Stonking

Winter fires
NZ’s performance thus far at the Football World Cup
The Now Show and other audio comedies that makes bob smile in the wee small hours
Comfort food on cold nights
Old skool rave mixes
Watching movies in bed
Wearing socks on ones head
Friends
Amusing diversions

Donking

Winter
Politics and the media
The Rugby World Cup
The failure of capitalism
Corporates that don’t serve humanity (I think thats all of them ain’t it?)
The Music Industry
Friends having  not the best of times

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RATSHIT

Friends family sorrows

Springs 4 seasons in 1hr

Our `winter of discontent’

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Things that excite me:

Fantastic summer days
Balmy evenings
Cold beer in the fridge and me belly
Friends
Being home alone for a week
The resulting Bob’s week of Meat
Antony &  The Johnsons
Music mixes on the bob pod
Finally filling the bobpod and now culling rubbish
Ian M Banks – a recent reading plunge that has come up trumps
Being set loose to DJ at a friends 40th birthday party
Gigs worth attending – almost too many right now
Good people getting hitched (Cath & Dylan, Damien & Sarah)
Friends starting new jobs
BSG starting again… oh yeah 10 fresh episodes to dull my brain
Rekindling my love for books and the resulting book frenzy
The BMP crew
The chance of another awesome boat trip
Alex coming home from Holidays – my simpsons/fmaily guy buddy is soon home
Not being able to easily grab/buy vinyl records I want right this second

 Things that depress me:

Climate change and our lack of action
US Politics
The Gaza Crisis
Sore feet
Back to work,its not easy kick starting a new year – which makes no logical sense
Being treated like shit by prospective employers
Working and looking for work
Friends being made redundant
The pathetic attempts to solve the Credit Crisis – needs more co-operation and understanding less self interest and greed
Our new Govt – weak, please up your game
Auckland radio – can it get more Bland? (shit we were once spolit for great choices and still are to a degree but they could be so easily better)
People putting themselves ahead of positive change
My mind, it sometimes/often won’t shut up
People that steal from my mates
Being useless at some things that one knows one should be able to handle (refer to mind)
The future
Fox News – the joke has worn off, please stop now
The NZ media in general
Working and having to work

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Hot

- Four Months of not working over Summer: ’nuff said.

- The Stax Records Documentary: without a doubt the highlight of this years Auckland Film Fesitval…I’ve never walked out of a movie theatre with a massive smile, feeling so damn good about everything, and with a strong desire to immediately break into all the local music stores to try and collect all the outstanding music that I had just sampled. Props to the Ninja for finding this on DVD.

- The Keith Haring Story – a close 2nd at the Film Festival, telling the story of a legendary artist in New York, in a time when the city was a lot more dangerous, interesting and inspirational.  His work continues to be unlike anyone elses…

- Roy Ayers, Stevie Wonder: Propah soul. Crazy vibes, pianos and mumu’s. 

- Kraftwerk: Groundbreaking and timeless electronic music that continues to sound as relevant as ever. Held, for once, in a decent venue with a soundsystem that did the music justice. Bowel-moving bass and crisp highs, complimentary visuals and four guys standing behind keyboards and computers – plus actual robots!  The only thing that let this gig down was the power-hungry security who were on your back if you even looked at switching your camera on.

- Luciano in Sydney: The second BMP road trip (unfortunately sans 2 BMP members) saw us cruising around the Sydney harbour on a pimped-out boat with Luciano seamlessly weave together stripped down percussion-led grooves with classic techno and festive horn-blasting tracks.  It was great to finally hear KenLou’s “Bangin’” on a big system, 10 years after it was originally released, and it didn’t disappoint.  And if you needed a break from the crazy Chilean’s style, the top deck of the boat was host to Greg Wilson, classic disco-styles and lotsa sunshine.

- Das Ist Minimal: One of the few times I truly enjoyed DJ’ing this year… the fact that Mick & Benny had tirelessly spent some time before the gig tweaking the system and warming it up nicely payed off for myself and fellow DJ’s Nabbs and Shane54.  We were all given free range to play what we wanted, and the end-of-night back-to-back session with my fellow BMPers was awesome.

- BMP Towers: Minimal in every way. We <3 Beanbags.

- The return of Grace Jones. Freakalicious, even after all these years.

- Discovering who ya real mates are.

Not:

- Losing BMP members (and a PGF) to the innevitable overseas lure . Lucky bastards. We miss you.

