Funk Publishing: Feeds

Unread items (100)

Blog of Funk

Carry On Swearing

Posted: July 2nd, 2009, 10:11am BST by Dean

2. Carry On Swearing. Freaking, freakin’, frak, frakkin’, feck, feckin’ - all these emasculated, Bowdlerised words mean but one thing: the craven cowardice and hypocrisy of the user. Fuck is a good, honest word. It has lasted well over a thousand years, and it is rich with usages and subtlety. English is an excellent language, with its [...]
The Use of U

Posted: July 1st, 2009, 8:40am BST by Dean

1. The Use of U. The English language has become the second most spoken in the world because of its flexibility. It absorbs and accomodates, it does not exclude. Nonetheless, efficiencies could be made in spelling, especially where confusions arise. For example the use of “U”. In the UK we spell “neighbour” and in the [...]

Cinema du Lyon

CDL 17 - Sun

Posted: June 30th, 2009, 10:15pm BST by info@cinema-du-lyon.eu (Cinema du Lyon)

Enclosure: [download | play]

Summer park, a place for ice-cream skin games, as long hours and warm weather slowly roast the lanes.

FUNK: we make nice stuff happen

Performance

Posted: June 30th, 2009, 9:45am BST by deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread)

In the days before recording changed music forever, performance was ubiquitous. Songs were kept alive by people whose performances maintained, interpreted and adapted the music, yet despite the leaky boat of human memory, the essentials were kept surprisingly constant as they were passed from singer to singer down the generations.

When music was written down, the coded instructions, note pitches, intervals, pace (Andantino, Prestissimo) became an idealised fixed point of reference. When recording became established with the invention of the phonograph, recorded performances of music became the de facto reference point(s) for all other renditions. The song was now tied down, and wandering too far from this location would give the academic cause to make a judgement that the song no longer remained the same.

Now, bringing this into the modern age, we observe fragmentation happening as recorded music moves once more away from “permanent” versions and into multiple. But remixes, mashups both licit and illicit, cover versions and reduxes all rely on the reference back to an original, i.e. a first finished, mixed and mastered recording. Even the rough demo of the song refers retrospectively to a future “perfect version”.

Recordings have done much to spread appreciation of music, to advance cultural exchange and understanding, but placing recordings at the top of the musical (financial) tree has had a major side effect. The invention of the camera caused the once widespread skill of drawing to practically disappear in the broad population, and similarly, recording and playback devices have removed the commonplace playing of instruments and singing together (there is historical evidence for this.) We have diminished the role of music and our collective sense of it by coming to rely on recordings rather than performances as the musical fountain from which we drink.

The recording is only as good as the performance it captures, and the performance is only as good as the song, (mind-blowing jazz versions of “Three Blind Mice” and death-metal cloned blasts of anger being exceptions to this rule) and even if the recording is good and the performance worth studying, it is as stuck in time as a butterfly on a pin.

Recordings are really just snapshots of a particular location, just a single view from the musical hill. Shifting your feet a couple of inches, moving your eyes and ears in another direction gives you a different experience of the same location. Look, there’s a golden eagle, which we wouldn’t have seen if we had kept looking at the sunset.

When we started Rise and Shine, our songwriting show, by writing and recording songs about the news along with our audience, we were letting people into the act of creation. Creative improvisation, songwriting, arrangement and production are fascinating to many people, but the strange thing that happened to me was during this time was that my concept of the centre of music shifted.

Essentially, our live performances were producing the songs, but because we were simultanously broadcasting interactively and recording, the act of writing was captured along with the end results. It made me think about where the song really lives. I felt that adding broadcast to the normally closeted processes of writing and recording restored the energy, and returned music to its natural communal function.

As I produced and worked each song into its “finished” version, I recalled thousands of live performances where a combination of practice, musical discipline and being alive to the possibilities of the moment had produced sizzling, hair-raising, inspirational performances which communicating directly to the audience had a value which words struggle to express.

One of my favourite ever music quotes is from the Incredible String Band:

Music is an energy which runs from the beginning of time to the end of time, and musicians are lucky enough to get to play it

People who follow gurus and teachers call this raised level of contact “transmission” - the transfer which happens in the presence of the master. Listening to a fiddle player down the pub gives you something of this, and watching the best surround-sound video recording does not.

However much you appreciate a wonderful recording, you know that any applause you give will fall on ears deaf to your reaction. In live performance, our responses are registered, responded to, incorporated. Just picture the reactions of those around you if you were to clap and cheer after hearing one of your favourite tracks on an iPod!

Transmission is a two-way process, requiring the ears and eyes of the performer as well as the audience. The simple internet broadcast of spontaneous performance as it gave birth to repeatable musical structure, aka songwriting, did achieve a more elevated state of communication than simple playback to a largely passive audience.

Experimenting with the Rise and Shine show, writing this blog, and reading, has really set me thinking about how music works, and what it is that we are seeking from it on the internet, what it is we are likely to get, and beyond that, the value of writing and recording songs and music in general.

There is more to this train of thought to come in my next post.

Dean Whitbread

Friend Feed

Posted: June 26th, 2009, 6:28pm BST

I have come to really like FriendFeed. It's a great way to follow someone and keep in touch with their activities and interests. It's a good surface level browser, with an easy to navigate interface. It also does what it says on the tin - it's an RSS Feed reader. But like Facebook and Twitter, it enables conversations and comment threads.

