The above photos are by BEEZER, a Bristolian music photographer well known for his photograph’s of St Paul’s Carnival & The Wild Bunch (a seminal Bristol sound-system). (Beezer, I hope you don’t mind me borrowing your photos for my blog. They’re incredible).
As a side note, FACT magazine have just reported that there may not be any sound-systems at St Paul’s Carnival this year. I’m yet to reach, but I hope it’s not true in any case, a carnival’s not a carnival without pressure.
Breezy and I got into a debate about Spotify in Idle Hands record shop in Bristol. Our arguments included that Spotify (at least if you have a subscription), is not a bad thing, because a) a little bit of money goes to the artist and b) you ARE more inclined to buy what you hear on Spotify, or tickets to related gigs. c) It’s a great way to share music in general and let’s face it, good music should be shared. I guess another part of it comes down to modern living and/or laziness. As an ex-pat in a tiny studio, my life is strewn between two countries with my CD and record collection currently living in a dusty loft in Norwood. Spotify and other such software provide convenience, free up living space and mean I don’t have to attempt to lug my records over on the Eurostar.
THEN I saw the above video of Theo Parrish at RBMA and I was moved. It made me think again. It made me feel lazy. It made me feel like I was betraying the vinyl dedicated producers and DJs that I love so very much. It made me feel like I was missing out on something and most of all, it made me feel like I should make the effort to sort my record player and records out. Who needs thousands and thousands of digital files which will probably one day get lost when you can have a few beautiful records which although fragile will last a very, very long time and sound waay more beautiful? That’s essentially what Mr Parrish demands in this talk. It reminded also of differences between analogue and digital photography. You just can’t beat the latter, you just can’t beat the real.
Anyway, that’s just one of the issues that comes up in this talk. There’s also sampling, the use of filters when DJing as a way of turning a record into a kind of orchestra and geography. Watch it, it’s seriously inspiring.
(pic by Newcity)
I’ve just returned from a magical weekend in arguably one of the most beautiful, friendly and inspiring city’s in Britain – Bristol. I was there to catch up with friends, celebrate my birthday 2 weeks early (on sista Breezy’s clever insistence) and also to attempt to begin to answer the question of why Bristol continues to be such an incredible city for musical and artistic output.
I’m not sure if the idea that a specific place can be heard in a tune is too abstract or not, but it’s an idea that I’ve been personally convinced by for a number of years and one which largely defines this blog. The inspiration to really explore this in Bristol was largely sparked by the sounds of Hyetal, in which the city and it’s particular air, energy and landscape seems to be embedded, just as it is in the sounds of Massive Attack, Roni Size, Tricky and Portishead before him.
Whether producers are conscious of this or not is another question – but when I mentioned it to Pinch, by far one of the most respected people in the Bristol’s contemporary music community he suggested that his own music is more inspired by people than by environment. After just 48 hours in the city, this makes complete sense too – it’s a small and sociable place; just placing the palms of your hands together and interlocking your fingers sort of represents just how connected people in the musical and artistic community of Bristol are.
Some of these lovely individuals form the beginnings of a new series of photograph’s which will hopefully illustrate some of these thoughts and ideas. It’s gonna take a few trips back before it’s anywhere near completion however, as the history of Bristol music runs far wider and deeper than I’d ever originally imagined. In the meantime, I leave you with a few things which hopefully represent kind of what I’m talking about.
Did you have a wonderful NYE? Mine was spent watching LDN’s fireworks from a roof in Crystal Palace with a group of graffiti writers and a handful of lovely friends. It looked a bit like this:
(Thanks Jennika for the pic!)
“This is OUR city! LONDON is OUR city!” declared the graffiti writers as Boris’ fireworks shot upwards into the sky. So fixated was I on the mushroom cloud formations, that I didn’t even think about the midnight kiss until Breezy shouted “Porj” a few minutes later and gave me a proper smacker on the lips.
It was a suitably special farewell to 2011, considering the abundance of good things it sent D.O.T.S’ way, including exhibitions, features, interviews and a nice slew of mix tapes ‘specially crafted for us.
More to come in 2012 (our 7th year!); keep in contact if you have love, goodness and inspiration to send our way and Drumzofthesouth will do it’s very best to spread it like Lurpak via largely ORIGINAL content on the blog, mixcloud and soundcloud pages.
According to Ashes57, this is my “Ready for 2012″ pose, as captured by Breezy:
Grrrrrrrrrrr
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