Kim Bach . Org

Monday the Copenhagen Hip-Hop community was served a defer than def jam (pardon my “old-skool”), when Redman and Method Man tried to bring down a sold out Store VEGA venue, and sometimes it felt like they might succeed, because the bass and the stumpin’ made the floor bounce.

The wires were heated by a local act, that I missed the name of. The Danish Hip-Hop scene seems to be experimenting with mixing of genres, I must admit that I like the more European approach to Hip-Hop, which means that we have live musicians on stage, this is not a problem for seasoned acts from the States, but few European acts can pull off only having a DJ and 3-4 MCs as the only instruments. The Europeans are bringing some degree of renewal into the genre, and I welcome that, IMHO French acts like Clotaire K and Kalash are the trailblazers, on the tailcoats of MC Solaar, but we can be quite proud of our local acts.

I refuse to complain about the delay in the starting of the concert, it was worth waiting for, and they need to “prepare”, which they supposedly did at “Staden” ;-), well when they finally arrived in a big black van, they went directly on stage, and almost from the get-go, the joint was jumpin’.

I was quite tired, having just arrived from Lisboa, Portugal, and at one point, before the jam kicked off, I was sitting in a corner sleeping, and one of the guards told me to try to keep my eyes open, really I don’t see why, he obviously thought it was Friday night at 5AM…That being said, the guards at VEGA are very professional, and the few times I saw them go into action, they managed the situation.

Well I was so tired, that I wanted to leave early, but when I was about to leave, I looked directly at the stage, and I could feel the energy radiating from the stage and the room, as Red and Method told us CONSTANCE: you have to work as hard as us, we feed on your energy, and they did, and I stayed, I didn’t regret that.

Store VEGA is the perfect size for a act like this, packed, and the lighting crew did a great job, a trick that is common in Hip-Hop is that you, quite often, shine lights on the audience, this was used to great effect, and when they did that the house was jumping, with the exception of the lame mid-section of the balcony, you s*ck! But it gave me a flashback to the time I went to the Ladies First Jam in New York’s Nassau Coliseum, where the crowd was 4-5 times bigger (and 99,9% blacker ;-)), where the DJ tore it up with the floodlights on the audience - that made a lasting impact crater in my cortex.

And the energy on the stage was nothing short of amazing, I love the cool, cool moves, especially when they did “the march” routine, that was so cool!

It’s been a while since I went to a Hip-Hop Jam, and the previous one was the disappointing Busta Rhymes concert in K.B. Hallen in 2006 (hey I didn’t even bother with a review hmm seems that I did). Busta is returning this year, but I’m not going to see that. Red and Method delivered what Busta, unfortunately couldn’t, it might have been the venue, but his DJ was wack, and WAY too many hype-men. Red and Method keeps that to an absolute minimum, hey they even engaged in some of the most crazy crowd-surfing I’ve ever seen! Almost as real as it gets

This ranks in the top 3-4 of Hip-Hop Jams I’ve been to, competing closely with Masta Ace and Clotaire K, but I really prefer the hard accented flow of Red and Method to Masta and Clotaire, so I’ve decided that this is number 2 on my list, I doubt that Queen Latifah (<3) will ever loose that crown

Now I’m tempted to will go see can’t go see the Wu-Tang Clan, because they’ve rescheduled from June 7th to July 23rd 2008, I’d like to have attended, not just to feed on the energy, but to share it, because Redman and Method Man were 100% proof, seems like they’re the real deal!

Jeg er ude! Fred! Og ses vi til Wu-Tang? Det tror jeg nok vi gør…

The picture is the cover from the Soundtrack of the movie How High. It was copied from Wikipedia, it’s most likely Copyright Def Jam Records, but I consider my use of it here as being fair use.

Friday I went to the Science Fair - dubbed Science After Dark - that was held at Copenhagen City Hall Square (Københavns Rådhusplads), and I enjoyed it very much. I didn’t really know what to expect, but when I read that there would be live electronic music, I knew that I was going.

The first thing i noticed was that attendance, despite the location, was disappointingly low. I feel that it was because the venue looked quite uninviting, due to the fence, and the rather closed looking pavilions.

I also got the feeling that the PR for the Science Fair had been less than satisfactory.

