My new album 'Diamonds Are Dead'

My Motion Graphics Demo Reel (August 2017)

Hello.

Over the past 18 months while you've been doing whatever it is that you do, I've been pushing hard to learn enough motion design skills to make it a career out of it. I'm certainly not up to the level I aspire to yet but I am making progress.

Please enjoy my showreel.

DEMO REEL AUGUST 2017 from Ian J. Gavin on Vimeo.

Ochiru is here

I've been busy making these computer generated marble races. The YouTube channel is called Ochiru, which is Japanese for falling (approx.).

My hope for the future of the channel is to be continually evolving and iterating the look and design of the arenas. The most challenging part so far is building arenas to create interesting races that are done in about 1 minute, and that can be rendered out on my MacBook in under 5 hours.

You want to see?

OK, then

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcD3iu2Q-xik-xd_lDY8jFAW6MMqV6Jha

My album on Bandcamp

I thought I'd embed one of the new bandcamp music players. You know, just for the hell of it.

Boards of Canada - the original ‘Instagram’ band?

While literally writhing with anticipation over the imminent release of BOC’s third and very long awaited album, ‘Tomorrow’s Harvest’, I’ve been thinking about my expectations.

Firstly, where have BOC been? Seven years is a very long time. Have they been making tracks all this time and just not been happy with them? Did family life take over? Were they feeling the pressure and just needed to step back a while? All I do know is that I shouldn’t expect any answers.

For me, BOC invented the Instagram, Super 8, nostalgia aesthetic. The way they filtered and warped their vocal samples and melodies always transported me to fuzzy, half-remembered Saturday mornings watching Sesame Street (was it even on Saturday mornings? I did say ‘half-remembered’) or going through draw of faded polaroids with my Mom and brother and laughing at the embarrassing hair-dos. BOCs music did this to me. Beneath the strong tunes there was a powerful connection to the past.

Their label, Warp, naturally understand how much BOC have been missed. A few teaser trailers, one video and word of mouth is doing the rest. Social media is a gift once you have a reputation.

Will the new album be more of their signature sound or has their style changed?

I don’t mind if it hasn’t.

Electronic Music Bromances

While enjoying the latest Daft Punk album on the way into work this morning a realisation struck me.

A surprisingly large amount of the successful electronic music bands are essentially male double acts. Off the top of my head there’s Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, Orbital, Air, Coldcut, Autechre.

No doubt I’m missing many. Maybe I’m just seeing a pattern in a bigger chaotic picture but I can’t think of a single female electronic double act or even one male, female example.

Apart from sharing any money you might make, I can certainly think of many advantages to being in a double act; splitting the creative workload and having another pair of ears when you’re having that “is this actually shit?” moment, having a friend when you’re touring far from home or you just need someone there to motivate you to “finish that bloody track”. Friends can fill some of those roles but it’s hard to get an honest and constructive opinion unless they are as invested in the project as you are.

I’d consider collaborating but maybe I’ve been messing about too long now to find someone on the same wavelength.

There’s clearly some magic to it though.

Sympathy for Adobe?

I've just finished reading the comments about Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) in a report on Wired.com.

I found one, often repeated, criticism interesting. This was the complaint that many of the software updates that Adobe charge for, Photoshop in particular, aren't radical enough for the money.

Photoshop is a fantastic piece of software which I've used every day at work now for over 20 years. Photoshop pretty much started doing everything I want a photo editing program to be able to do, since the version when they added 'layers'. I really don't want radical changes made to it. I'm happy with the incremental improvements.

Similarly for Illustrator and InDesign, version CS4 had all I need day-to-day. The feature differences between CS4 and CS6 (yes that two upgrades) really are minimal and imagine most graphics professionals hardly need them.

This puts Adobe in a difficult position. They're not an arts project, they are a business. Nobody could realistically expect Adobe to declare Creative Suite complete, only cover OS updates and just sell it to anyone who hasn't already bought it? Adobe then have quite rightly expanded their range of software applications to tackle other tasks that graphics businesses may face such as editing video, animating a vector or building a website but most of us don't need them all.

The whole software bundle is the grandly titled Master Collection. It's great but it is quite expensive. I have it at work (CS6 version) but only really use the three titles mentioned above and AfterEffects. I can definitely do everything I need to with CS6 as it stands.

At work, our incentive to upgrade is already low. With Adobe CC it's lower. Adobe CC is too expensive for the new toys and the minor upgrades. We want Adobe to stay in business but not at our expense.

Adobe is a victim of its own success. Adobe has a problem.

Fela Kuti and Afrobeat

Without a doubt, the best music style I've come across in recent times is Afrobeat.

