Pictorial Update

Settling into uni life a little more. Salford & Manchester and all the little areas in between make for a very exciting life. It's a lot of fun here, even if it is always grey and dark.

Monday night in Deansgate 

Chilled uno in the flat

Peel Park by the campus

Look at the sky........looks like we have a flock of Dementors flying over the uni!

Neil's Sainsbury's shop!! I'm so sure you have to spend over £100 for a delivery..... student life and all..

New life in Salford

Ciao, and welcome along to my first real blog post from Salford.

I haven't started uni yet, induction stuff starts tomorrow. We're amid freshers week currently. It's an intense week by anybody's book! Absolutely hilarious fun, exiting and unpredictable but blimmin intense.

Because you're constantly trying to meet new people, you're always on the go. You feel reclusive if you take 30mins in your room to sort yourself out!

However, the journey so far is going extremely well. I arrived on Saturday, one of the most exhausting days of my life, with a lot of fussing, unpacking and re-configuring of my life!
We've established our flat as party central haha! So Saturday night we welcomed our housemates.

The accommodation is lovely. There's a load of 3/4 story houses spread out in a square, with a big car park and reception pavilion in the middle. Each house has about 50 people in I suppose.. so there's plenty of people to meet!

Yesterday we made our way into Manchester to 5th Avenue night club. I loved that. A great indie experience, playing some proper music!- The Killers, Stereophonics, Tenacious D etc....... I mean, any club that plays Gimme Shelter upon my arrival has won me over immediately!

Tonight we're heading for more 'Bulgaria-like' clubbing territory and I'll let you know how it goes at some point later this week.

To be honest, Its a hard task to find 15mins to craft a blog together, but through some pictures, I'll show you the highlights so far!:

Donald the kitchen radio

Our quaint little kitchen. Or Party Central. Whatever you prefer.

Upstairs in 5th Ave - in the light show! 

Bringing the Rizzle! 

Bon Iver & James Blake

Finally listened to James Blake & Bon Iver's new track. Big fan of
both artists. As you know I love Bon Iver- just earlier this evening
I've bought his latest album because, as good as Spotify is, some
music you just need to own!

Well, as I'm sat here at 1am in the kitchen I played this new song on
my phone. Thoughts: Together, these two artists shoe-horning their own
very different stamps on the song..I thought it was a try-too-hard
mess.

However, I think it takes a shallow critic to listen to a piece of
music and take an instant dislike. I've since got a great pair of Sony
headphones and listened to the song properly.

Deviating slightly to James Blake- when I first heard the Wilhelm
Scream I had these cans on, and the left/right mixing, the ambience
his music creates....it was almost hypnotic. Incredible piece of
music.

When you listen to this new track with the depth and subtility of
these headphones- you can appreciate the channel mixing and hear every
sound in the song. It sounds totally different.

Even at the start of the track I was dubious...without many sounds
layered up there were some pretty amateur sounds coming across. But,
with the am-dram bongs and howls masked by some true Blake dub craft,
the song ties in beautifully with Vernon's passionate vocals.

In fact, it sounds far from messy- it sounds structured and incredibly
soporific.

Just to be sure, I've listened 3 times more on the Sony's. It's not to
be taken at face value this song.

Listen here... http://open.spotify.com/track/2BMx3N1HFThlRbiScVcDez

Nijinxky

I've had this chap on my radio show before - really enjoyed having him along. In fact it was just under a year ago that he came in and performed a stripped back single of his. That was back in the days of the 'Your Music Your Station' strap-line for Banbury Sound! I sound young, this was on my evening show, probably a Wednesday night, I liked new music midweek- I was 17 at the time!
Since then, Nijinxky has progressed musically and he's released some more fresh material. The prospects of the new record are extremely exciting too.
He's the interview from a year ago................

Louis Chadwick on Banbury Sound with Njinxky [Oct 2010]

I'd reccomend you check out his back catalogue of songs. I've used Finding A Signal from his New Sessions album but there really is a very comprehensive collection of his music out there!

I want to share with you this gem. I only happened upon this tonight because I'd forgotten his email address and needed to check his site. Found this awesome video of Rihanna covers done by Aconite Studios.
Pretty cool don't you think?



More @ www.nijinxky.com

From our Banbury Sound studios! Back in the days...............

My last weekend in the shire!

Yesterday I went on a nice drive through the country. My last weekend in the area before I head up north for city life so I thought I'd enjoy a nice slice of the country before I go. Thorpe, Greatworth, Farthinghoe, Sulgrave, Middleton...you name it, I've had a pint in their pubs in the past.

and the playlist for the journey............... http://open.spotify.com/..........