10th October 2010

Once in a long while, things go reasonably well for me. After that long rant a couple of days ago, I’ve been fortunate enough to have several things fall into place. News on the experimental series:

This afternoon saw the release of Thatcher With A Dick, my aural description of David Cameron.

Two tracks of harsh noise released on the brilliant Hum and Hiss Netlabel, who also helped with the hilarious artwork. Parts 1 and 2 of the track form 20 minutes of harsh, disgusting noise.

Silent Flow, who released Treatments earlier in the year, are lining up a release for my split with Noisesurfer, which contains three harsh/dark ambient pieces from myself – “LZT” Leads To Melt The Room, RECAB-A.Exception and Maelstrom – and six shoegaze-ambient works from Noisesurfer.

My third and final split for the moment will be a rhythmic noise/experimental release with Absence.Insolution, and we’re working out label info presently.

This now only really leaves me one release hanging at the moment, so I’m rather happy and feel the weight being lifted from my shoulders a bit at a time. In a few weeks, I’ll hopefully be clear of releases and be able to focus on the future.

This afternoon I have been working with Noisesurfer to get their next album up and running. I’m quite enjoying the run of releases happening on Jerky Oats at the minute. I was thinking, at one point, of opening the label up to anybody, but realised that would take the fun out of it. The label is by myself and Lucy, and will operate to release music by people we know. A little collective, helping to give friends a release or two and help them up the ladder in music. I’ve been listening to the next two Lemony Nougat contributions – Noisesurfer and Jack Anderton – and the series is coming along brilliantly.

So. Things are looking up at the moment!

8th October 2010

Long-time fans of Second Thought will remember the 2T project which recorded between 2001 and 2003, the name of which still occasionally appears credited as artwork designer. Upon revisiting some of my old music, I renewed my interest in the harsher and more experimental ends of my music – noise, industrial, drone, harsh noise wall, breakcore and all the other ridiculous stuff 2T used to come out with. In a recording spree of a few weeks I came up with a startling amount of this material and am now faced with the rather worrying prospect of a billion different releases. Only one has come out so far – last week’s Torn Vision 3″ CDr.

Fortunately, a fair amount of it will be appearing on compilations over the coming months (more news on them as and when they’re released). I’ve also come together with a few artists to release some splits. Next week will see a CDr release on Jerky Oats of a three-way split between myself, Cementimental and Fist Taker. It’ll be limited to 30 copies, digipacked with more artwork by Lucy Wade, my beautiful girlfriend and co-conspirator in the creative world of Jerky Oats Records and Merganser. The album is 75 minutes of harsh noise wall and should be approached with caution and curiosity by anyone not familiar with this end of my music. I have another split on its way, with Absence.Insolution (who is releasing one of the aforementioned compilations), we’re just looking for a label for that, and third split with Noisesurfer due out as a netlabel release before the end of the year. Which leaves me two 20 minute records which I’m currently submitting to a few cassette labels. If they ain’t interested I’m heading outwards to some CDr labels, although I like the noise cassette scene so it would be sad not to have at least one of them released on cassette. These, coupled with The Curse of Kevin Carter’s song form, Dungeness’s dronescapes and the unmelodic textures of Small Black Box, mark a very experimental final quarter of 2010 for Second Thought.

The reason for the push on getting these out is I want a clear run in the new year. I don’t think they’ll all be out by January, but I really want to be able to categorise this period as the experimental period, when a lot of unusual sounds and ideas were put out at once. It’s like a scrapbook, lots of ideas and genre exercises and experiments, put out for free, or as limited editions. And I’m tired of seeing all this stuff lined up and not actually releasing it. It’ll clear my mind and inspiration to get it out of the way, because I feel like this era is over in my head and I hate holding on to stuff. 2010 has been a year of experimentation, with all sorts of new releases and directions for me. It’s been the re-emergence of Second Thought with a bang, and I’d like things to calm down a bit now.

The new year will see Safernoc released, and an accompanying EP of outtakes, Syophonic. Safernoc is the big statement, the proper follow-up to Vacuum Road Songs, after all these years. There are a couple more things due – some remixes, and follow-ups to Canal Seven and 60 Degrees South, but overall I want to let everything breathe. And I want to work towards a more streamlined future. Once the follow-up to Safernoc is out (yes, I’m that far behind on actually releasing stuff), I’m calling an end to side-projects and experiments, and putting everything out as ‘proper’ releases. This might mean two albums a year rather than one album and six experimental EPs, I don’t know. But it will make Second Thought feel more like Second Thought again. I kind of miss the days when I’d record a bunch of tracks, and as they went along they’d begin to make sense and an overall sound would become evident, and after a while, 12 or 13 tracks would fit together nicely and become an album. It felt very honest and I’m looking forward to returning to that mindset again.

