Dj Marc Reck Djing Events Tutorials and life in Birmingham

Taught by Dan Roy, who is a student from last year that received a distinction, and involving a class of around 25 people, this music educator course (run at the access to music centre), has so far been full of interesting teachings, that have both inspired and engaged.

We’ve so far been most concentrating on teaching methods and learning styles, that people are thought to use when assimilating information. There’s been some group work based around this, and we’ve also learnt/played some ice breaker games and tried some rhythm and singing exercises. Its a real nice crowd of people, (a lot of whom seem to play the guitar), and i’m very much looking forward to tomorrow’s session.I dropped in on John Mostyn on the way home, and received a very interesting offer of putting together a soundtrack for some 360 degree animation that is due to be shown (and sold) to planetariums all over the world. The current soundtrack is some very dodgy music, so i’m most pleased to be recommended for this one.

Roight off to the party!

From thursday i tried on 3 occassions to get to work on the new mr elephant site, and got lost in facebook for 2 hours at a time!

While this has added a bit of a backlog, facebook has been something i’ve wanted to have a mooch about for a while now. Time has been spent looking at what old school mates are doing, (and how they’ve changed), and getting rid of the hundreds of time consuming plugins that litter the screen. The most useful ones i’ve found so far are the Created in Birmingham plugin, which posts the recent Created In Birmingham posts and the flickr one, which shows up your photos.

I was thinking about a lot of the people i miss, so aside from finding lots on the facebook, i also made a few phone calls, and then went to a party. With all the dj gigs and nights we do, it was really nice to be able to invite people to something i wasn’t involved with, (although i did end up having a great mix with Carlos & Rich Kendall at 4am!)

The rest of the weekend was very lazy, mostly spent eating pizza (one), watching videos of Derren Brown on you tube (lots), and then researching hypnosis, neuro linguistic programming, and mentalism. Here’s a interesting response to the one where he gets a guy to hand over his keys, wallet, and watch by using a few hypnosis and nlp techniques. Very interesting stuff

Today was a day of meetings from start to finish.

First was one at the dss, to inform them of my course details, and business plan development, and then after a little work on that, i worked through a tutorial on how to make an amen style break (something i wanted to do for so long now again from an old music making article from computer music. (Save as and view from desktop for bigger picture)

In the afternoon i then went to Jibbering to meet our designer for Mr Elephant. We went through the site plan i had been working on last night, and he made notes to go forth with the implementation of the website design. Then it was onto the prince, to meet Diane, to secure the first venue for our next event, and then back to jibbering for 4pm, to meet the ever inspiring Andrew Dubber. and a lucky encounter with blog extraordinaire Pete Ashton. Both gave some great tips, the main one being that i can pretty much do what i want for both sites on a customized wordpress. Which is great news, as i do have to sacrifice somethings having wordpress embedded into my joomla site. Dubber also pointed me in the direction of some useful links, (shared below), and suitably encouraging about the plans for the Mr Elephant site.Get your stats for your website http://www.google.com/analytics/
Mind Map on your computer - http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Get suitably paid for your website - http://newmusicstrategies.com/2007/11/13/ignore-this-its-just-an-ad/

After that it was back to home, and onto a meeting at Anne Marie’s to discuss the project x narrative. We quickly agreed that it should be a mix of both events so far, with the intention of getting the moods of the audience down on paper (with big coloured pens of course) by the end of the night. Rich Batsford has blogged about it here, and there’s the next meeting next monday.

Can you spot him?

Strange….Actaully, I’d been thinking of doing some video blogging for a while now, so thanks to this unusual sighting, i thought i’d give it a go with this ridiculous news report. Hmmmm……Anyway, my main aim for today, was to tackle the arrangement issues of a track i’ve been working on based around a reggae flute piece and a beautifully sung spanish love song, both recorded at a recent studio session with the multi talented Amrita. The spanish love song, entitled “Dos Gardenias”, has quite a diverse range of notes, so to make life easier for me, i gave Amrita a call asking for the key, notes and lyrics. We decided it would be easier to get a copy of the sheet music, so thats now on hold until we meet up tomoz.

