Christmas and that...

Erland Oye Christmas cover.

Ill old skool flow

Wedding fun

The bride in the first one looks like she's going to knife that woman!

Nazi boy

This guy was at uni in Leeds the same time as me and is now director of publicity for the BNP. Different strokes for different folks and all that. Anyway, here's a documentary of him getting rinsed by Russell Brand from 2002. Well worth watching all three parts just to show how much of a clown the guy actually is.

Big Stu's competition entry

My friend Big Stu entered a Daily Telegraph writing competition to win a trip to Germany to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down, here's his entry:


Day 1

Aye, well we pure went to berlin reet. I was in the summer, er geet june 2008 for some bit techno and that yee nar, whey anna bit of culture. We pure got a flight from London and it was aaaanly 28 bar retoorn. It was canny early but I was proper buzzin so I wernt tired or owt, aaanly puffs, Mackems and Smoggies get tired like. Went with 3 of me pals. It was class…….when we got there we did a bit of that tourist carry on…yee nar we saw that aaald wall and the massive blocky thing for da jews, pure seen that radge blokes bunker an’aal, ye nar that blokie with the tash and 1 baaaal. Yee naaah hitlaa the mental Jarman. Wasn’t much like, just a geet carpark. Also seen some more of them jerry buildings from da war and a big church, wasn’t as good as Durham Catherdal though, had nee ice cream. Had a bit wander roond the ald Commy bit and that was alreet. Bit trampy, reminded me of Byker.

Any road after that carry on i bought some cheap tabs for me Ma and we proceeded to get proper mortal on fancy cocktails, a Pina Colada like, whey I was on holiday man yee have to dee that once and I was with some southerners an they cannot drink fer toffee so didn’t want nee Berlin pilsner and they didn't have any Brooon. In the neet we tried to gan to this club. It was ment to be radge, bit like the Pig and Whistle doon the Bigg Market but on the top of a massive block of council flats, whey went geet early cos we herd the Jarmans divint like english (nee change there then eh). Whey what a massive hairy mission that was like. Had to pure convince him we were sweet and wouldn’t gan radge, after Lisa taaked him roond we got let in a belter. After we all had tee say where we were from an that, aaanly thing Herman didn’t ask was for me papers. I toold the gadgie 'howay, where de yers think I'm from, the Toon ya hedge,' and the dafty stepped te one side. Pure class. After that I just got spakkad on the roof in a rug and then went te kip



Stu won first prize.

Cells

Never really liked science but this is quite interesting and has the added bonus of not having much to read.

Lykke Li – Dance, Dance, Dance (Dixon edit)

Lykke Li's Youth Novels is one of my favourite albums of the last few years, so when I was out and heard Dixon's re-edit, two of my favourite music people coming together, it was definitely a case of maximum boost. Anyway, finally found a decentish listenable copy online and that makes me very happy.

Steve from Sheffield

Louish Walls is most definitely an asshole.

Sheephead

Luck

This guy gets lucky...




This guy not so much...



Apparently though the guy in the last one was OK and survived without too much damage, so overall I guess he is pretty lucky. Hurrah! Thanks Dave!

Popeye Kevin

Some f*%kers burgled my house and stole all my stuff so posts will be at a minimum until i can sort out a new laptop. Until that moment I will post irregularly with gems such as this.

Summer 8 year old mix

Here's a mix I did the other day on a log drive back from Wales that's based around various nights out over the summer. I probably should have finished it about three tracks earlier than I did but there was still another 100 miles to go so carried on. Anyway, if you've been out with me in the last few months give it a listen, maybe it'll bring back a few memories.

Download it here.

