Thursday 31 March 2011

Forbidden Planet Reissue


I was very pleased to find out that the Louis and Bebe Barron Electronic Soundtrack to the Film Forbidden Planet has been reissued by Poppy Disc on vinyl. If you have never heard this wonderful soundtrack, you really are missing out.
Husband and Wife team Louis & Bebe Barron have the distinction of composing the 1st all electronic soundtrack for this 1956 film.  
I recently used Krell Shuttle from the films soundtrack, on my Test Transmision Archive Reel 2

Saturday 26 March 2011

Something from my Past. Psylons

Something from my past.  A couple of promo vids for Psylons
The Emperor of Songs Video was made by Simon Heartfield and remixed by Jim Shaw of The Cranes.
The Bug Video was made by myself and Carl Edwards and produced by J Packer.
From 1986 to 1995 we released 5 singles, 1 Cassette EP,  1 Album.
But more on all of this at a later date

I Like This


My Sister gave this to me and I just like it.

Tuesday 22 March 2011

consistently mediocre and daydreams


Finally after a very very long time there is light at the end of the tunnel.
The Keith Seatman album Consistently Mediocre and  Daydreams should 
(and I say should) be available on iTunes and Amazon, in May or June. All the post production stuff is done and as you will see, the artwork is done. So best I get a move on.

Saturday 19 March 2011

Return of The Mac


Now I am very happy today. Having just recently had my loft boarded out I can now
get a lot of my old junk out of storage and back from people's houses.
Got my very old Mac SE30 back the other day. I was very keen to start it
up and see what old stuff is on there from my past. 
But forgot that many years ago it went a bit odd and I needed an old Mac floppy start up disc. So if anyone out there has an old OS 7/7.5 Mac Disc I would love a copy. Thank you.
Now back up to the loft for me, and time to start drilling holes through the floor.

Friday 18 March 2011

Never got to Grips with This

My Sister and I kept getting bought Spirograph for Christmas. 
Spirograph and Super Spirograph. I never really got to grips with Spirograph. 
Finally I got Flight Deck and Super Flight Deck. 20 mins of Airfix Flight Deck fun.
Then of down the Park.........again.

Found Objects: More Thomas Leer

Found Objects: More Thomas Leer: "Following on from Phantom Circuit's Thomas Leer & Robert Rental post. I have decided that a bit more Thomas Leer would not go amiss.Alon..."

Monday 14 March 2011

A Twister Valley Birthday

Well what a weekend it has been. I was invited to DJ at Mr Douglas E Powell's Birthday Doo at Twister Valley in North Devon. And what a great evening it was. 
Also playing tunes on the night were Mr Jim Jupp (Ghost Box) who played a truly marvelous set that included all sorts of goodies, from the likes of Ennio Morricone to The New Vaudeville Band's Winchester Cathedrel (this made me very happy) Before Mr Jupp, The ever wonderful Linda Spence got things moving with some Soul Funk and Reggae grooves which included a Reggae version of the Theme to Coronation Street. Finally Matt Brown and Shaun Winfield who played a great set between them starting with some old Country and Western Classics running through to some very choice 60s tunes. ( (my fav was Jackie Lee's On White Horses)
Visual oddness on the night was supplied by Mr Jez Stevens who entertained every one with some superb projections and slides.
I do believe Mr Powell was very happy with Night, and to show his appreciation he told me a very silly but funny joke about 3 balloons.
I should take this opportunity to mention that myself and Mr Powell have agreed to collaborate on yet another re-working of  the old folk song The Bells of Paradise.  This we hope to make available as a download at a later date.
Please check out the Alva version on Songs of Witchcraft and Magic.
Keith Seatman's set on the night
Public Information intro
The Fall                     Glam Racket
The Flashing Blade Theme
Blue Bambinos            A Sharpe B Flat
Buff Medways             Troubled Mind
Sandi Shelton              Your'e Gonna Need Me
Pink Floyd                   Three Four
Louis & Babe Baron      Krell Shuttle
XTC                             The Man who Sailed around his soul
Chicha Libra                  Popcorn Andino
Benny Spellman             Fortune Teller
David Cain                     Radio  Stoke on Trent 
Dave & Ansal Collins      Double Barrel
Twisted Tongue             Got a Really Good Thing     
Bernard Cribbins            Gossip Calypso
The Monks                    Lift Off
Tony Christie                 Season of The Witch
Ivor Cutler                     Barabadabada
Patti Seymour               The Silencer

Friday 11 March 2011

The Last Days of Man on Earth??? The Final Program


The Final Program was called The Last Days of Man on Earth when it was released in America. Not sure why that was????? The film starred Jon Finch, Jenny Runacre, Sterling Hayden, Harry Andrews and Patrick Magee.
Not to keen on what they did to the ending of the film. Not sure why they
did not stick to the original ending from the book. All that said, I did like the film.


