Essential Listening

Picture taken from Farmfestival.co.uk (not sure who owns it)

Today's review is going to be of the criminally slept on Fingathing and the Big Red Nebula Band. For those that are unfamiliar with Fingathing, the band consists of the classically trained Bassist - Sneaky (chap on the left), Artist - Chris Drury (centre), and Turnatablist and MPC wizard - Peter Parker (on the right). It's not your typical line up but then again they don't make your typical music.

Fingathing are generally found in the instrumental Hip Hop section at most retailers/online outlets but it is very hard to actually categorize the music that these guys make. I've seen them listed as Trip-Hop, Nu-Jazz, Dance, Electro, and countless others. The easiest way to label the music, if you absolutely have to, is to file it under awesome.

Now Fingathing and the Big Red Nebula Band is the third full length release from Manchester's own Fingathing and is a prime example of a band reaching a whole new level in their ability. Whilst their debut LP 'The Main Event' served as a great introduction to the band and showcased the rawness of how well the turntable and bass can compliment each other (key tracks - Head to Head and Big Monsters Crush Cities), and the follow up 'Superhero Music' put across more of the band's personality and took the warped concepts Fingathing put out there up a notch (key tracks- Ogre and title track Superhero Music), for me Big Red Nebula was a release that should have put them over in a massive way. I cannot for the life of me understand why this album isn't considered to be the classic it so rightly deserves to be and hopefully with this blog I can encourage more of you to check it out and discover a type of music you never knew you'd love.

Chris Drury does not mess about

Big Red Nebula band is a concept album, and it picks up from where Superhero Music left off. These concepts are one of the things I love about the band, not only are they giving you a narrative for their album which I think gives the whole thing a bit of focus that's missing from a lot of albums, but it shows that they give a damn about what they put out there, they're taking extra time creating a story for their album and also have the ridiculously talented artist Chris Drury bringing another perspective to their musical creations to life with his artwork (one of the elements of Hip Hop that is sorely lacking these days). The concept of this album is, and stick with me on this one, Parker and Sneaky are floating through space in metal coffins after faking their own death at the end of previous album Superhero Music, the coffins are basically picked up by a bunch of alien musicians (Big Red Nebula Band) and essentially a massive jam session and madness ensues, with giant robots, re-animation, and interstellar joy-riding all on the cards there is a little something for everyone. There is more to the concept than that but hopefully you can all discover that for yourselves when you pick this album up (go on, they deserve your hard-earned).

Once we get past that ridiculous yet epically brilliant concept we are left with thirteen tracks, thirteen tracks of sheer brilliance that ranges from hauntingly beautiful soundscapes to futuristic bleeps and whirrs over heavy pumping drums and almost everything in between. As is standard I would like to talk about a few of what I see as the biggest tracks on this album (although I could honestly rant about every single track on this album) so I will start with....

Walk In Space - This is the album opener and serves as a great introduction for where this album is headed. The combination of soothing strings, the fat bass line, dope spaced out cuts, and crisp drums are delivered with a swagger that befits a band at the top of their game.

Themes From The Big Red - A bizarre track that manages to be both ethereal and downright filthy at the same time. There is a real airy quality to this track and the intro in particular sounds like you could float away on it but then there is also a really filthy bass line, the kind of bass line that was clearly played with that classic bass stank face. Add to that the crazy 50's sci-fi sounds that Parker is cutting in and you have a real giant of a track. The last couple of minutes of this track are all business, there is a great build to it and it has an epicness about it that for some reason makes me think of a colossal fighter making his way to the ring for a fight he'll never lose. Huge song.

Rock The Whole Planet - This is a great club track for me, there is so much rawness in this song and it has a real Hip Hop vibe to it. Go check the iTunes Hip Hop of the week list right now, look at all them rappers like 2 Chainz (how's he keep popping up?) and know that in their whole career they will never make a track as dope or thug as what Fingathing do here and I will guarantee they sure as hell won't manage that shit in space either! (Author's note - It's a scientific fact that things are always better INSPACE, think of an activity and add IN SPACE to the end. Infinitely better right? Even with things like eating a sandwich...IN SPACE).

Cluster Buster -  Fingathing are comprised of a turntablist/MPC wiz, a bassist, and an artist. It says so right at the top of this post, so now we have to ask ourselves how two musicians, who aren't shredding it on guitar, can rock as hard as these dudes do on this track? The drums are ridiculous and the bass is heavy, I dare you to listen to this song and not nod your head, not rock a stink face, and not feel pumped up by it. If you can manage that then I'm afraid you're dead inside, also stop reading my blog, there's probably nothing here for you, nothing at all (Actually don't stop reading, I appreciate the views and I'm sure we'll agree on something eventually).

Lady Nebula - How do you follow the pounding ferocity of the previous track Cluster Buster? Well if you're Fingathing you play the chilled out wonder that is Lady Nebula. An astonishingly beautiful song that sounds as though Sigur Ros are hurtling towards the Sun in a broken spaceship (probably one of the best compliments I'll ever give a song). If you aren't into the heavier stuff check this out.

Return To Ert - Starting off like some Ennio Morricone score, which is an influence you can hear throughout the Fingathing back catalogue, then beefed up by the Hip Hop drums and layered cuts that Fingathing are so adept at creating, this track is a great end to a great album. If this was put out in DJ Shadow's name then it would be on every advert ever made, every Super Sunday montage ever created, and would be widely regarded as one of the greatest instrumental Hip Hop tracks ever made. This track will make your life better, that is a scientific fact.

