2010: Reflection

From a chilly and snowbound Cardiff, as another year comes to a close, its time to look back to a year of productivity, collaboration and mixed fortunes.

2010 was a good year. The two highlights for me being my new affiliation with Yeah! netlabel; and the chance to record a live session for Greg Healey‘s Dandelion Radio show. Running a close second to that was the release of ‘Be.ep‘ and ‘4:10‘ as Cwtch, at the start of the year; my remix work and the inclusion of my cover of Doves’ ‘Firesuite’ on the charity album “Echoes In The Alleyway…“

Its been great to partake in such things, especially as the rigours of work (a day-job that demands much of my time and effort), and life (at times complicated….like everyone else’s!) sometimes prevent me from doing what I really want to do, ie: music.
Its also been great to work with some truly wonderful and talented people; albeit via this interwebnet thing. My soundtrack album for Doomwatch.org‘s audio-dramas; the remix I did of Matt Stevens’ amazing track ‘Big Sky‘; my ongoing collaboration with Marie Craven (Cwtch), and my work with Nita Disaster, all goes to highlight what talent there is out there, sometimes unsung. I’ve been really lucky to work with these guys.

Regarding other people’s music; I’ve discovered some great stuff from commercially successful, and not so commercially successful, artists.
Allow me to recommend, in particular:

Matt Stevens
Moist
The Echelon Effect
Squarepusher’s fantastic ‘Shobaleader One’
Tara Busch
THEreminGIRL
The Nurse Who Loved Me
The Honored Guests
Toffeetronic
Wire Mother
Big Block 454

Also, the bloggers and podcasters/broadcasters who do what they do because they love music

Failed Muso
Greg Healey
Gabor Kovacs
This Reality Podcast
Dandelion Radio
Mark Whitby
AnalogSuicide
Doves Music Blog
Cerysmatic
SoulJazz Records
LTM Records
Recycle (Joy Division/New Order Archivist – some great Factory freebies)

and many others that I’ve forgotten to mention.

So, there it is. Its been a busy year of listening to and producing music. And hopefully there’ll be more to come in 2011. Have a great xmas and new year, and thanks for reading/listening.
Adios…

Sounds Of The Universe Blog – Recommended!

One of my favourite labels, Souljazz Records, have started a blog based on their download store called ‘Sounds Of The Universe‘. Its well worth a visit, and subscription, as it is home to the SOTU podcast and is full of interesting articles, photos, news and free downloads.

The label deals mostly in reggae, dub, soul, funk, jazz and their crossover into post-punk and experimental electronic music. Souljazz have licensed a massive vintage archive of music, as well as newer contemporary artists and is one of the most successful, and therefore biggest, independent online labels.

But enough from me, I urge you to check it out. Just click on one of the links above. Recommended.

“Blacklung Mixer” album now available on iTunes, Napster and Amazon!

Here’s the link:
 

Atom Sounds said:
“I’m not disappointed with the Blacklung Mixer all the tracks are up to Paul’s high standards and, as he says on the album page at Last.fm, it
truly is ‘A completely eclectic mix of old skool beats,
abstract electronica, acid house, epic electro, cinematic trip-hop,
drum n bass and broken IDM’ and it is a pure joy to listen to. My
favourite tracks so far after several listens are: A Virus is Coming, Defrost and Terrorhawks In Your Head.”

Dandelion Radio DJ, Mark Whitby, said:
“Dementio13 has been doing some of the most exciting electronic stuff of recent years whatever he’s turned his hand to (I’d highly recommend the ‘Blacklung Mixer’ album).”

Powered by ScribeFire.

New album – “Blank” – Now Available

New Dementio13 album, “Blank” is now available from our independent seller, Payloadz.com (don’t be frightened by the name! The album’s only £4.99!) as a .Zip file containing high quality (320kbps) MP3s.

HERE’S THE LINK

The music is a development of the recent stuff I’ve been doing with Cwtch except that it is a little less beat-orientated and more concerned with sound and a looser structure. Well, that’s the self-analysis at least…or I could just say, it sounds interesting and there are some nice tunes!

Anyway, early 80s New Order, PiL, Can and The BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s influences rear their not-so-ugly heads again…. so no real change there!!!

Powered by ScribeFire.

MonoStereo – My Ning page

For fans of any music which is independent in spirit, challenges conventions, is home-made or signed, interesting, obscure, or just floats your boat.

