DO IT! live jam # 1

End of May and getting ready for some major upcoming DO IT! gigs, The Villa on the 12th June and 25th June at Blå with esteemed and much revered guests Mweslee and Telephones, myself (Uraki Riddim), Inko and the Cupofill illustration crew hooked up for a bit of a jam session. Inko has been working on some really sick live stuff recently developing his already progressive production skills, on show on his myspace, and through online releases such as the great Oscillations compilation. I dropped some beats and scratches on one turntable and a mixer while Inko went through his new beats on the MPD. As with all DO IT! events there was a visual backdrop; on this occasion it was Cupofill, who sketched with some fat black markers on white paper live to the heavy sounds we created. Attached are some pics from the session and a rough recording (real rough as this was the first time Inko and I ever hooked up). We hope you enjoy it. It's gonna be something fresh and ready to bust your eardrums and a groove for June 25th!
Live session 28.05.10 by Uraki Riddim

Nou Norge Gem in the Rough

Scotland on Sunday recently published my travel piece on coastal Norwegian town Ålesund. The vibrancy of the town combined with the enthusiastic forward thinking from local creatives such as architects Sandbakk & Patterson and the owners of design hub and gourmet coffee cafe Invit left me with a memorable and favorable impression. Aside from these innovators there was room for restauarants with water-side access to allow for the delivery of fresh seafood everyday and a hotel designed by the world renowned architects Snøhetta, Hotel Brosundet. While the experience was resoundingly positive, when comparing my hometown of Aberdeen to Ålesund it paints a grey picture of the lack of culture vibrancy supported by the local state and private sector in Scotland's Granite City. With proposed projects such as concreting over a renowned Victorian garden (one of the only green spaces in the city centre) to become a carpark and consumer playground it is left to young artists to support themselves and develop Aberdeen's culture identity independently. One of the few sprouts of green shoots in the creative sector in Aberdeen has been the transofrmation of a derelict basement site into the base for 26 Collective. I hope that for the sake of the city, these young innovators are allowed to flourish and paint a more gleaming picture of the city.

scanned image of Scotland on Sunday, Spectrum magazine 9th May 2010.

Designer Roots

Jacqueline Carlisle's ever improving Think magazine recently released their fourth issue in time for Earth Day. My editorial contribution in the latest issue comes in the form of a piece entitled 'Designer Roots' and aims to introduce readers to the existing world and potential of Biomimicry. In conjunction with this field, architects such as Oslo based Bifokal have opened my eyes recently to the potential design can have as a tool for tangible knowledge value as opposed to the hot air we have become accustomed to from certain other designers in recent times. Design inspired by nature has a refreshing ring to it in the hangover of a period of excessive consumption and greedy attempts to defy nature's logic. As much as I felt for those left stranded and apart from loved ones, there was something refreshing with the recent flight restrictions due to a volcanic eruption in Iceland. It would be great if for one week a year we could plan in advance to stop all flights as to ease congestion and stop the incessant and ridiculous notion that we need to move non-stop around the world at all times. Master of marrying the poetic daydreams of yesteryears philosophers to modern day dilemmas - Alain de Botton published a great article about the notion of a world without planes. Read it here.

photo from Biomimicry workshop at AHO in Oslo by John Christer Høiby 2010.

Catch of The Day

Way back mid 00s; amongst the energetic illustrations and polemic wordage of hyperdope Lowdown magazine I came across a write up on a guy called Flying Lotus. Didn't need any encouragement to hit up his myspace after reading up on the Coltrane and Dilla links and wasn't exaclty dissapointed! What has happened since then, not many could comprehend. Going into Summer 2010 it is as if we have gone back to the early 90s - the heydays of triphop, beats and 808s - when post rave festivals such as Tribal Gatherings were getting off to DJs like Krush and James Lavelle (pre Unkle). Sounds from 'grimey London', 'sunny Cali' and the 'motorcity folklore of Detroit' stir the imagination before even listening to anything so it has been of great pleasure to recenty discover some Nordic talent outside of these big hitting 'beats' hotbeds. A graphic designer and hottly tipped producer to boot, Offshore comes from my hometown Aberdeen. His beats and mixes meld raw energy with maturity and music knowledge that are rarely found by Djs over indulging in one of the many genres that he splices and blends with ease. Over the North Sea, Inko has been surviving the Norsk winters for over five years developing a sound which shares the melodic rough bristles of Flying Lotus with exotic boombap depth. Be sure to try catch them at the following DO IT! nights;

OFFSHORE - DO IT! abz - May 7th at The Tunnels

INKO - DO IT! oslo - June 25th at Bla

New Ink in 3D

New Ink is going 3D! None of that 90s 3D cereal box giveaway nonsense though. In fact, we are working on some fresh ropa (clothes) straight outta Oslo. This Summer, New Ink will unveil three fresh t-shirt designs and the Uraki pattern tote bag (check out Uraki Riddim myspace for the design). Uraki pattern was inspired by the discovery that the first ever city in the world was from Iraq, Uruk. Uraki represents the terminology for a citizen of this first city. The other designs will be inspired by the contents of the blog - architecture, beats, illustration, landscapes and abstraction. Check out some of the early sketches and be sure to get in touch if you are interested in picking up one of these hot cakes pre-release.

Illustrations by Alexander Horne (me) 2010.

DO IT! oslo 12.03

Our second DO IT! session in Oslo welcomes some of the biggest droppers of mektig (heavy) beats this side of the Viking peninsula, the Bitch Boys, spinning hot tracks next to an exciting live solo project from promising Bergen band, Leif and The Future. All this mixed in with our intercontinental Oslo residents and Cupofill, one of the freshest crews to hit Oslo, since they first imported Colgate, will be throwing the laws of illustration out the window and getting down to a serious live ink'n'sketch session throughout the evenings proceedings. MIR is a bric brac artsy hide away bar shrowded in internationally famed graffiti artist' pieces in a building which contains a lo fi music studio used by local punk bands and uber hip illustrators and graphic designers Yokoland. Turn up and represent if in the Oslo area and for those in Aberdeen make sure to catch some of the artsy goings on throughout Saturday evening 13.03 and culminating with a DO IT! night at Tunnels.

Poster: by Alexander Horne (me!) 2010.

Scando Robot Funk

Wading through the splutter of very ordinary Indie acts at Norway's by:larm festival last week, I came across my first direct experience of Skwee music courtesy of a night dedicated to it at underground Oslo club The Villa. Skwee has been bubbling under the radar for a while since one of the genre's first international introductions via Sonar 2008. It generally sounds like future funk made by machines from the era when they looked like cyborg robots and has roots mostly from Scandinavia, particularly Sweden and Finland. I had a chance to meet one of the scenes driving figures, Mesak, during by:larm and got so excited by the sounds I heard at The Villa and on his new album The School of Mesak - I've written a review about both that night and the album. There is something for beats heads, disco, house and even grime DJs in this album - be sure to get on this Scando-wagon and pick it up!

Skwee/Mesak street tag

Design Think-ing

'Intrinsic Incision' article featuring Ronen Kadushin is now published in issue 3 of US based, sustainable design magazine Think. I will be contributing design editor for the same magazine's forthcoming special 'Earth Day' issue which will be online around the end of April, to coincide with other Earth Day events around the globe. Earth Day originated around 1970 as a day of educational talks and debate to raise awareness about environmental concerns. You can find out about some of the various events going on throughout the globe on the Earth Day network site.

Think magazine issue 3