I read my own feed to catch up with my own thoughts and think twice about things. Using it can be like keeping a kind of public notebook.

Dean Whitbread's Friend Feed.

Blog of Funk

The Post-Jackson Age

Posted: June 26th, 2009, 6:19pm BST by Dean

The untimely and sudden end of Michael Jackson has sent a shockwave around the planet. In the Amazon, indians are wondering what the hell is this disturbance in the force. I wonder what percentage of humanity were impacted by this news? Thus we enter the Post Jackson Age, June 26th, 2009. Michael Jackson’s time of death was [...]

FUNK: we make nice stuff happen

Quincy Jones

Posted: June 24th, 2009, 9:02am BST by deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread)

Enclosure: [download]

Some people have all the luck, all the talent and we are in awe of their creative majesty. Quincy Jones is such a man. His productions are big, sultry, sensual and funky, uplifting, sweet and moving. He imbues his superior musical energy like magic upon everything he touches.

Quincy has worked with at least dozen of my favourite artists, including Count Basie, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Chaka Khan, Paul Simon, and Prince.

Best known for producing Michael Jackson’s Thriller and the African famine fundraiser We Are The World his modus operandum seems to be working with great joy, famously putting a sign on the studio entrance: “Check your ego at the door”.

As well as producing one of the biggest albums of all time, he is a direct and much-sampled inspiration for Trip-Hop, that downtempo, chilled moody genre which emerged in the 1990s, which draws on a far more subtle and intimate musicality than his later Hollywood successes.

I loved Les Nuits by Nightmares on Wax since I first heard its spine-tingling intro and it didn’t take me too long to trace the roots back to Quincy. Listen to the original and then to the music which is inspired by it.

If I could take one thing from Quincy and transplant it into myself, it would be his string arrangements. American Tune by Paul Simon has a haunting, classical chord progression which is elevated by Quincy’s understated strings, turning his muse on the moral collapse of his nation into something far more meaningful than just a protest song.

Peerless.

Flickr Photos

200620091990

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:35pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620091991

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:35pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620091992

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:35pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620091993

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:34pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620091994

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:34pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620091995

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:34pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620091996

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:33pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620091997

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:33pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620091998

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:33pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620091999

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:33pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620092000

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:32pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620092001

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:32pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620092002

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:32pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620092003

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:31pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620092004

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:31pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620092005

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:31pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620092006

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:30pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620092007

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:30pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620092008

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:30pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620092009

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:30pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620092011

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:29pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
200620092014

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:29pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
Out and About: Plantation Lane, Warlingham

Posted: June 18th, 2009, 7:15pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:

I don't believe it was a racial slave plantation of any kind. Maybe sex slaves.
Out and About: St Swithuns, East Grinstead

Posted: June 18th, 2009, 7:15pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:

A lovely church.
Out and About: The Smiling Plate

Posted: June 18th, 2009, 7:15pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:

Totally unplanned.
Out and About

Posted: June 18th, 2009, 7:14pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:

The best bike shop in East Grinstead

Blog of Funk

What is Art Anyway?

Posted: June 15th, 2009, 12:08am BST by Dean

Flickr Photos

What is Art Anyway?

Posted: June 15th, 2009, 12:05am BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:

Isn't it?
Two Flags and a Boat

Posted: June 14th, 2009, 9:37pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
Brighton by the Wreck of the West Pier

Posted: June 14th, 2009, 9:35pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:

A lovely, balmy day by the sea
Pub Sign

Posted: June 12th, 2009, 5:15pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:

Pay AND Display. Get it? Wheel clamping is extra...

Blog of Funk

Yesterday My Brain Popped

Posted: June 11th, 2009, 11:05am BST by Dean

Stress has a peculiar way of manifesting in the Whitbread household. No, that is wrong. It actually has several ways of manifesting, depending on the severity and the longevity. I like words ending in “ity” for some reason, there is comfort in my conformity. So I’ve been over-working, that much is certain, to the point of [...]

John Cleese Podcast

A Blatant Audio Advert for Headcast Videos

Posted: June 9th, 2009, 4:33pm BST

Enclosure: [download | play]

A short audio piece extolling the merits of John's new videos.

Visit headcast.co.uk for more moments.

Flickr Photos

Google hates me

Posted: June 6th, 2009, 12:41pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:

I've tried for two years to clear my name with the Google Borg. They made a mistake when they banned me from Adsense for infringeing their terms - I didn't do anything of the kind - but, they won't admit it and there's apparently no appeal, no alteration possible, even via my best contacts within the corporation.

Shame really, this policy must be losing them not just revenue, but kudos.

Blog of Funk

links for 2009-06-05

Posted: June 6th, 2009, 3:03am BST by Delicious Links

Barack Obama in Cairo: the speech no other president could make | Jonathan Freedland | Comment is free | The Guardian Comment: "..the President's heavy and obvious reliance on the teleprompter, does undermine the heartfelt sentiment of the speech somewhat. Once again an American President demands that the Palestinians renounce violence and presents it as a [...]
Forgiveness

Posted: June 5th, 2009, 10:20am BST by Dean

“How did I come to be doing this?” “What was that all about?” - I regularly ask myself these obvious questions, especially after a period of continuing along a path which seems to be completely pointless. How can I possibly have believed that this was a good idea? Me, Mr Intelligent, possessed of such insight, [...]

