I’ve just recently completed the project I was working on for my day job, so this past week I’ve had time to try some things out. I also wanted to start them before leaving for my upcoming Christmas holidays in Malaysia (lots of pictures to come!)
For a while now I’ve been wanting to work on some collages using my enormous stock of vintage, strange, funny and sexy images, and seeing a recent Kultart piece reminded me of how much material I had in my hard drive.
I basically wanted to do something similar to what I had done with the titty table, but more colorful and on different formats. I went out and bought different materials (canvas, brushes, Mod Podge, ink cartridges for the printer), and got to work with WeFunk Radio blasting in my living room.
I started by gluing the base of the collage (a gift wrapping paper I had bought a couple of months ago) on the canvas. In retrospect I should have bought a special Mod Podge brush since a normal paint brush didn’t allow me to evenly distribute the glue, which created little air bubbles where the glue wasn’t enough and small wrinkles where there was too much.
Once that was dry I printed some of my latest image downloads (cartoon characters, naked chicks, TV shows, superheroes, stock photos, etc.), cut them, and looked for the best way to place them on the canvas without overloading the overall picture.
Of course once I started gluing the images it was impossible to recreate the original balance I’d initially obtained, but I’m still happy with the end result. Hopefully this first attempt will lead to other objects (boxes, containers, books, cameras, etc.).
I also finally got around to customizing one of the turntables I had bought at a garage sale back in September (15 bucks!). The turntable worked in the sense that the current went through it and that the lights would turn on, but it couldn’t really play records.
I took it to one of my friends who repairs turntables, but he told me that it was so old that spare parts would be either too difficult to find or too expensive to obtain.
I wanted to paint the turntable in a bright blue shade (the French call it “bleu électrique“, I call it “Frida Kahlo blue” because of her house in Mexico City), but once I was in the paint shop I thought it would be too dark a color and I wouldn’t be able to display the object in my living room.
Thus, at the last minute I opted for a light blue/gray which, as I started painting, I realized was way too light, almost white.
I painted the whole thing anyway, but I think I’m going to do it over in the right blue shade I originally wanted. Or maybe I could use the white background to customize it further, maybe even use it as an experimental collage format?
About 5 years ago, back when I was an exchange student at NTU, I met the lovely Cherry Chan, who at the time delighted me with countless hours of cool music through her Pop My Cherry nights.
She has since participated in countless events and radio shows, and alongside husband Kiat, has kept on putting some great experimental and boundary-pushing shows through the audiovisual collective Syndicate and contributed to the Qilin record label.
A couple of weeks ago Kiat asked me to prepare a little dub selection to go along the end of the year vibe. I decided to get some of my all-time favorite dub tracks, and to mix them as if preparing a mixtape for a long Christmas bus/train/plane ride (this could be due to the fact that I prepared the selection while on an Odyssey bus going from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, hence the “Dub Odyssey” title).
French listeners will recognize most of the tracks towards the end from the excellent French label Jarring Effects (although I have to admit I’m not particularly crazy about their newest productions, they tend to be too bleep bleep wobble wobble for my taste…), while the others are more traditionally-dubby.
I’m proud to say that both Kiat and Cherry dug the selection I prepared and that it is now featured on Syndicate’s website:
1. Frédéric Galiano & the African Divas – Bathourou Dub
2. Zenzile – Morning Daylight
3. Augustus Pablo – Skank On Dub
4. Atiko Minus Project – The Wariors Are Moving (Melodica Cut)
5. Afrikan Simba – The Warriors Are Moving
6. Eek-A-Mouse – Wa-Do-Dem
7. Double Ugly – Get She Away
8. John Wayne – Tired Body
9. Fred Locks – The Lion King
10. Improvisator’s Dub Feat. Danny Vibes & Jonah Dan – Dirty Babylon
11. Kaly Live Dub – Dirha
12. High Tone – Hempro 905
13. Kaly Live Dub – Steppa For Violin
14. Highvisators – Pusher Dub
15. Kanka – Nova Dub
16. Brain Damage – Booster
17. Stereotyp – Fling Style (feat St. Paul Hilaire)
The latest instalment of Flea Fly Flo Fun is upon us, and something tells me this is going to be a special one. Not only is it the last one of 2010, but this time I will take part by actually having my own stall!
I don’t know yet if I will be playing some music during the event, but I do know that I will be selling some very cool and unique Mexican products.