Click here to take a look

Please take a look, and feel free to come and join us.

Thanks.

Find more music like this on MonoStereo - Left-Field and Home-Made Independent Music


The Return to Nowhere

Working on new tracks is always difficult at first. Finding the spark that spurs you on to produce more is dependent on mood, time available and what’s going on in your life. And so, though I’ve got time (plenty of it at the moment), the other two factors seem to be affecting my output.
And so I’ve returned to some older tracks to reinterpret them in the hope that they’ll light a fire under my sorry ass. The tracks I did with Pixieguts which formed the album, ‘Pixiegraf‘, are good tracks, but there are areas of the production which I think need more work…..the bass sounds thin and (apart from my poor bass playing technique) isn’t punchy enough. This has been helped, though, by my new effects unit…I can now add proper compression, etc instead of having to make do with the Fusion’s effects.
Also, elements of the instrumentation seem to swamp Marie’s vocals. So, instead of trying to recreate the tracks, I’ve started from scratch, building a new track around her vocals. They’re not so much a remix, as a re-record.

Anyway, I’ve been a bit more sparse with the arrangements and pushed Marie’s vocals more upfront. The improvement is immense, I feel.

A few vintage synth sounds and less dense effects have given the voice more room to breath. In some ways I’ve taken a step back to my older tracks where I had nothing more than an old battered PC with an Awe64 soundcard. I was limited to simple effects like room reverb and chorus, and my sounds were all meticulously constructed out of samples and simple waveforms to approximate old skool synths.
Don’t get me wrong, but sometimes, the more kit you own, the less easy it is to work. My Alesis Fusion is a great keyboard which does everything pretty well. Its a great sampler, and a superb synth and sequencer. The HD recording function is OK too. But sometimes, it sounds too slick, and it gives you way too many options, when sometimes the best option is the first one you happen upon.
And why sit for hours creating great original sounds, when there are thousands loaded as presets?

One thing I have done is load all those old Soundfonts into the fusion, so now I have all the old original sounds I had on my soundcard.

Anyway….this was a rumination on…er….something. Not sure what though!

When the new tracks come online, please check them out here .

Also, Marie’s own albums contain the originals of these tracks, plus her collaborations with other musicians. That is here.

Some iTunes Playlists and the death of Musicmobs

Since the demise of Musicmobs, I’m kinda missing
sharing my iTunes playlists with my fellow listeners…..not sure why
really, as it seems like a fairly futile activity. However, by grouping
tracks by a theme/title/ or whatever, we might discover some new music
perhaps.

Anyway, Musicmobs was great….and since its creator, Toby Padilla,
has now joined Last.fm’s staff, I was kinda hoping that Last.fm would
include a similar function. Maybe it has, but I can’t find it…..

Anyway, here are some playlists I knocked together over the past months.
(Please note that the app I’m using to convert xml to txt changes “artist” to “Sung by”; though they’re not all songs) -

Songs in Playlist ‘Cinerama’