FUNK: we make nice stuff happen

Top of this City

Posted: June 4th, 2009, 10:43am BST by deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread)

Enclosure: [download | play]

One sunny day in May, this sweet singalong song seemed to arrive from nowhere. My co-writer Kevin started playing a picked guitar phrase, I started singing, and out popped a song as fresh as a summer mushroom, a cheerful song of survival born from pain, a song of finding peace in hardship.

Top of this City is as good a song as I have ever written. It was the middle of the deep recession of the 1990s, record bankruptcies, unemployment, and a discredited government, and the words flowed from the situation I was in personally, and from observations of the suffering all around me. Not at all sophisticated and cool, it is naive, warm and approachable. I’m usually critical of my own work, but I love this song just as passionately as all the music that does it for me.

Based around a lilting country guitar riff with a classic pop structure, it is deceptively simple and short, coming in at around 3 minutes 30 seconds. The beat isn’t really that funky but it bounces, the bassline is folky, almost jug band. The melody follows the chords, descending in the verse, and ascending in the chorus. The middle eight is short and mournfully sweet, injecting the blues which are always there, hiding behind the brightness.

I also love this song for autobiographical reasons.

For the best part of a decade, my favourite co-writer and best friend in the world was Kevin Goldsborough, a tall, kind, fragile man, 6′ 4″ craggy blond from Yorkshire viking stock. Kevin’s unique musical ability was natural and largely untutored, and born from daily hours of playing any instrument he could get his hands on, his huge fingers flying intuitively around the fretboard, the keyboard and drum kit. He was cripplingly shy, and yet had a leonine extravagance to match Mick Jagger. He sang in a Bowie-like baritone which accent was his by dint of having grown up in the same area of suburban south London. His sense of rhythm was funky, he could rock, he had the blues, he was a soul man, he had a sense of poetry and of humour, and his taste was broad and various.

My musical marriage with Kevin was a wonderful affair which produced song after song. As well as completing many of his own compositions, he was capable of providing riffs, basslines and chord progressions for which I had no problem writing melodies and lyrics. He also gave me license to arrange and produce to my art-heart’s content. Kevin was prepared to go the extra mile, and he would also somehow combine patience for all my ideas with straight honesty. If he ever said, “that’s not as good as before” he was pretty much always right.

In our heyday, we would come together and effortlessly write and record beautiful songs between noon and teatime with no fear of blank canvas. Seeking to please only ourselves and one another, we pleased thousands. It helped that musical ideas were pouring out of both of us, so that if one was not particularly inspired, the other would pick up the baton. When we were both on fire, we were unbeatable.

Writing Top of this City, pictured a young child in the middle of chaos, watching her family chase dreams, lose jobs, and fall apart, and recalled my own feelings as a child growing up in the recessions of the 1970s on Crystal Palace hill. I would climb up the fire escape to the top of a building, and gaze down from the flat roof upon the ant-people and toy cars. Rising above my problems, in my secret place, I found a peace there which I later understood to be a basic form of enlightenment.

The trick was to draw this experience in simple lines and primary colours, in keeping with the childlike simplicity of the song:

My mama’s sick, my dad’s been fired
By the boss he once admired
And my big sister looks so tired
As she waves goodbye to all her desires

There’s a place I know
I go sometimes
‘Cause it looks so pretty
Looking down on this city…

As well as being about family breakup and childhood depression, the song also provided me with a way of “getting above” the problems in my own life. Writing and performing with Kevin and the band was to last only 18 months more, as his health deteriorated, and I was becoming truly messed up by a “difficult relationship” with a woman. I don’t have a big sister - that’s a reference to the great well of sadness and grief I was discovering in my damaged lover.

Sometimes, when you write a song, it’s a sublime collision of thought, feeling and real life. There’s no predicting the discovery of these precious gems - they just arrive when they do, formed by circumstances, and as a writer all you can is keep your writing pen sharp, and your ink ready for the moment.

Blog of Funk

links for 2009-06-01

Posted: June 2nd, 2009, 3:02am BST by Delicious Links

BBC - Today Beautiful images. (tags: photography beautiful clouds geography weather)

Cinema du Lyon

CDL 16: A Series of Short Arguments

Posted: May 31st, 2009, 4:17pm BST by info@cinema-du-lyon.eu (Cinema du Lyon)

Enclosure: [download | play]

The struggle with loved ones, the frank exchanges, the everyday battle of wills, the raised voices, the quiet menace, the sarcasm and the battles won and lost.

Blog of Funk

links for 2009-05-30

Posted: May 31st, 2009, 3:02am BST by Delicious Links

How the Web and the Weblog have changed Writing The pre-1990 commercial publishing world supported two lengths of manuscript: the five-page magazine article, serving as filler among the ads the book, with a minimum of 200 pages Suppose that an idea merited 20 pages, no more and no less? A handful of long-copy magazines, such as the old New [...]