While i was waiting for her callback i picked up my guitar, and wrote yet another song! Turning up my amp very loud, tuning a string to the wrong note, and experimenting with some vsti’s for the bass melody unleashed a whole new exploration and some (rather dark) lyrics came soon after to compliment it. Nice

After a lunch break i then found yet another useful article from an old music making magazine, which has answered a few more questions i have had, and which may be useful to those of you that use Cubase Sx.

Facebook has distracted me for the rest of the afternoon, (which i really didnt intend for it to!). I must start to learn how to use it productively, and not just spend hours looking for old friends, though it’s nice to see some old faces enjoying life.

Right! I’d best get onto what i was supposed to be doing!

After the La Traviata After Party, the Mr Elephant mixtapes, and the last Custom Made, i’m finding that i can play to much wider audiences, and get just as much of a response as the big main room club sets generate. (Which is great because i really do love it!)

With just breaks set, i think its poss to have a strong narrative, and still get everyone’s socks properly rockin, but the lights, performers, and and the visuals especially need to be synced really well for it to come across effectively. Its something i’ve tried on a few occassions with the very talented Vj Chromatouch, and with various performance and dance collectives. The last Project X, The Que Reopening Set @ Drop Beats Not Bombs and the Peace Not War set, which featured 2 inspired dance groups, Lisa Wetton and the Birmingham Dance Collective, (footage on my myspace) all needed to be pre worked out, so that the dancers, visuals and lights could all work with the set. This can feel limiting from a dj point of view, as you are obviously tied to what you’ve already worked out, but as long as there is a lot of work beforehand, they can produce some extra special results, and they all seem to have gone down really well. That said however, i’m not so sure how much of the narrative really came across, as Leon’s last minute approach to things, coupled with last minute technical vj duties to cover on two occassions, may have resulted in our sets becoming a more dj/vj experience from the dancefloor’s point of view?.I can’t tell either way as i’m facing towards the audience, so it’s all speculation on my part, but this is something i do dream of doing really well, and it’d be nice to do it really soon. The ultimate is a performance type approach where the whole set is all my music i’ve created and remixed, live, djed and electronic, hopefully working with the people i’ve performed with over the years in a more show type experience, but for now, i think i need to work within my realistic limits. Me and Leon are planning to do something again, with a new approach from us both, and i reckon broadening the sets out into different genres is going to work well with the samples, but if anyone is interested in either producing some video or animation to one of the few narrative mixes, or mr elephant mixtapes, that are availible, or of course collaberating on something in the future, please feel free to get in touch

After a while away from the blog, i thought i’d drop a quick update, and share a few things i’ve found most useful

1. Live For The Weekend (Diverted Remix)- GROOVE DIGGERZ - Breakin Even
2. Champion Sound (Hardcore Will Never Die Mix) - Q Project - C.I.A Recordings
3. Rhythm Rock You (Dopamine Breaks Mix) - Vinyl Life - Rexhouse Breaks
4. Steelz Loves The C*ck (Nectarios Remix) - The Beat Monkeys - Brighton Breaks
5. Acidkids - Vinyl Extended Mix - Markus Lange & Daniel Dexter - Whirlpoolsex Music
6. Dope Pope (Maelstrom Remix) - Rob Reng v Thief - West Records
7. Cowboys - DUSTY KID - Kling Klong
8. Mantrakoma - DUSTY KID - Kling Klong

and i should have added - and make it “complete”
Xx

Great review and some stunning photos there mate. But what use would it all have been without you there to finish it off?

Rich
Xx

….”a disturbing, lurching assault on the senses” (according to the Birmingham Post!)

They also went on to say “Project X is an intelligent and unique show destabilising the established role of the “spectator” in performance theatre and drawing you into an impressively eclectic and complex mix of art forms”. Nice!

There’s been quite a few reviews/posts about saturday, which i’m most happy to say have all been very positive.

