Saturday 31 March 2012

Yet again another Old Recording from my past 94/96

Recently whilst rummaging through an old suitcase in the loft. I found a box containing a number of cassettes. These cassettes were recordings I did from 1994/96. All sorts of musical oddness and some  musical crapness on the cassettes. But on one particular TDK cassette there is a long synth drone type tune that I quite like. I remember recording this track on an old Fostex X-15 4 track. I also used a Roland SH 09 a Roland R5 Drum machine, Roland S-50 and an old Yamaha CS-60. The track is 13.25 mins long and is untitled. I have left all the tape hiss on the track and have not attempted to tidy it up at all. If you would like to hear it, I have uploaded the track to soundcloud.


Thursday 29 March 2012

2 Canadian Girls and Toilets of the World

Have just got hold of a copy of Sian James and Morna E. Gregory's wonderful book Toilets of the WorldPublished by Merrell of London,  Toilets of the World is basically a book packed with pictures and discriptions of..........................................Toilets. Yep its that simple, and its that great. Fastastic high Tech toilets to holes in the ground. These ladies have been there, written about them and photographed them. As it says on their site. 2 Canadian girls, 6 continents, 27 countries, 9 months, 142 toilets…Works for me. In fact I did read some of it on the toilet.

Friday 23 March 2012

Django Django

My friend Mr Heartfield recently lent me the album by Django Django entitled Django Django.
What a wonderful album it is indeed. I will make no attempt to review the album as its seems to have got the thumbs up across the board, so nothing I can ad would do it justice. Having said that I will say, if you like jangly guitars wobbly sounding synths strange old reverbs Robyn Hitchcock, and Sid Barrett era Pink Floyd then go check Django Django. My fav track is Hail Bop. For more Django Django bimble along to Soundcloud.

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Behind Blue Eyes and Sam The Record Man

I got an email last weekend from Anne Marie Klein asking me if she could use my photo of the Sam The Record Man shop in Toronto. Anne Marie wanted to use the photo on the Facebook page for her new Novel Behind Blue Eyes. The story starts in Sam's on summers day in 1978. For more info on the book and Anna Marie visit Behind Blue Eyes Facebook page or to purchase go to lulu.com. Of course I did say yes to Anne Marie with regards to the photo. Having spent quite a lot of time in Toronto, how could I ever have said no. 

Monday 19 March 2012

Splitting The Atom VI

Its that time again. Popping into Brighton on Saturday 7th April with my friend Mr Stevens who will be playing a live set sometime that day at Splitting The Atom VI at The Green Door Store Really enjoyed the last one, all very interesting with electronic oddness. Just up my Street plus a nice day out in Brighton.

Thursday 15 March 2012

Seatman Separator Mercury Trax 4. On Bandcamp

After quite a few years, at last here are 3 new tracks by Seatman Separator. Seatman Separator are Simon Heartfield, Jack Packer and myself.  Since 1999 Seatman Separator have released 6 albums and 3 EPsMercuryTraxVol 1 Spring 1999, Claw Summer 2000, Music of..... Summer 2001, Basic Electronic  Principles Summer 2002, Auto Suggestion  Summer 2003, MercuryTrax  Vol 2 Summer 2004, Navigation October 2005, Ten minutes after the end of Gravity Jan 2007, MercuryTrax  Vol 3 2009. Mercury Trax IV is their 10th release and is available to download from Bandcamp. The cover was designed me, and the lovely artwork photo is courtesy Grebo Grey.

Wednesday 14 March 2012

The Woodcraft a new tune and vid

Here is the video for The Woodcraft a track from my new album. The video was filmed at Avebury, West Wittering and The South Downs. I hope to release the album in Aug/Sept this year. Many thanks to Allison, Caitlin, Amelia and Matilda.

Wednesday 7 March 2012

Bruce Haack

Up to 4 years ago I had never heard of the musician Bruce Haack. I 1st came across his work when I picked up a copy of the Rough Trade CD Electronic: 01. There was one Bruce Haack tune on the album, Mean Old Devil. With its odd and quirky electronics and vocoder style vocals I decided it was time to find and hear more. Bruce Haack was born on May 4 1931 in Alberta Canada. In 1954 Haack met what would be a lifelong friend Ted Pandel. Haack and Pandel appeared on the I've Got a Secret Show demonstrating The Dermatron which was a touch and heat sensitive electronic instrument. Bruce Haack was a musically inventive children’s songwriter of the 1960s and ’70s, and teamed up with the childrens dance Teacher Esther Nelson whom he collaborated with on childrens music. Haack made synths and modulators out of any gadgets and surplus bits and pieces he could find. As the 60s progressed Haack released his 1st rock influenced album Electric Lucifer. Up to then Haacks recorded output was mainly chidrens educational records The Dance Sing and Listen series
In 2005 the documentry film Haack The King of Techno was released. In places the documentary is a tad poor, with not a lot of info about Haack's recording techniques and the technology he used and developed. Also would have been nice to have more on the work produced by Haack and Esther Nelson. That said there is still enough interesting bits in there to make it worth a watch. Bruce Haack passed away in Sept 1998. 

Saturday 3 March 2012

Religious/Christian Album Covers

 Are You Really?
 And very excited they are to
 Steady on now
Should I call Social Services
 Take that unbelievers
mmmmmmmm......no thanks
He is!!!!!............Run away
After a busy old day trawling around the internet here are a number of awesome religious/Christian album covers.  Its all very touchy feely with this lot.