Riddler

Argh. August is OVER!

2009-09-03T04:43:00.000-07:00

We're sitting here, writing caps on, but have just been thinking back over the last couple of months' gigs. Great stuff, and gets our feets itching to get back on stage with some new material! We have to be patient, and complete all this new stuff we're working on so we can come back live with a 'POW' - we want to do everything at once, but we'll be able to once these recordings are done. There's very exciting stuff to anounce about the recording soon (there's a lot going on behind the closed curtains!), but in the meantime we'll keep writing, editing, and generally making mischief in any way we can.

Still, the summer has been good - from getting people on passing busses to dance at the Lavender Hill Festival (and watching people gloriously sunbathe on the far side of the street from our vantage point on the stage) to wading through rain at an experimental electro-3-piece set at the Hackney Wicked Festival (that was an amazing sound system!), to being dragged through fields by puppies 10 minutes before we're meant to be in a wedding (wearing spangly shoes, and white suits)... It's been fun!

But to work. We must go and complete our missions. Check out the latest tracks on our media page - we've only just added some new music - the latest - be there ;). Some are totally new, some are reworkings of some of our favourite older tracks. Do tell us what you think!

EDIT: - Managed to get a player to embed here. Love Technology :)

Lavender Hill Festival

2009-06-16T07:21:00.000-07:00

And what a lovely way to start the Summer!

An absolutely beautiful day in South West London, thousands of people milling around down Lavender Hill, amazing food stalls, Steel Bands, and us. Actually, the plan originally was to close Lavender Hill completely, but even when they kept it open, people just milled out into the road in front of the stage, and claimed large parts of it for themselves.

So there we were, on a stage in front of a beautiful (abandoned) bar, covered in gorgeous sunshine, playing to a stack of people, some up close and personal, some chilling on the far side of the road, lying out on the street to soak up the rays. The response for all the bands was amazing, from dancing children (that was a real eye-opener) to people on the top decks of passing buses getting involved.

It was quite a day :). A BIG shout out to all the guys from Drumshack & Ocean Studios who were there doing technical things all day, and gave us a chance to play at an amazing gig. Lots of charity money raised too for the Trinity Hospice.

In the meantime, we're back to the grindstone, and looking forward to the next gig - the Childwickbury Arts Show, St. Albans on July the 5th. Come!

Tweet. Meet. Give. Twestival.

2009-02-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

Today is going to be a good day!

People in over 175 cities worldwide are getting together for a charity 'Twestival' (in honour of the fact we're all Twitter users) for Charity:Water - aiming to get fresh, clean water to the roughly 1 billion people in the world who have no access to it. The ultimate aim is to raise more that $20,000 for the charity (a previous effort raised in excess of $15,000) - but they don't want you to give away your money for nothing!

Hundreds of artists, Riddler included, have donated tracks to the cause. We've give away an 'EP Preview' of Lipstick Blonde - to clear up what the hell that is, it's the version we're using as the 'model' to record all the individual parts for the final song - so it's way down the line from any of the versions on MySpace, or even here on our own site.

But it's even better than that! (How is that possible, we hear you cry). You can also download tracks donated by bands and artists including Bloc Party, Imogen Heap, Erol Alkan, The Young Punx and many, many more. All that is requested in return is, if you like the music, please donate $5 to the cause. It's easily done, and every penny goes to the charity. Please, please, check out the Twestival website and Twestival.FM (for your music!)

And now, we have our spankiest clothes on, tickets in hand, and we're off to Shoreditch for @LDNTwestival. Gonna be a riot, And if you're in the area, and you see lots of people staring into iPhones, talking about Tweeting, d, @ing and the such. Please forgive us. It is for Charidee, innit.

We're back!

2009-01-22T09:11:00.000-08:00

A New Year, and we're back at the grindstone :). Many apologies for the lack of updates - cross between dead computers, being away, and actually getting some work done; which is of course what we're meant to be doing.

So what are we doing? Mostly writing, recording and Twittering actually. We've written and sketched up (in a half-audio-kinda-complete-kinda-way) four of five new songs in the last month or so, and more on their way soon. They have strange names like 'World in a Bag', 'Killing Beats' & 'Screams' - not that there's a link between them. We've also got some interesting meetings coming up, larger recording sessions to arrange, and general bits & bobs to be getting on with :).

