Greetings From Shitsville.... London

Lets cut straight to the chase here, I FUCKING hate London!!! It stinks, its depressing, its far too overcrowded, no-one seems to have any respect for each other, its quite possibly one of the loneliest places in Britain, if not the whole world.

For some almost unfathomable reason, people actually seem to love the place. Brits flock there in search of all the excitement and opportunity that our nation's capital has to offer. People from all over the world move to London in search of a better life. Tourists and travellers are constantly drawn to the place, wanting to experience what they perceive to be the pinnacle of British culture.

There's an old cockney sing-song that goes something along the lines of "Maybe its because I'm a Londoner that I love London town." I can see no legitimate reason why anyone would love London unless that's all they've ever known, or their life outside of London is so completely and utterly shit that the "Arse-end of England" is actually an improvement. I guess there are worse places in the world to be, but there are certainly a great number of better places too.

Its true that to some extent London is the pinnacle of British culture, there are things I love about this country such as the cultural diversity, the music, the arts, our great number of scientific advancements and achievements. London has all of these things taken to extremes. You only have to take a walk along Camden to see the more alternative side of British culture in full effect, to some it looks a lot like a freak-show, but for many of those that frequent the place its the perfect location to express their individuality.

On the other hand, London is also the epitome of everything that is wrong with Britain and for that matter much of western culture. Its the hub of big business and corporate industry. A city built upon a capitalist foundation, where the only way to survive is to work hard, spend hard, conform and consume. Wherever you go in London you are bombarded with advertising of some sort. Everyone wants your money, whether that be for the latest product, fast food, memorabilia or useless tat that serves only to feed our indoctrinated need to keep spending, those that sell are unrelenting in their constant pursuit of custom.

Often its obvious and unavoidable, many times its far more subliminal. The voiceover at the mall by Victoria station constantly repeats the same refrain: "Hungry? Thirsty? Why not try one of our delicious refreshments?" (correct me if I'm wrong on the exact wording but the message is principally the same). Do people even notice it anymore? Businessmen with their laptops, mobile phones and other great technical accessories send out a clear message that social status is directly connected to the gadgets they carry around, endorse and rely upon. Adverts on the tube trains declare that the average Londoner wakes up 44 minutes earlier than the rest of the UK (6:04 am) like that's something everyone there should be proud of, a prime example of the degree of dedication only found in the capital, while the rest of Britain is populated by lazy part-timers destined to under-achieve and ultimately fall behind in our modern fast-paced hi-tech society.

Traveling at peak time on the London Underground is possibly one of the most unpleasant experiences known to man. Millions of wage-slaves packed, squashed and compressed into dirty, underground stations and dense, sweaty trains. Everyone eager to get where they've got to go with no regard or respect for anyone else. All just cogs in the great big corporate machine. No-one smiles, no-one talks, every day our self-respect and dignity is reduced little by little until we all passively accept that our lives are ultimately worthless and miserable, so we conform.

Control is such a huge part of London, through advertising, routine and misery everyone is forced to adapt to the system. London's other great weapon is intimidation, if ever there was a prime example of Britain turning into an Orwellian, dystopian, police state then London is it. The law is everywhere, the minute you step off a train at Paddington the welcoming committee is there in full uniform with sniffer dogs. What sort of enforcement is this? Are they there to protect the individuals, or simply to search and possibly arrest otherwise innocent people, guilty only of smoking a joint before they left home in the morning? In a city that brings everyone down on a daily basis, the law is there to ensure that no-one dares to consider such an illicit pleasure while attempting to lead a "normal" life.

The police presence is only one part of the authoritarian nature of London law enforcement. CCTV is in abundance throughout the capital. Cameras are everywhere, there is no privacy. Whatever we do, we are always being watched. Security in London is big business, don't believe that these cameras are passively recording you for your own protection. They exist to control and intimidate, just like the police, just like the advertising, just like the underground.

Someone visiting from one of the more civilised areas of Britain may find that people in London are rude, disrespectful and to some extent unpleasant. Its not the fault of the individual, everyone's just trying to adapt as they go about their daily business. This is the lifestyle they lead, for many that's all they've ever known. I could imagine that many Londoners would find the somewhat more laidback pace of the rest of the country dull or boring. Its a sad shame for those people. For the tourist visiting England, London offers many things to do and sights to see. It does not offer a true representation of the country. The North of England is vastly different, the Westcountry is far more relaxed and laidback. London is what it is, but it isn't the be-all and end-all.

The idea that London is the place to be is a self-propagating myth. Many talk about the music scene in London to the extent where it is the only city in which great success can be achieved, for the most part this is true, but it can also be where the greatest failures occur. Spend too long in London and one may very well lose all motivation and love for music, maybe even the will to live.