1. bleak bad big city dawn
Track Length: 3:12
Sung by: Jerry Fielding

2. Bullitt Theme
Track Length: 2:06
Sung by: Lalo Schifrin

3. The Carriage Of The Spirits
Track Length: 2:11
Sung by: Ennio Morricone

4. Cool Hand Luke (Main Title)
Track Length: 2:09
Sung by: Lalo Schifrin

5. Death Rattle
Track Length: 1:45
Sung by: Ennio Morricone

6. Dirty Harry
Track Length: 2:41
Sung by: Lalo Schifrin

7. The Ecstasy Of Gold
Track Length: 3:26
Sung by: Ennio Morricone

8. Everybodys Talking At Me
Track Length: 2:46
Sung by: Harry Nilsson

9. Farewell To Cheyenne
Track Length: 2:39
Sung by: Ennio Morricone

10. Goodbye Carter!
Track Length: 3:40
Sung by: Roy Budd

11. Halloween Theme
Track Length: 2:26
Sung by: John Carpenter

12. the ipcress file
Track Length: 3:57
Sung by: John Barry

13. L’Arena
Track Length: 4:46
Sung by: Ennio Morricone

14. Lullaby
Track Length: 0:58
Sung by: Paul Giovanni

15. Main Theme
Track Length: 4:14
Sung by: Wil Malone

16. Main Theme – Carter Takes A Train
Track Length: 2:57
Sung by: Roy Budd

17. Main Title
Track Length: 3:37
Sung by: John Carpenter

18. The Man
Track Length: 1:03
Sung by: Ennio Morricone

19. Manhunt
Track Length: 2:50
Sung by: Roy Budd

20. midnight cowboy
Track Length: 2:36
Sung by: John Barry

21. North by Northwest
Track Length: 3:23
Sung by: Bernard Herrmann

22. on her majesty’s secret service
Track Length: 2:44
Sung by: John Barry

23. Palancio
Track Length: 4:08
Sung by: Lalo Schifrin

24. The Sundown
Track Length: 1:19
Sung by: Ennio Morricone

25. Taxi Driver
Track Length: 3:37
Sung by: Bernard Herrmann

26. Tommib
Track Length: 1:21
Sung by: Squarepusher

27. wednesday’s child (the quiller memorandum)
Track Length: 2:13
Sung by: John Barry

28. Willow’s Song
Track Length: 4:42
Sung by: Paul Giovanni

Songs in Playlist ‘Quirktronica’

1. Architecture And Morality
Track Length: 3:43
Sung by: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

2. cris chana
Track Length: 4:50
Sung by: Wagon Christ

3. dandelion
Track Length: 1:15
Sung by: Boards of Canada

4. Desks. Pencils. Bottles
Track Length: 3:21
Sung by: Prefuse 73

5. Diesel Raven
Track Length: 2:53
Sung by: Chris Clark

6. funny little man
Track Length: 3:58
Sung by: Aphex Twin

7. hammer without a master
Track Length: 4:58
Sung by: Broadcast

8. He’s a Liquid
Track Length: 3:03
Sung by: John Foxx

9. the hwicci song
Track Length: 3:40
Sung by: µ-Ziq

10. IKEA
Track Length: 2:29
Sung by: Stock, Hausen & Walkman

11. in the annexe
Track Length: 1:22
Sung by: Boards Of Canada

12. Invocation
Track Length: 6:23
Sung by: Cabaret Voltaire

13. Jellywand
Track Length: 1:53
Sung by: Stock Hausen & Walkman

14. Like Clockwork Springs
Track Length: 2:46
Sung by: Daedelus

15. Main Theme
Track Length: 4:14
Sung by: Wil Malone

16. memory towel
Track Length: 5:36
Sung by: Wagon Christ

17. Misprints
Track Length: 6:14
Sung by: The Matthew Herbert Big Band

18. The Move
Track Length: 4:41
Sung by: Boom Bip

19. My Red Hot Car
Track Length: 5:01
Sung by: Squarepusher

20. nav katze:ziggy
Track Length: 4:25
Sung by: Aphex Twin

21. No Day Massacre
Track Length: 4:22
Sung by: Mr. Oizo

22. phillip glass:heroes
Track Length: 5:18
Sung by: Aphex Twin

23. Playtime
Track Length: 4:26
Sung by: Nightmares on Wax

24. Radio Prague
Track Length: 1:18
Sung by: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

25. Rock on
Track Length: 3:59
Sung by: Jackson and His Computer Band

26. Shove Piggy Shove
Track Length: 4:19
Sung by: LFO

27. sixtyten
Track Length: 5:48
Sung by: Boards Of Canada

28. slipper suite
Track Length: 6:19
Sung by: Palmskin Productions

29. Smokin’ Gun
Track Length: 3:23
Sung by: Freddy Fresh

30. The Song of Sam
Track Length: 5:10
Sung by: Severed Heads

31. Spoons
Track Length: 2:11
Sung by: Stock Hausen & Walkman

32. Staunton Lick
Track Length: 5:22
Sung by: Lemon Jelly

33. stop look listen
Track Length: 7:26
Sung by: Autechre

34. supafunk
Track Length: 5:14
Sung by: Jake Slazenger

35. ti bom
Track Length: 4:53
Sung by: Plaid

36. tomach
Track Length: 4:31
Sung by: Wagon Christ

37. A Touch Of Evil
Track Length: 3:11
Sung by: Cabaret Voltaire

38. Turning pages
Track Length: 7:47
Sung by: The Matthew Herbert Big Band

39. the wisp
Track Length: 4:15
Sung by: Simian

40. ’76 Aka The Slow Train
Track Length: 5:40
Sung by: Lemon Jelly

Don’t know why I was compelled to compile a playlist containing
only tracks with numbers in the title, but it makes for an
interestingly eclectic listen!

