The difficult second (first?) album

It's an astonishingly long time since I posted anything, even for me. So just a random update on the off-chance anyone is reading. If nothing else it reminds me how to log in to the thing...

I am slogging on with the solo album. I think of it as the first "real" album, so it shouldn't be so hard especially as some of the material is refined versions of what appeared on Bohunt. There's about 45 minutes of more or less finished music. With any luck I'll be able to wrap it up in time for HJ8. Yeah, right...

Meanwhile I've just had a rehearsal with a non-EM group that I'll be appearing with. Just a tiny contribution this time round, but hopefuly the start of something very different.

Philly Pictures

While I'm here... there are some fantastic photos of the Philly concert by Jeff Towne over at the Gatherings site. Like this, for instance:

Susbarbatus

The last batch of Bohunt Sabotage CDs have gone out to SMD today. I finally got round to burning the last batch, and when I came to pack them up found that the leftovers from the trip to the USA were still there - I was sure I'd sent them. Anyway, that's it, once they're gone, they're gone.

I've started working on the first track for the album proper. It is based on the first part of Bohunt, which is called Susbarbatus. This currently involves adding layers to the original material (and happily the new laptop is allowing me to add lots!). Once I've got enough in place I'll start trimming it down and working up a structure.

Calm after the storm

The trip to Philly for the Gatherings was every bit as good as the first time. Maybe better. Thanks to a generous loan (cheers, Vince!) we took to stage with a huge .com modular system as well as the kit we'd managed to get over in our luggage and yet more borrowed gear. We kept the first part fairly laid back and ambient; the second set was a sequencer storm that was gratifyingly well received. This followed up with a couple of hours of late night music on the Stars End show. By the time we'd packed up, I was starting to halucinate from lack of sleep...

Now the dust has settled, it's quite nice to have nothing in the immediate future to worry about (except christmas shopping). Time to get to work on The Album.

Jam Tomorrow

A bit later than I intended, but a few quick thoughts on the rest of HJ - for what it's worth.

One of the downsides of getting out of the audience and onto the stage is that I end up missing some great music. After I finished, I broke down straight into the car, and took it away so I wouldn't have to drive again. The rain decided to hurl down on the way back. I didn't mind. Then I was still too hyped to sit still in the auditorium and so I missed the whole of the F&S set which by all accounts was (unsurprisingly) a stormer.

For the Volt set, things weren't much more organised. We went out for some food during the break and they'd started before we got back. We listened from the foyer, and it gradually dawned on me that it was becoming rather good.

Finally, Redshift. I made sure I was in a seat for this one. It was a slightly darker, weirder Redshift this time. Sequences were mangled by a pitch shifter, some really great moody atmospheres. And of course, that Moog power. It's always a delight and a mystery how Mark manages to coax sounds of such clarity and energy from the beast. It's not as easy as it looks...

And I drank some beer. And ate some curry. And lo; it was good.

Jammy Smears

A few days have passed, so it must be time to reflect on the Hampshire Jam.

It was an uncessarily early start, as I woke up around 5 am with my head full of music. Got up and made use of the time listing the patches for each section of the set. Broke the rig down from the studio and prepared to load the car. The incessant drizzle chose that moment to turn into a downpour that only stopped moments after we'd recluctantly loaded up. Nothing ended up with water pouring out of it anyway.

Liphook isn't much more than an hours drive away, so we were soon at the millenium hall. The other acts were there but had only just started setting stuff up. I waited for Redshift and F&S to do what they wanted then quickly assembled my little rig. The soundcheck was quick too, just a quick blast of a couple of sections that I thought would cover the extremes of the sound palette. A quick walk round the hall and it sounded great. Job done. With hindsight it might have been better to have prepared some prerecorded played parts so I could check the lead sounds too.

Some hours later, and it is starting. I have used the gap to write a stack of sticky notes to remind me what I need to do during each bridge, and the keys for the parts that follow. The last action before going and hiding backstage is to check that all of the initial patches are right and to set the faders in the right place for the start.

