Blog: Tenori-on – new favourite toy
Just got new Tenori-on..awesome little piece of kit!!
I made a sample pack of beatbox sounds for the Yamaha Artist Series…You can download it free! More info here. Happy blipping! 
Blog: Help me with some research
Hey gang. So I need your help – I’m working on the next phase of my plan to create some ground-breaking learning resources for beatboxing, and I’m conducting some research.
If you’re a beatboxer, whether you’re a full-time pro or you only do it in the shower, I’d love to hear your thoughts via the survey below. And just as a bit of an incentive, we’ll pick one lucky person who will win £50 of Amazon vouchers, courtesy of www.musicroom.com.
Please pass this on to anyone you know who beatboxes, wherever they are from!
If you can’t see the survey below, click here to take the survey
TAKE THE SURVEY:
Free download: A Lip Factory Xmas
Happy Xmas everyone! Here’s a little Xmas gift from me and my merry Lip Factory – a free download of our Lip Factory Xmas medley. You can also watch the video here.
Free download: London Mouthtronica collaborations
I invite a different artist to perform an improvised collaboration with me at each of my Mouthtronica shows. The day after each show you can download the live collaboration as a free single. Share the love!
Judging and performing at the UK Loopstation Championships on Tuesday 22 Nov
Boss LoopStation & V-Drums World Championships
The Jam House, Birmingham, on Tuesday November 22nd 2011.
Entry is free from 8pm.
I’ll be judging and performing at the UK finals of the World Loopstation Championships in Birmingham on Tuesday. 16 finalists will be battling it out to represent the UK at the world championships and have a chance to take my World Title! Come along and support new talent.
The Jam House
3-5 St. Pauls Square
Birmingham
B3 1QU
TEL: 0121 200 3030
VOCTRONICA: Calling all Indian Voices!
CALLING ALL INDIAN VOCALISTS AND BEATBOXERS! In an exciting new collaboration with the British Council, I will be putting together VOCTRONICA – India’s first beatboxing vocal ensemble.
Leading the project with me is Testament, the incredible beatboxer, rapper and long-standing member of my UK vocal groups, alongside Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy – front man of Scribe and a vocal genius in his own right.
If you know of ANY exciting vocal talent from within India, whether they are singers, rappers, beatboxers, yodellers, Indian classical vocalists or any other voice talent, please let them know about this uniquely exciting opportunity! REGISTER NOW!
Blog: The Mouthtronica donations make a difference in Sudan
I just got this letter from Stephen Flanagan, a Doctors Without Borders Emergency intervention nurse in South Sudan.
Thanks to everyone who bought the Mouthtronica albums, we raised nearly £600. If you would like to make a further donation to MSF, please head to their website: MSF.org
Dear Shlomo,
Thank you for your donations from the Shlomo Mouthtronica project towards the work of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). I am currently working as part of our outreach team near Leer in South Sudan, where the numbers of children being admitted to our feeding programme has dramatically increased over the last few months. I wanted to thank you for your support because it is your donations which have allowed us to respond with additional staff, medicine and therapeutic food. Our work in south Sudan is just one example of the work that you are supporting and I would like to tell you about some of my patients.
“It’s red” my colleague calls out to me, so I make another tally mark on our data sheet where ‘red’ results are increasingly becoming the norm. We walk to the next house and find another red and then another some moments later. After we had assessed over 300 children, we decided to take a break away from the south Sudanese heat – it was 46c and only 11am.
For those children who have a Mid Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) scoring of red, it means that they are severely malnourished and as a result, are at a significant increased risk of dying. MUAC measurements are a quick and simple process whereby a measuring band is placed around the upper arm. A reading is then made which indicates the severity of their nutritional status.
We continue throughout the day, walking from house to house and assessing every child in the village. That was until we came across one small girl who clearly needed admitting into our in-patient feeding programme. The girl, 4 years old is quietly listless in the arms of her mother, who has only a hopeless glare on her face. I take the measurement of the child’s arm. It reads a circumference of 98mm – clearly, another red and clearly at risk of dying.