Tracklisting:

Good Voodoo – Kiki (Visionquest remix)
Sinfonia Della Notte – Dennis Ferrer
Let's Groove – George Morel
The Voice From Planet Love – Precious System (Dixon's Chic-a-go mix)
Summertime – Jamie Jones feat. Ost & Kjex
Darkstar 3000 – Mike Shannon
Afternoon Delight – DJ Sneak
Dis – DJ T
Yogoto – Spencer Parker
Energy Flash – Joey Beltram
Where We At – Dixon, Henrik Schwarz and Ame feat. Derrick Carter
Stoned Autopilot – Martin Buttrich (C2 remix)
Full Tilt – Martin Worner
Traffic Jam – Cobblestone Jazz
Huyendo – Alex Cortex
Stranger (To Stability) – Dustin Zahn
D.P.O.M.B. – Dixon, Henrik Schwarz and Ame
Far Out – Sebo K (DJ Sneak mix)
Sweat – John Tejada

Big mouth strikes again

At one stage this guy looks like one of the things from Francis Bacon's Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion...

Um

Watch this...



Then watch this...

Sand painting

The samiad looks a lot hotter than the last time I saw it.

Berlin culture beavers

Just got back from a trip to Berlin, without doubt the best city I have ever been to. This was my fourth visit in less than 2 years and I reckon it topped the previous ones, which I thought would be impossible to do. Probably my favourite night was spent at a packed Watergate listening to Jay Haze, Shonky and others on Contexterior until 5 or 6 in the morning... on a Wednesday night! That kind of thing just doesn't happen in London. Anyway, this was one of many tracks that put a smile on my face.

Samurai skills

If this is real then it's pretty impressive stuff, but you would think if he can hit things that small with such accuracy he should take up baseball and make some money.


Modern Samurai Cuts Flying BB in Half - Watch more Funny Videos

Kanye again

There's a lot of these floating about, some of which are quite frankly terrible, but this was probably the best one I've seen.

Richard Bacon gets right on it

World's fattest cat

Look at him dominate those stairs!

Aawwwwww

Kanye does it again

The world's biggest prick strikes once more...

Modeselektor Body Language 8

Another review I did recently:

Berlin’s Modeselektor are like the Obama of the electronic world, gradually winning over sceptics and uniting dance music’s various factions with their off-kilter sound and general disregard for genres the same way Barack connects with world leaders. Fans from the minimal, house and hip hop fraternities have all sung their praises and they even convinced indie messiah Thom Yorke to make an appearance on their album Happy Birthday.

Body Language vol. 8 gives Modeselektor the opportunity to demonstrate their scattergun approach to DJing and they waste no time in creating a brilliant party mix by merging techno into breakbeat into hip hop into electro – and that’s just the first few tracks. The mark of a great party DJ is the ability to carefully blend the more obscure with the familiar, and the welcome inclusion of 2-step in the shape of Horsepower Productions and Busta Rhymes’ classic Gimme Some More shows these two have it in spades. Dubstep has clearly struck a chord with the pair as tracks from Benga, Joker and Scuba are interwoven between the synth sounds of Siriusmo and the pulsing throb of Marcel Dettman’s excellent revision of Modeselektor’s own The Black Block. I could have probably done without the ubiquitous Animal Collective, but then that’s one to keep the indie kids happy.

The way Modeselektor combine tracks that on first glance appear at odds with each other is the key to this album’s appeal and fans who appreciate the eclecticism of artists like Diplo or have a predilection for bass will garner some enjoyment from this. And as Modeselektor themselves say on Fill #1, ‘expect the unexpected’.

Pumped

Raymond's operating on maximum boost.

Tone Matrix

If you're anything like me and have even the slightest interest in repetative music and time wasting devices you will absolutely love this thing – it is brilliant. I'm going to annoy the hell out of a lot of people now I've been introduced to this I can assure you.

3 massive slams

The title says it all really. These are savage.

Geordie jumpers

Aye, pure class an' that.

Frrrrreesssshhhh

If you like your Nikes Tn, your denim double and you dance moves bubblin' here's a nice little blast from the past from my mate Dan. Old Skool garage at its bump 'n' flexingest. Bo.