Afrobeat isn't new. As I understand it the style was created by Fela Kuti in Nigeria in the early 1970s. It's a kind of Funk and Jazz hybrid with African rhythms and chant vocals. Fela's lyrics were often political which got him in lots of trouble with the Nigerian goverment of the time (most notably his criticism of the army on an EP called Zombie) but they earned him the respect of African people continent-wide.

Tracks by Fela Kuti are long - averaging 15 to 20mins, with the vocals usually not kicking in until halfway - but the amazing sax playing, that's Fela.

Another major performer in Fela Kuti's band was Tony Allen. Brian Eno called him "perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived." He's still alive and has collaborated with Damon Albarn among others. He records albums under his own name - Lagos No Shaking is a personal favourite.

Other Afrobeat artists that I think you should check-out are Antibalas, Fanga, Femi Kuti and Seun Kuti (just two of Fela's many sons).

Afrobeat has definitely influenced my own music. Polyrhythms (or cross rhythms) have long interested me and Afrobeat puts these to work in a big way. Tracks of mine called Lagos and Kalakuti Republic are my most blunt attempts at a sort of electro Afrobeat although I still haven't achieved a truly loose and natural feel yet.

Fela Kuti died on 2nd August 1997. I'm reading his biography now and what a life he had. His music and lyrics live on and keep finding new fans - I think that would have made him very happy.

Carbonmade porfolio

I've taken the plunge and created a Carbonmade portfolio account. I was drawn by its simplicity and Project foldering format - very easy for me to put the commercial and playful stuff on there but keep it separate. I've also given Google Analytics a try to track any visits.

Here's the address:
http://ianjgavin.carbonmade.com/

Brunk poster

I knocked up a poster for Brunk




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So what is Brunk?

I've begun DJing in Selly Oak at the Bristol Pear (upstairs). It happens each Tuesday night from about 9pm to 12pm.

I fell that I had to give the venture some sort of identity (or at least a name) so that I could keep a sense of continuity if I ever played a different venue. The name I came up with is 'Brunk' - that's 'Brum' and 'funk' smashed together in case you're curious (plus some of the Urban Dictionary definitions of brunk are quite funny).

I've wanted to do this for a while because I was getting quite frustrated with music on offer in most of the pubs I'd been to lately. It's all jukeboxes with chart rubbish or lazy DJs playing... yes, chart rubbish and obvious tracks we've all heard a hundred times.

Using Wefunk as my inspiration I decided to make hip hop and funk the backbone of what I'll play plus any other tracks that fit or that I think are too funny or cool to leave out. At the time of posting, DJ Format, Quantic, Bonobo, Baby Charles, T-Love, Abdominal, Moderat, Mr Scruff, Naughty by Nature, Mike James Kirkland, MF Doom, The Free Association and Blackalicious have featured - some of whom I hadn't heard of before I started playing. I haven't played any of my own music yet but I think I will try one out soon as it's just too good an opportunity to pass up.

The Bristol Pear is a student pub. Sometimes the room is busy, sometimes it isn't. I believe in being patient. If you build it they will come. I just need to be consistent and let the audience decide.

Brunk has definitely re-ignited my interest in finding new music. I'm getting a lot out of it and if anyone gets into something that they hadn't heard before as a result then that would be the icing on the proverbial cake.

If you've read this and you're in the Birmingham area, you should come down. You might hear something you like.

The making of a video to promote my 'Brightness' remix

Here's a video I (Random Toxy) made to go with my remix of 'Brightness' by Nash Donson.

I'd promised to blog about how I made it so here goes. I'll keep it quick because there's not much to it really. There's a plug-in for After Effects called Trapcode Form and it makes particles in 3D space which can be customised to these cloud-like objects.

These can respond to custom audio input (in this case my carefully crafted masterpiece). Different frequencies can be selected to affect different particle parameters in a various ways. This of course cuts out the need to manually keyframe animation events in time to the audio track which would take forever.

A few camera movements and a bit of colour correction and there you have it – one music video. All made in an afternoon. I'd like to thank my parents, all the guys at Trapcode, Adobe, Apple…

Random Toxy Remix out - 'Brightness'- Nash Donson

Another of my tracks got released on Beatport today - so I thought I'd celebrate by blogging my ruddy face off.

It's a remix this time. The original is a track called 'Brightness' by a guy who records under the name 'Nash Donson' (he's on Soundcloud - you should check him out).

For the remix I took the feeling of the part that I liked best, processed that part a little, then set about constructing a track around that in my own style. The artist got what I was trying to do and liked it, as did the AR (Riley Warren) at Zero Digital which was awesome. It was quite a new experience for me - having to care that a particular person liked a track.