So we're not gigging for a little while. We're looking for the right place to book that first one of the year, though there may be a little surprise one to check out some of the material we're working on. We're also waiting on the masters from our Roundhouse session, and trying to dig out the photos as well.

In the meantime, enjoy some Celebrity Meat we found in Anneliese's local shop...

We gave it to Geiger for his Birthday. Along with some Branston Pickle :).

Stuck...

2008-11-23T08:25:00.000-08:00

Grr.

I hate weather like this. It's really horrible out there, & I'm stuck inside (due to loss of umbrella and possibly unhelpful lighting strikes). Some useful things can come of that; I've been back through the ton of little recorded ideas on the mobile, and there're definitely some that could be useful. Plus, there was the techy stuff that needed to be done in the Studio - a bit of re-wiring, updating my new sample library (which means trawling through old Future Music DVDs and copying everything over into sensible folders) and generally finishing a bit of a cleanup.

But best of all, there are the time-wasters - online Mah Jong, the demo for World of Goo (which looks awesome - buy it, buy it - it's about £13.59), and iPod Peggle (warning - naughty words from the awesome Zero Punctuation review - love Yahtzee) which we've decided is actually pure evil - how addictive?. But for pretty-automatic-quickness, I quite like Wordle.net.

So here are the Wordle outputs for this Blog, our Front Page (which I like the most) and our Twitter twits. Clicky Clicky.

Blog

Main Page

RiddlerMusic Twitter

Sometimes 'purdiness' is so quick and easy. Reading this on FACEBOOK? Pop over to the blog to see the piccies.

Anyway, back to doing something useful - remember - FREE GIG (& last gig of the year) on Sunday the 30th of November @ Proud Galleries, Stabels Market, Camden - shop and listen to music from 2pm (we're on 3pm) - previous blog actually tells all...

Mike

Nightly in November

2008-11-19T10:39:00.000-08:00

Well, ok... maybe not 'nightly', but it's been a hectic (productive) little month :). The Ebony Bones gig was a hell of a laugh and a half (made much more pleasant by the opportunity to actually sit down @ the After Party and have a few drinks rather than the more-usual 'bang everything in the back of the bus and leg it before it gets too cold') - Ms Bones was (as expected) lively as anything, and there were more obscure costumes in the Rhythm Factory than you could shake a massive stick at. Great night!

We've also been doing some recording down at The Roundhouse, Camden - a very live version of Lipstick Blonde is currently awaiting another visit and a mix session after a really enjoyable time down there... If you can, we recommend their Scrambled Eggs, or Club Sandwich as food that's gorgeous and a fair tackle to get through :). Still, we have a few photos from the day which may well migrate onto the site fairly soon (after losing a few too many USB cables).

Alongside that - some new songs have wiggled into the Live set, and that time to sit down and write in October is starting to produce some rather nice little tunes that we'll be knuckling down to over the Winter. The Stables was awesome as ever (they really are lovely people there), and hopefully we'll get another chance to pop back there next year - incidentally, check out our stage-sharing-mates from the Stables, Jackdaw4 - we've played with them once before, and they just reminded us of how damn good they are - well worth a look. They were kind enough to give us a copy of their latest album, and very good it is too. Cheers guys!

Finally, we've got a FREE GIG this month - Sunday the 30th of November, Proud Galleries, Stables Market, Camden - and it's in the afternoon - we're on at 3pm. Bit of an odd story that - it all came about from a business card popped onto Mike's keyboard while we were on stage storming away to a tune down @ Nambucca earlier this year (think it was Stop the Clock, but can't be sure!). After a few impossible dates, we've got one of their rather rare slots. Word is, it's a great gig to do, lots of people milling about, and of course, Christmas Shopping ahoy!

Come. You must! It will, almost certainly, be our last gig for about 3 months while we get on with all this writing/recording we've started, and generally jive everything up.

Oh, and really finally, you can now follow us on Twitter as well - over at http://www.twitter.com/RiddlerMusic, or indeed at the top right hand side of this page. We'd love to get more talky with you. Clicky Clicky...