FUNK: we make nice stuff happen

Heat

Posted: May 29th, 2009, 4:05pm BST by deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread)

Enclosure: [download]

Hot on the heels of my Tasty Disco Slice come more dance beats in the form of a three-track release on dPulse Recordings, remixes of Water on the Moon which features two really interesting, abstract pieces by techno eminence Lagowski as well as an extended and remastered version by yours truly.

As the original track came from Rise and Shine, Andrew Lagowski and I went live online on Tuesday evening and collaborated on a piece called Heat, based as usual on a news story - this time, the North Korean nuclear test.

Heat by The Daily Song

This is a free MP3 download, with high quality versions costing $1.00 US.

Blog of Funk

links for 2009-05-27

Posted: May 28th, 2009, 3:03am BST by Delicious Links

Israelis get four times more water than Palestinians, says World Bank report | World news | guardian.co.uk The settlements built on Palestinian land with Palestinian stone often contain properties boasting US-style gleaming swimming pools, while over the barbed-wire, local Palestinians go thirsty and their subsistence crops wither. Less than 10% of the sewage produced by settlements [...]
Dear BBC, I Don’t Trust You With My Content

Posted: May 27th, 2009, 11:13am BST by Dean

The BBC website promoted “Have Your Say” the other day - “make the news!” - in its push for more user-provided content. Having previously contributed via Seesmic and other means to their online offering, even appearing on TV once or twice, I thought it appropriate to explain to them why I would no longer be [...]

Dean Whitbread

New Music Releases

Posted: May 26th, 2009, 5:49am BST

I'm very pleased to be working with a couple of fellow Pisceans on remixes of one of the most popular pieces of music from the Rise and Shine show, Water on the Moon, released today on dPulse.

Just to increase the fish connection, Tom Sparks who is featured in the track is also Piscean. Coincidence? Well, obviously.

Andrew's two mixes are intense, deep and sonically scupltural, and my own remix did the logical thing and extended the fast techno-funk groove into danceability.

I also decided to use the excellent DIY site Bandcamp to publish a disco synth tune I wrote for Jack Cheese's new video trailer, which I dubbed Tasty Disco Slice.

It's just like Christmas and New Year have come at once! Which is what normally happens, in fact.

Blog of Funk

links for 2009-05-25

Posted: May 26th, 2009, 3:32am BST by Delicious Links

Palfest Video Corner Video of what happened when the Israeli authorities tried to shut down the Palestinian Literary Festival. (tags: Palestine Israel oppression)

FUNK: we make nice stuff happen

Tasty Disco Slice

Posted: May 25th, 2009, 1:00pm BST by deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread)

Enclosure: [download]

In the imaginary disco of the soul, bouncy synth-driven dance music is pretty much the most fun thing to create. There are no boundaries, sonically or otherwise, few or no lyrics, and all that is required is your uninhibited sense of fun, and of course, rhythm.

I needed to create a minute-long soundtrack for this video which I produced and to my delight it came out well, probably because I was being utilitarian and making quick choices along a very directed route.

I decided to finish the track and put it out with no further ado, which is the way of electronic dance music. It’s a wonderfully freeing way to work.

Tasty Disco Slice by Dean Whitbread

Blog of Funk

links for 2009-05-24

Posted: May 25th, 2009, 3:02am BST by Delicious Links

Armed Israeli police close theatre on first night of Palestinian festival | World news | guardian.co.uk The Palestinian National Theatre is a great place, completely independent, as their spokesman say. (tags: Palestine Israel oppression theatre) A climate of loathing towards all MPs is bad for democracy I read Andrew Rawnsley and often learn from him, but in particular enjoy [...]
links for 2009-05-22

Posted: May 23rd, 2009, 3:32am BST by Delicious Links

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Israel admits Tube advert map 'mistake' Mistake. (tags: Israel occupation)
Farewell, Ro

Posted: May 22nd, 2009, 11:23pm BST by Dean

I had a conversation with my gorgeous girlfriend the other day in which she described the life of her friend’s 14 year old son. She asked me whether I thought it was negative that he spent all his time in his room, but considered himself lucky and popular, because he had 140 Facebook friends. I told [...]

Flickr Photos

Holloway Road Ruin

Posted: May 21st, 2009, 10:03pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
St Martins Lane Postbox

Posted: May 21st, 2009, 10:03pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:

Blog of Funk

links for 2009-05-20

Posted: May 21st, 2009, 3:01am BST by Delicious Links

Terrace songs that go from bard to worse, by Rob Bagchi | Sport | The Guardian The comments are way better than the article: When Andy Goram was diagnosed with schizophrenia the Celtic fans chanted "two Andy Gorams, there's only two Andy Gorams!" (tags: football songs) BBC NEWS | Business | Life as a nuclear decommissioner I find it [...]
links for 2009-05-19

Posted: May 20th, 2009, 3:02am BST by Delicious Links

Amid the expenses fury, Aida Edemariam shadows her MP, Emily Thornberry | Politics | The Guardian My local MP Emily Thornberry on the job. She comes across very well in this broadly sympathetic piece. (tags: Labour MP Islington) As the political consensus collapses, now all dissenters face suppression | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian I [...]

