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  • Ou Est Le Swimming Pool: Jackson’s Last Stand Review

    ou est la swimming pool

    Ou Est Le Swimming Pool have been slowly building a name for themselves on the live circuit over the past year, helped along by supporting La Roux and a cracker of a tune ‘Dance The Way I Feel‘, which I played to death on the Culture Cafe.

    The North London trio are back with ‘Jackson’s Last Stand’, the follow up to ‘These New Knights’. From the first bass synth sound this is unmistakably ‘Ou Est Le Swimming Pool’, mix this with vocal layering and slight harmonies and you have a rare fact that a band can have an instantly distinguishable sound after only their third single.

    ‘Jackson’s Last Stand’ is an uptempo dance synth track, slight 80’s throwback, yes, but also contemporary. Put these along with singable lyrics and you’re on to a winner.

    Looking forward to the album. Catch them at Oxegen.

  • My review mentioned on Plan B’s website..

    Yip..  Well chuffed I am, my review of ‘The Defamation of Strickland Banks’ is currently being linked to from Plan B’s official site. I’m the top review.. Smiley me…

    nessy's review on time4plan b
    Mine's the top review

  • Discussion on New and Social Media

    we-live-in-publicI’m taking part in this tonight if you’re around.

    On Monday 14th June at 7.30pm, RAG will host a discussion on the many uses and dangers of ‘new media’, the possibilities for positive change and ‘radical democracy’ via the internet, the dilemma of ‘internet neurosis’ where feelings of vulnerability and fears of exploitation need to be negotiated in order to utilize the internet as activists, artists and self-publishers and the potential of the internet as a force for oppression and control.

    The discussion will take place in Seomra Spraoi. All welcome.

    Wikipedia describes new media in the following terms:

    New media is a broad term that emerged in the later part of the 20th century to encompass the amalgamation of traditional media such as film, images, music, spoken and written word, with the interactive power of computer and communications technology, computer-enabled consumer devices and most importantly the internet. New media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community formation around the media content. What distinguishes New media from traditional media is not the digitizing of media content into bits, but the dynamic life of the “new media” content and its interactive relationship with the media consumer. Another important promise of New Media is the “democratization” of the creation, publishing, distribution and consumption of media content.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media)

    This meeting will be facilitated by Emily Aoibheann.

    So what is RAG?

    The RAG is a magazine produced by a diverse group of anarcha-feminist women in Dublin. We are all feminists, united in our recognition that women’s subordination exists. We are all anarchists, united in our belief for the need to create alternatives to this capitalistic, patriarchal society wherein all are dominated and exploited.

  • Radio DJ vs Radio Presenter

    radio_dj

    Over the past while the issue of what a Radio DJ is and what a radio presenter is, has come up in conversation many times. Probably because, in college, the category at this years Hybrid Awards was titled ‘Radio Presenter’ while at the Smedias it was titled ‘Radio DJ’. I would consider the two to be very different.

    Firstly if someone said to me that they were a DJ, I would presume that they were a mixmaster playing pumping tunes. If someone is a Radio DJ, I would say that they were a ‘This is.. that was.. ‘ type of person who works on a CHR station filling the listeners head with back to back tunes and a few funny tidbits along the way with their ‘less talk’, as a lot of them brand themselves.

    I’ve only been involved in radio since last September after not doing anything in the radio field for something like thirteen years but I never considered myself a DJ, even as a young whippersnapper broadcasting from a garden shed. Even now if someone says ‘oh you’re a DJ’, it doesn’t particularly feel right.

    When I filled out the form for the Hybrid Awards there was a section asking something like ‘Write a brief statement of why you submitted this work’. I put down that I wanted to be more than a ‘This is … that was..’ presenter. If I was listening to the radio I want to be engaged, I like to hear opinions and questions. If I want to listen to music, I can stick on itunes. (more…)