Ultraviolence.co is live!

After several weeks of tinkering the new Ultraviolence website is ready to visit. Whilst TeamUVR.com was great in its day I wanted something markedly different as Ultraviolence gradually becomes a serious concern again, along with a snappy new URL. I went with a FLASH website courtesy of Wix so I could program it myself from scratch and update everything easily – and it is very easy indeed so I’d suggest anyone might enjoy having a play with a Wix template. Its taken ages to get everything on there, though and I’m still adding things and streamlining it – please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions concerning ease of use, content or anything else.

Where have I been?

I have posted a few things about my long term illness but to avoid any confusion or speculation I will be explicit. I had severe chest pains starting in late 2005 which lasted 3 months and were diagnosed as costochondritis – a painful swelling of chest tissue. The pain was aggravated under exercise or sudden movement of the chest as well as (seemingly) by stress and raising my voice– I spent most of the 3 months in bed, aside from a few things I had to do including several agonising gigs. The symptoms re-occurred mid-2006, again diagnosed as costochondritis and lasting around 3 months. This time I was more frustrated and attempted to “do” more, but ended up drinking alot of alcohol and putting on weight. The pain began again late 2006 and was this time accompanied by stomach pains, as wearing a torture tunic. Meantime, I had moved to Scotland where hospital appointments took up to six months. After many appointments and tests I was diagnosed as having oesophagitis – painful damage to the gullet caused by acid reflux – a kind of chronic heartburn. With appropriate (and some less appropriate) drugs the pain eased slightly, but was nowhere near going away as was expected. I moved back to England in late 2008 where a proper investigation of the pain was instigated. Although the pain was still there, I tested negative for oesophagitis. The options were that costochondritis (for which there is no straight test) had been the main source of pain all along (the oesophagitis being incidental) or that the pain from either ailment else had caused neural damage or any combination of the above. This takes us into 2009 and fortunately was gradually feeling better, and had started doing bits of cycling and taking an interest in music again. I therefore decided with the consultant from the entertainingly named Pain Clinic that the relief was sufficient not to go through further investigative procedures. There were however further symptoms of (definite) acid reflux, and (apparently unrelated) corneal erosion and to cap it off a spell of bone fusing in a toe leading to gout – not bad for someone who gave up the booze for three years!

What I am doing?

I have been completely healthy since October of last year so I decided should that continue for a year I’ll consider gigging again. I can’t contemplate gigging with the full on chest pain – the circumstances appear custom made to aggravate the symptoms and it is not something that would make for a great performance. DJing is much easier, though, and I could cope even if things went tits up. Following an enjoyable Eurostar jaunt to Belgium last December I have a serious interest in preparing and playing mixes for people, whereas in years gone by DJing was more a promotional tool.

Where am I going?

My first UK appearance for 5 years will be at Electrocide in Preston on the 6^th June – for full details check Dark-cide.com and the event’s Facebook page – also check the Electrocide jingle on Ultraviolence.co. I’ll be spinning around 90 mins of Ultraviolence familiar and new as well as cutting edge hardcore electronica from the artists I love. More dates will be tricking in so keep checking Ultraviolence.co or see the contacts page to get updates.

Also check out…

Music DJ Narcotic and Nevermind’s United States of Terror  is an extraordinary release recalling New York hardcore pioneers Disciples of Annihilation’s tunes of the 90’s, also on Industrial Strength Records. This keeps the same core elements of pounding high velocity 909 drums, short speed-metal guitar samples and distorted uber-aggressive vocals whilst sounding shockingly fresh – I think is may be down to the arrangement and the fact that DOA’s tracks were wrongly dismissed by many as “easy” music to make and so were copied only unsuccessfully, leaving the path clear for someone to pick up the mantle. Fifteen years on and here it is…

If the idea of beautifully composed images of burning oilfields set to classical music appeals to you then you’ll love Werner Herzog’s meisterwork Lessons of Darkness. I used to watch this all the time on VHS and it’s great to have the DVD, even if I had to import an R1 disc.

Another bargain Xbox indie game is Infinity Danger, a simple series of bullet hell battles fought against a series of randomly generated modular bosses. I clocked up over 5 hours on this and I reached world ranking 45 – forcing me to commit the sin of pride – not bad for 60p. Killer electronic speech flattering satisfying laser blasts, too.