You Are Allowed to Enjoy This...

Words of Encouragement

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:07:31 +0000

Sometimes, when you are your lowest ebb, when all hope seems to have faded and you wonder exactly how you can even begin to think about carrying on, a small token arrives that rekindles that fire. Firstly, an e-acquaintance sent me a donation to the Darren Lock Benevolent Fund, which reduced this big fat idiot to a blubber of tears. The cash donation will buy Verity a Xmas present. I've had some nice messages of support from the various e-pals I've met on my virtual travels and while they are comforting and go to restore your faith in humankind, they also put it all into stark relief and make you realise what an impossible position you are stuck in. But I am very grateful for their concern and warmed by their words - if only real people were as nice.

On a separate note, I received a short, but very sweet, email from Miltos from Greece who appears to be digging my tunes:

"You are fantastic, man.Thanks for the music"

It's a pleasure. I'm in the process of rebuilding my recording rig so that it is more portable and it means that I can be creative and move everything really quickly for the next time I have to up sticks and ski-daddle off to pastures new. I am hoping to return to recording really soon and have some new things for you to enjoy.

You score 7.5

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:52:29 +0000

Whoopee for me.

The Silence of the Lambs...

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:28:58 +0000

So we are working in the darkened shop, illuminated by our lanterns, waiting in the cold for the boys to start arriving to collect their rounds. Outside a lorry passes and we hear a familiar yet unfamiliar noise. It is a guttural noise, borne out of fear and pain and suffering as if the creature was aware of its impending fate.

"What was that?" asked the Missus

"That's cattle going off to slaughter," I reply and we both grimace in the darkness.

Later, at our temporary accommodation, we have been wondering what this continual popping sound is. I've heard the noise before and it sounds like a car back-firing. Initially my mother thought there might be a firing range nearby but then the origin of the sound is made all too apparent by that familiar scream we've heard earlier.

The popping sound is a bolt-gun and the scream is the cattle lined up at the slaughterhouse on the horizon, waiting to be dispatched. As I am writing this, I can still hear the screams.

I feel like Iggle Piggle, but this time it is a nightmare within a nightmare...

The Tragedy of Iggle Piggle

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:22:11 +0000

If you have children of a certain age, then I am certain you may have come into contact with a TV programme called "In the Night Garden". At the beginning, I used to just let it wash over me but then the deeper meaning and tragedy of the lead protagonist struck me.

The show begins at night time with a small child (different for every show) about to go to sleep. Their parent strokes their hand and so the show begins. They are told to imagine a boat the size of their hand and it cuts to Iggle Piggle alone at sea:

The boat sails off into the distance and Iggle Piggle joins his friends "In the Night Garden".

Now this seems all harmless, but when you think about the narrative construct of the show there is a dark sadness running through it. Firstly, Iggle Piggle doesn't actually exist in this programme for he is a dream in the child's imagination and so therefore one can deduce that Iggle Piggle's adventures in the garden are his dream. So you have a dream within a dream.

In the first dream, Iggle Piggle is happy and having all sorts of adventures in his dream world, The Night Garden, but in reality (or the first layer of dream reality) he is in fact alone, abandoned on the sea at night. At the end of every show, all the characters go to sleep except Iggle Piggle, because he's already asleep, alone on the dark sea. Now what I find upsetting is that the baby at the beginning of the show continually dreams of poor old Iggle Piggle being alone on the sea. He is destined to be alone in the imagination forever until his dreams bring him the friends and company of which he desires.

So it is a programme about the dream world, the nature of desire and isolation.

Whoudathunkit, eh?

TRTS

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:48:38 +0000

On reflection the fuzz bass solo on yesterday's "TRTS" track didn't quite work for me, so I went back into the mix and put down a more tradition guitar solo that I felt better suited the track. Here is the revised mix. Enjoy!

Direct download: CLICK HERE

TRTS - Bass Solo Mix

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:57:17 +0000

Here's another track I recorded today from the hopefully soon to-be-becoming album. Enjoy!

Direct download: CLICK HERE

Jump, They Say

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:17:57 +0000

Now the story of Shaun Dykes broke earlier in the week and it is a signpost, a portent even, of just how disconnected we have become from reality. The story goes like this: a depressed young man goes to the top of a car park and threatens to throw himself off. The police attempt to talk him down, but all the time a crowd jeers at him, fires off expletives and urges him to do the dreaded deed. An hour later, the young man jumps and the baying crowd rush forward to video his grisly remains with ghoulish glee. The story has been nicely summed up by the BBC.