I've covered almost half of the album so I'll leave it at that because hopefully some of you will actually go out and check this band, I urge you to try something you may not have heard before. If I haven't quite sold this album to you then consider the following, if someone asked me to write a tagline for this album (this is my reviewer soundbite), I would describe the album as...'like John Carpenter, reinventing Electro, in a back alley church on Mars'. I would mean every word of that shit too.

It's also worth noting that the album is co-produced by James Ford of Simian Mobile Disco fame and also producer for the Klaxons 'Myths of the Near Future', Test Icicles 'For Screening Purposes Only', and most of what Arctic Monkeys have put out. He also produces for Florence and Those Other Guys which television and magazines tell me you kids love so get involved.

Please check the band out and if you ever get the chance try and catch them live as they really do put on one hell of a show, the Fingathing and The Fiends show is still one of the Top 5 shows I've ever been to. Also they are coming back and have put out some new material recently and you can go to the following site to not only stream a funking spectacular new track but you can also download it for free! Free music everyone (well free and without you having to steal it you dirty internet thieves)! CHECK IT OUT...

http://manmademonster.viinyl.com/

I have deliberately avoided posting any of their tracks for you to listen to because you really should search these guys out.

I'm out.

Mechagodzeala

Jukebox Champions

So I saw the following video the other day and I liked it, figured I'd post it on here in case someone else might enjoy seeing them. I don't really know anything about these dudes other than what you'll see in the video. Enjoy.

What the hell, here's another one.

Laters

Mechagodzeala

A Couple More Robots

So there are a couple more Adult Rappers robots to show. I went for a pun with the Taxi Driver effort because I'm a child. The MCA tribute is the robot from the Intergalactic video throwing up some graffiti, loved doing that and cheers to the guy that made the request. Check-check-check em out!

Robo De Niro

MCA Tribute 

This is how I spend my time...

A little while ago I wrote about a Kickstarter project called Adult Rappers, rather than explain it all again check the link and you can see what it's all about.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adultrappers/adult-rappers

As the donation end date neared it did look like Adult Rappers might not quite make it so as an added incentive to potential backers I offered up a reward for backers. I really wanted this film to get made so along with my donation I offered to draw a shit robot for everyone that backed the project.  It turns out that I needn't have made such an un-appealing offer because Adult Rappers met it's funding target with ease. Some people, clearly trying to see just how shit these robots would be, have since claimed their robots.

I'm going to go all Tony Hart (I don't know what the non-British equivalent would be) and put up a little gallery of the robots. For anyone that has backed Adult Rappers and not yet claimed their robot feel free to hit me up on Twitter (@Mechagodzeala) or leave a comment and I'll get it done.

Now enjoy the following badly drawn robots.

This dude is the director of an online art school. I'm far too pleased with myself for the apple logo.

@Jakemoney is all I had to work with. Jake 'The Snake' Robots + Money = Done

This guy wanted a robot version of the cover for his upcoming EP.

@Frankiepancakes got a robot making pancakes.

My girl backed it and demanded one...@Wenderwoman gets a robo Wonder Woman but ginger.

Attackosaur got his beloved dino vs Mecha Van Damme. Check the splits.

Dude is an editor/director. I did a director directing a scene from Profondo Robo. I am far too pleased with myself for that pun and robo-recreation.

Guy has been watching a lot of Kung Fu lately, he gets Bruce Lee battering Han. I know the outfit is from a different movie but I make the rules.

Guy is a teacher so he got a classroom scene...Binary 101!!! I am such a wit.

The request was Syffal tee, cane, bees, and a massive set of swingers. I also included a Hobot.

This dude was retweeting for this project like you wouldn't believe so he got the first robot, he also had Egypt in his Twitter handle so, you know, pyramids and that.

The Director of the project, he got a Director asking to see a young rappers parents.

Before anyone mentions it, yes I am a grown man. I don't care because robots are the shit and this film is going to be tremendous. I will post up more as and when they are done, I'm working on one at the moment I just can't decide on the finishing touches. If any Adult Rappers backers want one, hit me up.

Laters yo!

Mechagodzeala

Ain't no Hipiau Hopiau

***WARNING***
I initially started this whole blog in an attempt to just talk about the stuff I was into at any given time, to be positive about some of the art out there and hopefully encourage some folks to check my recommendations out and maybe find something that they might end up enjoying. I didn't want to review stuff that wasn't good because quite frankly there isn't a lot you can gain from a review that isn't good, sure you may steer clear of a potentially bad album/film but so what? That's nothing like the thrill of discovering something that you get, that speaks to you on some level and that will bring you good times. Now anyone that's met me will know full well that I love a whinge and I'm pretty opinionated when it comes to films/music/books (I'm a bit of a dick about it to be honest). Whilst I am genuinely trying not to be a great big moaning vagina about things please allow me this one slip and now that I've enabled the comments section so that you don't need to sign in, feel free to tell me that I'm an end.

There are two factors that triggered this post and I want to  properly explain why this got me thinking so much about the genre I love. The first was a conversation I had with a colleague, now I should state that I have a tendency to speak like I'm gangsta (check the a) and tell people that they are so un-down that they're up when they don't understand what I'm saying, this amuses me because I am pretty much one of the whitest people out there. See below for proof.

