A Glance Backwards…

As is customary at this time of year, one tends to evaluate, reminisce and review the past twelve months. It’s a pre-requisite for the act of moving forward; hence the tradition of getting all misty eyed about the previous year and then making resolutions about the coming year: I’m going to lose weight; I’m going to work harder/less; I’m going to be more understanding in a relationship; I’m going to devote more time to family & friends; etc.

Well, I’m no exception. I’ve got quite a bit to look back on, musically, from the past year; and I’ve got a fair bit to look forward to.

So, besides the Olympics, economic decline and the impending apocalypse; what happened for Dementio13 in 2012?

I released two albums, both of which I’m very proud of, for a start: “Crash St.” in March and “El Lissitzky” in June were released fairly soon after one another, but had been in the recording and pre-production stage for around six months previously. They were the culmination of everything I’ve done musically during the past 10 years and so, I feel, they were my best work to date. My music’s not to everyone’s taste; some think it’s too diverse, some think it’s not tough/experimental enough, some think it’s too gentle and that’s their prerogative. However, I attempt to find a balance between tunefulness and experimentalism when I record….that’s where I’m at. With these two releases, I tried to do that as well as paying homage to all the music I like and know by the artists that formed my musical tastes. ‘El Lissitzky’ was as much about Factory Records as it was about Russian Constructivism. Here’s my favourite track from ‘Crash St.’:

2012 was also a time to discover new music; by both ‘established’ artists and DIY independents. Suffice to say, that’s a distinction which is fairly irrelevant, as the quality of both categories is indistinguishable from one another. My shortlist (if I was compiling such a thing) would certainly include Matt Stevens and his band The Fierce And The Dead. ‘Guitar heroics’ is a term often used to describe viking-like rock posturing; however, Stevens plays with fluent, sometimes humorous, invention with a knowing wink to rock’s slightly absurdist past. There are also lots of great references to film music and multiple genres which lift this music above rock self-reverence. Another candidate for my fave music of the year must certainly be Colin Robinson of Big Block 454, Churn Milk Joan and Jumble Hole Clough. The latter of these three projects show him to be a masterful exponent of restraint (especially compared to the wonderful Dadaist energy of BB454), creating atmospheres and spaces rather than grooves and noise. Lastly in this short shortlist would be Steve Kelly (aka the now defunkt SK123) in his guises as Macerator and Douglas Deep. Electronic music is a splintered affair…….the sonic possibilities offered by technology often can lead to too many options for the musician. Therefore, it’s often necessary to invent multiple personas to delineate between the stylistic differences of one’s output, as Kelly has done. He employs as much skill in his use of computers, controllers and his sound-palette as the previously mentioned artists do with guitars and effects. Beats are his ouevre, though he is deft at creating atmosphere as well. His music is invigorating, inventive and vastly underrated. All three of these artists have released quality music this year and they’ve also proven to be jolly fine people as I’ve either met, or conversed with them; they’ve also been great supporters of independent music; I can’t recommend them enough.

There are also a handful of people deserving of thanks for their continued support of my own music. The writer and musician Oli Arditi has reviewed and promoted my main releases this year as both Dementio13 and Cwtch. His writing style is rare in that it explores cultural theory in an extremely wordy and eloquent way while conveying a sense of enthusiasm and non-elitism. As music blogs go, it’s as much a lesson in context and structure as it is a review of music; and makes for a refreshing and informative read. Arditi does not treat us as idiots and rather than ‘dumbing down’, he ‘clevers up’! I am now a regular reader of his blog as I know that, even if I have no intention of listening to the music he is writing about, it will always make for an interesting read. Then there’s Dandelion Radio…..what these guys (particularly Mark Whitby and Pete Jackson) have done for my music is immeasurable. In playing to a large and loyal listener-base, Dandelion have helped promote and disseminate independent/DIY music further than any artist on a tight budget could do so. In February and April, I performed two live mixes for Mark and Pete respectively.

Right, I think that covers most bases for now……apologies if I’ve missed you out but time is fairly short and this could turn into quite a tome if I were to mention everyone who has supported my efforts (and there are many of you). I’m adding the finishing touches to Laurence Made Me Cry‘s album mix today. Then I’m off to post it to Jo (who’s been patiently waiting for ages for me to get it ‘right’!). Her album’s out on 11th March 2013 and is thoroughly recommended…I should know as I’m now very familiar with these tracks!

