Some Solo Days

 Yeah, Pat went off with Carole this morning, meant to be back either Wednesday or Thursday, depending on how long Margaret can cope by herself. My luck is in too because its decidedly cooler than last week, although heavy rain forecast which might dampen the week's walking schedule. Slightly annoyingly all three of my free days have had slots booked but fortunately in the mornings. 

Nothing back from Ron at Groove in over a week so I must conclude he's not interested. Anyway, working on new tracks and 'Species Gap' will either find a home or go on bandcamp like everything else. I'll probably get another email from some random person this week asking about my 1980s cassettes Sigh.
Update: 10 mins after publishing this blog I did, indeed, hear back. My godlike powers still working in that respect at least.

Seems the Osmose pre-production units have had their parts sourced so there's a chance I'll see mine this year. Not getting my hopes up though. Will try and get over to Paul's and spend some quality time with the Super-6, despite it featuring the -currently hated- word 'super'. In other news, some slight toothache from that same bloody root canal tooth. Did I mention how I miss my old dentist?

Anyway, quality studio time here I come!

Good day. Recorded alternate version of Effigial. New extended with Synthi version. Quite cool and radiophonic. One BB slot free and I'm thinking some kind of Digitone p-locked conditional trig type fuckery could sound nice and fit with a lot of the jangly sounds. I didn't use the sweet Bm/F#m chord thing I kept playing because it's cheesy enough. I couldn't guarantee not to do it if I played this live though. I think this sorta thing - interacting with captured phrases, has a lot of performance potential. I am stunk and droned as I type this.

Yesterday evening wound down with some shrooms and watching general stuff - e.g. I binged 'Undone' and then watched 'Upstream' which sent me to bed happily. Today Tim's coming - hopefully he can refilm the video needed for the next single as my version was portrait. In future, I must remember that portrait is no good as that important specification only ever comes in after I've done it. Waiting for furniture pickup this morning so can't play music too loud. As usual I've no idea when they're coming. 

OK, it's Saturday morning and I just deleted the track I recorded yesterday afternoon. It's not particularly bad, just sorta meh and disorganised but with a kernel of something worthwhile I should be able to extract on a second run through. This week's walk was possibly the best yet - same car park, same start but this time headed south along Pasture Bottom and clambered up to the scree to the Thornthwaite Crag and returned via High Street. See how I'm taking an interest in where I am?  Not sure if I'll get out walking next week, depends on Pat/Margaret/horse/decorator scenario. I still don't quite know why we're having such a blitz on decorating but if it makes Pat happy that'll be good. 

Just been to get some decking oil and a wire brush - so I can do something worthwhile next week while decorator is painting; I won't be able to do much else so I hope the weather is up to it. Have some garden work to do as one end has become inaccessible. Also need a solution for bird feeding as Pat's method is leading to some large rat-attracting piles, as always. She's pretty down at the moment with Caspian's situation and the way it ties her to being there so long just so he can get some time in the fields. 

Tim's gonna do his eBay magic and help me get rid of some stuff I'm not using - e.g. a ton of Eurorack. Good to have a clear out I think.

Anyway, some of the usual pix:

Bank Hols mean blocked roads

 So I'm going nowhere. May try and get Tim around, although if it's hot I doubt the studio is the place to be. We did some valuable cataloging work yesterday, gave names to a few anonymous pieces and listened to them, and marveled. The new stuff is becoming quite a nice collection. Oh, I promised a track to Sequences for their birthday/anniversary/whatever. Guess a Headshock one might scare 'em though ;)

I think we were up the imaginatively-named Place Fell the other day. I mention it now as I just remembered its name. Yesterday, stoned, everything looked fascinating. You have those days too, right?

Seems like I started this blog entry a while back and forgot all about it. That's a good sign, I think. In the meantime we've had a stint as grandparents and done my usual walking in the Lakes. Not done a lot of music though. I sent the album to Ron at Groove but heard nothing since, so I guess he either doesn't like or isn't interested. Got approached by an old party contact asking about doing something - label-related. I sent him some stuff, also mentioned the art/music project. We'll see if anything comes of that. I probably sent them too much, especially of the mulchy ambient stuff but no matter. He does lovely videos and talked about coming here and filming something. 

Been pottering with oil paint again, forcing myself to do very small things with a tiny amount of paint just to get used to splashing it around. Being drawn towards abstract and messy stuff as it's the one area I've never tried to explore. Have marked the canvas into 25 squares with masking tape and randomly doing stuff in each to see if anything looks good. Very hot in studio so a good way to spend the day. Decorator coming in a few weeks which I'm not looking forward to. Pat away next week with Carole but I seem to have gotten scheduled to help Margaret with the horse, mornings only I think. May see if there's time for a shroomy day. 

Sold a Eurorack module after seeing someone asking on fb. Made me feel happy. Would love to sell the lot, or almost all. Some of those delay modules are handy and clock dividers and a few others. Eurorack is a bit like a really narrow country lane that you head down, possibly because your mischievous satnav led you astray, and eventually it gets too narrow to be worth the ongoing effort, or you meet a dead end; then it's the big reverse and an oath you'll stick to decent roads and avoid the faff. Hmm, I could improve that analogy if I felt like thinking about it.

Anyway, some shots from Angle Tarn, which was Tuesday. It's Thursday now.  Might be a Tim day, hope the attic is cool.