Robin Valk spoke of “Enormous, generous and involved musicianship that jumped boundaries effortlessly” in his commentary

Joanna Geary comments that “the night summed up what Birmingham is capable of when it pulls its cultures and its talent together. It’s something we need to do much more of and it’s great to see people in the city trying to make it happen”

Dr Andy Pryke referred to it as a “multi-faceted box of delights”.

And Mr Pete Ashton has collated a very comprehensive set of Collective Memories on his Created in Birmingham blog, which also features some of Matt Murtagh’s photos, and his own photos

(More collective memories on our Project X Presents site).

I took some more pictures from the event, and if you type projectxpresents into flickr, you’ll access the entire pool of all the photos (including ones from our first event).

I also videoed a bit of the aurul fight, (whilst spinning around!), and a section of the capoeira.

All this the feedback is really positive for us, as for something that we have worked on collectively for over 12 months, which unfortunatly made a loss financially (thats just the production costs with no-one getting paid btw), this substantiates all our efforts, and indicates that it was all well worth it!

Everyone had to deal with something or another on the show night, and i think most of us would have made changes or improvements somewhere along the line, but on the whole, the show went really well, and everyone involved should feel very proud. My “trial” was having no monitor for about half the set, and there were various sound glitches on one of the speakers (all due to this huge old mixing desk that had to be repaired on thursday night, and constantly rerouted on the saturday according to Justin. Thankfully it didn’t seem to infringe on our audience’s experience, with overwhemingly positive and supportive responses, emails and texts.

Highlights for me personally were the market place happenings led by Kindle Theatre the poets, musicians and capoeira, and our 4 Project X performers expressing a strong narrative throughout the evening. Reg Hunter with a mind blowing set, which was both hilarious, emotional and insightful. The seamless transition into Rich Batsford, who played two very different, but both equally nourishingly soulful sets. I had great fun dancing to Jade One and the funk set, and The Qwalli, and the Aurul fight especially took me deep places inside myself. Dexter played a good solid set, followed by another from Einstellung, and i enjoyed pretty much all of my dj set, despite the various technical trials. Highlights of that for me were, performing and engaging with one of my own tracks at the start, mixing drum n bass into Brian Wilson, into the Prodigy in the middle, and then conducting a live 4 piece string quartet, whilst mixing 3 tracks with an overlayed sample from Howard Marx. The encore was great fun, and the audience were absolutly fantastic. A lorra lorra love in that room, and one magical show.

In honour of all that were part of it, here are the credits, (Which i think are correct, but please let me know if there are any missed off)Well done to all.

The people behind - PROJECT X PRESENTS 2 - Sat 3rd November 2007

10 Production Anne-Marie Pope Event Co-ordinator/Producer
11 Sound Justin Reynolds Sound Co-ordinator
12 Staging/logistics Rick Waterworth Logistics - staging and power, moving lighting
13 Projections Leon Trimble Visuals
14 Projections Matt Robinson Visuals
15 Stage Manager Frankie Spencer Calling the show
16 Lights Liam Walsh Lighting, parcans, rigging and spots
18 Gigbeth Liaison Jon Harris Gigbeth liaison on night - security/radio

21 Pre-event role Rich Batsford Music Co-ordinator/Producer
22 Pre-event role Pyn Stockman Performance Co-ordinator
23 Pre-event role Ant Ramm Web Co-ordinator/Producer
24 Pre-event role Marc Reck DJ
25 Pre-event role Rob Horrocks Marketing Co-ordinator
26 Pre-event role Marion Taggart Sponsorship and Ticketing
27 Pre-event role Andy Walls National Sponsorship
28 Pre-event role Ali Mack Smells
29 Pre-event role Sophia Edie Administration
30 Pre-event role Lyndall Fitzgerald Marketing
31 Pre-event role Richard Hubbard Building
32 Pre-event role David Checkley Electrician and building