Tracklisting:

Plenty More - Chris Mac
Dangerous - Same People
Gunmen - 187 Lockdown
Standard Hoodlum Issue - E.S. Dubs (Z. Bias)
Life Story - Angie Stone (Booker T)
Lost in Vegas - Some Treat
Gabriel - Roy Davis Jr
God Made Me Phunky - MD Express
Panther Party - Mad Moses
De La Bass - Mousse T
Boogie On The Dance Floor - Masters At Work
The Chant (We R) - R.I.P. Productions
In My Soul - Grant Nelson
Never Gonna Let You Go - Tina Moore (Tuff Jam)
Day Creeper - D.C.
R U Sleeping - Indo (Grant Nelson)
Forgiven - Todd Edwards
Golden - Jill Scott (Grant Nelson)

New York Groove

This is off one of those Fourstar videos in the previous post. Not entirely sure why I like it but I like it. Probably for when the guitar comes in at the beginning. Good strutting music.

Fourstar vids

Enjoyable good set of vids on the Fourstar website that'll waste a few minutes including the Day in the Life series that they keep updating. Eric Koston and Mark Gonzalez have been up so far.

Italoboyz – Bla Bla Bla

Time to bore you with another Notion review, though I was pleased with the last line:

The Italoboyz rose to prominence last year with the John Coltrane sampling Bahia, a brilliant song that was made to be enjoyed on sunny days. An album deal with Claude Von Stroke’s Mothership label soon followed, which has unfortunately given birth to one of the most annoying records I have ever heard. Marco and Federico have unwisely chosen to apply Bahia’s formula – unusual instruments not normally associated with dance music plonked on top of a 4/4 beat – to every track on the album. Someone at Mothership must have been massaging their egos a bit too much, causing them to start considering themselves avant-garde geniuses redefining techno with jazz and classical samples, rather than purveyors of sub-standard rubbish. They have given Bla Bla Bla a unique sound, but that’s probably only because someone else tried doing what they do, quickly realised it sounded shit and made something else.

The album starts with Where is London, made in collaboration with producers Masomenos. Here the chimes of Big Ben are coupled with some classical piano and a techno rhythm. Original, but it doesn’t work, and this failure sets the tone for the following 60 minutes. Next up is Chinese, where an intensely irritating voice repeating ‘I don’t speak Chinese’ is thrown together with oriental melodies and a terrible 2-note horn refrain. It’s like 10 people making one part of a song completely separate from each other then putting the results together unedited. Taka Taka Tashhh might have fared a bit better, had they not chosen to repeat the eponymous title ad nauseam for the song’s duration. It does have a touch of the Chemical Brothers about it, but where and Tom and Ed obviously know when enough is enough, this pair keep adding elements until perfectly sane people are contemplating ripping their ears off and stamping on their eardrums to avoid ever having to be subjected to such crap again. Edo Breiss is the same – underneath the unnecessary saxophone noodling is a decent house tune waiting to come out, but it’s overshadowed by a need to show off and suffers as a result.

I thought Techno Tower might offer some brief respite; sadly it wasn’t meant to be. There are too many things going on, including some chump chanting ‘bumbumbumbumbumbum’ incessantly, the occasional acid stabs and tinkling piano, all of which clash. I won’t even talk about the Salvador Dali sampling L’Anagramme.

Apart from Bahia, the only other track of note is The Pink Uniform. For once they ditch the beat and the resulting ambient piece works well. It makes you think that if they stopped classing themselves as a techno act and played around with different drums and BPMs in the same way they experiment with various instrumental melodies and vocal samples, they could produce something considerably better. By sticking so rigidly to the techno template they create a series of tracks that have the foundations of a promising record but are ruined by self-indulgent pointless experimentation. Avoid unless you are a redneck soldier attempting to extract a quick confession from a prisoner during an Abu Ghraib torture session.

Buzzcocks

Watch the whole A Northern Life documentary on youtube cos it's ace, but this is a snippet from the main character Buzzcocks to give you a taste.