This is how white I look at the exact time I am writing this blog.

It was during one of these nonsensical, accusing my co-workers of being super white moments that I asked if my colleague was in fact a fan of Rap or Hip Hop(the genre not necessarily the culture). The reply was that whilst she wasn't really into the genre she will listen to things like Eminem when he has a Dido or whatever singing the hook. She wasn't into the delivery of rap music and much preferred a nice melodic voice over a beat. Now that's a fair point, rapping isn't to everyone's taste and music is one of the most subjective things out there so I can't really argue with it, each to their own and all that.

My colleague did however offer up another explanation about why this genre doesn't really grab her..."I don't like how it's all about sex,drugs and violence". Now this got me thinking hard, and to an extent I can see her point. A very large part of Hip Hop is about exactly those things, some of the best Hip Hop ever made is exclusively about those three things but then again so much of it isn't. There are truly great artists that don't rhyme about those things, artists like De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Beastie Boys, sure those topics come up every now and then but they certainly aren't defining elements of their music. It's kind of unfair to tarnish all of Hip Hop with the same brush and I think it's worth pointing out that that the themes most people see as a negative thing in Hip Hop are themes that pop up in the work of artists working within all genres. The Beatles sang about drugs, Marvin Gaye sang about using sex as some kind of medicine, shit even the 'cream' of UK pop once covered Lou Reed's song Perfect Day for Children in Need! Children in Need!!! Surely there can't be many more inappropriate songs to sing on behalf of a children's charity? Turn on the likes of Radio 1 right now and they'll probably be playing a Lady Gaga or Rihanna song about sex. Now in my opinion Rihanna singing about S&M in a song aimed at 12 year old girls is far worse than Wu Tang telling me they ain't nuthing to f' wit.

Now for every Guru trying to elevate the art form there is a Ludacris yelling 'move bitch get out the way' (I must admit I have time for Luda though) so I'm not going to pretend that all of Hip Hop is socially conscious but I genuinely believe that if most people listened to a fun track like DJ Format & Abdominal's 'Ugly Brothers' or classic shlitz like Jurassic 5's 'Concrete Schoolyard' they'd like it. Those are two prime examples of what is great about the art form yet it isn't necessarily the kind of thing a lot of folks who aren't into the genre, would think of when they thought of Hip Hop. It's certainly not what a lot of people are exposed to here in Wales so why would they think of it? I didn't think of the fact that my colleague has probably never been exposed to the kind of kind of thing I considered to be the best examples of Hip Hop until I got home and was having a look for the release date of the new Doom album. This is where the second trigger for this post kicked in.

I was checking the JJ Doom release date on iTunes so was having a look in the new Rap/Hip Hop releases, at the top of the page they have a couple of links to new albums that iTunes think you should check out. On this occasion the top link was to an album by an artist called 2 Chainz, I'd never heard of 2 Chainz but there he was at the top of the page, the first thing anyone in the UK would see when they looked up Rap/Hip Hop on iTunes. I popped across to the YouTube and looked for a song by 2 Chainz, there was a lot on there and the top one was featuring Nicki Minaj, this set some alarm bells because I've heard people talking about this Minaj character like she's some kind of Lady Gaga. I'm not really into that kind of thing but I gave it a go because apparently this should be the top thing I check in the world of Hip Hop right now. I clicked on the song, alarmingly titled 'I Luv Dem Strippers', I proceeded to lose 4 minutes of my life, 4 minutes I would never get back, 4 minutes that prompted me to lose plenty more time drafting this blog, 4 minutes that I would have preferred to spend smacking my own junk with a claw hammer. I know I've said earlier in this post that music is a very subjective thing and as a result it is ridiculously difficult to say whether or not a song is good or bad,but this is the exception to the rule and I can say without question that this is a terrible song. Firstly 2 Chainz is way too old to be making a song called 'I Luv Dem Strippers', he's also way too old to be spelling things that way.The beat sounds like it was nicked from a cut scene from some Grand Theft Auto knock off and the lyrics... just wow!!! The chorus to this song goes like this...

"Yeah, I love them strippers x 4
In my foreign car, got the trunk by the engine
So when I back back, I'm fronting on you n*ggas"

What the actual fuck is that? Please someone tell me and while you're at it explain this shit...

"All my bitches different, all my diamonds glistening
My weed so loud, everybody listen
They say it's for the birds, so I bought a kilo
My boost mobile chirping, it must be my amigo"

That's not even the worst part of this song, Minaj is hell bent on outdoing 2 Chainz bullshit with her own. For starters there's the demented ooh noise she makes on a couple of occasions that sounds like she held a queeff in so long it came out of her mouth, then there is what I would say is the worst line I've ever heard.

"Bitches stay pressed, I call them a space bar"

That is terrible, to me it's worse than Lil Wayne's "Real G's move in silence like lasagna" and it even pips whoever the hell said "Like David Beckham I keep a mean shoot down".

My colleague wins at this point because she is dead right about Hip Hop. This song is everything that is shit about Hip Hop and it's also what iTunes has deemed to be the pinnacle of Hip Hop right now. The world is a terrible place at times and this is a prime example of one of those times.