Anyway, that’s a lot of ranting for what is effectively “expect a lot of weird unlistenable shit before Christmas”.

21st September 2010

I wish I’d get off my arse and do stuff sometimes. It’s taken me several months to get around to sending out demos, and of course now I’m faced with a bunch of releases due out at the same time, a la Treatments/Canal Seven, rather than spreading them over the several months we’ve had since 60° South in May. Ah well. Here’s what’s happening:

Dungeness is one of a series of dark ambient/drone releases I’ve been working on since the success of Treatments. The pieces are in a different style. The eagle-eyed old fans from before Purlieu might recognise Qualia in some form. A very, very old track from 1999/2000 called Platinum appears in drastically remixed form, plus three recent compositions of synthesised electronic drones. Bump Foot, the long running Japanese netlabel, are releasing it very soon. I’ll hopefully have the release date sooner!

1. Carpetless Floor
2. Platinum
3. Hulme
4. Two Colours
5. Qualia

Small Black Box is a more experimental work from earlier in the year, mostly recorded in March and April. The focus here is on texture, and although some of the pieces contain what could be described as traditional melody and structure, they are not the focus of the record. Some pieces are 30 second snippets of sound, while others are positively epic. It’s a bit noisey and a bit disjointed, but I like that about it. That should be appearing on Tavern Eightieth very soon too (see what I mean about multiple releases?)

Last up (if you ignore the long-announced release of The Curse of Kevin Carter in October) is a record which may need a little more in the way of introduction. An idea long in the works and finally happening is a series of 3″ CDr releases on Jerky Oats Records called Lemony Nougat. The name is an anagram of La Monte Young, which should give you an idea of what the theme is. If all goes to plan, ten artists will each release a disc as part of the series, an contribute up to 20 minutes of ambient/drone music. The material on each release will be new and exclusive, and the releases are very strictly limited to 20 copies, each handmade in special minimalist artwork on black card. I’ve been incredibly lucky to get some amazing artists involved in this, some I’ve worked with before and some not. Already confirmed are Jack Anderton, Off Land, Cubus, Perfect Writing and Noisesurfer, plus my own project with my girlfriend, Merganser. I’m really excited about the whole project as it should be a lot of fun, and should get me to work with a range of great musicians.

And, of course, to get the ball rolling, is a release from Second Thought. Torn Vision is an experimental drone piece by music, seventeen minutes of a flute loop which is morphed and shaped into a drastically different form.

As previously mentioned, I’ve sent out some CD demos to labels recently, and part of me is hoping if they get picked up, there’s a backlog of releases so nothing else comes out before the end of the year. I don’t want the releases to get too overwhelming!

All in all, it’s a very exciting and productive time. Although I’ve now set up a list of things to do that don’t involve making more music, as I’m still about 15 releases behind… Anyway, you’ll read about them in the future, as and when they’re ready.

Safernoc is on its way at some point, I promise!

16th September 2010

Well, we’re only a month away from the next release, The Curse of Kevin Carter, and it’s time to reveal the beautiful artwork from Lucy Wade:

Well, that’s just a thumbnail, anyway. Full size front and back cover will come with the release. 🙂

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed the new website design for secondthought.co.uk, which I worked on for a couple of days, hand coding in notepad. First time I’ve done that. It brought up a few annoying errors, but I got there eventually. There are lots of banners for past, present and up-coming releases which you can see by clicking ‘new banner’. Amongst them you’ll find a cover for something called Small Black Box, which will tentatively be coming out on a netlabel called Tavern Eightieth before the end of the year. I’ll post more news on that soon.

The glut of releases continues to drop, hopefully, as I’ve begun sending off CDr demos for the first time since… er, pre-Vacuum Road Songs (nobody bothered picking me up for that one anyway). It’s a strangely liberating feeling, knowing that people around the world will be listening to my music very soon. So far I’ve been trying to get a few of the stranger, more avant garde and downright strange releases out. Some of the sounds hark back to my days as recording as 2T, and I’m hoping to get some releases out on some lovely DIY CD-r and cassette labels in the coming months.