I hope it sells. Thanks for reading, laters, bye.

Plaid and The Southbank Gamelan Players

I imagine it shows a little in my music that when it comes to personal influences, Plaid have got to be top five. So, you can probably understand how thrilled I was to discover that Plaid (in collaboration with The Southbank Gamelan Players) were going to gig, just a half hour walk from my front door, at The Mac in Birmingham.

The Southbank Gamelan Players opened things with "a loud style welcoming piece" followed by six beautiful songs - the last of which was a cover of Actium by Aphex Twin. Watching the performers was fascinating and hypnotic, but distracting, so for long periods I listened with closed eyes. The vocals and flute parts were a little bit 'new age' (what else should I have expected?) but the coarse sounding two-string fiddle (when it featured) was a perfect counter to the warm tones of the rest of the orchestra. I preferred the quieter, sparser parts - they made me feel like I was sitting in a wood, catching the sounds of distant creatures (I thing the 'new age' vibe was getting to me).

As good as things were going, I admit I was waiting for Plaid to join in and when they did, well that's when the music really took off into the ether. This is the collaboration that Plaid seem to have been working their whole career towards. Both bands fit so well. The music was lush without being too safe (I suspect a technical fault cut short Plaid's involvement in one of my favourite trance-like tracks which was a real shame). Programmed gamelan electronics and the real thing wove together with quiet glitches, airy strings and warm bass. The music was uplifting and enthralling. A big 'thank you' to all involved.

Got to go - I feel inspired…

'Artificial Colours' is released today

I'm pleased to announce that a 'Random Toxy' (that's me) track is released today on a compilation called 'Tranquillum'.

It's my first release on someone elses label. So far Zero Records (based in California) seem to be a very professional and friendly bunch so it's going well. I hope for both our sakes that sales go well.

Here's a link:
http://www.zerodigitalrecords.com/fr_zerotranquil

Zero Digital sign up 'Artificial Colours'

Yes, I'm pleased to announce that one of my tracks (on soundcloud) has attracted the attention of Zero Digital. They are planning to include it on an ambient compilation album they are releasing through 300 online download sites.

I won't let myself get carried away until it's actually happened but I am hopeful.

It's pretty ironic that the track title has one of the words that is spelt differently in America - 'colours' - and Zero Digital are an American label.

I have no idea how it will sell. It's got to be difficult for unknown artists like myself to get a sale.

I don't know what the release date is yet - i'll blog it when I know.


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Random Toxy – Zero Zero One EP is released!

My first EP is now available for purchase on Digital Tunes website. Here's the link:

http://www.digital-tunes.net/releases/zero_zero_one_ep

Its a 4 track affair. They were selected because I consider them to be 'finished' and quite accessible. They work well together also I think.

'Traject' is maybe my favourite track although others seem drawn to 'The Sun' which is fine by me. "Full Scale Map" has provoked the most comments on the Soundcloud site so far (all good).

The next move for me is to go on as much of an online promotion onslaught as I can manage. I wonder what my chances of getting it reviewed are - and could I cope if the review was bad?

Hello Digital disappointment and Groove Armada joy

I'm an idiot.

I had the foresight to book a day off ages ago to go to 'Hello Digital' this year. Aren't I good. Just one small problem - its full. I didn't realise that its a 'conference' and not a 'convention' (where you can just turn up). I was so looking forward to meeting like minded people. Who knows where it could have led me. I'll track down as much info about what happened as possible. They'll be lots online no doubt.

I resolve to be smarter with my next chance - 'YouPlusUs' later this year - assuming its on. Ill get a web page ready so I can tie all my internet threads together.

Ending with a positive.

Groove Armada were great at 'Eclectricity' on Saturday just gone. They had a sexy spandexed front woman and a set of mostly new electro-rock tracks for her to get stuck into - all a little bit Goldfrapp. They went down well considering no-one had heard any of the songs before. We were right at the front so we didn't miss a single shake of her ass.

Biggest track of the night - Superstylin'.

Later.

Concentric Ribbons

ConcRibbons02
Originally uploaded by Ian Gavin

This one of three images - all made in Cinema 4D. The technique is very similar to the concentric circles. It needed something else though so I added the 'noise', which is actually an exploded cube with the fragments rounded using hyper-nurbs.

I may animate this. A fly-through could work well.

Stripey Goo r4_4_0124b

Stripey Goo r4_4_0124b
Originally uploaded by Ian Gavin

I'm very pleased with the results of these things. There is a 'trick' to making them and they're not drawn one bezier curve at a time but I'm not saying any more than that.

The parallels with Op Art of the 60s is quite nice too.