Marc Reck

Every last thursday of the month, me and Vj Blendstate get to play in the lovely back bar of the Hare & Hounds. He plays visuals and i play music, and its a nice environment to play the more downtempo side to the collection.

Free entry as the poster says, and musically ranges from afrobeat, trip hop, etc all the way through to nu-swing, funk and even a little jazzy drum & bass when people to start to their groove on.

It’s diverse and to suit the mood anyway, and a nice testing bed for new music. Basically a couple of monkeys in the back bar, hence the name. Here’s a pic with an added cow

I’ll post the tracklistings now i’ve worked out an easy way to do it, and we should have a special guest coming down to play some of his favourite downtempo tracks.

Here’s a little bit of video from Blendstate’s visuals at the end of the one in April. Music is Dub Fx who played at the Mr Elephant 2nd Birthday. You can buy his music from his website. Most recommended

This from our Mr Elephant Website

Last night in a cosy 160 people live music venue in Digbeth called the Adam & Eve, 3 live Birmingham Artists, and 1 alternative dj gathered together to create a night to remember, going by the names of Black Heart Generator, Geordie Blake, Andre Aristotle & The other woman club dj. (Unfortunately Barnesy had to cancel at the last minute due to a broken guitar.)

This was our first rock and indie Live & Free event, and with the mighty Supersonic Festival just around the corner we really weren’t sure how it was going to go. What followed where 3 inspiring live performances & 5 hours of quality djed music, which left our souls touched and our ears ringing!

Cassie from the Other Woman Club djs was introduced to us by Carlo from 444, two individuals who are key in our live music scene. Cassie is one of the leading djs on the local indie scene and has a wealth of experience from promoting the Barfly to writing for the N.M.E. What was special about her djing was that she can work a crowd, has a vast selection of great music, and really knows how to use it. Effortlessly hopping genres, Cassie both engaged the dancefloor, whilst also leading beautifully in and out of each live act. Most definitely someone we hope will be appearing at future events, and you can keep up to speed with her own appearances and projects via this facebook group.

First up on the live stage, was Mr Geordie Blake from Shana Tova, who was performed his first solo set in the history of his impressive career. What followed was a powerful and at times moving display of great musicianship, impressive vocals, and beautifully crafted tracks, which left the listener locked and moved at the same time. Pop hooks with rock guitars and a brilliant voice (even with an apparently sore throat)… Geordie Blake has songs that you want to hear again and again, and i feel is one of our cities hidden gems.

Next up was Andre Aristotle, another artist with a truly great voice. Vocal melodies were hit each time with pitch perfect accuracy, and members of the audience were notably surprised that the whole performance was one man a mic, and a roland 505 groovebox, Dark indie electro pop is the best i can describe it as. which told of tales of ketamine spiked experiences, and portrayals of life in Sheldon, all of which took you to a place which could have very easily existed in a film, (and probably further exemplified by the nice use of lighting courtesy of the top venue sound engineer.)

Last up were our headliners Black Heart Generator who absolutely blew the roof off. The power generated by only 3 people was immense, and the hooks, musicianship and synergy of the 3 individuals created something raw, and energy fuelled. A perfect balance of punk rock and alternative indie hooks, with a sound that seemed inspired by bands like the Pixies and Nirvana, through to Joy Division and at times even Napalm Death. They finished their set with a great cover of Nirvana’s Molly’s Lips, leaving the crowd hyped and happy.

The photos above are courtesy of a new member of the Elephant collective who joined us for the evening. Mr Will Marsden, son of Keith & Diane (who you may recall as hosts of our first home at Epic Skate Park, or our 1st family event at the Prince, has recently finished a photography course, and was keen to flex his skills and new slr camera, so we were most chuffed that he was down with the eve. You can check out his work above, and he’ll be appearing next at our 2nd Cinephonic event at the Hare & Hounds on Sat 8th August.

Huge thanks to everyone who came down on sat, and our next live and free will be with none other than Mama Matrix and Laura Louise on Sat August 22nd @ Adam & Eve in Digbeth.

UPDATE : Mr Rich Batsford has written this great write up on website -

This copied from our Mr Elephant Website

Yes yes, we are chuffed to have our radio show back on the airwaves, so without further ado, here’s what was played in the Rhubarb Studio by our host Marc Reck.

