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Latest News

Tunnelsounds Update January 2010

Added on February 16th, 2010

Stay tuned for exciting new developments coming soon...

London Transport Museum 4th December

Added on November 18th, 2009

What better venue to showcase the Tunnelsounds live show than the London Transport Museum - and I'm determined to make this the best show yet. It will be a live audiovisual performance with fresh new recordings and video footage from the Underground including some from disused tunnels and abandoned stations. I will have full violin accompaniment as well as some other added surprises and there are lots of other activities including quizzes and workshops. Entry is £7 or £5 each for groups of 4 or more and it's an early one so a perfect warm-up if you're heading elsewhere. You can pre-book your tickets HERE.

Underground antics at Charing Cross

Added on November 11th, 2009

A group of 10 of us visited some of the disused areas of Charing Cross Station and spent 12 hours recording, filming and photographing live violins, a full drumkit and vocals from Plum on disused platforms and in a hidden service tunnel underneath Trafalgar Square. Audio and video coming soon!

Photos by Emily Swaine

Supporting The Rogue Element at the Amersham Arms

Added on November 8th, 2009

I am really looking forward to playing at this event on 28th November alongside a favourite of mine, The Rogue Element. I'll be following on from his set and have been given the task of the transition to dirty dubstep - expect a bass fuelled selection for this one. Check out the Facebook page for more info.

Techno made from bearings

Added on October 4th, 2009

Most people think the sound of worn bearings is unpleasant... well it is... but with a bit of tweaking it can turn into techno! As with most of my tracks I used Ableton Live - the kick drums were made by lowering the pitch of one of the bearings and putting it through a volume envelope, EQ and compressor. I used loads of filters to bring out certain frequency ranges and automated some of these with LFOs.

Recycled Creativity

Added on September 28th, 2009

Thanks to Niti and the Berlin Loesje group for having me at the Recycled Creativity Festival and putting on such a brilliant event. I got to make crazy musical instruments out of broken computers and other junk and use them to make live drum & bass! Loesje are always busy doing amazing things to empower people to use their creativity in a positive way - for more info check out the Loesje Website.

Tunnels Mix tracklisting
Added on September 16th, 2009

I've put together a mix including the artists who have contributed to the Tunnels project so far and some who will be remixing Tunnels tracks.

The tracklisting is:

Bass6 - Announcement
Ben Phaze BBC News intro
Fused Forces – Fruits
Ed West – The Ding
McMash Clan – Come with me
Radioactive Man – Growl (Radioactiveman Remix)
Plum – Connor (acapella)
Culprate – Graverobber
Plum – As Trains Pass By
Ben Phaze – London Underground trains mashup
GOSH – Tunnel Vision edit
Radioactive Man – Pieces of Eight
Ben Phaze feat. Adverse – A Long Way Down
London Breakbeat Orchestra – Digital Evil

It will be available for free download soon.

Recycled Creativity in Berlin, Saturday 18th September

Added on September 16th, 2009

Plum at the Cobden Club, Thursday 10th September

Added on September 6th, 2009

This Thursday the wonderful Plum will be jetting down from Edinburgh for a gig with accompaniment from me on the keys and Richard Marcangelo (who has toured with Steve Coogan!) playing live drums.

The venue is at 170 Kensal Road, W10 (nearest tube Westbourne Park). Entry is £5 and all names need to be on the door beforehand so please email info@beatfeast.com if you're coming. The night runs from 7.30 - 11pm.

Hope to see you there!

Radioactive Man at the Oakford, Reading on 5th September

Added on August 20th, 2009

I'm really excited to be playing alongside Radioactive Man aka Keith Tenniswood, one half of Two Lone Swordsmen who will be performing a live hardware set with brand new material from his forthcoming album. This is part of Reading's Outside:Inside Festival - a whole month of events at venues and stages all round Reading. For more info on the festival head to the Facebook page

Above & Below footwear now supporting the Tunnels Project

Added on July 28th, 2009

These are completely unique limited edition trainers made from recycled seat covers from London Underground tube carriages. The people behind the idea are Above & Below, who are ethically and environmentally conscious and even plant a tree for every pair sold! Like me they take elements from the tube and put them in a new context to present as something fresh - so it is quite appropriate that we should link up. Watch this space for developments but in the meantime check out their website www.aboveandbelowlondon.com to find out more about this innovative product.