Once again, I FUCKING hate London. I could never live there, nor would i ever want to. Its a truly horrible, miserable place. For the millions of people that call it home, i have great sympathy. There's a lot of things wrong in this world, London is one of them.

Deadline EP now available

Just a quickie then...

It took a bit longer than hoped. No support from any labels so I've put it out on my own label DogManic Records. Got messed around waiting for artwork so i've done something with one of my photos from Thailand (New Year Full Moon Party 2008/09).

You can download the whole EP or individual tracks here, price is £1.99 for the whole lot or 59p for individual tracks, or theres the option for you to pay more, should you want to. ;-)

Tracks included are:
Virtual Life
Coercion
Snow
Minds Infected

If you are feeling a bit tight or skint or whatever theres a bootleg torrent of it aswell which you can find here, this is a lower quality MP3 than the paid version. If you like it please buy it or at least share this bootleg of it.

Enjoy, all the best.

Music Snobs

I hated music when i was at school! Not music itself, i've always loved that. I hated the subject of music that i was taught at school. I hated the lessons, they were boring and i hated the teacher. He was just an old classical guy who by the tail end of the 80s had finally come to accept that The Beatles had actually contributed something good to the world, but otherwise had no time for rock, hip-hop, dance or any other contemporary styles of music.

Music snobbery exists on so many levels, we can all feel united, whether rocker or raver, in knowing that that there are old-fashioned classical music snobs who just don't get what we are about and for some reason think that they are somehow superior to us. Our uncultured music with shouty angsty lyrics and/or loud guitars and/or repetitive beats is so beneath them. Its like the class system all over again.

Its not just classical types that have this snobbery though, its everywhere. There are many musicians who look down on producers because they don't play instruments, like that is the only definition of someones musical credentials. How long did it take DJs to get recognition as performers and not just human jukeboxes? Even now you have old skool vinyl DJs looking down on MP3 DJs, claiming it to be cheating. There are still a great number of instrument-playing musicians who find it difficult to recognise that triggering loops, tweeking filters and firing off synth sounds is actually a real form of musical performance.

Still it gets worse, even in the world of electronica you've got hardware snobs that look down on software musicians, claiming some sort of superiority because at least their synths and samplers are proper pieces of equipment rather than the virtual mouse-clicking USB-controlled inferiority on a laptop screen software producers use. Mac users look down on PC users, blindly believing that Apple are great and Macs are always stable even though they crash a lot and don't have that good old ctrl-alt-del that Windows users are all too familiar with. And to top it all off, the vast majority of producers that don't use Reason look down on those that do, even though there's been some genuinely great music made in that particular program.

So where does that leave the poor producer making dubstep in Reason on a Dell PC? Surely he can respect, admire and possibly even envy the skill of a talented guitarist. No doubt he would love to have a studio full of Korg and Roland synths, but simply can't afford it. Maybe he's listened to a few old Beethoven symphonies and appreciated the depth of composition involved. Theres no snobbery there, no feeling like he has some sort of musical status against his aforementioned superiors.

Its quite a humble place to be really, and possibly one of the truest. Doesn't much of the best music come from artists in the lowest places? If a bedroom producer has no-one to lord it over and feel superior to, isn't it fair to say they are doing it for the love of the music? In many ways the attention to detail and intricate level of composition in many pieces of electronic music is far closer to classical than the simple verse-chorus-verse 3-chord songwriting of many instrumentalist musicians.

Music can be the great unifier yet so often musical differences can cause so many divisions. Understandably people want to surround themselves with people whom they share common interests, yet so many times this leads to people excluding others whom they feel don't fit with their idea of whats right. I mention this hierarchy of musicians here, but lets not forget all the music lovers out there that actually just enjoy listening to good music without feeling any desire to play an instrument or write songs themselves. Are these people any less worthy of being defined as musical? Surely not. The fans are often the best critics, it doesn't matter whether they can play or not.

Music snobbery is an unfortunate reality, but it achieves nothing. There are so many tools available to people to make the music they like, there is no right or wrong. So long as people keep making good music and we all keep enjoying it, surely that's all that matters.

Music Industry Bullshit: Its All The Same

It all sounds the bloody same!!!

How many times have we heard people say that? Whether its indie kids complaining about hip-hop, metal kids criticizing dance music, junglists dissing techno or old people moaning about more or less any form of modern music, the "it all sounds the same" argument gets thrown around quite a lot. For the most part there's some truth in it.

Lets look at the pop charts, here we have an endless stream of "artists" manufactured to some extent to fit perfectly into a particular sound and sell as many records as possible. It may be middle of the road whiny alt-pop like Coldplay making sombre depressing music for people that have never really known true misery, gangsta-pop rappers like 50 Cent knocking out the same lyrics about girls, guns and money over identikit beats, obviously manufactured all-style-no-substance pop stars like Lady Ga-Ga singing generic auto-tuned hits about how sexy they are or any one of the hundreds of NME-favoured/Kerrang!-endorsed, rock/punk/indie/emo bands churning out teen-angst anthems for kids too young to remember Kurt Cobain yet treating him like some sort of saint.