To anyone reading this thinking to themselves "well yes it's a shit song but what do you expect? It's iTunes. Go to a store and look for some new music, don't rely on Apple to spoon-feed you new tracks, you only have yourself to blame". You have a point, but this is North Wales. I have to drive for 45 minutes to get to a CD shop that sells anything outside of the Top 40, I actually have to drive into a different country to get to a record store that sells Hip Hop, so iTunes and the internet are the way I get my music. A lot I get is from Amazon and Ebay so I can get decent stuff but the problem is how do I know which stuff to get? This is the big issue and I think it's the reason my colleague doesn't like Hip Hop. She has never been exposed to what in my opinion is the greatest examples of Hip Hop. When people listen to the radio in Wales they'll be exposed to Fiddy rhyming words he can't say properly and they'll be treated to Snoop phoning it in and reminding us exactly how you spell his name, they won't be exposed to Mister Jason and his posse cut, Edan the Humble Magnificent, or artists like Action Bronson. When they check out iTunes they'll see 2 Chainz and that's Hip Hop to them, that's all there is to it and that's real sad. Some people will like the style of the music and by virtue of the fact that 2 Chainz is all they are exposed to they'll get into that. I genuinely believe acts like DJ Format would be huge if people were exposed to it. I recently attended a Format gig in North Wales which was attended by all of 50 people, that may be generous, but I can assure you that had more people from the area turned up they would have seen something completely different to what they have previously experienced and in all likelihood they'd have enjoyed the hell out of it. For some reason though people aren't willing to just check new stuff  out, they'd rather just take what Radio 1 is pushing on them.

For those who don't really know where Wales is or how far removed it is from the Hip Hop scene we have only ever had one real Rap group and that was Goldie Lookin' Chain. Here's a video so you can understand a little.

Many moons ago I listened to Nelly, now the only reason I did is because I liked Rap and it was one of the only examples of it I could get my hands on. I had a Beasties collection and I was into Wu Tang, Tupac, and Onyx after finding their music in the Urban section at OurPrice but I didn't have the internet, the radio only really played Hip Hop late at night and with Tim Westwood pressing his explosion button all over tracks, so I had no way of being exposed to more of the genre I was into most. Nelly started popping up in the supermarket so it was Rap I could get hold of and I did. I couldn't pluck groups from thin air to listen to so Nelly it was. When I was about 16 I found out one of my mates was into Hip Hop and he put me onto things like DMX, Tribe, De La, Ice Cube, and Public Enemy (it was this friend's older brother that gave me my treasured Beastie Boys tape way back when). I started to realise that Nelly was actually a pretty poor example of the genre. A few years later I was fortunate enough to meet a guy in a Hip Hop band and he put me on to the likes of DJ Format, El-P, Edan, and MF Doom, that's my music now. Through acts like these I get to experience the genre I love and I get to see it taken in new directions and I've discovered just how lazy and dull Nelly was/is but without meeting the people mentioned above I never would have been put on to any of my now favourite artists, I probably wouldn't be so into this genre, and I'd probably be listening to 2 Chainz right now!

Unfortunately for some inexplicable reason, the music we are exposed to, isn't actually the best music out there. For some reason that would take me countless blogs to try, and fail to understand, the music industry doesn't seem to want you to listen to great artists making great music. It's no wonder my colleague thinks Hip Hop is a bit shit, as far as what she's heard goes, it is. If someone was telling me Rock music was brilliant but the only Rock I'd ever heard was Nickelback then I would quite rightly think that this person was an idiot. We can only go off what we are exposed to, with that in mind could anyone reading this that isn't into Hip Hop or has similar views to my colleague please go and check out some of the artists mentioned in this blog? Not 2 Chainz though (I have deliberately not linked his song here because I don't want it to have the YouTube hits, please take my word for it when I say it is a travesty). If you are into what the snobbish and over-opinionated nobs like me would call 'real Hip Hop', please make someone you know that's not into the genre listen to what you think is a prime example of everything that's good about the genre. See if you can change the perception.

If anyone wants to suggest a couple of tracks they believe to be some of the finest in Hip Hop please post a comment. I'm always on the look out for new stuff and as I've mentioned we don't really have our finger on the pulse here in North Wales.

I leave you with a little De La Soul as a prime example of how good Hip Hop can be and how the themes that are often seen as a negative can be dealt with a far superior manner than when the likes of 2 Chainz address them.

Laters

Mechagodzeala

Comments

A couple of folks told me that they couldn't leave a comment without signing in so I've tried to fix that now. You should be able to leave all the abuse you want without signing in so feel free. If you have to be horrible try to only be horrible towards me and not each other, cheers.

Laters

Meachagodzeala

Interview - Martin Smith

I'm going to try something a little different and hopefully I can keep this going as a feature, the plan is to try and get an interview with people whose work I'm into. I'll try and get an insight into why they do what they do and also what kind of stuff they're into themselves.


Without further ado, here's my first interview! Ladies and gentlemen Mr. Martin Smith

Mr.Martin Smith and his best ever pic!

First of all, for those unfamiliar with your work, tell us a little about yourself.

I'm Martin, a Welsh small press comic creator of superhuman size and strength! I write and self-publish horror comics under the Attackosaur banner, selling them at various UK conventions and through my website, the snappily titled Attackosaur.com. My hobbies include labouring away at a film degree at Aberystwyth University.

Why Attackosaur Comics?