ConDio - Controlling Audio

Anyway, the first thing that grasped my eye was the ConDio, Controlling Audio. The ConDio is a device with which you can control the playback of sound, simply by moving physical bricks around on a table surface. The ConDio uses pattern recognition to determine the position of the different blocks, which translates into a specific function, for instance one brick changes the track that is being played, others applies filters.

It’s remarkably simple, efficient and intuitive to control a computer in this fashion, and it was a real crowd puller.

The ConDio has been developed by the medialogy branch of the University of Aalborg, and It was really great talking to the students that were responsible for the project. They were really feeding from the enthusiasm of the people that were looking at it.

I’m really envious that the students of today get to play with technology like this, to quote Haladjjan, the founder of Violet (manufacturer of the Nabaztag intelligent WiFi bunny):

“le début de l’internet a été une aimable kermesse… Maintenant les choses sérieuses commencent” - (translation: “the beginning of the Internet has been a friendly festival…Now the serious stuff begins”.

What a great time in history to be alive in.

Kim Bach - The failed scientist

I also enjoyed visiting the Bio Chemistry tent, where I had a discussion about how to bring science to the public (”videnskabs formidling”). The scientist in charge asked me it I’ve heard about Jens Martin Knudsen - and the regular reader would know that I just posted a tribute to him - we need more like him - since he was able to bring across complicated matters in lay-mans terms - we also discussed the great Richard Dawkins.

What I really hope is that someone could take up the reins from Jens Martin Knudsen, because we need those positive role-models from the scientific community to teach us the importance of understanding our world.

I also had a chance to redeem myself. I label my self a “failed scientist”. I’m really a product of the inspiration of the space program and the lunar missions, and when I was a kid, I desperately wanted to become a scientist - but “something” happened along the way - and it’s too complicated to talk about here - but I basically got fed up with boring educational system.

But it does seem like I have some basic scientific intuition, and I got some high marks from “the teacher” for thinking like a scientist, when I was observing the strange creature the Daphnia.

It was also interesting talking to the students from the Nano technology line. They’re looking into how to produce solar arrays that are less harsh on the environment, it turns out that you can use fruit juice from black berries as the base of a solar cell, instead of silicon - amazing.

Bend my circuits

But what I really enjoyed the most, was the tent dedicated to audio, which also included live performances from Dødskuglen, Rumpistol and Bjørn Svin (who I missed).

In the tent some interesting and simple demonstrators were set up, one was a Theremin that was controlled by a plant. You could actually play music by touching the leaves of the plant - very entertaining. Another was a tube with a number of nozzles from which gas could escape, and be lit, if you then played music, the sound-waves would modulate the flames - Daft Punk’s Robot Rock looked quite good “going up in flames”.

Dødskuglen plays with circuit bending, and they had gutted a lot of electronics with audio capabilities, for instance a couple of Furbys, that now looked - and sounded - like mean birds, and when you hooked them up to a keyboard, they were capable of making some wonderful noise.

Dødskuglen has their name from a dome shaped device, that is the center-piece of their show. According to them it’s filled with gutted electronics from Happy Meals and the like - I’m not surprised.

We also got a live demonstration of how to circuit bend - don’t try this at home - you might hit the AC power-supply and die - but if you’re careful, just take a cheap electronic keyboard apart, and try to apply some wire patches live - it was amazing to hear how the standard drum-machine suddenly went into a completely different state, and sounded completely different, only to return to it’s standard loop after being reset.

Kim Bach - The failed musician

After Dødskuglen, Rumpistol took the stage, and he’s using his computer in combination with analogue synthesisers to produce great electronica.

Besides being a failed scientist, I also consider myself a failed musician, but with the simple technology being showcased here, that is so much more fun and intuitive to control than a traditional instrument, I might be able to express myself - I know that I have some music in my head - maybe I can finally make some music - I know that I want a copy of the guitar simulator for the Nintendo DS called Jam Sessions.

A child’s mind

There’s a strange unifying synergy between science and music. When doing science and music, you really need to have a child’s mind, and like to play. That’s something I still, I’d say increasingly, possess - so I might still become a scientist/musician. It’s also noteworthy that a number of my heroes for instance RMS (Richard Stallman) and N (Peter Naur), actually play music themselves.

