more palatable for the boys at Lotus. Big thanks to them again. Hopefully see you all at Edge on May 13th for the real thing, 3K Breaks.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Stuff

Been a bit lacking in personality the blog of late, so I thought it was high time the man behind the anorak spoke with a few of my, recent, favourite things. First up a city; Fukuoka. Just down the road, kind of, on the northern coast of Kyushu, Fukuoka is a place I'd highly recommend. Esepcially if anyone is thinking of moving to Japan and can't quite face a place like Tokyo. Very chilled out, big enough and friendly locals, it gets the WC seal of approval :) There comes no higher praise.

Keeping things Japanese, I watched the best film I've seen in ages last weekend. Not since the Incredibles have I been so moved to praise a motion picture ;) Daremo shiranai - Nobody knows is one of the saddest most beautiful films I've ever seen. Chek-a-chek-a-chek-it-out.

And sod it, some breaks on this, 3KLounge-eve. Recently I have been mostly listening to Breakspoll Presents: Vol 2 - Mixed by FreQ Nasty, it's so good it's keeping me from my Japanese study podcasts, and, has me riding my bike at less than safe speeds.

Pics and words about Lotus very soon.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

3KLounge


More physical lounge than musical one, the theme will, as always, be breaks in whatever shape they get served up in. Join us down at Lotus from 10pm for some relaxed 3K action. Its free ofcourse and apart from Ghb and myself some of our 3K friends will be in attendance. Warm up nicely for the real thing next month.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Spring breaks?


eurgh...it was a bit of a long weekend for me finishing off with DJ Fresh and Dieselboy at 4.14 on Sunday night. I wasn't really in a mood to go out but ended up quite enjoying it. Preferred Fresh to Dieselboy's more 'in your face' approach. You've got to hand it to the D'n'B faithful of Hiroshima as they turn out time and time again on Sundays or weekdays to party. Thank god I have Monday's off.
Part of the reason for going down on Sunday was to book a DJ for May's 3k. I'll post up the details soon but for now, you can pencil in these dates as myself and GHB bring more tasty breaks to Hiroshima. Apr 15th sees us relaxing at Lotus again for a more laidback 3k, 3k lite if you will. Come and lounge in the brown of Lotus. Then on May 13th it's the real thing back at Edge, where we will then return a month later hopefully with a very special guest. That'll be on a Friday :gulp: I'll confirm all of this as soon as I can. For now, why not get in the mood with ibreaks.co.uk - Breakbeat internet radio. Hopefully see you all out and about sometime soon.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Windcheater E.P. available on BeatPick



As promised, Windcheater's first E.P. is now available on BeatPick. You can visit the artist page and listen to the whole E.P. If you're then wanting to get your own copy it costs £2.50/€3.50 (that's about 500 Yen). It's got 4 tracks on it and they are;

1. Apathetic featuring Susan Doyon

2. Penalise 'em

3. Blank faced groove

4. The Pinch

Also check out other BeatPick artists as I have been doing the last couple of days. They are of a frighteningly high standard and cover a very widespan of genres. It also has a very 'sound' set up. You can read all about that here.

I'll let you all know how it goes, but for now it's nice to know I have a 'release' out there...somewhere :)

Monday, March 06, 2006

E.P.

Windcheater's first E.P. will be out pretty soon on Beatpick. It's not a 'physical' thing but it was cool to be chosen by the label, so, that's 'nice'.
I'll put links up when they're all in place once I've got all the relevant paperwork off. For now, why not have a browse anyway....

Last night I dined on Horse's tongue :) Not bad for a former vegetarian.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Talking out of my arse...

3k won't be around for a little bit longer unfortunately. Edge is pretty fully booked up so it's looking like a May date. Yes May! Hopefully see some of you in Lotus before then.

Apart from that it's hay fever season here (nightmare) and the Heiroglyphics are flavour of the month in the WC studios. Check them out, wickerrrrd.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Sickness permitting....


3k should be back in March. Well, whether or not I'm ill it's sure to be so make sure you check out Hiroshima's original (only?) breaks night. Mark our words, everyone'll be doing it. One day. Read some stuff about the last one here.