Ame at Plastic People Review

Another Notion piece:

Warm have been putting on acts from their artist agency on the third Thursday of the month at Plastic People for a while now, with the likes of Gerd Janson, Mark E, Horse Meat Disco, Prins Thomas and Will Saul all making an appearance. This month it was the turn of Ame’s Kristian Beyer to represent Berlin house imprint Innervisions and in the process provide me with one of the most enjoyable nights out I’ve had in a while.

Plastic People would have to feature highly on any list compiling the best clubs in London. Not for flashing lights, fancy décor or as a place to be seen, but for consistently quality line-ups, an excellent soundsystem and for stripping away a lot of the bullshit and pretensions that can ruin a decent night. It’s no frills clubbing at its finest, and when you get a couple of hundred people together in a small room who know their music and have a DJ playing as strong set as Kristian did, the stars align, the planets collide, the meaning of life is discovered – however you describe it, it just makes for a bloody good night.

Walking downstairs just before midnight I was faced with an almost empty dancefloor and questions from concerned friends wondering why no-one had showed up. Give it time I suggested, so we sat by the bar listening to Helsinki’s Lil’ Tony play some pleasant enough records, included Villalobos’s Enfants, that didn’t necessarily grab you by the throat and drag you to the floor, but made you think that in a couple of songs time it might be a good idea to think about converting that tapping foot into something more akin to actual dancing.

Half an hour later and the dancefloor was full, not over-crowded, but in true Goldielocks style just right. Beyer was on next, building upon the foundations laid by Lil’ Tony with a showcase of the multiple strands of house and techno that would last for the next few of hours. Acid squelches made way for piano riffs, acapellas announced the arrival of forgotten 90s house tracks, kettle drums provided an almost carnival like atmosphere. There was even a toe tentatively dipped into trance territory when the C2 remix of Stoned Autopilot by Martin Buttrich was played. Trance is a dirty word these days, but I confess I used to love it, so when something with a breakdown as epic as this record gets played I’m sent back to 1999 and am hugging anyone within range. And I’m not the only one. When the track finally drops elation breaks out, Kristian allows himself a little smile as 200 faces light up across the room and beam right back at him.

The final highlight came with George Morel’s classic track Let’s Groove on Strictly Rhythm. Once again I’m transported back over a decade by this slice of proto-speed garage, and the memories come flooding back of listening to Kiss when it used to be good and watching holiday reps vomit on each other in episodes of Ibiza Uncovered. And it’s great. Really, really great. Promoters take note, this is how going out should be. No bells, whistles, chrome, glitterballs, lazers, VIP areas or gyrating coke-head models are needed; all it takes is a dark room, one man, a box of good quality records and a set of decks to develop the perfect party atmosphere.

World's biggest nose

Gibbo watch out, someone's stolen your crown!

Mafia revenge on cat

Good story from The Telegraph:

Russia's only "sniffer cat", hailed for its successes in the campaign against the bloody and lucrative world of caviar smuggling, has been run over and killed in a suspected contract killing.

After wandering in to a customs checkpoint as a stray kitten last year, Rusik soon became the scourge of the Stavropol region's mafia by hunting out caviar being smuggled from the Caspian Sea to Moscow, and on towards the lucrative Western market.

Powerful criminal groups control a black market estimated at £1 billion in the coveted caviar.

"One day Rusik just leapt into the boot of a passing car at the checkpoint and immediately sniffed out some sturgeon," Sergei Kovalenko, a police officer, said of the talented Siamese. "After that we decided to use him all the time."

Rusik's prowess was made public last week. It proved to be a fatal error. Now Rusik is dead, mown down by a car in which he had once discovered smuggled sturgeon.

Rusik's demise was just the latest blow to Stavropol's crime-fighters. Another cat, Barsik, succumbed a few weeks ago after eating a poisoned mouse.

Pick Me Up magazine

And i thought Closer was a treasure trove of excellent real life stories, Pick me Up magazine has raised the bar with tales including:

I'm marrying a smurf

My boob exploded in Morrisons

And the ultimate:

I squash men to get back at my thin sister

Thanks Harri for introducing me to this.