You can see for yourself just how malnourished this child was with the enclosed MUAC tape. Thread it through the middle slit and make it into a circle until you reach the 98 mark. What you have in front of you is the upper arm circumference of this 4-year-old girl and you do not have to be an expert to know that this arm is far too thin.
Understandably, the mother initially refuses for her child to be admitted into the hospital. She has three other children so who will look after them? After some negotiation, she agrees and the child is taken to the MSF hospital in Leer where MSF provides for special feeding.
The next day we left by 4×4 and head to a remote area that we know has experienced food shortages before. However, it is not long before swampy ground forces us to abandon our vehicle and continue on foot. It takes us most of the day before we arrive at our destination, set up camp and rest in preparation for more long days ahead…
After two weeks, having assessed 12,000 children, we sit eagerly awaiting the analysis of our results, although we know in the back of our minds what it will be…
Arriving back in Leer, we supported the staff in the in-patient feeding facility. Over 20 patients are critical and, if they were in Britain, would be in an intensive care unit. One small child arrives, dehydrated and limp. We start initial emergency treatment but for this 2-year-old the complexities of his condition are just too much and the child died shortly after arrival. I have worked in a feeding programme before and have always asked myself if it becomes any easier seeing a child die because of hunger. In reality, you are just too busy to think about it.
There are positives working here, it’s not all doom and gloom. There is nothing better than seeing a bouncing, lively child discharged home after watching them improve from a condition were they are so weak they are unable to stand. And there are many, many children who go down this route.
From Jan –April this year there has been a 200% increase in the number of children admitted into the programme as compared to the same period last year and it was here in Leer that alarm bells first began to ring. Children were, and still are, arriving at an increasing rate each day. I checked the attendance figures this morning and there are over 500 children admitted in the programme – 6 weeks ago when I first arrived it was 205. Apparently the other feeding programmes run by MSF in Lankien and Nasir are both seeing similar increases.
Malnutrition is complex. Although now is the start of the traditional hunger gap in southern Sudan, the situation has been compounded by an even worse than usual harvest plus sporadic insecurity following recent elections. Food prices in the markets have increased by over 100% since January and people here are helplessly doing what they can to manage.
Thanks to the support of individuals such as you, we have increased our capacity drastically in Leer to care for these children already. But, following our assessment there is a clear need for intervention now and more so in the coming weeks and months. Without the specialist feeding care we can provide the situation will only be much worse. And that’s the next challenge, plans are already under way to access these areas and intervene. That is what I like most about MSF, individual gifts such as yours allow us the freedom to be able to see the problem then get stuck right in and get on with the job. Thank you for helping us to do this.
With grateful thanks,
Stephen Flanagan
Emergency intervention nurse
South Sudan
Free download: Lip Factory Circle Jams
FREE DOWNLOAD!
The day after each ‘Shlomo and the Lip Factory’ gig you will be able to download the unique improvised ‘circle jam’ FOR FREE from this very page.
love from Shlo and the team x
Win tickets to Shlomo & the Lip Factory, London Union Chapel, Fri 28 Oct
My brand new band Shlomo and the Lip Factory will be launching our EP at the beautiful Union Chapel in London this coming Friday and you can win a pair of tickets!
The Lip Factory is a super-tight unit of 7 beatboxers and jazz vocalists.
We will be performing the tracks from the EP alongside some crowd favourites.
Support on the night comes from acclaimed composer Anna Meredith performing with her new band Horsebox.
To win simply answer the following questions:
Good luck!
Shlo x
Anna Meredith & Horsebox to support Shlomo & the Lip Factory
My good friend Anna Meredith and her new band Horsebox will be the support act at our Shlomo & the Lip Factory gig at London Union Chapel on October 28th.
Anna Meredith came to public attention as a classical composer, writing for the Last Night of the Proms as well as countless other orchestras and ensembles throughout the world, including spending a year with me working on our acclaimed 2010 commission Concerto for Beatboxer and Orchestra. She has recently turned her focus to performing her eclectic and irreverent electronic music and has already supported These New Puritans, James Blake and Mira Calix, performing material from her debut EP – Black Prince Fury.
