Sun in her hand an Audio Doodle

A new tune, something thats in progress. Not a track of the next album (Album out in Spring) just some audio doodling that I have been working on. But just to confuse the matter this is the inside artwork for the next album.

Sonic Wonderland/Trevor Cox

Heard Trevor Cox on 6 Music today talking about his book Sonic Wonderland. Trevor is professor of acoustic engineering at the University of Salford and president of the Institute of Acoustics. In Sonic Wonderland, Trevor visits sewers, caves, tidal bores, burial mounds, sand dunes, concert halls. Creaking glaciers, whispering galleries, stalactite organs, musical roads, squeaking beaches, groaning waterwheels, frogs that croak in Mexican waves and Mayan pyramids that produce echoes that chirp like a bird. Trevor explores how sound is made and altered by the environment, and how we hear, perceive and react to sounds, and how sound and acoustics have inspired musicians, artists and writers. Trevor Cox will be talking about Sonic Wonderland at Rough Trade East at 7pm on Thurs 6th Feb.

Alien Jams NTS Radio

I am very pleased to have been asked to pop in and play some records on Alien Jams NTS Radio at 5pm on Sunday 23rd Feb. NTS Radio is a London-based independent radio station broadcasting live and worldwide from their base in Gillet Square Dalston London. Alien Jams is presented by Chloe Frieda every Sunday from 5-6pm focusing on electronic music throughout history, from early electronics to present day artists. So I am now going to spend the next few weeks trying to make a list of some records to play on the program. To be honest I did make a list and there was about 30 tunes on it, so def time to chop that list right the way down. Looking forward to all this very much.

Gaslight Troubadours Clockwork Curiosities

Very much enjoying The Gaslight Troubadours debt album Clockwork Curiosities.  

The Gaslight Troubadours are Professor Singleton Purblind and Lon Lippincott; a modern day Burke and Hare of sample reconstruction. I 1st became aware of these chaps when a friend of mine heard them being played on The Late Junction. Not long after that I heard the track A Three Pipe Problem (full of old foggy london town Holmes and Watson Vampires and "read all about it orrible murder") played on The Freak Zone. As it states on the ECC records website  It’s ‘Carry On Screaming’ starring Vivian Stanshall, with a dose of The League Of Gentlemen thrown in for good measure. Mock horror with glitchy beats could be one, slightly loose description. If you like the idea of a Victorian DJ Shadow in foggy London equipped with top hat cape and cane with Spring Heeled Jack and Varney the Vampire lurking just round the cobbled street corner then The Gaslight Troubadours are def for you.

Seasons Greetings to you all

I have had a busy old year, what with one thing or another, so a big thank you

to everyone who bought played and reviewed my album Boxes Windows and Secret Hidey Holes.  Also thanks for the support and emails and comments with regards to the album and Mixcloud etc. Have a great break and holiday. See you all again in the New Year

Dolly Dolly Antimacassar

The rather great smashing and super Dolly Dolly album Antimacassar is available from Exotic Pylon as a limited edition digipak CD or digital download. I suggest you go here to get a copy. Also here is some info from Exotic Pylon. TATA.

Exotic Pylon is overwhelmingly thrilled to present something very different and very special – the long-awaited debut album from a true original: Antimacassar by Dolly Dolly. 

Dolly (sometimes known as David Yates) is a Berkshire-based spoken-word artist, poet, events curator, radio playwright and belongs in the lineage of British surrealists. Antimacassar’s twisted insights were created via a process of cut-ups, automatic writing, and dream diaries channelling the skewed atmospherics of such luminaries as David Gascoyne and Roland Penrose after a collision with the Beats. At turns playful, darkly whimsical, disorientating and sharp Dolly Dolly’s words and voices destabilise familiar scenes into overcast alien shapes. Imagine if Tom Baker’s Tardis became a Stone Tape jukebox… 

Aiding and abetting Dolly on this maiden voyage are some of the finest artists from the UK underground: Ekoplekz, Position Normal, Moon Wiring Club, Regal Worm (an offshoot of I Monster), Time Attendant, Steve Christie and Language, Timothy! 

Shindig Spacerock

Have pre-ordered this from Shindig Magazine. Due out on Jan 16th, seems to be packed full of goodies Louis and Bebe Barron’s FORBIDDEN PLANET, JOE MEEK THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE, PINK FLOYD HAWKWIND. GONG SILVER APPLES FIFTY FOOT HOSE, BBC RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP  AMON DÜÜL II, NEU and ASH RA TEMPEL CHROME HERE AND NOW OZRIC TENTACLES SPACEMEN 3 LOOP SUN RA ASTRA THE HEADS and WHITE HILLS. Thats gonna be a lot of reading. Its only £6.50 available from here

Test Transmission Archive Reel 15 Garden of Earthly Delights Mix 8/11/13

Test Transmission Archive Reel 15 (Garden of Earthly Delights Mix) by Keith Seatman on Mixcloud

Here is my final mix of the year. Which was recorded for the Head Gardener at The Garden of Earthly Delights CRMK Radio. On this end of year mix we have music from Carl Orff, John Foxx & The Belbury Circle, The National Jazz Trio of Scotland, Anne Briggs, The Greg Foat Group, Spectrum and much much more.

