A week recording in Lanzarote

It seemed like a great idea - and it should have been. But I reckoned without my weak constitution and dormant man-flu...

We took a bunch of gear.

And with all that battery power it allowed us out on the cliffs around Papagayo beach, contending with the bright sunshine, squinting, drinking gin and tonic and smoking locally-acquired weed.

We got lots of audio. I have yet to check it all out but it followed a pattern of me doing predictable stuff on the electribe and Tim going berserk on his Volca FM. I imagine some editing is going to be necessary if we want normality but I suspect we don't. :)

Was a stupid idea for me to fly to a completely different island then rely on 2 buses and a ferry. Not sure what I was thinking there. Still, live and learn! Back to continue fighting cold while feeling guilty I have yet to start work. Also sorting out my pension which should make next year a different year to this one. Watch this space...

New camera seems very good even if I wasn't really doing a great job with it.

The skies were gorgeous and I stupidly forgot my binoculars!

Oh and the free ad campaign seems to have got me some book sales - in a single day I sol 15 of one title, which is a record. Possibly bodes well for 2017, we'll see. Maybe it's a clever ploy from Amazon to make me invest in advertising. Which is possibly not as wise as trying (again) to find an editor.

Yes, I really didn't look well... but tried (heroically) to keep up.

Loads of people have suddenly died - George Michael, Richard Adams, Carrie Fisher - so that's 2016 having a last burst of venom before 2017 brings us nuclear holocaust. Ho ho fucking ho!

Exoplanets 3

Got a couple of reviews off so far this week, short ones and easy to write cos they're about good stuff. New module arrived that's also good so my life continues to be easy.

I sent back a CD I ordered (Albedo 0.39) which was meant to have been remastered by Vangelis. Think I made a mistake because the replacement arrived and it still sounds, well, not how you'd imagine a remaster to sound. At all. I'll import into Wavelab and check it out but it's significantly quieter than any of this other albums, including the fab Beaubourg remaster. If necessary I'll sort it out myself but it suggests I should have read the label carefully before assuming they cocked up!

I have a new track to make for the 'abstract' collection. If I don't get time there are some Headshock moments I can use but after playing Beaubourg for several days now, I feel inspired to sit down and just rattle something off.

Having thoughts again about selling a few things including the CS30, Dark Time and maybe Morpheus which I haven't had time to use. Frankly, I'd rather have the forthcoming Rossum Morpheus filter.


Got my Prodigy out, treated it to Space reverb, discovered territory even a sync-mofidied Minimoog doesn't go. Excellent day except Pat away. Beer, pizza, this

https://soundcloud.com/smokyfrog/orgone-ornotgone

I did a new track. I think we now have Exo3.

Update - we do! Picko mastered it too, which is well cool of him. Means it's had proper ears listen, which I value.
https://paulnagle.bandcamp.com/album/exoplanets-volume-3

It also turns out that even a Minimoog with sync doesn't negate the need for a Prodigy. Hey ho. Got it out again, SH-101 tucked away. For now.

Cheech & Chong, Mighty Boosh, time out...

Yeah, so I had a few days to myself and kinda took my time. The closest to 'work' I came was to revise Exoplanets 3 to version 1.1, dropping the track which was rather problematic. It didn't fit with the rest and I have tweaked 2 of the other tracks slightly, making edits are per my 'listener notes'. At 56 mins it's still a good length but I'll let it stew a bit longer and see whether it's as good as it can be.
Wrote a few words for His Dudeness's Harmonics in the Silence, easy to do cos I think this stuff is the best yet. I should probably do a few more Binar backbones.

Last night I watched one of my Cheech & Chong collection followed by a couple of episodes of Mighty Boosh (series 2). Amazing that they included an fairly obvious Cheech & Chong homage and that I hadn't noticed it before (the 'searching for the New Sound episode). So I got little done but had a nice relaxing time. Getting so good at relaxing it's hard to do anything else.

Tracked down a Vangelis album I'd never heard of - Sex Power (really!) and ordered it.
Got it. It's mad. Ordered a load more of the big V I only have on tape including some remasters. Heck, why not.

Tim and I recorded 2 days of groovy stuff. The first anarchic and totally spontaneous, the second with some pause and prep prior to recording.

I got some nausea pills as got inner ear weirdness going on from Wednesday morning.

Must do some review work tomorrow!

Was that November? Anything much happen?

Apart from the USA following our lead and voting to punch itself in the face for a bit, I mean.