Have a great Christmas and I’ll see you on the other side….

No News Is Good News….Right?

As the days are getting shorter, the daylight greyer, the rain colder and the workload greater, there’s been little musical activity over here at Dementio Towers lately. Apart from the ongoing mixing of Laurence Made Me Cry‘s lovely album….which should be finished in a week or so, I reckon.

I have, however, been struck by some musical ideas of my own and I can safely say that I’m going to start recording new material in the new year. I’m hoping to release an album in the spring/summertime. I’ve no idea what it’s going to sound like, but as I strive to make each release sound a bit different from the last, I can estimate that there may be a ‘change of direction’.

Apart from LMMC, there is some rather cool stuff coming from other musicians however. One of which is an intriguing project entitled Contranym. The ‘band’ comprises Terry Bergin (FK:Dup), Ian Thistlethwaite and Gem Witchalls (Tangerine Puppet). Their debut ep, ‘Aloha’ displays a confident grasp of musicianship and production in the merging of several, seemingly divergent, genres: electronica (particularly dubstep); folk-pop and traditional reels. This kind of fusion isn’t normally my thing, to be honest, but I’ve been seduced by it’s inventive production, infectious tunes and sheer energy. Good stuff and worth a purchase.

Also of note is Colin Robinson’s (Big Block 454 / Churn Milk Joan) very different solo project Jumble Hole Clough. Lovely guitar-led atmospheres and (again) inventive sound-scaping make the album ‘Three Bags Of Madder’. It’s an evocative mix and quite different from the brilliant odd psychedelic rock/electronics of BB454. Another recommendation.

I also recommend that you actually buy these releases as, though these musicians are by no means impoverished, funding from sales helps to finance future releases, enabling more ambitious projects. For a few quid (a couple of Costa coffees!) you can show your support for the artists as well as get that lovely warm tingle of satisfaction that you’re not pandering to the corporate Godzillas.

Finally, it’s getting towards Christmas and that means it’s ‘Festive Fifty’ time over at Dandelion Radio. For the uninitiated, Dandelion is an independent radio station set up to continue the ethos of the great John Peel’s long-running BBC music show. Many 30 to 70-somethings will have fond memories of staying up late as teenagers to clandestinely listen to JP play the obscure, weird, revolutionary and staunchly independent music of the likes of Half Man Half Biscuit, The Fall, Joy Division and thousands of bands long forgotten. It was reactionary and educational as well as downright fun. His Xmas ‘Festive 50′ chart, voted for by listeners, was the highlight of the yuletide festivities for many. And so, Dandelion have been trust-keepers of the FF since JP’s death. You can pop over to their site and vote for your top three releases of 2012….they don’t need to have been played on Dandelion; but bare in mind that it’s a dead cert that One Direction won’t be appearing on the list!

Music, Sand and Exotic Fruit

Sunday morning…… nice. Sunshine….nicer. However, some prick has dumped a smashed pineapple (from someone’s trash by the looks of it) all over my front garden; which isn’t so nice, as I have to clean it up.

Aaanyway, this is going to be one of those posts where I repeat myself repeat myself from some previous posts, so apologies if this all sounds vaguely familiar.

First off, I just want to share some music which I’ve been enjoying for a few years now; which you might not be aware of. But, if you like the kind of music I like (and surely, if you read this regularly, you know what that music is), I am sure you’ll love Sand. Their two albums “Still Born Alive” and “The Dalston Shroud” have been on very heavy rotation on my iPod.

From the excellent Soul Jazz Records site:

“Influenced by the New York Art/Punk scene of Sonic Youth, The Swans, Liquid Liquid, this is the group’s follow up to “Still Born Alive” (Soul Jazz Records, 2003) and ‘Beautiful People are Evil’ (Soul Jazz Records, 2001). This new album brings in a number of guest vocalists – Norwegian experimantalist artist/singer Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje as well as Austrian cabaret singer Louie Austen (Kitty Yo Records) who provides a chilling vocal on the Patrick Pulsinger produced “Doctor Crop”. Sand have performed onstage accompanied by cows and sheep for the Japanese Ballet troupe Karas. They have also performed at the Vienna Opera House alongside techno guru Patrick Pulsinger In 2005 they composed and performed a new soundtrack to the Tarkovsky film “Stalker” at the ICA as well as toured cinemas with a series of specially comissioned work from video artists. This new album (“The Dalston Shroud”) was recorded in Paris, Tokyo, Vienna and York in 2006.”