In my head, I separate my ‘main’ releases from ‘everything else’ – in this case the ‘main’ releases are the series of themed albums: so far Purlieu, Vacuum Road Songs and the ever-forthcoming Safernoc, plus the album containing more classical-influenced material I’m working on. These I hope to continue to give wider releases for – CD, maybe some larger distribution. Everything else exists partially to take part in the DIY label scene, from the netlabels – both new to me and those of my friends – and the CDr and cassette label scenes. I’m looking forward to working with various people on promoting my music and their labels over the next couple of years.

Live rehearsals continue, as I’m confirmed for a slot at one of the Awakenings shows in Burton On Trent next year (more details to follow). That will probably be centred around more synth-based material, highlighting my traditional ambient and Berlin School influences, but I’m really interested in doing more gigs as I’m otherwise practising a lot of improvisational stuff which has taken me in both the avant garde and rhythmic directions. It’s a lot of fun and these rehearsals have provided some recordings of vastly altered tracks.

Anyway, that’s about all the ranting about my music anybody could possibly wish to read, so I bid you farewell for now. Watch out for live and release news on its way very soon. 🙂

4th August 2010

So, where do I stand as of August 2010? Well…

Those of you who thought ‘four releases in the last twelve months, that’ll be the last we hear of Second Thought for a while!’ have been distinctly wrong. I’ve been working on music solidly for a while now. Lots of ideas have been presenting themselves and I’ve been taking the project in all sorts of directions. There’s an album of pieces in the Canal Seven vein but more focussed, three in total, all suggesting a different place, called ‘Habitats 1-3’ (more are in the works), which I may have news on at some point. I’ve been working with synths a bit more for what may be a stylistic follow-up to 60° South, although this will be a long way off. I’ve been prodding the dark ambient beast again, and have taken the neo-classical hints I included on Safernoc and been expanding upon them once more, for a future album which is probably so far off I don’t want to think about it just now anyway. Safernoc itself, and an accompanying EP, will be out sooner or later through an online label with a physical release to follow perhaps.

There are also older tracks and collaborations and a hundred other things, but they can wait for the moment…

It’s all this time being unemployed, you see. It gives one time to create and create and create and create and the next thing one knows, a life’s work is completed in the space of a year.

ANYWAY

Most importantly for the moment, my next release!

Second Thought sings The Curse of Kevin Carter is a collection of eight haunted pop songs by Ross Baker. Fragile, lo-fi pieces, where acoustic guitar and pained vocals meet grainy synths and fragmented noise. Cover art by the wonderful Lucy Wade is on its way. The tracklist looks something like this:

01. Six By Nine
02. Green Cliff, Tyre City And Mulpton In Nowhere Land
03. Map Of The Owl
04. Tainted Face, Tainted Heart
05. What’s Wrong, Mr. Blobby?
06. Feed Yourself
07. Incompatibility
08. Oil Leg

It’s coming out on my long-term collaborator and friend Tim Dwyer’s imprint No-Source Netlabel in October. More news on that, and the other thousand releases, very soon.

19th May 2010

My new album, 60° South, is released today through renowned UK CDr label AmbientLive records! “Superb and intricate melodies from this UK artist. Modern, vibrant, yet based deeply in the tradition”

Partially inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s novel ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’, 60° South is Second Thought’s fourth album (the ‘third’ and ‘official follow-up’ to Vacuum Road Songs is out later this year. Erm), and takes a new synthesizer-driven approach to production, compared to the sample collages of previous releases. This electronic tapestry paints an image of life in the cold antarctic circle. Some tracks reflect the Lovecraft tale’s sense of unease and mystery, while others drift along more pleasantly, reflecting the grand majesty of the Antarctic landscape and the sea that surrounds it.

1. Tekeli-li
2. Ice Shelf
3. Gellert’s Grave
4. Clouded
5. Snow (I)
6. Degrees
7. Return
8. Meltwater
9. Gone Forever
10. Icebergs (I & II)
11. Snow (II)
12. At The Mountains Of Madness

Meltwater has been added to the MySpace music player for your listening pleasure.