Its always the same, find a formula that works and repeat until no-one cares any more then move onto the next big thing. Record company executives take no shame in their blatant destruction of music art in the name of big business.

Of course, we're all freethinking underground people, we can laugh at how rubbish the music industry is, but are we really any better? Take any genre and you will find the same thing happening on a smaller scale. Producers knocking out formulaic tunes, using the same sample packs and software synths as each other. The beats rarely deviate from the established template, the structure is generally the same. Maybe its that 4/4 techno kick with a few sequenced arps or acid loops, that current favourite that is sidechained bass or pads, the wobbly bassline and half-step beats in the occasionally original dubstep scene, reece and amen tearouts in drum n bass, i could go on.

With vinyl sales dwindling and digital downloads hardly showing much in the way of profits its not entirely surprising that record labels, both large and small, are reluctant to invest time and money into artists that deviate too far from the tried and tested. Major labels are finding that the only stuff that sells in large quantities are those indistinguishable, glossy manufactured pop acts, or those artists already well established in their own right. Similarly, independent labels are only really interested in finding acts that fit comfortably in their genre specific roster. Dance labels want tunes that will work well on a dancefloor and hopefully sell to enough DJs for it to be worth the investment, hence the focus on stuff that sounds like the stuff thats already being played. Even many of the most experimental of dance labels have found their own particular flavour of experimentation to stick to.

So, yeah... It does all sound the same. Why is this pissing me off so much?

Honestly, i have sent copies of the new EP out to all sorts of electronic/breakbeat labels, some well established, others less so. Not one of those fuckers has bothered to get back to me, no feedback at all. I spent hours listening to practically identical breaks tunes on trackitdown.net trying to find labels that might just be interested in the Infected Minds sound. Very few... And most of those were foreign. Its all just the same old shit, it really does all sound the fucking same! Actually its depressing to hear the amount of tunes being released with the same beat, the same "Brutal Electro" synth sounds, the same old Vengeance samples. Does no-one care about innovating anymore?

Well, fuck em! I thought for a while before that i wanted to release my own shit, retain full control over my music. Kinda got talked out of that mindset, but since none of the labels i've tried want to know, then i've got no choice.

And you know what, i quite like it this way. At least i can put Deadline out at a reasonable price now. Its a bit late for the summer but better late than never. I know its gonna involve a lot more work for me but thats the way it goes. I've got a few things on for the rest of the week, but if all goes to plan Deadline will be out to download very soon for a good price. I need some decent cover art if anyone cares to donate some, but aside from that its ready to go.

Ahhh, how to end a pretty angry post on a positive note.

Peace, all. Shaun. X

Boredom- The Great Pacifier

You ever get that feeling when you just want something to happen? Anything... You know you could go out and do something, make some excitement for yourself but you just can't be arsed.

That's boredom for you. I shouldn't complain really, i've had a couple of great weekends recently. Thjis year's Glade was probably the best yet, Secret Garden Party turned out to be another great festie aswell. Its not like i've been sat around twiddling my thumbs for the last month. Nevertheless there is a real feeling of boredom. I've even found it hard to muster up the energy to actually sit here and type.

I've said it before, misery breeds apathy. Its like i'm actually too bored to even complain about boredom. I could blame the weather, actually to a great extent i do blame the weather. Once again Britain is suffering another shit summer, its grey and wet outside just like yesterday and no doubt the same as tomorrow. A little bit of sunshine does wonders, no such luck here then.

Being skint sucks! I can't afford to do anything interesting, i can't afford a social life. All i can do is sit here and feel bad as my not-very-profitable business goes down the pan. Even that's a catch-22, working in a dead-end job for some faceless corporation is surely one of the most depressing, soul destroying, worthless ways to spend your time yet it seems the simplest way right now to relieve boredom and earn money.

What about my music then? Well, i'm still trying (albeit not hard enough) to get this last EP signed. I've got some ideas i'm working on for new stuff but nothing even close to finished. Oh well...

So what was the point of me posting all this, then? I'm not really too sure, to be honest. I just wanted to try and do something. Its all too easy to just sit here and follow the same routines as every other day. Its a vicious circle. The title sums it all too well, boredom is the great pacifier, a self-perpetuating sedative. Sometimes it feels like the only way to relieve the boredom is to do something else equally boring and uninspiring.

Anyway, thats enough for today. I reckon its time i got on and actually did something interesting! I promise to cheer up next time you hear from me.

Shaun

New track up for free download

Just a little freebie i want to share.

