The Blog

  • Gabber is dead

    In October 2010 I posted about Mid-Town’s Rotterdam shop closing on my personal blog. Last week however, the curtain dropped permanently for what was left of Mid-Town (the labels and webshop). They went bankrupt.

    What’s kind of interesting to see from the official papers, is that with Mid-Town some infamous labels also cease to exist: Rotterdam Records, DJ Paul Elstak’s Forze Records and Terror Trax Records.

    It’s sad to say but it’s the last in a long string of ‘gabber landmarks’ that have disappeared: the demise of the FFWD dance parade (also in 2010, while not strictly hardcore, usually had a large hardcore following), the radio program Turbulentie on the also bankrupt radio station Stads Radio Rotterdam over a decade ago and the infamous Parkzicht club. Like it or not these things were part of Rotterdam’s cultural heritage and something that gave Rotterdam a voice in the rest of the world.

    While a common slogan among gabbers is “hardcore will never die“, it can be concluded that gabber is dead. In Rotterdam at least. Or that it’s least a spirit without a body.

  • Your First Theremin

    As a theremin owner and user (well, if you considering making those alien noises all day and giggling about it as being a ‘user’), I can recommend this tutorial which is absolutely true! No really, would I lie?

  • Rooie Waas

    I’m the proud owner of a Weird Sound Generator, produced by Sascha Neudeck. The musicians from Rooie Waas own one too, plus a Cacophonator II also by Neudeck. In their latest video Rooie Waas gives a great impression what you can do with those horribly beautiful pieces of machinery:

    On the 14th (Amsterdam) and 20th (Rotterdam) of September 2012, you can see Rooie Waas and the machinery in action at their album release double party.

  • T99 – Anasthasia

    Die Antwoord has a new video out: Baby’s on Fire. Besides it being an awesome piece of work, it also contains a very old school rave sample in there. Does any one recognise Anasthasia by T99?

    Honestly though, the sample in T99’s track is a sample too. Where the so called ‘Orch Hit‘ sound came from can only be answered by the producers behind T99; Patrick De Meyer and Phil de Wilde. You may that last one under the name Phil Wilde (whom I mentioned before), one of the two producers behind 2Unlimited.

    There’s another sample in Anasthasia by the way; the “Music, maestro! Please?” comes from Bring It On Up by Love Unlimited Orchestra

  • Google’s Moog doodle

    Swwweeeeet! Check out the classic Moog Google coded and put up on their front page for Bob Moog‘s birthday! Wish he was still around to see that.

    If you’re late for the party, you can find the synth on Google’s Doodle page.

  • Site moved to new server

    I moved the site to a new server! B-sting.com has been kindly hosted by Jocelyn of Sugarcube.net for a few years, but since I got my own server at Pretty Hate Machine (not-related to the NIN album), I moved all my sites there. This one has been last to move, because migrating WordPress was a new challenge to me.

    Yesterday the booking form for a gig couldn’t be filled in and e-mail sent to any address on the domain wouldn’t arrive for a few hours. Woops! But that’s fixed now.

    Now that that’s out of the way, maybe I should get back to what I was planning to do, namely get EP02 out that I promised in my New Years post? About that: three tracks are pretty much done and might need a bit of tinkering before I’m completely satisfied. Then there’s also the issue of track 4. Every EP needs at last 4 tracks.

    So right now the main obstacle is to create track 4. Granted I have plenty of half-assed ideas and experiments lying about, but stomping an actual track out of it is easier said than done. Wish me luck!

  • Brushy One String

    Never fool yourself into thinking that extra, expensive high-tech production tools are a necessity to make a great music. Or worse that when you use these tools, a song is therefore great. I’ve personally seen musicians blowing money and obsess over recording and fine-tuning a certain guitar-section to its optimal sound quality, while the arrangement was hardly stood out in the song.

    A great song by passionate musician is a great song, no matter how you play it or what quality its recorded in. Brushy One String proves this point by displaying his vocal talents by just accompanying himself on a cheap, crappy-sounding, one-string guitar:

    He reminds me of local legend street-musician Carlos. He plays at the Lijnbaan in Rotterdam day in day out and always with a smile.

  • Everything is a Remix (4)

    YES! Kirby Ferguson finally released the final part (part 4) of his excellent series Everything is a Remix about how advances are made through copying, modifying and combining and current copyright and patent laws are starting to work against the flow. You can watch part 4 here, but if you haven’t seen the series yet, start at part 1.

  • Machines claim the term ‘Industrial’ back

    (via Retecool.com)

  • Have a Rawking 2012

     

    I wish you all the best in 2012! Hopefully we’ll see each other a lot more in 2012 and hear even more. Speaking of which; I think an EP is coming this year! As a teaser, the title is in the picture above. I think I’ll have to explain that one, but I will later (cool points for any one that knows without using Google). All in  good time. Patience!