Adventures in Modern Recording

The Big Sky

2011-05-18T18:58:00.000+01:00

So here we are again after a longish break. Shipping Forecast as finished as its going to get, and as planned Protect and Survive was started, but as before completely scrapped and rebuilt whilst out in Florida. I have these grand ideas which sometimes work but often don’t. I could see pretty early on things were not right, so I dumped it, extruded an old clip I was working with, created a whole new mid section with virtual synths and strapped an ethereal fade to its back end (again a whole separate piece of music).

I dumped half the samples I collected for it, and recorded whole new sections. Basically its not what I started out to do, but has ended up what it needs to be.

I’m not sure if this is how you should go about an album, after all this time I forget. But I seem to of thrown away more than I am using, there is a whole other album in there somewhere, but at 12 tracks I have had to stop.

So that’s it, no more composing, now just mixing and tweaking, which shouldn’t take too long.

So much for the big eighties sound I was after, talking of which it doesn’t get much bigger than today’s track… the Big Sky by Kate Bush.

Such a wet snare, such a squeaky voice, over the top drums, far too iconic, far too Irish… tiddly die tiddlly die tiddly die ahhhhhh, far too busy… and then we pause for a jet, oh yes, that jet, that’s what makes it for me.

It shouldn’t work, not with all those layers, yet it does, and its big and beautiful and unashamedly 80’s. Love it !

Oh and it has a Fairlight on it… nuff said.

Give Me Back My Heart

2011-02-18T13:37:00.004Z

Well this is the first blog of the new year and the big gap is mainly because of the track I talked about in the last blog entry. Taking a rather poor stereo copy of a track and trying to make it 'fit' in with what I am doing with the new album was no small task. I have learned an awful lot about what does and doesn't work when doing such a thing, mainly about how awesome EQ can be when you use it correctly. It's been a pretty steep learning curve but I think I got there in the end. Just have to walk away from it now for a month or so and come back fresh to it (then probably bin it altogether).

So only one track left to do now (Gulp), then it's a mammoth mix down and a bit of cover design, then the truly awkward bit of getting people to have a listen.

I am hoping to actually do some of the next track in the States later this year while the family are busy swimming in the afternoons . It's the one track I have been putting off for the longest. I only have an idea about how it should feel, and of course the vocal content. Having listened to a lot of early Trevor Horn production work, I want to try and capture than early 80's big sound feel. I have a bit of a tune, but not much to work with yet. Gonna have to fire up all three sythns to achieve that 'wall of keyboards sound', but at the same time, I want it fairly stripped down... I know, can't have both really. The one thing it will do is use everything I have learned over the past year recording, lots of different way of making sound, all mixed into one.

With this in mind, today's track is by Dollar : Give Me Back My Heart

So this is total cheese this record, but its so catchy, and of course saved by the production and writing skills of Trevor Horn. Starting up like 'I'm not in Love' by 10CC then you get this all familiar bass rumbling along under the airy fairy vocals. This song is pure Buggles 'LITE' but you have to love it (just don't tell anyone cool).

Oh and that play out.... simply divine !

All This Useless Beauty

2010-12-19T16:53:00.001Z

Well, I have started a first for me. I have actually started work on a very old track of mine with a mind to rework it for the album. Now there are significant down sides to doing this. The main one being that the only copy of the track I have to work with is on audio cassette and in stereo. This means that not only do I have clarity issues, but I also have very little I can actually change.

The other massive down side is the fact that the track is in my head, just as I made it, with potentially a lyric over the top of it. Now I have to break it up and do something completely different with it.

But that is in essence the challenge here, I like the feel of it and I think it just might fit with what I am doing at the moment. It’s also interesting to see how far you can go with just a stereo track to work with. I think it might take quite a while though.

Also means ‘beatmapping’ things as well, which is handy to practice but not always easy.

Crushingly complicated.

So this mood is fragile, and few songs pull that feeling off. King of the heap must be Elvis Costello’s excellent ‘All this useless beauty’. Very much a lament, crying out from the speakers with his unique lilt that both warms and chills at the same time.

