Not a regular Friday

 Which is a shame really as I have an idea for a piece I'd like to try out - a reworking of an old one which should fit in perfectly with the current 'teenage angst' album-in-progress.
A mountain of chocolate has arrived, along with various other items such as biscuits and sugary sachets of something or other. It's what happens at this time of year, even here in Humbugland. Hopefully I'll get some studio time tomorrow. Hitting the whisky early. And later, the whiskey. 

Listening to some animated thing reminded me of some of my old tunes - stuff I wrote as  a kid but never really did justice to.There was a melody quite similar to one of them on this film. I always thought they were too simple and naive, which they probably are. As I was learning organ at the time I used a lot of sevenths, which I now interpret as 'French'. 

It's Saturday. Started well - two successful poos from Jasper, the weekly drain check all clear; nothing to stop me getting into the studio this afternoon. It doesn't get much better than this. Oh, I'm getting more into Bruckner now I've adopted the multiple-listens-before-moving-on approach. For some reason I've assumed the odd-numbered symphonies are going to be the best. 

Sunday. I tried (too hard) to cobble a sequence together as it was needed to complete the thing. At least I convinced myself it was. I seem to have stumbled across a simple solution to the whole thing, which is to swap parts 2 & 3 around. Suddenly it feels more balanced. Not totally there - my notes have several corrections suggested - but much closer. Really does capture the Jeffrey Hill vibe too. 

Monday, the sequence one from yesterday has a great bassline. I did a recording of it in its current form and started another one with two unusual Ody sequences fighting each other. Sequencing and generally recording large chunks of Odyssey is proving to be a source of much goodness. Need a simple melodic part to go with that odd seq and it will be a short, neat piece a la Sorcerer. Walking tomorrow so will tackle again on Wednesday. NYE could be drinkies day, seems appropriate to my mind. Then it's Friday again. Some people might be thinking I'm finding my life boring and repetitive at the moment. Not so. It's closer to the experience of the late 70s and early 80s than any other time of my life - hence the constant musical inspiration. I may have mentioned this before. 

Hmmm, Wednesday and didn't manage to do much music. Pat's horse at dentist so she's downstairs and somehow I'm failing to write any music knowing she's listening to each idea as it emerges. Should probably have tried headphones as something was happening at first, or seemed to be. Poor thing is upset about new tears and restrictions and goodness knows what else she's absorbed. (I had been in blissful ignorance but not any more.) Only needed a simple, non-developing theme to go with the quirky sequence but it stalled then died. Oh well. I did a simple bass pulse which works well enough. Don't think I'll use the drum pattern, just the noise sequence. 

Today I trimmed the ivy (neighbour allowed me to fill his garden bin too) and made a bollocknaise. Anyway, here are some of yesterday's photos. A different selection from posted elsewhere, just because.

Finally - a use for the RK-005. Nope. And a For Sale list takes shape...

 OK, I used it previously to clock the arpeggiator on my Juno-6. Now, I think, hope, whatever, that it can provide MIDI clock to that weird little USB input of the Particle 2. Being able to use its delays synced would make it much more useful so fingers crossed. 

Well, I spoke too soon. Could not get any recognition that clock was being sent via the RK-005. I then configured the TRS control input to act as a MIDI Port, although I'm hoping for guidance there as it doesn't work either. I emailed poor Sylvie who helped out the other day. Afraid this pedal is going to be a bit of a waste of time as what it does the Pitch Factor does already, but without head-scratching. Oh well. 

I'm making a list of things to put up for sale/swaps. Photos soon. 

The three Doepfer Eurorack cases and almost all contents, such as:
SE Quadnic, Korgasmatron II, Waldorf NW1, MI Stages
MN Erbe Verb, Vermona twinVCFilter
Roland Demora (with box and cables)
MN Optomix & LXD, RE Natural Gate
Doepfer A-113 Subharmonic Generator
Pressure Points (x2) & Brains
Orgone Accumulator, Doepfer A-134-1 Panning Module
Doepfer R2M Ribbon to MIDI interface

Then there's the regular stuff I could move on:
Korg Minilogue xd, Novation Mono Circuit
MN 0-Coast, Korg Volca FM, Roland Juno 6
Electrix Repeater, All 303 clones (TT-303, MB 33 II, Freebass)
DSI Pro 2, Red Panda Particle 2 (brand new)
Meeblip Anode, genoQs Nemo sequencer
Korg Microsampler

Of them, only the Juno 6 feels like a mistake (done it before, see) so that's probably the one that will go first. 