34 Musician - stage (in show order)
36 Musician - floor Louis Robinson Violin (Cello Song)
37 Musician - floor Reema Talo Capeoria performer - ‘the village’
38 Poet - floor Louise Character performer - ‘the village’ www.louiseland.com
39 Poet - floor Big Bren Poet - ‘the village’
40 Comedian - stage ?? Reginald D Hunter Comedian, comedy set, 30 mins
41 Musician - stage ?? Rich Batsford Piano (4 songs, 16 mins then Cello Song, then Einstellung Acoustic)
42 Musician - stage ?? Louis Robinson Violin (Cello Song)
43 Musician - stage ?? Nick Burke Violin (Cello Song)
44 Musician - stage ?? Leighton Hargreaves Violin (Cello Song)
45 Musician - stage ?? Mike Cello (Cello Song)
46 Musician - stage ?? Jadie Carey Cello (Cello Song)
47 Musician - stage ?? Simon Rider Drums (Einstellung Acoustic)
48 Musician - stage ?? Steve Hough Bass (Einstellung Acoustic)
49 Musician - stage ?? Andrew Smart Guitar (Einstellung Acoustic)
50 Musician - stage ?? Andy Moscardo-Parker Guitar (Einstellung Acoustic)
51 Musician - stage ?? Matt O Neill Violin (Einstellung Acoustic)
52 Musician - stage ?? Vanessa Parker-White Violin (Einstellung Acoustic)
53 Musician - stage ?? Rachel Violin (Einstellung Acoustic)
54 Musician - stage ?? Amran Ellahi ?? (Aashiq Al Rasul) www.aashiqualrasul.com

56 Musician - stage ?? Damion Raggio Jade One electronic set
57 Musician - stage ?? Andy Parker Guitar (Lash Frenzy - Aural Fight)
58 Musician - stage ?? Mort the Sonic Laptop (Mort - Aural Fight)
59 DJ - stage ?? Leon Trimble DJ (funk set, extreme rewards)
60 Musician - stage ?? Rob Guitar & vocals (Dexter)
61 Musician Sam Guitar & vocals (Dexter)
62 Musician Nick ’slim ting’ Choyce Drums (Dexter)
63 Musician Dan ‘Roadblock’ Bass (Dexter)
64 Musician Chewie Hammond & Trumpet (Dexter)
65 Band manager Chuck Manager (Dexter)
66 Musician - stage ?? Simon Rider Drums (Einstellung full)
67 Musician - stage ?? Steve Hough Bass (Einstellung full)
68 Musician - stage ?? Andrew Smart Guitar (Einstellung full)
69 Musician - stage ?? Andy Parker Guitar (Einstellung full)
70 DJ - stage ?? Marc Reck DJ (freedom to return)
71
72
73 Performers
74 Performance Co-ordinator Pyn Stockman Performance Co-ordinator
75 Performer Fran Higginson Core performer
76 Performer Marc Phillips Core performer
77 Performer David Bennett Core performer
78 Performer Rachel Liapopoulou Core performer
79 Performer Reema Talo Capeoria performer - ‘the village’
80 Performer Andy McGill Capeoria performer - ‘the village’
81 Performer Jane Sutcliffe Aerial work in ‘inside the house .. ‘
82 Performer Sam Fox Kindle Theatre - ‘the village’
83 Performer Jess Kindle Theatre - ‘the village’
84 Performer Olivia Kindle Theatre - ‘the village’
89 Pre-event role Alan Cheeseman Set
90 Pre-event role Sara Reynolds Set
91 Pre-event role Ollie Shapley Set
94 Costume Ruth Swallow
95 Make-up Ruth
100 Stage Manager
101 Crew Richard Millin Stage 1
102 Crew Ant Ramm Stage 2
103 Stage A Shu Trevedi Stage 3
104 Stage B Peter Maxwell-Dixon Sound assistance
105 Stage C Johnny Doom Sound assistance
106 Runner Sophia Edie Production assistance
113 Photographer Matt Murtagh
114 Photographer Katja Ogrin