LJ Kruzer

Since the turn of the year I’ve been making a couple of mixes, the first of which has just appeared here, the second of which should be on the internet next month. In both of them I’ve been investigating the exciting new world of mp3s – most of mix1 is made up of paid-for mp3s, and mix2 has been built out of freely available creative commons music found on archive.org. In other news, I’ve just finished work on a remix for Posthuman, which should also be seeing the light of day soonish.

Ooh, and thanks to everyone who turned out for the Echaskech Presents night at Concrete last month – I enjoyed it immensely! Thanks for the support.

Hup, nearly forgot – some remixes by other people are out on March 8th on Uncharted Audio. Have a listen…

I’ve done a new electronic carol for Christmas 2009. If you’re singing along at home, it’s been written for five verses and choruses – just don’t sing along with the intro.

LJ Kruzer – We Three Kings by unchartedaudio

And you can grab my older carols here:

Have a very happy festive season!

I thought I’d join in the fin-de-décennie nostalgia and make a list of my favourite albums made and released in the last ten years. I’ve got albums from this decade I like more than some of these, but I decided not to include any reissues, compilations and classical albums that contain music that’s not of its decade, as it were. So, in the order they came out of the vinyl collection/compact disc pile…

Speedy J – A Shocking Hobby. Novamute 2000.
I had a spiritual experience in the ICA in London listening to Mr Paap playing tunes off this album at high volume, a night that feels like it was a long time ago. I bought a Speedy J T-shirt, which disappointingly shrunk in the wash, leaving it too tight around the armpits.

Isolée – WeAreMonster. Playhouse 2005.
One of my non-league ambitions is to see Isolée live so I can dance like I’m 19 again to these tunes. What a sight that would be. It appeals to me how some of the tunes share basslines or sounds, something I decided to copy on my last album. I don’t know if anyone’s noticed.

Thom Yorke – The Eraser. XL 2006.
Me and the wife bought this in the Nice branch of FNAC on our honeymoon on France’s radiant Côte d’Azur. Not only does it bring to mind late nights drinking cognac on the terrace of our luxury Antibes apartment, it’s also got lots of good music and singing on it.

Madvillain – Madvillainy. Stones Throw 2004.
This one reminds me of our old kitchen, where it got a lot of play on the CD player on top of the fridge.

Ricardo Villalobos – Thé au Harem d’Archimède. Perlon 2004.
I think I want to like this album more than I actually do. Still, dancing to Villalobos and Richie Hawtin DJing together at Sonar 2005 (I think) was the most fun I’ve had dancing in public.

Bonnie Prince Billy – Ease Down The Road. Domino 2001.
One of the songs has a rude word sung quite clearly in the middle of it, which I enjoy joining in with, much to the disapproval of the wife.

Studio Pankow – Linienbusse. City Centre Offices 2005.
I remember being tuned into Resonance FM on the stereo in our old kitchen and hearing a tune off this album, one of those tunes that makes you stop doing the washing-up and move over to the fridge to listen for the artist and title. I’ve since spent a good few minutes on the internet trying to find an album in this style that I like as much and I have yet to find it.

Isan – Lucky Cat. Morr 2001.
This album makes me think of the sea, specifically the sounds of the sea at La Baule drifting up to the balcony of our luxury holiday apartment there. I think my wife and I bought this in the Nantes branch of FNAC. Back in 2001, being able to scan CD barcodes and listen to them in the shop was very exciting to us.

Eero Johannes – Eero Johannes. Planet Mu 2008.
I think I’ve only included this because the opening track always makes my baby son smile and jiggle a bit. No, it’s good! Expertly constructed music that makes you realise how much more talented other people are than you.

So, there you go. For some reason I feel a bit underwhelmed now. I still like my Serge Gainsbourg and Charlie Parker CDs better than these…

Gig news: an LJ Kruzer live set on South Bank next January, courtesy of the estimable Echaskech:
http://www.echaskech.co.uk/site/echaskech-presents

Saturday 16th January 2010, 8pm onwards, entry is free of charge.

There has come a time in this man’s life where babies are booming and money is tight, and learning to drive and the acquisition of a second-hand motor vehicle have become more important than the retention of a pile of old studio equipment. I was about to sell it all on the internet and scale back the Kruzio to just my workstation keyboard and computer – at least until the Kruzer family finances were in better nick – when a small pang of sadness told me that I should rethink the plan, or at least have one last fling with the budget gear and squeeze a few final bursts of sound out of it before passing it on to some online bargain hunters. So that’s what I’m going to do: make a selection of new tunes using only the equipment inexpertly pictured below – an Electribe, a Microkorg, a TR-505, a Yamaha mixer, a cheapo Behringer effects unit, and my wife’s old Casiotone keyboard, whose main role was doubtless to play the demo tune over and over again as Lisa and her sisters did silly dances around a makeup-encrusted bedroom.

It might sound awful. I shall post the results up here as I go, and maybe even the Casio’s delightfully abysmal demonstration song too. Then, when I’ve finished, I shall sell the dusty old electronic music boxes, and hopefully buy myself a few exciting driving lessons in suburban South London…

For a while I’ve been wondering what to put on the myspace player, and have decided to put up a few remixes that I’ve done over the last few years that people may not have heard before. If you want to hear my recent Alice Russell remix, then buy the digital version of her Pot Of Gold remix album and apparently, hopefully, you’ll get my version of Let Us Be Loving as a bonus download. Coming soon, probably, hopefully, is a remix I did of Predisposition by Line on good old Uncharted Audio recordings.

Details of a new project coming soon…

On Saturday 26th September 2009 at noon, I shall be playing music of my own composition in the Union Chapel, London. It’s a free gig! The multitalented Michael Wookey will also be performing his excellent songs. I’m not really doing gigs any more, so it’ll be a rare chance to hear my stuff live…and bathed in lots of lovely churchy reverb…

As a celebration of all the excellent music that I’ve been enjoying over the last 12 months, I’ve done a mix! The very kindly lot over at Lend Me Your Ears are showcasing it. Thirty minutes long, starting with Maurice Chevalier, ending with a spot of classical music, with some German techno and other good things in between, and a new Kruzer piece whose quality I’m unable to comment on. Y’er tez.

If you fancy a couple of alternate versions of two album tracks in a similar vein to the Tam Variations, the website of the Wire magazine has on offer Bamab814 and Poil814 in their Web Exclusive pages… right here, in fact.

Copies of my second album, Manhood & Electronics, have finally landed, are looking excellent, and will be available to buy from all good music retailers very soon. You can pre-order a copy direct from the label and listen to the tracks here…