Last weekend, we had the privilege to spin for a wakeboard competition/event at Lago de Oro. It was a great escape from the hustle of the city, and an awesome change of atmosphere from the usual venues we play music at.
Working off only a couple of hours of sleep and a Generoso hangover, D'tech and myself held the fort during Saturday morning and afternoon while C-lo emcee'd the event.
Although we were still quite groggy in the AM, a triple egg bacon and cheese omelette for breakfast accompanied by a cup of coffee woke us right up.
Once we started spinning...we started drinking. Free booze the whole day is a wonderful thing.
Although a brief brownout in the late afternoon cut our session short, we took a much needed break and watched the competition before the rain started pouring.
After an awesome buffet dinner, it was time to setup for the after party. Switch and D'tech rocked the house as usual, and the party got wet and wild. After an intense game of beer pong, folks started throwing each other in the pool, pouring buckets of ice cold water over each other, and karaoke-ing to the songs the boys played. Wild shit.
Just a short shout-out to our very own, DJ Dtech who celebrated his 27th yesterday, over a weekend wakeboarding roadtrip and gig at Lago de Oro for Stoked Inc.
C-lo, Switch, Tibbz, Dtech, Jia, Mitch, Kyla and Eva in full effect.
Nothing but good times with the fam. That's how we do!
But to bring the vibe back to the city, and to continue the celebration...
good gorilla grodd!! i finally drag my behind to post something up on this blog. AND NOT ON MY DAY SLOT (whoa!!!sounds kinky!!)TO BOOT!! i guess i cannot consider myself to be.... a blogger?... blogista?.. miscellista who blogs??..yet.
anyway fellow misculados, forgive me for taking this long. working drone and all..
excited for the album? fuck yeah. hold up, let me emphasize that- PHUKKZ YAH! PANKS NOT DEAD!!
seriously, i-can-not-wait. im trying real hard not to pester the group to send me sneak previews of the finished pieces. i know it would pay-off when i listen to it all in one go.then a million more.. and imitate switch reciting the words in front of a mirror holding a brush or a razor pretending it to be a mic.
sadly, with my current location and solid dream to be a good husband to my unbelievably understanding and lovely queen, i have nothing to tell you about misc... nor updates about the album.
what i do have is a story to tell.
see, contrary to very popular belief, i read books. real ones. (cause everyone who knows me knows that i spend a shit ton of time loosing myself within the panels of comics. )
well, i was reading this book titled BAKIT BALIKTAD MAGBASA NG LIBRO ANG MGA PILIPINO? MGA KWENTONG BARBERO NI BOB ONG
So, the album is almost done...this is good...but i've been having this creative funk...which is bad...so i took yet another break from what i'm supposed to be doing and went looking for old beats in an old hard drive. went through a few shitty ones then came across this Ace Won (Down Earf) track which i had forgetten about...
I think we recorded this in 2005. he dropped by, we had one of our usual debates on women, "back in the day", conspiracy theories, etc...then he threw this down in one take...
Now...if you were around in the late 90's, you can't really mention Ace Won without going down memory lane and stopping at Down Earf. Here's a link to Caliph8, Ace Won's and DJ Arbie Won's classic EP, "Knowin' Iz Half the Battle":
While we're at it, check out this clip of Ace Won and Caliph8 droppin an impromptu Down Earf set at Spoken Herb.
There's supposed to be another Spoken Herb coming up this July. Check the Facebook Page for updates on this.
it's funny, i was supposed to be finishing the arrangement on a couple of tracks for the Misc Album and ran into a bit of a creative funk (which has been haunting me the past few weeks). And then got distracted by the world wide web once again...sorry Tibbz...
But sitting here listening to Knowin' Iz Half the Battle and remembering witnessing all the work Caliph8, Ace Won and DJ Arbie Won put into crafting this masterpiece, may have provided the inspirational juice i needed to get out of this funk...
Spread Love
- Umph
"Yo I'm strictly about skills and dope lyrical coastin/ Relying on talent, not marketing and promotion..." - KRS-One
"Stop wastin your money on marketing schemes/ and pretty packages pushin dreams to the beams/ A dope MC is a dope MC/ With or witout a record deal, all can see..." - KRS-One
Our MISC brother from across the seas has done it again.
As some of you may know, Ajax not only has wicked rhyme skills, but also some insane toy-customizing creativity.
Check out his latest creation:
Red Lanterns - Timov Chum & Dex-star the Rage Kitteh
To all you music gaming enthusiasts that have blistered your fingers and have wasted countless hours of your time rocking out with a plastic guitar controller with no knowledge of chords at all, you now have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument. Or at least get the feel of it.
