30th May 2013

Something I just posted on the Modulator ESP forum about the first record that changed my life.

I suppose the defining moments for me…

Christmas 1994 – dad bought Another String of Hot Hits and More by The Shadows to play on the CD player my parents had bought. Before that I had no real interest in music at all, but I quickly became obsessed with this. Solely responsible for me being interested in instrumental music.

1995 – my dad, realising that it was good for me to be open minded to music from the word go, played me ‘Revolution 9’ by The Beatles. I was 10. Boundaries such as ‘structure’ and ‘melody’ never had chance to form after this, thus my continued interest in experimental and electronic music.

April 1996 – I saw ‘The Box’ by Orbital on Top of the Pops. Instrumental music in the charts! My first CD purchase.

February 1997 – I’d seen ‘My Kingdom’ by FSOL on Top of the Pops (seems completely insane now!) the previous November and bought the single, but it was upon purchasing Lifeforms that I became an obsessive fan. It’s been my favourite album ever since, and I still don’t feel I’ve completely got to grips with it. It’s so dense.

Basically my entire taste was formed by the age of 12, it’s all been diminishing returns since then.

20th May 2013 – Shopping list //

Zoom n2 (or n4), ideally with some kind of wind blocker.

At least one hardware synth.

A really nice reverb pedal (I’m probably going to go with Boss unless anybody has any other recommendations)

A loop pedal of some sort – need to do homework here.

Boss DC-2 (thanks to JML for the recommendation)

An 8 track mixer, or possibly just getting the power cable for mine fixed and having it dusted off and cleaned up.

A nice electro-acoustic guitar.

And some sort of way of carrying my amp halfway across the UK, ideally one that avoids the tube.

Who wants to give me some money? Jez of Modulator ESP is about to sell of some gear so if you ever fancied donating on Bandcamp, now would be a wonderful time!

tl;dr – I’m getting really fucking bored of my laptop.

19th May 2013

It’s interesting, as I look for the right label to release Terra Incognita, to discover just how many tape labels are slowing down their output at the moment, whilst there’s quite a surge of new ones starting up at the moment.

The difficult thing, I’m finding, is the ever-changing popularity of certain styles and approaches – Berlin School-type synth stuff is definitely becoming more sparse, and… am I noticing an increased interest in stuff with a techno influence these days? Either way, more often than not, the labels who are the most open to really strange stuff (for the record, TI goes from synthpop to solo piano to spoken word + field recordings in less than ten minutes – no, I don’t make it easy for myself) are often those, like Hooker Vision, Chemical Tapes &c., who are more established and tend to pick artists who they already like. Which is far enough, as that’s how I’ve done Second Thought / Jerky Oats / Bullfinch in the past. I’ve never released a demo I’ve received. As always, the best way in is getting a bit of a live following – sadly, I live in Maidstone.

Anyway, I’ve been in touch with a couple of labels who do seem pretty open and interesting, hopefully somebody will be able to appreciate where I’m coming from and enjoy the strangeness.

3rd April 2013

Like many of my best records – Safernoc and Photographic Reflection, for example – Eyebrook was recorded in a burst of inspiration over a short period of time, without concession to genre or worrying about promotion. It contains elements of almost all the types of music I enjoy mixed into one glorious whole.

It’s my most electronic record since Aeolian Landform a couple of years ago, although there are acoustic guitars and piano present, and a lot of it retains the rural warmth of my last few records. It’s loosely themed around lakes and reservoirs, inspired by the sounds of waterfowl and wading birds that go so nicely with synths and piano. It was just a soundscape I really wanted to create, something that seems very visual to me. It’s quite nice returning to that style of composing.

The album should be out on Bump Foot on 14th April. I hope you enjoy it!

13th February 2013

All of my past music that’s available has now been added to my main Bandcamp. This basically brings together past work as Second Thought and The Curse of Kevin Carter under one banner, which is certainly not how I originally imagined things, but I’m now happy to just say ‘this is me’. I have included a wealth of bonus material in here, too. First off, Purlieu has been rounded off with a 30 minute collage collecting various related unreleased material of similar style, from the Purlieu, Leaf Pass and East of Evening sessions. Since Every Hour is Too Late has been expanded to include a selection of synth pieces from the same sessions, and closes with ‘May Revisited’. There are also bonus remixes and live takes included in the downloads of Vacuum Road Songs and Safernoc. Finally, the lost Second Thought album Aeolian Landform is available in its original format, after a short appearance under my Obliquity monker a couple of years ago, in its rightful place amongst my other records. This now gives the whole page a rather strange feel, collecting together ambient techno, modern classical, lo-fi acoustics and various other genres, but why should genres matter, really?