- The continued downward spiral of the NZ club scene. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, we carry on getting the same string of shtty, were-never-any-good-to-begin-with DJ’s, or acts that were relavent at one time, but by the time they reach our shores it’s all a bit too late.

- George FM. Forward thinking radio programming…from 5 years ago.

- More stupid sub-genre names. What the fuck is “Space Disco”? And I still despise “Tech-House” as well. Do you really need to mount yourself on a ridiculous mid-way fencepost because you can’t decide if you want to House or Techno? Is there some problem with being both? Did I miss a meeting?

- Doors with fucked locks.

- Still being in NZ.

- Sickness. 

Questionable:

- The Ninja’s viewing choices. Hugh Jackman worshipping a hairy tree was never going to inspire peaceful dreams, you bastard.

- 2008 in general.

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So I am gonna make some inane list to occupy my time

Best Music of 2008 not from 2008!!!

Fave Mix I heard this year not from this year?

Prins Thomas RA Podcast
Wow, how did I miss this again?
A live mix that just rulz from yay to nay.  Featuring and extended mix edit of `that’ LCD Soundsystem tune.

Fave Lp’s I heard this year not from this year?

Studio – Yearbook 1 & 2
Sheesh! Thanks to Mick and Benny for this!  I have been hammering this since I finally found it.  I haven’t enjoyed a new artist this much for years, top biscuit!

The Stooges – The Stooges, Raw Power, Fun House.
Couldn’t be any later on this….
But, after reading a rather ordinary book about Mr Pop I decided to grab all the lps that sounded cool.  They sound cool!

Panda Bear – Person Pitch
This is just amazing!
Thers a bit on the lp that sounds as if your sat on the side of a lake listening to a live band playing facing the other way on the other side of the lake.
 C’mon! that’s well cool!

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Inswing
Finishing the half Marathon!!
Cricket season started and I am ruling already!

The new Carl Craig/Moritz Von Oswald classical thingee, the C2 is gonna be my fave tune of the year!!

The Chainsaw song! (Roar – Patrice Baumel)

Santino Marella!

Outswing
Running a half marathon. 21km is a looooooooong way!
Smashed thumb and shin splints for the start of the cricket season.
Elections, sooo over it all.
Work. Why do I do this to myself??

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All the Ak based BMP members were in attendance for Jazz/Funk legend Roy Ayers’ gig on saturday night.  I don’t know if the others have much to say about it. 

Instead of a review here is a hot or not as I am at work and don’t have time.

Hot:

Nearly beating the ninja at ‘burnout 3: takedown’ despite his supposed superiority.

Lengthy and mostly good set from Mr Ayers and band, hitting on his most well known songs early on (We live in Brooklyn, everybody loves the sunshine, running away) and continuing on with mostly fun excursions into funk land (including a version of the great Funkadelic track ‘knee deep’).  Some slow sections enabled the lazier members of the BMP opportunity to slip out to the deck for a more sedate drink.

Impressive one handed drum solo!

More girls at the party than the average gig the BMP attends.

Scott’s fine work in negotiating a tray of drinks through a crowd of dancing people.

Nat’s french toast and bacon with maple syrup.  Awesome.

Not:

Sound during Manuel Bundy’s set – rather booming and overbearing.  Sound was good during the band though so can’t complain too much.

Sale street venue closing the deck just when we’d found a nice place to sit where we could still enjoy the music.

Not being (redacted) for this gig.  It clearly would have improved things.

Still hilarious:

Websta’s expression on realising he would have to walk through a sizeable section of crowd with a fetching handbag on each arm.  He manned up and did it though.

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Hotties

Spring
Arab billionaires buying Man City!!
Robinho!
Luciano in Sydney!
Bmparty this Friday
Appleblim
BMPodcasts, Setting a high  standard so far!
Cricket season getting close

Notties

Being the only AK based bmper not going to see Luciano.

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I feel like stinkfinger is sitting comfortably between the ramblings of a group of friends and a slightly more professional music blog – so I don’t have any problem with diverting immediately from the topic at hand and dialling back the night a few hours.

We start the night off at a resturant with some excellent dinner – along with my friends Daniel and Ayako I eat various sashimi, some fantastic beef tataki, something delicious and rubbery that I hope was octopus, a large piece of cooked tuna, crumbed and fried shiitake mushrooms, prawn gyoza, and some great chicken soup. Alongside several beers I am pretty happy by the time we head over to unit (stopping briefly to fortify ourselfs with mysterious japanese energy drinks).