Steve does the intro, and I'm on. Amazingly I've felt relaxed all the way through; the nerves just never came. Start up the Live set and the intro swells in. I hit the keyboard and the wrong bloody sound comes out. Fortunately it worked and I was able to go with it (not at all what I had planned though - the sounds on Bohunt Sabotage are what it should have been). When I had a moment to check, I found the wrong patches on a couple of the instruments. I have no idea how that could have happened.



I managed to fit in a few more mistakes, but the set is flexible enough for none of them to have had a serious effect. For instance, the first sequence had two distinct sections, playing sweeping chords then moving onto the lead-line. I totally forgot the first and went straight into solo mode. The most annoying was forgetting to start my recorder. This might have meant not having a complete recording (Tony and John on the desk fixed that) but worse, that was meant to be my set timer. I had to guess how long I'd been on, so in the end I played a bit longer than planned. Better than rushing through it in 30 minutes and then having nothing left to play I guess.

But despite these attempts to wreck it, everything seemed to go very smoothly. Not too many keyboard accidents, and the leads seemed to flow nicely. I couldn't see the audience well through the lights but I could make out some tapping of feet and nodding of heads. I made it to the final fade, and (phew) was rewarded by a big wall of applause.

Given I had been on a while, I kept the encore short. It was a bit rougher, but that was kind of the idea. It was well recieved too. Finally off and backstage for a beer.

More on the rest of HJ later.

Star of Stage and Screen

Grant Middleton has kindly posted a short video clip of the HJ set. Here it is, if this new fangled Web 2.1 Service Pack 5 stuff works as advertised. Or you could look here where you will also find a short snippet after Steve's intro, and footage of the rest of the acts. The Redshift clip is unsurprisingly excellent. Oh, and the audio is out of sync, it's not just a bad mime!



(Requires Javascript, Flash, yada yada).

Bohunt Sabotage

Hampshire Jam is done and dusted, and seemed to go very well. I'll write some more when I get a moment, and when I've come down.

I did manage to get some music recorded to release at the gig. The initial run was 50 copies, with another 50 to follow. It's called "Bohunt Sabotage" and it consists of a single take playthrough of the main set, plus another version of the moody "Los Ashes" section because I didn't like the way that turned out (mostly because the Virtual Prophet had managed to go completely out of tune - so much for stable soft synths). There are a few moments of finger trouble and a couple of minor glitches which is why I thought it warranted a limited CD-R release. But bar those I really do like it, especially when I got it loud on the living room hifi.

On the day I was a little disappointed in the sales. I think the arrival of two or three Redshift discs (depending on how you count them) drained people's pockets too quickly. Afterwards, I passed most of the remainder to SMD, and they sold out within 25 minutes of being announced! I kept a few copies, so they will be going to SMD for some of the people who replied too late, and the second batch of 50 will follow on as soon as I can burn them. If you want to get hold of a copy then please contact SMD. I do intend keeping some to sell before the Gathering in Philly but there won't be many.

After that, I don't know exactly what I'll do, but this material will probably come out in one form or another. There is a lot of space for improvisation in the material, though, so it certainly will not be exactly the same.

Countdown... T-4 days

Things do appear to be shaping up nicely. I was left to my own devices on Saturday, and it was a very productive time. I think the set is basically complete bar a couple of bridges, and the process of getting the right sounds to hand. These are closely related things - I need to have a break to change sounds because once I'm playing it's hard to spare a hand to tweak the sounds. This is not helped by the Imposcar suddenly deciding to glitch the playback when it changes
patches, something I've never noticed before. I think I have a way round that, but it's more time consuming than just selecting the next patch from the keyboard. I think I can mitigate the problems by running two instances, one on each keyboard, so I don't need to change sounds in mid-section.

Despite a few rough joins where there are no bridges, I've played it through end to end. It's long enough, which is a bonus, and I think I like it. It has quite a different feel to airsculpture music, so I hope it goes down well with the hard-core Berlin school mob at HJ. I'm starting to wonder if I can get a clean mix done and burn some CDRs for sale at the gig, but first things first!