25th May 2014

Two Suns Were Visible in the Sky has been mastered by offthesky’s Jason Corder, who has done as excellent job as you could expect from him. Kate at Flaming Pines is currently working on the artwork for that, so I’ll be able to bring that to you very soon. Still aiming for a June release there.

Currently finalising the tracklist for Periphery with Gavin at Twice Removed, I posted the artwork for that recently. That’s now looking to be out before the end of the year, as Twice Removed will sadly be closing its doors in November. That does mean 2014 will be focused largely on those two albums, though, which works well for me.

Collab-wise, there are new records from Middlemarch, Winter of the World, Sturmazdale, Merganser and Captain Busby in the works, plus new projects with Tim Dwyer (Off Land) and Justin Marc Lloyd (Pregnant Spore, Rainbow Bridge, etc. etc. etc.).  So I’m staying very busy.

And if that wasn’t enough, there are still singles on Knife in the Toaster and Plenty Wenlock due over the summer, and there are still some remixes to come out at some point…

6th March 2014

Having done a lot of trawling through various hard discs, backup CDrs and DVDrs, and other headache-inducing madness, I have finally come up with the goods for the 10 year anniversary edition of Purlieu.

There will be two editions:

1. Standard CD re-issue

2. Limited edition CD + 5xC30 tape re-issue

The limited edition will feature a box of C30 tapes, including the whole album on cassette for the first time, and two tapes of outtakes, alternative versions, demos and remixes (some previously heard, some unreleased).

The most exciting part (for me) is the discovery of the very first mix of the record from October 2002, when it was originally mooted to be an EP to follow my Twenty-Four CDr album. It exists as a 15 minute track and is a lot more abstract than the final version, although all the elements ended up on the final CD.

More information coming soon. Still hoping for a May release date.

9th February 2014

You know when you take on too much at once?  My current workload:

Releasing The Last Swifts of Summer and split with Wet Eyes on Bullfinch in a couple of months;

Waiting for release of A Time After Computers on Knife in the Toaster;

Looking for a label for a tape of out-of-print synth music;

Dubbing the first batch of Bullfinch tapes;

Starting promo to make sure people know that Bullfinch is coming;

Beginning to organise the second batch, including artwork;

Recording material for splits with Five Minutes Alone and EL Heath for release later in the year;

Sorting out label stuff for first album and EP by Middlemarch;

Sorting out label stuff for second Sturmazdale album;

Keeping up to date with progress from Dimitris and Craig about recording progress for upcoming Middlemarch and Sturmazdale albums respectively;

Finishing first Merganser release;

Working on some noise-based stuff with Joaquin for future Winter of the World releases;

Curating Terminal Radio Transmission 13 for broadcast in late March;

Curating the third Terminal Window album;

Writing stuff for Absent With Concept (completely behind with this, once again);

Working on the second Captain Busby record when I get chance to see Gregg;

Working on the first Duggan! album on the vague occasions Thom and I get our arses into gear;

Why do I do this to myself?  If my medication stops working anytime soon I’m going to have some sort of breakdown from this insanity.  Send me money/love/free tapes of nice music while I work through these one step at a time.

1st January 2014

2014 update, on two different matters.

1. Music of 2014.

This year will see the release of my new album The Last Swifts of Summer (or possibly Phose – but I think I’m going back to the swifts again), probably in late spring.  This will be part of the first batch of tapes on Bullfinch.  There’s no exact date yet – all depends on finances – but things look to be coming together nicely for that.  Alongside this will be a tape from The Glimmer Room’s Andrew Condon, which is really exciting and I cannot wait to release.  I’m very glad to be putting this out, as it means I’m really going to have to put the effort in giving it the promotion it deserves, which is a good way to start the label!  Fingers crossed there’ll be a release from Modulator ESP too, and possibly a split between Nmesh and Akkya.  So a broad range of styles, which is always good.  Hopefully more tapes again at the end of the year.  I’m looking forward to doing this as it’s giving me a specific project to work on, and hopefully tie in my other music with too.  I’m hoping to put out as many of my own projects on Bullfinch as possible in the future – notable exceptions being upcoming releases by Middlemarch and Sturmazdale, which are both being negotiated with other labels currently.

2. New year’s resolutions &c.   I have been quite critical of new year’s resolutions in the past, largely because people so often feel forced into committing to them, which usually ends up with them being broken very quickly.  So mine are vague, and will tie in with my moving to somewhere nice in the first half of January.  But I have decided that it seems a good time to get some of my life in order.  There are many things I know I can do, and I’d like to try doing them to make me feel better.  I really want to eat healthier, partially because I’m getting to the stage, for the first time in my adult life, that I’m struggling to fit into shirts; partially because I’m finding my often rather unhealthy diet is actually making me feel kind of shit these days, and only seems to exist out of habit.  I’d also like to cut down on dairy, particularly in unnecessary stuff like regularly eating ice cream and chocolate.  I’d also like to cut down on drinking as I’ve sort of stopped enjoying it, and it seems to lead to so many problems.  Not going tee total, but just being sensible with it.  Getting unnecessarily wasted seems actually quite unappealing these days.  I’d like to get good with my money.  I want to pay off some debts and save some cash, as well as put money towards things that are useful and constructive (putting out tapes, getting decent music gear) rather than lots of impulse buying of snacks and music.  I’d like to spend less time wasted inside at the computer and more outside in the real world, and enjoy nature and the countryside more. Finally, I’d like to come off anti-depressants this year, and hope I can return, in some way, to a normal state of mind.  Maybe return isn’t a good word, as I want to be moving forward, so moving towards a new sense of wellbeing.

