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Thursday, December 30, 2010

The New Worck #361: The Free Frontier


My hour long ambient/glitch/experimential mix can now be downloaded from the digital mixtape site The New Worck:

http://thenewworck.com/genre/dub/the-new-worck-361-of-loose-link

Which also includes 360 other great mixes free to download, wowza!!

Special thanks to Schobbejak for hosting.

Happy New Year!


Thursday, December 23, 2010

Loose Link - The Free Frontier Mix


 


The Free Frontier
An hour long mix by Loose Link

A dense ambient/glitch dub soundscape featuring many unsigned artists from around the globe, who work passionately on their music and release it for free on the internet through various net labels, such as Jerky Oats and Monotonik.

Also featuring signed major artists here and there, just for providing the way and inspiration :)

Includes: Black Sun Empire, George Carlin, Gol, FSOL, Loose Link, Clockwork Keyboard, Noisesurfer, Second Thought, Cubus, Off Land, Herd, Jesse Conner, Matthew Price, Jack Anderton, Seafar, Blu Mar Ten, Shining Dove, Bjorn Lynne, City Of Tales, Sun In Aquarius, Tom Cosm, Isaac Chambers, Transient, Deep Space Network, Reii, The Orb, Salmonella Dub, Pitch Black, Malty Media, Neotropic, FSB, Woob, David Zeal, Ghost Box, Inky Blackness, Flight Of The Conchords, Jam And Spoon, Kuu, Bloop, Gusev KP, Irresistible Force, Coldcut, Wishcollapse, Pete Farn, Ghosttheory And Tree Helicopter plus more.

Listen to it here:

The Free Frontier Mix by Loose Link 

Should be downloadable on a website soon, if not I'll make it downloadable myself.

Merry Christmas all :)

Monday, December 6, 2010

Loose Link - Debut Album


After an unemployed month's work back in October-November, I have completed the first album under the name Loose Link, called Random Proportions. It is a 12 track 57 minute weird journey with nearly all tracks mixing into one another to form one long soundscape. It is being released to download for free on Ross Baker's net-label Jerky Oats in the UK. I've learned alot from making this, thanks goes to Ross for supporting the album, and thanks to others like Shining Dove who gave inspiration.

"Debut release from Loose Link, a sound collage artist from New Zealand. Random Proportions is a collection of hip-hop breaks, cut'n'paste samples, audio collages and unconnected sounds connected. Instead of pasting together samples and loops into pop songs, a la The Avalanches and RJD2, Loose Link arranges them into thick, layered soundscapes, morphing voices, beats and orchestras into a blanket of comforting chaos which owes as much to ambient as it does hip-hop and breakbeat.

Random Proportions features input from Second Thought and Shinning Dove."

01. Hey Hey You Hey
02. Nanolightning
03. I Remember Many Things
04. Ghost Protocol
05. Unanswered
06. Supercollider
07. Kisp
08. Don't Wanna Die
09. Glitchy Mist
10. The Unexplainable
11. Random Proportions
12. Elution

Download the full release here:

http://www.secondthought.co.uk/jerkyoats/joat017.htm




Monday, November 22, 2010

Loose Link - I Remember Many Things

Video Slideshow, set to the song "I REMEMBER MANY THINGS" by my alias LOOSE LINK.


From my debut album RANDOM PROPORTIONS. Over 57 minutes of free flowing music available to download FOR FREE 6th December:

http://www.secondthought.co.uk/jerkyoats/joat017.htm

Artwork by CRAIG GILLMAN
Video created by SHINING DOVE


Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Loose Link - New Tracks

I've been creating music again, 8 of these pieces are uploaded onto my Soundcloud page:


Artilect by Loose Link 


The Unexplainable by Loose Link 


Peace by Loose Link 


The Electromagnetic Sound Nursery by Loose Link 


Secret Mission by Loose Link 


Straight In The Face (Early Version) by Loose Link 


Don't Wanna Die by Loose Link 


Carry It by Loose Link 


Sample Based Downbeat Instrumental Glitchy Hip Hop Alternative Electronica Weirdness.

More progression compared to the EP tracks I did 6 months ago. My main focus was to make Drum and Bass and Dub (still trying) but every time, the track went off into a different direction, and I decided to follow. One I decided to upload is a work in progress track, which I see has potential as a d'n'b track, and which I'll be continuing to work on.