Have a listen to her EP here:
Black Prince Fury by Anna Meredith
Her electronics have been described as “extremely beautiful” (The Times), a “set that would’ve gone down a storm at the Big Chill” (Financial Times) and displaying “admirable chutzpah” (The Wire). Expect epic electronic synth beat-mongery with a harmonic core from one of the UK’s most sought after young composers.
Only 8 weeks to download the Mouthtronica charity albums
Ladies and gentlemen, here they are in their entirety. 45 nights. 45 guests. 45 tracks of pure spontaneous collaborative improvisation, all benefits going to MSF (Doctors Without Borders).
These will only be available to download until October 31st 2011. What are you waiting for?
Listen again to Shlo on The Radio 2 Arts Show with Penny Smith and Sarah Millican
In case you missed it, you can listen again to my performance and interview on the Radio 2 Arts Show: Live from Edinburgh with Penny Smith and Sarah Millican. Skip to 45 minutes in Sarah Millican showing me how to do a horn sound is priceless
List of collaborators for Mouthtronica at the Fringe
Here’s the list of guest collaborators who will be joining me to improvise during the run of my one man show Mouthtronica at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. You can buy tickets here and don’t forget to download the audio of each collaboration for charity the next day.
Tue 9th Aug – Butterfly Effect
Wed 10th Aug – Randolph Matthews
Thu 11th Aug – Worbey & Farrell
Fri 12th Aug – The Rayguns Look Real Enough
13th Aug – Vikki Stone
14th Aug – Rob Broderick from ABANDOMAN
16th Aug – Helen Arney
17th Aug – Segue Sisters
18th Aug – Steve Lawson
19th Aug – The Magnets
20th Aug – Special Guest To Be Announced
21st Aug – The Twoks
22nd Aug – Fork
23rd Aug – Out Of The Blue
24th Aug – Special Guest To Be Announced
25th Aug – All The King’s Men
26th Aug – Isy Suttie
Download the charity Mouthtronica collaborations from Edinburgh Fringe Festival
From the 4 – 28th August 2011 I’m performing my super-fun one man show Mouthtronica at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Every night I perform a spontaneous improvised collaboration with a different guest artist. The next day you will be able to download the MP3 of each collaboration in aid of the international medical charity MSF.
Watch the LIVE STREAM of Shlomo’s Glasto Circus on Fri 24 June
For those of you who can’t make it to Glasto:
We will be broadcasting live, right here, from the biggest festival in the world! Lyrix Organix in partnership with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) have a huge stageshow at Zona Bassline in The Common on Friday night, featuring the biggest and best artists from the UK underground – including Example, Ed Sheeran, Shlomo, Toddla T, True Tiger, P Money and many, many more! Get your tea and watch it mud-free from your bedroom. It’s going to be truly epic.
SHLOMO’S GLASTO CIRCUS
1.15am BST on Friday night (Saturday morning)
NB The broadcast starts at 10pm with the running order below:
10.00pm KAYA
10.30pm DJ (Cal Jader)
11.00pm LATIN DUB SOUNDSYSTEM
11.30pm DJ (Cal Jader)
11.45pm THE BOXETTES
12.15pm Special Guest
12.30pm ED SHEERAN
01.00am DJ
01.15am SHLOMO’S GLASTO CIRCUS + surprise guests
02.20am EXAMPLE
03.00am TODDLA T + MC SEROCEE
03.45am GENTLEMANS DUB CLUB + P MONEY
04.15am TRUE TIGER
05.00am ENGINE-EARZ EXPERIMENT + special guests
06.00am close
Two very different gigs this weekend!
This weekend I’m doing two very different London gigs:
Saturday night is Off The Grid, an entirely solar powered rave for Africa at a secret North London location. I’ll be doing a one hour continuous set.