I went home after having had a great time, with renewed faith in our educational system, it seems to be producing playful scientists - I wished someone had told me that science was about playing, when I was a student.

I hope that Science After Dark will become a recurring event.

Show your <3 for science - make some NOIIIIISSSSSEEEEE!!!

I did, however, hear some rumours the Science After Dark has been frowned upon from the established scientific community. Come down from your ivory towers, Science is FUN and NOISY. Show your <3 for Science - make some NOIIIIISSSSSEEEEE!!!

As you might remember, I just found a surprising winner in the contest to find the device best suited for basic Internet access - like Jaiku presence checking - at a public hotspot: the Nintendo DS, with the Opera browser. Since all my “computers” have “names” - a practice I learned from Jerry Pournelle @ Chaos Manor - my DS is now officially baptised “Tölva”.

For the last week I’ve been carrying my “weapon of choice”,”Tölva”, around town, and I’ll be maintaining a list of “Tölva” friendly hotspots on my web-site (most likely the wiki).

Copenhagen:

• High Q (WEP encrypted, ask for WEP keyphrase in the bar. I am considering talking them into joining FON - which shouldn’t prove too daunting a task ;-))
• K-I-B - Kulturhus Islands Brygge (open)
• Drop Inn (open)
• Pegasus (open)
• The Laundromat Nørrebro (open - strange generic SSID though - Belkin I believe it is)
• Den Brune Kødby - Bygning 55 (open)

I’m still amazed at the battery-life of the Nintendo DS. I hope to be able to compare it to other highly mobile Wi-Fi capable devices like the Nokia N95, in the future.

Fredagsrock - The Sandmen, København – Last.fm on the 25th of May 2007, I attended the performance by The Sandmen in Tivoli, Copenhagen.

Tivoli has, for a number of years now, had gigs featuring local and international acts every Friday during the opening season, and it’s been quite a success, reviving the old gardens. But I hope that the tour guides advise their older tourists, not to choose a Friday, where a big international act visits Tivoli, for their only visit to the gardens, this Friday would have been OK though, since the crowd was modest.

Back to the gig…

Amazingly enough this was the first time I attended a “The Sandmen” gig, so I really didn’t have any expectations, it’s obvious that the band has suffered from the passing of guitarist Sam Mitchell, who took the band to a higher level musically.

At first the sound was quite bad, mostly the drums seemed to be produced down, but gradually it improved, and for Tivoli this was really rock’n'roll.

I find the guitarist to be the weakest link, but what he does, he does well. Allan Veggenfeldt is as great a singer as ever, and the rhythm section is very tight .

I think The Sandmen would benefit from the addition of a new lead guitarist, even though Sam Mitchell can’t be replaced, and the comparisons would be inevitable, I think it would be a good idea.

The highlights of the gig was the psychedelic set finisher, that sent me into a trancelike state, that I enjoyed very much.

But what I enjoyed the most, was that I had a great, quiet - without being low-key, night out with “the boys” - are we growing up? - and an audience of (other) 40-somethings, that seemed to know the lyrics, and had a wonderful time.

Thank you to “the boys”, it was great!

On the day that Denmark commemorates the Liberation after WWII, a major international act gave an exclusive concert, outside Copenhagen, and, for once, in a place other than Horsens. And since it was Miss KittyKat, Giselle herself, that grazed the city of Aalborg, in the North of Jutland, with her presence, you might have guessed that I bought a ticket right after it went on sale - no surprise there.

I consider Miss Giselle Knowles, better know as Beyoncé, to be a very talented woman, but my expectations, before the concert, were not that high. The reason being, that I saw her in New York in april of 2004 at the “Women First” tour, and her performance back then, was nowhere near the level of the performance by Alicia Keys, but one thing I knew for sure, was that we would be given a show of some proportions, and that I was looking forward to.

I’m of the opinion that Beyoncé owes a lot to Tina Turner, and she is, to great extend, inspired by Tina Turner in her show.

The first thing I noticed was, to my great surprise, that the band had an all-woman line up. And that was a pleasant, and welcome surprise, and my oh my what great musicians. The line-up was two drummers, a percussionist, a guitarist, a bass-player, I believe that I counted three keyboard-players and a horn section of three.