Harmonix has now released Rock Band 3 with a 2-octave Wireless Keyboard Controller in keytar form factor.
Today I felt in the mood for a sneaker post. Ain't nothing else to it.
But let's take a break from all those dope-ass mouth-watering head-turning drops,
...and look at the other side of the fence.
Here are some of the kicks that went terribly wrong:
(no offense to those who own a pair, or god forbid...two)
NIKE SHOX TL (there IS such a thing as "too much")
its monday once again, a pleasant vacay day and luckily a no work day as well...
so here we go...
Out of the whole Misc... im probably the most retarded when it comes to making beats. Although i really wish i could, my mental capacity limits me somewhat. After a couple of minutes feeling sorry for myself, i started searching the world wide web for ways for me to feel better, and yes i did find a couple of gems out there.
so for those who like me may be a bit dense when making beats here are two site that are sure to make yah feel a bit better.
http://www.recordtripping.com/
and
http://www.incredibox.fr/
both are so much fun, and have endless possibilities.
so have fun wasting time in your office, room, wifi zone or internet cafe
Just decided to leave you all with something before I go off to a gig at Pampanga and a roadtrip to La Union for the long weekend.
Breakbot aka Thibaut Berland is a French producer and DJ1. After studying at the School of Graphic Supinfocom, he made short films (with Oury Atlan and Damien Ferrié called Overtime), advertising and videos (David Hallyday - Satellite, Peter von Poehl - The Story of the Impossible).
Before we get into today's post, here's a little album update for ya'll:
Just spent a couple of hours in the (newly painted/furnished/arranged) SecondStorySound lab last night with Tibbz to lay down vocals for 3 new songs.
It's always dope how we experiment with different ways to record, even try several "routines" just to change-up the feel and hopefully hit the mark we want. And i think it's always good to keep "takes" at a minimum because if you can't get it in three, then lay it down some other time.
And sometimes...the first turns out to be the best.
Anyway, keep your ears to the ground folks. We hope you love what we're cooking up...
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Now. On to today's topic.
Urbanears is a collective out of Scandinavia, that promotes deep connections to color, form and people while transcending individuality and unifying the sound experience. (taken from their website: http://www.urbanears.com/)
I was particularly amazed at how they showcased their headphones catalog. Not only do the earpieces seem very simple, functional, and with the right touch of funk, but they laid them out in very beautifully art-directed layouts. Check check:
(of course, i have no idea how these sound so i can't comment on performance)
But they are visually dope.
Not like this schizophrenic weather were dealing with.
Sound recording has come a long way since it was first invented. Contrary to what you might know, Edison was not the first person to achieve the feat. In fact, it was an obscure Frenchman by the name of Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, a printer and bookseller, who was able to capture sound waves that translated onto a visible form on paper. His invention, the phonautograph, is the earliest known sound recording device invented, but it had one drawback: it could not immediately playback the recorded sound. So as time passed, Martinville's invention was overlooked, forgotten, and overshadowed by Edison's own invention.
Mr. Scott de Martinville, without your invention, we would not be able to record our own music today. As an audio aficionado, I salute you.
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And since we're on the topic of recorded sound, check out the 10 Most Bizzare Sounds You Haven't Heard, courtesy of SmashingLists.com:
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Looking towards the future, David Schwartz (the inventor of the mp3 format), is building a laser/smoke microphone which promises to be the most accurate way to capture sound. I'm not sure if I'll ever find a use for it in the studio, much less be able to afford it when it is eventually released, but it is just too damn cool not to post it here.
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To finish things off, I stumbled across the SPL DrumXchanger. A plugin that allows you to substitue individual hits in your drum tracks, and provides the ability to mix signal and sample paths.
Today we got one of the MC battles that went down at Fliptop 3 - AHON held last May 15 @ Guerilla Radio in Pasig. This is Dello vs Target. Target came sick with it but watch Dello flip rebuttals off the top...nasty...enjoy!
I was lucky enough to spin a set along side dj arbie won @ PABLO Cuboa Ex! It just sucks I wasn't available to join the rest of Misc for the performance earlier that night. I wasn't even skeduled to spin for the event. but here's how the conversation went.
2am @ Pablo Cubao Ex
Arbie: Do you wanna get on man?
Geric: I don't mind... i'll grab my laptop in the car
Arbie: Just use mine...
Geric: Uhhh... ok!!!
Here's a vid of one of the tracks i played and brought the crowd back to the days when it was cool to rock dem cycling shorts (in all shades of neon!)
