Coldcut have been a huge part of my musical lIfe, through their performances (playing the Black Beauty theme during a set at Tribal Gathering, four deck wizardry at the 333 in Hoxton, and an amazing night at the Imperial Gardens in the late 1990s are particular fond memories), their recorded music and also the huge … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 2006
Category: Projects
The week in a photo... East Wittering
After the turmoil of 2004, 2005 quiet frankly got weirder. I started the new job working in management training and as a result found myself commuting great distances to stand up in front of groups of complete strangers to talk about things that I may or may not have had any particular knowledge. Was this … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 2005
2004 was a really weird year. After eight years at the BBC, I came to realise that I needed a change. I needed to get out before I was institutionalised (even harder that I had a familial relationship with Aunty Beeb because it was where my parents had both worked and met in the 1960s). … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 2004
This week I have learned: if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...the football stuff is getting nerve wracking.without a massive shindig every year in Barcelona, some companies' business models start to look a bit threadbare.I'm still hiring - 5 days to go...buildings are living, socio-technical systems.a new angle on thinking about … Continue reading Weeknote 493: End of term
Ms Jackson was the song that got me into OutKast, but by the time they got to Speakboxxx/The Love Below they hit the big time with the single Hey Ya!, radio friendly pop with the wonderful "Shake it like a Polaroid picture" which immediately makes it seem like decades ago, and deeply, deeply dark lyrics … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 2003
This week I have learned: that a combination of rain and back to back meetings means I've barely left the house this week.there is a fine line between therapeutic and annoying.parent/child relationships exist all over the place. Often switching mid sentence.it's one thing to know what you need to do, but quite another to convince … Continue reading Weeknote 492 – housebound
Blazing Arrow by Blackalicious is a stupendous album. No track better illustrates it than Chemical Callisthenics. And then you've got guest slots from Gil Scott-Heron, Chali 2na and Cut Chemist too. https://open.spotify.com/album/0DyXkWHnFMIJSuHfLgNfcc?si=_5myObGfRRaYiipQsQgPow You can see the #51for50 project to date here: https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/category/projects/51-for-50/
Roots Manuva was the first time that I heard an authentically British hip hop voice. Something that made sense... Lyrics like "Taskmaster burst the bionic zit-splitterBreakneck speeds we down ten pints of bitter" are not the sort of things that come out of New York rapper. It's a bit like how all American films seem … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 2001
And so we enter my fourth millennium and one of the few guitar-based albums to enter my noggin in my mid twenties and thirties. Badly Drawn Boy’s The Hour of Bewilderbeast is touching, sweet, whimsical. Almost folk music. And it captures a feel of my time back then. It’s only now though that I’ve realised … Continue reading 51 for 50 – 2000
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