Don't know if it's because I'm using Opera now or Soundcloud's having connection problems, every time I tried to upload a track it kept signing me out, then it kept signing me out when I sign back in, then it ends up the track wasn't uploaded, then when I re-upload the same track it sign's me out again, and then it says the track wasn't loaded, and then when I sign back in the track WAS loaded... etc etc

For now until I figure out why, I don't think Soundcloud's the best place to upload anything. But it's a platform, and when it works, it works.

Friday, October 1, 2010

I've Been Framed!




Original A3 drawing of the Mt Grey picture, first try at framing my work.

Looks more complete.

The framing was done by the friendly couple Donna and Richard at The Flatmates Art Company, dedicated local business all the way!:

This will sit at my home for a month, and if someone doesn't want it, it shall be sold to a gallery or a shop. This orphan needs a home, a job and a partner to marry, it ain't staying home until it's 30!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

A Book, A Quake And A Goodbye

Recieved another book in the mail from France, BDZine:



It is I.M.A's anthology title, the same guys who I collaborated with on Les Enfants and The Dream Of The Foetus. They have published around 25 leaflets before upgrading to a book edition here. It has collaborations from different artists and writers from France, Japan, Luxembourg, The Congo (!!), the U.S.A and me. My ever evolving early to now comic "Yummy Lil TVs Educational Lollies" has been published in full here, and in French too. The same story is being published in four parts and in English in Funtime Anthology. Three parts have been published so far and the fourth will be out... someday...

Recently, New Zealand quaked:



Over 2 billion dollars of damage have been calcuated so far. A few closeby towns are completly devestated. One miricle that we're taking away from this though; not one death has been reported yet. Thankfully the main quake and the strongest among the 250+ aftershocks so far are all happening very early in the morning, starting off at 4.35am. If it occured any other time things would of been alot worse.

Abit of personal bad news lastly, my dog died:



10 year old Cockerspaniel Popeye died from a fatal cancer. Antibiotics kept him going, but the end was inevitable. During my comic days this little guy was an inspiration to a couple of my comic stories, including this one:





He'll be missed.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

New Tattoo Too

Side on dragon tattoo, from the armpit to waist:



Ended up being a little bigger than A3, had a fun time pasting this back together on the computer, phew...

So uh, yeah... the same stuff, but a little bit more now, still coming. Keep... sitting tight.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

New Tattoo

Gidday Merrrv. New request for a back tattoo, completed:



Much more stuff to come, sit tight.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Christmas Tree

Just finished my first full color comic, Christmas Tree!



5 pages long. Would love to see it printed somewhere.

Meanwhile, coloring many other pieces for various different reasons. Most of these will be posted here when they're done. Also thinking about many more other things.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Ces Chers Petits Anges

If you're living in France for the rest of the year (or the rest of your life) this is what Les Enfants will look like in their bookstores:




Printed in Luxembourg, bounded 74 pager, full of French words. Feels more like a book compared to Les Enfants. This book contains a different story order and page rearrangements, and a very nicely colored version of Vacation. Colored by Naga, brings new life into the story.



To be shown at selected festivals during June, nice one fellas.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Loose Link - Loose Link EP



Meh, what the hell...

Over the years and just for kicks, I've been messing around with various music creation programs and created many music tracks, from cliche heart-pounding techno, to weird experimental sample breakbeats and ambiance. Years later I'm still doing it from time to time.

Recently I'm starting to be satisfied with some of the tracks that I create... and have decided to put them together as my first amateur EP, post it up on the internet for free, and be damned.

The EP is primarily dominated by 4X4 pounding techno (the easiest type of track to create? Besides modern R&B?) but I have thrown in a couple of other types that are fine too, most notably one of my earliest remixes I have ever done, of a track from the classic Biosphere album Substrata (look it up on Google if you don't know), credits and respect to Gier Jenssen for making the original.

No fancy studio, no execs, and no big club events (...yet :P), but I have had the pleasure of the great classic game icon and rapper PACMAN drop by to lay down heavy weights of poetic justice on top of my beat Oopsie Daze. Mad dope respect from the old school.

I've uploaded the EP onto Soundcloud, but the attached player below has all the tracks in backwards order for some reason, I guess you can follow the link to there if you do want to hear them as originally intended... if not, then nevermind :)

I have plenty more Loose Link stuff to post on here later. For now, enjoy!

