You are allowed to enjoy this…

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.

Track Listing
1. Theme 3
2. Thumper
3. Airs and Graces
4. Nothing to Do
5. The Road
6. A Day in the Wood MP3
7. First Tango in Catford
8. Over the Edge
9. You Got My Horn
10. Let Your Fingers Do the Walking…by Numbers
11. Angel’s Tears
12. Bad Mojo
13. Smallhand Blues
14. Good Mojo
15. The Final Bar
16. Tales from the Crib
17. Mousetrap
18. V2
19. Pisces Rising
20. The Eye of Orion
As you can imagine, if you’ve been recording for a number of years, you tend to amass quite a bit of material, some of which is hidden away in dusty cupboards. While doing some cleaning, I found such a stack of old tapes and had the idea to preserve this stuff onto CD for posterity. And so, “The B Team” was born, all the ideas that didn’t make it would have their day on this CD.
I think it covers the period 1994-1998, so there’s quite a lot of ground to cover. It even includes tunes that were created during my first synthesiser period in 1994. One thing I found was that tapes degrade and some of the mixes needed to be cleaned up. Again, the trusty PC came to my rescue and I found a number of software tools online that could help me restore the tracks.
What else is there to say? It’s a pretty dire CD but again you have to have some editorial control over your material. Stand out tracks for me include “A Day in the Wood” which sounds like it was recorded using real instruments but it wasn’t, “Angel’s Tears” which is a really nice ambient track and “Smallhand Blues”.

Track Listing
1. Loops & Scales, Part I MP3
2. Which Way to Go?
3. Join the Chain
4. Loops & Scales, Part II
Birdsongs
5. Ducks & Drakes
6. Sparrowhawk
7. On the Wing MP3
8. Journey of the Snow Goose
9. In the Storm
10. Swallows’ Rest
This is another personal breakthrough for me. I had previously discovered the joys of using a PC to record music but now I took another creative leap by getting into loop manipulation software, which allows you to mix and match pre-recorded drum loops and create whole new sounds. For me this was a revelation, as I didn’t have to worry about my terrible drum programming again.
Also, I treated myself to a Roland VG-8, a virtual guitar modelling unit.
So with all this new kit and software I began to get into a more loopy, rhythmic brand of instrumental. “Loops and Scales” is quite dancey in comparison to some of the other things I have done and I like it it a lot but I really come into my own with the “Birdsong” suite.
Overall, this CD is one of my favourites.

Track Listing
1. Intro
2. When I Was Young MP3
3. Gone
4. That Is The Way It Is MP3
5. Sister
6. London Boy
7. 1999
8. Now
9. You’re Going Down
10. The Damage Done
11. Save Me
Just when I thought I was doing well, I go and decide to write some “proper” songs with words and singing again – big mistake.
OK – not all the songs are that bad, I happen to think one of my best guitar solos appears on “When I Was Young” and probably the best track of the set is the Bonzo Dog Band inspired “London Boy”, which comes complete with banjo sounds and coconut horse hooves just like the theme to “Steptoe and Son”.
Probably the best thing about this is the cover, which sees yours truly being run down in car by himself. It was January when we took the pictures for that I had to lie on a cold street for ages to get the pictures. Talk about suffering for your artwork!

Track Listing
1. Sea Shimmer
2. Star of India
3. Stream of Thoughts
4. March of the Plank Spankers
5. Slow Waves, Always Returning
6. Interlude
7. The Air-Conditioned Digital Nightmare
8. Regiment
9. Where There’s Life
10. Up on the Hill MP3
11. Heavy on the Magick MP3
12. The Home Straits
I always like to have an idea in my head before I begin recording and with “Heavy on the Magick” the idea was to do the complete opposite of ‘Fade In/Fade Out’. So I cut back on the guitars, used more keyboards and took a more traditional rhythmic approach with the return of the drum machine.
Stand out tracks include the multi-ethnic ‘Star of India’, ‘Up on the Hill’ and the pulsing title track ‘Heavy on the Magick’.
One interesting story is that “Sea Shimmer” had previously been used as background music at my wedding. We were asked to bring along some music to play during the signing of the registration book and my soon-to-be wife suggested that I bring along some of my own music. So the morning of the wedding I quickly burnt that track onto a CD and took it to the registry office.

Track Listing
1. Fade In
2. Vertical Slide
3. Today and Tomorrow
4. So Long
5. Jolly Good Mood Music
6. Now
7. Let the Power Fall
8. Let’s Not Forget…
9. The Return of Carter MP3
10. Lost on the Wind
11. Simon’s Song
12. The Forever Waltz
13. Just a Man
14. The Road Never Ends MP3
15. Fade Out
With the CD-writer and “Now Here” under my belt, my confidence returned and the need to record grew in me. As I had a little more cash, I bought a kit that enabled me to record onto my PC and turn it into a digital 16-track system.
The idea behind this collection was to record some guitar-based instrumentals without using a drum machine. Being never totally happy with my own drum patterns, I decided to ditch them and use the rhythm guitar as the metronome. So you have a much stripped down sound and a much more personal recording as I haven’t got any real FX or drum rhythms to hide behind. You could call it my “naked” album.
This is one of my favourite CDs and is the first collection that is well balanced. Stand out tracks include ‘The Return of Carter’, ‘Lost on the Wind’ and ‘The Road Never Ends’.

Track Listing
1. Now Here
2. Slipaway
3. Reverso MP3
4. Hevisqal
5. Acoustisynth
6. Joe 96
7. Nothing to Do
8. Deelai
9. Jazza
10. Tinkitar
11. Descender
12. The Road Home
Now this is a real hotch-potch of material. Despite being compiled in 1997 when I got my first CD burner and began transferring my tapes onto CD, the songs here were recorded between 1994 and 1997 – though I couldn’t tell you which were which.
The most noticeable thing about “Now Here” is the introduction of the guitar synth in my sonic armoury. Yes, in 1994 some cash came my way and I purchased a second-hand Roland GR-1.
The opener is a gentle ambient piece and it’s not until “Reverso” that you realise that I’ve got a bit experimental in the passing years. With this track, the rhythm guitar is a weird, grating backwards sound (played live with guitar FX) it works well and is probably my favourite track of this collection.