Chiptune Alliance Tour 2008

Last night, my band, Spheres of Chaos played at the Sheffield date of the Chiptune Alliance Tour 2008, and it was so much fun, probably the best gig we've played thus far as a band. The other artists on the bill were Firebrand Boy, syphus, Random and Sabrepulse, all of whom were top guys.

We had loads of people turn up, and it was just great to see so many quality chiptune acts in one place. Everyone was so into the music and there was such a great vibe going on. Things are really taking off with VGM and chiptune in the UK, changing from something that was just a load of people on the internet into awesome events like this. There were a couple of people filming the whole thing too, with one guy planning to put a documentary of the tour together, so I'm gonna try and put some video footage up in the Gamewave Podcast feed at some point.

Anamanaguchi were meant to be playing on the night too, but they ended up getting deported again! I hear their new album's nearly ready for release though, which should be very cool.

Again, I've uploaded some photos of the night (mainly SoC) up onto Facebook.

Starting up with Japanese again

You know, I really should start studying Japanese again. I can feel my Japanese ability slowly leaking out of my brain, but I need a break! I haven't really had a decent break from it all since last summer, and I don't think I had much of a break then. And I think my brain truly does need a rest after this year, but I've had about a month's break now, so I'll probably try and pick it up again in about a week. Going to Japan really makes me want to be pretty good by the end of summer.

Other things that are happening this summer include my band playing a date on the Chiptune Alliance Tour at Corporation in Sheffield and a trip to Southern France where my band will also play a gig. Through my podcast I have a friend who lives in Nice, France, and he asked us to go down and stay with him for a while and play a show, which I'm really looking forward to. Originally we considered taking a car and going over on the ferry, but we thought that might be too expensive, so I think we're gonna fly over on around the 6th of August, then play the show on the 8th and stay for a couple more days before coming back, but it still all needs to be sorted out. I can't wait though.

I return!

I must apologise for the lack of updates over the past two weeks. The reason for this is that my PC broke, and I've only just got it working again. There was a problem with the power button which meant I couldn't turn the PC on at all, and while it only needed a new wire, getting it fixed became more complicated than that.

First I contacted Ebuyer whom I bought the case from just under a year ago, and they told me to get in touch with Asus, the manufacturer. So I emailed Asus and they said to go back to Ebuyer. Ebuyer then said they'd send me a spare part, but when they couldn't find one said I needed to send the case in for repair. Once they got hold of it they said the problem couldn't be fixed and that they'd send me a new case, but I'd sent my PC in with all the other components still inside - processor, disk drive etc. So they sent me back a new case and all my others parts in another box. But they sent them to my old house where I'd originally ordered the case from a year ago, not my current address! Luckily we kind of know the people who live in our old house, so we went round today and picked up the packages, and I've just re-fitted everything back inside, and it all seems to be working fine. I've never built a PC on my own before (I had someone help me last time), but I just followed the instructions that came with the case, and there've been no fires or explosions yet.

To be fair, Ebuyer were really good about the whole incident actually though. I found it very easy to get through to a human when I phoned them up, they kept me updated about everything, they've replaced the case free of charge and they even wrapped up my components in anti-static packaging when they sent them back.

But get this: OK, so it's bad enough not having a PC for a couple of weeks, but guess what - my phone broke! Again! I'm sure I have some sort of electronics curse - everything just keeps breaking, which has left me annoyed, bored and cut off from the outside world.

I have done a few cool things recently though. I've been reading a fair bit and playing lots of GameCube, and my band went into a recording studio on Wednesday. It was the first time we've done that, as we normally just record everything ourselves, but we all really enjoyed the experience, and got loads done. We recorded some stuff for an upcoming compilation we're going to be part of, and it was a lot less stressful than recording ourselves, and higher sound quality too.

Fortunately, I do now have a phone which my parents confiscated from my sister while I wait for mine to get repaired (this time by Dial-a-Phone). But don't tell her I have her phone - she's not supposed to know.

I'm really glad my PC's working again though, and I've got a lot to catch up on - two weeks is a long time on the internet.

Also, this is my 150th post - cool!

Finished!

Wow. Exams are over! It still hasn't sunk in yet and I'm finding it hard to comprehend having free time without feeling like I should be working. It's such a nice feeling after a really hard year.

My last exam was yesterday and it was on Japanese language. I found it quite tough, and don't think I did too well really, but I should have passed, which means I can still go to Japan in September.

And today my band started practising some Sonic the Hedgehog covers today for a Sega compilation we're taking part in - we're doing Spring Yard Zone from StH 1 and Chemical Plant Zone from StH 2. They're both really interesting tunes and sounded pretty cool when we played them. Although it's impossible for a few different reasons to replicate the originals perfectly, we're trying to be as accurate as possible, and I'm looking forward to recording them.