Things I'd consider in part ex:
System 8, another BlackBox

Oh, I see I was in the middle of another brain dump with this one. Right, where am I?

December 24th. Yesterday Wavelab woudn't boot so I got in touch with Philippe who, very graciously, suggested what to try, even though I left the beta program years ago due to not upgrading me mac. Anyway, tried today and it worked first time. Very odd. It allowed me to compile version 1 of the Accidental Hermit, which is no longer the ambient mulch it started as. OK, large chunks of it are but I've added three sequencer-type pieces, one the manic Odyssey odyssey from yesterday. I think it fitted in perfectly but I'm now thinking the shape is wrong and I need a late peak before the final descent. 

I fucked up with the weekly walk. Had emailed Tony suggesting today but as he didn't reply assumed he was doing normal people stuff instead. Was surprised when he turned up on the doorstep at 10 am. By then I was committed to solving the Wavelab problem and unprepared. So I missed a good day's walk, which is sorta frustrating. There's something wrong with email sending between blueyonder so in future he's gonna use the direct virgin one, or phone. Useless we are. Both former IT professionals too.

Saw an FX pedal that looks really cool the Chase Bliss Audio Mood thing. Can't really justify it until I get rid of this Particle thing, or see if John can pass it off to one of his guitarist mates. 

Oh yes, copies of the album arrived. It is very beautiful!!

The never-ending arse squeeze (several days in the life of a turd midwife)

 A difficult few days with Jasper. After he shat in the car yesterday he also shat in the front room while I was doing a bit of vaccuuming. Admittedly I don't vaccuum very often but still, couldn't have been that traumatic. Actually I'm not sure he even know he's doing it any more. This morning he slept in until 09:00 and has been wandering around looking lost ever since. Pat actually thought he'd died in his sleep and I was thinking how wonderful that would have been for him compared to the harder option we both know is coming sometime in the new year. It's quite the mood-setter for the piece of music I have in mind for this afternoon.

Lunchtime I enjoyed Bruckner's 7th Symphony. 

Then recorded a waily bleaky one which may be a good ender. Made a 1 hour mix of recent stuff, some possibly too challenging but maybe not. General title/vibe - the moors, the lonely places

Tuesday, tree men meant to be coming but have had no confirmation. Using the time to listen through the mix I made and note adjustments needed. Will draw from some of the earlier pieces too - in particular the one using the backwards piano and the one with the bell sound and mellotrons. It feels like it's not far off but listening through this kind of material is quite soporific. A sunny day too, would have been good to walk or go see John. Jasper OK today as I'm sat with him. 

Tree men came and did their thing. I made another mix, this time including the reverse piano one and the belly one and the one with a groove. That might prove a step too far but it's something to listen to. I removed some of the more edgy Synthi parts and trimmed a few tracks that were similar. Thinking about a cover now, something bleak and empty would do. 

Listened through this morning (Wednesday) and made quite a few notes. Some trimming of repeated ideas will make it better. There's good stuff in it and I have a cool title now. In the afternoon I recorded some stuff but I don't think it was great. 

Thursday morning, off to see John for a park walk and to pick up the Particle 2. Listening to a bit more Bruckner - but realising all his symphonies last ages. For example, the first movement of this fecker lasts 20 mins. I am getting it though and starting to enjoy. Wondering whether to go Dvorak or Prokofiev next. This is one reason I almost never watch youtube vids or listen to music links on the laptop - I'm already listening to something. I have half a dozen tabs open for things to check out, plus a file somewhere of about a dozen bandcamp links to audition and purchase from when I get round to it. 

The Particle 2 didn't like a couple of power supplies but found another, regulated one after support told me the meaning of the pink LED. Sounding promising in the short time I played with it, especially the pitch shifting mode. I made a nice sequence using the Digitone, changing the ratios for each step to make some really cool harmonic switches. 

Hmm, Friday morning and I have no new pix to post. Had to deal with another Arsequake using my (now familiar) birthing skills involving calm words and warm water. Have gathered sushi and Desperados to set up an afternoon of, hopefully, getting a decent performance of that new one recorded. 

Bought some new downloads - one from Bob Hedger and the other from rozz3r, both excellent. 