All the musicians were really accomplished, and the real highlights of the concert, were the solo performances, especially a tour-de-force by the bass-player, where the entire band joined in performing Michael Jacksons “Can’t stop till I get enough”.

Beyoncé also brought with her three great backing singers, and we’re talking certified quality here, I noticed that they occasionally, especially at the end of the show, took over from Beyoncé.

The dancers were great, and the only men on stage were dancers - way to go - another highlight of the show, was a ballet like sequence by two of the dancers. Beyoncé is herself, a great dancer, and it is in her dancing, which is very energetic, that I find some of the strongest parallels to Tina Turner.

Beyoncé CAN sing, and a few times she gave me the chills. If I have to pick highlights from the show, I’d pick the version of “Crazy In Love”, that got mixed with the great track “Crazy” by “Gnarls Barkley”, the surprise act of 2006. I especially enjoyed the occasions when the arrangements were altered the most, “Babyboy” that turned into a long belly-dancing act. Since Beyoncé has had such a short solo-career, the middle of the gig was filled with a medley of Destiny’s Child songs, the strongest being “Bug-a-boo”, “Survivor” and “Independent Women”.

Two of my favourite tracks from the new album “Suga Mama”, which seems to be the theme of the tour, and especially “Green Light” I think were highlights of the show. From the first album, I really liked the version of “Me Myself and I”, it’s great track, and I really enjoyed this altered, slow version, mostly performed a-cappella. The version of “Ring The Alarm” was great as well, I’d think twice even considering straying form the “thin and narrow” if I ever got involved with women like that - “I stamped his passport! With a KNIFE! To his CHEST! Destination - HELL” - ouch!

All in all we were treated to an almost 2 hour show, with encores, and I think most of us left the venue with a smile on our face, hey I even think I “believe” that I made her wave when she was thanking “our” section. She thanks the audience in a rather strong way, by trying to establish eye-contact with the audience, spending something like 15-30 seconds just looking at one section of the audience, before proceeding to the next section.

I love her for pushing the idea of the confident, strong and independent woman, and in that respect she’s actually a great role-model for women, and I consider Beyoncé to be some sort of goddess…She’s sexy, but she can carry it, it’s never vulgar. I have no idea what it is she does so differently than most of her colleges, but that alone is not a small feat.

But…And there is at least one but…Beyoncé, her undisputed talent aside, is mostly a “product”, and this is becoming clearer and clearer, and I’ve bought into it. Yes she’s gorgeous, but her music is so-so. I think that the new album is quite a lot better than the first, and it’s much better than most other RnB offerings, but I think she could do so much better. For now I think I’m done buying this product, even though I enjoyed the concert very much.

And I would have liked a performance of the track “Kitty Kat” :-(. I know it’s not that strong a track - but I like it - and it has some special meaning to me.

Since Aalborg is at the opposite end of the country, I decided to make the most of the day, by combining the concert, with a mini-vacation. Aalborg is a city I know very little, and my trip was unexpectedly prolonged, when I missed the last train, so I also had a glimpse of the legendary Aalborg nightlife, and I must say that it lives up to it’s reputation, even though it wasn’t to my taste. Aalborg is a very “young” city, and Aalborg has a very international and trendy atmosphere - comparing the way the young people in Aalborg dresses, to Copenhagen, it looks like Copenhagen is behind in trendiness and fashion awareness.

The centre of the city has been restored with great respect to the old medieval town layout, it’s all very clean, and it looks like a major restoration of the harbour area is in it’s early stages - and that looks promising. One thing I really like is that all the street-signs in the centre of town, has an explanation of the history and etymology of the street names. The history of Aalborg is very interesting, for instance Aalborg was the centre of one of the only real rebellions by danes, when Skipper Clement lead a rising of the farmers in 1534, during the civil-war know as Grevens Fejde (The Count’s Feud).

Besides walking around the town, I also managed to cover two of the main tourist attractions: “The Art Museum - Nordjyllands Kunstmuseeum” and I got to enjoy the spectacular view from the “Aalborg Tower”, but mostly I just enjoyed spending such a wonderful spring-day in Aalborg, and I want to go back.