Hope you're having a lovely month...

RemembeR wish George W. 'Au Revoir' - get over that election fever...

2008-10-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Our wonderful friends RemembeR have been up to their old tricks again (no surprises there then ;)), and have released yet another spankingly great video to an unsuspecting world.

Number One Creation - Ian George feat. RemembeR is the perfect antidote to all that election fever, and is not only a wicked video (some of you might notice some similarities with New Shuuz, New Life) but a great song to boot.

Go, watch, enjoy, vote, rate, comment... - Number One Creation - Ian George feat. RemembeR

Meanwhile - we've been rumbling on in the studio - should have some new tunes to play at upcoming gigs - & there are two great ones coming up - we're lead support for Ebony Bones on the Saturday 8th of November down at Rhythm Factory, and a trip up to the amazing Stables on the 13th of November to play with Jackdaw4. Come! It would be lovely to see you :).

MTV Top 10 Videos of all time...

2008-09-24T06:45:00.000-07:00

There you are, having an afternoon tea break, watching a bit of TV, and suddenly it's the 'MTV Viewer's Vote Top 10 Videos of all Time' - awesome (where the HELL were Riddler ;)). That'll pass some time, perhaps chuck a bit of inspiration our way, and ensure we can have a little break from running Studio Dog round & round until we feel dizzy.

All sorts of great, great videos...
Radiohead - Check.
Madonna - Check.
Bjork/Chris Cunningham - Check.
Ah-Ha - Check.

We got to No.2, and started to feel a little confused... Thriller? Surely that's No.1 - there must be some mistake. It has GOT to be Thriller - no, no, they fade out about 5 minutes in, and it was definitely No.2.

No.1? Duran Duran - Rio.

Democracy is sometimes wrong. Just wrong :). Great song, great band, DREADFUL video! A massive fun-loving binge with a smug wink back @ the budget department at the record company a couple of thousand miles across the Atlantic. How much paint?

TV's brilliant.

The lovely Sue Marchant, some Stables and a demolition job - What’s the connection?

2008-09-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

A busy little week this. We've already managed to get through one week of tidying, boxing, lugging and general demolition (see the slightly dodgy quickly made Panoramic), followed by a pleasant if confusing hung-over afternoon in Homebase prepping for some painting work - but that's not all, oh no...

...there's more. Anneliese & Mike are being interviewed on the radio this evening - it's BBC Eastern Regions - so if you listen to any of the Eastern local radio stations (like Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, 3 Counties) they all combine at about 7pm, and Sue Marchant should be questioning us at some time around 9pm. Unfortunately, we've got some prior commitments, so we're doing this over the phone, but there will be a 'new' song for you to hear (well, you haven't heard it like this yet, so it's really a 'World Exclusive'... yup.), and hopefully plenty of banter ('cos Sue's lovely, and so are we ;)). We hope we'll be able to go back later in the year and actually do some of that playing we're meant to be able to do!

Catch us on 95.5, 104.5 & 103.8 FM anywhere in that Easternish area of the country, or live online @ one of the local radio pages (BBC 3 Counties Radio would be a start there - just pop down half way on the right hand side and click 'Listen Live')

As if that's not enough, we're also up at The Stables (Wavendon, which is just south of Milton Keynes) with Toni Castells on Friday the 12th - it's a beautiful venue, we're on Stage 2 (which hosted Gabriella Cilmi's UK Tour Debut gig), and it will hopefully be a lovely night - you can buy tickets direct (HERE!), or call the Box Office on 01908 280800. It's going to be an amazing mix of classical/Cafe Del Mar chilled joyness & our random jumping around, and your support there would be unbelievable.

Hope you are all well.

Studio Dog takes over...

2008-08-29T07:40:00.001-07:00

Those eagle-eyed people over on MySpace (and a couple of friends over on Facebook) have been asking some questions of our status updates... Who/What the hell is Studio Dog? Why are you so obsessed with him/her? Eatball?

