You got da street attitude (Hi)


Is it Darsh in the background ?

I've found them !! OK, no one cares but my search for Adidas Metro Attitude Hi (with ugly fake 'I'm a hip hop yakuza' snake skin) is over !


Classic red attitude...


... and old skool (?) poseur version


I'm not sure if I'll have the opportunity to wear that kind of sneakers for my next job, but they are perfect to wear while listening to Zilla and Buddy Peace's new super limited (100 hand painted CD worldwide) mix CD called A friendly game of chess. It's a very surprising mix, not your usual 'hey let me drop the beats for 74 minutes ahah I'm so clever with that Shadowesque sample', full of quiet moments, clever mixes (Beck vs. beats, Cornelius feat. Takako Minekawa vs. Boards of Canada, The Pixies...). Try to grab one if you are in the UK, or try online, I got mine from Warpmart.

Meeting people is easy (the combo way)

What's new in Paris ?
Well, not that much. I haven't done anything new on the Toog album this week, but I think it is looking good so far. I will hopefully resume work this week with Toog himself in the studio. I spent some time uploading this website, and now everything seems to work (comments, forum etc), and the Kitchen remix project has started ! I received already a very cool remix from NY artist Pandatone. The remix album is looking good ! I spent most of the week thinking about starting 'pre-production' work on a Digiki album, I got many ideas I want to try. And very very different styles to try...but I think it's not a good moment to do an album...maybe next year ? more remixes and collaborations first ! Speaking of collaborations, I met the very cool people behind two great parisian labels: Gloria (aka Reiko Underwater) big boss of Tsunami Addiction and JC(/DC) from Active Suspension. We have absolutely no projects together for the moment but it was cool to talk together, and I gave them copies of Kitchen. Now I feel they will never talk to me again after this crappy CD :)

The way we web

On All The Web search engine you can see the last queries from users: strange.
For example, why someone is doing a search on "Christian Tshirt Fundraising" ?
Or dead clowns ?!
This one could be useful.
Vegas anyone ?

what's wrong with this blog? the comments work now, but the blog is not showing correctly the number of comments ;) got to work on that !

Digital pastoral folk

The new Matmos record, The civil war, out in september on Matador is one of the best thing I have heard recently (with the... Matmos/People Like Us/Wobbly release), it's amazing. Very different once again from their previous works, this time it's about medieval electronics. It reminds me sometimes of Momus's work on Journey to the centre of me for Kahimi Karie, which is still one of my favourite release by her.

A weekend in Paris

Yesterday I met Eric Ker and -surprise- he's doing new music, mostly for his own video work. A future Castellane DVD release ? Anywyay, he might do a remix for the Kitchen remix project.
I'm halfway through recording the Toog album, I need to find new ideas for the last tracks ! quite difficult. I spent most of the day trying out things...
I watched some really cool DVDs like 'Escape from New York' from John Carpenter and Tetsuo from Shinya Tsukamoto: waoo, impressive. Speaking of DVDs I bought some William Klein films in Japan, and I'm very happy to have -at last!- a copy of 'Mister Freedom' and 'Polly Magoo'. Oh, and the Cornelius 'FIVE POINT ONE' DVD is really cool too, it's apparently on display somewhere in Tokyo according to Mr. Glitchslap.
I'm updated the Castellane site, check out the pictures from the tour the Kitchen remix project, and the forum is back !! New playlist soon.

The right medium

"Nowdays it seems everybody in Paris is ready to release an album, at least you're not part of that, which is good"
Emmanuel visited us (Toog and I) last week while we were working on his new album at home, and commented about the music scene in Paris, and I think his comment is quite right. Everybody seems ready to release something and, -I'm sorry to say that after writing such a long post about how I have respect for french electronic artists-, more and more records sound the same. Everybody was into house in the late 90s, now everybody has a Powerbook G4 and is trying really hard to look serious behind a screen full of Max/MSP complex patches. Why not ? I'm a bit like that too, but I can't help thinking that so many of these releases are unoriginal in term of sounds, instruments (ah! the joy of real time granular filtering!) and structures. Even the covers look the same ! (ie UGLY shitty design. Hint to "eletronic performers": OK, your sound is cool and unoriginal but at least look at the wonderful design for Tsunami Addiction or Active Suspension releases ! try to LOOK good, even if the SOUND is bad).