Finally: If I didn’t know that things happen by chance, and that life is random, I would really ponder the fact that the Art Museum was selling jewellery made by Mikala Mortensen, and that the sales clerk told me that he owns some cuff-links from the “green” series - you know two years ago I asked her if she made jewellery for men? Obviously she does now! I know it’s just a coincidence. It’s also a coincidence that I found myself in front of a store called Isis, that the choreography at the Beyoncé show, at one point made it look like she had wings, making the scene, from my vantage point, look just like my favourite carving at Philae, and finally I once again captured a bird in flight, that I didn’t notice, this happens at the strangest places, like the Valley of the Kings, Amagertorv and something that looked like a shrine to Tibet and humanity at the Art Museum in Aalborg. I know that it’s also a coincidence that I stumbled upon a trekking offer in Nepal and Thailand at a travel-agency my good friend Jes has worked at, and that we discussed friday. I need to be careful not to over-interpret these “signs”.

Other links:
soundvenue.dk: To be or not to Beyoncé - 5/6 stared review (in Danish)

Friday the 30th of March 2007 I attended the performance by Ghostigital at the Loppen venue in Copenhagen. I have little to say, it was pretty amazing, but way way too loud, so I followed the lead of others and went outside, OMG they REALLY tried to tear down the house, it felt like the bricks were moving, but again it was WAY WAY too loud! We only have two ears! I hate to write this review, because the volume made it impossible to enjoy the music. This is only the second time in my life I’ve left a concert early because it was too loud - the first time was when The Nomads played BarBue ca. 1988! Closing note: Ghostigital has collaborated with Bob Log III - sounds “interesting” - unfortunately they didn’t bring him (at least while I was at the venue - otoh it could be that Bob Log III really is a member of Ghostigital.

Luckily the evening had already been saved: we were treated to great music from the DJ and the fantastic opening act Snake and Jet’s Amazing Bullit Band. S&J’sABB is a two piece act, one drummer and a keyboard/guitar/vocalist. If I have to label the music, I’d say sixties, with references to surf, sci-fi and The Doors. Highly recommended. Fantastic musicians.

Check Snake and Jet’s MySpace profile.

Mandag den 4-December-2006, gæstede Busta Rhymes K.B Hallen på Frederiksberg. Det var momentvis en god oplevelse, hvor Busta Rhymes viste sit store talent, og her mener jeg som rapper, desværre var det som sagt kun momentvist, men det var som forventet.

Jeg fatter ikke hvorfor et så stort internationalt navn tropper op med så tynd en besætning, vi blev spist af med et 2 MC+1 DJ sæt, ingen gæste artister udover Spliff, som var med hele vejen. Jeg havde da forventet et par gæster fra det store Flip Mode Squad, men det er måske ikke money in the bank.

KB Hallen var måske også lidt for stor til showet, jeg syntes ikke om den alt for kraftige publikums belysning, og hardcore hip-hop folket fyldte heller ikke så meget. Busta Rhymes vil gerne være mainstream og det smitter åbenbart af på publikums sammensætningen.

Til DJens (D-Jens…LOL) sidste kommentar! Nej! Det er bestemt ikke den bedste hip-hop koncert jeg har være til, alene i år slår Masta Ace og specielt Clotaire K fætter BR med flere længder…Come on…KEEP IT REAL! Det kunne have været SÅ meget federe.

Men det var BESTEMT ikke spild af tid, og jeg fik da hoppet og bobbet et par minutter, og det er jo altid rart, og når Busta tager sin rap “low and fast” så kører han cirkler om de fleste, KRÆS for KENDERE!

Missing 1 (one) ball lost at the R*A*W party in Silo, Islands Brygge, actually it *was* a sacrifice, so please keep it whoever has it now.
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COMA COMA COMA

http://www.comaclub.dk

My first rave for what seems an eternity. Actually it was! 12 years.

I guess the Baker man also went to the KRAFTWERK! concert and decided that he needed to dust off the good old 1210’s and his KRAFTWERK! biscuits.

MY GOD DID I EVER MISS IT!!!
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My colleague had me convinced that I should go see the Raveonettes, I’m glad that I did - they really gave quite a performance.