Tracklist:
1. Oopsie Daze (feat. the poetic talents of Pac-Man)
2. Ain't Playing Anymore
3. Buggery
4. Biosphere - Hyperborea (Loose Link's Spiky Spheres Remix)
5. Four To The Floor
6. BB Gun (feat. Popeye and Ollie)

Latest tracks by Loose Link

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Funtime #24



One of my stories is featured in the latest issue of The Funtime Comics Anthology. My story (which is Part 3 in a series within Funtime) is featured alongside the latest works from other imaginative Christchurch artists like Bob Gibbons, Isaac Freeman, Jared Lane, and a crisp colorful cover by Matt Tait.

If you're in Christchurch it's available at Comics Compulsion on Manchester Street, otherwise by E-mail: funtime@comics.org.nz.

http://funtime.comics.org.nz/
http://www.comicscompulsion.co.nz/

Monday, April 5, 2010

Wellington 2010

For the past few days I've been up to Wellington, Capital City of NZ, half-ly for a look as I've never been there before, and the other half to attend Armageddon and the NZ Comix Weekend and the Eric Awards that they have once a year during Easter Weekend.

A best fit city for anybody on the go, pretty much everything needed was either right there or just a 5-10 walk, or a 3 minute bus/taxi/train ride (if you catch it on time that is, then it's an 18 minute bus ride!). Didn't really experience the much talked about "Wind" that everyone kept blabbering on about, must of been lucky... 95% of all the buses follow one straight route through the city from two main stop/exchange points, Courtney Place and the Railway Station, that all the buses stop at, with the few buses branching off into the outskirts. Much easier than CHCH's system, blame the layout of the city for that.

Hills and walkways everywhere, perfect for me since I'd rather walk and keep fit when I can. You can understand the city's people and its culture just by looking at the city itself. While Christchurch has Cathedral Square, Wellington has Civic Square, and Cuba Street, and they're not usually as crowded (or have as many cheap food stalls to distract the view) certain areas of bright colored brick patterns next to conventional older slightly preserved buildings, certain skyscrapers positioned on steep hills with trees and wires hanging overhead all creating immersive visual experiences, which for a while make you forget that you actually are in a modern day city... and about to be hit by a silly driver who ran a light and is not really paying attention to anything...

But I guess spending a year walking or running through the city would teach you that you could have a sprinting chance of escape!

Oh and I have seen crazy "joggers" sprinting headfirst down one steep street, docking and ducking, they hope, in time to dodge any passing fourwheeled obstacle they would get in the way.

It was hard not to tell the minority aspect of the city though, many ethnics fixing the roads and things, and sweeping the streets and hotel-steps clean with the "BIGGEST SMILES" on their faces... while wannabe politicians eat in their fancy little cafes and restaurants, which led me to another big fact about the city, there are more cafes and restaurants in Wellington per capita than New York City...

The whole NZ Comic weekend was stationed in a deep underground (how fitting) basement gallery in Dixon St, with some free drink and nibs. Starting off with a exhibition of a 1940's kiwi Comic publisher H.W Bennett put together by Tim Bollinger, and featuring ?original? artworks by various comic artists from 1970's New Zealand. The next night the internationally renowned Kiwi cartoonist Dylan Horrocks launched a new local edition of his book "Hicksville", then an annual awards celebration called the Black River Digital NZ Comic Awards, hosted by a spiritually, geeky, modern day Chris Farley successor (who was funny).

Being someone who had only seen the **VERY SADLY TINY AND UNDERWHELMING** Christchurch side of the NZ comic scene, you really had to go to something like the Comix Weekend to experience the dedication the whole scene has for the artform, especially in a country which values and icons are totally opposite to Comics. People do it cause they love it, even if reality tries to get in the way, they have been doing it for decades, and continue to grow and find new ways for people to come join. Not a money-spinner, and I'm personally glad its not.

If the New Zealand Comics and Sequential scene turns out like the American or Japanese one, what an anti-climax....

But anyway, it was a nice experience, and good luck to them.

Visited the Botanic Gardens, visited Te Papa and spent a day in Pompeii... went to Lower Hutt, went to the Scorching and Karaka Bays...

Went to the Weta Cave to see Sculptor Gary Hunt, who put on a demonstration for an hour. Very creative and a nice guy. They should expand the cave though in future, abit overcrowded.

