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I will close the deal at Who’s The Pussy Now, Den Sidste, Paradisgade, Ã…rhus, this saturday!

Going to be wild I think…

Drawing by Dr. Lakra

Something new here. It’s called books.

I like to sometimes buy a nice big art book. Lots of pictures and lots of inspiration for your soul and mind. A few days ago I bought a big matafacka of a book called “Vitamin D – New perspectives on drawing”. It’s one in a series of three books so far, the other called Vitamin P and Vitamin Ph, respectively featuring paintings and photographs by contemporary artists. All three are published by british publisher Phaidon.

The book is a thorough survey of contemporary drawing. It features over a hundred artists and five hundred drawings. There’s nothing like flipping through a book like this, and I am definitly ordering the other two straight away.

Though it’s nothing like holding a real book, you can flip through this publication here.

Drawing by Paul Noble

Over the last couple years I have experienced a drastic shift in my musical preferences. Everybody has musical preferences, and I choose to interpret the term “preferences” in this context as, the stuff you listen to when you need something soothing and familiar rather than something challenging.

A few years ago I was listening to a lot of rock like Kasabian, Interpol and Bloc Party. I would almost certainly pop on a Radiohead album once a day and most times more than once. I have always liked that sort of music and I still do, but something has happened over the last year or two that has changed the way I listen to music.

I have always been keen on electronic music, but I have travelled in the outer regions of the scene, where everything has been kind of a crossover genre. A blend of the best from all musical scenes, which have spawned some exciting bands, but also some that confuse more than they excite. As I began to DJ a lot more in 2005, I found that there were tracks that I would rather play over others, and that choice didn’t necessarily reflect my usual music habits. I started to play more things that could easier blend into eachother, whereas before I had played a lot of rock, which is not as easy to mix. This change opened a whole new dimension of music for me, as I discovered a scene I had not previously been involved in.

First I played a lot of “pop” tracks from artists like Justice, SMD and so forth, but it quickly grew old for me. I had known of the big mastodons of electronic music like Kraftwerk, but never had I dug deeper in what this scene had accomplished through out the years.

Remixes where everywhere and some where good and some where bad. I made some good ones and a lot that I now think is shite. At some point I became aware of what “real” electronic music was, much like a jazzmusician would probably strangle you if you called Norah Jones a jazz act. All the things I thought were electronic music, suddenly sounded a lot more like superficial pop to my ears.

I know I sound like a total asshole, and I mean no disrespect to any artists named, but I think that my preferences have shifted. All I hear now when listening to music on my iPod or when at home, is minimal techno, house and something in between that. Of course I still like other styles, and bands in other genres, but my musical preferences have certainly changed.

I thought I had defined myself as an artist and musician, but I think I might have to think again. Luckily…

Have you experienced drastic preference changes in your musical taste?

What do you do to challenge your musical habits? Do you do anything to challenge your habits?

Are you defining yourself through the music you listen too or is it the music that defines who you are?

EDIT: After reading through this post I can’t really figure out what it is about. Guess I just neede to explain something for myself :-)

All right. Time for another one of these. Worthy and Extrawelt are very well represented this time.

Style Of Eye – Good For You (Worthy’s Bleeper Rise Remix)
Extrawelt – NoButYeahButNo)
Worthy – Bassquake)
D.I.M. – Frogger)
Riva Starr – Badassbass

Concert with The Lava + nightclub. Free admittance after 2300. Tickets for the concert here.

Went to Odense to DJ at local venue Posten last night. To my surprise I found that Jomi Massage aka Signe Høirup of Speaker Bite Me was playing there too, accompanied by four brilliant classic musicians. She is releasing a triple vinyl with her 2005 album “From Where No One Belongs, I Will Sing” in the original and a new interpretation of the album from 2007. She is calling it “updated chamber music” and it fits the bill very good. Last nights concert is a runner up for the title as my all time favourite concert. I was blown away.

I have always admired Signe and her “no compromises” attitude toward her music and art. I was first hooked when I heard Speaker Bite Me’s 1999 album “If Love Is Missing It Must Be Imposed” a year or so after it’s release. A brilliant album which, in my humble opinion, have been somewhat overlooked. Last years “Action Painting” cemented the band as one of the most exciting bands on the danish scene and if you do not already own it you should buy it pronto.

The audience at the concert was not a very thankful one. Noisy and drunk most of them, they made for a very hard crowd to please. Any musician would have been likely to break under the pressure of having a very drunk girl with a beer between her tits, making mocking gestures in front of the scene. Anyone would be annoyed with having some guy fighting with his girlfriend, while you’re playing a very fragile song on stage. If Signe, and the ensemble was annoyed with the indifferent members of the audience, they hid it very well. The only time the rope snapped was when Signe silenced a loud young man in the front row, by throwing her shoe at him! Nice move, and a very effective one too: He immediately reclined to the bar.

I will not review the concert in full, but only urge you to go buy the album in your local vinyl store today (or tommorow; it is sunday after all) and support one of the greatest and genuine artists danish music has.