You are allowed to enjoy this…

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.

Track Listing
1. Ark 1
2. Ark 2
3. Ark 3.1
4. Ark 3.4
5. Ark 4 MP3
This recording marks my decision to stop trying to write song lyrics and to experiment with instrumental pieces. Not being one to be frightened of the limitations of the technology available, I decided to start recording the four extended instrumentals that were to be “Ark”. The idea was simple – let’s just try and fill up an entire 90 minute tape.
Anyway, despite it’s rough sound and terrible musicianship, I am proud of the noise I made here and how it all slots together. Recently, I have returned to a couple of ideas from “Ark” & “Afflicted” and given them a sonic update on “Without Words”. The sleeve is particularly nice too.

Track Listing
1. Soft Targets
2. A Twist in the Sand
3. Whole Lotta Nothing
4. Afflicted
5. Bongo Bash
6. Eventide
7. Behind You, Beside You
8. The Clock Keeps Ticking MP3
9. Sun in the Rain
There are very few redeeming features on this one. The playing is not too bad but it is the lyrics and vocals that I am not happy with. The one track I still enjoy is “A Twist in the Sand” which sees me improvising and overdubbing an instrumental with my 12-string and 6-string acoustic guitars. It is sloppy in places but for something recorded with a crappy £20 microphone in the front room of 115 Scotts Road, it is atmospheric in places.
The other stand out track for me is “The Clock Keeps Ticking” which contains the best lyrics I’ve ever written. It is more of a poem than a song and I still am not totally sure where it all came from, the words just poured out onto the page. I know that there are a couple of references to TS Eliot’s work and I was trying to encapsulate the masculine angst of several archetypal characters. Pretentious stuff! 😀