Well! What a week!
We travelled down on the Wednesday, enjoyed some lovely weather and food and company and many beers. Too much to tell so here is a quick rundown with links!
Began with
Vampire Weekend, who were really good! very enjoyable set and really connected with the crowd. Plus lead singer is cute! Later went to
MGMT which was really good, but the audience was young and silly and a detriment to enjoyment. Stuck by left speaker, so not the greatest sound. Lots of
Time to pretend sang around camp all week!
Next day was
Holy Fuck who I can't find any glasto footage of, probably cos BBC is too pussy to write their name even though this was one of the highlights of the whole festival. They were unbelievably good. Prog in song form. Truly inspired me. Later that day saw the secret gig by
Franz Ferdinand with a sneaky glance at
Foals as I passed the Other Stage. Foals were more Mathrock than I had realised and I enjoyed them although I was only waiting for
Cassius to come on. :) Franz pumped out hit after hit and no one could resist dancing. So fun! Finally was the amazing
Schlomo presenting "Music Through Unconventional Means". A human beatboxer who was absolutley stunning. He had a triple slot on the Park Stage which he used to bring on as many special guests as he could, from Jazz to Indie he got his guests to sing while he beatboxed over the top. Amazing.
So I got back and have so so many ideas for music I want to write now. Want to work out how Secret Machines and Holy Fuck do it and create things along those lines. I think with a sneaky nudge it would lend to some dark electro. Have been messing around, still finding it difficult to get things working, will probably go through the tutorials again. having been trying ot work out wjat I'll need to record some music using my computer - STILL don't understand. I probably should ask a friend, but it means opening myself to critism. Pride is for losers. :)
Cow 6 went great! When I got there, my cds were back, having merely been borrowed to use behind the bar. Bit cheeky, but very glad; also flattered that they like the stuff I play. My set went well, I had reassembled my set, changing a few tracks that weren't as dancey as others. There was a really good vibe, several people came up and said how good the tunes were and how much they appreciated it. There were a few whoops when I played Tiga... and Hadouken! still gets people singing.
This morning I decided to learn how to DJ using Ableton. I mixed together a few tracks, I made some of the worst mash-ups that will never see the light of day and then I made my first sample. My first sample!! It was the first 8 bars of a Postal Service track. I made it into a midi and couldn't believe how I could add and remove notes! I mean how powerful is that!? Suddenly I feel like Michaelangelo has told me the secret to mixing paint! I am a now officially a fan of Ableton.
I have downloaded and installed Ableton Live 7! Was pretty daunted until I saw the tutorial programs and I have been going through those. How user friendly! I used to be in awe of DJs who used laptops feeling so archaic using my cd decks, but now I see how easy it is and feel less untalented. At the same time I can see how making it easier on the technical front frees you up for more creative endeavours! Fantastic!
