19th June 2011

I sat ruminating on the various ways in which things have changed lately, particularly in regard to my music, how successful (or not) it is, and how I share it. Back around the time of Purlieu I was part of a few online music communities where many people shared their tracks, collaborated, worked on various remixes and generally enjoyed the whole process of sharing music with each other. This was one of the keys to the success of Purlieu upon its release, and its high sales. These days, there’s so much free music around that these kinds of places have little to no purpose anymore. My old haunt, the ArtistServer (ElectronicScene as it was at the time) forum is, like most music boards I read, plagued with continual ‘check out my new free release’ threads without any desire to engage with people. The whole online music world changed so drastically during my five year absence that I’ve not really managed to find a niche since returning a couple of years ago. Certainly the difference in sales and general interest between Since Every Hour Is Too Late and Purlieu is startling; this can be explained by both my lack of participation in relative music scenes, and the onslaught of music I’ve released lately – I’ll admit I wouldn’t be able to (or even want to) keep up with someone who’d released as much music as I have in the last 18 months, so I don’t blame people for giving up some time ago.

That said, it’s definitely given me food for thought and I realised I really do need to get involved in things more if I want people to recognise my music. I am hopefully going to work with different labels with my music in the future as I have neither the time nor money to distribute my music through Jerky Oats at the moment without the diminishing returns of late. The other thing I’ve realised is that live performance and getting involved with ‘scenes’ and such is an important factor. I’ve been sincerely worried about future live stuff as the direction I’m taking is much more towards the avant-garde, modern classical, experimental end of things, so the beat-laden synthfest of this year’s Awakenings show will be a long way away – but I’ve not had a clue how on Earth I’ll actually do it. Anyway, some reassurance from Lucy has given me more confidence, and I’ve begun putting a few ideas down for what I could do live. Ideally at some point in the future I’d like to take it away from a pure laptop thing, as I’m becoming increasingly interested in the use of acoustic sounds, but for the moment it’s a stripped back attempt, just using Ableton, but I’ve definitely come up with some interesting ideas which I’ll be expanding upon a lot in the coming months. I really would like to get some gigs next year and with a move closer to London on the horizon, I should be in a reasonable position to look for them!

Some titles which may be heading your direction next year… Talnoa, Sturmazdale, Upper & Lower Path.

23rd May 2011

It is with a mixture of sadness and relief that I have to announce the end of Second Thought at the end of 2011. This has been something I’ve wanted to say for a bit now, I was going to keep it quiet for longer but decided that it’s better to get it over and done with (also, I’m the least patient person ever, as anybody who knows me will tell you). There are several reasons for this, the first being I REALLY HATE THE NAME SECOND THOUGHT. I haven’t actually liked the name since around the time of Purlieu, but for one reason another, I kept it – largely to make a name for myself and so people remember me. However, after the last couple of years, the name doesn’t really mean anything anymore. A person coming to my music for the first time might imagine Second Thought as a dark ambient/drone project, or a modern classical one, or a harsh noise, or ambient, or dub techno, or even lo-fi indie project. The array of releases has put to rest any idea of an image or brand around the name, so it made me wonder why I would keep a name I don’t even like… Also, I do really love a big clear out and a chance to start again.

A few bits and bobs have changed recently, so it’s probably best to ignore my ‘no more music until next year’ promises, ha. I will be releasing one more full album as Second Thought, called Leaf Pass, which will be out in the autumn. It’s sort of a ‘return to Purlieu’ affair, containing some new material and a number of Purlieu era tracks which have been reworked, remixed and updated. I was planning on having it out in the future, but it works so nicely as a closing album as it ties up nicely with my first album, so I’ve decided to put it out this year instead.

At the end of the year there will be no more Second Thought and I will continue to work under my own name.

5th May 2011

Initial sessions for the next album have come along nicely. It’s nice to be working with samples again, and as soon as I opened up Fruityloops (yes, I’m going full on retro) I reverted almost immediately to Purlieu mode, which is interesting. This won’t be quite the same in overall sound, but melodically I think there will be definite comparisons. The more sinister, jarring edge to that record is definitely present, along with some influences from serialism and other 20th atonal music. The nearest comparisons to my own music so far are Parin Onia from Purlieu and Cwn Annwn from Safernoc, I think.

In more pressing matters, I will soon be getting copies of Since Every Hour Is Too Late in the post. It’ll be nice to have that released, as with my recent working with strings and piano for forthcoming material it seems more fitting, and the initial sessions for the album were recorded in October 2009 – although it was only completed four months ago. Either way, it and its accompanying EP will be the last new Second Thought material for quite some time (until next year at least), and will mark the last material from the 2009-2010 sessions (other than the shelved album, anyway). So an important milestone there.

I finally bought that Kerkville album. It’s absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend it.

16th April 2011

Sample collecting for album #6 has been coming along quite nicely – I’ve been listening out for interesting sounds everywhere in the last few days, and have so far taken snippets from various sources, everything from famous IDM to contemporary pop, one of my favourite symphonies, a computer game and a classic animated film. Some sounds are beginning to come together and it’s beginning to sit nicely in my mind. Some elements of Treatments may be making a re-appearance too.

Recent listening and all-round excellent music:

Sibelius – Symphonies 1-3
Xedh – Vinduskarm
Murcof – Cosmos
Christopher Bissonnette – Periphery
Nick Drake – Five Leaves Left

1st December 2010

The third Lemony Nougat disc is out today, my favourite so far, the Jack Anderton one. The project is becoming a pain in the arse as making the artwork is more tricky than it looks. Still, three down, four to go (although there may be an 8th in the future… news on that next year at some point). Trawling through my old cassettes continues. Some of my first cassettes as Ross Baker are rather great, nice to discover my glitchy keyboard fuckups recorded, some 25 minute field recordings, an electric piano duet with my dad and some other stuff. Most excitingly, the aforementioned Mike Oldfield inspired ‘Cliff Edge’ turned out to be rather good, each 23 minute side a morphing, evolving improvised piece which contains some really interesting melodic ideas. Might take inspiration from this in the future.

I’ve done my first work on actual Second Thought material in months this afternoon, putting some final touches to a couple of tracks on what will probably be the follow-up to Safernoc. I actually used one of the field recordings from my old cassettes on one, which worked nicely in terms of what I was trying to create, and the concept of the album. More of that when it’s more relevant.