GUSSET talks about LAPTOP BATTLE UK

GUSSET (from Death$ucker Records) talks about his experience of entering LAPTOP BATTLE UK alongside PARASITE on Friday 30th March 2007.



This article is taken from GUSSET BLOG...

http://blog.gusset.co.uk/blogger.shtml

"Yey hey! Out in the first round by a unanimous judges decision!

Congratulations to Headphobe and Defazed (Ned and Rich) for a deserved win, they trounced everyone in every round, there was no doubting they were going to walk away with it.

By extreme ill fortune we were drawn against them in the first round, which we had been dreading. They really hammer hard with their live drum triggering rather than loop based play. We thought we might be able to compete with them in one of the longer later rounds, as Parasite thought they were struggling to keep it up that long when he saw the last battle. In the two-minute opening round it's very very hard to prove yourself and we had no chance against them.

Michael J Rocks was cruelly knocked out. He was the only person who played two two-minute tunes with a beginning a middle and an end (like they teach you at school). Everyone else just kept making noise until they were told to stop. It leave the crowd wanting more but it's not quite as satisfying as a whole.

I think we could have gone further with a different draw but that's life. Was still great fun and the night in all was great. All the neigh-sayers who think its just a geek fest really should see it; there was a brilliant vibe, the crowd were well up for it (there was almost a mosh pit at times) and no beardstroking in sight. Well done to everyone involved and thanks to the promoters for putting it on.

At least I squeezed in a DJ set early in the night so I did play for more than four minutes, and I got to have a little jam with DJ Asian Hawk (UK DMC champion and 2nd in the world, apparently), which was fun.

I've learnt a lot about software and performance though doing this and my normal live sets will improve for it too. It's been a valuable learning opportunity. For the technically minded the advice I received is mostly in this Mu thread. The exception was an email string with Steve Milanese who adviced me not to try to learn software (when I mentioned Pd) in a short space of time, "practise drumming shit a lot and not worry too much about using mad software." It worked for Ned and Rich, as they were much tighter than I've ever seen them before last night. The practice pays off. Well done guys."

http://blog.gusset.co.uk/blogger.shtml

Thanks Dan. You and Armin put on a wikkid show and your beats were bangin'! Glad you enjoyed the event. Peace.