MI7®

Put up some of the mixes that have been done in collaboration under the name of Coast To Coast.

Go Have listen if you have time

Not been on MI7 for a while but if anyone is interested then you can find a full set of new mixes i have done CCMixter.

Well i started a another blog.

I wanted to leave a comment on another bloggers page and needed to sign up to do so.

It seemed rude not to write something.

Besides my ramblings it's a good way of collecting my links to sites rather than using my favourites.  

It's here Loveshadow if you want to take a look.

Today in, my real ,work i was fortunate to be asked to film at one of the oldest glass manufacturers in the UK. 

The factory was built in in 1760 and stepping inside the building except for a few electrical power boxes and wall cables it all seemed the same as how it was back then.

So the guys are wearing shorts , trainers and sunglasses in front of the furnace rather than some leather apron and gloves but the skill and technique is the same as it ever was.

You collect the glass , roll and shape it , blow into the molten hot lump and create a delicate bubble of clear glass.

There are steel barrows with raw materials in them looking every part a prop from a Dickensian novel. 

The air is hot and broken windows high on the sloping walls remain so . Why would you repair them ?

It's not a large factory just four or five furnaces within the old structure and a separate area where the glass is still cut and etched, all by hand.

What was refreshing was the absence of any technology. Not a PC , Computer controlled robot , measuring system,  or temperature control anywhere to be seen. Every piece hand crafted and individual to the next

Nothing but raw abilty , keeness of eye and experience. 

Last year they had 40 workers , this year 20 and with sales falling due to cheap machine made imports they don't know how long they will last.

I thought how glad i am to have lived in a time where i can appreciate and still see these hand crafting skills before technology and computers finally render them museum pieces.

Yet come back to here to electronically write about them in this virtual mass of electronic impulses.  

Its 1 in the morning here and if it was not for The Joe and Mind Movie i would have missed this as i have not been around much today and only just got back in from watching my little 13 year old rock musicians on their 3rd gig.

See my Captain and the WW Cowboy blog for more info on that.

I did not know the comp was to be judged so quickly and I am a bit surprised because Audiotechnica was ahead of me when i checked a few days ago.

Well done to everyone who had a go at mixing this track . It was shame more people did not take part . 

I have to say well done to Spinmeister and Vox of AMT for developing their site and releasing the original tracks to work with. I hope more people go over there and have a go at remixing the tracks they have on there. 

MI7 is a great site and the music i have found on here has been astonishing. 

Whatever your view on the state of PC based music and the industry at large, sites like like this prove the wealth of talent that is out there internationally and the narrow selection we have been presented with by labels in the past.

After 12 months of mixing online it still continues to all be a revelation to me. But i think i can see a new horizon and the sky is ( Russian ) Blue.

Loveshadow 

Clever bods like McCello will maybe spot that this contains and interpolation of a Vivaldi piece.

I thought i would just say that for anyone who thinks i have a dislike of the formal :-)

You may have seen or heard the story about Elton John wanting the net shut down.

Typically that story has been so misreported and taken out of context in the UK that it has deflated a valuable point.

If you follow the link on the home page here, you will see it is Elton himself who admits he is a Luddite about technology. So even the headline on this site is a spin on his own words and has been used as a criticism of him.

The principal angst of his outburst is the dis- connection and isolation that many PC based musicians now have.

That’s something I would agree upon. Having forged so many new musical friends around the world, via sites like this, I find it sad that I can’t just drive over and have a jam and write something with some of them.

I won't deny the power a PC gives someone in creating music, but I am glad I can play the guitar a little. Take it out into the sun and sit somewhere, sit with my kids and just sing.

The plus side of the net, which Elton fails to  realise, is the opportunity of sites like You Tube.

Go and see Jerry C’s famous rendition of Canon achieving 27 notes in 2 seconds, and the see the many brilliant bedroom guitarists inspired by that and also advancing similar guitar technique.

