Let it BeDJ: The Philips MixMaster’s long and winding trip to Abbey Road

So, there we were in London, giddy London. Philips Consumer Electronics recently invited me and another writer to go to the UK with Ian Magbanua, the Philips BeDJ MixMaster Search winner. Ian went to royal London (the city of Shakespeare and punks, of phantoms and the Rolling Stones, of princes and the Spice Girls – who were once rumored to be princes, too) to do a recording in Abbey Road Studios. Yeah, the world-famous Abbey Road in St. John’s Wood where The Beatles put magical and mysterious ditties on vinyl, where John, Paul, George and Ringo were photographed navigating the zigzag crossing on August 8, 1969: Lennon in a white suit, Ringo in black, Harrison in blue, and a barefoot McCartney (sparking "Paul is dead" rumors). The image of the four Beatles walking towards immortality (while a white Beetle sits near a curb under blue, suburban skies) makes for one of the most famous album covers of all time. Can you dig that?

Strange the route that Ian took in order to get his music put to acetate in the legendary studio in London. And the beginning, according to one writer I really admire, is a great place to start.

Ian is part of the elec-tronic duo called Morse (cousin AJ Dimarucot handles the digital visuals, while Ian comes up with the musical bits), an outfit that belongs to a collective dubbed as Electronic Manila (which also include Squid9, Rubber Inc, Punk Sinatra, Synthman, Makina and Moon Fear Moon, among others). Ian also creates original music pieces for Flash-enabled websites, CD presentations and advertisements. In May last year, he produced an original music score for an interpretative dance piece for PETA titled The Truth About Beauty, The Truth About Dance.

Ian joined the Philips BeDJ MixMaster Search late last year. The object of the competition was simple: to create heady, groove-laden tracks by using the new Philips BeDJ 530 mobile phone. Ian’s entries were a cut above the rest. The first was an ambient, new age-y, Kitaro-meets-Tricky track; and the second, a trippy groovefest reminiscent of the Chemical Brothers. Both pieces he composed by meshing and splicing pre-programmed tracks in his trusty Philips BeDJ cell phone. Ian (who listens to DJ Shadow, Portishead, UNKLE and David Axelrod) beat other disc jockeys through sheer creativity.

"I didn’t expect this to happen," Ian told me late last year at WhereElse?, where the regional finals were held. "I listened to one track and picked up on the synth instrument. But the synth was just a side element. I wanted to make it the main element. I also didn’t like the tempo (120 bpm), so I slowed it down (85 bpm). I don’t go for the dance floor stuff; I go for hard, crunchy, funky beats."

Ian’s main tool was the BeDJ 530, one unique electronic mother. The aspiring DJ was able to mix nine prerecorded tracks, as well as download musical bits and pieces. Heck, Ian could’ve recorded barking dogs (just like what Jane’s Addiction did in Been Caught Stealing), backward guitars (The Beatles in Strawberry Fields Forever), earsplitting alarm clocks (Pink Floyd in Time), and mixed ‘em up with samples and loops. Or Ian could go original, which he did. In doing so, he earned himself a trip to South Africa in January this year to compete in the Philips BeDJ MixMaster Search world finals.

"I don’t know how to play the guitar or the piano," confessed Ian. "But there is so much music that I want to create, so it was a good thing I was able to accomplish that with the aid of a computer." And the Philips BeDJ 530 cell phone, of course.

In Cape Town, Ian had to joust with some tough competitors across the globe: China’s Qu Hongsheng, India’s Anupam Choraria, Indonesia’s Handika Herdiman Halil, Singapore’s Jeff Tan, South Africa’s Brandon David Rogoff, Taiwan’s Joe Ho and Thailand’s Natha Srirongmuang. All boasted entries that fused synthetic synthesizers with funky beats and, in some cases, ethnic flourishes.

The judging was held in a club called Dockside. The panel of superstar DJ judges included Sister Bliss of Faithless, Junior Jack and Kid Crème, among others. After the blistering sets of DJ Roger Goode (with his heady grooves), DJ Alan Thompson (with his heady grooves) and a couple of fire-eaters (with their brainless fire-eating skit that went awry), the winner was announced, and we Filipinos (Philips Consumer Electronics marketing manager Tetet Songco, AJ and this writer) were elated that it was Ian who was chosen as winner.