And on Sunday I’m back at Southbank Centre with a performance of a contemporary dance piece choreographed by Shobana Jeyasingh called Bruise Blood. In the piece I use looping to perform a live beatbox remix of Steve Reich’s Come Out.
Hope to see you at one or both!
Chime game competition!
I did the music for one of the levels on a PS3 game called Chime Super Deluxe.
You can win yourself a Chime download code so you can play the game on your PS3, simply by answering the following questions by 5pm on Thursday 21 April 2011:
THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED
Blog: Interview with the mouthman
Here’s a quite in depth interview I did recently for alternative arts magazine Frame
You came onto the scene around 2002? How has beatboxing developed and evolved from when you first started?
In 2002 the UK scene was just starting to become a real community. Before that the only UK guy who was really pushing things forward with beatbox was Killa Kela. I was 18 and full of enthusiasm, and went down to the first tournament for beatboxers in the UK. It was called King of the Jam and the winner took home a pot of Bonne Mamon raspberry jam.
Since then things have moved at lightning pace. I set up the UK Beatbox Championships back in 2005 and by the time I sold the business in 2008 we had secured sponsorship from Vauxhall and the winner now takes home a car. I was happy with my pot of jam but things move on!
The art form has evolved massively from when I started out, especially now beatboxers have started to master techniques for expanding their performance, including collaboration between multiple beatboxers, the use of looping technology, and even things like working with a full classical orchestra.
Where do you see it going in the next 10 years?
It could go anywhere. For me I’m all about developing new shows and using the voice to make new music in a style nobody has ever heard before. I love the collaborative element of beatboxing as it is so well suited to spontaneous performance – the voice is so versatile you can jump from a bassline to a conga beat to a trumpet sound all within the same phrase. You can’t really do that with any other instrument. I think looping artists like Dub FX, Beardyman and MC Xander will keep pushing their voices and writing inspirational new music. Then you have the pure voice artists like Reeps One who can rock an entire dubstep rave with just one mic. I also love the educational potential of beatboxing – it’s an amazing tool for bringing people together, because anybody can try it no matter how old they are or what language they speak. I’d love to see beatboxing taken around the world to distant communities that are hard to reach.
Would you consider beatboxing as an art form? If so why?
Yes. It’s a tool for creating cool stuff. It sounds pretentious but if a painter uses paint and a sculptor uses clay, I use my voice to channel my ideas. And if the output I create makes people happy, all the better.
Who was your most favourite person to work with and why?
Working with Bjork back in 2004 was a real eye opener. Before that I’d only really seen my beatboxing as a way of showing off, but she really wanted me to make original music with her. Since then I’ve been a bit obsessed with collaboration and smashing up people’s preconceptions of beatbox and what can be done with the human voice.
Which tune are you most proud of and why?
I’m most proud of some of the new tunes I’ve been working on for my debut album, which has the working title of the Lip Factory LP. It’s a mixture of songs that I wrote for the Vocal Orchestra (my beatbox troupe) and looping tracks that I perform solo. You’ll be able to hear them very soon!
How did it feel to win the World Loopstation Championships in LA?
It was a crazy feeling. I only really entered the UK Finals for a bit of fun, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to go down to them until the day before, but thought hey why not, nothing to lose. I won that and then found myself at the NAMM show in LA where they were holding the World Finals. The event itself was so diverse, all the loop artists were completely different to each other, so it must have been hard for the judges to choose a winner. Maybe they liked my beard.
You put together the world’s first beatboxing choir, the Vocal Orchestra, could you tell us more about how you developed this and what it was like performing at different festivals with artists from different genres.
I love performing with the Vocal Orchestra, it’s my favourite thing to do in the world. I created the group as an experiment because I really wanted to take beatboxing further than you can on your own. The initial idea was to try out ‘human looping’ where I’d feed each vocalist a layer of a song and play them like a loopstation. But of course each vocalist has their own style which meant the music was so much more exciting. Since then we’ve evolved into quite a tight knit troupe, working on our show BOXED and playing at festivals.