Excellent day. Did a thing, two versions of which I uploaded then deleted as they're already starting to feel like part of something larger. 

Some pix

Sunday now. I started a thing yesterday but don't know what it's like as I didn't record yet. I'm starting to think of wistful melodies, must be all this thinking about my teenage years and isolation. Reckon I'll go and sit and play and see what happens. 

A remix remixed

 I did an Octatrack jam using some bits of the next single then arranged it in Logic. Dean liked it and did a proper production job on it - sounds brill now. A rare treat for me to still have lots of my noises in a final mix!

Wednesday we walked - this time no chance of getting lost as it was an old stomping ground of mine. 

Thursday got news of a decent PRS payout in December, quel surprise! May treat myself to another BlackBox. Recorded a groovy ambient thing with the Synthi and GR-1 into it. Uploaded to bandcamp but deleted this morning, as per usual. Actually I wiped all the recent uploads as they're starting to look like a dark ambient creation already. May see if I can persuade Tim to do a brooding cover as my artwork is never gonna make me happy. 

Friday, have eaten lunch and contemplating the afternoon's sesh. I expect I'll continue from where I left off yesterday. More Synthi, has to be more Synthi. And putting back some of those BB recordings through the granular process a second time. 

Well, Saturday now and I'm listening with delight to yesterday's recordings - four of them. Each sorta similar/different and based on the same BB preset - which has gained four or five new recordings and lost the two obvious drum loops. I kept the one with the wonky delay as it could be useful to whip out. 

I thought I'd deleted all the bandcamp stuff but it seems three more appeared yesterday, presumably the stuff I just did. One in particular was interesting as my mum rang while I was recording a 64 bar ambient string part. Since I broke off but left it recording, it resulted in a big gap in the middle - which is fab! I recorded an overdub of the same length but only played during the gap - and now when I start them I can choose to run them together or start one half-way and so get some of the chords interacting. Sounded nice when I did it anyway. 

Right, what am I doing today?

Sorry, mouse

 The latest mouse was a real tiny one (no wonder they're not setting off the traps). Unfortunately it was also a bleeder, meaning it wasn't a quick kill, leaving me feeling guilty. So much so that I tried moving the washing machine as that's where they hang out. It snagged on the vinyl floor and I ended up hurting my left hand trying to wrench it free. This morning (Monday), it seems I've done something to my back too. Jeez, what an old crock!

Yesterday I didn't go in studio, just watched a load of the things I'd recorded off Sky Arts (my new favourite TV channel). Tim came Saturday and we sketched a few amorphous noodles of the mellow variety, just because. I realise I've become adrift and directionless. Would love to get novel out but still awaiting Ben's artwork. Makes me think I should start painting again as it's the talent I've not fed over the decades. I fear it's as lifeless as that poor, surprised mouse. 

I've only reached Bruckner's 4th symphony. Nothing wrong with any of it so far but I think I should probably have tried to absorb Dvorak's symphonies first - at least I know a couple of them and they are far richer. Oh well. Maybe I wore myself out on Shostakovich and those Beethoven string quartets. I can't help but notice it takes me a lot longer to assimilate even a single symphony now - even ones with immediate appeal, like the Sibelius. Maybe I'm full!

I was going to paste in a thing I wrote for Splitradix about how I love the P3 but it starts to sound more like a focus on where I think Cirklon is lacking than anything else. I think I ended up by the wise summary that P3 is for live, fast, spontaneous sequence creation and Cirklon is for composition, structure and arrangement (OK, even though it still lacks a timeline arranger type thing). You see? Stephen's videos are awesome - everything I should have done but just never got my shit together enough. Judging by our drunken 'live ANT' thing on Saturday, videos are something I'm now officially worse at. 

Hmmm, seems I'm in a funny mood this morning. Not even going to start with my modular thoughts, which have been bubbling in the vat for a while. I must sell all that shit while it's still worth something.

Not a productive day. Back sore, hand too. Moved a few things around - put Pro2 where I can play it and record into BB. Shuffled a few modules around but don't like the result yet. For some reason that Livatera MIDI interface doesn't produce clock that the Steppy likes. Put the 101 back where it can be sequenced from Cirklon, in theory. Had no ideas except the one I had early on and squandered by faffing. 