I've never performed in Paris but I want to infiltrate the electro/experimental scene and bring back the FUN into it. And the PUNK too maybe :) And doing an album is not necessarely the best medium to do that. Collaborations, remixes, compilations, selections, design, points of view, production etc etc could be better ways. And making young exp kids dancing to a fuck'd up mix of Daft Punk vs. Steve Reich is a good start.
Message to G4 kids: never forget what you used to LOVE. hip hop ? FM rock ? house ? "notsoseriousmusicahhhIamashamed" ? who gives a fuck !!

In search of... the right frame to perform


I can't help but think that this is not the right place for me, I'm not a musician I'm a just a very lucky 23 year-old guy living in the center of Paris and having fun with his computer, where so many people are really working hard on creating interesting sounds. I'm super lazy and unoriginal and it works in a way... I know I shouldn't complain but it's sometimes hard to accept this situation, what I am living... I want to push other artists, I want to talk about what I am listening to and stop doing my own "music", I think it would be far more interesting and useful. I hate maybe 90% of my sounds, I like some of my remixes maybe, I like the Toog collaboration because it's his music and lyrics and I have a lot of respect for his creation, but I would never buy a Digiki CD in a record store. Too boring ! When I am in Japan I don't care about all this, I do my shit and I am having fun doing it, because it's more about friendship, having fun without any stress. In Paris it's strange... I have never done anything in Paris, I feel I can't do anything. I can't connect with french (electronic) artists because I have so much respect for what they are doing, it's so much more interesting than my pathetic sounds ! People like Discom, O Lamm, Tsunami, DAT Politics etc are like super heroes to me. I feel ashamed, really. I'm so shy ! Sometimes I meet artists and they ask me "what are you doing?" and I answer "I do stuff, I'm working in a marketing company", which is true, and that's all. No mention of "music" or "sound": I can't. I'm not scared about that in Japan or abroad. I'm not afraid to try to contact famous artists in Japan. I have no problem talking to an american artist and telling him, very simply, "hey I like your stuff I would love to do something with you one day", but in Paris I can't. It's strange. So what shall I do ? Move somewhere else ? Stop pretending ? I don't know. I'm really enjoying working on other people material, so remixes or collaborations are still very interesting. It's some kind of a drug, I can't stop. I always want to try something. But regarding my own "sound"...I can only hear the negative aspect of it. It's badly mixed ! It's not original ! Oh this is so baaaad... Ok enough bullshit :) The funny thing is, I'm thinking already too much about all this shit and I still haven't released ANYTHING on a REAL label !! baka!

It leads us to...
"the 10 things I want to do (but it won't happen anyway)" list !

- Sleep more
I'm almost collapsing sometimes. Scary.

- Travel more
There is life outside France and Japan ! Explore !

- Read more
I'm so stupid. Libraries are useful :)

- Hey I'm french...
...so I shouldn't be so shy with french labels and people
(could be difficult to change!)

- Listen to more music
I know nothing, really.

- Develop Castellane as a internet label
I'm working on that. Castellane is not only Digiki !

- Learn how to speak english :)
did you manage to understand all the stuff I've wrote so far ?
my english is SO bad !

- Unexpected
my next project coul be a cookbook, or a video or a novel, I don't know. Keep surprising people is my #1 goal.

- Interesting music
this one sounds impossible :)

and...

- Enjoy it !!
I'm trying really hard :) I like already 10% of my sound, not bad !


this should keep me busy for the next 10 years :)

Books and videos

OK, back to reality.
- Emmanuel (aka Patrick Bang, aka 'this guy behind French Dynamite(s)') showed me a book I gave him when we were 8 or 9 year old about... Japan (!!). I can see Japan anyone ?
- Speaking of Emmanuel, he's preparing a compilation for Castellane. More New Order?
- Jim Profit is a great TV show. 12 angry men is great too.
- Where is Darsh you might ask ? Well, he's in Paris too, and I think we'll resume work on his new album soon.
- Where is Eric Ker ? no one knows.
- I want to do new remixes. Need one ? Possibly Maybe.
- Mono vs. Stereo ? hum.

a 3 day weekend...
After a short break (3 days) *somewhere* in France (swimming pool, books, films, NO computers, NO music), i'm back in Paris and already working hard on the Toog album. Let's say it sounds different from all previous Toog releases... interesting.
I spent the weekend swimming and sleeping, but also thinking (as usual) about this Kitchen remix album (yes, I'm always talking about the same subjects I KNOW :) and the people I want to collaborate with in the near future (surprise? I'm not completely giving up music!). So, it's time for another 'ahh too bad I'm too shy to ask' (dream) list of 'people I would love to work with':
Hypo
Kid 606
Chicks on speed
Bodenstandig
O lamm
Discom
Keichii Sokabe
e*rock
Hi Posi
Buffalo Daughter
Konki Duet

labels:
tsunami!!!
active suspension
rephlex
chicks on speed records

hehe... this will never happen, right ?

