JACK WILLIAMS DODD | BLOG

I won’t mention how long it’s been this time. SO many things have happened in the last three months, some amazing, some terrible, but always challenging. One biggie I’ve got to mention is the small matter of an 1100 mile bike ride I’m undertaking in September with some friends from Land’s End to John O’Groats in aid of Breakthrough Breast Cancer and in memory of a dear friend. If you’re interested you can keep up with our training progress here and you can sponsor us here.

Anyway, back to the subject if this post. I’ve been listening to some pretty great music recently, which I wanted to share. I urge you to check these out:

Baths – Cerulean. Experimental electronica of the highest order on the Anticon label. Like DM Stith with more beats.

Volcano Choir – Unmap. Justin ‘Bon Iver’ Vernon’s other project – a collaboration with fellow Wisconsinites Collections of Colonies of Bees.

Efterklang – Magic Chairs. I seem a bit slower on the uptake than some with these guys, but it only took one listen and I’m hooked.

Villagers – Becoming a Jackal and Fionn Regan – The Shadow of an Empire. Two Irish bands I saw as a double bill at The Big Chill Festival this year that really blew me away. Passionate music and intense, engaging live shows.

The Roots – How I Got Over. A bit of a curve ball, style-wise, but these guys never fail in my eyes. THE best live hip-hop act I’ve ever seen and this is their best album for years.

You can hear tracks from all of the above (apart from Fionn Regan, rather annoyingly) on this rather wonderful website, which I have to thank for introducing me to a lot of great music so far this year: indieshuffle.com

Til next time… Let’s hope it’s not another three months!

So a bit of news after a brief absence from this blog – there goes the idea of a regular entry every few days! Damn you life, you just get in the way! Anyway…

I will be exhibiting some new photographic work as part of a major group show called Three, which will be just one of many shows in the upcoming Bristol Festival of Photography. I will be showing a selection of my Frozen Bristol series, some of which can be seen here on this blog. The show will be on at the Photo Gallery, underneath Photographique on Baldwin Street, Bristol for the duration of the festival which runs from 20th May until 9th June. Check the website for details on all the fantastic events and exhibitions that are taking place as part of this very exciting and unique festival!

I was so excited to discover on Friday night that creator of one of my favourite albums of last year – DM Stith – will be playing  a rare gig at the Cube in Bristol on April 8th!

His obscure and often challenging music is unlike anything I’ve heard before, combining folk leanings with sweeping electronic sounds and multi-layered etherial vocals to unique and entrancing effect.

The track Thanksgiving Moon made it on to my Christmas Mix 2009, which you can listen to on this very blog, or you can go to his website to listen to a selection of tracks from his album Heavy Ghost, as well as some demos and remixes.

I urge you to check it out. You won’t be disappointed!

So it’s been a little while since I posted something on here! Well here’s the reason why. This is the E.P. that my band Bare Threads recorded, mixed, mastered and designed ourselves (with the help of a few very talented friends). Last weekend we had a big party at Start the Bus in Bristol to celebrate it’s release so my head was fully in to that up until then, and since then I’ve been recovering! Anyway here are some shots of the finished product:

Here is the title track:

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You can listen to all the tracks and buy the CD for the bargain price of £5 plus p+p here or here, along with other Bare Threads products!

Enjoy!

I just thought I’d share my excitement over an exhibition I finally got to see yesterday, one day before it closed! A collection of new work from my all-time favourite photographer William Eggleston, at the Victoria Miro gallery in London.

The show consists of a mere 22 images, arranged in sets of 3, 4 or 5 and collated by theme, colour and shape not by place (even though they were made in places as diverse as Russia and Cuba). Each image had it’s own particular feel; whether it be warmth or cold, joy or distress, mystery or clarity; all evoked through Eggelston’s masterful use of light and framing. Unafraid to use flat, crude flash as much as carefully considered natural light and wonky, almost haphazard framing as much perfectly straight lines, Eggleston consistently chooses wholly appropriate methods to elevate the often mundane subject matter into something, which at best can be truly profound.

But for me the masterstroke of this exhibition is in it’s curation, the bringing together of seemingly disparate, unrelated images in to small sets, each image feeding and bouncing off the others around it to create a show which intrigues, envelopes and ultimately rewards.

To find out more about Eggleston and his body of work, click here

I’ve entered my band – Bare Threads – in to a competition to have a song remixed by one of my favourite electronic artists – Bonobo! It’s based on the number of votes each song gets so please please please help the cause and vote for us by clicking here:

http://www.bonobomusic.com/remixcompetition/track.php?uid=2EVFIQ7V

Thanks!

It’s really chilly again here in Bristol. Not quite as bad as it was in January though! I went out with my camera on one particularly frozen Saturday and got a few shots of the snow and ice in the late afternoon sun. Here are a few of them:

I’ll be uploading more to my online portfolio soon. Watch this space!