Songs in Playlist ‘Numbers’

1. acr – samba 123
Track Length: 6:43
Sung by: Fila Brazillia

2. Area 51
Track Length: 3:37
Sung by: The Charlatans

3. atomic moog 2000
Track Length: 7:06
Sung by: Coldcut

4. Beauty 2
Track Length: 4:24
Sung by: Ladytron

5. cloud9
Track Length: 3:30
Sung by: The Temptations

6. Drowing by Number 3
Track Length: 3:30
Sung by: Michael Nyman

7. Iambic 5 poetry
Track Length: 5:31
Sung by: Squarepusher

8. Lovely 2 C U
Track Length: 3:25
Sung by: Goldfrapp

9. Number 15
Track Length: 6:49
Sung by: The Beta Band

10. Obstacle 1
Track Length: 4:11
Sung by: Interpol

11. Pacific 707
Track Length: 3:46
Sung by: 808 State

12. Polka Trax 3 (Wechsel Garland Remix)
Track Length: 5:02
Sung by: Mike Ink

13. Six Pianos
Track Length: 6:08
Sung by: Steve Reich

14. snapshots3
Track Length: 5:25
Sung by: Roni Size

15. song1
Track Length: 5:18
Sung by: DJ Krush

16. 4 dead monks
Track Length: 5:06
Sung by: Red Snapper

17. 4 Easy
Track Length: 2:32
Sung by: The Beta Band

18. 5-8-6
Track Length: 7:31
Sung by: New Order

19. 6 Underground (Nellee Hooper’s Edit)
Track Length: 2:32
Sung by: Sneaker Pimps

20. 007
Track Length: 2:15
Sung by: John Barry

21. 007 a fantasy bond theme
Track Length: 3:59
Sung by: Barry Adamson

22. 11:59
Track Length: 3:21
Sung by: Blondie

23. 15 Love
Track Length: 7:42
Sung by: Wild Planet

24. 20 jazz funk greats
Track Length: 2:44
Sung by: Throbbing Gristle

25. 24 Hour Party People
Track Length: 4:36
Sung by: Happy Mondays

26. 24 track loop
Track Length: 5:57
Sung by: This Heat

27. 56
Track Length: 3:47
Sung by: µ-Ziq

28. 61E.Cr
Track Length: 5:38
Sung by: Autechre

29. 70s 80s
Track Length: 5:32
Sung by: Nightmares On Wax

30. ’79 Aka The Shouty Track
Track Length: 3:41
Sung by: Lemon Jelly

31. 101 (Masseymix)
Track Length: 4:46
Sung by: Finitribe

32. 1921
Track Length: 2:49
Sung by: The Who

33. 1963
Track Length: 3:47
Sung by: New Order

34. 1969
Track Length: 4:20
Sung by: Boards Of Canada

35. 1971
Track Length: 3:24
Sung by: Freddy Fresh

36. 2000
Track Length: 3:04
Sung by: RPM

37. 2266 Cambridge
Track Length: 2:34
Sung by: Cut Chemist

freak zonechildren of the zonepixies palaceWarp

BBC6 Music And All Things Eclectic

This recommendation is well after the fact because I’ve been listening to it for well over two years, but Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone is arguably the finest radio show currently on air. There’s a kind of expectation and anticipation you get when first tuning in……like there was in the halcyon days of the 80s when listening to John Peel at night.

For the uninitiated, it’s an eclectic three hour show dealing in ‘experimental’ music, both present and past. Maconie (ex-NME editor, TV talking-head and previous radio DJ) is a laconic, knowledgeable and humorous host. There is nothing elitist about this programme, in fact its general air of democracy and open-mindedness is infectious. Music played varies from obscure psychedelia, left-field jazz and modern orchestral music, to little-known folk music, electronica, dub, reggae, rock and vintage movie/TV soundtracks. Its a varied and educational 3 hours that passes very quickly. Its opened my eyes and ears……..recommended.

(It can be heard online and as an albeit truncated podcast)

Technorati Tags: music, experimental music, jazz, folk music, electronica, electronic, radio, BBC, radio shows

Powered by ScribeFire.