Hello again!

We're glad so many of you have been enjoying the mixes on the new Funkydoo blog so far - and we will try to bring you many more juicy guest and resident mixes in the coming weeks. If this is your first visit to the new Funkydoo music blog, then you can listen to the two first mixes by clicking COSMIC BOOGIE or DJ SMALLEY. This entry however, is the start of a mini series of profile blogs about the amazing artists that are performing at this year's Swindon Invincible Festival on Saturday August 21st and Sunday August 22nd.

If you didn't know already, the festival takes place within the serene setting of the Swindon Old Town gardens in the quirky 1930's jazz bowl arena and we are welcoming world class live acts and DJ's including Zane Lowe, Beardyman, Stanton Warriors, Cuban Brothers, Scratch Perverts, Dub Pistols and local sensation Beatbullyz to provide the entertainment over two days of fun in the sun.

The artist we're talking about in this particular blog is the hugely talented and interesting BEARDYMAN who is beginning to take the the world by storm with his unique style of live shows, and he'll be performing in Swindon on the Sunday 22nd August. So, before we go on, have a little click on one of the streams below to start listening to the man in action on Annie Mac's Radio 1 show or on one of his live podcasts.

So, why is Beardyman so special? Well, everything you hear comes out of the man's mouth. He has been the UK beatbox champion on a number of occasions and we must say that you really have to see a champion beat-boxer in action to understand how phenomenally entertaining they can be. However, being the only artist EVER to win the UK beatboxing championship two years in a row was not enough for Beardyman, so he decided to develop his show well beyond his vocal skills by becoming a master of modern music technology and then applying this to his vastly talented trade.

This had a devastating effect on the quality of his live shows as he matched his real-time live beatboxing with some space-mangling vocal effects and cutting edge loop synthesis to create immensely funky and unique live improvised dance sets. It's very hard to believe, but we've watched the man at work closely and every sound he makes during his sets comes from his mouth- he records it on the fly into his looping technology and then builds layers of vocally produced basslines, drums, hi-hats, guitars, fx and vocals into tracks that he then sequences, and squirms through high-end effects units. Using this technique, he then effortlessly fuses drum and bass, with hip-hop and disco with house and jazz funk, all on the fly, and this regularly drives the massive crowds that he attracts wild.

He also happens to be quite a funny bugger and he regularly holds his own on the comedy circuit too with some more intimate gigs in comedy venues across the land where he fully involves the crowd in his live production - creating and performing real-time vocally produced tracks based on audience participation and request. It really is quite a special talent to witness and you can check him out in action on the youtube video below from the renowned Underbelly comedy club - this really is well worth a look if you've got a spare ten minutes.

YOUTUBE - Beardyman live at the Underbelly

So, anyways, hopefully this has started to whet your appetite for the Swindon Invincible festival as Beardyman is just one of the amazingly fresh and talented acts that will be performing over the weekend. In fact we hope it whets your appetite enough to make you get out there and buy your tickets now because we're hearing that tickets will soon be nearing the dreaded 'selling out' zone, so please please don't miss out as it's going to be a day to remember.

For now though, we'll leave you with the talented Beardyman's myspace page where you can check out more of his live performances from all of the major festivals around the country and we'll be back next week with a brand new musical mix for the pleasure of your ears.

As ever, please support this blog by 'liking' it above and joining the FUNKYDOO facebook group that you'll find by CLICKING HERE.

For now though, lots of love and underground drinking music,

FUNKYDOOx

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT SWINDON INVINCIBLE