Chris Unitt

A few days back I had the idea of pointing my webcam towards my decks while playing some tunes and found myself doing an impromptu 30 min set via Bambuser. A few kind people watched live and asked me to archive the next one I did, so that’s what I’ve done.

It was about 11pm when I started this, so it’s a set of mostly downtempo funk, soul and hip hop. The audio was recorded by my webcam’s mic but even so I don’t reckon it sounds that bad, although you’ll have to forgive the odd bit of ambient sound.

Hope you enjoy it - I don’t claim to be a great DJ or anything but you can’t go far wrong with songs as good as these.

Tracklisting

• Trailer for Willie Dynomite (excerpt)
• Curtis Mayfield - Freddie’s Dead
• Jo Armstead - There’s Not Too May More
• Isley Brothers - Work To Do
• Aretha Franklin - One Step Away
• Brand Nubian - Meaning Of The 5%
• Pete Rock & CL Smooth - They Reminisce Over You (TROY)
• Skull Snaps - It’s A New Day
• Tommy Guerrero - Come Together
• Minnie Riperton - Every Time He Comes Around
• Outkast - Aquemini
• Two Banks Of Four - Unclaimed

If you want notifying when I start the next one (whenever that might be) then you can follow me on Twitter.

It’s funny how you can have a stack of important posts to put up ’soon’ but then something genuinely exciting comes along to cut through all of that, compelling you to put finger to keyboard.

The release of Glow’s debut album ‘I, Yeah’ today is genuinely exciting.

And no, I’ve never met them. In fact I’ve no idea how I ever heard about them, I’m just glad I did. I don’t even know that much about them but I’ve been on their mailing list for a while now and have been greedily hoovering up all the free tracks they’ve been making available (here if you want to catch up).

Their debut is self-released and only costs a fiver. For music this good that’s obscene, so please go and buy it at www.iyeah.co.uk. It’s not often I’ll bang on about a band but these guys are worth it.

Oh, what do they sound like? Well you might as well just go to www.myspace.com/fablesofglow and listen like for yourself but “woozy, glacial poptronica” is a pretty good description.

This is the story of two items on today’s to-do list.

New Generation Arts Festival blog

BCU have hired several bloggers to cover different aspects of this year’s New Generation Arts Festival. As a fairly direct result of my work with My Fierce Festival I’ve been asked to cover the ‘online interactive’ side of things which should be very interesting. My first job was to get my ‘welcome post’ up. I’d have knocked that off a little quicker if I wasn’t enjoying chatting to people via Bambuser while I was doing it. Still, it’s done now and here it is - nothing to shout about really but comments are welcome.

Birmingham coworking wiki

In case you’ve not come across coworking the idea is that some types of workers - especially freelancers who are often homeworkers - would benefit from working around others of their ilk. There’s a lot of value in bouncing ideas off others, making connections, etc and so on. In some cities there are dedicated spaces for this sort of thing.

I had a conversation with Joanna Geary about this last night. In fact several people have been discussing this recently and the idea seems to be gathering momentum - apparently there’s a chance of something being set up in Birmingham which would be excellent. In the meantime, there are plenty of places around the city which would be suitable for people to drop into from time to time, it’s just a case of organising something.

I stumbled on Microcoworking.com the other day and thought that it was a workable enough model. They don’t have a single space to work in, they have many and they use a wiki to flag up where people will be and when. So…

I’ve set up the CoworkBrum wiki for the potential coworkers of Birmingham to organise themselves, coordinate sessions and generally do with as they will. I’ve put up a bare-bones layout, it’s now for the community to adopt it, nurture it or let it fade away.

Thanks to Sixball, Kev, Bluemilkshake and Joanna who visited my ramblings on Bambuser while I was doing this.

It speaks well of a band when, with the venue just over half full, the band’s appearance causes everyone in the crowd to huddle down the front with not a single straggler left propping up the walls. Before being assigned to cover this gig I knew two things about The Infadels - their dance/rock songs often sounded better after being given some remix treatment and they’ve got a reputation (and have won awards) for putting on a heck of a show. Read the rest of this entry »

As support bands go you can’t ask for much more than what Youthmovies provided. Revealed later on to be Foals’ favourite band, they were a diverting hotch potch of styles and genres. Their set included some Money Mark-stle keyboards, the guitarist abandoning his guitar to be a second drummer and an LCD Soundystem-esque finale. A few of the crowd bounced about enthusiastically in thanks. I’d probably not go out of my way to see them again but in terms of a warm-up they hit the spot. Read the rest of this entry »

The (really quite good whoever it was) DJ was playing Aretha when I arrived at the Glee Club. I took that to be significant before remembering that no, Adele’s the new Aretha, Duffy’s the new Dusty. Of course. Whether or not she’s worthy of such praise, well, that was what I was there to make my mind up on. Read the rest of this entry »

You may remember mobileAct unsigned as T4’s awful indie-X-Factor show with an amusing twist. The twist being that it managed to be more embarrassing for the presenters (hello Alex James, Jo Whiley and Simon Gavin) than for the acts involved. The eventual winners were the Birmingham-based Envy & Other Sins; a likeable quartet of Victoriana-clad gents and the evening’s headliners. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m writing this resigned to the fact that The Levellers have their dyed-in-the-wool, knee-jerk detractors (see inevitable comments below). However, judging by the look of the crowd there were many there in Wolverhampton who, like myself, quite enjoyed their albums when we were younger and ten years on have found they can still remember all the words. Incidentally the number of crusty-style dreads in the crowd was exactly equal to the number of conservative older ladies with silk neckerchiefs - two. Figure that into your stereotype. Read the rest of this entry »

The Glee Club was humming when I arrived, most likely caused by a reportedly excellent set by Jay Jay Pistolet which I’d just missed. The merchandise table was certainly doing a brisk trade with his stack of 7″ promos disappearing quickly. “Very like Bright Eyes” was one approving verdict so I’d urge you to check his MySpace, as will I. Read the rest of this entry »

My CDX Tips for 2008 are all doing pretty well save for one. I backed Yeasayer to make a splash over here after checking out their debut album and the wad of positive reviews that accompanied it. However, now they’re over here and touring no-one’s paying much attention to them. Their support act on their last US tour, MGMT, on the other hand are generating a right royal buzz with ‘Time To Pretend’ all over daytime radio. Read the rest of this entry »