CURRENT MISSION

Immerse, learn, expand, understand, have fun and live life to the fullest!

ABOUT ME

Being an Englishman, I am of course, very well mannered (when sober). I am NEVER prosaic, and am highly skilled at making people feel comfortable, and laugh (at or with me), a lot.

My music taste is very likely to be more esoteric and interesting than yours. Prove me wrong...

The prose:

I am 31 year old male, originally from a medium-sized city called Leicester, 100 miles north of London. However, I moved to London 8 years ago for work (and play). Currently, I'm a Health Economist working for a small-sized consultancy in central London. I enjoy my job very much, and feel immensely lucky and proud to be able to work in a job which is different every day, and which challenges me on a constant basis.

Serious stuff aside, I still love to party, although am trying to tone it down! My real interest is without doubt music, particularly of the electronic form. Don't think I could do my taste justice on here but I particularly like good forms of house, techno, IDM, electronica, dubstep, classical, modern classical, indie, alternative rock, folk, disco, dub, reggae, post-rock, soul, funk, jazz... Pretty much anything that sounds interesting and is well produced and/or has a good melody. However, give me a good synth-line, acid-line, bass-line, 808 or hand-clap, and my ears are very likely to prick up.

I also love film, good food, boozing, hanging out with friends and family, reading (fiction and non-fiction), current affairs, politics, science, meeting new people, going to clubs (with amazing soundsystems), festivals, drinking tea, learning new languages, flirting with pretty women, talking (!), debating and pretty much anything that involves interacting with friendly, intelligent, interesting and decent human beings.

PHILOSOPHY

Cheesy as this may sound my general philosophy is very simple: just be cool to people.

MANNERS COST NOTHING. KAPEESH?

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

5 years ago I moved in with a friend in East London who was an experienced couch-surfer. Through living with him, I met scores of interesting people from around the globe who bed down on our couch. This ultimately led to me couch-surfing with an amazing guy called Andy in San Francisco three years ago, the last time I was in the States.

Since then, I haven't been in a position to open my couch up to the network, until very recently, as I am now a home-owner.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

San Francisco (Haight-Ashbury) with a very cool guy called Andy back in 2009. Had an absolutely awesome time!

Interests

An element of repetition here.

Politics, philosophy, sociology, pharmacology, business, current affairs, women, crosswords, food, music, writing, experimental electronic music, films, learning, the list goes on....

• writing
• festivals
• dining
• cooking
• partying
• drinking
• clubbing
• politics
• movies
• reading
• blogging
• music
• electronic music
• jazz
• surfing
• atheism
• business
• economics
• languages
• philosophy
• science
• sociology

Music, Movies, and Books

Here goes...

Absolutely anything that sounds good/interesting, especially songs/tunes with a good melody and great production. Anything with 303s, 808s, synths or hand-claps is very likely to get my attention. Discordant guitars, lo-fi production aesthetics, alt-rock, post-rock (Mogwai's "Young Team" still gets me), new-wave, (some ) punk, (good) synth-pop, indie, jazz, blues, electronic-tinged hip-hop, classical, modern classical (Steve Reich, Max Richter, Jacaszek), ambient, glitch, techno (preferably deep/ambient/dub strains), house music (think Sneak, Carter), disco, soul, R&B (in original sense), prog-rock, prog-house (yes, I know), (interesting) dub-step, dub, reggae, "world music" though I hate this term: Indian classical, Bengali folk music, Qawwali, folk, country ("Americana"), drum and bass (c. mid-to-late 90s era preferably e.g. Omni Trio, Peshay), drone, electronica, IDM (of course), modern takes on old sounds e.g. Beirut. Did I mention electronic sounds? The list goes on and on...

Some of my favourite labels:

Warp, Rephlex, Skam, Soma, Klang Electronik, Tresor, Basic Channel, Underground Resistance, Planet E, Compost, Ninja Tunes, EMI (Radiohead), Rough Trade, Classic, Chemikal Underground, Matador, Factory, BPitch Control, Axis, Accidental, Anticipate, Microcosm, Werk Discs, Feedelity, Tyrant, DiY, Planet Mu, Lex, Kompakt, AI, Merck, DFA, M-nus, Cocoon, Border Community, Sud Electronic, Playhouse, Output, Highpoint Lowlife, Benbecula.....anything that makes me stop, listen, think or just move.

Movies: Old Boy, Dead Man's Shoes, This Is England, Requiem For A Dream, Pi, A Bude Hur (Czech), Rear Window, Spartacus, Lolita, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Todo Sobre Mi Madre, Hable Con Ella, La Mala Educacion, Matador, Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, In Bruges, 4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile. Anything by directors: Almodovar, Aronofsky, Kubrick, Shane Meadows & Danny Boyle.

Books: A Brave New World (Aldous Huxley), Midnight's Children (Salman Rushdie), 1984 (Orwell), The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood), Glamourama, Less Than Zero & American Psycho (Brett Easton Ellis). In fact, a lot of things well written and dystopian it seems. Too many others to mention. Anything related to Neuroscience, Pharmacology, Psychiatry, Neurology, Anthropology and General Popular Science. Naturally, Richard Dawkins and his Selfish Gene Theory. Blah blah blah...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Bearing in mind that I am an atheist, scientist, and generally rational human being, going to Mecca with my parents for pilgrimage when I was 18 was still arguably the most profound and intensely spiritual experience I have ever had. And I have done a fair few drugs in my time...

Teach, Learn, Share

I can make really good tea and and am a reasonably competent cook. Plus I like to talk. Quite a lot. So there are never likely to be awkward silences in my presence.

I write on my blog fairly regularly about music, science, politics, life and the universe. Begrudgingly you could call me a cod-philosopher.

I'm also fluent in my mother tongue, Bengali, and can speak a bit of French and Spanish too.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, France, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Netherlands, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United Kingdom

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