In an effort to appear more professional than I actually am - more like a company and less like a guy with £60 worth of software and a box of comics under his bed - I thought I should use some kind of logo. Marvel have one. I needed more things that they have. With dinosaurs being my one true love and the only thing I'm any kop at drawing (not that much kop, mind), I settled on Attackosaur. It's a dinosaur, but he attacks things. Instead of dino-ing things. Naturally.

How and why did you get into the comic book industry?

Sadly, I don't think I'm in it. I'm super excited to be part of the UK small press industry though, if industry is the right word. I got into making comics through film. For years, I'd spend every waking hour writing film scripts. Eventually, I realised that I was always having to scale my ideas back for financial or taste reasons ("There's no way I can get an actor to do that on camera!"). Then, I think I saw the movie adaptation of American Splendor and realised that all comics aren't just made by huge companies sitting on scripts for years at a time. Having been into them ever since reading From Hell as a teenager, I figured comics would solve all of the problems I'd had with the restrictions of screenwriting. Of course, it's completely different from screenwriting in almost every way, but by the time I understood that I was well into it and enjoying it as its own medium. 

What was your first book and how do you feel about it now with hindsight?

It was a slow-burning horror set during the Blitz called Paralysis. I find it impossibly clunky in places now - the story hits some of the right notes, but in really clumsy ways that would need much more room than I gave them - but I'm still proud of it. I still think it's a fun story, though it must've been a nightmare for the artist to draw all that talking and brooding. I was going for an old-fashioned Vincent Price kinda vibe and I think that still comes through. Just seeing the comic in print was magic, to be honest. I damn near did a little wee when I first saw someone else's drawing of a character I thought up.

Over the course of your other releases how do you feel your skill as a writer has developed?

My old scripts make me cringe a little, which is a good sign! The Arvon Foundation were amazing and gave me a grant to be able to attend a week-long comics workshop with Bryan Talbot (Grandville, Luther Arkwright) and Hannah Berry (Britten & Brulightly) which was invaluable, smashing home the insane amount of thought that needs to go into every detail of every panel. After devouring as many writing books as is humanly possible (anything by David Mamet or Scott McCloud is absolute gold), I'm much more confident with story structure. Still wonky on other things, mind! I'm currently digging into retro comics (e.g. Simon & Kirby) for inspiration. 

What are you working on right now?

I'm working with a top-notch artist named Nicolas Giacondino on a new exorcism-based comic called Devil Executioner. I'm lettering the pages for that as they come in. Not having a huge distribution machine or the brilliant marketing skills of a Stan Lee, I have to work in one-shots. Developing a series is a bit more than I can afford or handle at the moment. That said, I love one-shots. There's something satisfying about finishing a script and moving onto completely different material. All of them being self-contained gives me a handy leg-up with the sales aspect as well. It's much easier to convince someone to take a chance on a single comic.

So do you think you may create a series later on down the road or are you happy to keep producing one shots?

If I come up with a cool enough idea I'll be back on it in a flash for another one-shot. Quite happy to leave it at one if that doesn't happen, mind. A series is expensive stuff when you can't draw! (Though I'm trying to learn, so fingers crossed.

Anything in the pipeline after you finish Devil Executioner?

I'm hammering away at a couple of horrors. The first is a dirty little thing set in Wales - I'm trying to do a little for Wales of what Tobe Hooper did for Texas - and the other is a historical murder mystery set after the fall of the Knights Templar in the 14th Century. There might even be a sword-fight in that one!

You mentioned earlier that you're from Wales, and you've said you're working on something set in Wales. Do you think that being Welsh and in Wales helps or hinders you in any way or do you even think it has any influence on your work?

It's a bit of a hindrance in that I'm pretty far away from most of the conventions and comic shops that I could otherwise pester into stocking one of my comics. As far as stopping me breaking in or anything like that, I don't think it matters that much. Alan Moore is a comics god and he's from Northampton. I can think of only one thing from Northampton, and it's him. As for how much it influences my work, I couldn't really say. It makes me want to write stories about Wales though, especially considering how invisible the country is in popular media. I wish that made Welsh stuff exotic in some way, but I don't reckon it does. The Scots and the Irish are always stealing our non-English thunder!

One of the features of your work, and in particular A Rope Around Your Broken Neck, is the depth of the research that seems to go into each book. Is the research a part of writing that you enjoy?

Love it! I tend to choose an idea to develop depending on how interesting the research is going to be. I sometimes get carried away and do more than is really necessary, but it always leads to new ideas and the sort of perspective you can't really get from anywhere other than real life accounts. If my knowledge of a subject completely comes from films and comics I've read about it, I feel like whatever I produce will be kind of false and removed from reality by an extra layer. If I write a story about a secret agent and don't go beyond watching Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible, I'm basing my story on a fictional account of reality and not reality itself. I've let someone else decide for me which are the most interesting parts of the job. I'd be writing a comic about spy movies rather than spies, if that makes sense.

Do you find that the story is easier to write once you get into the research or do you find it sometimes means you can't go in directions you were thinking about?