Lolita go home

I've not got a clue what she is singing about, probably a warning to coquettish young Frenchies to avoid the perils of hanging round with dirty old men I imagine (or maybe not), but this song is a quite lovely slice of 70s pop – and has the added bonus of Jane Birkin being unfeasibly hot. Cowell and co. take note, this kind of record is surely perfect for plundering, watering down and adding a few 'oohs' and 'ahhs' to give rubbish reality TV winners a number one single. It's got SuBo's name all over it, stick her in a pair of flairs and a vest riding round on a Raleigh Chopper for the video and I guarantee success.

My new favourite couple

Another gem from the goldmine that is Closer Magazine's Real Life Stories.

"Jean boasts of dirty dancing with young men and slapping their bums as she sexily gyrates against them on the dance floor!"

Cheeky minx!

Blu animation

I was talking about this video to a friend who hadn't seen it so thought I'd put it up in case there's anyone else who's missed out. It is amazing, the sheer scale of the thing blows me away. Probably one of the best thing I've ever seen in street art.

When hip hop was good pt. 3

One of Gangstarr's finest moments. The ridiculously camp delivery of the last verse is incredible. If I ever go to a place where they do hip hop karaoke I'd be straight up there ready to spit this one! Good video too – double denim, fresh moves and girls in bikinis. Nice and Smooth!

Southern Fried and Tested 2 review

...and here's another one:

Ten years is a lifetime in dance music, so you have give credit to Southern Fried Records’ longevity as they celebrate 15 years in the game. Norman Cook’s label started off as a vehicle to release his own productions as Mighty Dub Katz, the Pleased Wimmin and that Freak Power tune from the Levi’s ad with the bald guy singing. Fast forward a decade and a half and Fatboy is releasing the second of his Southern Fried and Tested mix series, compiling some of the imprint’s successes over the years. This time label producer, sometime Chemical Brothers tour DJ and fan of musicals Nathan Detroit steps up to showcase a batch of back-catalogue classics. The premise is simple – fit as many tracks in to 70 minutes as humanly possible, while retaining a cohesive mix rather than the disjointed cut-up style usually adopted for this type of cram-it-all-in project. Think of it as an extended Annie Mac 5-minute mash-up.

With tracks by staples of the Brighton music scene Caged Baby, Radio Slave and Norman himself in his Brighton Port Authority guise, star names including Armand Van Helden and Touche, plus remixes from newer artists such as Laidback Luke, Herve and Tim Green, there’s plenty to be getting on with. Despite the press release claiming they’ve trawled through the label’s back catalogue, most of the records have been made in the last 3 years, and the list of people involved, particularly Riva Starr, Boy 8 Bit, Jesse Rose and Switch, suggests they’ve tried to remain relevant by pitching the mix at the fidgit sound made popular in recent times by the producers on labels Made to Play and Dubsided. It’s probably for the best that there’s no real concession made to Southern Fried’s more commercial releases, they’ve wisely left out the frankly dreadful remix of Elton John’s Are you Ready for Love, but after the tenth wobbly bassline in 15 minutes you’re left longing for a change of pace.

The problem lies with a lack of variety and the inability for the mix to develop. By trying to pack as many tracks into one CD as physically possible the individual songs get lost in the process. When a track is filled with as much sonic lunacy as the Crookers mix of Dusty Kid’s The Cat, if it’s only given just over a minute to play and no time to appreciate the huge drop you lose the full effect. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fairly innocuous, fun mix. In fact, it’s the perfect soundtrack for a load of hyperactive 16 year olds at a GCSE results party pissed on Cinzano stolen from their parent’s cocktail cabinet jumping around pretending to be in an episode of Skins. But for the rest of us there’s just not that much to get excited about.

Steve Bug review

I've started doing a few reviews for the Notion Magazine website. Here's one, please excuse some of the pretentious language, it was harder to write 500 words on techno than I anticipated!