FUNK: we make nice stuff happen

Easy Virtue

Posted: May 19th, 2009, 1:32am BST by deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread)

Enclosure: [download | play]

It’s easier said than done, coping with rejection. Whether you sweat metaphorical blood over a song, or it comes as easily as rain in London, you feel a parental attachment. No matter how tough you are, as a writer, you want your songs to be listened to and appreciated. It may also be that the inspiration for the song is deeply personal, in which case, the rejection is more likely to sting like a lover’s scorn. You want your song to be loved and have a good life, and it hurts you when people hate your creations, or worse, are indifferent to them.

But in actuality, it can be far worse than simple rejection. One of the unfortunate by-products of the ludicrous marketing which corporate commerce typically creates to sell music is the public perception that artists must all be big-headed egomaniacs who therefore deserve to be put down. Articulating antipathy is one thing, but it often goes much further, encouraging the kind of personal cruelty by which music journalists make their names and sell newspapers. To put yourself on stage is to attract heckling and derision, simply on the basis of taste. I often think that musicians are no more than bus drivers - they sing a song which takes you on a journey. If you get on the wrong bus, you don’t attack the bus driver - so why character assassinate a musician, just because you don’t like his music?

My ambition before I turned 33 was to front my own band and have hits, so I gigged several times a month and spent the rest of the time writing and rehearsing. Paying your dues, they call it, and it’s tough learning to maintain this activity and at the same time deal with the rough and tumble of the business, the arseholes and the idiots and the careless comments, especially when those careless idiot arseholes are yourself. Abuse however can often teach you more than adulation, if you can learn not to take it personally. I rapidly adjusted to the reality that my audience wasn’t everyone elses, but it was nonetheless there, and that taste was highly variable even within genres, and I had enough confidence and self-belief to keep on going.

At a gig in Camden’s Dublin Castle, I met a bleached-blonde rock chick who told me she was an agent. She approached me in the golden ten minutes after we came off stage and enthused about the band and our songs. Come and see me, she said, I will get you gigs. So, I agreed to drop by her office in Tottenham Court Road with demo tape.

A few days later, I grabbed a cassette and recorded three tracks I was working on - a couple of up-tempo strummy guitar numbers, and a more experimental slow soul song, in which I sang falsetto. I was pretty pleased with the production on this 4 track demo, having dropped into a session in a professional studio and heard it over the monitors, where it sounded better than the £100 per hour track my friend was producing, to his mild embarassment.

Rock chick greeted me cordially, invited me to sit down, lit a cigarette, and we chatted about the band and the music business. I pulled the tape out of my pocket and she stuck it on the office sound system. First up was the slow song - I figured she’d seen the band, she knew the fast ones, give her something to show we had more in the bag that pub floor fillers. Within 30 seconds, she turned to me and said,

I really hate this kind of shit. It isn’t you, though, is it? Is your stuff on the other side?

To say I was surprised was an understatement. I made goldfish movements with my mouth but no words emerged. I said that it was me, and started to defend the song - but met her cold eyes and the words just dried up. As I made my excuses and left after five deeply uncomfortable minutes of pointless small talk, I had the presence of mind to take the tape with me, but my skin was burning, my child slapped, beaten, humiliated and sent home.

Over the next few days, it haunted me. Why the change? I expected her to at least listen. It was brutal, complete and utter instant rejection, so completely the opposite of her reception a few days earlier. Maybe she was out for blood - some people get their kicks from doing that kind of thing. Maybe she just genuinely hated that song, or my singing. I comforted myself that if she didn’t like it, she certainly wouldn’t like a great swathe of our material, and I soon stopped worrying about it, and found another agent - but I didn’t forget it.

Several years later, I listened once again to the song, recalled the hard-bitten woman, and I immediately knew exactly why she had hated the song. It is introverted, conceptual, eccentrically stylised. It has weird poetry in it. It’s about vulnerability, it was dealing with the romantic failure and emotional exposure of a disastrous love affair, and difficult to grasp, inconclusive personal lessons, which she certainly was not at all interested in.

She didn’t want any of that arty soul shit - she wanted unsubtle masculinity, bravado, a blast of pop rock energy, just like she’d seen us perform - no wonder she couldn’t even listen to more than a minute of it!

As the song says,

So do you think they’d adore you
If you were more organised?
Well learn this lesson now, then
This cannot be summarised…

Blog of Funk

links for 2009-05-17

Posted: May 18th, 2009, 3:01am BST by Delicious Links

Israel: Nat Geo Music Excellent and thorough article on the threads of music which make up contemporary middle-eastern music (tags: music Palestine Israel Muzika Mizrahit) How Neanderthals met a grisly fate: devoured by humans | Science | The Observer Also our future, as competition for resources becomes savage? (tags: history science evolution pre-history future)

FUNK: we make nice stuff happen

Eurovision or Eurotrash?

Posted: May 17th, 2009, 11:47am BST by deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread)

Enclosure: [download]

I watched television with 100 million people last night - Eurovision, where music competes across borders, a strange orgy of entertainment which is at least better than war. Norway will be very happy today, having won the contest the day before their National Day. Considering that the world is in a pit of economic despair, Russia’s lavish, no expense spared production did an amazing job of lifting 100 million people out of their depression for one evening.

The joy of the Eurovision Song Contest is the clash of cultures as each country attempts to produce a song which other entirely dissimilar countries will like, and the only way to enjoy this camp festival of fun is to not take it seriously, but with 42 countries competing for the right to host the next show, thousands of television hours in every country, and lots of cash for everyone taking part, of course, it is completely serious.