It's easier when you find great little details you can use and when, as with Paralysis, the situation lends itself to the character's mood and the atmosphere, but it can totally mess with your plans. A Rope Around Your Broken Neck completely changed. The original pitch was 'The Fugitive during the Great Plague of London.' Harrison Ford was going to have the plague and this doctor would chase him down in his creepy outfit. There was a big sword-fight at the end and everything! The research, though, was brutal. The Great Plague by Stephen Porter is one of the most horrific things I've ever read. What seemed like a fascinating subject at first, a fun backdrop for an action comic, was of course in reality one of the most tragic things to ever happen to the country. Reading account after account of slow, agonising death with weekly death tolls in their thousands stopped me from ever being able to write something as trivial as an action story in that setting. It's easy to gloss over it because it's not in recent memory, but think of having a half dozen 9/11s every week. I didn't feel comfortable using something like that as a backdrop. If that's in a story, for me, that is the story. I'd still like to rip off The Fugitive at some point, mind. I'll just have to set it somewhere nice. 

What do you hope to achieve in the future?

It'd be lovely to be paid to write full time, but I'm perfectly happy to keep knocking out self-published comics until I am but a useless husk of a man. 

Right then seeing as the point of me setting up the site was to try and put people on to the stuff I enjoy and to be positive about the all the great art that's out there right now, I've decided that I'll try and get the people I interview to give a few recommendations for stuff to check out and an insight into their favourite films/books/music.

From a creative stand point who influences you and why/how?

Kazuo Koike, definitely. The massive amount of research that seems to have gone into Lone Wolf and Cub is insane. It feels like you could read them as history books alone even if they didn't have those brilliant, mostly stand-alone stories. The amount of drama he can wangle out of the smallest details is astonishing. The other big one, I'd say, is the crime author Jim Thompson. The way he bends what could've been a run-of-the-mill genre piece like The Getaway into a deeply personal, massively disturbing story is blinding. He takes a bog-standard plot like "A couple of bank robbers escape from the law after a heist goes wrong" and when you put it down it feels like he's smashed you in the face with a shovel.

Aside from comics what other things are you into?

Oh, um. All sorts of horror films, video games, dragging my sorry near-corpse through music festivals, and that kind of thing.

Have you read any good books lately?

The Green River Killer. Brilliant serial killer story written by the son of the lead investigator on the real life case. With his personal connection to the investigator, it kind of reads like a serial killer version of Maus.

Just to put you on the spot, could you please name your three favourite books of all time?

All time favourite 3 books: I'll just go with comics. Top 3 novels would probably be all Jim Thompson ones anyway! Lone Wolf and Cub (Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima) for the reasons I mentioned earlier. The artwork is stunning as well. Preacher (Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon) for its absolute insanity. I re-read the whole lot like once a year and it just gets better. Road to Perdition (Max Allan Collins, Richard Piers Rayner) has to get a spot too. Lone Wolf and Cub meets The Untouchables. What's not to love? The comic has a great deal more crazy John Woo-style gunplay than the film (which was also brilliant) and the pen and ink style artwork rocks my socks. I love that kinda look. Eddie Campbell's ace at that.

What's the best film you've seen lately?

Indie Game: The Movie is a brilliant indie documentary about the creators of Fez and Super Meat Boy. It's not technical at all. It deals with the pitfalls of creating art, that kind of thing. I can't help but feel for Phil Fish when he's standing around at a convention looking terrified as people walk past his game. I gave them $5 on Kickstarter. Best $5 I ever spent!

Top three favourite films?

Jurassic Park is my all-time favourite anything by a country mile. Perfect cast, perfect score, ground-breaking effects that still look amazing, and all the dinosaurs you can eat. The scene where Sam Neill sees his first live dinosaur still gives me chills. The bit where the T-Rex looks through the jeep window still makes me do a little wee. I'm a big fan of westerns, but none of them have messed me up quite as much as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Casey Affleck's performance is seriously heart-breaking and the whole thing looks just stunning and the score by Nick Cave and (the other) Warren Ellis is... Well, I'm running out of different ways to call this film brilliant! The film I watch more than absolutely any other - not including a huge Fight Club phase I had ten years back - is a documentary called American Movie. I must've seen this thing about 50 times. It's about a guy who lives in the middle of nowhere trying to raise enough money to make his dream film. It's so funny that the first time I caught it on TV I assumed it was a Spinal Tap for film-makers. The main guy is a fascinating dude and something of a cautionary tale for anyone making their own stuff.

What are you listening to at the moment?

I'm absolutely useless at keeping up with new music, I'm afraid. DJ Format's latest album, mentioned in this fine establishment, is one of the best things I've heard in ages. Definitely go get that baby. Um. I'm loving a band (or just a man, I'm not sure) called College at the moment. They/he did that song from the super amazingly brilliant film Drive. Everything else I've heard is mostly instrumental stuff, but it's got a great 80s dancey vibe. One more. I won't lie. I'm listening to Justin Timberlake a lot. The man's pretty brilliant. Decent actor too!

If you could make the people reading this check out three musicians, who would you recommend?

I'm not very good at describing why I like music and I still haven't come up with any more words for 'brilliant', so I'll make this bit quick. Rough top 3 off the top of my head would have to include Nine Inch Nails, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and Joy Division.

Finally (in the interest of plugging your stuff) why should people check your stuff out?