Well, I'm in pro-active gathering-modules-for-review mode. So good old me. Have to keep that modular column going. Weird, but still enjoying the new lease of life Eurorack has given me. The new modules I got recently have all been really good and I'm recording quite a lot with the modular and anything else. As a result I already have a 1.0 version of Exoplanets 3. I'll play it for a while and see if anything is wrong with it - but after 1 day I think it's already the best yet.  I'm afraid I actually 'performed' on some of its drones.

Well, I hadn't posted any pix for a while. Now I have.
Today I finished an app review - fed up of those now. At least I ain't seen a good one in a very long time. Tomorrow a few days to myself to work on a few projects, maybe start a new novel. The fantasy one I have been throwing around the head cavity for a while.

Did a new drone
https://soundcloud.com/smokyfrog/amateru
Curries this week: 2
Watching GoT series 6 and loving it!

Phew

I think I made a meaningful update to Bogus Focus. Today I reached the end having fleshed out the characters to my satisfaction and shown more levels to the story. It's better for it but I really will need an editor in future. :)

I may release all 3 as Bogus Realities in a single volume. If I can just resist going back through each I might be able to start something new. The main thing is I can finally put it back up on Amazon and be happy about it - just need a way to alert people to the update (or send it them free).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bogus-Focus-ebook/dp/B00APJX82I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355780933&sr=8-1

I recorded this today (and something else). Rather pleased with it. Shows off the Doepfer Subharmonic Generator / Korgasmatron II / DLD with some bursts of Elements

https://soundcloud.com/smokyfrog/the-mob

Great day,

Bye Bye October

So my trundle towards grabbing my pension and winding down my workload continues. Have talked to several people with financial know-how and a plan is forming. It means next year I should have more time for writing my novels, playing in the studio and taking those long walks in the Lakes I've been wistfully talking about for years. Oh, and more time to write library music. We'll see...

I am rewriting the ending to Bogus Focus, having seen a way to improve it quite significantly. Doubt it'll make anyone try again, but maybe when I put all 3 into one volume it'll hang together much better now I've trimmed a lot of the asides and nonsense and left an actual plot.

Right now I have the usual review stack - sadly no eurorack in right now, which is what I'd like the most. I have this new secret Korg thing, which allows me to get back on an old hobbyhorse, for all the good it will do.

I recorded a new drone the other day, Quixote, which ended up going in a different direction to my plan. It may or may not complete Exoplanets Vol2, I'll let it stew a while. It will be better as a first rather than last track though, each 'dynamic' drone alternating with the subtle, underplayed ones.

Oh the Binar double album is available, people liking it. I like it, which I hadn't quite expected but then you need to play them, leave them, return and see. It's impossible to tell immediately after a performance.

https://andypickford1.bandcamp.com/track/b-boner-e-bola

That track was a studio one, yes a drone! I even played some Minimoog in it. So Binar do different stuff sometimes, yay! There are a couple of other studio tracks, which I think makes the whole release rather interesting.

Must book Superbooth on Monday. Could be our interesting book project will be released then, more info when I'm allowed to say.

It's pretty much impossible to take a photo of Jasper when he isn't sniffing the ground. Anyway, thanks October, it's been a lovely, warm and sunny month - unlike June or fecking July!

The Dreaded Lurgi!

Was on the point of going to doctors when finally my stomach started burbling again. Have been sick since Synthfest and struggling to get much done.

Which is annoying cos I have a review that needs doing fast. As ever the company are hard to communicate with via email and there are things I need to know. Sigh.

A cool filter arrived today, a Korgasmatron II. Only had a brief time but it sounds excellent and with two filters, panning and soft/hard clipping it should be the last filter I need until Dave Rossum releases his Morpheus filter. :)
Also have a Doepfer Subharmonic Generator on the way, swapped for Phoreo (not needed now I'm using Cirklon more fully with my euro setup). The Doepfer should go well with my ribbon controller in giving me those classic Trautonium sounds, should be brill.

Best of all, I finally solved my problem with the character of Seldon Zuckerzeit in my Bogus Focus novel. Had withdrawn it a while back cos it was just too sloppy now I've updated the others. I'm 20 chapters in fixing things and now into the area that needs a major hacking. Fortunately, I've finally worked out why some of the things that happened happened. So assuming I don't die in the next few months maybe I'll put it right.

So that's nice. New Binar album Tales of the Uninformed should be out any day. The gig recording plus some studio stuff, came out very well. Better than I initially thought, but that's always the case. The Dude always manages to make 'em sound good.

Busy, busy!

A bit of percussive nonsense 

55 years old and feeling fracked

Yeah, had a birthday. Government rewarded me by their usual hypocrisy. It went like this:
Brexit: the people have spoken, we obey
Fracking: the people have spoken, fuck 'em.
It seems we'll bribe people to accept hundreds, possibly thousands of drilling wells in their back yard but won't do the same for wind farms cos it's nasty, clean and renewable? Sigh... OK, OK, enough with the despair.