‘What shall we do, what shall we do, with all this pointless beauty'?

Days

2010-12-13T18:58:00.001Z

Well its been a big break in blogs and a lot has been going on. I trundled myself across the country to attend TEDx Aldeburgh, mid life muso’s talking the future of music with an eclectic but very interesting bunch of lecturers. Thomas Dolby did a good job as MC and it was nice to press the flesh of a couple of people I have always admired (William Orbit, what a nice man!). It did however have a missing ingredient in that there were no younger people there, and lets face it, if we are talking about the future of music its something that belongs to them anyway, not us old fogies. Might take my youngest next year if she fancies it.

Also had the release of Thomas Dolby’s latest EP a couple of weeks ago which was fine but not great. Much as I would love to rave about it I cannot in all honesty. He’s done so much better in the past, I fear there is a chance that his music is becoming too insular. Still the stand out track ‘Oceanea’ is a classic and makes up for the other two.

Music wise for me, I have hit the doldrums. College has put paid to any serious work on the album, and with only two tracks to complete that is very frustrating. The ideas are there and the music, it’s just getting the time to get them firmed up. The title track is planned to be the biggest piece I have put together so far, and involves learning a few new things on the keyboard and PC which I simply don't have time to do. The last thing I want is to rush and spoil the idea. Back burner time!

So the song for today is a gentle refrain, jingly jangly guitars, and a beautiful harmonised voice lilting over the top effortlessly.

‘Days’ by Kirsty MacColl, is one of her career highlights and unforgettably lovely in every way.

Sing

She Blinded Me With Science

2010-09-30T14:16:00.004+01:00

In Cardiff the other day, I picked up this old GEC in house magazine from 1964. It's a fantabulous little booklet detailing all that was going on in GEC in the month I was born, including an article about their brand new 'Fluorescent Tubes' designed for kitchens.

It's crammed with things like, Marriage Announcements, Promotions, bowling and cricket scores. They just don't publish things like this anymore which is a real shame. It was also special since its featured factory was one that used to live only 24 miles up the valley from where I am sitting now.

It has a beautiful retro feel and a sincerity not often found in big business these days. Definitely one for the wall of my studio should I ever build one.

Juxtaposed with that are my struggles last night with virtual synths, beatmapping audio samples, and getting my head into running several modular vintage units simultaneously on one lap top. I neeeeeeeed more RAM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'She Blinded Me With Science' is probably one of the best known Dolby tracks from the eighties, and definitely one of the most commercial. It has that feel of 'mad boffin' keyboards with pop sensibilities. And it so perfectly meets the creative mood at the moment.

'The spheres are in commotion,
the elements in harmony,
She blinded me with Science'

And of course it featured the sublime Magnus Pike..... how could it not be a classic.
Enjoy.

History of Modern

2010-09-23T14:43:00.002+01:00

Well this week kicked off with the release of the much anticipated new album from the officially reformed OMD. And what a little cracker it is. It tastes, sounds and feels like an OMD album but with one big difference, it has the freshness their first 3 or 4 albums had. Not a tired refrain in sight.

It has the punchy-ness of McCluskys newer albums with all the choral breath backing stuff of the earlier stuff. And to add to that a good dose of new ideas. This is not a review, just my opinion. Personally I think reviews should always be on the positive side, unlike the one on Amazon from a certain chap from the BBC who took great pleasure in deriding every aspect of the new work.

To add to this I did another mix down of my completed tracks from some work I did last Thursday. Of the nine tracks now only two need a tweak, one some minor additions, but six were just right for me. I would say that it was more than half way to completion now.

Unfortunately I started my MSc this week so things will be going very slowly on the music front from here on in. It may take a good six months to finish the final few tracks off.

So, all in all a very good week musically.

Having the new album still very much in my head I must of course chose something from this album for today’s track. Well unfortunately I cant decide between at least five of the tracks, so today’s track is in fact the whole album.