His victory, Ian said, was pretty significant for him as a Filipino electronic musician. "That proves we can go head to head with everybody else on the global stage when it comes to electronic music… and music in general."

Angelo Valenton, Philips country manager, remarked that he was ecstatic but wasn’t at all surprised that the Philippines emerged as winner. "The Filipino can measure up with the world’s best. I’ve always had faith in our talent," he said.

Ian’s victory in Cape Town earned him visiting rights to Abbey Road (to record like a pop-rock deity) and the Ministry of Sound club (to party like the devil).

London Calling

After a grueling flight from Manila to Singapore to London, the Pinoy entourage (composed of Ian, reps from the press, and Angelo with wife Lady Ann) arrived at Heathrow Airport. The flight was so long a passenger could have watched The Lord of the Rings trilogy (The Fellowship of The Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King) in one sitting and it would get him only as far as the Himalayas. For the rest of the trip he would probably end up wondering why Philippine politics seems like a variation of LOTR: Lawyers, actors and socialites (whether behaving like Orcs, Hobbits or Wizards) all vie for that One Ring of Power. On the other hand, a disqualified presidential candidate with the surreal toupee belongs in the pages of Harry Pot-head.

John Mollet of Ministry of Sound met us at the airport. A former DJ, Mollet has worked as MoS tour manager for five years already. "As a tour manager, I do a little bit of everything," he said.

Mollet resembles Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and a bit of Iggy Pop ("I hope not the Iggy Pop – now," Mollet quipped). His job entails a lot of traveling, and when touring the MoS guys usually don’t sleep for days. They practically snooze on planes.

"Every country is strange," Mollet says, with a laugh. You could just imagine the strange food, strange customs, strange everything these guys encountered with Dickensian dimension. "That’s what makes our jobs exciting."

After a couple of days behaving like doting tourists (unfolding banner-size maps in the middle of the road, snapping photos of the Buckingham Palace guards, looking like idiots inside the London Tube, etc.), we headed for Abbey Road Studios for the job at hand.

A two-zone trip on the Tube from London’s West End, Abbey Road Studio is set in neighborhood which evokes Peter Pan, Wendy Darling and children who fly with a little help from pixie dust. It is so suburban, so hard to believe that the most mind-altering music came from beyond its doors. "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Abbey Road." Pink Floyd’s "The Dark Side of the Moon." Radiohead’s "The Bends" and "OK Computer." David Bowie’s "Space Oddity." All created in an area of sculpted hedges, garden gnomes and blue suburban skies. Even Jane’s Addiction laid a few tracks at Abbey Road. I imagined the androgynous Perry Farrel in drag taking a sip of chamomile tea while working on, say, a dirge about whores, fags and freebasing.

But the place will forever be associated with The Beatles. John, Paul, George and Ringo made 90 percent of their recordings in the studios of Abbey Road. Hey, when we got a blitzkrieg tour of the place and I found myself standing inside the famous Studio 1 (where The Beatles played All You Need Is Love to a worldwide audience linked up by satellite), I couldn’t help but feel spooked. The place was ghosted by Beatle memories.

There lay the piano Paul McCartney must have used in recording Golden Slumbers or You Never Give Me Your Money. There lay a huge cello that probably augmented A Day in the Life and cymbals that were recorded backwards for Strawberry Fields Forever. There was the space once occupied by the huge ADT machine used by Eric Clapton to make his guitar solo in While My Guitar Gently Weeps more wobbly and more Beatlesque. There were people in the studio that could pass for Polythene Pam, Mean Mr. Mustard, Eleanor Rigby, Doctor Robert, Lovely Rita Meter Maid, The Walrus, Sexy Sadie, Rocky Raccoon and… Hey, there was Lucy in the skylight with diamonds. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was hallucinating because of drinking ale and cider the night before.

With A Little Help From A Friend

Adam Nunn, Abbey Road Studios mastering engineer, was the one in charge of cutting Ian’s track on acetate.

He told us during the tour of Studio 2 that, "people here at Abbey Road don’t tend to throw stuff around." Of course, you don’t put legend in the trash bin. Thus, it is possible for the pop stars of today to request for the microphone John Lennon used on In My Life or Norwegian Wood. Even William Hung. Acts like Divine Comedy and Ed Harcourt also laid a few tracks in that studio.