The track is untitled and is the result of some college coursework during the last year, a collaboration between myself and Danny Unkut under the name of Winalot.

The idea was to engineer and produce a track in the college studio featuring other musicians, the most notable of whom is the excellent vocalist Ruth Royall whose contribution holds this track together.

Myself and Danny did the synth parts, i did some piano and Danny did most of the scratching. Other guests are Mark Fairclough on drums, Paul Quinn on piano and Peter Richardson on the turntables. It was recorded last winter.

This is the Infected Minds mix, my own take on the recording with my own arrangement and FX. Danny Unkut has his own mix which is quite deifferent and should be up on his MySpace player at some point, if not already.

I hope you enjoy it, free download from either MySpace or ReverbNation. Feel free to share it or do whatever you want with it. This is in no way related to any forthcoming Infected Minds releases so don't expect a polished version of it to arrive later. It is what it is. Enjoy!

Is Michael Jackson really dead?

The news of Jacko's death is truly sad. He was a musical genius and a true legend, as such he will be greatly missed. He leaves behind some genuinely great music and a legacy as one of the most amazing performers that ever lived. He has earned his place in the history books and deserves to be remembered for the awesome talent that he was.

That said, and with all respect to Jackson and his loved ones, i'm not entirely sure i believe he is really dead. Call me a conspiracy theorist but it all seems a bit suspicious. I've thought for a while that if anyone was going to fake their own death, Jacko would be the ideal candidate. Like a lot of people i was doubtful that he'd be able to pull off 50 nights at the O2, and i suspect he knew it himself. If he really was as ill as we have been led to believe he could surely never have thought that he could perform anywhere near the standard he used to in his heyday. I've personally been very skeptical about whether he'd even play one night for several months now.

The public persona of Michael Jackson aka Jacko aka The King of Pop was very much a character, none of us truly knew what he was really like. We only ever saw him as either the singer/dancer or the media figure. Did he really sleep in that glass tank? Was his best friend really a monkey? The Wacko Jacko image certainly added to his mystery and intrigue throughout the 80s and early 90s. It didn't do his career any harm at the time either. Of course as Wacko Jacko transformed into the troubled artist searching for his lost youth, it all started to go wrong. People will forever question whether or not the allegations about his involvement with kids were true. No-one really knows but everyone has an opinion on it. Whatever, Jackson has consistently remained a superstar and has never been out of the spotlight for long.

But what about the real man, what do we actually know about him? Very little, it seems. In my opinion, Jackson has always been a shrewd man, he wouldn't have been as successful as he was if he didn't know what he was doing. He's made some very smart business moves in his time, the sort that just don't fit with the Jacko we've seen in the media.

Faking his own death could be hugely profitable, it seems that there are going to be some considerable problems with refunds. I don't know the figures but i'm sure that a significant proportion of those 750,000 tickets have been traded through or by resellers and touts effectively voiding their warranty. Regardless, it appears that these refunds are the responsibility of the promoters and their insurance companies, not Jackson who no doubt received a large advance. Every radio station is playing his music which will earn his estate a vast sum in broadcast and publishing royalties. No doubt we will see a wave of best of albums, tributes and collectors box sets over the next few years, maybe even a Hollywood movie of his life. I wouldn't be surprised if the Michael Jackson estate re-acquires Neverland and turns it into a Jacko shrine which will inevitably attract thousands of paying visitors every day. It could be one of the greatest scams ever pulled.

He certainly went out well. Rather than fading as a broken man or fallen icon before ultimately passing away isolated and alone, Jackson's last days will be remembered as a genuine a-list star. The sort of superstar who can sell out 750,000 tickets for a residency in London. The star who pushed himself beyond his own limits because he wanted to put on the best show he could. He may not have actually performed but its easy now to remember what a great talent he really was, to remember him for his exceptional music. And that is exactly how we should, because it's the one thing we really do know about him.

If Michael Jackson, the man, is still alive then Jacko, the superstar is dead. We'll never hear from him again, he'll never record any more music, never appear infront of an audience again. If he is still alive maybe he really does just want to be left alone now, to grow old in peace. The only way he could ever achieve that would be to convince the world that he's dead. And surely, he deserves that right. Maybe its not a scam after all, maybe its Jacko's last word, his final exit, the only way he knew he could go out with any dignity.

A lot of people feel very sad today, and those grieving for the loss of their hero should grieve, this is the only way and the only time we can say goodbye to someone who has given so much pleasure to so many people, someone who has inspired and influenced many generations.

Regardless of anything i have suggested, this is the end of an era. My full respects go out to Jackson, his family, friends and fans. My apologies to anyone offended by my timing here, it truly is a sad day. Whether Jackson the man is alive or not, Jacko the superstar, the King of Pop passed away yesterday and he will be truly missed. May he rest in peace.

The legend may be dead but the legacy lives on.