Pat went to bed early. I'm watching some horror film and drinking single malt to celebrate being on Radio 6 again. Pat rubbed my back and the Tamnavulin is helping a little. Hope my back's better so I can walk this week. 

Wednesday and I didn't walk. In the end, the pain was still there, although eased, but I can't risk putting it back given William's gonna be spending a day here Saturday. Need all my strength to  keep up ;)
Pottered in studio but achieved nothing. OK, I think I'm getting a for sale list together. Going to take that ER-1 out of my ambient/drone end and probably the 0-Coast too. Overkill is not helping, plus I'm missing the Lyra. John won a granular FX pedal in a competition. Have agreed to buy it, hopefully will find a use for it but if not will add to the sell list and split any profits with John. He needs cash for some Spirfire library, which is fine by me. 

Hmm, it's Sunday morning and I have ten minutes before I ring my mum and head her way. A few things have happened, none of consequence (you'd guessed that, right?). Firstly, there was an Ocatrack update addressing two of the big omissions - tempo per pattern and full bank select. So far it's been fairly good - a few oddities but very happy at the functionality. I have a remix of the next single to attempt and may do it in the OT. Later today I'll load up the stems and choose the bits I want to chop into pieces small enough for the OT to easily manage. Oh, and I discovered a load of music and fragments I put together for that 5.5 hour Glad thing of many moons ago, the time where I couldn't play very loud cos the Noise Police kept coming round. Usual farce - there had been no permission for live performance, just 'ambience'. Hey ho. Some of it sounded OK when I was playing it so must remember to go back and find out.

Yesterday we had a day of the wee man. Must admit I could look forward to visits if they were a day rather than four. This afternoon I'll fire up the Mac and attempt some work. This is becoming quite a long entry so I'll end now. Oh, I discovered the review part of the Audion thing - unsurprisingly they weren't keen. I guess that's consistent and part of the reason I lost contact with them as my stuff never impressed. As a review writer I could review the reviewing but I won't. Instead, here's a poem I once wrote with Audion in mind.

Nurse With Wound
Dog With Vomit
I'm going to the Moon
With Wallace and Gromit

Yeah, that's telling 'em! Actually I don't mind indifferent reviews. I should perhaps have suggested more than one listen but I know it would be futile. 

Well, mum doesn't want me to visit given our lax security yesterday. So let the remix begin!

Stonking Week!

 Do people still stonk? Anyway, I've reached Friday morning and I'm actually buzzing at the prospect of an absolutely typical afternoon's drinking and making music. I recorded a thing yesterday that was all ambient mush and shifting noises - I wisely left out the two drum loops I'd made as it really doesn't need them. Reckon I conjured up the atmosphere of boggy moors where the paths are all surrounded by inverted commas. I even have an idea for a section that will come next, which my two bottles of Desperados will help summon. 

Anyway, last night the single was played by Marc Riley.  and I really don't mind that he assumed any Nagle involved had to be Chris Nagle. (No idea, I had to Google him too.) Previous delights in the week were watching grandson boogying to the single, walking to the Halo (but not waiting quite long enough to see it against a truly black sky), getting a cautious thumbs up from the vet re: Jasper and finding a tiny bag of weed on my morning walk today. OK, Jasper's dirty protest while I was walking on Wednesday introduced just a small glimmer of reality but I can cope with those. And the bag of weed isn't enough for even a modest pipe full, but still; feels like a victory.

At some point soon I'll have to power up the Mac and import all the Zoom stereo tracks, which are really finished BB jams. I think the consistency of instrumentation is helping bind them together - that little Reface CS is delivering some great stuff and I've even dropped the 0-Coast for now as I've realised it involves too much thinking. As long as the pieces are all built around the Digitone, GR-1 and BlackBox, I reckon I can move things freely in and out just capturing stuff as I go. Shame the Digitone MIDI thru doesn't appear to pass controller or PB stuff though, or it wasn't doing yesterday. That's where the P3 was better.  

I tried a new formatting program supposed to help get more from SD cards but not 100% sure I trust it yet. I only had three 5-min-ish loops going and thought I heard crackles. Same spec card as the original too so will be monitoring closely. Not sure they show on recording? 

Anyway. here's some pix from Wednesday's muddy trek. 

Onwards! 

Our first single release!

 It's rather exciting - especially as I will soon be able to talk publicly about Another New Thing. I think it's out on Friday so I should maybe not post this until then. 