Well, well, well, a dance music compilation album. You don’t see many of those around these days. With podcasts and thousands of mixes readily available online, all for the princely sum of zero pounds, the cult of the mix CD seems to have died a death. But NRK are no strangers to releasing compilations and, after Loco Dice’s first instalment of The Lab went down well with critics, they’ve picked Poker Flat label boss Steve Bug to be in charge of number two.

For the uninitiated Steve Bug has pretty much done it all. Owner of three record labels, kick-starter of the minimal explosion, Fabric regular, international DJ and producer – on a ‘things DJs should do before they’re forty checklist’ you’d see a lot of ticks by Steve’s name. Here he is given two discs and two and a bit hours to showcase the various facets of his sound.

Deep house is the order of the day for disc one, the sound that seems to be flavour of the month with the sunglasses at night, artfully sculpted hair and low V-neck t-shirt crowd. Steve however has been releasing house records before it became ‘cool’ again, so he’s allowed to get away with it. Starting off with the shuffling rhythm of Nick Höeppner’s Makeover, proceedings move along pleasantly enough, but when there’s deep house there’s usually some deep soulful vocals lurking around the corner. Whining vocals are up there with the words ‘filthy, dirty, sexy electro’ on a flyer as two of my most hated things in dance music, but luckily impassioned warblings are restricted to just a few tracks. The overall feel of the mix for me is one of relaxed enjoyment, particularly when the hypnotic melodies of Huub Sand, released on every respectable deep houser’s label of choice, Running Back, merge into the breathy percussion of Claire Ripley’s Kismet.

The second disc focuses on more peak time tech house and techno sounds – the kind of stuff I’d want to hear if I was going to see Bug play. Beginning in a similar manner to disc one, parred-down house soon makes way for assertive basslines and the crashing cymbals of DJ Koze’s reworking of Strange Behaviour by Blagger. For a moment Steve returns to more percussive territory, but this is just a segue into the bumpity Chicago groove of Joris Voorn’s version of Steve’s own Swallowed Too Much Bass. And by the time he drops some proper techno in the shape of Traffic Jam by Cobblestone Jazz I’m a happy man.

So I reckon Steve’s done a pretty good job, but this compilation definitely isn’t for everyone. For those with both feet firmly placed in the ‘techno really is mind-numbing repeatitive rubbish’ camp, this mix, and the first disc in particular, will certainly do nothing to change opinions. But anyone who has ever found themselves on the middle of the dance floor at 4am swaying their head to monotonous rhythms and thought ‘this is actually really good fun’ should definitely give this compilation a try.

Watch The Wackness

Even though it has got one of the worst titles I've seen, The Wackness is one of the best films I've seen all year. I wouldn't normally write about a film, but I haven't heard many people talk about this one so thought I should mention it.

Set in 1994, the story is about Luke Shapiro, a weed dealer with no mates who has just graduated from a high school for rich kids. Luke's dad's business has collapsed, so to get some money together before going to uni he knocks out bud all over New York from an ice cream cart. One of his customers is psychiatrist Dr Squires, played by Ben Kingsley, who gives Luke therapy in return for weed. An unlikely friendship forms between the pair, as they discuss Luke's anxiety and inability to get laid. The third main character is Dr Squires' step-daughter Steph, who hangs about with Shapiro as all her mates have left the city for the summer and she has nothing better to do. The film revolves around the development of these two relationships, and that's pretty much it.

Despite the fact that I'm not from New York, was 11 in 1994, never sold weed, didn't see a shrink, had friends and didn't go to private school, I still felt an affinity for the Luke character. Watching him gave me some weird kind of parallel universe Wonder Years connection feeling, which is definitely a good thing for a film to do! And it has a cracking soundtrack of early Nineties hip-hop with a lot of Biggie, some Tribe Called Quest and a Will Smith banger. It kind of went under the radar when it was released last September, so if you haven't seen or heard of it definitely track it down – or tap up Dave and he'll lend you his copy.

