Kempo

I'd like to meet:

Get to Know Me

...About You...

Eye Color Green
Hair Color Very very dark brown (no, its not black)
Height Six Four
Favorite Color Purpley purple (like really dark purple, yep)
Screen Name Eh?
Favorite Band Don't like rawk or pawp
Favorite Movie Blade Runner
Favorite TV Show Does Fawlty Towers still count? If not then Bo! Selecta
Your Car No.2, No.12 and X98
Your Hometown Newchurch in Rossendale, Lancashire
Your Present Town Roundhay in Leeds
Your Crush's First Name I'm gonna do "first crush" instead... Kerry. I was 9
Your Grade A*
Your Style Not much

...Have You Ever...

Sat on your rooftop Not unless I fancy a slide...
Kissed someone in the rain Damn right...
Danced in a public place Of course
Smiled for no reason Every day, I'm easily "tickled"
Laughed so hard you cried Quite a lot now you mention it...
Peed your pants after age 8 Just a tiny little bit... just a droplet, see above question
Written a song All the time but the lyrics are of a very poor quality
Sang to someone for no reason Often - see above question
Performed on a stage Yep
Talked to someone you don't know Yeah
Made out in a theater You mean cinema? Yes, a little bit..!
Gone roller skating since 8th grade Nah
Been in love Hell yeah

...Can You...

Write with both hands Ha ha, depends how neat it has to be, I just tried!
Whistle Only through my lips, not my teeth - I do it all day
Blow a bubble No, never mastered that one
Roll your tongue Yuss
Cross your eyes For real
Touch your tongue to your nose Yeah! Can get it in my nostril - only the left one though, strangely
Dance As well as can be expected
Speak a different language I think I do anyway most of the time...
Impersonate someone Really badly, yes. I try hard though, that's the main thing isn't it?
Cook anything Frozen or tinned, no problemo. And stir fry... pretty pathetic I know

...Finish The Line...

If I were a ... monkey
I wish ... I was a little bit smaller
So many people don't know ... their times tables
I am ... typing this sentence
My heart is ... in my chest cavity

Music:

House all the way... with a few select bits of techno. Why do I not like any other kinds of music? As I get older it begins to mildly concern me that I haven't broadened my musical tastes (nor do I feel the desire to do so...) Maybe you think I am a bad person because of this. That is not a problem to me.

Here is a handful of artists, DJs, producers, labels, clubs and moments that have been major influences on me down the years, but not all are necessarily still moving me in quite the same way...

Stu Allan
Where it all began. This was my first "proper" encounter with underground dance music. At the time I was still listening to any old kind of music, but with more interest in the commercial dance records that had started to make inroads into the charts. I discovered Stu's show on Manchester's Piccadilly Key 103 radio station whilst randomly searching the airwaves one evening. This was sometime in late 1992, and I was hooked. The sounds of his "Hardcore Hour" and "House Hour" would fill my Sunday evenings for the next couple of years.

Roger Sanchez / Essential Mix
Like most fans of electronic/dance music, Radio 1's Essential Mix has played a major part in introducing me to new DJs and some amazing records. Having the opportunity to listen to world-class DJs in the days before I was able to attend clubs was made a whole lot easier by this show. The first show to really captivate me and direct my attention towards a more soulful, vocal sound was the mix by Roger Sanchez on 23rd July 1995.

Masters At Work
The first records I bought were the "Ministry Of Sound Sessions 5" quadruple-vinyl pack, selected by Masters At Work. Until then I had only heard a few of their remixes and productions, and mainly bought this because at the time MOS was renowned as a quality US house club, and I knew MAW were quite similar in sound to the Roger Sanchez mix I loved so much. THIS is where my vinyl addiction started...

Carl Cox
Whilst developing an interest in what would become my true musical love for house music, I was still drawn to the harder edged sounds of techno, an influence of the sounds I first heard on Stu Allan's show. It was through a friend who also listened to Key 103 that I got hold of a Carl Cox tape mixed live at Eclipse in Coventry. The energy of the set and the way Cox fused hardcore and techno with funkier house sounds was a real inspiration to me. Sadly the tape disappeared a few years ago, but shortly after hearing it I went out and bought the first edition of Cox's FACT series. The man is still a huge inspiration to me.

I finally got to see Carl Cox live for the first time on 28th April 2000, at Bugged Out!, then at Cream's home, Nation in Liverpool. The atmosphere and intensity of the set in the courtyard was everything I hoped for, perhaps even harder than I expected. Later that year in November I returned to the same place, this time in the main room to hear what still remains the best set I have heard Cox play, at Bugged Out's 5th birthday. Credit to Jon Carter for taking the place close to the edge beforehand but Cox managed to step it up even further. The entire room was simply going crazy, there is no other way to describe it.

Carl Craig
Another inspirational Essential Mix was broadcast in October 1995, mixed by Detroit legend Carl Craig. This opened my ears still further, taking in a sound that perfectly fused the soul and emotion of house with the futuristic elements of techno. This mix still remains one of my favourites to this day, although my original tape has sadly been lost somewhere along the way. This mix was also responsible with starting my fascination with the film Blade Runner, due to Craig's use of samples from the movie throughout the mix. He released another exceptional mix for K7's "DJ Kicks" series in early 1996.

Cajual Records / Derrick Carter
Being just too young to catch the original wave of Chicago and acid house, it was left to the new breed of producers coming from house's original place of birth to capture my imagination. Leading the way was Cajual Records, headed up by Cajmere/Green Velvet and artists such as Derrick Carter, DJ Sneak and Johnny Fiasco. Carter was beginning to emerge as the figurehead DJ of this second wave of artists from the city, playing the a harder-edged, highly syncopated sound. His "Future Sound Of Chicago 2 - The Many Shades Of Cajual" served as a showcase not only for the label but Carter himself. The sound is quite stark and raw in places but takes in the whole spectrum of what house music is about for me and really showed how to mix up various styles of house without losing the flow. This mix is still my favourite of all time.

Yousef

Siesta Music

Classic Music Company

Danny Tenaglia

Steve Lawler

Peace Division

X-Press 2

Misstress Barbara

Movies:

Blade Runner, Kill Bill 1 & 2, Pulp Fiction, Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas, Monty Python & The Holy Grail, Monty Python's Life Of Brian, Carlito's Way, Killing Zoe, Taxi Driver, Clockwork Orange, Goodfellas, Natural Born Killers, High Fidelity, Rear Window, Vertigo, Withnail & I, Memento, Napoleon Dynamite, House Of Flying Daggers, Mean Streets, Raging Bull, Casino, Scarface, Fight Club, Marathon Man, Straw Dogs, The Conversation, Fargo, Being John Malkovich, The Shining, What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, The Deer Hunter, Jackie Brown, 1984, Bad Lieutenant, King Of Comedy, Clerks, The Acid House

Television:

The Simpsons, Futurama, Fawlty Towers, Bo! Selecta, Scrubs, Green Wing, Everybody Hates Chris

Books:

Anything by Irvine Welsh or Douglas Coupland, biographies, anything music/design/photography related