At Armageddon I also managed to see Michael Winslow from the Police Academy movies of the 1980's, and was completely blown away:



Afterwards I boarded the Interislander and took a boat trip through the Sounds, then took a train from Picton back home.

I read the entirity of Hicksville on the train from Picton to Waipara, first time I have managed to read something that long in one sitting... ever. A very pleasant read worthy of the praise it received over the years.

Enjoyed every minute and would definitely visit again when can. Hopefully I'll be able to take more photos as, during some vital moments, my camera kept chewing up batteries to justify its old age...
































Thursday, March 25, 2010

Earlier On, Les Enfants and The Dream Of The Foetus Now Available For Order



All three pictured Graphic Novels are now available for purchase, from now until eternity (directly from me!).

(All following prices are in New Zealand Dollars.)


LES ENFANTS: THE ANNOYANCES OF CHILDREN
60 PAGES, BLACK/WHITE WITH COLOR COVER
$15 NZ, $2 p+p in NZ, $5 p+p rest of the world





EARLIER ON
60 PAGES, BLACK/WHITE WITH COLOR COVER
$15 NZ, $2 p+p in NZ, $5 p+p rest of the world






THE DREAM OF THE FOETUS
60 PAGES, BLACK/WHITE WITH COLOR COVER
$15 NZ, $2 p+p in NZ, $5 p+p rest of the world





New Zealand price for all 3 are $40 plus $3 for p+p. Just use my email address to paypal the money: deeperblue228@yahoo.co.nz

Or, if you want, send a personal cheque in your local currency for the equivalent amount, made out to 'Craig Gillman', to the address below (and make sure you tell me what you're ordering!):

Craig Gillman

12 Old Main Road, Leithfield
Amberley RD 1 8251

New Zealand


(...It's cooler and more futuristic to do it through Paypal)





Sunday, March 21, 2010

Added Comic Preview Buttons

If you look to your right you should see five little buttons on the sidebar. Each button links back to the comic preview posts I did a couple of months ago. Back in February I've posted previews to 5 full comic books I'm working on and will publish this year. Each preview contains at least 5 or more preview pages each.

It'll be useful when this blog gets bigger, and you somehow have an interests in these "old" comic books of mine.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Works in Progress

I have three big story concepts I'm working on at the moment. Big universes involving several locations, with many interesting characters populating each. All three are in fair contrast with each other, with one quite fantastical and humorous, one abit more realistic and not entirely humorous at all, and another based firmly in reality, with abit of humor thrown in.

Not sure yet if they'd all turn into graphic novels, or if any one of them will become a written novel instead. In this conceptual stage all three have drawings tagged to them. I'm also seeing them as long-term teamwork-like projects, so all three are wide open for collaboration.



Speaking of collaborations, I'm in an interesting one now with a talented Kiwi Writer, here's one version of the logo.



More W.I.Ps, and more about these two, when ready.

Favorite Songs At The Moment



Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Mount Grey/Maukatere

Here's a B/W picture I've been working on lately. Of a New Zealand "floating mountain", Maukatere! (or as them silly Pakehas call it, Mount Grey...)

I caught a rather annoying flu near the end, which affected my decision making on this picture somewhat... at least I didn't catch it at the beginning...

This is the start of a series of New Zealand pictures I'll like to do, aiming for these to be hung on walls of cafes or other busy places, or an art gallery. Encouragement will help drive this.















Working on many concept and character designs at the moment, will post some when ready.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Drawings Of Pubs and Birds and Cars

I don't just do cartoons.

More will be posted later, including some more colored work.






Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Evil Looking Skeleton On A Surfboard (By Request)

I have a mate, he has a Pantera logo tattooed on his right shoulder. He wants a picture of a "evil-looking skeleton on a surfboard" tattooed underneath it.

So, I drew him one:


Friday, February 26, 2010

Picton 2010

I went up with my Pop to Picton on the train for a night and a day recently (Picton is on the top half of the South Island of New Zealand... for those who don't know).

For anyone who lives in the city or works a boring repetitive job and desperately needs a break, this is one of the best places to have it.

A couple of relatives rented out a beautiful little apartment that overlooks a part of the harbor and the Sounds in the distance. Truly beautiful and picturesque, especially with one of the many fishing boats or the Interislander casting off into the distance.

Even if it was only one day, a nice relaxing break, much needed.