Then alongside you will find free lessons of people wanting to share the technique of how to actually play Canon. You find some form of  tutorial for just about any instrument.

That’s a free service I wish I would have had growing up, while struggling to play the basic of tunes and spending hours trying to work it all out.

What is narrow minded of Elton is to imagine that people are not still forming bands and playing.

I have done some work recently with two 13 year old lads who are brilliant musicians. They spend every minute together trying out new technique and working on their set of covers that include Sweet Child of Mine, Boys are Back in Town and Every Breath you Take.

Recently they wrote their first tune. They are inexperienced but have unbelievable talent.  That has been helped and fostered by finding free tabs, backing tracks and lessons on the Internet and has accelerated their ability to beyond that of any adult I have seen play recently.

Tonight they will play their second gig at a local club and have secured a regular Monday night slot for the summer.   

I can professionally say that either of them could step into Elton’s band and fearlessly play a full set with him and that is directly down to the support and opportunity the Internet has given to them.

While they are also a product of the download culture, that so many older artistes despise, they also the product of a new era in musicianship. Grown from the same technology.

They can use the old and the new. They use the internet on a daily basis and yet can still stand on stage and deliver a perfect five minute guitar solo to rock tracks that are older than their parents are.  

So if someone like Elton is worried about his poor sales and the future of music , then perhaps if he and others like him, invested some cash into someone like these two kids and gave them an opportunity, then he might not be so worried about not having enough money to support his lifestyle.

Eltons album , Captain Fantastic was about two boys growing up dreaming and wanting to play music. Those dreams are still out there as with a little guidance these two guys could be really big. No thanks to Elton but their individual talent and the nasty old Internet.        

Coming up with band or mixer names or even passwords is a nightmare till i found this site.

 http://wordsmith.org/anagram/

It is an online anagram maker. Beside being a useful tool i is a lot of fun. Put a name in and see what it throws up:

I did Loveshadow it came back with Sad Love Who , Which about says it all.

Doghouse Riley came back as Idle house Orgy which i can imagine is not too  far from the truth and my favourite which i beleive is what hes called locally by all when introduced was Spinmeister who came out as Meet Sir Spin

Have a go its great fun.  

A long time ago.... I entered the Shock the Monkey remix competition and one mix i did called The Ballad of Enos was a runner up.

Another mixer, a cellist Scarborough, liked it a lot and kindly  transcribed it for a string quartet.

We agreed it would be great if we could somehow record it .

So Scarbourgh then enlists the help of a friend to record the cello parts and once done approaches another talented mixer Musicjunkie to do the violin work.

Musicjunkie then gets another friend to play the flute parts.

It's worth mentioning now that I am in the UK, Scarbourgh is in the USA and Musicjunkie is in Canada.

So eventually all of the separate recorded parts come back to me. I mix it and submit it to Realworld.

Unfortunately it’s rejected for being a cover.

That mix (this mix) I called NASA, which stood for, No Artificial Strings Attached. (copyright)

So not wanting to waste the effort of everyone involved I created a remix of these parts in another piece called Wings over Nasa, which was accepted.

The original here has been waiting on my drive for all of this time and now it’s free and airbourne again landing here to be played to the world. 

So if you know or have the time go find the talented Musicjunkie and Scarbourgh, over on Realworld Remixed pass on your comments to them directly, I know after all this time and their hard work, its due.

Its an oldie but goodie as far as i am concerned.

My co writer of that time Charmaine Kay has great soulful voice, often compared to Oleta Adams.

We took our shot  but thats a whole other story.




Like trying to find the end of rainbow, Trying to figure out where the clouds go

So many thing that you never know, All wrapped up in innocence

Happy just to know it's a new day, nothing just to do but to go play

Summer seemed so endless then, Time stood still wish it would again.

Copyright 2003

The luxury of 10 meg  and the third of the AMT songs i have mixed. The others you can find on their site and at CCmixter.

This one started out very differently i can assure you but well i could not escape the arps again. 

Next thing i knew i had gone all Liberace.