Well, we've had an absolutely wonderful time over the last week - dog-sitting. The Dog in question is known, locally, as the mighty Scooby Doo! And he's an absolute Sweetie :). In fact, there were enough questions about him for us to make him a little blog all of his own, so you can find out more about the Mighty Mr Doo over on The Adventures of Scooby Doo. Bit of a work in process, but there's much more stuff to go up there, and we'll do that when we grab a moment!

As for musicy goings on - loadsa stuff. 3 gigs this month (Ramshackle on the 3rd, the legendary 'Stables' on the 12th - we're playing on the same stage that launched Gabriella Cilmi in the UK), and The Good Ship on the 19th), and we'll blog them in a little more detail if we can get the camera working again (blogs without photos - can't be done). We also have a stack of photos from the Nambucca gig that need processing, so those should be popping up.

Other than that -rehearsing, writing, recording - the usual really :). More to come ASAP...

Oh Hamswell, Hamswell, Hamswell...

2008-08-18T04:08:00.000-07:00

My God, what a weekend! It really was stunning, and even with the spattering of rain that invaded a bit of Friday night and Saturday afternoon, it was warm, friendly, fun and definitely worth the trip down to Bath!

What happened? Easy - music was blasting out over the rolling Somerset hills when we turned up, and we took great pleasure in continuing that tradition for 45 minutes in the early evening as the first full-band on stage. Awesome sound, a wicked 1st play of 'I Am The Machine', and people jumping around in the August sunshine. We met lovely people, drank amazing pink cider, met even more lovely people after that, and generally mixed chilling with bouncing around all night to some really excellent bands & staring blankly at the whisp-covered moon.

Saturday was a bit more of a damp experience, but after music all-night, everything kicked off nice and early. And even if some of us missed the 'Disco King' (which was gutting), it was just as good as the sunny Friday. Good to see the required number of fairy costumes too. There may also be a video of Dan doing his best Once-In-A-Lifetime-Talking-Heads impression, but we'll have to dig that one out.

So, if you didn't go this year, GO NEXT YEAR!

In the meantime, lots coming up - the Ramshackle Showcase on the 3rd of September, The Stables on the 12th and an Electro night @ the Good Ship on the 19th - new songs to play, new songs to learn, new places to play - it's gonna be a riot ;).

Spitting poison is truly fun!

2008-07-23T10:18:00.000-07:00

We're very happy to say that 'Spoonful of Poison' down @ Rhythm Factory was absolutely up to it's usual, anarchic doodlings on Monday night, and was certainly the most interesting one we've been to for a while. It's lovely to see the Rhythm Factory full of people, even if they are reclining on comfy sofas, sipping bottled beer and generally providing some of the most energetic 'audience feedback' you could want!

Still, it was a great set - we had lovely comments from the crowd, and our altered versions of 'Stop the Clock' and 'Candy Delight' seemed to go down a treat (if you haven't heard these versions, think 'salsa-glitch-two-step' as the general style). It also gave us a chance for a first run @ 'I am The Machine', which without Drums or Guitars settled down very nicely. Time to knock it out at full volume now.

So, a hundred thanks to Vis the Spoon (see earlier posts) for a laugh-and-a-half, a perfect headline-time, and a great opportunity to get raw feedback from (as it turned out) a lovely, lovely crowd.

Next up is a Glasswerk showcase @ Nambucca on Thursday the 7th of August (Holloway Road). They've described us as:

Girl fronted electro-pop want you to judge their genre for yourselves. Offering emotive vocals coupled with jaunty beats and a dash of leopard print, they're one to brighten up a Thursday.

...which seems nice! Go on, be RECKLESS, ignore a possible Friday Hangover (or welcome it, either way), and be safe in the knowledge that we'll be off stage by around 9:15pm to get home in time for hot coccoa and biscuits. Natch!

This week, we have mostly been Setting Sail.

2008-06-29T05:28:00.000-07:00

Twice, actually. And it was very nice.

The Good Ship, Kilburn is an interesting place :). We can highly recommend it if you're in the area of an evening. On Monday night, North London heard us giggling down at The Porthole Comedy Club No. 25 (it was their Birthday). We laughed all night to Tiffany Stevenson, Gerry Howell and Donald Mack, and were then promptly bowled over by the truly awesome Milton Jones (wanted to see him for ages). Don't mess with 'The Jones' - he's unnervingly funny. And all for £3 - you just can't complain. Pop over to the wonderful Matt Farrington-Smith's Photoblog of the night to see some.. uh.. photos :).

