Remember my friend Novel (Ashley Deveaux) from the Bahamas?
He’s entered a competition with his production team Archetype Infinity to work with Ryan Leslie in New York. Seems pretty important to him and he’s a talented guy – so I thought I’d do what I could to help him out.
All you have to do is text: X64ZX3 to +49 177 178 1208 and the jobs done. I’m sure he’d really appreciate it.
Dave Holland videos some Conservatoire students
I’m working on a project this week at the Conservatoire. Dave Holland, the jazz bass player, is doing a one week teaching residence there, and a bunch of students get to work with him and put on a performance of his compositions later in the week.
It’s a pretty big deal. If you know jazz, you’ll know Dave Holland. He plays the bass on a couple of my favourite Miles Davis records, and I have quite a few of his own releases as well.
My project is about capturing the week and putting it online. I’ve given everyone hand-held digital video cameras, and I’ll be gathering, uploading and making sense of the videos that I get given – as well as adding some photos I’ll take throughout the week.
Anthony Herron from Boy Wonder Records and Brian Travers from UB40
I had an interesting lunch that stretched to a whole afternoon at Cafe Soya (my favourite place to get Won Ton Noodle Soup).
I was there with Jez Collins, who I work with at the university; my neighbour and local record label expert / web developer Anthony Herron; and Brian Travers, sax player from UB40.
Brian had invited us to talk about ideas about iPhone apps and web stuff, and how UB40 could make use of those sorts of things in an interesting way… but also to just hang out, catch up, drink beer and eat noodles – which, to be fair, we did quite a bit of.
Thoroughly lovely way to spend a Friday afternoon, though I got a bit lost when they started talking about Aston Villa and Wembley or something.
Ashley Deveaux aka Novel
“Make Me Say” by Sketch feat. Novel
A couple of months back, I received an email from a young guy who’s producing and performing music in the Bahamas. For a while I couldn’t really figure out what he did (he describes himself as a ‘vocal producer’), but he’s one of a new wave of young Bahamians making smooth R&B and succeeding in getting local music played on local radio in his hometown of Nassau.
Bizarrely, his girlfriend lives in Wolverhampton (they met while studying in Jamaica) and he was over visiting, so we met up for a coffee and a chat, and I showed him around some of the nicer bits of Birmingham city centre.
Really interesting guy, particularly given that he’s possibly the first to incorporate traditional Bahamian sounds into contemporary R&B – and had a number one hit in the process (a song called ‘My Candidate’).
Novel’s a rapper and a singer as well as a vocal producer, though the majority of his recorded output since dropping out of medical school to pursue a music industry career has involved the vocals of others. He wrote and co-produced the track you can listen to above, and also provided the rap. His friend Sketch (Christopher Carey) is the singer.
So… not my usual musical territory, but a really talented and interesting guy, completely sold on the possibilities of digital social media for independent music. You should visit his website here.
I floated the idea of a possible Un-Convention Nassau, and he seemed to think that might be quite a good idea. Something to explore – and certainly something I’d be up for…
Listening to the Safires album with David and Kirk
A big football night in Manchester, so I chose to stay in, listening to the freshly-mastered album by the Safires. David (left), with whom I’m sharing an apartment for the duration of the Aftershock Project, is the bass player and producer/engineer for the band. Kirk, the guitarist, came around to listen to the album in its finished state, and to talk about the final order of the songs.
They asked me for my opinion, and we ended up spending the evening moving the songs around. I think the new version really works and holds together well.
I quite like the sheer concentration and obvious close listening that’s going on in this photo, despite the fact these guys have heard this record hundreds of times.
Here’s a track off the album:
We’ll be putting the whole album up online shortly (I sort of did a sales job on Bandcamp) and you’ll be able to listen to it here.
Abraxxxas is a rapper from Marseille. His real name’s Gabriel, but his stage name has three Xs in it, which is way cooler. I met him at Aftershock Marseille back in September last year, but that happened so quickly. I’m getting a bit more time to get to know people this time around in Manchester.
He played last night at the launch party and he was superb. This track above, called ‘Envoie’ blew me away. Imagine it (or try it) really, really loud with bass bins that rattle your rib cage and teeth.
Awesome.
His MySpace page has more tracks, but you can pick up Abraxxxas’s album Elektrons here at Juno Records – or stay in touch what he’s up to over the next week here at Aftershock Manchester.
I'm the Director of MTF Labs, a Senior Researcher at the Industry Commons Foundation, advisor to ArtEO and founder of New Music Strategies.
I'm an author of books about technology, culture, music and radio. I'm also an award-winning broadcaster and filmmaker, a public speaker and lecturer, record producer and festival director. I am closely following developments in emerging technologies and the cultures and ethics surrounding them, and my projects typically focus on issues of justice, inclusion, and sustainability.
Most of my work involves surrounding myself with incredibly smart and talented people who would have no other reason to ever be in the same room as each other. That's when amazing things happen.
I tend to talk a lot about music (often jazz-adjacent and particularly on vinyl, but also playlists and mixtapes). I'm enthusiastic about food and cooking, the intersection of art and science, new technologies, vintage technologies, education, social progress, silence, innovation, narrative, data commons, culture, sound art and the spoken word. This blog will continue to reflect those diverse and shifting enthusiasms. I may also digress.
I'm from Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland in Aotearoa New Zealand, I have Scottish ancestry, I've spent a decade in the south of Birmingham UK, and another in a forest in the north of Sweden.
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