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Josef Motley

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About Me

I hate 99% of hiphop but continue to choose to make it for some reason. My first musical love was grunge, then industrial, but seeing as I can’t play any instrument for beans I never really got anywhere trying to make that. I wrote some cringeworthy lyrics and a couple of crude riffs on guitar. I got into Frank Zappa, Aphex Twin & hip-hop simultaneously and that changed a lot.I started making music in 2002, recording a frankly terrible EP with beatboxer & longtime accomplice Yasson entitled ’Kaftans for Swinton’ to no response whatsoever. After gaining a semblance of skill at open mics in Chichester & Portsmouth, I moved to Northend where I recorded numerous mixtapes with local rappers Tenchoo, State-L, Chemistry & Mongrel, under the name of A4. Our equipment consisted of nothing but a Playstation & a video camera as mic, each plugged into one speaker input. We wrote beats on ’Music’, ’Music 2000’ & ’Fluid’ as I steadfastly refused to buy a PC. I may have retained my lo-fi credibility but I also retained a lot of tape hiss.By 2005 I was tired of what I was doing and decided my music needed a big makeover.... so I spent most of that year trying to write without rhyme or flow, just stuff that sounded good without having to contort it to fit a song. This was then mercilessly edited in 2006 and put over some classic PSone beats from the old A4 days to make the first swampglow album ’Catastrophe Curve’. I had finally relented and used an old PC to record my vocals and attempt to produce the whole bleak mess. The slightly more cheerful second album, ’The Sweatshop Nit Kingdom’, was recorded between October ’06 to ’07, using some more up-to-date PC programs as well as live beatbox & instrumentation, and at the same time swampglow went from solo act to live band, thus my scrappy, nonsensical solo music is now released under my own name....Discography:2002- A4 & Yasson: Kaftans for Swinton 2003- A4: Catastrophe Curve 2004- A4: Art Class 2005- A4: Hilarious Decline 2006- swampglow: Catastrophe Curve 2007- the lost & found sound: Vacuum 2007- Give Up Records compilation 2007- swampglow: The Sweatshop Nit Kingdom 2008- Josef Motley: EP (yellow)Forthcoming:2008- Josef Motley and the lost & found sound: LP (orange)2008- swampglow: (as yet untitled LP)200?- Josef Motley: LP (purple)200?- Josef Motley & dCABB: (as yet untitled LP)My current project (beginning with the yellow EP) is a series of soundtracks to a currently imaginary point & click game in the style of the classic Lucasarts games such as Monkey Island, starring an entirely fictional rapper who is not based upon myself in ANY WAY. honest. the releases are colour coded to different musical themes... for example the red EP is raucous, dark & abrasive, whereas the white EP is it’s far mellower and ever so slightly floaty antithesis. The orange LP, created with the lost & found sound, is a soundtrack within a soundtrack, being the radio station that plays within the game itself during stereotypical "road movie" type scenes. My other projects at the moment are finishing off the third swampglow album, the first to be recorded with the full band lineup, and beginning work on an album with producer dCABB.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 9/29/2007
Band Website: myspace.com/swampglow
Band Members: Me, being Average Joe Motley AKA Stuart Dent AKA Ryan Grimshaw AKA Fitzroy Valentine AKA Ian Skinsleigh AKA Josef Half-a-Head AKA J.R. Motley, fly fisher AKA Guybrush Threepwood, a mighty fisherman. I'm also the man who caught the notorious LeChuck. I enjoy fighting crime & long walks on beaches. I'm also known as The Man Who Speaks Fast About Nothing. This being the only thing I'm actually any good at. I like to try and beatbox or play percussion and then be astonished by how out of time the result is compared to how it sounded in my head. I am also tonedeaf but I enjoy making noises on various instruments all the same, mainly the synthesiser. Well, my PC's keyboard. I write down what letters the notes I play down are, it's a much better system for me personally to use a QWERTY keyboard as there are more letters than the frankly confusing octave system. Well it confuses me. For instance, i did a song called 'self titled' for my band when it wasn't a band yet, and the notes spelt s-w-a-m-p-g-l-o-w, and that's how I remembered what I was actually playing. I'm a bit simple like that. Occaisonly I get my friends involved to cover up for my complete lack of talent... past and future collaborators include:Tortoiseshell Maleswampglowthe lost & found sounddCABBYasson of CorroboreeBujubenRusty Sheriff & DeadfootAndreas Hobo of MyriadOdynophagiaJoe Blackvf wingEvil Steve of DieselwigXaigonJackarackWailin' AsahbajjStupac
Influences: animals, food, composite buildings, bad TV, hallucinations, suspect conspiracy theories, old teachers, the second ice age, non-existant computer games, lucid dreaming, unpronouncable diseases, amputation tales, well worn anecdotes and in-jokes, suspicously agile zombies, the needlessly surreal, imaginary girlfriends, indescribable dreams that can only be re-evoked to myself through a list of vague imagery, dead things in general, when you open a drawer / packet of sugar and it's filled with tiny white writhing bugs, amusing mistakes made due to mishearing sentences spoken by other people that are then stolen for lyrics, the colour of music, hologram waveforms, my continual quest to locate a skeleton called The General that used to belong to one of one of my Dad's friends, my continual quest to locate the picture of an octopus wrapping xmas presents that i once saw in a newspaper round Bujuben's, general mishaps, kept mistakes and happy accidents, old school Big Brother, the Scatman, Fred Schneider, the NHS and the essential nature of all religions; intolerance, bigotry, sordid celibacy and war.
Sounds Like: "I'd describe the Motley sound as the musical adaptation of a man undergoing regressive hypnotherapy as his family sit in the corner couch crying. The truth incendiary to delusions parasitic nature in this world of inanimate weight."- Odynophagia"I'm not sure i would consider you a rapper though. Maybe protorapper or something thats been used to describe busdriver's style. Ethereal eclectic verbose hip hop storytelling..."- dCABB"You truly have a unique multi-layered sound happening here- it is very interesting plus a lot of fun. And needs further listening."- 7atoms"you seem to be able to make a hen out of just one feather..."- Joel Simeus"wonderful ways of comin up with words, I still cannot understand, brilliant!"- the Ms. "You definitely can't find that kind of stuff here in Louisiana!"- Dustin of the Sunkissed Barrelabisca"You vile delinquent"- Maddie Peet"Not as good as Jez North"- Jez North"I'm shocked by your new tune. I never thought I'd hear something like that come out of your mouth..."- Bujuben"Yeah, I thought it was a bit 'dry your eyes'-esque..."- Stupac"I'd say more Puff Daddy."- Bujuben
Record Label: Give Up Records
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