These are all relatively obvious things that many people strive for at the start of each year, but they’re all things I’ve made progress with in the past, only to lose it as my life’s been tipped upside down once again.  Hopefully, this year should provide the right time for me to start getting on top of them.  It might be slow, but hopefully I’ll be there.

New music coming from Warpaint, Dementia and Hope Trails, and FSOL, and hoping for announcements from Idlewild and Max Richter amongst others.

I hope everybody has a wonderful year too.  🙂

19th December 2013

Another year down, then.  It’s been a very strange year for me, musically, kind of all over the place.  It started strongly with East of Evening, which I am incredibly proud of.  Much of the year was taken up by Terra Incognita, which went through many incarnations (the initial and final mixes sharing only a few minutes of music), which is now finally out!  In personal terms, a whole new load of crises appeared this year, which I’m finally overcoming, but things seem to have ended well, with a move to south east London planned for the start of January.  The place is absolutely lovely, with lots of natural open space a minute from the house, yet the convenience of having all that London has to offer – and for cheap rent!  Seem to have finally landed on my feet there.

This year has also been fantastic for music, with some surprisingly brilliant comeback albums from the likes of Bowie and Suede, and Autechre and Wire producing some of their best work to date.  My top 30 albums (as also posted on Absent With Concept):

01. Chvrches – The Bones of What You Believe [Goodbye]
02. Karl Hyde – Edgeland [UnderworldLive]
03. Dementia and Hope Trails – Pure Magical Love [Rainbow Bridge]
04. Luke Howard – Sun, Cloud [self-released]
05. Jack Anderton – Vale [Sirona]
06. Wire – Change Becomes Us [Pink Flag]
07. Aaron Martin & Christoph Berg – Day Has Ended [Dronarivm]
08. Broken Chip – The Wonga Pigeon [Flaming Pines]
09. Suede – Bloodsports [Warner Bros.]
10. EMS : Piano – One [FSOLDigital]
11. Rad Wolf – Content [self-released]
12. Rat Rios – Broken Fold EP [self-released]
13. Pure Bathing Culture – Moon Tides [Memphis Industries]
14. Amalgamated – Trudge/Slap [((Cave)) Recordings]
15. Off Land – Tidewater Pulse [Psychonavigation]
16. Sabri Meddeb – Between Dawn and Dusk [self-released]
17. David Bowie – The Next Day [ISO]
18. Autechre – Exai [Warp]
19. Inappropriate King Live – Datboonbaat [Rainbow Bridge]
20. R. Sawyer – Attention [Bridgetown]
21. Piper Spray – Epigraph to the Bright Star Catalogue [Singapore Sling]
22. Marcus Fischer – The Crow [Flaming Pines]
23. The Rainbow Body – Magnetic Highway [Tranquility Tapes]
24. The Amorphous Androgynous – The Cartel [FSOLDigital]
25. Blackhill Transmitter – EP [FSOLDigital]
26. Modulator ESP – Inner Cosmos [Fort Evil Fruit]
27. Sand Sound Folly – Salient Moons 1973 [FSOLDigital]
28. The Glimmer Room – A Return to Cromley Hall [Silent Rookery]
29. Off Land – Overtide Recon [Stasis]
30. Dementia and Hope Trails – I Am Still Shaking Because of You [Sacred Phrases]

Next year I am hoping will finally be the resolution to several years’ personal issues, and also a consolidation to what I’ve been doing musically since late 2011.  The last two years have been a retreat from the madness of the end of Second Thought, and I feel as if I’ve moved far enough away to finally be back at that comfortable place again, making music purely for the love of it, and releasing a solid album every year, rather than several half-formed projects.

Bullfinch Art & Tapes should be finally making a much-delayed appearance at some point later in the year – I have a few tapes for that lined up, and hopefully those Finches art prints will go on sale eventually!  I’m also planning on getting myself a bit more music gear at last, some pedals and a synth, at least.  Something I can play about with.

Happy midwinter and New Year, westerners, and I hope you are all well.  🙂

7th November 2013

So, my split tape with Tranzmit is out on Arachnidiscs Recordings on December 16th.  My side, of course, is Terra Incognita, which is many months old now.  A few months down the line will be The Last Swifts of Summer, which will be my first proper album in almost a year once it comes out – currently looking like early spring on Crash Symbols tapes.  You can hear three pieces from that – Mutterfly, Windswept and Continuous, and The Ephemeral Beauty of Living Things – on my Soundcloud.

