I thought I’d try out the brand new Soundcloud HTML-5 widget on one of Jake’s new tunes. Soundcloud is a tool that’s been invaluable to him as an independent electronic musician just starting out, and he’s had to upgrade a couple of levels (from Free to Lite to Solo) to accommodate his fairly prolific output.
I really like what they’ve done with the new player, and how the artwork displays. Listen loud.
The excitement in our house this week is the release of (my son) Jake’s album ‘June’. He started on a project at the beginning of this year to make music, and release whatever he’d finished at the end of every three months. So the first of these was a sort of extended EP called ‘March‘, which has some great tunes on it.
The new one is a full album – with five bonus tracks, no less.
The third and fourth in the series – September and December – will follow, and after that – well, perhaps he’ll get to work on something else.
My friend John Mostyn has a recording studio just down the road. He lives upstairs, and can usually be found making stir-fries and risottos while the musicians and engineers get on with their business. The other day he invited Jake and I over to visit because there were interesting things afoot.
Alternative Dubstep Orchestra were rehearsing, and John produced the above video with the guys from Blue Hippo (more local friends of mine in Birmingham who made that great kiwi film The Insatiable Moon). Look out for Jake at 3m38.
If you get a chance to see them live, you should go check them out. And of course… as I write that, I realise I’m missing them right now at a pub not ten minutes walk away. Sigh.
My son Jake is doing the AQA Baccalaureate at his college. It involves the usual A-levels (he’s doing Philosophy, Music Tech and English Language), an extra AS-level class in Critical Thinking, 100 hours of extra-curricular activities, and an extended project. The extended project can either be a 5000 word essay on a topic of your choice, or an artefact of some kind with a 1000 words explaining what you made and why.
Jake’s chosen to go down the practical project / artefact route – and for his, he’s recording an album.
He became interested in producing electronic music a while back, and wanted to improve his skills on that front, so this seemed like a good idea. And in order to get better at it quickly, he decided to record a song a day for 30 days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofcgt6GWimA
Jake’s been working hard on this new track, and it’s finally at a place where he’s ready to let the world hear it. His learning curve on this stuff is so exponentially rapid, it’s amazing.
Play loud.
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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