I'm so full of shit sometimes. My previous online venture, absorb.org, was a blagfest of the highest order. Records, promotional gifts, guesties. I'd almost forgotten what it was like to purchase a record or to buy a concert ticket. But I eventually gagged on all this marketing disguised as generosity. Mumbled some lame excuse for not being 'able to keep up' and ended it.

But here I am, almost 2 years later, once again sucking greedily on the freebie pipe. OK, the records aren't flooding in as before. I'm sure most PR people regard blogs as worthless...and they'd be right. But I'm still downloading illegally off Soulseek (the differing excuses I've heard from industry people to justify using p2p to download illegal content is amusing) and more to the point I'm still the worst contributor to the London gig circuit fund.

Similar to the lead character in the TV comedy 'My Name is Earl', I feel all this greed will come back to bite me as bad karma. So I'm trying to make amends by eventually writing about the 1000+ CD's that got sent. The same should apply to all the gigs I go to. But since the turn of the year, I've been incredibly slack. So to make sure I don't get on the bad side of promoters, here's the beginning of seriously bad reviews. No.1 in a series of 1,753.

Taylor Deupree. Click here to view flickr.

Sprawl
Thursday 12th January 2006
Yacht Club, Temple Pier, Victoria Embankment, London

Sprawl continue an excellent run of nights with this, a rare showcase for the 12k label.

Iris Garrelfs' mix of phased distortion and mangled voice was initially arresting, but a lack of electricity to her laptop curtailed her performance and she ducked out early. Leaving Douglas Benford aka si-cut.db to emit a safe but enjoyable palette of dub techno and sleight-of-hand electronics.

Richard Chartier's performance was helped by the insistence of total silence in the audience. His quiet mantra of tone and crackle was enhanced by the waves lapping / the creaking of the boat structure. Taylor Deupree's equally microscopic narrative wasn't helped by insistence of the audience talking over it all. His attempts to boost frequencies and deploy edgier digital deconstruction had no match for the masses ordering expensive bottled beer at the bar.

Alcohol Consumption Interaction: 1, Laptop Patch Playback: 0.

The Bug and his toys. Click here to view flickr.

Bash
Thursday 23rd February 2006
Plastic People, Curtain Road, London

New venture from the corporate holdings of The Bug Inc. and Loefah PLC. Two known and recognised brands from the dancehall and dubstep industries have agreed to a temporary merger. This evening's conference saw the CEO's being joined by several high-profile guest speaker MC's including Bug affiliate Ras B.

Topics covered included a fine line in lover's rock, superior dub and superlative reggae. Reinforcing a brand-aware positive message on their established mission statement. Sign up now and help maintain shareholder value. Every 3rd Thursday of the month.