Sunny Friday Waiting for Pat

 She sounded really tired this morning after the de luxe horse box's heater broke down, leaving them both icy. Poor thing been away too long. Have done a chilli for tonight and rethought the track-in-progress to my satisfaction. 

Basked all morning, noticed myself a bit red so retired to studio and put my ideas into practice, which worked nicely. The scant Perfourmer things from yesterday totally rescued it. Also nice to have the Virus back in action - so much quicker finding stuff I can use or tweak with that (than the Hydrasynth, which takes forever in comparison). Added an obviously 101 sequence but it seemed to fit the slow and ponderous mini bass so a good day. Now waiting wait for Pat and reading more of Edgar's book. I think we might have passed the years of most interest to me but still fascinating to read his thoughts and (presumably) re-imagined conversations. 

Hmm, somewhat relaxed. Best day of week, oddly enough, maybe cos I had no plans or expectations from it. Spooky!

Well now, it's Tuesday and rather wet and gloomy - ideal for some studio time. Finished Edgar's book over the weekend - it ended with some thoughts on art, piracy, low-hanging fruit and other bits. I felt it sad he seemed unreconciled with Jerome and there was no mention of Jerome's work on the excellent Dream Mixes - the only post-Schmoelling TD I can listen to. Not sure I agree that you should put your fruit where people like Geoff and Conrad are guaranteed to reach it but hey, who am I to comment?

Oh, I bought a Memotron. To cut a long story short, listening back to all that old stuff, I decided it was the one instrument I liked but never really got an authentic-sounding version of. By that I mean the full 35 note, 8 second wonder of each tape frame as I have lots of partial solutions. The wonders of Facebook put me (back) in touch with an old Streetly employee who just happened to have a well-stocked one, unopened for a not-unreasonable price. So there goes my half of the last PRS cheque ;)

I did have a slight ulterior motive too: some of the ideas for the Gas Giant album would really suit the spooky strings and choirs of old Berlin School albums. In another sense it's nice/typical that I embrace this so many decades after everyone else did.

Took a walk near Brinscall yesterday. Was sad poking around in those woods without Jasper. 

Chillage

 Well, for a few days I'm by myself as Pat takes advantage of rule relaxation to go see the wee man. I bought in quite a bit of beer and stinky pizza so should survive without even leaving the house, even if I need to keep the windows open. Some more of the 'Gas Giant' tracks to do but no hurry. Seems to have started well enough so far. 
Woke up this morning wondering about strengthening a plot line - would it be clear to readers about the importance to the lizards of killing my ex-soldier? I put in clues but did I put in enough? Added a couple of lines to hopefully hint a bit louder, ready for next reprint. Have asked John, who gave an extensive critique, to see what he thinks. 

Wouldn't it be great if, by just doggedly keeping at it, I'd get better? My books dwarf those of my hero in size alone (helped by the fact I use 12pt for my printing).

Really chuffed to hear new oil lamp here tomorrow, hopefully Tim too. Will have to set up in dark half and see if we need Colin's firmware fix to sort the speed. Tuesday, recorded two separate pieces but several versions of the first, one mixing two keys in what I hope is an interesting way. Stoned as I type so maybe my version of interesting unique ;) Sweet day. Now listening back while pizza warms up. Sun shining, jigsaw beckoning, gin and tonic, well, why not? 

Well the projector didn't come until Thursday but it's jolly nice. Friday and a new gas giant track in progress, seems promising. Coming on well. 

It's a week later. Not blogged much although I did a 2 hour Cirklon geek chat online, which left me awake until the early hours, presumably due to unaccustomed neurons being roused from their slumber. 

If I begin to write very long and judgemental/analytical sentences then you should blame Edgar Froese. I'm reading his autobiography and am thoroughly captivated by it. Indeed, I shudder to think what, if anything, he thought of me that day when, tasked by the Jenkinbeast, I posed as something-or-other from some norther radio station or publication (I forget the exact nature of the deception) and asked a series of questions, recording them into one of the beast's non-working DAT machines. Oh well. 

