Thursday 23 January 2014

update

Hi Folks,

Just to say the MP3 single In The Noise has been delayed due to technical issues and my tendency to rip my tunes to bits and start again. Now the song will be released at the end of next week

I am putting down vocals right now and really enjoying working with Logic on my Mac, recording a complete piece for the first time. I have dozens of half finished songs in various stages of development but it is time to cease procrastination and get on with it all.

As I have been getting deeper into the technology of Logic Pro I see the restrictions and limitations of previous technology disappear with every passing day. I have been thrilled by the ease with which I have been able to progress what are probably some of the heaviest tracks I have ever made as well as some melodic songs.

I have only just finished the lyric for my song for Mick Farren, The Sound Don't come. This is a song I first played at The Borderline last time out. I seem to be writing some thing every other day and this is a new experience. There were years when I only wrote a couple of songs. Currently it works out at two a month plus sketchy ideas for songs.

I had a great week with Bob the bass player last week writing and arranging bass parts. We have a half dozen songs on the assembly line now and the best is still to come.

I will be heading out to Greece in March for a return visit to the very wonderful DRUG STORE in Athens. I'll be playing two dates on the 7th and 8th of March and then, hopefully  I will be heading out to Norway in May, for a FDPFAFDW gig and a spot of fishing Norge style.

I am really enjoying semi retirement and not worrying about what is next. I only play the dates that seem attractive to me though I never refuse a FDPFAFDW date. I am not in any rush to change my relaxed approach. I have spent too long taking the strain and feeling the stress for no good reason in the past. This said I do like being out there among the white lines and so I manage to get out and about as often as I can. Any excuse to plan a road trip. I'm off to look at some potential locations for shooting some video material for a couple of songs. I have a cutting list of shoots and a fair idea of where I am going with it. I also have a shiny new Canon 
EOS 600D.

The torrential rain that has been thrashing down for hours has stopped. The sun is shining and it is time for me to get myself together to head out with camera in hand. There are a couple of guitar effect pedals I am in interested in trying so if I come across them then tested they will be.

Time then, to get organised, put the recording on stand by and proceed to the next episode. All good. More later.

peace





Saturday 4 January 2014

the noise- prologue

in the noise


Noise like the sound of bright angels playing with machines, industrial trumpans, siren cry whale speak , like the wind howling towards land fall and love's urgent call like steam escaping in a heartbeat. Noise entwined in noise. Timbres of many dashing colours never still for a moment. Rushing and then falling in sheets of grinding metal then swinging through sweet tones, joining, combining into glorious cacophony.
Flip over in the huge wave like on a western shore. Roll in it like a fast porpoise, in my song filled dream. Lie back on the tones that weave and wind through the lateral line in real time, like rainfall pouring off a hillside. Tingling all over in the sonic landscape. Lost in the reverberations with ringing reflections bouncing madly off every surface. The phsyco-acoustic geometry of it all is wonderous and astounding. 
Feeling taken over in the sweet storm of noise, losing the well trod path to embark on a different way outside of usual. It feels good, re-assuring and safe. It reminds me of what draws us to the fire and to the beating drum and it is is eternal. It unites us. The sound of the crackling warm fire and the intrigue of the sound of a drum. Who is playing it and why? We go there with high expectation to share and to commune, by the fire with the drummer. 
A sweet note, like a Mongolian throat singer's invocation from the tundra, stands up in the noise to be counted by the hairs on the back of my neck. Falling but not asleep, only deep in the sway as I move to the rythm that is inside me.  It is the Near Sway that envelopes us all when we are happy and free. The Far Off Sway is out there and random. Some times it is safe but some times it is not. It is where risk resides and foolishness abides. It is also where, some times, greatness grows and the foolhardy become heroes in glorious vibration. 
I wonder if all the sound we make, every word and noise is recorded in a great united etheric sound library of infinite proportion. If so are remnants of our noisy being imprinted every where through time, for ages?  By the fire, around the drum eternally, living on in all the noise. Stand in quiet wilderness or at the center of a storm and you might hear it.



http://www.psychicscience.org/evp.aspx







peace