Blimey but I have some talented friends. Paul L did this almost immediately after getting his new Linnstrument. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy8giR8TxdY

And anyone who ever tells you all the great melodies have been written has never met Andy Pickford. He sent me something today that I've played 4 times in a row it's so beautiful. Mellow, wistful, full of longing. A simple thing too and not embellished.

Thursday was a good day if not much work got done. Dave F came and spent the afternoon hacking our trees into shape. Still some to do but he did a great job, will try and organise curry with him next week along with my sis.

Friday I aimed to record another drone. Have had this idea kicking around for the last track on Exoplanets 2. I got an ES Disting the other day but it's so complicated I haven't done much with it. (Only bought cos he was such a nice chap and I felt guilty I wasn't the man to review his computery interfacey modules. Sorta feels foolish now but I'll work at it, possibly Friday not the ideal day for knuckling down though.)

Ooh, got some royalties from the Cherry Red comp. All is good. And the Arturia Drum machine finally announced. Can't deny it's rather exciting, will probably kill off the Tanzbar and maybe some other stuff too. Individual outputs, yes! And an analogue filter, their cool random algorithm, and more. Already put in my request to review it. :)

Bought again a pile of David Gemmell novels we have mysteriously lost over the years. Still a couple to track down, really annoys me to lose books. I made the mistake of reading half my own Bogus Focus yesterday and was frustrated into starting a rewrite. It's the weakest of the lot and being the first of three people are unlikely to stick with the series. Damn but I wish I could get at least one tame reader to check these things and give me quality feedback. Spose I have to get better first.

More drones underway.
It's PRS week.
I should do some work...

Synthfest and beyond

Long weekend in Sheffield at Synthfest. Very successful, my thoughts scribbled on Facebook. Embarrassing videos sure to follow - me as a roving reporter, mostly because no grown-ups were available. Hopefully next year there will be and I can go back to wandering around, grinning and bumping into people.

Today I have started with the inevitable cold, the one you get if you never go out and meet people ordinarily. I sat around in the sun and read Half-Sick of Shadows by David Logan.

I wrote this to David Logan on completion.
"My wife just bought me 'Half-Sick of Shadows' thinking, without fully knowing why, that it would be right up my street. She was correct. I read it in a single sitting, noting (with dismay) elements from my own novels (Future Art Factory and Bogus Focus), but rendered properly, as a real author would. So much for my dreams of originality. (etc. etc.)
What else can I say? Less, preferably. I will find and read more. Perhaps in doing so I'll discover the contents of future novels I now needn't attempt. This is my long-winded way of saying: great stuff!"

It's true, there are ideas that could have been from one of my novels, if you can imagine one of my novels written by an actual writer.

However.

It turns out there are 2 David Logans. Yes, I wrote to the wrong one. I know because he wrote back telling me so. So I apologised and promised to buy one of his. I picked one at random without looking properly. Amazingly, stupidly, I picked the last of a trilogy. He's laughing at me now. I went and ordered the other two because I felt such a pillock. Hope they're good. Can't seem to contact the original David Logan and tell him of his unknowing partial plagiarism. I expect he wouldn't be interested anyway.

More Droning

Recording a drone today and realised I needed a VC-panner. So I ordered a Doepfer A-134-1 from Thomann, who (once again) sneakily let me do it through Amazon. I say 'sneakily' cos it is, just too easy that way. Module looks like one of those useful things I might want several of. Along with more LFOs. :)

VC-Panner arrived, put to good use on new track representing the Ice Planet Tadmor. Test pressing of it after the industrial stuff from the other day is sounding OK. I also know what I want to go with it, the sort of drone to finish off. Quite tense these in their own way so a tension defuser will be required.

This was a part of it (BTW these links are ephemeral, I wipe stuff from soundcloud as soon as I need to)
https://soundcloud.com/smokyfrog/i-dont-want-to-go-to-scelsi

Yeah, been listening to Italian composer Scelsi. New to me but I'm inspired by his take on drones. You can probably hear the VC_panner doing its thing.

Hey, it's Autumn!

Not much to add, I was hoping for a proper Summer. The froglets hopping around the garden are way too small and there are still tadpoles, almost sure I saw one today that hadn't even bothered growing back legs yet. Just wriggling around like it had all the time in the world. Who does that remind you of? Seems like the dude is gonna do a fabulous editing job of the gig, can almost bear to listen to myself. Almost.
Made a couple of changed to 2 tracks today, small improvements that I felt were needed. May as well make them the best they can be, especially as it's a good batch. Should've done more really as this stuff I find easier than most. Unlike most of the music I've done, like, forever, the idea is this: do the most obvious things. I can bring myself to do that when it's library because that's what everyone wants. Ugh! I know.