Vault: Music for Silent Gothic Treasures 13th - 14th December

From the Vault: Electronic musicians perform new music for 110-year-old Gothic films

The devil has the best tunes on Saturday 14 December when a collective of British electronic musicians perform new music inspired by rarely seen Gothic silent films from the BFI National Archive. The music and films will be brought together for the first time in Vault: Music for Silent Gothic Treasures at BFI Southbank as part of the BFI’s nationwide project GOTHIC: The Dark Heart of Film (8:45pm).

The ensemble was put together by Sarah Angliss, a composer, automatist and theremin player, whose singularly unsettling music was recently heard at the National Theatre as a tense underscore to Lucy Prebble’s The Effect. Angliss’ music for Gothic film will be performed by her band: recent Ghost Box collaborators Spacedog. They’ll be joined by Exotic Pylon’s Time Attendant (Paul Snowdon) who will be supplying a new work on simmering, tabletop electronics. There will also be some extemporisations from Bela Emerson, a soloist who works with cello and electronics. Fellow Ghost Box associate Jon Brooks, composer of the haunting Music for Thomas Carnacki (2011), will also be creating a studio piece for the event.

Sourced by Bryony Dixon, the BFI’s curator of silent film, many of the short films inspiring these musicians were made in the opening years of the twentieth century. The Legende du fantôme (1908) and early split screen experiment Skulls Take Over (1901) are on the bill, along with the silent cubist masterpiece The Fall of the House of Usher (US version, 1928) and more.

“There is undoubtedly something uncanny about the earliest of these films”, said Angliss. “Many are stencil-coloured in vibrant hues, adding to that sense of the familiar taking on a strange cast. They seem to demand music that suggests rather than points up the horror, a motif that discomforts as it soothes, or a sweet sound that is somehow sickly, as though heard in a fever. As with vision, sound for horror can use the art of the almost, inviting the audience to make unnerving connections of their own.” 

Jon Brooks said “the visuals suggest aural textures reminiscent of painted glass, to strange derivatives of stringed instruments. Hopefully I've conjured some playfulness amongst the macabre too."

Adding to the strangeness are Angliss’ automata, who will also be performing live. These include a polyphonic, robotic carillon (bell playing machine) and Hugo, the roboticised head of a ventriloquist’s dummy who is of the same vintage as some of the films. The event will be directed by Emma Kilbey. After the BFI Southbank performance there are plans to tour Vault around Gothic revivalist buildings around the UK. 

Sarah Angliss is grateful to PRSF for Music for financially supporting her new work. Vault: Music for Silent Gothic Treasures is part of the BFI’s Hauntology Weekend, in association with The Wire magazine (Fri 13 Dec – Sat 14 Dec)

In The Garden Friday Nov 8th

I was asked a while ago by The Head Gardener to supply him with a Mix for The Garden of Earthly Delights Radio show. The mix is now complete and will be Broadcast on Friday 8th of November at 10pm on CRMK Radio. I will upload the mix later on in November to my Mixcloud thingy. 

Wire Thirty Three and a Third

My Friend Mr Stevens (Echopet) recently gave me a book from the Bloomsbury 331/3 series.
331/3 is basically an ongoing series of books written by various authors about classic (or not so classic, its up to you really) albums. Wilson Neate's contribution to this series is Wire's Pink Flag. Pink Flag was not the 1st Wire album I ever got, my 1st Wire long play was the mighty 154 and before that I managed to get a few singles which I had heard on John Peel, (I am the Fly, Dot Dash and Outdoor Miner). So once I had 154 I decided it was time to get Chairs Missing and Pink Flag. Pink Flag is probably the most unique album to come out of the class of 77 punk releases. With 21 tracks its awkward jerkiness and at times ability to just stop (Field Day for the Sundays 28 secs The Commercial 48 secs) must have put even your average punk on edge. If punk is about attitude, change and breaking down barriers then Wire were basically more punk than most bands at the time, but they also seemed to have more art leanings than most so called art rock bands. At the time the band were signed to Harvest (Kevin Ayers, Pink Floyd, Roy Harper, Be-Bop- Deluxe to name a few) which probably never went down to well with sections of the punk elite, and at producer Mike Thorne's suggestion even used a flute on the track Strange. Wire's ability to deconstruct and lose interest in their own songs went even further with the next 2 albums. When playing live the band would hardly play any songs of the album they were on tour to promote (they had already been working on new songs and played them instead) If you want to know the the full details about the recording of Pink Flag, the song writing, equipment studio used and set up, then its all here. The end of the book briefly deals with Bruces Gilberts departure from the band in 2004 and the Three Girl Rhumba/Elastica issue. I ended up reading the whole book over 2 days and thought it was fantastic. Might read it again, but in the spirit of Wire maybe stop halfway through, or not at all. Who knows?????