Apart from that, I've been battling flu demons and the far worse horrors of trying to build websites. I can kind of see why web designers charge 1000's of pounds now. Although I imagine they are a tad more fluent than I am in their chosen field.

Bought an mp3 off Breakbeat Online the other day. Well worth a look if you are interested in, er, breakbeats. Very easy to use and great quality, long samples for you to check out too.

And that's today's blog.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Feautured artist at Soundlift.com



The nice people at Soundlift.com have decided to feature me on their front page for a week. Lovely stuff.

WINDCHEATER'S SOUNDLIFT PAGE

Monday, February 06, 2006

Occasional confusion - New Track


It's that time again. I finished my latest track today and you can have a listen to a nice 192kbps mp3 of it on my Soundlift Page . It's a breakbeat affair called 'Occasional Confusion' that started out as a remix of an older track called 'Agony Aunt' which I decided to bin, so, I won't be calling it a remix. It's got a new bassline and breaks anyway, plus some samples from older WC songs I plundered. I hope you enjoy it. As always, comments right here will be very much appreciated. If you really can't be arsed to navigate away from this page, you can download a lower quality 128kbps version from HERE.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Hisashiburi

Hello. It's been a while but I've been entertaining these two. Loads of cool pictures of Hiroshima and Japan in general on there if you are at all interested. A couple of hideous ones of me too. It's all gone so fast, I suppose cos I've been working whilst they've been here. This Monday I took a day off though and we went to Iwakuni to see the Kintai-kyo bridge.

Oh how I hate Iwakuni. With it's stupid bridge and it's stupid marines, and it's 3 day old fart, left in a dirty sock, smelly air. Perhaps that's slightly unfair (to the bridge) but I've been there twice now and have felt a bit under the weather both times. This Monday though I felt sufficiently under that weather to decide to come straight home after arriving at aforementioned bastard bendy bridge. What followed was a journey that will probably stand the test of oratory time, like what that Beowulf did. Quick dump and vomit in toilets by Kintai-kyo. Hop on bus, close eyes, sip water, try and ignore corners. Back to Iwakunting station. Bit of a wait for train. Slightly sweaty moment but stayed within dashing distance of toilets and then it's onto the train. Oh the train....with it's complete lack of toilets. WHOSE IDEA WAS THAT? I managed to cope admirably for about 40 minutes. Then within striking distance of an early departure off train and a taxi I started to feel really bad. Remember, no toilet! Horrible horrible waves of nausea, cold sweat and panic.....and then retching. Christ know's what the other mid-Monday passengers thought of me, head in my hands praying to whatever Shinto god protects travellers on bog-less trains from vomiting everywhere. I just about made it. Ran off the train and into the toilets to.......not be sick. Ahem. So it was into a taxi, deliriously tell him he was going the wrong way (when he wasn't) and home. From this point it was a fairly regular: bed (shivering cold) to toilet, back to bed (freezing) to bathroom to vomit as if possesed by the devil. And repeat. Until the wonderful nurses Andy and Sam arrived to feed me drugs which stopped me being sick and plugged me up until the morning..... erm, I then got very very hot and had a very very weird night. Poor Sam got it too. What was it? Answers on a postcard please, I'm scared of doctors. So, what with that, my chums leaving and other stuff, it's not been a great start to February.
Here's to the next 11 months. Stay healthy people.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Blogs

They're taking over aren't they? Well not really, but they're pretty damned popular as everyone in the world spews forth the rubbish floating around inside their heads. Speak for yourself...

Anyway, a couple for you to peruse; Today, at 10am my good friend Andy (aka Chem7) touched down in Tokyo. Along with Sam, the two of them are starting a yearlong round the world trip with a month in Japan. They arrive in Hiroshima on Saturday. I can't wait. When I lived in Madrid I could set my watch by visitors. For obvious reasons I haven't had so many in Japan and Andy and Sam are really the first people from back 'home' who have come to spend time here. You can follow their adventures right here on their camply titled Andy and Sam blog. Andy/Chem7 was the person who patiently guided WC through his first tentative steps in music making and whilst they may think I'm going to be showing them round Hiroshima, it's straight to Shimomura music for equipment then back to the PAO Sumiyoshi sudios for more tutorials. Bwahahahaha.