This year was a revised Eurovision, rescued somewhat from the partisan voting which means countries vote fot their neighbours by arriving at the results via a combination of 50% audience telephone voting and 50% “expert panels” - though the make up of the panels was anything but clear. Alternative commentary from Ewan Spence in Moscow via audio recorded at the Final Dress rehearsal and Twitter added to our enjoyment. Even bewildered Americans were dragged into watching the three hour show via internet.

This year like many previous years, most songs were centred on the circus / fairground musical thread which binds Europe together. The beat of Eurodisco which predominates derives far more from oom-pah bands than Detroit. Despite this lowest common denominator and a tendency for hilariously bombastic stagecraft, standards ranged from the instantly forgettable to the sublime.

Norway’s Fairytale song won hands down. Written and performed by a 23 year old Snufkin look-alike, with the sonority and harmonic cadences to appeal to east and west, it struck a chord across ethnically and musically diverse Europe. Jade and Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s UK entry did passably well, but with a rather understated stage show, and a song modern and American in style, the UK would never win.

My personal favourite for straight musical reasons was Iceland’s entry, sung by Yohanna, notable for a strong, uplifting vocal melody, chiming harmonies and classic pop-rock structure. Lyrically it was remarkably similar to the winner - his a fairy tale, hers a fantasy - typical recession fare - unsurprising in these troubled economic times.

I think this song is somehow reminiscent of Tasmin Archer’s big hit, Sleeping Satellite. What do you think?

Blog of Funk

links for 2009-05-14

Posted: May 15th, 2009, 3:02am BST by Delicious Links

BBC NEWS | Education | Web children 'living in prisons' Technology as a prison. I'd go along with this observation… (tags: technology prison child development psychology) In Bethlehem, Pope Benedict XVI makes strongest call yet for a Palestinian homeland | World news | The Guardian Christians in Palestine are oppressed exactly the same as Muslims. "The situation is bad. [...]
links for 2009-05-12

Posted: May 13th, 2009, 3:02am BST by Delicious Links

Britain's farmers still restricted by Chernobyl nuclear fallout | Environment | guardian.co.uk Paul Dorfman, a former government adviser and a senior research fellow at the University of Warwick, was also concerned. "Despite all the reassurances from government about nuclear safety ahead of a new civil nuclear programme in Britain, the latest revelations about the continuing Chernobyl [...]
links for 2009-05-11

Posted: May 12th, 2009, 3:03am BST by Delicious Links

BBC NEWS | Magazine | Are we all capable of violence? Though this article is not entirely balanced, it at least does a decent job of opening up a real taboo area - violence. The comments are well worth reading, arguing against the "normality" of violence. (tags: science psychology brain violence behaviour society)
links for 2009-05-10

Posted: May 11th, 2009, 3:01am BST by Delicious Links

Guide to performing: Singing | Music | guardian.co.uk This is so middle-class it hurts. Where's punk? Where's funk? Where's the squealing, shouting and hollering that signifies the rock ‘n’ roll animal, shamanist whoops and ululations, our ordinary whispered responses and expressions? Where is Primal Scream? (tags: music singing) Andrew Rawnsley: These MPs expenses scams are atrocious. Worse is [...]
links for 2009-05-08

Posted: May 9th, 2009, 3:02am BST by Delicious Links

Singing: The Key To A Long Life : NPR "if I were asked to redesign the British educational system, I would start by insisting that group singing become a central part of the daily routine" - it was part of my educational routine in the 1970s.. (tags: music audio culture health community education happiness eno brianeno singing [...]
links for 2009-05-07

Posted: May 8th, 2009, 3:02am BST by Delicious Links

Israeli military occupation 'severely compromises Bethlehem' | World news | The Guardian In Nu'man, one of the villages the UN says is "living in limbo", the situation is particularly dire. The village is surrounded on three sides by Israel's West Bank barrier and on another by the Israeli settlement of Har Homa. The village entrance is [...]
Online Video, Privacy and Clubs

Posted: May 7th, 2009, 1:05pm BST by Dean

This excellent Business Week article contains input from three people I “follow”, Brad Fidler, Tom Sparks and Loic Le Meur. Here’s the comment I would like to have left had they allowed me the space… Very interesting. I think your analysis is accurate - as far as it goes, but you focus on technology and ignore [...]
The Easy Guide to Twitter

Posted: May 7th, 2009, 9:31am BST by Dean

Here is my one-step, easy to execute how to Twitter guide. Think of a crap name for a pub, and post it to Twitter with the tag, #crapnamesforpubs. Then click this link, and watch your contribution add to this endlessly evolving, sociable, easy to operate happy meme. http://search.twitter.com/search?q=crapnamesforpubs The flood of “how to”, exploitative, useless Twitter guides [...]
links for 2009-05-05

Posted: May 6th, 2009, 3:03am BST by Delicious Links

UN report accuses Israeli military of negligence in Gaza war | World news | guardian.co.uk To anyone who has not had the misfortune of being brainwashed into believing one side over another, the Israeli military's tendency to use disproportionate force, to shoot and shell unarmed civilians, and to not only permit but inculcate anti-arab sentiment among [...]
Podcasting Is Not Dead… It Just Smells Funny

Posted: May 5th, 2009, 11:18pm BST by Dean

Came across this article by Steve Gillmor, one of the web 2.0 A-listers I should really know more about. It’s full of arcane assertions about internet usage of the most sophisticated kind that are a million miles away from being understood by, let alone representative of, the vast majority of web users. There’s an anti-snob [...]