Reviews

My band, Spheres of Chaos got mentions in two Sheffield music magazines this month. The first is in COMA Magazine. They reviewed our new EP, Stratospheria, and as I don't have a scanner handy, I'll type up what they said:

"Bit annoyed that once again the only way to find out what's on this disc is to access the bands website. I refuse to do so and have no idea what these tracks are called, but it's great. Progressive rock has returned with a big bag of sugar poured over it. I feel like I'm listening to Camel for the first time with a bit of the better guitar bits from Pink Floyd etc etc etc. It's nice, it's really nice and a good selection to play when you can't be bothered with words and just want the waves to crash through you and the ground to melt between your toes."

I really like that. Especially the comparison to Pink Floyd! But maybe I should have written the track names on the disc I sent...

The second was in Sandman, and this was a review of a show we played at West Street Live a couple of months ago. It's only a few lines but it's still quite positive. If you live round here you can pick up a free copy (as you can with COMA), or there's an online PDF version. We're on page 27. I also sent a copy of our EP to Sandman, but they haven't reviewed it yet. Maybe next month?

Spheres of Chaos' first music video

One of my band's songs was recently used in a video on the Sheffield Wednesday website! I know it's kinda weird, but my dad works at the club and he gave our demo to the media team, who decided to use one of our tracks (Twilight To Midnight) in their Vote For Your Goal Of The Season video. It doesn't have our name or anything on there, but it's still cool to see our music set to football; I especially like the part at the beginning where the goals are in time with the music. So check out the video and vote for your favourite!

New Spheres of Chaos release

My band Spheres of Chaos just released our new EP, Stratospheria over at Pterodactyl Squad. We actually started recording this in June of last year, but we had a few problems getting the songs mastered which delayed the release. It's all done now though, and I'm really pleased with how it sounds.

Download Stratospheria here

Toys

Last night my band played at a pub in town called the Frog & Parrot. As usual we had a few problems organising everything, but in the end we played a good set and people seemed to enjoy it. In Sheffield the Frog & Parrot is quite well known, and it has quite a history for putting on bands that went on to be super famous. The pub is also pictured in the liner booklet of the Arctic Monkeys first album, so it's cool to say we've played there now.

I went to the Early Learning Centre for the first time in ages the other day. I was with some people and we needed some black poster paint, but it kinda brought back memories going inside. It's a shop I went in a lot when I was kid and I especially liked the shelves full of small plastic animals they had. I remember each one always had the animal's name printed on the bottom and for some reason I used to really enjoy that fact. Actually, I might have to invest in some of these plastic animals again; they're well cool, especially the dinosaurs.

I found something else from my childhood whilst browsing Ebay the other day - Fuzzy Felt. It's one of those things that I'd totally forgot about until seeing it again. I seem to remember having more than one set of Fuzzy Felt which would contain a plain board and lots of felt pieces in the shape of animals or cars which you'd use to make loads of different scenes. Everything was re-usable, as the pieces only stuck together because of the texture of the felt.

I love re-discovering things like this. More than most people I think I have a strong urge to stay a kid or at least feel some kind of connection with those times.

Bomb the Music Industry!

I first heard the band Bomb the Music Industry! on the Ska Is Dead compilation, and I was impressed with their fast-ska/punk-with-synth sound. I recently heard an interview with them as part of a podcast that I really like - Sound Scene Revolution - and during the interview they talked about the fact that they release all their music for free, hence the name. The have their own label, Quote Unquote Records, which releases full albums by BtMI! as well as other artists for free and runs through receiving PayPal donations.

Now I'm quite involved with netlabels and such, and my band releases all our stuff for free too, but it's good to see a band get this big doing so. OK, they're not massive, but quite a few people know who they are, and their music is cool. This kind of thing raises some serious questions about the future of music. I don't have a problem at all with people making money from the music that they make - I believe that if you're paid to make music, you're going to have more time and maybe motivation to make great music. But I do have a problem with the way the buying of music is organised currently, so my hope is that as more and more bands start releasing stuff for free we might start to see a breakdown and rearranging of the music industry.

I picked up my new 17" Z Custom Rock Crash cymbal from the shop yesterday. And I'm happy to say that it sounds as good as I hoped it would. Usually when I buy a new crash cymbal it takes quite a lot of playing to get used to the sound, but this one took me about 4 hits before I liked it. It isn't the most distinctive sounding cymbal, but it just sounds so rich and cutting. It does have quite a long sustain, but that's probably the only negative for me. I'm glad I stepped up an inch from what I'm used to; it's loud and powerful, and I can't wait to get back to playing it.