Tuesday saw us splicing the mainbrace once again for our Gig - a little showcase, and thanks to the people who popped along - you were lovely. Other bands included The Benwahs and Ill'a'Noize - both amazingly friendly, talented, and a hell of a lot of fun to hang out with. We'll be popping along to their gigs in the future.

Other than that, many things going on in the background at the moment - not saying anything now, but hopefully soon. More songs coming along nicely as well, which is always a pleasure. We should be adding at least one to the Set-List on Friday down at the Bull&Gate, Kentish Town (it's a little like a home-coming there. Popped in last night, and it was just lovely being back. We're really looking forward to this one). If you're free - come :).

Horny St. Albans, Frisky & Mannish

2008-05-29T04:23:00.000-07:00

From the darkest depths of London to the leafy trees of St Albans, we have journeyed to bring some Riddler-based LOVE to the Home Counties :). On more of a formal front... our gig @ ULU last week was much fun! We managed to do two sets both held together by gaffer tape and a broken keyboard stand (+ a few supporting cables). Lost Laptops, Parking Tickets, Swings, Roundabouts - it all came good in the end, and adds to the interesting theme-park we all call life :).

Enjoying the Sunshine (even if we are inside during it!) as it seems to bring out the Bees and the Beers, so a nice weekend ahead! Added bonus to the Horn gig on the 6th - free parking :).

Also, a recommendation - got to be our favourite band of the month (and most likely, a lot longer) - Frisky & Mannish . Brilliant! Go and listen (we recommend Weimar'll Be There). There are probably a few screws loose over there, but as we've said before - Lady Felicity Fitz-Harding & Hansel Amadeus Mannish, we utterly, utterly salute you!

Worcester Pub-Talk. Late & Far from home...

2008-05-17T04:21:00.000-07:00

Mike - "Do you think Mr. Lee and Mr. Perrins had their own sauces before they got together to make a better sauce?"
Lise - "Yes, but which one created the mild Tomato-ie one, and which created the spicy BBQ one? I think Mr. Lee was the Spicy one."
Mike - "Hmm. Not sure I agree, but more importantly, were they both from Worcester?"...

Which brings us to the point... In order to get the perfect 80's-tastic high-five, you must watch the elbow, especially if you're a few down in the Pub.

It all seemed so, so wise then. Cobden Club was very interesting, and we'll tell you all face-to-face, but it was a great gig - everyone played well, there were some great Acoustic acts, and Sons of Sam rocked. Full props to our favourite Spanish sound-guy, Koque, who acted as some kind of strange reverse musical matador by basically pulling gigantic rabbits out of his hat all night - every band sounded spot on.

Next up - ULU Duck 'n' Dive, Saturday 24th May - it'll be a killer! Give us a shout if you want tickets in advance.

Eeek - Venue Changes

2008-05-10T05:07:00.000-07:00

It happens so rarely - but when you get a shout from a promoter it does generally start a bit of 'all hands on deck'! Westbourne Studios are having electrical faults, so they're shutting down for the week to sort them out - which means our gig on Tuesday 13th has had to be moved - but it's been moved to a brilliant venue - The Grand Hall @ The Cobden Club - a Grade II Listed Victorian stage in the roof of an amazing building. So, lots of running around, but it's worth it :).

It's a members club, but they open up for gig nights, so unless you fork out a ton for membership, grab a chance to see it (and us, of course :)). It is worth dropping us a line tho', just to smooth the way in - you can get us at cobden@riddlermusic.co.uk. We're going to play something new too...

Actually, thinking about it - I think this kiind of last minute change has only happened once before - lucky us!

Bank Holiday Goodness

2008-05-07T04:57:00.000-07:00

Hope everybody enjoyed their Bank Holiday weekend as much as we did - we finished ours off with a really fun gig down at the Rhythm Factory on Monday night! Spoonful of Poison was great, friendly smiley faces, comedy, music and Spoon :). 1st 'Acoustic' gig for years, 1st outing for 'Sunshine' (which went down really well), and we managed to mix in a bit of jazzy things at the end. Pictures up soon from John...