This is a rather exciting time for me as it’s the first physical release in almost exactly three years. Thanks to John at AmbientLive for releasing the album, and to everyone for their support over the last few years. It’s nice to be back, properly, after such a long time away from releasing music. And thanks to anyone who buys the album, which can be picked up from the link above. 🙂

Thanks, finally, to Lucy, to whom I dedicate Iceberg II.

24th March 2010

Right, well, there’s lots to report, again!

First up, and most excitingly, ‘Aqueduct’ from the forthcoming album Safernoc is featured on The Future Sound of London’s latest podcast ‘Electric Brain Storms 6: The Most Secluded Place’, which can be bought from FSOLDigital. It’s the third time one of my pieces has been used on one of their mix sets, and as ever they’ve done the piece proper justice, it sounds awesome floating in after the Tangerine Dream piece.

Elsewhere, those following my Twitter will know I’ve completed the synth ambient record I was talking about below. It’s called 60° South, and is inspired by Antarctica, particularly the story ‘At The Mountains Of Madness’ by HP Lovecraft. It’s alternately dark and light and features barely any rhythm. Lots of melodies, though. It should be coming out on AmbientLive Records as a CDr release later in the spring. I am excited about this. Artwork and tracklist can be found on the music page.

Lots more music is brewing too, but I’ll wait for a while before explaining. 2010 has been very, very busy so far!

The new Autechre is awesome, by the way.

3rd March 2010

Two EPs have come out in the last few weeks, bringing Second Thought back into the eyes of the masses. Well, when I say masses…

Treatments came out a few weeks back, on the Silent Flow netlabel, a five track EP of dark ambient/drone/noise electro-acoustic experiment, with sound sources given various ‘treatments’. The work is very different from any of my previous tracks, and acts more as an experiment rather than a standalone piece, but is something I’m very happy with. More tracks in this vein were produced and may appear on future releases. Secondly, and more importantly, Cyclene Records released Canal Seven this morning on their netlabel. Canal Seven is much more traditional Second Thought and has been written about many times before in this blog. I am very happy with it, however, and hope it isn’t the only 30 minute piece I release – more are lined up!

So this is all happy. It’s nice to have stuff going again after all this time away. Three net releases in the last four months is good. I hope to work with both labels again in the future. Meantime, I’ve been working steadily on some synth tracks lately, which are very old school ambient in style, with slight contemporary touches. Not sure what’s happening with these yet but I have some ideas. Safernoc is still on the way, I promise. I have various other bits and bobs to look out for later in the year too…

Until then, you should all listen to Grey Mirrors by The Glimmer Room as it is lovely!

17th December 2009

2009 draws to a close and it’s been a very positive year for me in terms of music. After a lull of what seems like forever, I’ve been writing and producing solidly since the spring and have come up with what is my best material by some distance. Safernoc is the work I’m most proud of, and the release details are still a secret, but could be really exciting. We’ll see.

Up next, however, is an EP called ‘Canal Seven’ on the lovely netlabel Cyclene, who can be found at http://www.cyclene.com. This will be out in January or February 2010. Canal Seven is 30 minute soundscape EP seamlessly mixing electronic ambience, acoustic guitar, spoken samples, field recordings and various other sounds into a unique journey. The EP takes the form of one track, which comes from new material and a couple of older moments, and a lot of samples. After the very performance-led Safernoc (which was composed entirely on keyboard), I fancied going back to this style.

I shall be working with Cyclene later in 2010 for at least one more release, which could be on a larger scale, although maybe not. We’ll see. The guys there are great and it’s nice to have such positive thoughts on my music.

Elsewhere, there’s more music coming out from other sources next year, but that’s hush hush too. And hopefully I’ll be hitting the live circuit.

Happy Christmas and New Year to everyone and I’ll see you all in 2010!

25th November 2009

So, big change all round. The eagle eyed among you will have noticed not only has the secondthought.co.uk website has changed, but the artist description has changed too. I’m looking forward to taking Second Thought in variety of more interesting directions now. I’m working on some different music and different ideas that don’t fit the traditional Second Thought mould from the past. I’m going to keep the main albums (Safernoc news very soon!) released as normal, but look out for some exciting EPs andother such things coming to a netlabel (or two) near you. It’s all a bit secretive, but expect real instruments and vocals on some occasions.

Talking of netlabels, Jerky Oats has seen its second release, an mp3-only download of the live set I performed at AmbientLive Awakenings in Leeds a while ago. The EP can be picked up here.