Like Lloyd Kaufman, I don't have anyone to tell me off for writing stupid stuff. There's always the very real chance that it might get a bit too silly or a bit too personal. You don't tend to have that problem with Marvel stuff, brilliant as some of it is. This applies to the whole small press industry (I'm desperately trying not to use the word 'scene'). It's a great reason to try any self-financed, for-the-love-of-the-game comic books. If you can get to a convention, the place will be full of great comics trying things you'd rarely see come out of the big two. I once bought a Judge Reinhold mini-biography which came with a badge and a word search! I'm going to leave it to my grandkids! (If I don't have any, I'll leave it to someone else's.)

That's that and hopefully you all enjoyed the interview. Once again you should all go and spend a few pennies over at attackosaur.com and support Martin.

Thanks for reading!

Mechagodzeala

Long Live The Kane

Just wanted to post this video from Vlad TV of the genius that is Big Daddy Kane speaking about the Beastie Boys.

Laters

MechagodZeala

Ain't No Clowns In This Posse

Apologies that I've gone quiet on here again but between work and the Summer League (a local football league I warm the bench in) I haven't had a lot of time to be active on here, I aim to rectify that this week.

This post is about the superb Mister Jason album Mister Jason presents: Frankensteez. Now prior to a few months ago my knowledge of Mister Jason began and ended with him being a producer on the MF Doom/MF Grimm collab track Doomsday. Honestly that's all I knew the dude for, I'm pretty late to the table on this one but better late than never. I noticed on Twitter that one of my favourite bands, Fingathing (review coming soon), linked to the Mister Jason song 'Mister Jason Has A Posse' so I checked it out. Four and a half minutes later I was picking up the pieces of my newly blown mind. This is the best Posse cut hip hop has ever heard! There are 26 rappers on this track!!! 26!!! I'll say it one more time...26!!! Each rapper spits four lines for their assigned letter of the alphabet over Mister's Jason's thumping drums and on point stabs. Now I'm not going to name every rapper on the track but there are names both familiar and new including Akrobatik, Edo G, Slaine, YZ, Thristin' Howl III, and Dizzy Dustin of Ugly Duckling. It also features a rapper named Riacha La Pasta, more on that soon. Now this posse cut is absolutely unreal and I don't think I'll be able to do it real justice so just check out the following video (please note that the video is every bit as tremendous as the track).

The album as a whole is every bit as head-turning as the ridiculous 26 rapper, can't stop saying that, posse cut previously mentioned. There are some big tracks on here and some real left-field tracks that are outside what you would normally expect on a hip hop album.

After a brief intro the album's first full track is Monster On The Rise. On vocals is I believe, could be wrong, a guy named K-No Supreme. He's not a rapper I've heard before but his smooth, laid-back tone fits nicely over a great beat that sounds like it should be pumping out of the stereo of a low-rider as it cruises through an Egyptian market. It's a great opener with a real catchy hook to it and some great turntable work from Mister Jason.

Another track that features K-No Supreme, again I could be wrong, is the simply brilliant 'The Medical World'. The vocals are a little more aggressive on this one and the beats a little less in your face. The drums are still pretty raw but we get some predatory sounding strings and some soft keys at the start which give way to the drums and what sounds to me like a 16 bit character jumping. The thing about this track that really got me involved though was the sample that runs through this song. He's sampling Joy Division's Transmission! On a hip hop album!!! Massive points to Mister Jason there, he's not happy with giving you a 26 rapper posse track, nah he wants to give the world a brilliant Joy Division sampling hip hop track. Unreal.

Another of my favourite tracks on the album is 'Renegades' featuring Riacha La Pasta and Eric Jalbert. The track is a great blend of futuristic space bleeps and old school horns. The drums drive along nicely and the bass is so bouncy it wouldn't sound out of place on a Jurassic 5 album. I'm hoping that at some point I'll be able to track down an instrumental copy of this album and in particular this track. Now Riacha La Pasta that features on this song and the previously mentioned posse cut is a bit of an interesting one for me. I've hit the internets to try and find out a little more about this rapper and I'm not finding anything! I've seen on one site that he is part of a hip hop group called Falsehood but all I could find attached to that was a Myspace page with a handful of cool songs that seemed to be linked to Mister Jason. That's all I've found. To me Riacha sounds like he might actually be one of my favourite rappers ever, Cool Calm Pete (formerly of Babbletron). I could be wrong on this one because as I say I can't find any info on it but that sounds exactly like the Cool Calm one. If it isn't him then at least we've got someone who sounds just like him so we have something to listen to while we continue to wait forever for a follow up to Cool Calm Pete's Lost (a truly phenomenal album). If anyone reading this can shed a little light on this for me it'd be much appreciated.

There is so much variety on this album that it would take me all day to go through the 17 tracks I haven't babbled about but rest assured there is plenty more there for you to enjoy from the flute heavy, Nabo Rawk featuring 'Monolith' to the funk dripped 'Black Angel'. This is a truly great album and I'd recommend it to all. It can be a little hard to get hold of here in Wales (I haven't found a physical copy) but it is available on iTunes for a mere £7.99 so go and support someone that's trying to take the genre to different places. You owe it to yourself to grab a copy of that posse cut alone.

****EDIT****
I've been reliably informed by Mister Jason that you can grab a copy here http://www.undergroundhiphop.com/store/results.asp?searchby=Artist&keywords=frankensteez
It's always better to be able to hold that shit in your hands.

I'm so glad I found this album as aside from being one of the best albums I've heard this year it's also put me on to some new stuff like Mister Jason's former group with Nabo Rawk, Porn Theatre Ushers (fingers crossed Wen hooks me up with the albums for my birthday on Thursday) and rappers like Reks or K-No Supreme who I'd never heard of before but will be trying to get music by.

