Track Listing
1. Chinese Whispers
2. Money for Old Rope
3. DreamOut
4. CooHop
5. Ethnic Friction
6. Discipline is a Vehicle for Joy MP3
7. Tone Me Toni
8. I Am Not Your Enemy
9. The Winter Twos
10. Manhole Slop
11. Inferno
If you’ve read this far, you will probably have heard mentioned already the “Rhythm Buddy” loops from Pat Mastelotto. He is the drummer with King Crimson and in mid-2000 put some drum loops on his website with the intention that internet musicians could use them for the basis of their own compositions. I took up the challenge and put for “Rhythm Buddy” inspired tracks over my last two CDs. I thought it would be nice to take the whole idea one step further and put out a whole CD of this material based on those loops. I already had four tracks so it wouldn’t take much to make some more music.
Stand out tracks for me are the murky “CooHop”, the deafening “I Am Not Your Enemy” and the weird rhythms of “Manhole Slop”.
Category: Albums
Track Listing
1. Twelve String Dream
2. Attempting Peace
3. Around and Around
4. Outside 1
5. Outside 2
6. Outside 3
This is a direct follow-up to “Soundscaper 1 – Atmospheres” as the recording equipment is the same and the same remit was in place: to capture live performances straight to CD.
The main difference between this and the preceding CD is that three of the tracks were recording in my back garden. It was a beautiful summer and I decided to record outside for a change. I took some equipment into the garden and captured an afternoon’s performance using a Minidisc recorder and a tiny stereo microphone clipped to my guitar lead. These performances were later edited to fit on the CD. It was nice recording with the sound of the bird’s singing, local children playing and the neighbours’ radios. It makes an interesting mix!
I can’t wait to try this again but next time I will mic everything up a bit better. Stand out tracks include “Twelve String Dream” and “Outsider 3” where my experiments with guitar FX pedals cause hilarious results and much laughter from my wife. Who said there was no place for humour in music?
Track Listing
1. In the Fire
2. It’s About Time
3. The Last Straw
4. Big Calm…
5. …With Diamonds
6. By this River
7. DreamOut
8. Scorpion Dance
9. Ragamuffin
10. Spanish Fly MP3
11. The Cocksucker Blues MP3
12. Trumpster
13. Spaced
14. Inferno
The reason this CD is called “It’s About Time” is because it seemed to take me ages to get into my stride when recording this one. It needed to be beaty in places and acoustic in others, there needed to be enough room for ambient soundscapes and crashing electric guitars. I worked long and hard on the drum loops and various ideas but the recording process was rather slow. I became obsessed with perfecting tracks and often rerecorded them from scratch.
For my 30th birthday I was lucky enough to travel to Los Angeles in the good ol’ US of A and I arranged to pick up an Ashbory Bass from a local guitar shop. The Ashbory is a miniature bass instrument with silicon rubber strings and makes the most amazing noise – it sounds like an upright bass. I put it to good use on this CD and you can hear it on “Spaced” and my prog reggae masterpiece “Ragamuffin”.
My personal faves from this collection include “Spanish Fly” and “The Cocksucker Blues”.
Track Listing
1. Bounder 1
2. Expectation
3. RFX
4. Voodoo Hoodoo
5. Procession
6. Bounder 2
7. Conclusion
Every so often, I treat myself to a new piece of equipment and in July 2000 I purchased a Line 6 DL4 digital delay unit. The great thing about these little green stomp boxes is that they can loop 24 seconds of delay, so you add sounds live and let it degrade. I was so inspired by this little box that I decided to record an ambient album like “Blue” straight away.
The tracks here are quite different from the “Blue” – they are more experimental and quite harsh in places but are atmospheric nonetheless. Top tracks here include “Expectation”, “Voodoo Hoodoo” and “Conclusion”.
Track Listing
1. Chinese Whispers
2. The Silver Spring (Part One)
3. Barnacle Bill
4. Humdrummed (Droned)
5. Money for Old Rope MP3
6. The Silver Spring (Part Two)
7. Blue Jam
8. No Return…
featuring Tower of Guilt
9. Sloppy Joe MP3
10. Touched by the King
I had a little rest between recording and this was started in February 2000. I immediately started to put together some excellent drum loops and decided that I wanted a much harder record, something rockier and a bit darker.
At this time, I came across some drum loops on the website of King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto and decided to use them in my own work. The “Rhythm Buddies” project set up by PM and the drummer asked internet musicians to download the loops and use them in their own compositions. On this CD, two tracks use these “Rhythm Buddies” loops “Chinese Whispers” and “Money for Old Rope” – both of them got favourable responses from Pat Mastelotto himself. I was very proud that day indeed.
Anyway, the music is a lot darker on this CD and very loop based. Stand out tracks include “Money for Old Rope”, “No Return” and “Sloppy Joe”. The CD sleeve is a spoof of King Crimson’s “Construkction of Light” LP.
Track Listing
1. Falling Gold
2. Nebulous
3. The Path to Redemption
4. The First Sunrise
5. Shard of Indecision MP3
6. Return to Blue
After making all this multi-layered music, I decided to try and produce something really simple. The idea was that I was to record some ambient pieces using my guitar synth, live and has they happened. The resulting session are the “Blue” recordings.
I am amazed at the sound of these performances and how this music came to me from nowhere. One night I even managed to fool the missus into believing that this was a professionally recorded CD from another artist. In terms of technology, it really is just me playing with the Roland GR-1 guitar synth and nothing else…no delay pedals, no looping devices, just improvised washes of aural colour.
Anyway, if you are looking for some relaxing music to ease away the stresses of the day or perhaps (like myself) occasionally suffer from insomnia. Stand out performances include “Falling Gold”, “Shard of Indecision” and “Return to Blue”.
Track Listing
1. Start MP3
2. 6s and 7s
3. Sahara
4. A Cool Breeze MP3
5. At the Temple
6. Sort It Out!
7. Fireside Dreaming
8. Starshine Falling
9. An Awkward Phase
10. Acoustique
11. Reflections
This is an unofficial follow-up to “Ark” in that it is one long instrumental piece made up of lots of little bits glued together. The impetus for recording “Start” came when I purchased a Roland SPD20 electronic percussion pad (and add-on drum accessories) to create a little electronic drum kit.
So on tracks such as “6s and 7s”, “Sahara” and “Finish: Working Backwards” it is me playing the electronic drums live without any overdubs (and it notices). I am not much of a drummer but the pads have certainly opened up some rhythmic avenues for me.
There are some genuinely good moments in the form of “A Cool Breeze”, “Starshine Falling” and “Acoustique”. The last track contains my best drumming performance…ever. And that is really saying something.