I'm ridiculous

When I listen to my friend Aurelien's first demos (two 20 minute tracks, recorded live), I'm seriously thinking of quitting music after the Toog album. I will do skateboarding maybe :)
This guy is amazing. These tracks are CRAZY.
I can't wait to hear more stuff from his (yet untitled) band.
Viva DJ Chien Loup and DJ Cheval !

Drink it
hum, I don't drink THAT much :)
In fact I'm drinking a lot of water, and not so much alcohol :)

Hot in Here !
Paris is SUPER hot, it's really crazy !!
I try to stay home in my dark and cold appartement, drinking Vodka-Kiwi while working on the Toog album.
We've finished a new track yesterday. Strange thing, it sounds far much better than the original demo in my opinion ;)
What's next ? another song, this time I'm playing with the instruments to make it sounds like 90's LFO meets Funksturung with classic Digiki broken digital bits. well, whatever :) Yeah, 'digital broken bits' sounds like what I'm looking for !
Anyway, this album will (I hope) sound interesting. It's organic (I hope), I mean, the tracks are mixed together, it tells a story (a sad one). It's full of woven bits. Maybe it sucks big time in fact... I don't know ! maybe this post is super pretencious no ?
I'm super lazy about my own sound, but I want to do ONE new track (maybe for a compilation ?), I want to surprise myself. So, maybe no beats ? or vocals ? or just a loop sayin' "Digiki huuuummmm' ?? why not :)
I need to prepare the 'Kitchen' remix project, but I'm lazy (it's tooooo HOT !!). The idea is to remix the original tracks (not the remixes :) from Kitchen. In fact, it's not a remix album, for me it should be a 'recontext' album: I want to put samples from my songs on the website and let everyone play and use them to build new songs. I think there are plenty of possibilities here for an exciting result if you think that for example 'Je suis un ours' with Darsh contains 54 audio tracks !! so let's fuck everything up !
I will put the result on the site of course, but it would be great to release it...
I'm really curious about what crazy and interesting people such as Motokick, Midori, Roddy, Odradek or DJ Chien Loup (more on him very very soon!) will do with the material.

It's all about the beatz you know?


... Speaking of hip hop, I'm NOT a hip hop guy, really ! I started listening to hip hop very recently, and I only like some songs where beats and voices are used in a clever way, like the Neptunes productions for example, or Prefuse 73. Apart from that, I like classic old skool hip hop from the 80s, and that's all ! 99% of rap/hip hop is crap. Except Scha Dara Parr of course :))

Alone in Paris
OK, I'm back in Paris after a wonderful time in Japan.
The tour was really cool (souvenir page coming soon on this site), we had a great time together with Momus, Robert, Tetsuya, Midori, Roddy...let me say it again: Robert, Roddy, Tetsuya, Midori: I love you, you're really really cool, THANK YOU for the discussions, the sounds, the drinks, the laughs together.
Nick, thank you for being Momus :)
So, what is Digiki's life back in Paris after such an exciting trip?
Well... not so exciting :(
I'm alone in Paris now, and Paris seems very quiet and empty (it reminds me sometimes of the book 'Tokyo Nobody' :). It's difficult to concentrate on things because it's TOO FUCKIN HOT now in Paris.
I'm working on the Toog album, as planned, but it's such a sad material...i feel depressed and sad sometimes, just because of these songs !! so I listen to stupid hip hop songs after working on this sad (but interesting) album.
What else ?
I spent the weekend with Darsh talkin drinkin and watchin DVDs. We ended up watching MTV (!!) at 4 AM and they were showing... the MTV music awards Japan 2003 !!! so fucking crazy :) all the guests seemed to be on drugs it was really really strange.
So what's next? new music? no no no :)) I'm too lazy I think :)
I will play video games alone instead... scary hum?
I'm preparing the Kitchen remix album, more info very soon.