The club unit is in Daikanyama which is a district of Shibuya in central Tokyo – the district seems fairly upmarket and the club is once again tucked away unobtrusively down some stairs. We arrive about 11.30 and head down. The club is set out on 3 levels which you access by heading further and further underground down a central staircase. The first bar is the most well lit and contains a kitchen (possibly it is a resturant during earlier evening). As we enter some fairly low key minimal techno is on the agenda, with about 100 or so people, mostly sitting down and enjoying the visuals and chatting. The crowd at unit (tonight at least) is much more Japanese than the other week at womb, with only a handful of foreigners in the club. Like most techno gigs back in Auckland the crowd is around 80% male – Daniel is surprised by this, I am surprised he is surprised.

Down the staircase a few levels to the main room (think about galatos main room size). This room (tonight at least) comes close to the ideal club environment for me – large enough for a good atmosphere but not too packed, hardly any lighting apart from the odd colourful flash here and there (there is a mirror ball but it is used with a great deal of restraint), and a great, clear soundsystem. A big dark room full of bass basically, and at the moment the man supplying the bass is Fumiya Tanaka – rolling heavy basslines out of the speakers – you can feel and hear the air being pushed around by the waves of bass. Or at least that is how it felt. More about him later, as we head down to the final room at the very bottom of the stairway. This room contains a bar and an area the size of someones garage, at the end of which are two massive speaker stacks – currently these are blasting out roots reggae and old dub records being played on one turntable by an enthusiastic Japanese dj – betweeen records he gets on the microphone (presumably intro’ing the next record) and uses echo effects on his own voice (inna deejay style). I’m quite into this and we stay down there for awhile. Up in the main room – flying rhythms (a duo of drummers) are doing what seems to be an improv set using various percussion and effects. It is pretty cool, with lots of strange noises rolling under the surface, and again the sound is fantastic. We listen for awhile but after awhile get annoyed by the lack of repetitive, danceable beats (simple folks with simple needs, us) and head up to the top bar for some vodka and nice enough IDM laptop jams from a random Japanese guy.

A bit later, following some more great and very laid back house from Fumiya Tanaka, the trio hit the stage in the mainroom. Sasu Ripatti (aka Vladislav, Luomo etc) sits down behind the heavy mic’d up drum and percussion set, Max Loderbauer stands behind synths and effects, and Moritz makes some last minute adjustments to his machines. As you may expect things are fairly serious and initially there is no overriding groove, with Sasu starting off gentle percussive rattles and Moritz and Max providing subtle effects and melodies. Gradually a rhythm builds, and pulses of bass begin to warp and fly from the speaker. About 10 minutes in Moritz builds and introduces THAT bass – the heavy boom and echo that underpins the many great basic channel and rhythm and sound records. People start to sway as more drums from sasu hit in over the top. The music continues for about 10 or 15 minutes, then reaches a break, the bass falls out, the melody max is supplying gets warped and twisted, and the percussive touches change pace. The music spirals away in another direction, and people continue to dance. The trio play for maybe an hour and a quarter. I am in a quietly tranced out(sorry) state for a large portion of their set, along with, it seems, most of the crowd. The music on offer has been much closer to improv jazz, or dub, than techno (apart from the odd 4/4 rhythm or spiral of housey chords), but people seem generally to have enjoyed it.

Daniel has left having to get up for work at the ungodly hour of 5am but I have another hour and a half up my sleeve, thanks to the trains shutting down between 12pm and 5am. Thankfully Fumiya Tanaka is playing again and again really impresses me – I was expecting a much heavier set from him, but it would seem he has been influenced by the ricardo/luciano team, and he spins drum heavy but laidback house throughout his set – the inescapable ‘Orbitallife’ from Johnny D is the only record I recognise and is a good summation of the sound of Tanaka’s set – lots of drums but accessible and fun! I had a look for a good set from him for an example of his skills for you guys but no luck yet.

I leave at 5am with a 15 minute walk back to the station. The sun is well up, the roads are already busy, and it is going to be another humid day. I negotiate the vast levels of Shinjuku station (made easier by the comparative lack of people) and make my way down to the subway. The first train back to the suburbs is crowded with businessmen and partygoers sleeping off their hangovers. I jump on the train and a few minutes later am dozing as well.

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Shit Cooking

Dubstep Allstars Vol 6 by Appleblim http://www.discogs.com/release/1348634

BMP hats

Nike Slippers

BMP long weekend in Berlin

Scat Night thurs @ Laboratory http://www.lab-oratory.de/index.html

My new mix cd

Just shit

Over 40hrs of travelling in Cattle class

No DC10

People talking about computer programs

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