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!

10th Feburary 2010

There’s always a journal entry in February.

So, 2010. Six years since Purlieu now. What do I have to show for it? Not too much at the moment, but that’s all about to change. The promised releases are just around the corner – Treatments is coming out on Silent Flow and Canal Seven on Cyclene in the next few weeks. Treatments is an entirely new direction for me, largely being drone-based ambient, with some noisier elements on a couple of tracks. Silent Flow are putting out the 5 track EP as a free download with their own artwork, my cover can be found here. Canal Seven is the 30 minute track, inspired by The KLF’s ‘Chill Out’ and FSOL’s ‘Environments’ I mentioned in my previous entry.

Both EPs I’m extremely proud of, and both are new things for me, so I can’t wait to unleash them on the world.

Elsewhere, I’ve submitted a remix for an album co-released on my friend Tim’s netlabel No-Source, I’ll let you know what happens there.

And that’s all the weather.

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.

24th September 2009

The journal entries dried up a bit after that last one, didn’t they? I’ve been living in Manchester in a largely internet-free world for the last few months, working on various tracks and ideas. This has led to good things, such as the next album being finished. It’s not going to be released just yet, but here are some details…

Title: Safernoc

Tracklist:
01. Send More Bees
02. Night Train
03. Barghest
04. Marown Dhoo
05. Savernake
06. Kelpie
07. Cwn Anwnn
08. Moss
09. Vantage Point
10. Timber Wolf
11. Aqueduct
12. Beddgelert

The album is a lot more like Purlieu than Vacuum Road Songs, but not massively like either. Influences include Edgard Varése, John Cage, Phillip Glass, Max Richter, Luc Ferrari and Marcus Schmickler for a lot of the album, although it’s not all in a pseudo-classical vein – there are a couple of moments like Savernake, and even a couple of tracks which head into styles I’ve never touched on before.

I’m off to start the artwork now. Get ready for this one, it’s so far ahead of the previous two you’ll barely know it’s me. I can’t wait to let everyone hear it!

23rd February 2009

One of the joys of not setting a specific brief for a record is in being able to use whatever samples I like, which is how Purlieu started, and why it didn’t seem too forced. The use of dogs and glass in Savernake has surprised everyone who listened to it, it seems, but I enjoy that. Similarly, I’ve been using a nice, wide number of sources elsewhere in my new material, including seagulls, a river and a train – but it works. There are lots of other sounds (including a return of the piano, which was barely used on Vacuum Road Songs, despite its liberal use on Purlieu).

I’ve been referencing some influences rarely seen in my music lately, including Cage, Varése, Richter and a host of other people using sparse arrangements, strings, piano, electronics in their rawest form and so on. So the album isn’t going to be all techno.

Ideas flowing… things to look up to get an idea of where this may be heading… Barghest, Marown Dhoo, Savernake, Little river…

17th February 2009

Re-arrival. Second Thought is back! It’s been three years since the last new material (Rooftops), and all has been quiet, apart from the somewhat subdued Vacuum Road Songs release (those reviews will be turning up this year, honest!). What’s been happening? And why?

Well, first up, there was Dead Hymns. Those familiar with the concepts behind Purlieu and Vacuum Road Songs will be aware that there were two more albums that followed the ‘story’, to be called Dead Hymns (continuing from the passing out at the end of VRS and travelling through one’s own personal hell…) and Crib Goch (… to reawakening and peace). Then I realised things were just getting FAR too literal. Vacuum Road Songs itself seemed to be stooped too much in story for my liking, in hindsight – it hangs together more awkwardly as an album, with short seguing environments linking otherwise unrelated tracks or chapters or whatever. Elsewhere in my life, I’ll be honest, I’m not especially happy. It’s the jolly world of post-university bullshit, with nothing really going quite to plan. I need to make music that makes me happy, not 60 minute noisescapes with horror film soundtrack strings, distortion, screaming, guitar solos, industrial grinding and other fucked up mess. Dead Hymns is on hold indefinitely. I don’t want to become a prog rock star, so I’m just carrying on producing without the need for continuity and story.

And so, Second Thought album 3 mk ii begins. Armed with inspiration from recent new FSOL material, a shedload of new influences to really get into and lovely new visions and ideas, I’m recording again. No searching through old tracks to find material of worth, no leaving tracks out because they don’t fully fit the concept of the album, just making good music. The album is going to fit together nicely with some atmospheric bits and artwork and allsorts, but it’s just going to be a lot more fun to make.

The first track is called Savernake. It’s very techno. It can be found here. I like it. I hope you do too. There’ll be more journal entries soon.

Top five albums of recent times:

Underworld – Oblivion With Bells
Hell Is For Heroes – Hell Is For Heroes
The Future Sound of London – Environments II
Norma Jean – Redeemer
Goldmund – Cordorouy Road

xxx