Jon and Libby

Conwy Brewery, all set up and ready to play. Just add acts...   A couple of weeks ago, we braved the Sunday drivers on the North Wales Expressway to pay a return visit Modulate TV's North Wales EMOM at Conwy Brewery, just south of Colwyn Bay. This time, I believed Marjorie the sat nav when she directed me down an unassuming single track lane, and we arrived in time and without a hitch for a diverse afternoon and early evening of live electronic music. First up, we had Jaques N' Their Box. Layers of soundscapes, industrialia, drones, chanting choirs, live sources from a small mic used percussively, and existential angst courtesy of live vocals. Etchasketch is an established EMOM performer and was also acting as host for the night. His rig consists of what looks like an IXO One controller feeding into an insanely complex modular rig with lots of live tweaking possibilities. I'm not a modular synthesist, so any modular setup looks insanely complex to me! His sound has a distin

  Hymns For Robots is a revered EMOM-style night that everyone in the community seems to have heard of. Curated, so not quite a pure EMOM, the night is currently into its third year according to my calculations (though I may be wrong), and we were lucky enough to get a slot at HfR #40. There were only four acts this night, and each of us had a 25-minute slot to really show what we can do. So, up the M60, M61, and M6 for a couple of hours we went, and by twilight we were pulling into the car park opposite the venue for what would be gig number 25 on this strange musical odyssey of ours. First up was the curiously named GnomeFoam, complete with an excellent Ernie (or is it Bert?) raving hat. Good vibes, breakbeats and DnB were very much in evidence. He did mention to me before he went on that he sometimes gets nervous, but I think he has a great act and the audience loved it. No need for nerves when you get that kind of reaction!   Next up, we had Sylvia And I. This was a beguiling, ambi

PP Roy being announced by host Tom.   It was back to The Lloyds for Totally Wired #4 last Thursday, to do battle with once more with the unquiet ghost of Martin Hannett. Maybe he was bored tormenting the performers, or maybe there was a priest in the audience, but the new PA was superb, and it was good and loud! First to the tables was PP Roy with his unique blend of beats and 60s lounge music. This guy must have one heck of a record collection. I get a chilled St Etienne vibe from his work. See what you think... We were up next and after discovering that we could play for longer than planned, the set list became somewhat casual. Being behind the speakers wasn't the best for recording sound, but it went down OK on the night.   Rollmopski took to the stage next, with their unique blend of Prophet 5, modular, Theremin and slide guitar creating a sound that was in turn bouncy and plaintive.   Next, we were in for an interactive treat courtesy of Thunkist and his special paddles contai

  As I wrote in the last entry about NIAMOS, Hulme, like the rest of Manchester, is in a constant state of renewal. Hulme isn't "Hulme" any more. It is filled with culture, and an involved community. Gone are the dreaded "Crescents", replaced by smart housing association properties with gardens. There's even a bike hire stand! All that SpaceNoodlr needs now is support from the EMOM community to come down and make a night of it, because it really is a good night. The space is BIG, the PA is loud and robust - you literally can't hurt it - and the people are always welcoming and learning as they go. It just needs more people playing in that big space. Last week, we were treated to truly diverse sounds, not least of which was LIEI and her melifluous integration of Theramin and Japanese-inspired music. Great to chill to, with a gorgeous Moog Theramin looking like it was straight out of The Jetsons! Take a listen, and also look at that stage. When else are you

The Mighty Nowhere!   Last Thursday was another chance to get back over the Pennines, and a journey through landscapes that could easily melt your eyeballs with their beauty. Yes, it was time for the Holmfirth EMOM at Nowhere again!  This time, Martin Christie started us off with a funky track played on a tiny box of tricks. If it wasn't called "Welcome to EMOM" I don't know what else it could be called. He also told us about setting up the first speculative EMOM a few years ago at Fuel Bar in Manchester and watching it grow like Topsy and become a global phenomenon. Very inspirational stuff.   Martin and his box of tricks! So, next up was a man with quite literally a box of tricks. In this case, a cardboard box holding his kit. How Buildings Fail is a new name to me, and put me in mind of The Fall, or some of the spoken word events I've been to where Mark E. Smith has performed.   Another box of tricks, this time a cardboard one, courtesy of How Buildings Fail. A

  This blog post is dedicated to Inky Da Kat. She was always such a big supporter of the EMOM community, and will be sadly missed by all of us.   Well, we've managed to get to the giddy heights of 21 EMOM sets now, and with the confidence of ignorant naivety, I've started to notice some rules of thumb about what makes an event go with a bang for all concerned.    I've split them into a list of Dos and Don'ts for performers, organisers and sound engineers. these are just things that have occurred to me. I hope you agree. If I've missed anything, or you wish to argue that I'm wrong, please get in touch, but be kind or I'll set Libby on you. Thanks to the vibrant EMOM community, this is a living document and I'll strive to keep it updated as a resource and fount of knowledge as more comes to light.  Performers: Do: Level your set. Run through the whole thing with a free LUFS meter, such as Youlean, on the very end of the master bus to make sure that the lev