Here's the video, which is pretty fab and hopefully we'll get some radio play, Radio 6 I'm thinking of you!

We're on Instagram as https://www.instagram.com/another.new.thing/

What else? That'll do for now.

I put another weird/ambient track on Bandcamp, mostly because my soundcloud is full. It's the kind of thing I'm doing right now, although I feel I should move around and play with the gear in another corner. Still no interest in faffing with modular, suspect that's not going to change. 

Major problems with Jasper's arse this morning. Spent quite a while easing out a nugget from a very swollen hole - not really how I'd imagined spending a grey thursday. Poor thing was very unhappy and so was I. Some poo excreted in the brief time I was shopping. Slipped him an extra half steroid but afraid I may have to face the hard truth that it isn't fair to him to carry on for too much longer. I'm not good with hard truths though. 
I bought a large amount of curry from RK Dining yesterday, which will be my lunch for the next week, except tomorrow when we're walking somewhere near Rossendale, I think. Dreading leaving Jasper though, let's hope that steroid does some good...

Two people told me how well Jasper looks this morning. 

Well, the single is available today. As I don't like to post too much, I didn't put up this week's walk pix anywhere, so here will do:

New Week but rather familiar.

 But the weather is mild. We both heard a mouse in the kitchen last night. I have been watching the pile of rotting bird seed Pat constructs draw ever-closer to the house so it's not a huge surprise. Why she always overdoes the fooding is a mystery. Today I will be digging out the traps - and implementing a cleaner regime, with the back door not left open so freely so often. 

An evening walk and a Scrabble game. I had hoped to slip 'quagmire' in there but never got the g. Not one of our better games as we missed too many triple word scores due to tactics creeping in. 

Hmm, it's Saturday morning and rather an odd one. We got a lie-in. For some reason Jasper didn't wake me up at 07:30 as usual so I slept through for another hour. Poor old git slept until just before nine. Guess he must have been tired after a long day fast asleep yesterday. 

Friday afternoon's thing was uploaded and deleted a few hours later. The two long looping sections worked well but I think I recorded them as a single piece later and forgot to copy over. In theory they could run together for an hour or more as each lasts over 5 mins but isn't the same length. They roughly keep up with each other too - different sections beginning and ending and played together. That relationship will change on each loop, assuming I did it right. Eventually instead of, say, two piano sections playing against each other it'll be a piano with a weird choir. 

Anyway, here are a few of the photos from this week's walk, hopefully ones not used on farcebook.

I plan to do that last section of the GR-1 interview that doesn't hang together today. Needs simplifying really as the menu stuff only needs a brief mention, not the detailed gibberings of my notes. If I get chance I'll do another mix of yesterday's track without the weird high string sequence (which must have sounded great at the time!). 
I decided to play Neuland for the first time in ages this morning. Not sure why I keep trying to find something good in it. Amazing to think two really talented dudes could have produced it actually. I suspect I won't get to the end... 

New albums and a walk up Pendle

 Yeah, got the new Roedelius Selbstportrait and it's a real return to form. Lots of old instruments - shows to me that he's a splendid organist. I think I maybe prefer to hear him play the organ rather than piano. Also got Schulze's Trancefer - many years too late. It's another great one too, helped by real drums and cello. 

In the week we went up Pendle. I shall paste in a few photos here for completeness.

I recorded something coolish - but did the good version to Instagram and the iPad mic. Will try and recreate at some point. Quite feasible with that Digitone/Blackbox setup I now have. 

 Anyway, it's Sunday and I'm about to feed Jasper. Pat's gone to do the horse but she's pretty down at the moment. The whole Covid thing seems to be eating away at her, probably compounded by lack of access to little William, Caspian's condition and whatever else. She was throwing up over night again, which is worrying. We had fish & chips so nothing spicy or odd. Had a nice walk but marred by her cystitis. Another things that hits her when she's stressed. Must think of ways to cheer her up. 

Saw mum today, played Scrabble which seems to have been a good idea. It's her face op Wednesday morning early so will be there for that. Mum like me in that she doesn't let things really get to her. Probably others see that as unfeeling or impenetrable. 

Have got the review going nicely now, struggled for a bit to put the notes into a coherent order but happy with it now. Just a bit of time required to knit it all together. May get it later if Pat goes to bed early. 

Right, stuff to do.