Tunnels live at Braindrop, 7th August at Hidden, Vauxhall

Added on July 26th, 2009

The mighty Braindrop returns bigger and badder than ever before. I will be recreating some of the Tunnels tracks with live violin accompaniment and making some brand new beats live on the night using a few of my underground noises.

More info at www.braindrop.co.uk

Tunnels at Glastonbury

Added on June 24th, 2009

I'm going to be playing some swinging sounds for the the Hot Vintage cabaret of fire in the Croissant Neuf field followed by some live Tunnels tracks and DJ sets. This will be happening from 2am every night so come and find us there!

Plum's debut album to be released on Benbecula Records on 19th October

Added on May 25, 2009

Plum and I have been collaborating on each other’s music for some time now and you may have heard her in some of the Tunnels tunes or performing as part of the live set. Four of our collaborations are featured on her debut album including the first track we made together which all started when we had an idea of making a beat out of the sound of ice in lemonade. Now she is the first female artist to be signed to Benbecula Records - well done Plum!

plum different skin

More info on the Benbecula website
Plum on Myspace

About Tunnelsounds

Ben Langham aka Ben Phaze, London Underground escalator engineer, turntablist, DJ, producer and sound collector has been using his access all areas pass to bring you the familiar and unfamiliar sounds of the underground, sampling every sound thinkable; announcements, sliding doors, ticket gates, engineering machinery in the middle of the night and some you won't have thought of before.

Follow Tunnelsounds:

Tunnels Live

Tunnels Live at Club Hidden

Tunnels Live is a live performance that goes beyond a laptop recording...

The original samples Ben has been collecting for the last 6 months through his unique access to the London Underground network are manipulated live, looping, scratching and cutting up to realise Tunnels tracks in the hip hop way. Ben involves guest musicians on violins, vocals and percussion for new sounds to bring into the mix to enhance the underground Tunnels vibe expanding the stage show to a grander scale.

Ben is currently developing the show to include video footage from the Underground projected onto screens and manpulated with the music in a full audio-visual performance.

Pictures from Tunnels Live :

If you would like to have the Tunnels live show at your event email Kirsti at bookings@beatfeast.com

Gigs

28th November 2009	Deathwish Disco w. Rogue Element, Amersham Arms	New Cross
4th December 2009	Suburbia @ The London Transport Museum	Covent Garden

Watch this space for more gigs coming soon!

Press

BBC News

Sounds of the London Underground

Mixmag

Thanks to Mr No Hands for this mention in Mixmag

Metro

Sounds from the Tube made into music

Thursday, March 12, 2009

… a Tube worker has created the real sound of the Underground. Ben Langham stalks the tunnels by night to find odd creaks, bumps, screeches and thumps to record. He then splices the sounds into music.

'I've been all over the place just trying to find some kind of musical value from things other people might think are mundane,' said the 28-year-old DJ.

'When the rail replacement takes place, they use really large machinery and the sounds from those are immense.' The escalator engineer-cum-DJ has taped everything from moving escalators and booming machinery to a train going through a tunnel.

He now hopes to release the tunes, which have already been praised by legendary Radio 1 DJ Annie Nightingale, in a new album dubbed Tunnel Sounds.

Ben, of Wood Green, north London, a DJ for more than ten years, describes his music as 'industrial' and 'dark and hypnotic'.

He has also used toasters, kettles, footsteps, a miaowing cat and a mosquito in his search for musical inspiration.

The Tottenham & Wood Green Advertiser

Ben’s got tunnel vision for sounds of Underground

Wednesday, 18 March 2009

By Will Stone

A TUBE engineer from Haringey has compiled an album of sounds from the Underground.
Ben Langham, 28, of Turnpike Lane, works as an escalators and lifts engineer for London Underground and has produced music under the moniker of Ben Phaze for ten years.