Please check it out, you'll be better for it.

Laters

MechagodZeala

Adam Yauch/MCA 1964-2012

He had a beard like a billy goat

So a couple of hours ago I checked my Facebook timeline and saw a post that read "Oh, maaaaan. MCA!", my heart sank. I saw another that read "Can't believe MCA is dead!!! Horrible news! rip", my heart sank further. A news search later and those posts are confirmed. Adam Yauch, founding member of The Beastie Boys, has passed away at the depressingly young age of 47.

As anyone who has read this page before, or as those reading for the first time are about to discover, I'm not a guy who is going to write a series of beautiful words that perfectly describe what an absolute giant of music MCA was. All I can do is talk as a fan, as someone who's life was changed as a result of what Nathaniel Hornblower and his bandmates did, as someone who is gutted by the thought of a world in which a guy like MCA is taken far too soon.

I first got into The Beastie Boys at around 10/11 years old. My older sister had a few friends round and one of them was blasting some pretty weird stuff from the tape deck. I remember that Brass Monkey was what caught my ear and that was it for me, I didn't know what the hell these guys were on about but it sounded brilliant and it wasn't like anything I'd ever heard before. After a bit of pleading I managed to convince my sister's friend to let me keep hold of the tape, to be honest I think it was given to me as a way to get rid of me, a really effective way of getting rid of me. Over the next few weeks I never stopped flipping that tape. It was the first time in my life that I'd got that involved with music, I wanted to know everything about what this music was, where it came from, and who the hell was responsible. Unfortunately I didn't have the internets back then, hardly anyone did, I also live in a small village in North Wales which doesn't exactly have it's finger on the pulse. All I had to go on was the tape, it wasn't even a proper tape though, it was recorded and had Beastie Boys scribbled on the side in biro. I knew nothing about them but the fact that they were responsible for amazing songs like She's Crafty, Posse in Effect, Fight for Your Right, and what became my favourite song for the next year or so, Slow and Low. I'm sure the following statement is true for so many people but Beastie Boys were the first group I ever cared about.

Fast forward a year or two and I'm in Our Price in Chester, I'm rifling through the CD's and I see a Beastie Boy's album. At this point I'm still rocking the tape, I did until I was 17, so to find some new Beastie Boys music made for quite a day. After a tad more scanning I found another album, I pestered Mum a little and soon enough was the proud owner of two new albums: Paul's Boutique and Ill Communication.

As soon as I got home I popped Paul's Boutique in the player, sat back, and had my first listen.When To All The Girls played I was a tad confused. It didn't sound like the Brass Monkey guys, maybe the name on my tape was wrong? Then Shake Your Rump kicked in!!! I had the right album, and I had a favourite group. Shake Your Rump is to this day probably my favourite Beastie's song and back then it knocked the socks off the thirteen year old me. The rest of the album did not disappoint either and there is a damn good reason that it is held in such high regard and considered a game changer in Hip Hop. Songs like Egg Man, Looking Down The Barrel Of a Gun, and Shadrach are just huge. The whole album is as amazing to the 27 year old me as it was to the 13 year old North Walian experiencing it for the first time,  I'm listening to it as I write this post and it's unreal just how dope it is.  It was a couple of weeks before I ever got round to Ill Communication. 

Now I could go through every Beastie album and talk about what it meant to me and how tremendous their work is but unless you've been living under a rock, you know this already. I haven't even mentioned songs like Intergalactic, Ch-Check It Out, Sure Shot, and the countless other go to songs everyone loves. From that cadged tape that hooked me, to Paul's Boutique which shaped my musical tastes so much, to To The 5 Boroughs (which is probably my favourite of their albums), to the Sounds of Science double disc (probably the only album my brother and I have ever both loved), all the way to the proving they still had it recent album Hot Sauce Commitee, The Beastie's have proven time and time again that they are straight up geniuses when it comes to the art of Hip Hop and their music has been a part of my and my generation's life.

I've seen musician's pass over the year's and I've never fully understood the reaction of so many people when the artists they look up to so much die. I mean I was saddened when Michael Jackson died but these things happen. I've always found it hard to understand how people can be so upset to lose someone they never knew. With the news of MCA's passing I understand fully. I can honestly say that had my girl not been sitting next to me when I found out this news I probably would have cried. I sure as hell felt like it but it seemed ridiculous to break down in front of someone over a guy I never had the pleasure of knowing. I guess music plays such an important part in our life and it soundtracks the highs and lows of every moment of it so it's natural to feel a connection to those responsible for the music we love. As a Beastie Boys fan, so much of my life is soundtracked by this group, I hear certain songs and it takes me back to periods in my life that mean something to me and it's crushing to know that one of them has been taken from the planet so early.

At the time of writing I don't know the cause of death. I know MCA had recently had cancer but by all accounts before the last album he'd beaten that which is why this was so unexpected.Maybe it wasn't beaten but whatever the reason a simple fact remains that between the music and the directing (he did a lot of the videos and directed the brilliant Awesome! I Shot That) we've lost a true creative force today and we lost him way too soon. I want to say thank you for all the great things I have enjoyed as a result of Adam Yauch and his fellow Beastie's, your work will always be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading

Mechagodzeala