James Hyman from JLH Music sourced BlackStrobe's "I'm A Man" for the opening titles & trailer on Guy Ritchie's new film, "RocknRolla", out 5 September.
James Hyman as the radio DJ, intro-ing the new McDonald's "Oriental Menu" TV advert:
James Hyman McDonalds "Oriental Menu" TV Advert
Back from a few days in the most european pop-cultured city, Barcelona. First, guest speaking duties at the "Digital 2.0" conference where the panel "Amateur vs Professional?" was podcasted superbly & swiftly by Karen P and literally uploaded to i-tunes the second we all finished our thoughts about how digital technology is affecting quality in music. "Digital 2.0" was excellent - plenty of, smart, switched on people in the house, like 'Media Futurist', Gerd Leonhard.
After an interview by Loops for TV3 about being a 'Music Supervisor', it was dinner at Matamala - a 'taste-hit' extravaganza with some quick wine-tasting that focused on just how important the shape/size of glass is to the palate. Then, a tantamount of top tapas followed by a post-dinner stroll down "La Rambla".
Much of Thursday spent @ Sonar 08, checking out the likes of XXTeens, the ZX Spectrum Orchestra and a saunter round the 'Record Fair'.
Late night, checked out Felix Da Housecat, flipping Club Razz into a frenzy with pounding hard jackin' electro and occasional swift sermons to the crowd reflecting his dark sounds:
"Mr. Lightman, turn down the lights, I'm fed up of playing pretty, I want it black coz I play underground."
"We ain't trying to be pretty, we be underground"
Friday DJ-ed in Razzamatazz's 'Pop' Bar right after Florence & The Machine played live. Florence went absolutely and scarily nuts when I dropped tracks from Klaxons & Ting Tings.
Managed to catch some of Sven Vath's superb set, reminiscent of 'Dorian Gray' in more ways than one. 'Dorian Gray' was not only the name of the early 80s legendary Frankfurt club where Sven spun, but also that classic Oscar Wilde novel in which Dorian Gray appears to never age. That same could be said for hedonistic Sven, whom I hadn't seen since around 1994 when I produced an MTV Dance show with him, presented by Davina McCall (!) who was filling in for Simone Angel that week. What also hadn't aged was Sven's approach to DJ-ing, whilst practically every other DJ has felt the urge to upgrade to a combination of CD-mixing, Serato, laptop etc., here was die Deutscher DJ don still simply spinning good old vinyl; an absolute testament to the techno-meister's skill since the crowd were loving it, showing that one of, if not, the most important skill to DJ-ing will always be playing the right music at the right time, your equipment is just a tool.
Flight back semi-early the next day in the company of Kissy Sell Out & Yo-Yo duo (Leo & Seb), I left BCN, missing solid stellar Saturday line-ups at Sonar 08 that included Yazoo and Madness, yes they call it Madness!!! plus Jarvis Cocker, Dave Clarke and Calvin Harris all rocking the Razz!!
VERY interesting outcome to the case of UMG (Universal) vs Troy Augusto.
I do believe that record companies were inconsistent & ultimately wrong here; possibly desperate greed in the current climate of declining physical (CD) music sales. In the UK, 2nd hand shops like 'Music & Video Exchange' (aka 'Church') and 'Eil' have been selling 'promotional' items for decades with, as far as I know, no major probems and all 'kosher'.
Another famous 2nd hand record shop 'Beanos' has had problems selling 'promos' on ebay yet it only seemed to be problematic with 'newer' items.
In the early 90s, auction house Sotheby's had on the front of their rare record catalogue a 7" of the Beatles "Love Me Do", marked 'promotional copy, not for resale' and it went for £15,000.
The owner of Beanos, David Lashmar suggested to the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) that they might like to go back to Sotheby's and ask for the money back, because this is still subject to the same rules that modern promotional items are.
This 'grey area' of what you can/can't sell has been fascinating - ebay tend to sit on the fence and suspend sellers when a VERO member notifies ebay that certain items should not be sold as they are promotional.
I could bang about this for ages, having 'Churched' for years, witnessing the 'promotional item' market but wrapping things up, imagine if you applied the record company's 'not for resale' attitude to, say, restaurants/snack bars: "Sorry mate, you can't let anyone else have a bite of your sandwich" or "If you buy those eggs, only you can use/eat them and you can't take them out of this store." etc.
In short, yes, making illegal CD/DVD copies, illegally uploading, illegally file-sharing etc. is, er, illegal but what is wrong in legally re-selling an item you no longer want (i.e. book/DVD/CD etc)? As the EFF claimed and US District Court Judge S James Otero ruled, the doctrine of "First Sale" in copyright law has been upheld - i.e. once a copyright owner gives away a copy of a CD, DVD or book, the recipient is entitled to sell it on.
Will be interesting to see how this affects UK/Europe......
Friday 20 June @ Razzmatazz, Barcelona.
More info (line-up, map etc.) here.
JLH Music, sourced Born Ruffians "Hummingbird" for new Orange (mobile phone) campaign:
Paul Williams' Editorial from Music Week (10.05.08)
Apologies for stating the seriously obvious but stop for a second and just think how amazing 'Google' is. After reading the excellent taster from Chris Anderson's new book about the 'Free' economy (follow up to 'The Long Tail') in Wired magazine from about a couple of months ago, I've constantly reminded myself how simply phenomenal 'Google' is, ultimately because, after at least 10 years of constant use, it's still f*cking FREE!!
Endless rinsing of 'Google Maps' to easily find out where you need to go, daily news digests from 'Google News' and searches by the second, in fact, second nature, a digital reflex you don't often stop to consider.
Then, the incredible YouTube (yes, owned & bought for about $1.65 billion by Google in case you've been sleeping) and not forgetting one of, if not THE best web-based e-mail services around 'GMail', fabulous at filtering your Spam as well as countless other Google apps.
I'm hard pressed to find another company who comes close to 'Google' in its 'free-kyness'. For example, say, your phone provider, who gives the illusion of 'free' but more often than not you're stung with caveats, hidden charges such as 'limits' to your usage, poor service, which you end up paying for via unhelpful premium-rate lines.
Ever had a problem with 'Google'? I wouldn't even know where to begin to call/e-mail/find their 'complaints line'; I'm sure it'd be something like that classic Carlsberg ad where a man, walking down the 'Carlsberg Corridors' hears a phone ringing behind one of the doors. He enters the very dusty, cob-webbed room, picks up the equally dusty phone and it turns out the caller has the wrong number. Final shot reveals the sign on the door, "Carlsberg Customer Complaints Department".
Back to the example of phone companies & the illusion of 'free' - don't forget their 'bill-bullying' for late payment or for you not complying to how they want you to pay i.e. 'Direct Debit'.
Maybe the 'Golden Age' of Google could soon be myth and end abruptly. OK, nobody/no company's perfect - Google has come under fire for its 'privacy' issues with people concerned about themselves and their 'data' being spied on and stored. Is that so bad? That's up for debate.
I simply repeat where I began - think how much and what you've used 'Google' for, how invaluable it's been and at what cost? Nothing but your time.
Spanish TV feature on bootlegs/mash-ups with:
James Hyman, DJ Buenavista, Jay-Z & Linkin’ Park and 2 Many DJs.
(For more Loops33, check their MySpace or website).
September 2007 - April 2008
Highlights of James Hyman's weekly 'Music Expert' feature on "Nuts TV" alongside other presenters OJ Borg, Lucy Pinder, Chanelle Hayes, Zoe Hardman, Lyndsey Horn and Ellie Dible.