I’ve been doing some work on new stuff, but seem to be continually falling into the trap of focusing concepts, rather than simply making some quality tracks.  Found Autechre’s question & answer session on WATMM this last week quite inspiring, especially them talking about how they just love jamming tracks.  Something I’m often guilty of is not really enjoying the process of making music.  So I’ve been back on that, just playing around, seeing what I can come up with.  Thrown out a fair few interesting bits, everything from a dark ambient/noise piece you can hear on my Soundcloud, to some IDM-ish beats and a rather intense drone piece.  I can’t wait to find out where it’s all going over the course of the next few months.  Who knows what the next album will sound like.

Currently reading Skagboys by Irvine Welsh.  What a book.  After trudging through a heap of books which have been good but not amazing, this has been so refreshing.  The one thing that makes a book ‘unputdownable’ (ugh) for me is believable characters – feeling like I know these people.  Not enough books have that.  George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series is another great example, and almost anything by Kate Atkinson.  Anyway, I’m going to re-read Trainspotting and Porno after I’ve finished.

Recently been listening to a lot of Chvrches, Cocteau Twins, Zola Jesus, Warpaint, XTC and FSOL.  Think I’ve finally got to the point where I prefer female singers to male singers, particularly in ethereal sounding stuff.  Gaz’s Liz Fraser and Lisa Gerrard obsession seems to run throughout FSOL’s catalogue, even their early acid stuff seems to have ethereal female vocals caked all over it.  Good stuff.

18th October 2013

As it currently stands, we’re still hoping for the Babel/Ross Baker split to be out in November – that’s Terra Incognita on my side, which is somewhat old now – finished that a few months ago.  So that’ll be good to get out.  We’re just sorting out the artwork (or at least trying to).

I have tentatively begun work on my next album now.  Something I realised when looking back over older releases was a certain element of individuality.  Lately I’ve had a perspective of finding music that sounds like my music/creating stuff directly inspired by other music, yet this seems completely at odds with how I created my earlier work.  I actually remember when I was doing Purlieu, my attitude was literally “well if nobody else is going to make this album, I’m going to have to”.  So that’s something I’m returning to, I think, trying to create a sonic world which currently doesn’t exist.  It’s actually quite exciting to be starting on a fresh new project like this – particularly as my 2012/2013 output will all slot together as a series of related works with an overall sound/theme.  The WIP piece I’ve begun work on is quite different from the last few records – quite noisy and dark.  A welcome change of pace.

In other news, Dimitris and I have completed the Middlemarch album, which is to be titled Wolf Hall, and will be released on Time Released Sound in the new year.  Needless to say we’re very excited about this as we’re both big fans of the label.  We’re just finalising details about that right now.  This is probably the most beautiful selection of tracks I’ve ever worked on, and it’s been a real honour to work with both Dimitris and Colin at TRS in putting it together.

And there should be a couple of net-releases coming soon of debut records from two other collaborative projects: Merganser and Winter of the World.  More on those soon.

I’ve been collecting a nice number of LPs at the minute, and getting rid of my CD copies of said albums.  Over the past few years I’ve definitely become a convert to analogue over digital.  You should buy some of the CDs & tapes I’m selling on Discogs so I can buy more vinyl.

5th August 2013

Over the past couple of weeks I have been recording all sorts of things with the four track.  I have three more tracks to complete from these sessions.  It’s quite stripped back so far, sort of Revolution 2 meets Photographic Reflection.  I’m attempting to make an album without any computer whatsoever.  This will be the first time since 1999.

27th June 2013

I’ve been working more on Terra Incognita, restructuring and reimagining the piece.  I’ve probably done more versions of this album than anything I’ve done before.  There’s about 90 minutes of material recorded, although I think I’ve finally pieced together the best 30 minutes into a nice piece.  Discussing release options with a couple of labels at the moment.  I’ve also worked on a couple of mixtapes to fit the theme, which will be aired later in the year.

I recently returned to the ‘Where Will We Go When the Roads Have All Cracked?’ record I was working on a few years ago, and finished it off to a standard it needed.  Going to start sorting out release details for that soon.  It will feature reworkings of previously released tracks ‘The Slow Decay of Concrete and Glass’ and ‘Oxygen, Tanks and Gas Masks’, and an album release, finally, of ‘Closed Loops of a Train’ – for those of you who’ve heard those, that will give an idea of the mood.  I’m describing it as anti-ruralism, although in its portrait of the bleak, hopelessness of urban decay, I suppose it comes around to the same sort of thinking as ruralism itself: a return to the tranquility of nature and the land as a refuge from the 21st century.

Anyway, after the anti-ruralism and exploring the psychedelic headspaces of Terra Incognita and its associated mixtapes, I feel comfortable returning to the ruralist world for future recordings.  I have no real plans at the moment, other than getting some gear and setting up a mini-studio (sick of my laptop).  I’ve been listening to Eno’s ‘Another Green World’ lately, and would love to do something with a similar pastoral feel.  So who knows!