Category Archives: art

Internet Radio

As a very part time musician composer producer kind of person it is difficult to find the time to produce music and the th frustration comes of actually trying to find anyone to play it/ listen to it/ feedback; hate it love it buy it. Over the last few years I have been involved with a Twitter/ X based music scene, where generally unsigned artists making slightly avantgarde or non totally commercial electronic music inhabit. BBC Introducing was one space, but that is an increasingly singer songwriter gateway into radio airplay. In my genre of melodic not quite dance electronica a really supportive network of likeminded artists exists, supporting each others mainly part time hobbies. Names like Kiffie, Signal Committee, Trevas, Mothloop, and myself Inochi seem to constantly appear, as if by magic, on the same internet radio shows. I have no idea of listening figures for some of the shows we are played on but it definitely warms the cockles of your creative heart. I mean what is musicking all about anyway? Making your fortune, heading off into the sunset with a banana daiquiri on a Caribbean beach. Possibly. But really, for me its about having an existence which includes music at the forefront, not making a living, but providing some feedback and support, acknowledgement that you have a place on same airwaves.

Big up to Radio Wigwam, Big Satsuma Radio and Trust the Doc internet radio shows who are all playing Inochi tracks this weekend. We are all listening and playing music this weekend in recognition of the epoch changing British poet Benjamin Zephaniah, who so sadly passed yesterday, 7th December 2023.

Timeless: the punk/ jungle continuum

Just before the onset of those traditional festivities where families argue or try and flick an After Eight from forehead to mouth without using fingers, I am speaking about connections between punk and jungle music genres at the wonderful Punk Scholars Network conference.………

Punk is timeless and extends beyond the year zero late 1970s definition and identification in which it is commonly held. In connecting to other time points and genres I interpret jungle as a genre which combines many of the same elements, reflecting on the wider connotations of punk, stepping into the Hardcore Continuum identified by music journalist Simon Reynolds which led through techno, jungle, drum and bass, dubstep, and grime.  

Key elements of punk and jungle show equivalence: DIY, creative emancipation, postmodern eclecticism of genres, dole and squatting, technological shifts, subcultures, resetting the music landscape, minimalism, anyone can be a musician, pirate radio, delivering an original sonic difference. Visual arts also played a key role as jungle initially connected with graffiti whereas punk defined new fashion, emerging from Dada and art inspired spaces. Punk and jungle resonated sonically, music that is dynamic, danceable, and fluttered speaker membranes. 

Every scene, or scenius (the genius of certain scenes – thanks Brian Eno), cooperative genius needs a key instigator to push it forward so within punk, managers Bernie Rhodes and Malcolm McLaren forged the scene whereas jungle was led by its musicians, specifically Goldie or Roni Size in London and Bristol respectively. Community spaces including key venues, rehearsal and recording studios also supported and defined both scenii (scenius in plural), from the Roxy to the Blue Note. 

Acknowledging the punk continuum in preceding genres such as jungle, reduces retrospection and highlights future punk infused possibilities for popular music scenes related to inner city modern life. 

Come along, its the most fun you can have in any conference anywhere ever!

poster for the punk scholars network conference in high Wycombe on 15th and 16th December 2023

Dr Flow

Synergy and serendipity are key elements of creative development, where working together and chance combine, natural energies allowed to collide so that ultimate experiences emerge. My book Blank Canvas, relates to coming from an empty space where previous learning doesn’t affect outcomes. This is a space where synergy and serendipity can be allowed to foster. Synergy can be defined as when the collective whole is greater than what could be achieved just by individual parts. Synergy connects to flow, a collective natural magic where everything just fits into place. Don’t you have those days when everything seems to work perfectly. You wake up, the weather is beautiful, your body feels great, you hug your partner, the morning light sifting through creates beautiful patterns. You gaze through the kitchen window to see the sun rising out of the flat calm sea which is starting to glow and has a lovely deep blue hue.The coffee machine is ready, there are lots of berries in the fridge, the news on the radio is uplifting. It’s a Friday morning, best day of the week. You have time to sit and write before going for a gentle run to the beach and diving into the still deep blue water. You win toward the gradually rising sun with a few other early birds happily swimming along. Somedays it all fits into place. Collective synergy is about alliance, coming together as one. Music composition has a synergy in that as you develop a piece it starts to gather a natural flow if you allow it. You might start with your main melody, riff or rhythm but working on certain parts then informs the next. Like knocking the first skittle over in bowling, you don’t know what kinetic effect this will have on the rest of them until their energy is transferred. I was just writing about flow and then on Doodle up pops a picture of Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi. Happy 89th birthday Dr Flow. Serendipity.

I was just writing about flow and then on Doodle up pops a picture of Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi. Happy 89th birthday Dr Flow.

https://www.intellectbooks.com/blank-canvas

Women in Revolt

A great exhibition of influential women artists from 1970-1990 is coming to the Tate Britain from the autumn. Features many of the artists interviewed in my book with The Raincoats Gina Birch as the poster image

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/women-in-revolt