Hello. At the risk of repeating myself repeating myself, there are just 9 days to go until the new album’s released unto the world. I’ve been fooling around with Bandcamp download codes, mainly just to see if, and how, they work. First reports have been generally “OK”. As my albums are pay-what-you-want with no minimum price (ie: free, if you want), the idea of a ‘free’ download code is a bit redundant. But it’s a useful feature for sending out preview copies of the music, instead of using a file-sharing site….and it keeps everything ‘in house’, within Bandcamp. Musicians, it really is an awesome site. In fact, the only thing it lacks is the ability to send mailouts through the site (as the rather ‘clunky’ Reverbnation interface allows you to do for free….it’s the only reason I use the site).
Again, repeating myself, but if you’ve received a download code, or if you download the album after the release date (18th June, remember! At http://demento13.com) and you like it, please please share/tweet/torrent it. Your support is more than appreciated, as usual.
Here are some links to videos/previews/etc….. am not going to embed them here, as I have done so already in previous posts and it makes this page slow to load.
Just for the uninitiated, what I do is make electronic music. It isn’t earth-shattering or revolutionary. It’s mainly just nice tunes, some odd sounds and some beats. I call it ‘electronic post-rock’, but you can call it whatever you like. The new album is a mix of mildly dubsteppy tracks, some droney bits, a bit of ‘singing’ and some use of guitars. If you were going to compare it to ‘established’ music, I’d say it’s possibly a bit like Luke Vibert/Wagon Christ, Stereolab and early New Order, all mixed up.
Well, I’m in the midst of a week away from work and guess what? No, you’re wrong. It’s raining. And it’s grey. And it’s colder than it’s been for a few weeks.
So, as I’m sat ensconced in the warmth and comfort of my domestic bubble, with nothing urgent to do, I thought I’d introduce you to my forthcoming album properly. Not a track-by-track breakdown as such. Just a few wee words to say what, why and how.
Now, I realise that only a fraction of the people who will download the album actually read this (and that the number of people who download it are a mere micron in numbers…. but that’s not the point). The point is that those of you who read this will possibly download the album and that’s enough for me. Besides, you know how I like rambling on about myself and particularly my music….any excuse.
Well, firstly, I’ll mention that there’s a shed-load of extras included in the download. A large digi-booklet of the usual sleevenote-type of things, plus excerpts from this blog which have some relevance to the album. There’s a storming remix of one of the tracks, “Hollow Point” by Douglas Deep (aka SK123, aka Macerator, aka the very talented Steve Kelly), many thanks to him for that. There’s an incidental track of mine called “Summerisle”, which started out as a song for the album, then became a more soundtracky kinda deal but then didn’t quite fit in with the overall tracklist, so it’s now a bonus track. Finally, there’s this video for the album track “Fatty Pork” which has had some radio-play already.
So, that’s upped the file size, I know. But I hope it represents some value for money. Or if you’re not paying (which is fine; a download is enough as far as I’m concerned), it represents something for nothing.
So, why the title? Here’s an excerpt form the booklet:
“(El Lissitzky’s) artwork was appropriated by The Wake, amongst others, to illustrate their 1985 album ‘Here Comes Everybody’. And it was this album cover which firmly implanted itself in my teenage mind, along with those of New Order, A Certain Ratio, Kraftwerk, etc. Album covers which shared common themes of technology, mechanization, ‘the future’… It was the aesthetic of Factory Records and particularly of the early Hacienda which influenced me tremendously; everything from their posters to the yellow and black warning chevrons on everything Hacienda-based. Way ahead of it’s time, The Hacienda’s architect Ben Kelly and the Factory gang toyed with the iconography of 20th Century modernism and industrialism; something which is common place now but, at the time in the 1980s, was like a replay of the avant-garde, a rebirth if you will. A reaction against the ramshackle and untidy aesthetic of punk, the blandness of 80s populism and against the decay and deprivation of 70s and early-80s industrial cities like Manchester. The Hacienda, and Factory in general, were incredibly influential, not just musically, but aesthetically. As John Robb says in the BBC documentary ‘Factory: From Joy Division to Happy Mondays’, “…all of Manchester, every major city, ended up looking like the Hacienda. Every flat looks like the Hacienda…” The exterior of Manchester’s Beetham Tower (this album’s cover image, albeit repeated and layered) being a personification of this.“
So, yes, the album’s partly autobiographical. Self-indulgient, most probably.
The music on it bears no resemblance to the music of those Factory bands though….at least, I don’t think it does. It’s more about evoking something (a memory, for me) and getting back some of the excitement I felt for making music in a band and on my own all those years ago. Young people, in their teens and twenties, are so idealistic about their music….there are no grey areas, no unknowns, and the future is not even considered. Well, while I see that as partly naive, partly unrealistic; I also see it as part of the magic and energy of being ‘new’ to it all. That’s what I wanted to experience.
By the way, I’m not sat in a bath-chair with a blanket over my legs, sitting outside the sanitorium, reflecting on a long-lost youth. I just needed to refresh my working-practices and my enthusiasm for making stuff, which admittedly, I’d lost (I had thought about selling all my music kit and taking-up something more…erm….‘sedate’).
Anyway, the album was recorded almost completely in Ableton Live, playing the instruments and recording directly into the computer and using some rather cool virtual synths.
I’m going to stop there and if you’ve read this far, well done. It killed a few minutes, didn’t it?