Recording

My band, Spheres of Chaos, have just started the recording of our next release. Well, we set up the drums today with mics and recording will commence tomorrow. This is the third time my band have recorded ourselves, and I'm sure there'll be a great end product by the time summer has finished.

終わりです

I had my last exam of the academic year yesterday, and I think it's just about hit me that I've finished university for a few months now. After the exam there was a barbecue, and it was good to see my friends (and teachers) before the summer break starts. It's a shame that everyone goes home for the summer, arguably the best part of the year. And as I live in the same city where I go to university, I just stay here. I need this break though, as this year has been fairly taxing. Saying that, I will still need to practice Japanese over the holidays, especially the kanji, as I find it can all fall out of your brain so easily.

And I can't rest just yet - starting next week my band are recording our next release, and I'm also recording drums for another project I'm involved in. When all that's done I hope to get back into video games this summer. Whilst I still have quite an active interest in video games I haven't actually had time to play them much this past year. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up some good titles for my DS, and I'm also planning to (finally!) get a Wii and a ton of games some time soon. Hopefully I won't end up getting bored this summer.

Websites

I recently started writing for a gaming blog called 8bit Hero!. Kerri, the guy who runs the site, contacted me through the Gamewave Podcast, and I'm going to try and write something every so often, probably based around video game music.

Another website/netlabel that I'm involved with is Mega Twerp, which has just undergone an update and re-design after a few months' downtime. My band, Spheres of Chaos, have made a release through Mega Twerp and I highly recommend checking out some of the other artists on there too. It's all really good video game influenced music, but there's a massive range of styles on there, which is great - an alternative to the more strict sounds of 8bitpeoples and Betamod (actually, Betamod and Mega Twerp are both maintained by Tony Gallo/Player Two). I look forward to hearing even more awesome music from MT in the future.

Assorted things

Here are a few things:

I just passed my driving test! I've been driving and taking tests for ages now and my life has just become a lot simpler. It's been so long that it's taken the fun out of driving, but now I can drive, and will never have to take a test again.

I ate some new kind of Liquorice Allsorts the other day (even though they don't contain any liquorice). They're called Dessert Allsorts. At first I misread the package and thought there would be lizards and sand and stuff, but there are actually new flavours such as summer fruit pudding and lemon cheesecake. This is great because I only really enjoy about 15% of a bag of normal Liquorice Allsorts, but all these were nice.

Apparently English accents make one sound educated, which is useful. Things are looking up.

Also, Spheres of Chaos played a show with Anamanaguchi at the weekend. I'm not going to write about it all here, but you can find out more about what went down when they got to the UK at their web page. We had a really good time hanging out and the show was awesome - photos and stuff can be found at the Spheres of Chaos website and we recorded an interview with the guys for the Gamewave Podcast. That should be up soon.

I'm tired

Ever since starting back at university a couple of weeks ago I've been quite tired. I think it's because my week has gradually become so that I'm doing something regular on just about every night of the week. I've only just realised, and this is both good and bad for various reasons.

I finally got round to uploading a picture of myself wearing the previously mentioned t-shirt which looks a lot like this web page. Just use the link at the top of the sidebar on the right to go to my Blogger profile and view the photo.

My band has a photo shoot this weekend. We thought it'd be a fun thing to do, and the day will produce some shots for when we get featured in magazines and newspapers and stuff. I like reading newspaper articles on bands and music - the majority are usually quite interesting. I also think band photos are super cool. They make people look like they're part of a group, a team, like they're important. I always imagined being in such photos as a kid. Hopefully the photos will turn out well.

Various recent events

Recently I have become involved with a site called Yahoo! Answers. It's a site where users post any question they like and then receive answers from the other members. People ask some really ambiguous and obscure questions on topics from music to health care to language, but that's what makes it all the more enjoyable. Often when I've Googled an obscure or specific search I have been presented with this site, and it's really interesting to read how people answer all these questions, often really well. I believe that Google ran a similar service a few years back, but it was shut down last year. I'd thought about joining in Yahoo! Answers before, as I already have a Yahoo! account, and finally did last weekend. I now find myself voraciously looking for questions that I can answer. I think it's a combination of showing off and a desire to help out a fellow human in need. There are forums all over the internet, but this site reduces the socialising aspect and just enables people to find an answer to their question really quickly.

We got a new piece of wireless technology delivered to our house yesterday. It's called the BT Home Hub, and after setting it up I've realised that it's a wireless router and modem in one box (you wouldn't have been able to tell from the instructions). We were already using a Linksys system in our house, which I invested quite a bit of money and time in setting up, but we now need this piece of equipment to enable us to use the new BT service we've subscribed to. The system was actually really easy to set up, very user-friendly and simple compared to the Linksys equipment, but I feel that my options are slightly limited - there's little room for customisation. Obviously, this has been done so that anyone can set up the system in a short space of time and with little knowledge, but I wonder whether this may limit somehow what is possible. I have no real reason to complain yet though, as everything works fine.