Frames, masks, blouses, wallets, decorations, and necklaces on sale all come from various parts of Mexico: Morelos, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Mexico City, and they are all hand-made.
Here are some photos of some of the products we will be offering:
Photos, descriptions and prices can be viewed here and here.
Hope to see you on Sunday!
*MUSICAL BONUS*
Here are some Mexican playlists I found on 8tracks. Some are cheesy, some are smooth, some are recent, some are old, but they’re all very Mexican!
Last Friday I once again had the great honour of playing some tunes for the Pushin’ On crew at BluJaz Café.
I played a selection of my latest latin, funk, garage rock, sixties pop and hip hop findings in between extremely groovy sets by Mister Magic and Ko Flow (who, despite launching his album that very night at Esplanade, gave everything he had at BluJaz).
The night also featured a dance contest which brought in the crowd as much as the good vibes.
Unfortunately technical difficulties prevented me from recording my set, and what I was able to record from Mister Magic’s set was filled with parasite noise and echo. I hope this is only a minor issue such as a faulty cable, and not a more serious issue with my laptop.
In order to rectify this I have decided to present various studio/live sets from some of my fellow DJs/selectors from Singapore. Most of them are available on their various websites, so I thought it’d be nice to have them in one place.
These past few weeks I’ve been discovering and accumulating lots of excellent French pop/rock from the sixties and seventies, and I thought it’d be nice to share some of these gems.
Some tracks are by some really obscure singers who had nothing but a single, others are by French legends who went on to longer (better?) careers.
Here’s a little (actually, kind of large) selection of these French-flavoured tracks.
Enjoy!
1. Danielle Denin – Je Lis Dans Tes Yeux
2. Brigitte Bardot – Je Danse Donc Je Suis
3. Annie Philippe – On M’a Toujours Dit
4. France Gall – Teenie Weenie Boppie
5. Frank Alamo – Heureux Tous Les Deux
6. Cosette – Idéalisation
7. Les Capresses – Les Cailloux
8. Kiki Caron – Sentimentalement
9. Dani – La Machine
10. Stella – T’achètes Des Disques Americains
11. Sophie – Je Ne Fais Pas D’histoires
12. Larry Greco – C’est Fini, Bien Fini
13. Stone – Fille Ou Garçon
14. Les Pollux – Tu Es Fou
15. Les Problèmes – Non Je Ne Vois Rien
16. Ronnie Bird – Chante
17. Jacques Dutronc – Les Cactus
18. Thierry Vincent – Dis-Moi Pourquoi Tu Refuses
19. Régis Barly – Faux Beatnick
20. Jeremy Gavroche – Qui Peut Etre Cet Homme
21. Johnny Hallyday – Mal
22. Valérie Lagrange – Ce Que Je Suis
23. Les Terribles – Tes Yeux
24. Ariane & Les 10-20 – Les Gémeaux
25. Gillian Hills – Tut Tut Tut Tut
26. Normand Frechette & Les Hou-Lops – J’étudie Mon Grec
27. Monty – Le Collège
28. Jacqueline Taieb – La Fac de Lettres
29. Michel Polnareff – La Mouche
30. Yves Josselin – Je Voulais
31. Laurent Lombard – Papa Twist
32. Nino Ferrer – Alexandre
33. Claudes Channes – Mao Mao
34. Jehan Jonas – Flic de Paris
35. De Giafferi – Sado Maso
36. Erick St. Laurent – J’ai Cru À Mon Rêve
37. Eddy Mitchell – Vieille Fille
38. Myriam Martin – Le Blue Beat
39. Patricia Carli – L’Amour en Cage
40. Christine Pilzer – Champs Elysées
41. Les Parisiennes – On Recoit, On Envoie
42. Les Révoltés – Dans le Bleu de Tes Yeux
43. Les Pharaons – Pas à Pas
44. Les Misérables – Il s’appelle Antoine
45. Les Mystics – Mon père est Millionnaire
46. Les Maraudeurs – Dis-Moi Chérie
47. Christine Delaroche – Des Tigres et des Minets
48. Michelle Torr – Dur D’avoir 16 Ans
49. Patricia – Tous les Jours Passent
50. Edouard – My Name Is Edouard
51. Dominique Walter – Les Petits Boudins
52. Claude François – Eloïse
(PS: This is the follow-up to Part One which seems to be quite appreciated over at 8tracks)
