So ive moved to Shanghai, China is great, life is tricky right now, finding good work, setting up 'home' etc but its been worth the upheaval.
Downstate is still alive of course, im just back in the swing of getting inspired to make new tracks. For the first time in my,ahem 'career' so to speak, im working stone cold sober. Not a spliff insight for nearly 2 months now, but its safe to say the stuff im making now is just as ..er..stoned as the stufff i made in the U.K. I think i smoked enough weed in the last 8 years to keep me marginally stoned inside for the next 5-10 years.
I miss my monitors, and my glockenspiel but hopefully i'll have all my shit studio stuff here with me or replaced soon. Ive seen many interesting chinese instruments i want to pick up and attempt to play and sample, and soldering irons are dead cheap here,as are second hand electronics so i can start circuit bending again soon too which is always fun.
I've been informed the E.P with Porn Sword is selling steadily and has recieved only kind words and encouraging reviews. For this i am truely thankful to anyone that dug in thier pockets to buy a copy. And a big thanks to the random that posted my track on youtube too, i think this person is my first official fan haha. Its wonderful after all these years people can listen to my humble shite, Last FM has had lots of visitors since my release, i didn't even know i had a last fm til last week so this was a pleasant surpise.
What can i tell you about China, or Shanghai really as ive barely left the city, well its big, not as busy and overcrowded as you probably imagine, living is dead cheap out here, travel and all that, and the metro pisses all over the shameful london underground. Only air conditioned carriages here thankyou very much. Which brings me to the humidity, hmm possibly the only thing i hate about China. So sweaty, you just drip standing still, but autumn has arrived so im safe from that for a good 4 or 5 months thank god. Shanghai feels like home incredibly quickly, it helps to have an amazingly wonderful native girlfriend thats for sure. The clubs are mucho commercial shitholes, playing chart r n b and thump thump euro techno, but of course there are the gems to be discovered. The shelter is very much like Ginglik in London, and Logo is another place worthy of attention. So the glitch is alive and well in atleast two clubs here, it was nice to drink a beer and hear Autechre,Clark and Flylo rinsed out.
So the point of this blog is mainly for my own reflection i guess, and for anyone who gives a shit what im up to these days. For those that i know back in the U.K, i of course miss you all loads, but not our chav infested,overpriced turdhole of a capital city, so i hope im not home too soon. As a good friend once said to me, "China is the future, haha"
Peas out to all my fellow nerds and electronic tamperers.
GoOd ThIngS
Downstate