During his spare time he decided to make recordings of moving escalators, machinery and the sounds of travellers on the Underground.

Ben will use his field recordings as samples and mix them in with keyboard arrangements, scratching from his turntables and other beats to create a unique album dubbed Tunnel Sounds.

“While I was recording these sounds in my spare time no one could guess what this was for,” he said. “Some thought I was doing an environmental survey. So there was surprise when I revealed that this was for an album. At first people thought it was a little odd but it is mainly about raising people’s awareness about the kinds of sounds they normally take for granted.”

Ben’s idea came about after he set up a website inviting users to upload sounds that he would then mix into a track using his turntables.

He said: “This project made me realise how much musical value there can be in the most unusual sounds. It wasn’t long before I was making the most of the wealth of noises on the Underground, particularly after closing time.”
Ben performs as a DJ in various London clubs both on his own and as part of a breakbeat combo Beat Feast Collective.

His work has already been aired on radio in Scotland and he hopes to record a show for London’s art radio station Resonance FM.

To listen to a sample of his music visit www.tunnelsounds.com

365Mag International Music Magazine

BEN PHAZE: UNDERGROUND IN SEARCH OF SOUND

Friday, 10 April 2009

(London, UK) - These days, every third person you meet thinks they're a DJ or producer, so making yourself stand out from the (often deluded) masses can be tough. But if you're smart, you'll do something no one else is doing, something that makes you unique...

And that's just what Ben Phaze has done, using his day job as an engineer for London Transport to harvest sounds he can use for his Tunnel Sounds project.

The Tunnels tracks have gained the approval of Radio 1's breaks luminary Annie Nightingale, and have even gotten Ben some unforeseen exposure on BBC news, as well as in the London papers. But he's no flash in the pan, he's been plugging away as a DJ for more than a decade. In that time he's started his own club night, Beat Feast, while a student at Reading University, and eventually bought his own varied take on turntablism to London, where he spins regularly at underground bass-fests like Braindrop and Them.

As Ben told the BBC about the music he's created, 'It's very dark, it's very haunting… I think the feeling of being down there on your own comes out in the music, because it's quite eerie down there when one's around.' And while we see a clear parallel between Ben's struggle to distinguish himself amongst the over-saturated depths of MySpace music 'wonders' and his day job fixing the darkest reaches of the railways, 365mag.com reckons that the talented Mr Phaze won't be struggling in the dark for very much longer.

Check out the links below for more info on his planned Tunnel Sounds album and his upcoming DJ gigs.

Pictures and Videos

Pictures:

Videos:

To watch videos launch Tunnelsounds Media Player

Biography

Ben Langham aka DJ Ben Phaze

Ben Langham has been heavily involved in the music scene for over ten years, up till now this has been mainly around Reading, where he founded the ubiquitous Beat Feast Collective (www.beatfeast.com) in 2001.

With support from BBC Radio 1 DJ Annie Nightingale, and following a recent BBC World News broadcast on his latest project, Tunnels leading to interest from American news channel CBS and German TV channel ARD, his name is now being uttered worldwide.

With a passion for music regardless of the genre, Ben has established a solid reputation as a DJ who can be trusted to rock a crowd and a history of supporting high profile acts such as DJ Format, Beardyman, Rogue Element and LTJ Bukem. For this reason Ben is often called upon to bring his unique turntablist flavour to the proceedings and his Beat Feast Crew have been asked to organise rooms at many of Reading’s largest club nights including one half of Two Lone Swordsmen, Keith Tenniswood’s Lo Motion event.

With an innovative and creative outlook on life, Ben is always looking for ways to do things differently and subvert the mundane into something extraordinary. Through his construction of musical compositions from everyday sounds, Ben has developed his own set of techniques and unmistakable style.

When his Engineering degree landed him a job as an Escalator Engineer on the London Underground it was inevitable that he would make use of this opportunity for musical purposes. His debut album Tunnels is unique and inspirational, filled with compositions made from field recordings in, on and around the Tube.