Its a Litmus Test

A rather spot on new album by my good friend Mr Packer. Some weird, wonderful and haunting tunes are on this album, which can be purchased from Bandcamp I have been informed that part 2 should be with us early 2014.

7 inch Center Label Selection (Part 2)

As promised a while back, here is another random selection of 7 inch single centers from the shelf.  How does he randomly select these fine old singles???  I hear you say. The answer is  simple...... dice, quite a few of them. More random singles at a later date.

COCO Phono 6th October

I have been invited to play some records at COCO Phono at The King St Tavern Southsea  (the seaside yippee!!!!) on Sunday 6th September from 4.30pm. Have picked up some new vinyl to play recently (The Other World of the Sound Carriers is one of them) Not sure what time I am playing???? or for how long????? I am sure I will find out on the day.

Tales From the Black Meadow Book & CD

Went to the book launch of Tales of the Black Meadow the other night with my friend Mr Palmer. This event was held at The Reading Central Library (bit of a nightmare to get to, lots of roundabouts and Traffic lights and very very bad traffic jam on the way into Reading) Once there had a very nice evening. There was Poetry, Film, Music, Readings and Drama all very well hosted by Chris Lambert and Kevin (Soulless Party) Oyston.

What can I say about Tales of the Black Meadow??????? if you enjoy a bit of Folklore, Poetry, A Mystery on the moors, 1970s kids TV and some very lovely haunting music, then this book and CD are an absolute must. A fantastic evening was had, and it was great to finally meet Kevin and Chris. I do get the feeling that The book and the CD are not the final word on the strange history of The Black Meadow. I would like to think and hope that as more information regarding The Black Meadow comes to light, Chis and Kevin will make it available to us all. I genuinely can't wait and look forward to even more on The Black Meadow. But she smil'd and whisper'd once again "I've been Beyond the Moor

John Foxx & The Belbury Circle

As you all might be aware, I am quite keen on the John Foxx era Ultravox (bit of an understatement) and of course John Foxx himself. Ever since hearing and then purchasing John Foxx's 1st single Underpass I have always tried (and at times failed) to keep up with John Foxx's musical output. So I was very pleased to be sent a copy of the new Ghost Box John Foxx Belbury Circle release Empty Avenues (Thanks Jim)  There are six tracks on offer here, all written by John Foxx Jim Jupp and Jon Brooks (hence Belbury Circle) with a rather nice remix by Pye Corner Audio. I am not going to go into detail about any of the individual songs/tracks on Empty Avenues, but must say that if you like the musical output of John Foxx, Belbury Poly or The Advisory Circle/Jon Brooks then this is for you. Come to think of it........even if you are not that keen on any of the artists on Empty Avenues, you should still get a copy of this release. The reason for this is very simple, your Record/CD collection will never forgive you for not owning a copy of Empty Avenues. Plus thanks to some stunning artwork from Mr Julian (Focus Group) House your collection will also look sad, empty and bland without it. So best move very fast before this is sold out. I perhaps should also mention that I do like this a lot. 

Another new tune 2014

Another new tune for the next album. Hopefully out sometime in 2014. Track needs a bit of tweeking and mastering, so this not fully finished version.

Its Flexi

They came free with magazines, they came free attached to the front of record sleeves, they came free in booklets and in some cases you could walk into a record shop and just ask for them...............for FREE. So here is a selection of Flexi Discs. They never sounded great, but they always seemed to be free. I would like to say that after many many years the quality of these flexi discs has deteriorated so much that they are virtually unplayable, but still always worth checking out.

 This came free with the 7inch of I Travel

Have no idea where I got this??? but it was a very long time ago

 

 Good old Smash Hits. OMD and Nash the Slash

Walked into HMV and they were giving these away.

Good old Factory.

A charity shop find that I thought would come in handy.

Melody Maker!!!!! The Passage and Blancmange

7 inch Center Label Selection

There has been a lot on the Wireless and Television Set  recently about the good old 7in single. So I have decided that every now and then, to make some sort of random selection of 7inch singles from the shelf and place them here, but only showing the single center labels, no single sleeves. When doing this I did find quite a few flexi discs so it might be flexis next time.

Test Transmission Archive Reel 14

Test Transmission Archive Reel 14 by Keith Seatman on Mixcloud

Test Transmision Archive Reel 14 is now on Mixcloud. This time round we have tunes from The Soulless Party, The Supremes, Kevin Ayers, Isaac Hayes, Buffalo Daughter, Hacker Farm The Focus Group and tons more.