Tracklisting

1. Nitin Sawhney – Beyond Skin – Homelands

2. Fun Lovin’ Criminals Scooby Snacks (Schmoove Version)

3. Bomb The Bass – Bug Powder Dust – The K&D Sessions

4. Percy Filth Ft Sonny Jim, Foreign Beggars, & Dj Weetamix – Out To Getcha – Elbow Grease

5. Riz MC – Post 911 Blues (Fantastic Mr Fox Remix)

6. Mestizo & Mike Gao – Pick Up 52′s – Electro Swing

7. Beenie Man – Who Am I

8. Senser – Switch – Stacked Up

9. The Destroyers – Copanitsas – Out Of Babel E.P

10. Idlewild – American English – Scottish Fiction

11. Black Heart Generator – Summer Snake

12. Nirvana – Aneurysm – Incesticide

13. We Were Promised Jetpacks – Ships With Holes Will Sink – These Four Walls

14. Propellerheads – Decksandrumsandrockandroll Spybreak!

15. Si Begg – The Bleeps (Shades Of Rhythm rmx)

16. Concord Dawn + Ill.Skillz – Be There 4 U

17. Si Begg – My Style (Ill Gates and Stefane ‘Teknostep’ Vera Remix)

18. Drumattic Twins – Crazy Love (Peo De Pitte rmx) – Crazy Love EP

19. Alphadrive – White Noise EP The Chain (Promo Version)

20. Plan B – No Good (Chase & Status Remix)

21. Ez Rollers – Tough At The Top

22. Bobby Mcferrin – Dont Worry Be Happy

“You can listen again to this show from the rhubarb page, and from the player on my dj site, or right click + save as to download it for your mp3 player, and if you like the artists the links to their last fm profiles in the tracklisting are for your digging pleasure.

Comments and feedback always welcome and cheers for listening
Marc x”

This copied from our Mr Elephant Website

At our 2nd birthday we hosted a programme of free drop in workshops to enable people (of all ages) to try some of the activities associated with members of the Mr Elephant collective.

One of the ideas was to provide a starting point for a proposed programme of more in depth workshops for anyone who wanted to develop the related activity. Another aim which we’ve had from the beginning was to enable people to get involved with Mr Elephant events on a more deeper level.

Its happened on the curation and the performance side from the start, but we weren’t expecting things to sprout so soon from the 2nd birthday taster workshops, but already three of the workshops have produced follow on …happenings!

The vj workshops hosted by Liam D’Authreau (Blendstate visuals) & Tony Coleman (The Lab) have gone on to participants performing live with legendary techno dj Billy Nasty, and a spark plug for the highly anticipated Lab dvd, which is set for the release in the Autum of this year.

The dj workshop hosted by Marc Reck have begun the participants starting fortnightly one-to-one sessions.

And the animation made by some of our younger guests in the workshop hosted by community artist Clare Evans , has been used by the vjs on the night at our 2nd birthday, and the recent live and free event while the Hidden Half were performing.

This kind of cross pollination happens regularly at lots of different levels in Mr Elephant, and there are some shining examples of it happening on larger scales in the city, such as the ever growing Project X Presents Events, and the cross pollination which happens either on a public levels, or within the collectives, makes the events such fertile breeding grounds for new creative collaboration, and grass roots platforms for cross artform learning. Some nice examples of this have happened recently , with both our guests and residents, such as our resident cameraman dropping some records at the last Party Rockin Mammals, our resident vj setting up and promotin his own event, and our resident dj getting to vj for the Heels after a quick hands on tutorial, and a member our guest band vjing to a dj set for the first time at a recent live and free.

We like things like this as they always produce interesting new directions, build shared interests, but ultimately the Mr Elephant workshops will be aimed at the public. Realising there are many levels to this idea, we are aiming to provide many levels of getting involved with Mr Elephant, and are trying not to limit to one age, or demograph. There’s the mask making, and poodle parades, through to the drumming and interactive performance art, and the aforementioned drop in taster workshops through to providing a full programme of professional knowledge.

We hope to faciliate this happening all the way through to a regular mutually beneficial programme, and things are shaping up well. Like the events we aim to make this engaging, and accessible to all people, so they will always be done as grass roots as possible, as we believe that is what allows real mixes of people which has beneficial effects.