swampglow gig, and stuff

another blog within five minutes. it’s a bad habit. yeah anyway my band are playing the nell gwynne, being a pub in southsea, portsmouth, england, on april the 28th, i believe it’s a monda...
Posted by Josef Motley on Sat, 22 Mar 2008 02:52:00 PST

remixes

i am bored of the songs i have up so i have taken two down and replaced them with remixes of the same song. does this make sense? my logic is perhaps suspect. anyway. theres an acoustic version of &rs...
Posted by Josef Motley on Sat, 22 Mar 2008 02:17:00 PST

First Surrealist Manifesto (by Andre Breton)

First Surrealist Manifesto From Le Manifeste du Surréalisme, 1924 ANDRÉ BRETON We are still living under the reign of logic, but the logical processes of our time apply only to the solution of prob...
Posted by Josef Motley on Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:19:00 PST

new song

i have a new song up called 'U=BTL' which is about the fun you can have when hanging around with foster brother alan (a friend to you and me, whenever you are lonely, he's perfect company) on forties ...
Posted by Josef Motley on Tue, 04 Mar 2008 12:54:00 PST

new songs

i have put two new songs up from the forthcoming orange LP with the lost & found sound. the second of which also featuring the guitar strumming of wailin' asahbajj. the first is called 'a retinal ...
Posted by Josef Motley on Sat, 23 Feb 2008 09:56:00 PST

current songs AND/OR let me tell you about my brief history

Here are some footnotes regarding the music I have posted at the moment.These are not to be taken as any kind of prophecy, although they are.1: your head on a stick (Josef Motley - yellow EP, 2008)the...
Posted by Josef Motley on Sat, 19 Jan 2008 06:43:00 PST

swampglow - the point & click game

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Posted by Josef Motley on Wed, 09 Jan 2008 02:49:00 PST

this is my room


Posted by Josef Motley on Tue, 08 Jan 2008 07:19:00 PST

new songs

1: Adrian Ripburger2: sings the greatest hits of Tanner Sack3: for Sister Sara and the scumline poor4: you died.    I feel like a hip-hop version of Gavin Rossdale.    3:...
Posted by Josef Motley on Sun, 06 Jan 2008 08:46:00 PST

I AM NOT THIS MAN

News .. type="text/javascript"> document_write('Print Article'); document_write(' | Share this article'); ..>Print Article | Share this article .. Email Article .. What's this...
Posted by Josef Motley on Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:09:00 PST