All of the albums (except East of Evening, of which there are still a few tape copies available) are available as name-your-price downloads, so there is potentially eleven hours of free music to grab there, although I am saving towards some new gear which I’ll be needing to work on my next album, so all donations are very gratefully received. Enjoy!

30th December 2012

In the past I’ve done a ‘top 10 albums of the year’ at the end of each year, but there have been too many for me to comfortably leave some of them out, so I’m stretching to a top 20…

01. The Future Sound of London – Environments 4
02. The Glimmer Room – The Wind Blows Summer from the Trees
03. Max Richter – Vivaldi Recomposed: The Four Seasons
04. Pietro Riarbelli – Three Days of Silence
05. Porya Hatami – The Black Woodpecker
06. The Future Sound of London – From the Archives vol. 7
07. Burial – Street Halo/Kindred
08. Darren McClure – The Black Kite
09. Wolf Maps – Landforms
10. Orbital – Wonky
11. Valiska & MHVA – Music on Hold
12. Good Weather for an Airstrike – Lights
13. Taken by Trees – Other Worlds
14. Daniel Pemberton – Space Dive
15. Deison – Quiet Rooms
16. David Newlyn – Deterioration
17. Joao Castro Pinto – Panaural
18. Off Land – Circadian
19. Off Land – Overlook
20. Mothlite – Dark Age

A really strong year for music.

26th December 2012

Well, thankfully the world didn’t end, so I can end the year on a high note. 2012 has been a very important year for me, in many, many ways. In musical terms, it has been a year of reinvention – a chance for me to start again, work out who I am and why I am doing what I’m doing. The Revolution sessions at the start of the year were a proper ‘year zero’ thing, stripping right back to me, an acoustic guitar, a cheap keyboard and a 4-track, for the most part. Since then I’ve released two records I’m very proud of – The Blackbirds’ Revenge and Photographic Reflection- which have built on the ambient acoustic sound I have found so rewarding to work with. The second half of the year I have spent recording a huge bulk of material, but thankfully have found the quality control to only select ten tracks for album number 3, East of Evening, which will be out in January. I’m expecting the tapes to arrive just after new year, and will start dubbing them then. I’ve had some really positive reviews and lots of great feedback from these new records.

I really do feel a sense of peace and ease with my music now that hasn’t been present since recording Safernoc and Canal Seven back in 2009. I have a few ideas about music going forward, and think it’ll take a lot longer with more attention to detail than the somewhat stripped-back nature of the recent releases, going to work on a big, lush sound. There’s also a very experimental record with my friend Craig, the second album as Sturmazdale, which will be appearing at some point in the coming months, and tentative work has begun on the second Curse of Kevin Carter album.

I feel like I really know who I am and what I’m doing these days, and that makes me very happy. Roll on 2013!

30th May 2012 – Recording

I have been recording again, for the first time in a few months. I’m putting down the first parts for my next album. I have nine tracks written in terms of chords and structure, many of which originate from around the same time as Revolution 2. I’m now facing the task of writing melodies, words and arrangements to fit them. I’m planning on doing something a little more adventurous – probably closer to The Blackbirds’ Revenge in scope, although with more instrumentation. We’ll see how that goes. In slightly more ambient news, I’ve also been working on some soundtrack work, which is going to be more instrumental. I’ll be able to share more on that at a later date.

I’ve also been working on the Jesse Conner collaborative material, which has come along nicely. I’ve added words for the song ‘Home’ – which I wrote the words for and sang – to the lyrics section. Mostly very acoustic, lo-fi stuff. Pretty much what you’d expect if you’re familiar with his music and my more recent stuff. And finally there’s some Merganser material coming together, which is nice. So, feeling quite productive again. And the website has new colours and an improved ‘about’ page!

I recently started writing for Musique Machine, an online music magazine, generally doing reviews of experimental stuff. Nice to get a selection of interesting new music heading my way on a regular basis! Other than that, I have recently been enjoying:

The Future Sound of London – Environments 4
Nicola Roberts – Cinderella’s Eyes
Deaf Center – Pale Ravine
Tangerine Dream – Hyperborea
Rod Jones – A Sentimental Education

17th May 2012 – The Blackbirds’ Revenge, May Second, new tracks and the future

More release news! It seems like forever since I finished it (it’s eight months since I finished recording it, to be fair), but The Blackbirds’ Revenge finally came out last month, on cassette from Jozik Records. In stark contrast, I’ve recently uploaded some newer recordings straight to my Soundcloud, rather than following a traditional release path, which is a very liberating feeling. The two lo-fi tracks – a very melancholy song and a new acoustic version of my first ever composition, ‘Countryside Melody’ – complete the ‘childhood nostalgia’ theme which has haunted my music for the past year; the third piece is a wonderful remix of ‘A Time Before Computers’ by cubus. Last but not least, Tim’s beautiful Off Land reworking of ‘May’, ‘May 2nd’, is now available from his Bandcamp.