The album’s available from the 18th June at http://dementio13.com. Hope you can share in the release with me and, if you do download and like it, please tweet the living hell out of it! Thanks…
Besides some experiments with Ableton and some demo tracks; and with no new releases planned as such; I’ve been busy recording and uploading some loops to Soundcloud. Some of them have been sitting on my hard-drive for ages and rarely get used when I record. Some are new loops which I’ve recorded in order to learn Ableton. So I thought I’d share them.
So, anyway, to cut a long story short, I’m putting them ‘out there’ for anyone to download and use as they see fit. The loops are all copyright-free and have an open Creative Commons license. If people want to use them for CC or commercial releases, that’s fine; I don’t want credit and am happy for the loops to be in the public domain.
They cover a few genres I guess, though they’re mainly electronic, having been produced on an Alesis Fusion and Korg Monotrons. A few of the drumloops were made using Propellerhead Rebirth mods on my old Mac. Anyway, I’ll shut the hell up now.
No new ‘official’ releases at the moment, but plenty to keep me busy. I’ve been accustoming myself to some new kit, learning more little tricks on Ableton and knocking out a few experimental tunes.
I did a track a week or so ago, provisionally titled “Sully”, though I wasn’t sure where to go with it once I’d laid the foundations of the track. I decided to put it on Soundcloud to get some feedback/ideas and/or to let someone else play with it. Anyway, somebody did have a play with it; Diane Marie Kloba and Theodore Kloba (whose music is available here) wrote a song around the track, entitled “You Let Me In Your Room”. Here it is:
I really like the quirky post-punk vibe it’s got now.
I’ll probably keep posting some stuff on Soundcloud this week, so keep your eyes and ears open.
Incidentally, my recent album “Crash St” is here if you’ve not yet heard it. It’s a fair example of what I do. If you have bought or downloaded it, please keep tweeting/sharing. It means I get to reach a wider audience. Some of you have already played your part…thanks for that.
“Hello again. This is just a reminder to tell you that my new album ‘Crash St’ is available from Thursday 1st March (ie. next Thursday) at http://dementio13.com . I’m really pleased with it and hope you can share in the music.
It’s a pay-what-you-want download, with no minimum price, so you could have it for free. All I ask is that, if you decide to download it and like it, please share links on Twitter and/or Facebook; your recommendations help it reach a wider audience.
Bloggers/DJs have been very complimentary in their reviews:
“…electronic, programmed machine music, bursting at the seams with humanity and soul, imprinted with the traces of its creator…….Dementio13 has mastered the art of creating human music, organic music that breathes, while capitalising on the power and impact of the machine.” (Jan 26, 2012) Oliver Arditi – oliverarditi.com
“…his forthcoming Crash St album reveals him to be still moving forward in invigorating and never predictable directions, his exploratory electronica more varied in texture and mood than pretty much any of his contemporaries.” (Jan 31 2012) Unwashed Territories – unwashedterritories.blogspot.com
Yep….. time is marching on. I’ve been extra busy doing the dayjob, which I expected, it’s always a bit manic after Christmas. So I’m glad I got a bit obsessive, writing and recording new tracks between September and December. It seems like all the hard work is done on that front. The new album’s been uploaded to Bandcamp for quite a while. Preview links were sent to a few selected people; people who have supported and encouraged me over the past few years.
Over on Dementio13.com I’ve been experimenting with pre-orders, with mixed results. So, the experiment has paid-off in enabling me to realise that pre-orders are fairly pointless in my case. There’s no real benefit for listeners or for me. That’s not a universal truth though…… some bands/artists may find it works for them, particularly if they’re taking physical orders such as CDs or USB drives.
So, here’s where I repeat myself from previous posts. The album, ‘Crash St’ will be available on 1st March as a pay-what-you-want download (pre-orders are still available in the meantime for an ultra-low price). As way of celebration, I’ve got another live mix on Dandelion Radio, on Pete Jackson’s show throughout March from the 1st.
I’m also currently working (rather slowly) on a remix for Marie Craven’s project with Canadian DJ/producer Crimson Death.
In 9 days (20th Feb), Pinklogik releases her album of remixes of her track ‘Playing With Sticks’. My remix is track 12. Here’s a little preview of the whole album in bitesize chunks:
And here are four preview tracks from ‘Crash St’:
Musician/writer Oliver Arditi said this about the album:
“I listen to a lot of entirely electronic music, but most of it is either of a relatively superficial, energetic nature, or it deliberately exploits the coldness and impersonality of synthetic sound. Dementio 13 has mastered the art of creating human music, organic music that breathes, while capitalising on the power and impact of the machine. It’s not dance music, though it utilises a lot of dance music vocabulary, and it isn’t rock, although it likewise employs its language. It’s just what it is: music that challenges, stimulates and entertains, and while it’s like a lot of other things, there’s nothing else that’s quite like it.”
“a sneak peak of his forthcoming Crash St album (due on 1 March) reveals him to be still moving forward in invigorating and never predictable directions, his exploratory electronica more varied in texture and mood than pretty much any of his contemporaries.”
So, there you are. Am excited, enthused and very happy about it all. That’s all that’s fit to print at the moment. Enjoy your weekend.
The rather cool electronicist, Pinklogik, is releasing an album of remixes of her track ‘Playing With Sticks’ on 20th February. I’ve heard it and it sounds very good. The remixers have offered up real variety, from four-on-the-floor techno and glitch, through to more ambient stylings. My own little re-make is in there too. Just shows you how a track can be reinterpreted in so many ways. Worth a download I would think…