Pat's home tomorrow after being away most of the week with Carole doing horsey things. I haven't done as much recording as I'd hoped - just one sketchy track begun - and might have a crack this evening, just to see if I can pencil in some edges of the sketch. It's a lovely sunny day and even now, after seven, it's very pleasant to sit and read. But I've eaten a great deal of curry this week and plan to make something nice for us both tomorrow night. I feel like there's something more to write but can't, for the life of me, think what it might be. I'll paste in some photos instead. Friday tomorrow but going to take it easy as I've had a heavy week. Also, my wobbly little belly is starting to branch out on its own, as if seeking pastures new in its frantic expansion. If I don't curb myself, it might needs its own blog. 

More slight novel faffing - and then it's done!

 Yeah, well, the cover should be OK now after yet another small tweak to fit. I even went through the text yet again on the basis of John Christian's feedback. I expect I'll have introduced  a shit-load of new errors along with all the conjunctions and semicolons he felt would make it more flowy and readable. I could go on tweaking forever as when I went through I found lots of mistakes, perhaps more than previous sifts. Darn. Anyway, sent off one final proof before hitting publish. 

More folks asking for old cassette material on bandcamp. I will have to pull my finger out before they all die of old age. Trouble is I'll want to make it all sound nicer, which takes time and means computer being woken up. Oh well. 

And it went out on the day the old, tiger-killing lizard supposedly croaked but very possibly just changed skins. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0924679KZ

Pat's off this week so I've stocked up on beer, tinned chilli, hot pizza, just in case I don't feel like leaving the house. It's 'queue outside non-essential shops and sit outside pubs' day. 
Ordered some cool jazz I heard on radio 3, which had some synth in it. From Gagarin's Point Of View, it was called. Sunny but was frosty overnight. Today is a weird waiting day, anticipating a few days much slower pace and hours of relaxed, indulgent studio time. Was going to stock up with a ton of curry but seeing the queues in Preston I think the roads might be a bit mad. 

Oil projector thing ordered in a feeble attempt to use up some of the PRS that's coming. Colin has already tweaked the firmware for a slower rotation. 

BB x 3 = Bliss?

With the third Blackbox arriving today, it's interesting to see how each of my three work areas hang together. 

BB1 - Digitone core, GR-1 and System 8 supplemented by Ody, DFAM, Blofeld & some modules. Synthi too.

BB2 - Cirklon core, bulk of studio, two mixers, the Makenoise Euro case, Touche, favourite analogues and rack gear.

BB3 - Octatrack core, supporting synths such as JD-XA/P3/RC-505 jam combo, Minilogue xd, Analogue Four and whatever else is handy.

It seems to me that BB1 is optimised for ambient, spacey, textural material. BB2 is the most generic 'workstation' setup for everything from conventional ANT material to my indulgent synth/sequencer noodles. BB3 would be able to cover that on a smaller scale but also concentrate on the weirder grooves and sample fuckery that the OT excels at. 

Wednesday - gloriously sunny. Had a splendid time chilling with Pat, had a walk in the morning, did some of that monster jigsaw together, took Caspian for a walk and even got some time in the studio to explore the new setup. As always the Blackbox makes everything hang together. I installed a DE-200 delay for use with the mixer and will probably recable at some point, putting the stereo gear into stereo channels and leaving space for a few weird things like the Lyra, Microgranny and Pipe. Started something based on JP-6 through RC-505 and grabbed a few random loops from that along with some Tanzbar and one track which was purely the DE-200 version of some odd Jupiter noises. Then I made bolognese. 

Thursday. A windy morning, so naturally the council's leaf blowers are earnestly blowing leaves from the library car park onto the adjacent public footpath. I was going to say something but then remembered it was April 1st. I expect tomorrow it will be the footpath's turn.

I had an idea for the remix. Also contacted about a collab of art/music - and the art seems to be fairly close to some of my novel 'multi brain personality' things. I will see if anything occurs but will try my remix idea first.

Proof arrived. Need to better align text on front and spine but I've started tweaking text again anyway. Good afternoon in studio, started a thing using Don's voice and weird loops from 505.

Friday tomorrow, lots to do :)