Barry De Vorzon Warriors intro

Found this while watching Andy Reynolds videos. Absolute banger, like proto-LCD soundsystem.

RVCA at The Berrics

Nice little session at The Berrics with a bit of the Beatles thrown in for good measure.

When hip hop was good pt. 2

Couldn't find the actual video but I'm sure you'll agree that's a strong look.

Rope chains? Check. Heart ring? Check. Gold bangle? Check. Grill? Check. Eye patch? Check. Crown? Massive check.

America's got talent?

Whilst building a giant card tower is fairly impressive, you have to feel the 4 days spent making the thing, and in fact the weeks and weeks he spent practicing stacking cards could have been but to better use. Like cheese carving. Definitely one of the world's most useful skills.

Rhys Darby

I went to see Rhys Darby aka Murray from Flight of the Conchords do stand up the other day. I have to say it was pretty disappointing, he just wasn't very funny. The section he did where he pretended to be a couple of different characters, a whale watcher and a UFO spotter, fell completely flat, and his Gervais-esque attempts at faux Hollywood A-lister arrogance couldn't do much to save the show.

Still, he did have a pair of custom-made silver nikes which caught my interest – shows how much fun I was having! Turns out he did some adverts with Roger Federer that play up to his character acting strengths, rather than his sub-par stand up weaknesses.

Biggest dunk ever

Lock meh con san ji na koi. Just what I was going to say.

Pikeys say the funnist things

Some amazing quotes here from a charming young lady whose mum was sent to prison because she refused to go school. Favourite lines include:

“When Mum confronted me about my drinking, I tried to stab her with a kitchen knife,” says Michelle, whose pals buy her booze with their benefits. “I feel bad about that.”

“Mum begged me to go (to school) because prison had been so awful, but I preferred staying in bed,”

During one 10-hour binge, Michelle drank eight litres of cider, 16 cans of lager, two bottles of wine and a litre of vodka – a shocking 140 units – 55 times the recommended daily allowance for a woman.

Amazing.

Siggi Eggertsson

Siggi Eggertsson is an amazing Icelandic graphic designer who no doubt earns loads of cash, gets masses of cool stuff for free, owns a fancy flat and has an obscenely hot model girlfriend. You might recognise some of his work from the first Gnarles Barkley album, but I prefer the series of geometric portraits he does.



And 'cos I can't resist a good bit of shapes amassed apparently at random but with a semblance of order here's one more.



Visit his website here.

Best. Video part. Ever.

A drunken orangutan, Portishead and some of the biggest frontside flips I've ever seen.

Spud Webb

5ft 7in Spud Webb wins the dunk contest at the 1986 all-star game.

Hawtin and Dubfire

Hawtin b2b with Dubfire is a lot of people's dream. I'm not quite sure I'm fully down with all the Richie worship but judge for yourself here as they push Traktor to it's limits with a live set from Exit Festival. The second hour is Loco Dice and Magda b2b which I think might prefer.

Play him off...

Another stirling performance by the maestro.

A gay fish

I despise Kanye West. Pretty much ever since I saw him run on the stage at the MTV Awards and slag off Justice for winning best video, 'cos he though his was better as it cost millions of dollars and he was 'jumping canyons and shit' I've had him down as a retard. So when he got savagely rinsed by South Park it was a great day for anyone who doesn't equate money to talent.

Watch the episode here

When hip hop was good

Part one

Drinky Crow

When I moved into a new flat we literally had nothing in it apart from a sofa so we had to deck the whole place out. I figured we needed some crap to take up some space so went off to Play Lounge to pick up a couple of bits. I saw this drunk crow figure which was the right price, looked alreet so bought it not having a clue what it was. Anyway, a bit of research shows it was a comic strip by some guy called Tony Millionaire. A bit more research and I found there's a cartoon of it, which is actually pretty decent.

Tom Penny

I remember this footage in Tom's part with Geoff Rowley from the Uno Transworld video I had. Interesting to hear the back story to go with it.