Right. Then there is Wide Island (nice name). All about one man and his family and the city of Hiroshima. I'm not a great blog reader but this one is well worth checking out. The bastard can really, really write. And he's funny. Very funny. I'm glad to say I share two things in common with the author of said blog:
1. We live in the same place. I don't just mean Hiroshima, our houses are a minute's stroll away from each other. I even crashed my bike into the wall opposite his house.
2. We once reviewed a urinal together for Japanese TV. Yep, that's something no one, and I mean, NO ONE, will ever be able to take away from us.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Futsukayoi no ato de

As you might have guessed from my post last night (this morning) I had quite a good time yesterday. It's a night I won't be forgetting in a long time and one that left me slightly drunkenly incoherent. I haven't danced that much in years either. A natural high I think it's called. I cycled home (very slowly) at about 5ish via Peace Park where I took some stunningly bad photos of the A-bomb dome looking like some kind of demented early bird tourist. I wonder what the good folk at the Udon-ya think of us too, turning up every couple of weeks and taking photos of each other. Back at home the obvious thing to do is to have another drink, watch a bit more Hifana, and then your favourite bits from Spirited Away, drunkenly cry at them and then go to bed. Ah! A life of tortured artistry. Oh well, all good clean fun.

Back to the gig; The Spins kicked things off and were, as always excellent. Bom plays bass aswell. He seems to pick up a new skill monthly. A bit of DJing followed (a tad too hard maybe for that time of the night? my only slight niggle) and then the stage was Tucker's. If you've never heard of Tucker, perhaps if you imagine a (nutty) teenage boy in his bedroom, picking up (and setting fire to) whatever instrument comes to hand and playing along to some of his parents old records, you might get some kind of idea of what his live show is like. And if you want to get some audience participation going, why not write down the word you want the crowd to shout out. On the bottom of your organ. That you are playing. Just lift it up, no worries.
Normally an act like that would be hard to follow, but Hifana are more than a match. I struggle to find words to express just how good they are at what they do. And does anyone else do what they do? Electronic percussionists? Turntablists? Breakbeat unit? Musicians? Talented bastards. I'm amazed they aren't massive in Europe yet. When they are discovered I'm sure they will be. With the fantastic visuals of Gec and a lot of humour thrown in for good measure too, they left WC a very happy bunny indeed. 4.14 was rammed and from the snatches I remember of the drunken conversations I had last night, I think a lot of people left feeling the same way as me. Keizo Machine and Juicy I salute you. Many many thanks to Niteowl for bringing them to town. I'll try and write a sensible review of the night for GH very soon. They'll publish anything ;)

For now though, why not enjoy a ramble through WC's wobbly night through the medium of photos.

Udonya no ato de


Well, they werealways going to be good but I don't think I've appreciated a night like I did tonight in a very very long time.
I'll write a review of it soon, but for now, Otsukare to the Spins, the nutter that is Tucker, Keizo Machine and Juicy.
Arigatou gozaimashita

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Windcheater demo CD



Today Windcheater entered the, er, 15th century and got a printer. Finally, finally the demo CDs that have been sat in the cupboard have beautifully legible labels that tell you amongst other things, what WC's email address is and where the website can be found. It's only taken me 6 months. Time for some thanks then....
Firstly to Jun (Green Youth Society) for his fantastic artwork and for printing out the covers for free when I know he's a busy bee. He'll be off on his travels soon, be sure to keep up to date on them right here. A big arigatou too to Messyman who's becoming a bit of a regular on this blog with his mastering skills. Then there's Susan Doyon, she of the lovely voice on Apathetic which takes pride of place at the beginning of the CD. Thanks for all your efforts guys :bow:
The CD has 3 tracks on it (1. Apathetic, 2. Penalise 'em, 3. Blank faced groove) and is available from nowhere right now. Plans may well be afoot to change that though.
Seeing as I'm talking about ME I do have another track at a very advanced stage. I'm quite pleased with it, and I'll post it up here when it's done.

My music aside it's only 2 days until Hifana fly into town. Getting very excited about this now as yesterday I bought the Zamurai TV DVD. Inspirational stuff. I'll write more on it after the weekend but for now have a watch of the trailer. Beatboxing and tap dancing. It's the way forward.