This is seriously good music, going beyond ‘spanning genres’; it includes elements of punk, funk, avant-garde experimentalism, no-wave stylings, the harder end of contemporary jazz, dubstep, krautrock and electro. Noise and groove often collide in Sand’s aural universe; as does drama and beauty. Go check them out.

Incidentally, their label-mates on Soul Jazz, Heavy Q Connection and Lucha Libra are also well worth investigating.

Next, I’m eagerly awaiting audio files from Laurence Made Me Cry so I can get started mixing the songs for her new album in a week or two. This is exciting stuff for me, especially as, for once, I’m working on someone else’s music as a co-producer. What I’ve heard so far sounds lovely. And here, once again, is my contribution to the album (apart from as a producer) on the song ‘Intelligent Mr Toad’ (version 2):

The track seems to be going down well, getting airplay on Adam Walton’s BBC Wales show and Tom Robinson’s BBC6Music show, as well as on a few podcasts and Amazing Radio.

Another Review of ‘El Lissitzky’

Here’s a review of the album, posted by musician and all-round goodfellow, Ian Thistlethwaite. There are a lot of comparisons made, many of which made me blush with pleasing embarrassment. A very nice review and one which sums-up a lot of what I’m about.

“…part way through any one track, things will change utterly, and, like in dreams, they may not make sense when you tell people back, but they make absolutely perfect sense as they progress at the time.”

You can read it HERE.

 

Tank Yew

Hello electro-beings. I’m trying to unwind my head from a manic period of work by listening to Kraftwerk’s ‘Tanzmusik’. It is, indeed, bloody lovely: driving, melodic, whimsical, ethereal…

Anyway, it dawned on me that it was only just over a week since I released ‘El Lissitzky’, my 6th album (or, to be more correct, my twelfth album….but one I haven’t deleted!). It seems like it’s always been around, not just sitting on Bandcamp for nine days. Anyway, in those nine days, people have been downloading, tweeting, sharing, blogging about and reviewing it; just as I’d hoped. So, thank you loads, people. You are the glue that holds this independent/DIY music thing together.

I’d also like to thank a few broadcasters who have supported the music and, particularly, played tracks off the album on their shows. These include Mark Ryan at Amazing Radio and Pete Jackson at Dandelion Radio…..both stations championing new, emerging music and I thoroughly recommend them.

Also, whoever has put my music on torrent sites or free download sites……thanks. My music seems to be cropping-up in all sorts of places.

So, what’s next? Well, never one to sit about on my arse, I’ve been busy working on music for my renewed collaboration with Marie Craven, known as Cwtch. At the risk of alerting the self-congratulation police, I am really liking the sound of the new track in progress. Well, I would wouldn’t I? That’s why I make music….to hear music I actually like!!!

The new Cwtch stuff will be available whenever it’s ‘finished’. Early days yet….

Love and Cheetos to you all…..

“On VHS” – The Fierce & The Dead

I’m not a rock musician. I’ve always believed that I have a fairly extensive and broad knowledge of music; but there are blind spots. ‘Rock’, as a genre, covers a lot of ground, but I have very little knowledge about it. ‘Prog Rock’, as a genre, is probably the one area of music which I have little or no understanding of at all. In fact, apart from a teenage dalliance with the music of Mike Oldfield, I’ve never listened to, or been enthusiastic about, prog at all.

My (mis)preconception is that prog rock tended (note: the past tense) to be produced by ex-public school boys (Canterbury is no Manchester, Detroit, Sheffield or 70s New York). It was produced by Musicians (capital M). It wasn’t iconoclastic like post-punk. It wasn’t particularly avant-garde or modernistic; drawing on past musics (rhythm & blues, jazz, folk and classical) and melding them in a fairly obvious way, albeit experimenting with structure, timing and theme; it was post-modern and politically neutral.

So, what has this got to do with a recent independent release by a group of musicians based in London?