As we had changed our wireless system slightly I tried out Mario Kart DS with the new settings. It still worked, and I managed to sign up for an online game with 3 others relatively quickly. I'm quite surprised that people are still playing Mario Kart DS - it was really cool at first, but the match-up system leaves a lot to be desired, and opponents who often quit has meant that I only play the game online very rarely.

My band and I have recently had to organise a show in our home town for us and a band who are friends of ours. We'd never done this before, but in the end it was actually really easy - we just turned up at a bar and spoke to the guy who owned the place and everything was sorted within 5 minutes. If all goes well, which it should, we'll probably be doing a lot more shows soon.

Thursday and the weekend

Thursday was a pretty good night. There was hardly anyone in the room at the time of my friend's set, but it was good to hear some chiptunes blasting out of some pretty large speakers. I travelled to and from Nottingham by train. The train was full on the way there but the return journey was OK. I got back in time for lectures and then attended band practice. I'm really enjoying writing some new songs with the band and look forward to the shows we'll be playing soon.

On Saturday I got to play the Wii for the first time. There were 2 Wii (I'm guessing that's the plural) at Meadowhall for people to try out - I played the tennis game from Wii Sports with my brother. After observing others whilst waiting in line I found the motion control really easy to pick up and I look forward to playing more when I get one for Christmas.

Servers and fire

The server for the podcast website, the band website and my little homepage all got burnt, so everything's been offline recently. That was annoying. Nearly got it all sorted though.

University's going good. Things are getting easier now, but there's always some work to be doing.

The band will hopefully have some shows after Christmas in and around Sheffield. We're trying to write some new material, and we have one totally sweet song so far, but not much else. Writing music is fun, but pretty hard.

Christmas - not everywhere is Christmassy yet, which is good. I think I'm getting a Wii, which should be good fun. I haven't had a big present on Christmas Day for years.

The Wii

Ever since I heard about the Revolution/Wii I assumed I'd be getting one. But I've been thinking recently as to whether I actually should. I have my DS and it's not like I get much time to play that right now, so if I was to have a Wii I'm not sure whether it would get used often. Plus, I don't currently own my own TV. But maybe I can somehow buy both with some Christmas money - the console is going to be so comparatively cheap. And, basically, it's a Nintendo product, so I can't afford to miss out. I have a lot of Gamecube games which I've been planning to buy for the Wii too, and so I feel I'll be definitely missing out on something if I don't. I might be able to spend less time on the PC also, as the Wii will offer the possibility of browsing the 'net.

Japanese studies at university is going well right now. I'm understanding the language more now, although I'm still pretty slow when speaking.

My band release our album tomorrow. We've spent a lot of time recently working on producing the packaged CD and deciding on a price. I hope they sell well, although the whole album will be available online for free - as long as people listen to it I'm not too bothered. And our first show is in a week's time. I haven't had a lot of time to think about it lately, but I know it's going to be super awesome.

Beginning university

I started my course for real this week. It's been fun so far, but hard, meaning I have to study quite a lot outside of the lessons. I also joined the Japan Society and I've already enjoyed being part of that. There are some other cool societies (I think there's a Deal or No Deal society) but I didn't want to join too many. I've found that I have little time on my hands, but maybe things will settle down soon. Meeting loads of cool people has also been fun.

We're still working to print up my band's CD, and looking forward to releasing it and seeing people's reactions. It's been quite a lot of work, especially mixing, but it should be worth it. It sounds pretty cool, way better than our demo which we recorded earlier this year. It's funny how 6 months can really change things technically and musically.

Birthday

It was my birthday yesterday. It was probably the most un-birthday like birthday of my life so far. I worked for some of the day, was locked out of my house for another part of the day and opened my cards in the evening. I suppose birthdays start to get more boring the older you get. At least now I have some money to spend, and I'm having some friends round tomorrow.

In other news, album recording is going fairly well. We hope to have it finished soon so that we can work on producing the packaged CD. The cover is being drawn by a guy name Chris Berdoz and it looks amazing so far.

I start university also this coming Monday (well, it's Freshers' Week). I've started to learn the Japanese syllabaries of katakana and hiragana for my course. I think we have a test on these before we start lectures. Memorising information isn't one of my strengths, but I've found the easiest way to remember the sounds for each symbol is to associate the shape of the symbol with the same letter in English. I'll see how that method works out.