So far, my new music has proved pretty popular, which is nice. I’ve had some really wonderful comments from people regarding the new tracks, and this absolutely wonderful review of The Blackbirds’ Revenge. ‘Clouds in the Shape of Clouds’ even made it onto the 50th release compilation from No-Source. The response on SoundCloud has been rather more subdued – unsurprisingly, really, given there are plenty of people there who were following Second Thought’s electronic direction and not me singing along with my guitar, so that’s all fair. The most important thing is that I’m really happy with what I’ve achieved so far. Revolution 1 & 2 and The Blackbirds’ Revenge are records I felt I had to make. I really felt like I’d gone wrong somewhere with Second Thought, and the direction of everything was making me very unhappy. I felt like things had become too dark and too electronic – I can really sympathise with Gaz Cobain’s post-Dead Cities breakdown now – and I had to make something more human again. Which led to me, a 4-track and an acoustic guitar. The reason I say this all now is that this feels like the end of the first chapter of my post-Second Thought music. The three releases that have come out this year have been the main part of the healing process – thankfully I really enjoy them too – and now I think I’m ready to continue with my journey. This is the first time since I started Safernoc that I’m not waiting to release something. I have nothing recorded for the next release. I have lots of ideas written, but none are complete and nothing has been commited to tape. It’s actually a very nice position to be in. I also feel a lot more comfortable with the idea of experimenting with electronics and effects and stuff now. I don’t see myself creating an electronic record any time soon, but I want to make something a teensy bit more ‘soundscapey’ again. But I have no urgency at the minute. I don’t reckon there’ll be anything else solo from me put out this year. But the most important thing is, in terms of how I see my music, I feel as happy now as I did around the time of recording Purlieu and Safernoc. So all is good.

Anyway, that’s enough self-indulgence. Things will be quiet for a few months now, although there is the Sturmazdale album – and a promotional mix alongside it – in the summer at some point; and I’ll keep everybody updated with any recording progress as and when it happens. And there’s always Twitter to keep you updated on any interesting musical matters in the meantime.

20th March 2012 – Releases!

I am very happy to announce that Revolution 2 is now available to download. You can grab the collection for free from my Bandcamp page. I am also doing handmade CDrs for anybody who wants them (the CDr comes with liner notes and a unique photograph – email me if you’d like one for the cost of shipping, I’m up for trades too – rossbakeruk [at] gmail [dot] com). It’s nice to put out a bunch of tracks I’ve worked on without the ceremony of a ‘proper’ album. ‘Clouds in the Shape of Clouds’ from that should be appearing on a 50th release compilation on Tim Dwyer’s No-Source Netlabel soon too.

The only two tracks from my 2011 ‘electronic classical’ sessions that will appear in their original form are now available as part of Terminal Window 2, the second FSOLBoard album, put together by my Sturmazdale partner Craig. That’s also a free download from Bandcamp, and contains a wealth of excellent material – the tracks from Nmesh, Akkya and cubus are particular highlights. The record also contains the first material from Sturmazdale, in the form of an exclusive track entitled ‘Caves’. Speaking of Sturmazdale, there’s now a Soundcloud page boasting a four minute piece from Rooms and Trees, plus extracts from the entire record. That should be coming out on a Ukranian label, Turbinicarpus, later in the year in a nice handmade sleeve.

I recently got a new, very cheap MP3 player, which I was happy enough to discover has a record function on. On a trip to Hinckley I used it to record some improvisations I had worked on whilst there. It has a wonderful warm, fuzzy quality and, bizarrely for digital, a sort of wobbly sound with the pitch at times which sounds like a tape sticking, which give it a lovely lo-fi quality. I’ve also used it to record some words which I couldn’t write satisfactory music for, and an acoustic version of ‘Countryside Melody’, my first ever composition. The pieces have all been added to the new tracks folder, but I don’t really have any release plans at the moment. I considered labelling them ‘Revolution 3’, but I think for the moment I’m just going to record and see what comes together over the course of the year. I think 2 is such a great set of compositions that I want to retain that quality control. I also have my delay pedal with me now so am going to spend some time experimenting and seeing what happens.