Still having the occasional Octatrack twitch. I know it's insane but.

I also should record somewhere, and why not here, that the best thing about doing a gig with a maestro like AP is that after the gig, he uses advanced production skills to weave it into gold. Seriously, what I've heard so far from our 'scout hut' effort almost makes me reconsider packing them in. The guy should be rich off his music-making, if there were any justice. Instead folks like me manage to make a living from it. Weird eh?

Another email to MFB in hope of a review. I don't expect a reply, sadly. They really didn't like my Tanzbar review, which concluded: "Despite its shortcomings, I can't think of an analogue drum machine that sounds better, period." Actually that's still the case and despite some issues, I bought one and use it a lot. Ah well, nothing I can do now. Gotta say what I think or it's all pointless. I think I upset Korg more by my comments about the Minilogue's obviously software envelopes. :)

Today we had a brief 'heatwave' before torrential rain set in. Meant to be getting another tomorrow. Had baby again today so didn't get much done. Pat went out in rain and is now coming down with a cold. 

Not using this much, might flog. I got it thinking it would be nice to have a string synth for live but I'm not foreseeing it now:
 

I should 'not play' more often

At least if the reaction to my latest 'drone' album is anything to go by.

https://paulnagle.bandcamp.com/album/exoplanets-volume-1

Bizarre innit?

Good response at last for my 'minimal electronica' tracks - 9 out of 10 liked, the one they didn't wasn't one of the ones I thought iffy. Interesting. Anyway, in a burst of productivity today, mastered all 9 and their edits - 60, 30, 15 and Sting versions. Then I got my review that had been kicking around done, which basically involved getting down to word count. I'm still a few words over but basically a sentence or two at most. Being wordy can be useful!

Tim been busy, sent a tape to the Wire and the radio guy. Which is good. Think he coming round to idea of releasing more. I know I release too much, or always have, but only cos I have no idea what's good. Well, the new library tracks sound good.

Pat watching Olympics again. Must resist keep wandering in and asking 'what's wrong with her then?'.

Listening to old Headshock, the one I like with the weird voices and trautonium. Makes me want an Octatrack again. Mad but good.

That's my first idea for Vol2, not that I've done any more think of one theme I want to cover. Must graft for a bit though, finish reviews before I can play.

Oh and Andy did a brill arrangement of a track - gave it a better name too. Top day!

Arse probing & other mysteries

No, not me thank goodness. Our poor dog Jasper. He gets very stressed when I'm not around and unfortunately I had to go north to retrieve my Synthi yesterday morning, meaning he was alone for maybe 5 hours before Pat got back. Anyway, when I got home he was pretty sheepish and holding his tail down, very clingy as he sometimes gets. A little later I noticed he'd gone into the garden for a long time... to cut a long story short, I found him straining on the grass with an obvious prolapse.

So more vet visits, sad expressions and so on to come.

I'm now well on with a new project provisionally titled 'Exoplanets'. Getting the Synthi back wth its new long envelope times has inspired me to do a series of rule-based tracks, all drone-types with no interaction from me, at least until 15 mins have gone past. The idea is to use all my modules in different combinations and get ambient soundscapes named after a succession of Exoplanets that have names I like. Pat is away a few days so it'll give me a good chance to maybe set up and record another, plus get a load of work done, watch 'Enter the Void', drink beer etc.

Funny how the modular is making me very poor and inspiring me to make sounds again. I like the idea of releasing atmospheric stuff in which I don't play a note and there aren't obvious sequences running (although there *are* sequences if you know where to look).

Contiguous Time / new case arrived

It's like this: you can't add up all those 5, 10, 20, 38 minute chunks of free time in a day and say 'look at all that free time you had!'. In the same way, a forest or nature reserve is not the same when sliced and diced by roads, quarries, pylons, clearings and housing. It's Friday and my afternoon, hopefully, will be a contiguous, slow-paced session of music capture - the track I forgot to play at the gig, some work on a piece Andy sent, maybe that's enough.
The modular is still dead. That old Doepfer power supply clearly not up to the job and a pure coincidence it died when it did. I'll go along with that until I know better. Ordered a new case with an update power supply, will get the old one fixed, hopefully next week, have the one from Ross coming, in theory. Frustrating as two very cool-looking modules arrived yesterday but have to put ideas of those aside for now.