Well, I know a couple of things: Matt Stevens (the guitarist and, I assume, main writer for the band) is a musician who, with his solo releases, has developed a body of work which draws on a wide variety of influences, but people tend to assume his main area of interest is prog, describing it as ‘proggy’ or ‘neo-prog’ (though he often descibes his music as Post-Rock, which is a description I can more easily identify with). Along with Kevin Feazey (bass and production), Stuart Marshall (drums) and Steve Cleaton (guitar), Stevens has co-founded The Fierce & The Dead (ampersand, or no ampersand?), a powerful quartet whose music has elements of what I would understand to be prog-rock, but also has elements of so much more.

TFATD’s music contains experiments with tonality, pallette and time signature. But rather than being inward-looking self-indulgience, it is outward-looking, futuristic guitar music. And while extremely accomplished, it does not wear it’s musicianship on it’s sleeve, in fact, one hardly notices timing changes or weird keys and scales, the music flows.

The music on the ep ‘On VHS’ is, appropriately, cinematic. TFATD’s name alone conjures images of pulpy, straight-to-video movies of the early 80s. In fact, ‘The Fierce & The Dead’ could almost be the title of a yet-to-be-made Tarantino-produced, Robert Rodriguez-directed homage to the same period. Whilst the name also alludes to horror-master Sam Raimi’s bigger-budget post-modern western, ‘The Quick And The Dead’. There are elements on the ep which bring to mind John Carpenter’s arpeggios (albeit on the guitar) and each track builds to, and decends from, crescendos which suggest dramatic action and then calm counterpoint. The influence of classic TV and neo-schlocky cinema is always apparent. To see what I’m talking about, take a look at the fine and funny video for album-opener “666.6″.

This is modern music. It’s “progressive” but not ‘prog’; it shares as much with Radiohead or Stereolab than with King Crimson. This is the kind of rock I can relate to. It is not ‘about itself’, it’s not self-indulgent noodling or self-aggrandisement. What it is is thoughtful, imaginative guitar music which knows where to place the light and where to place the shade, which doesn’t take itself too seriously, which can be atmospheric but also rocks hard. It has a concept and is complex, but doesn’t let that complexity overtake the entertainment value of the music. As you can probably tell, I really liked it.

A Local (ish) Discovery – Pulco – ‘Sketchbook Season EP’

“Formula” is not a word which I think should ever be applied to music production. In fact, the music I find most edifying and interesting eschews formula, if not all together, then through a willingness to open new sonic or emotional doorways with each listen. Such is the music of  Pulco. Ash Cooke (for that is his name), weaves intricate and ever-changing sonic and emotional landscapes in his songs; exemplified in the five-track EP ‘Sketchbook Season’.

With me, comparisons are inevitable: there are elements of Beta Band, early Simian and the quirky near-spoken-word adult electro nursery rhymes of John Callaghan. But the music is by no means derivative. With their constantly changing instrumentation and structures, their occasionally odd neo-folk stylings, samples and 8-bit layers; these songs offer ‘interest’ in the least beard-stroking way possible. There is also a mild euphoria to these songs, a wistfulness and a breeziness which lends itself to summer listening. All tied together with Cooke’s tuneful tenor vocal. The opening track ‘Whistle Frog Finds A Way’ sets a whimsical tone with its speeded-up vocal sample and spoken-word intro which echoes those lovely introductions to many a children’s TV classic by Oliver Postgate or Eric Thompson; before it bursts into life as a slightly overdriven folk-pop song. Personal favourite ‘Don’t Stand Down’ is achingly beautiful, with mellotron-esque choir, gently plucked guitar and vocal harmonies.

While this all makes for an essentially pleasant listen, Cooke throws the occasional curve-ball; ‘formula’ is disregarded and the music shifts and ebbs, against the flow.

As I type this, I’m also listening to Pulco’s “Small Thoughts” album which offers more variety but is equally accomplished and appealing.

Highly recommended.

February Mailout – ‘Crash St’ Imminent

“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

Full review at oliverarditi.com/2012/01/26/dementio-13-crash-st

“…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

Also, there’s a free album of my older stuff over at http://cutmatrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/alt-delete, so help yourself. You don’t even need to join a mailing list to download….no strings.

CRASH ST. PREVIEW:

Thanks,

Paul”