Archive for October 2016

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Read/ Listen: The Gorillaz- D-sides

By Richard Giles

So everyone knows the age old band "The Gorrilaz" right? You're thinking their classics "Feel good Inc., DARE, On Melancholy Hill". Pretty much all the old stuff... Harking back to good old 2010 and even earlier.

 But scratch that. Stop what you're doing and move away from their classics. Indulge in the D-sides. One of their earlier compilation albums released in 2007. Skip the first CD. Go straight for the good stuff- hit up CD 2. Here you'll find all the stuff you love and know, but remixed and changed up to sound even better than the original. These include remixes from some sweet and upcoming artists such as Hot Chip and Metronomy. There's even a Chinese version of the track "Dirty Harry".

 But for those of you who don't know The Gorillaz; well... they've been around a wee while now (since 1998 in fact). From Essex, they've got quite an iconic sound. They mix a variety of musical styles, from dance, ambient, rap and dub-step. So yea... they know what they're doing when it comes to music and to top that, they've got the musical talent of Blur's Damon Albarn on lead vocal!

 So whether you're in need of a song to chill to, a song to rave to, to study to or just have playing in the background- The Gorillaz 'D-sides' has it. As tough as it is to find though... You might have to get it ordered in online or have a skimmy through the back shelves of Marbecks or Real groovy. It's one of those rare, must-have gems.

 Verdict- without the 2nd CD, it's nothing special. But with these tracks... A solid 9/10. Check it out.

TINKERING!!! THE ART OF ENGINEERING SOUNDS

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PEDALS!!!!!!! - YAY!!!!!!  I'll never forget the first time I used a guitar pedal, it was some sort of cheap overdrive pedal, I couldn't believe how all of a sudden, all those Nirvana riffs I had learnt suddenly sounded like KC himself! (SLAYER)
Over the years I have played around with many different types of pedals and its gotten to the point where I've started experimenting with effects on the recording end of things, just coz its fun to play around with different types of sounds. Recently I've started thinking about making my own pedals, mainly because some of the pedals that I want are super expensive, but also because I'm starting to chase a sound that only exists inside my head. I've never played around with circuit boards before and I only just found out what a schematic diagram is, so I thought I should probably talk to someone about it before I end up making a Frankenstein. This week I talk to Ruban Nielson from Unknown Mortal Orchestra a bit about tinkering and engineering sounds. 


How long have you been tinkering?
I've been messing around with electronics for about 4 years. I didn't know anything about it when I started. I wanted to change some pickups in my guitar and I was sick of sending it away. I need my guitar so I didn't want to wait for it so I got a screwdriver and just opened it up. I went to radioshack and got a soldering iron and just started. The first thing I did was I made a mess of my guitar and had to send it to a guitar tech anyway haha I actually knew nothing about what I was doing but that's how I do things usually. Jump in and make a fool of myself until I get somewhere with it. I just kept going and got better at it and deeper into it.

Why did you start building pedals?
When I was in the Mint Chicks I used to paint my pedals so you couldn't see what they were, and because I thought they looked cooler like that, all hand-painted. I was an assistant for an abstract painter and used to build and help paint metal panels for him so painting my pedals just kind of happened coz I was always painting back then. One day someone said to me at a show "did you make them?" and it never occurred to me that I could make my own pedals. The idea stuck in my head and I really wanted to actually build some or modify them.


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