FUNK: we make nice stuff happen

Angel

Posted: May 5th, 2009, 10:29am BST by deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread)

Enclosure: [download | play]

Exploring the merits and demerits of composition techniques, I have written here and elsewhere about recycling, quoting and sampling music. I have pondered the commonplace practises of borrowing themes, phrases and styles, and the inevitability of inspiration leading to imitation. Since this blog is also intended as a demonstration, I thought it would be sensible to take something of my own where this has occurred and examine it on that basis.

For a couple of years, I enjoyed a great gig in Mondello, Sicily, which is a holiday resort of that beautiful mediterranean island which the Italians enjoy. The booking was 3 weeks to a month long, usually in one or two clubs, in February, out of season, so the venues were full of locals rather than tourists who would have expected a set full of covers. We were booked on the basis of our dynamic live show and all original songs.

My band at the time consisted of myself on lead vocals, keyboards, guitar and anything else I could lay my hands on, my writing partner and friend Kevin Goldsborough on bass and guitar, a 16 year old Ross Godfrey, who went on to star in Morcheeba, on guitar, his dodgy friend Nick on sax and percussion, and Sophy Griffiths on vocals and acrobatics. A drummer would have eaten up our funds, so we replaced live drums with loops, which I created myself from rehearsals, and programmed beats. I used the playback element to enhance the arrangements, which gave us a bigger sound, and kind of made up for the lack of kit. It was a modern sound for the time, and mostly the gigs were a riot.

She was the greatest thing that ever happened to him,
Tender as a girl can get
It would ease your mind to know, but you won’t ever
If she told you now to go, you would forgive her…

“Angel” is a song I wrote to fill a gap in my band’s live set, designed to get the crowd moving. The laid-back Sicilians were there to watch, listen and socialise, but we could generally coax them onto their feet. This song, which describes the siren call of sexual promise, quotes one of the most inspiring pop / rock musicians to have emerged in the latter half of the twentieth century, David Bowie.

Aside from giving me the ability to co-write with one of my musical heroes, the song is a collaboration with Kevin Goldsborough, who supplied the wonderful melodic bassline, which moves from dark and brooding in the verse to cheerful and uplifting in the chorus. We wrote hundreds of songs together, until it became second nature. Kevin’s musical clarity and expression remains a sublime part of my life. Funnily enough, he comes from exactly the same part of London as Bowie, and when he sings, listeners often pick up on the similarity. It’s the south London vowels.

With “Angel” I wanted to introduce layers of meaning, making the song accessible to the listener without knowledge of the other song, whilst adding another dimension to anyone who did have knowledge, which illustrated its meaning on a meta-level. I don’t think it matters that few people would get this - it is in the song for seekers to find - so long as it works on the simple level of tune, narrative, groove. Falling under a musical spell is an analog to falling under a sexual spell, commanding the soul and demanding that the body moves.

I quote Bowie’s song both indirectly by referring to it lyrically, by interpreting it in the arrangement, and also directly by incorporating it into the chorus. I’m not going to tell you which song I quote - if you know, then leave a comment, and I will fess up. This is a demo with a live vocal, recorded on a four track tape machine, so it’s a little bit rough around the edges sonically, but that is forgivable. It is a decent representation of how the band sounded live, and I think the recording is good for all that.

Pod of Funk

Funkpod 50: Funky Jungle

Posted: May 4th, 2009, 11:32am BST

Enclosure: [download | play]

Funky people: celebrating the resurgence of socialism in the wake of the collapse of the financial system we bring you another hour of beautiful beats and big basslines, new and old, classic and eclectic.

Join the Google group at http://groups.google.com/group/funksters for more information, special podcasts and events.

Track listing to follow.

Blog of Funk

links for 2009-05-03

Posted: May 4th, 2009, 3:01am BST by Delicious Links

Web providers must limit internet's carbon footprint, say experts | Technology | guardian.co.uk So, widespread broadband and streaming video isn't good for the planet then… I wonder how this stacks up against power used by televisions left on standby? (tags: power energy environment)

Flickr Photos

The Handkerchief Tree

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 1:27pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
020520091924

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 1:27pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
020520091923

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 1:27pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
Oak flowers

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 1:26pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
White bluebell

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 1:26pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
View of London from the top of Hampstead

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 12:23pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
Kenwood Water

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 12:22pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
Kenwood Water

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 12:22pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
The Handkerchief Tree

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 12:22pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
The Handkerchief Tree

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 12:21pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
020520091935

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 12:21pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
020520091934

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 12:20pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
020520091933

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 12:20pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
020520091932

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 12:20pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
020520091931

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 12:19pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
020520091930

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 12:19pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
020520091929

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 12:19pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
020520091928

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 12:18pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
020520091927

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 12:18pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:
020520091926

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 12:17pm BST

deanwhitbread posted a photo:

Blog of Funk

links for 2009-05-02

Posted: May 3rd, 2009, 3:02am BST by Delicious Links

Did I say that? The words of Eric Cantona, footballer/actor, 42 | Life and style | The Observer I'm most proud of my support for Crystal Palace and I wish more footballers were like Cantona. (tags: Cantona poetry football.)
links for 2009-05-01

Posted: May 2nd, 2009, 3:01am BST by Delicious Links

End Palestinian demolitions in Jerusalem, UN tells Israel | World news | guardian.co.uk UN resolutions to put pressure on Israel to behave fairly are normally undermined by the USA. (tags: Israel Palestine housing Jerusalem oppression apartheid)

Cinema du Lyon

CDL 15 - Ghost Fishing

Posted: April 30th, 2009, 3:17pm BST by info@cinema-du-lyon.eu (Cinema du Lyon)

Enclosure: [download | play]

Turning through the sonic pages of memory, guiding the hand of the fisherman to catch the spectre of the lost soul.

Dean Whitbread

The End of an April

Posted: April 30th, 2009, 11:57am BST

Dedicating more and more time to my music projects I have been considering the much changed online media landscape I now inhabit.

Podcasting has changed, and the practises of media makers have evolved out of recognition.

I seriously doubt that the core community of podcasting per se that once existed still exists. It's been diluted, members have drifted away into other activities, media making habits have changed. With widespread broadband, non-linear delivery is less important, and with streaming services such Mogulus, UStream, Bambuser and Qik, and ever more efficient computers, self-powered live broadcast is now normal.

The content has changed, too. PR, marketing and mainstream media types now enforce old-style, predictable conformity upon this once free, wild and hugely entertaining frontier. Old style Blogging, which kicked off this social media revolution, has been largely replaced by mich lighter, less time-intensive, less literary forms such as Twitter and Tumblr, at least among the large community of non-writers. Carefully produced programmes by passionate amateurs with normal sounding voices are now made by media corporations. Not only do BBC announcers no longer speak the Queen's English, they make the same kinds of pronunciation gaffes as the ill-educated public.

But all is not lost. Though I hereby pronounce the online media revolution phase one to be finished, revolution phase two began a while back, and its results will be upon us before we even notice. I do have some clear ideas about how this next phase will manifest, but I'm not in a position to share them here. Instead, look for clues in your sock drawer, which as everyone knows, is where lost things gather.

Funk Publishing: Feeds

Feeds

Unread items (100)

Posted: July 2nd, 2009, 10:11am BST by Dean

Posted: July 1st, 2009, 8:40am BST by Dean

Posted: June 30th, 2009, 10:15pm BST by info@cinema-du-lyon.eu (Cinema du Lyon)

Enclosure: [download | play]

Posted: June 30th, 2009, 9:45am BST by deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread)

Posted: June 26th, 2009, 6:28pm BST

Posted: June 26th, 2009, 6:19pm BST by Dean

Posted: June 24th, 2009, 9:02am BST by deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread)

Enclosure: [download]

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:35pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:35pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:35pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:34pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:34pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:34pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:33pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:33pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:33pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:33pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:32pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:32pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:32pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:31pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:31pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:31pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:30pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:30pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:30pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:30pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:29pm BST

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 11:29pm BST

Posted: June 18th, 2009, 7:15pm BST

Posted: June 18th, 2009, 7:15pm BST

Posted: June 18th, 2009, 7:15pm BST

Posted: June 18th, 2009, 7:14pm BST

Posted: June 15th, 2009, 12:08am BST by Dean

Posted: June 15th, 2009, 12:05am BST

Posted: June 14th, 2009, 9:37pm BST

Posted: June 14th, 2009, 9:35pm BST

Posted: June 12th, 2009, 5:15pm BST

Posted: June 11th, 2009, 11:05am BST by Dean

Posted: June 9th, 2009, 4:33pm BST

Enclosure: [download | play]

Posted: June 6th, 2009, 12:41pm BST

Posted: June 6th, 2009, 3:03am BST by Delicious Links

Posted: June 5th, 2009, 10:20am BST by Dean

Posted: June 4th, 2009, 10:43am BST by deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread)

Enclosure: [download | play]

Posted: June 2nd, 2009, 3:02am BST by Delicious Links

Posted: May 31st, 2009, 4:17pm BST by info@cinema-du-lyon.eu (Cinema du Lyon)

Enclosure: [download | play]

Posted: May 31st, 2009, 3:02am BST by Delicious Links

Posted: May 29th, 2009, 4:05pm BST by deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread)

Enclosure: [download]

Posted: May 28th, 2009, 3:03am BST by Delicious Links

Posted: May 27th, 2009, 11:13am BST by Dean

Posted: May 26th, 2009, 5:49am BST

Posted: May 26th, 2009, 3:32am BST by Delicious Links

Posted: May 25th, 2009, 1:00pm BST by deanwhitbread@gmail.com (Dean Whitbread)

Enclosure: [download]

Posted: May 25th, 2009, 3:02am BST by Delicious Links

Posted: May 23rd, 2009, 3:32am BST by Delicious Links

Posted: May 22nd, 2009, 11:23pm BST by Dean

Posted: May 21st, 2009, 10:03pm BST

Posted: May 21st, 2009, 10:03pm BST