Nice one :). More rehearsals tonight, more gigs next week (Tuesday 13th down at Westbourne Studios, Ladbroke Grove - two minutes walks from Westbourne Park Tube) - have a butchers at the gig list for more details!

In the meantime - enjoy the Sunshine!

Muchos Lovos from Riddler

Strange Days...

2008-04-26T16:18:00.000-07:00

A strange (productive) couple of days!

Sometimes, working constantly seems to send you a little bit stir-crazy, but at the end of the day, we've just had a couple of great days, and have nigh-on 'finished' a new song, which is great. So, fairly soon to be unleashed on you lot is the demo version of 'Sunshine (Dance for me)' - it's had us humming continuously (part of the driving-you-a-bit-bonkers thing), annoying friends at parties with sly 'were the only ones who know what we're talking about' giggles, and generally hopping round the studio to tunes played at stupid volumes.

Yeah, we like this one ;).

But with us locked away all day, it's lead to some pretty odd comments.

Mike: "Everyone's being weird today."
Lise: "Actually, that was yesterday."
Mie: "Yesterday was today, just moved back a bit."

Lise: "Do you have to itch an itch? Or can you itch something else?"

And to finish it all off...
Lise's description of Mike... "Absolutely frightening!"

Strange. Your thoughts please :).

And in other 'round-about-thought-mode' things - we'll all miss Humphrey Lyttelton. Mike&Dan worshipped (pretty much) the ground he ambled across; the man was a God amongst men, and he'll be sorely missed. What can you say? I guess, just cheers for making Monday evenings one of the funniest out there, and raising more than a few smiles over here at Riddler Towers...
Perhaps - have a listen :)
on George Bush, Dr Who, What's The Link, - just need some Mornington Crescent...

Yup. Strange days.

Free MP3s, Videos, Gigs and Site Updates

2008-04-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

Afternoon!

Well, the Media page is now up and running! We've included a Media player where we'll include new demos, tunes as soon as they're finished, and anything random we come up with (and there's plenty of that). Currently you've got 'Lipstick Blonde', 'Waterloo', and a demo version of 'I Am The Machine', so if you haven't heard them, have a look :).

We've also included free MP3 downloads of our little Live CD, recorded in the 'sweltering heat' of last Summer (!) at Storm on Leicester Square. The three songs are 'Candy Delight', 'Go Down Faster' and 'Give Me a Reason', and the covers from the physical CD are also there. The rather nice pictures of that gig aren't back up on the site yet, but you can have a look at them on Riddler's Facebook page.

A little more news on the RiddleR/RemembeR video, New Shuuz, New Life - it hit number 2 on the MTV Hungary Top 50 list last week, which is just amazing. Mind you, it's an amazing song & video, so go and vote for it and leave lovely comments over on YouTube :).

Also, a little mention about our next gig - headlining Spoonful of Poison @ The Rhythm Factory with the utter LEGEND, Vis the Spoon. It's meant to be Acoustic. It won't be ;). More on that later!

And finally, muchos thankos to Sam (sam (at) OneBlackSock.co.uk) for being a star with the new website, and sorting pretty much everything out in a matter of minutes. Genius!

The 1st proper post!

2008-04-10T04:36:00.000-07:00

Morning all!

As you can see, the beginnings of the new site are now up-and-running, and the Blog is starting to take shape too.

We are still rolling out a whole load of content for the site, including a complete media page (hopefully stuffed with music, videos and a stack of free stuff), an enormous backlog of photos for all three sections of the gallery (including ones from the Pete Doherty support gig down at Rhythm Factory a few weeks back), and more complete listings of gigs and the such - it's all work in progress, but you can expect stuff to be appearing every couple of days as the process of uploading it all goes on.

So, have a gander at the first load of links on the right (the New Shuuz, New Life video is now up to No.3 on the MTV Hungary Top 50), become our friend on our new MySpace Page, Facebook or any other medium you fancy, and generally have yourself a nice old time :).

Back soon. M