OK, so every year at Christmas time I make a mix of some of the music I’ve enjoyed throughout the preceding 12 months. This may be brand  new music I’ve discovered, or been recommended, or it may be older music I’ve re-discovered or that has had some particular resonance with me in that year.

I make CDs of these mixes and give them to friends, family and loved ones at Christmas time.

This is a tradition that was started by a great family friend – Jack Baran – whose ever varied and interesting tapes I used to look forward to every Christmas as a child. I’m very happy to still be in his list of annual recipients, although these days the music comes in the form of a shiny disc rather than a plastic cassette!

I thought you may like to hear the mix I did for Christmas 2009 so I’ve posted it below, along with the track list.

If you enjoy listening, please leave me a comment, and who knows you may end up on my Christmas Mix 2010 list!

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1. Mumford & Sons – Roll Away Your Stone
2. Richard Swift – Lady Luck
3. Vetiver – Sister
4. Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks
5. DM Stith – Thanksgiving Moon
6. Harmonic 313 – Koln
7. Beirut – Venice
8. Amadou & Mariam – Sabali
9. Thom Yorke – Atoms for Peace (Four Tet Remix)
10. Patrick Watson – Big Bird in a Small Cage
11. Karen O and the Kids – Hideaway
12. The Low Anthem – To Ohio
13. Dan Auerbach – Trouble Weighs A Ton
14. Jon Brion – Theme
15. Burial & Four Tet – Wolf Cub
16. Countryside – Re-Boot

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Here’s the tracklist:

1. DJ Aeon Seven – Funky Furious [Freestyle]
2. Flow Dynamics – Bossa For Bebo (Lack Of Afro Mix) [Freestyle]
3. DJ Format – Here Comes The Fuzz (Psycho Pab Remix) [Genuine]
4. Honey and the Bees – Love Addict [Arctic]
5. Small Change – Steviano Italiano [Bstrd Boots]
6. The Broken Keys – The Witch (Instrumental) [Tru Thoughts]
7. De La Soul – You Got It [Red Lion]
8. Fine Young Cannibals – I’m Not Satisfied (NYC Rap Version) [London]
9. DJ Day – Gone Bad (Hawkeye Remix) [Melting Pot]
10. Aim – Walking Home Through The Park [Atic]
11. Smoove – Smoove’s Fantasy Funk Band [Fantasy]
12. Mr Scruff – Kalimba [Ninja Tune]
13. Nightmares On Wax – African Pirates (Troubleman Remix) [Warp]
14. Jack Penate – Tonights Today (Mickey Moonlight Mix 2) [XL]
15. Osibisa – Music For Gong Gong (Diesler Remix) [Rebtuz]
16. Baggy Leggins – Work [All Gone Wrong]

I hope you enjoy it! If you’d like a copy of the CD – send me an email

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Here’s the tracklist:

1. Carla Thomas – Pick Up The Pieces [Stax]
2. K-Os – Crabbuckit [EMI]
3. DangerDoom feat Talib Kweli – Old School [Lex]
4. The Poets Of Rhythm – More Mess On My Thing [Daptone]
5. Vicki Anderson – The Message From The Soul Sisters (Part 1) [Universal]
6. James Brown – The Boss [Polydor]
7. Connie Price and The Keystones – Wildflowers [Now-Again]
8. DJ Format feat Abdominal and D-Sisive – 3 Feet Deep [Genuine]
9. Omegha Watts – That Sound (QSO Mix) [Ubiquity]
10. The Next Stets – DBC Let The Music Play [KSD]
11. Beastie Boys – Alive (Live Mix) [White]
12. Aretha Franklin – Rock Steady [Atlantic]
13. The Specials – A Message To You Rudy [Two-Tone]
14. This Kid Named Miles – Ring Of Fire [Alatac]
15. Average White Band – Pick Up The Pieces [RCA]
16. Maceo and The Macks – ‘Cross The Tracks (We Better Go Back) [Urban]
17. The Highlighters Band – Funky 16 Corners [Stones Throw]
18. War – Me and Baby Brother [MCA]
19. The Quantic Soul Orchestra – Walking Through Tomorrow (Super 8 Part Three) [Tru Thoughts]
20. Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators – Holdin’ On [Timmion]
21. The Broken Keys – Slingshot (Part 2) [Tru Thoughts]
22. Breakout – Planet Rock (Part 2) [Melting Pot]
23. The Bamboos – Tighten Up [Kaydee]
24. Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings – I Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Is In [Daptone]
25. Danny Hybrid and The Godfather of Soul – I Feel Alright [Nufunk]
26. All Good Funk Alliance – Watch Out (Malente’s Old School Breaks Mix) [Funk Weapons]
27. Fort Knox Five – Got The Funk (All Good Funk Alliance Mix) [Fort Knox]
28. Jamie Lidell – When I Come Back Around [Warp]
29. The Beatles vs Unknown – Eleanor Rigby [White]

myspace.com/pickupthepieces_djs