DAMN!!! Spandex Leggings and a Blazer!!! Haha I'm actually glad i was still being dressed by my moms when that style came out!!! I can do the boys II men (blazer and jean shorts) but spandex leggings hellz to the no!!! haha
Sorry boys... i hope you don't mind me pluggin' my event...
This Saturday & Every Saturday its SAKE to Me Baby!!!
Izakaya Greenbelt 2
Ft. Dj Badboy Jeff & D'Tech (me)
Sake Bombin' Mixtape weekly Drop only at Izakaya (limited copies)
Today we bring you a clip from our most recent gig held last Saturday, May 29 2010 for the Larger Than Life event @ Pablo Gallery, Cubao Expo.
Down 2 members, we went "old school MISC" and worked a 3-man medley set of our songs with Tibbz and myself on the mics and Umph doing the durty on the decks.
This is pretty much the first half of that set:
We had a dope experience and went nuts on all the free beer, isaw and grilled hotdogs!
Thanks Jigger...hahaha :)
Congratulations once again to Pablo Gallery and thank you thank you for inviting us and always supporting us as one of your personal picks...it's come as a humble surprise and honor for us.
Goodluck to all our local artists and to the cause of the Bastards of Misrepresentation who were campaigning for their art to be brought to Germany and be exhibited in the Freise Museum. Godspeed...
And always a big thanks to Locked Down Entertainment and Team Manila!!!!
Happy to have the rain drippity-dropping once again!
- Switch
(p.s. yo tibbz! i dont know how to link the video to our videos page...hahaha)
Who isn't familiar with Roger Linn? The brains behind the infamous drum machines/samplers is constantly (in his own words) "interested in the idea of new musical instruments that overcome the limitations of traditional mechanical instruments." To echo that belief, he has come up with a prototype for a USB touch surface/controller, which he aptly calls the "LinnStrument"
The prototype consists of a multi-touch, pressure-sensitive, high-resolution USB touch surface from a company called TouchCo (details below). A printed transparency containing the note names is attached to the top, and another clear sheet with each square cut out is attached above it in order to provide tactile feedback of the borders between notes..."
The final product is slated to look something like this:
And here's a demo video of what it is capable of doing:
It's been quite awhile since I've been even remotely interested in Reason, although my loyalty and love for the software runs deep. Most of my earlier instrumentals were made in Reason, but after awhile, it just didn't work out for me. So, Reason and I divorced.
I caught wind that Reason 5 is being released soon, and it's got me quite interested again.Here's a sneak peek.
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DR. OCTOREX
"The upgraded Dr. Octo Rex loop player loads eight REX loops into one player and lets you switch between them on the fly - but playing REX loops is just the start of this device. Your REX loops are about to get tweaked beyond what you thought possible"
"Propellerhead users have asked for pitch correction software and we have delivered, and then some. Our engineers and developers weren't content to just create a pitch correction device. Neptune is both a pitch correction device, a real-time audio transposer, and a voice synthesizer/harmonizer that will open up new sounds in your tracks."
"Many musicians tend to think of music in terms like intro, verse, chorus, breakdown, buildup and so on. With the new Blocks mode in Reason 5 and Record 1.5, your sequencer does too.
Blocks lets you sequence your songs using a more pattern-based approach, with the segments of your song as individual building blocks to be laid out in your arrangement."
"Remember the time when samples were something you sampled and not loaded from your hard drive? When a sampler was a machine that could record samples, not just play them back. Live sampling is back. Grab your mic. Live sampling together with pitch detection of root key and automatic zone mapping makes it dead easy to sample an instrument and map the samples across the keyboard. This way you'll create your own multi-sampled instruments for NN-XT and NN-19 in an instant.
"Quite simply, the Kong Drum Designer gives you every conceivable method of making beats. Analog synthesis, physical modeling, sampling, REX loops, tone generators, and effects. If you think Kong looks massive, it is massive.
Analog synthesis, physical modeling, sampling, REX loops, support sound generators, effects, flexible routing, multiple hit types and more. The Kong Drum Designer is not your regular drum module. It's the drum module focused on letting you get exactly that drum sound you're after.
Kong has 16 pads and 16 drums. Build your drum sounds based on any of the nine different drum modules. Flavor the sound with 11 support generators and effects. Program automation, create alternating groups and let Reason's powerful sequencer control the beat.
Last weekend, we had the privilege to spin for a wakeboard competition/event at Lago de Oro. It was a great escape from the hustle of the city, and an awesome change of atmosphere from the usual venues we play music at. 
Once we started spinning...we started drinking. Free booze the whole day is a wonderful thing.