I can see why people get hooked on euro, start looking around for things to sell to get more. I'm doing the same, I notice. Ultimately will it be a habit I kick? Hard to say but it does so much it's gonna be tough.

I know. Another picture of 'the tree'.

Today I did a version of one track I didn't play well at the gig. Worked on overdubs for one Andy did. Chilled. Good day. Hopefully going out later for something to eat.

OK today is Saturday. Which is a different today than the earlier one. Deal with it. New case arrived - good old Thomann. Modules installed, all peachy, should really look more into the power consumption. Tried the two new modules that have arrived - both impressive. I sorta thought they might be. Made a well groovy sequence using the Tonestar with two filters, each articulated by different EGs.
Colin sent me the 19" Eurorack-style BOB, like awesome! Lots more CV to play with. Need longer lead though as the 25-pin connector on the far end. Could mount it upside down I guess. Hey that would work...

Yes, I had a relaxing afternoon... :)

Binar Gig

Well, it came and went. New venue - better than the school hall but very hot and sweaty. A good night though, enjoyed everyone's set, especially Monkey Trial.
I think that might be my last gig, of that type anyway.
The idea of a 90 min set wasn't mine and the last minute idea to make it 2x45 didn't suit me as I totally forgot which songs I'd played already when it came to the second half. Alas I totally failed to stick to my running order which was a mistake. I may even have forgotten to play the best one, at least the catchy one I'd given the highest rating to in my listening the day before. Still, despite playing way too long I think there were some great moments - as usual those that were completely random. Looking forward to hearing the recording.

The Keyboard/Rack swap didn't go well. I failed to look at the rack I was getting, which is a mess - slider snapped off, main encoder not working, actual rust on the front panel and 3 knobs missing. So will reverse that when I get chance. Possibility we'll hire a rehearsal room somewhere and record more material for future releases. Might do that but, as I say, don't really want to go to the effort of more gigs in this style. It's either ambient drones or complete, planned structures from now on. I've done this weird improvised middle ground for too long, feel it's time for a change, especially as I doubt we'll ever top the best of previous work.

Back to modular tinkering today. Got a really cool module to review, another on the way that looks interesting. Still no case from Mr L after 1 year so maybe Synthfest will be the next chance. Else I'll buy a second Doepfer basic case and dump that large Synthracks thing which they still haven't sent a power supply for. Sigh. Bet they never send a power supply for my Doepfer ribbon either. Grumble, moan...

Of Interest only to me

Today we (Tim & I) recorded 'Hell Knuckle' having temporarily adopted a new naming standard. Listening now it's a masterpiece but, hey, it's Friday afternoon and I always say that. It's tagged onto a session from a few days back which we called Ylem. Did some production work to improve a few parts of it, which seems to have paid off. Quick and decisive working here. Apply same to 'knuckle' and we have a hit. No. not a hit, what's that other word?

Glad we did something on Friday. I sometimes think of all those times Phil wanted to record and I couldn't be bothered.

Seems I have at least one catchy sequence for gig. Excellent! Will play them through in the week, catalogue them. Still not totally sure I'm happy it's 90mins. Woulda been nice to have been asked if I have enough material (I wonder if I do?).

I am reading Steppenwolf again. In breaks between review stuff.
It occurs to me that all I've ever done in my own novel-writing is to paraphrase this book, in a style closer to National Lampoon than the Kurt Vonnegut I aspire to. Not much of an epitaph so call that version 1. :)

The sun seems to be here. Apparently for a few days. I should maybe post some incisive comments about it on twatter.

Synth DIY

Went. It was very quiet. Kept thinking I could've saved money and bought modules. Sad or what?

Hmmm wasn't meant to be that way up. Mind you, could say the same about life.

Anyway, don't think I'll be doing DIY next year. May organise a meet further north - assuming Colin hasn't departed these shores by then.

Have some cool stuff in for review, haven't asked for the new Behringer. Figure it'll already be taken and I dunno how interested I am anyway. Seems good for the price but they'll be everywhere so I think I'll stick with my Juno 6. :)

Lots to do, including more library work and a quick turnover 'exclusive' review, about which I've heard little since the first ask. Presuming it'll still happen. Waiting for my euro power supply, discovered it was sent to the office - weird since the case itself was sent straight to me! Still no sign of the UK power supply for the Doepfer ribbon. Dunno if I'll use it at gig now.

Looks like the beach volleyball has ended. Pat put on this weird sport with guys trying to do the same thing and I kept asking 'what's this?' until she muttered something and turned over. I don't know, there I was trying to be enthusiastic about sport and the thanks I get?