Here’s some animation made by kids who’d never done it before, facilitated by the very talented Clare Evans, and if you want to get in touch feel free – mrelephantpresents@gmail.com

“Namba Gear is a California based bag and accessories company that designs and produces premium, high performance solutions for the working musician. Namba Gear is both a musician/dj and lifestyle brand. The essence of the brand is defined by the working musicians and dj’s at Namba Gear who are dedicated to creating and delivering exceptional, high performance based carrying solutions that will stand up to the unique and rigorous workload of professional musicians.”

There’s a lot of quality carry options on the market these days for electronic musicians, digital djs, and digital vjs, but very little for the all in one options, or carriages that are big enough to house controllers and larger laptops. Thankfully Namba have provided a high quality option, and from first impressions, it looks like they’ve done a great job.

Its all really well designed, and there’s enough space to fit everything in (laptop, leads, soundcard, midi controller keyboard, headphones, and timecode vinyl/cds) While i couldnt quite get the cd wallet in there as well, you have plenty of space if not taking a 25 key midi controller… The power supply on my laptop is like a brick too, so that would leave more space.

Construction looks solid and durable (there’s what looks like a seatbelt for the smaller carry bag’s strap!) and for the money (about 150 dollars a third of which was transport costs), its a worthy purchase.

Currently you can’t buy them in this country, largely because the stockists havent had the demand, so the cheapest option i found was from www.audiomidi.com, and emailing them direct to get lower delivery costs (which take longer, but halves the cost) Their service was great and it took about 1-2 weeks.

Alternatively contact the local shop and say you want to get one. The more demand there is the sooner they will be stocked, and for anyone that wants to take it all with them, these look to be one of the best options.

This copied from our Mr Elephant Website

Yes, yes, we are most excited to announce that our big little radio show is back on the rhubarb airwaves, every monday evening from 6-8pm from 20th July 2009.

After a somewhat shaky start we decided that their was too much technical difficulties with trying to stream from home, which meant the show was at the mercy of Marc’s dj gig commitments, which were pretty much each week.

Now however we have a new timeslot, due to an opening in the schedule, in which we can showcase some of the cities finest musical talents, live recordings from our elephant events, and a huge range of unreleased music from Marc’s own promo lists.

Expect a whole host of music you’ll know too, and special guests each week from our sock rockin resident, and also pushing the Birmingham sound is one of the kings of brummy airwaves, little chris, who will be hosting his inspiring Brum cast live each monday from 8pm, starting on the 8th August 2009.

Monday nights are a good night for new music, and relaxing in your space.

This copied from our Mr Elephant Website

Settling nicely into its new monthly slot Mr Elephant’s Party Rockin Mammal Sessions, saw Dr Pepperspray joining our residents for a Moseley Festival special. A hot day, so took a while to fill up, but as the sun set, the basslines kicked, until a big singalongafinale and an expected heartwarming comment.

Long running DJ and producer Dr Pepperspray demonstrated his unique diverse style & sound building up through about 10 different genres of music and picking up the pace with each record. A wholesome concontion of strangely Trip Hop, Hip Hop, Breaks, Tech, Funk, Bass & lashings of sample based humour! You can check his many aliases – http://www.myspace.com/doctorpepperspray & http://www.myspace.com/3d2m

We were also joined by our Mr Elephant cameraman, Mr Jack B, who bought along some of his classic Jungle tracks for the floor. A dj in his days in Manchester, and a vinyl lover, it was great to see the roles being shifted in true elephant stylings. Great tunes from a top bloke.

The other visual maestro of the night was also on fine form, with his super power projector and a whole load of new clips he’d been working on. Liam Blendstate rarely has a free weekend these days, being booked out by most of the underground promoters in Birmingham, so we feel pretty priveliged that he’s such an integral part of the elephant crew.

Our other resident sock rocker Marc Reck was on devastating form, with a whole load of new promos, and some really filthy drum and bass. The last hour was pure joy/bedlam, and an impromptu b2b session created that special party rockin atmosphere synonymous with the mammal sessions.

After a big finish we got treated to 3 classic elephant encore tracks – The Correspondents mix of I wanna be like you, and end of night elephant faves – The Banana Boat Song, & Dont Worry Be Happy, which left many a happy mammal leaving the bulls head, and chilled out the pace beautifully.

Next Party Rockin Mammals is on Friday August 7th 2009 @ the Bulls Head, with brummy Funk King – Roy Roastbeef