Nunn introduced us to surround mastering engineer Andy Water who was busy working on Robbie Williams’ Live at the Albert Hall DVD. He has worked on projects for The Cure, David Bowie and Coldplay, among others. "Andy’s got more awards than me," said Adam. "And he’s got a bigger telly (laughs)." Judging from Water’s master of the state-of-the-art equipment at the re-mastering room, his most challenging task at hand was editing Robbie’s cuss words. "Robbie…him swearing…all a mess," said Water with a friendly smirk.

Like his colleague, Nunn has a pretty impressive CV. He has mastered a wide range of albums, cut vinyl and worked with artists such as legendary jazz drummer Billy Cobham ("Billy Cobham"), Supergrass ("Rush Hour Soul"), Richard Ashcroft ("Put It In Bottles"), Mogwai ("Happy Songs for Happy People"), Franz Ferdinand ("Take Me Out"), Air ("Cherry Blossom Girl") and Radiohead. Nunn worked on Radiohead’s vinyl cut of "Hail to the Thief" and the live recording "I Might Be Wrong."

Nunn’s room was quite cramped, since those consoles swallowed a huge chunk of space. Memorabilia punctuated the room, though, including a Bart Simpson toy and a certificate to a certain Sean Magee for making "the worst jug of coffee ever!"

It took the engineer less than an hour to master the winning Philips track (which Ian dubbed Afterglow), to take out the annoying hisses and clicks, and to commit it to acetate. Ian’s track had undergone a pretty transformation after an MoS producer used his production sorcery on it. The basic groove was the same, but there were some syncopated cymbals, drum rolls, fuller bass line and The Great Gig in the Sky chants that gave the cut an added flair.

At the end of the session, Nunn packed the acetate in an Abbey Road bag. Ian beamed with pride. Imagine working with an engineer who tweaked with Radiohead’s latest record, in a building where The Beatles recorded songs of love, revolution and places we all remember. In one moment, an aspiring Filipino DJ made music using a cell phone; and in another, recording that same track in the aural lab that changed the world forever.

Tomorrow never knows, indeed.

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Fit To Be Hung

The William Hung album, "Inspiration," is as ridiculous as the Troy screenplay. I’m not sure how people could sit through the dialogues in the Brad Pitt flick, which could make even inanimate objects cringe. Particularly barmy are the meditations on immortality and the conversations between Paris (Orlando Bloom) and Helen (Diane Kruger). You could almost imagine the love-struck couple aboard a ship with the appointment with an iceberg. You wished to the absent Greek gods that they actually were on that doomed vessel. Trojan Ship Sinks in the Aegean While Sirens Sing Like Celine Dion. Movie ends in 20 minutes. Moviegoers would be spared from a far worse tragedy. That’s what I call catharsis. Oh yeah, nothing could be stiffer than Eric Bana as Hector, except probably Eric Bana as the Hulk. After enduring the whole thing I swear I could hear Homer turning in his grave.

I don’t know which is worse: watching Paris talk about love or listening to William Hung sing Hotel California.

The American Idol reject was good for a few laughs. Talk show gigs were a blast, but a damn record? Hung being able to wax an album is a death to all things real. Why murder classic songs like Rocket Man and the Eagles hit? Why screw up songs like She Bangs and Can You Feel The Love Tonight? that are already shitty? Somewhere you could almost hear cash registers ringing – out of tune, of course.

Nah, I don’t want to sound like a boor who fails to see the humor in all this, but isn’t it tragic that countless talented singers never get the chance to record their music and Hung cacophonies his way into fame with a blasted CD? He even has inspirational tracks on his album. The message being what? That it’s okay to suck?

Another dude that annoys me is Jamie Cullum, that Elton John/Ben Folds wannabe who claims he is an "untrained and unrestrained jazz artist." Which is an affront to all the brilliant ones who play jazz – not Kenny G. or Jim Brickman who make music as cringe-worthy as the Troy screenplay. (You automatically associate Kenny G. with bed scenes from local bold flicks with dreadful acting, dreadful dubbing and dreadful saxophone music playing in the background. You get the urge to hurl bricks at windows when you hear Brickman’s ballad featuring Sharon Cuneta.)

Just because Cullum plays piano doesn’t mean he’s in the same sphere as Keith Jarret. Hey, just because I type words doesn’t mean I’m in the Shakespeare squadron.

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For comments, suggestions, curses and invocations, e-mail iganja@hotmail.com.