Now I'll be the first to raise my hand to admit I've made some choice comments when a suicide has delayed my tube journey. "Why don't they ever wait till it is off-peak?" and "The service isn't that bad...!" etc. but this is beyond me. Mr Dykes friends are saying that they believe their friend could have been talked down and that the crowd are directly responsible for his death. How did we come to behave like this? I have the theory that media such as the Internet and YouTube and whatever else has totally desensitised us (or is in the process of desensitising us all, young or old, male or female). Or perhaps collecting horrific post-suicide images has become the new Top Trumps of this digital (de)generation? I don't know. Where's the compassion? Where's the empathy? Where's the reasoning?

It scares me...and now an apt pop video...

The Ministry of Rock

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 07:40:20 +0000

The bombastic title comes from hearing the drumbeat and the bassline and thinking it sounded like something from "Spinal Tap". More of the same guitar guff from yours truly. Enjoy!

Direct download: CLICK HERE

The Majesty of Rock - Spinal Tap

SVL - The Video

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:06:27 +0000

And now we have an official video to accompany the remix of "Seville". I like this "readymade art" approach to video making.

100 Miles from Home Blues

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:08:41 +0000

This is my latest tune. I think it is a lesser piece. Parts of it sound right, but there's something wrong with it I can't put my finger on (other than it is a bit undercooked). Not sure if it will make the cut. Who knows?

Direct download: CLICK HERE

Seville Remixed!

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 07:35:40 +0000

The great thing about the Internet is that it brings people together and it can also be a means of producing new art, new work, new music via virtual collaboration. The enigmatically titled "Piggyback Orchestra" contacted me recently with a remix they had done of my track Seville. I liked it and I present it here for your delectation. So here is "SVL":

Direct download: CLICK HERE

EchoNet

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:36:37 +0000

Oh well it looks like a new "album" might be coming. The muse has paid a visit and when the music comes, we've got to do our best to serve the muse and get it all down on the hard drive. I've gone back to one of my old recording tricks of relying on the technology dictate the music. In this case, the Boss SL-20 pedal is acting as a sketchpad, allowing me to quickly generate rhythmic guitar loops on which to build songs. It's a bloody great piece of kit for stimulating the musical muscle, but I have to be careful not to repeat myself...not to repeat myself...not to repeat myself...

Direct download: CLICK HERE

Pollo Loco

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:33:33 +0000

And so the looped guitar that was "Nicely Sliced" has evolved into a fine crazy chicken of a song. It's a bit too King Crimson for my liking, but what can you do about it. When the muse drags you in that direction, you must follow!

Enjoy...

Direct download: CLICK HERE

Happy 1st Birthday Little V

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:12:03 +0000

Yes, who can believe that a whole year has passed since you were given to me. What games we've played and what fun we've had. I am so lucky to be your Daddy and maybe one day you'll find this message and know just how much I love you, my precious little girl.

Now let's stop with this mawkish sentimentality and have some fun. The BabyTV Channel is probably the greatest invention since sliced bread. They have a webpage where you can upload your baby's picture and they animate it and produce a birthday celebration animation. Whoo-hoo! Little Verity is a star. (Hopefully this link will work for you)

Click here for the good stuff.

Nicely Sliced

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:16:58 +0000

Not had much time to do much at StudioLock at the moment. Moping around, I picked up the guitar, fired up a drum loop and twiddled with my knob - then I decided to play some guitar! (Who said cheap innuendo is dead, eh?) But after some knob-twiddling, the Boss SL-20 Slicer pedal I'm using spat out this most excellent loop - which is basically my guitar sliced about and manipulated by the pedal. I immediately recorded the loop and drum combo and believe that this could be the foundation of a snazzy improv somewhere down the line.

Direct download: CLICK HERE

Meanwhile, on the blog Jess had this to say:

"Hi, great info about xtsa maintenance! thanks. I note you comment on problem with the nut, I have it in my xtsa and I wonder how you apply the HB graphite in such narrow grooves? I am very interested! again thanks, btw.. cool videos with your Godin!!
Jess"

Thanks for the positive words, Jess. It always gives me a thrill to think that someone out there in virtual cyberland might be enjoying my stuff. It's a warm glow that cannot be bought by money. With regards to applying graphite to the nut of the Godin (or any guitar that's giving you tuning problems) - the trick is to use a soft pencil. 2HB is a good start. You then sharpen the pencil and rub the graphic into the groove of the nut as if you were scribbling. You can wipe the excess graphite away with your finger. Alternatively, you can buy liquid graphite solutions (I think there's one on the market I've tried that's enigmatically called "Nut Sauce") that does the same job but is more expensive than a pencil.

I hope that this information is useful to you! (Or any other guitarist who might have wandered by)