One thing we love to do is invite guests to come and perform with the troupe. Last time we played at Glastonbury we had Jarvis Cocker, DJ Yoda and Imogen Heap jump up with the group and it is just so exciting bringing our style to such a wide audience.
Could you tell us about your new show with the Vocal Orchestra “BOXED.”
I’ve spent the last year working on this show called BOXED which is my first theatrical piece. I really wanted to create beatboxing’s answer to Stomp or something like that, and we are planning to take the show up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2012 which is super exciting. My dream is to get a version of the show running simultaneously in cities across the world from Sydney to Tokyo and Rio, and set up Beatbox Academies attached to each production. That way we can start training up the beatboxers of tomorrow.
What’s your new UK one man show Mouthtronica going to be like?
Mouthtronica is my chance to tell my story, through the medium of beatbox. People always ask me the same few questions about what I do and how I do it, and the show is a mixture of super charged super loud beatboxing and polite conversation. I use the music to help paint a picture of what it was like to be me when I was a three year old toddler bellydancing at my Iraqi grandmother’s parties. It’s a lot of fun!
You worked with Imogen Heap quite recently, what was that like? Could you tell us more about it.
I first worked with Imogen in 2009 when she joined us at Glastonbury for a song. Last Summer I returned the favour and jumped up with her during her Other Stage set at the festival. She’s an amazing performer and a proper technical and musical genius, and I really like the way she breaks the rules of the old school music industry to get her music heard.
You and BAC started the beatboxing academy, are there any up and coming talents coming through there?
Yeah man! Some of the kids have been with us for over 3 years now and they are getting seriously slick! They teach me new sounds! And now we’ve started our Training Academy as well which means the more experienced of our students are training in how to teach beatboxing. This will hopefully create a sustainable model so that beatboxing can be passed down the generations and keep evolving. So cool.
What advice would you give to any up and coming beatboxers?
Listen to more music, and learn from it!
What are the future projects you are working on?
At the moment I’m focusing on Mouthtronica, BOXED and the Lip Factory LP. In September I’m going out to India to start a new Vocal Orchestra with young Indian beatboxers and vocalists. But mostly I’m getting used to being a daddy!
Chime game release date announced
Sony have announced the release date for Chime. It’s a PlayStation game which is like a cross between tetris and music remixing software. I made a track for one of the levels and it’s scary addictive!
Listen to Shlo on the BBC Radio 2 Podcast with Steve Wright
Shlo on BBC Radio 2 podcast with Steve Wright by shlo
Listen to my interview with Steve Wright on the BBC Radio 2 Podcast and hear me beatboxing over the Radio 2 theme tune. Surreal but lovely. x
Listen to Shlo on the BBC 6music Podcast with Shaun Keaveney
Shlo on BBC 6Music with Shaun Keaveny by shlo
Listen to my interview and looping track on the BBC 6music podcast with Shaun Keaveney. You can also listen again with iPlayer for the next few days.
Video: Chime game trailer
Here’s the trailer for a computer game Chime which is out soon… I created the music for one of the levels. It’s kind of like a cross between tetris and some music remixing software.
Suggestions please for local collaborators on Mouthtronica tour!
SO I’m now knee deep in rehearsals for Mouthtronica – my new one man show which I start touring in two weeks..
It’s a one man show but I wanted to include a collaborative element, so I’ve set myself a challenge to perform a spontaneous improvised collaboration with a different artist in each town – preferably a local genius who I’ve never met before. We’ll say as little as possible to each other before the show, just plug our stuff in and let rip for a few minutes onstage. I’m looking to promote some new up and coming talent from around the UK!
We’ll be recording each collaboration, and the next day you’ll be able to buy the MP3 for charity from this site. All being well, by the end of the tour we’ll have an 18 track collaborative charity album!
BUT I need your recommendations for local heros in the towns on the tour – check out the dates and leave me your suggestions either as a comment below, on twitter @Shlomo or on Facebook http://facebook.com/shlomizzle.
All help gratefuly received…I’m billy no mates in most of these towns!