Devo 1974

Monday 7 March 2011

The Highdown Rocket men

I have for a long time been interested in the UK Space and Rocket program of the 1950s & 60s. The success of this Rocket program was largely down to the people who worked on it. Despite constant Goverment interference and a considerable lack of funds, the Rocket people managed to produce 2 very successful rockets, The Black Knight and Black Arrow.
To assemble and test each rocket before shipment to the Australian launch site at Woomera, a local test site was required. The Needles Headland offered a secure site with suitable underground accomodation. In 1955 the Highdown site was leased from the Ministry of War.
Under the instruction of architect John A. Strubbe, construction began in April 1956. The Needles Headland was transformed looking now like something out of Quatermass or James Bond. A complex of specialised buildings was constructed over the New Battery and underground control control and instrumentation rooms were converted from the old magazines. There 2,200 square feet of control rooms and underground stores, 4,260 square feet of laboratories and offices and 3.080 square feet of workshops and smaller machine shops. The dining rooms catered for 80 people at a time. In all there was space enough for 240 people, a number reached in the early 1960's.
In the early stages serious consideration was given to accommodating Blue Streak at the site. This would have meant digging silos deep into the hillside - impractical but not impossible.
The 10 metre long Black Knight rockets were assembled in the workshops. Then they were towed down the newly built road along the cliff top above Scratchell's Bay to one of the two 60 foot high test gantries. The rockets were erected inside the steel and aluminium towers by men dressed in protective suits with glass fronted helmets operating one and a half ton mobile cranes.
During a test firing all activities followed a strict time sequence, with the operation of the rocket controlled automatically by a Sequencer unit. At any point the process could be aborted by the press of a button from several monitoring positions, most of which were underground. In addition to manual observations taken from the secure Blockhouse, an array of camera, tape recorders and specialised devices automatically logged data from several hundred instrumentation sensors placed within the engine and other rocket systems.
With the missile successfully tested, a team of engineers accompanied it to the launch site. In all, 23 single and two-stage Black Knights were launched, between September 1958 and November 1965.
The success of Black Knight suggested the need for Britain to develop a capacity to launch satellites, and in 1965 the Highdown team started work on Black Arrow, an 18 ton, 13 metre, three stage rocket designed to put a 300 kilogram satellite into a circular near-Earth orbit.
Five Black Arrows were built and four launched into space, the first in 1968. The project reached its zenith on the 28th October 1971 with the launch of the first, and only, all-British satellite put into space by a British rocket. The experimental satellite, designated Prospero in space, achieved a near perfect orbit and carried out short term data collection on micrometeorites and space erosion.
The concrete bones of the Highdown rocket site are one of the few reminders of the successful, if short-lived, British space programme of the latter half of the 20th Century. The last Black Arrow now resides at the British National Science Museum. Another reminder is Prospero, which will continue to orbit the Earth until at least the year 2200. 



Sunday 6 March 2011

the hauntological society.: Montague Rhodes James

This was originally posted by moonplague. And I urge anybody that is remotely 
interested in M R James to click on the link to The Hauntological Society 
and have look. A big thanks to moonplague for this excellent post.
the hauntological society.: Montague Rhodes James: "There is something dismaying in a life with nothing to regret and nothing to hide. In the case of Montague Rhodes James, however, this has ..."

Archive Reel 2

At last Test Transmission Archive Reel 2 has been uploaded to Mixcloud.
Archive Reel 2: The Fall, The Hare and the Moon, Mount Vernon Arts Lab, Gasman,
Douglas E Powell, Broadcast, Louis & Bebe Baron and many more.
Archive Reel 2 was played on the Garden of Earthly Delights on Friday 4th March

Friday 4 March 2011

The Modern World Book of Hobbies

Welcome to the Modern World Book of Hobbies. A good friend of mine recently purchased this book for himself, and knew that I would like it as well.
The chapters in this book have lovely titles like....... Life in the Open, The Joy of Reading, Let's go Cycling!, A Home Broadcasting Station and Setting up a Workshop.
My two favorites are Chemistry as a Pastime and Starting an Orchestra.
If like me, you wake up most days saying to yourself " Today is the day I am going to start an Orchestra" then this is the book for you.



Tuesday 1 March 2011

Friday at 10pm. The Garden of Earthly Delights

Test Transmission Archive Reel 2 will be aired on The Garden of Earthly Delights
this Friday at 10pm.
Keith Seatman's August 2010 session for the Garden of Earthly Delights can now 
be heard here.