Tinkling the white plastics

Well, ivories would be soooo wrong. And anyway, we need it all for chinese fertility medicine, right? No, I have no idea either. I spent a lovely afternoon just playing, been ages since I did that. Very, very enjoyable even though I'm rusty as hell. I may, possibly, have concentrated on the machines too much, or even to the exclusion of all else. Or noodling on monosynths, which is usually as much about knobbing than keying. Will never be a concert pianist but I sure do like the piano. Will never be Peter Bardens, but I'm partial to a bit of organ too. :)

This evening I ordered a couple of albums, more Popol Vuh and a Moebius on vinyl. Well, why not? I feel in my love for the music of Cluster and Roedelius I've neglected poor Moebius and feel guilty I'm appreciating him now he's dead. Still better late than never eh?

I listened to an album today that I'd been indifferent to when I first got it. I'd tell you what it was but I can't remember, sorta dark ambient plodding technoish stuff. Not selling it am I? Hold on, I'll go look and write it down. See what a service I perform... it's....Porter Ricks : Biokinetics.

Hey, it's Friday and I/m slightly drunk it has to be said. Tim and I got an hour's of music today, gonna put on the CD when we go to bed later. We being Pat and I, not Tim and I heheh. Not explaining myself well. Some really cool music happened,

Possible Mutable Instruments Clouds sighting for next week :)
Yes, in fact I ordered one despite promising myself to hold off on the euro for a while. Now I'm skint again. Idiot!

Tim has a lovely Analog Keys. I predict great things from it and him. And us.

Another session with Tim today. Then curry. Pat really is incredibly tolerant, she even volunteered to drive him back later so we can drink all day. In other news, some twat nicked the milk off our doorstep this morning, a first.

Sorry, thought I'd taken some interesting photos but perhaps not. Tim took some yesterday so perhaps they'll turn up later.

Still Boiling

Sadly I'm not referring to the weather but to the fact we're in the 3rd week of boiling water here. United Utilities not exactly crowning themselves in glory in the efficiency or information stakes.

Liminal Entity is very nearly finished, or at least it's nearly a complete thing you can read all the way through. I have a number of points I can go over and get properly right before turning over to readers. This time I'll make sure it does get read before I publish! It's around 68,000 words which isn't a bad length, I think.

Real proud of Tim who got a prize in a Glasgow art competition and the judge bought the painting. Looks like a cracker too, must make him happier after that shitty BBC farce. Must get him to complete the album cover and put out Electronic Meditation. Trouble is I found a track yesterday I think might fit well on it, maybe a replacement for one of the 'aimless' ones.

Today I'll be writing but as it's my day off it's my own stuff, not reviews. Only one of those currently on the cards and plenty of time to complete it, actually almost done. Giving them chance to squash a few bugs.

Spent the evening bailing out water after blocked drains and instant downpour combine to flood many homes where I live. We escaped - just - but the drains will get blocked again unless people take action. That means preventing gravel from floating from your drive and into the road, that means thinking about the water table when concreting your drive, that means a bit of - dare I say it - social responsibility. Yes, humping wheelie bins full of water can bring out the grumpy old man.

Today I believe our Dawn is giving birth. I have to stay sober in case I need to go hold the baby or take vital supplies. Hey ho. Update: birth happened, I'm officially a 'gramps'. Today I can drink beer again :)

Work and precious little sunshine

August is summer's last chance but I'm not holding out too many hopes for anything different. After last year's glorious summer we're back to intermittent rain, cloud, muggy warmth alternating with chills. I suppose it is helping me get work done but isn't doing much for my spirit.

Was pleasantly surprised to be asked to contribute another Bollywood track and did so, knocking one out in an afternoon that the lib liked. I do enjoy those though, Bollywood has lots of scope for dramatic, melodramatic, melancholy and mayhem, all with extra cheese. Right up my alley basically. It also let me do lots of manual playing amongst the loops. Having done that I'm back to reviewing mode, one cool thing one I'm not quite so impressed with. Battling bugs in both, but that seems to be the way these days. Two OS updates for the cool thing, one for the not-so-cool thing. Sorry for being vague but best I keep these rambling notes as no-spoilers.

I'm heading off to Leeds next Saturday (15th) for Modular Meets The Elektrons. Should be a hoot, picking up Paul on the way. Let's hope there aren't lots of tempting modules on sale...

Recorded more Headshock material, now featuring Tim sequencing stuff with his P3. Sequencing a Minimoog and JP6 means some pretty cool new tunes although when we'll get the album out I have no idea. Tempted not to spend much (modules are calling) and do another CDR but that feels a bit limp. Still, WTF.

Annoyingly, the backlight has died on Cirklon #002. So it's a torch on the job until I see Colin next or go visit Tony to get my ESX-1 with its super-duper new main encoder. Arse.