The Plastic Fuzz Web Log

Archive for January, 2010

Today marks one year since the swearing in of Barack Obama into the White House. Casting the aside the baggage surrounding him and his first year as President, I’d like to point your attention to this picture found on the Earth Observatory (NASA) website. Amongst some fantastic images taken from some where between a bird and the moon, this shot has to be seen large to be admired. You can clearly see the swarms of supporters as nearly 1.5 million of them crowded the Capitol and the Washington Monument that day.

The sporadic dispersion of the crowd is partly due to the placement of huge screens showing live pictures of the inauguration for those who couldn’t get close enough to the action. From this angle, the Washington Monument on the far left appears to have gained larger crowds than the ceremony. Symbolically, I guess that could mean anything.

You can imagine my surprise when I happened across writer/producer Jim Pavlov’s YouTube video depicting the recreation of The Prodigy’s ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ in just ten minutes on the made-for-live sampling software, Ableton. Ok so it’s not strictly ten minutes, the whole process is sped up and don’t forget The Prodigy’s Liam Howlett will have had use much more brainpower when creating the track during the early 90’s, opting for more organic hardware forms of sampling tools. However it’s just an experiment for those of you that are that way inclined and shouldn’t be used in argument for or against the existence of the Prodigy as an entity. This vid simply demonstrates the advancement of sampling technology in just over a decade and boasts Ableton’s sample manipulation powers.

Enjoy!

I remember once discussing with a college lecturer about new laws that the then new Labour government had announced regarding the insistence on small venues requiring a license to host gigs and anything in realm of musical performance to more than a small handful of of people.

It appears that last month (Dec 09) licensing Minister Gerry Sutcliffe proposed new measures to allow for small pubs and venues to put on live music events for under 100 people without requiring a license to do so.  And sure, it remains only as speculation as to which venues actually cared as to whether or not they had a license, but to be able to trade legally is always a plus for any small business.

“Going to see a band, musician or singer is a very important part of many people’s lives and we’re keen to do what we can to support audiences and musicians.” – Gerry Suttcliffe 2009

Perhaps this means all my shows will be attended by 99 people? Ok ok ………