‘New Babies, and new toys, it’s better with the girls but its bigger with the boys’

Welcome back OMD

Temptation

2010-08-31T17:21:00.001+01:00

Well what a synth-tastic week I am having this week. Having decided that one of the goals I should set myself is to, at some stage, have a bank of classic synthesizers to play with at my leisure, I committed a very small amount of money to a budget to search for such things.

Now in the past, when looking for such things, I have always been in somewhat of a hurry, or after the very latest tech. But this time the brief was different. I wanted things that I yearned for in the past, however old they are now, classic synths (or the ones I thought were classic) from the early eighties to the mid nineties. Nothing much to get excited about these days, but stuff that had a specific sound. Now I had to exclude the Roland synths because I have a Juno G and a couple of excellent soft syths to fill that gap. So I had in mind a sample synth and something with a sound I love.

Now here’s the shocker, this is the first time the recession has actually played into my hands. Earlier this week I picked up a classic Casio FZ1 sampling keyboard for just £70, and just now I picked up a wonderful Kawai K4 for £86. Both cost thousands when they came out, both in full working order and excellent condition, and both fitting the bill perfectly.

I am gob smacked and cant wait until I have the room somewhere to set them all up together (one day soon, for now they go into storage).

So I am back in synth heaven for the first time in years, and it didn’t cost a fortune. Now all I need is those folks from the Gadget show to give me that nice Nord keyboard that is just gathering dust on the shelf of their set and I will be made up. (Wishful thinking that one).

So with a single synthetic note, wavering with vibrato, a deep cutting voice cuts through the manufactured drone to break into the start of Temptation by Heaven 17. Great use of synthesizers, but a definite over use of the Linn Drum. Love it of loath it, its a unique synth classic that everyone remembers.

TEMPTATION !!!!

Losing My Religion

2010-08-15T19:39:00.004+01:00

A depressing two hours this afternoon. Tried to work on Wired and slowly realised that I do not spend enough time working with my software to ever achieve using it efficiently. After two hours I was further back that I started.

I really don't think at the rate I get to work on this stuff that I will really have the time to complete anything meaningful in the next couple of years. Especially with college work and a potential move to a house which needs a shit-load of work, I am thinking this evening that the sensible thing to do would be to put it all on hold for a couple of years.

Somethings gotta give, as Kirsty Allsop always says 'you have to compromise on something'.

It's something I am going to have to think very seriously about over the next couple of weeks.

And here am I sitting watching 'Must be the music' with the girls and thinking I could do so much better.

Never mind.

So what song is going to cheer me up this evening?
Well everyone of an age knows this one 'Losing my Religion' by REM. Its brilliantly pathetic in its feel and is always there when we are feeling down. Superbly put together, and achingly real.

'That's me in the corner' !!!!!

Kiss

2010-08-03T19:26:00.003+01:00

Was it really the end of may the last time I posted a blog.

I am really getting out of practice with this, work and video editing seems to be taking over all my time at the moment. I will just have to try harder.

Since May I have been lucky enough to get my ears around three new brilliant releases from the Infamous ZTT label. For my birthday I had the double whammy of the entire ZTT Box set featuring music from across the labels catalogue, and also Trevor Horns re-release of the Pleasuredome album with all the extras that it included. Then just this morning I received Influence - by the Art of Noise, for the first time, a proper greatest hits from the band with tons of extra tracks of never before released stuff to get my brain around.

I also made the mistake of burning what I thought were six almost completed tracks from my up-coming project onto CD for the car. Three needed no work, two of them needed some extensive remixing, and the final track 'Wired' needs a whole new re-think because it sounded terrible, just really didn't hang together. I have another eight tracks or so to complete, two of which are only ideas at this stage, so I wont be holding my breath for any kind of completion this year. Lets hope the MSc I am starting in September doesn't get i the way.

So song for today is total cheese, but it happens to be playing as I type, and its awful to admit it but its making me smile. The volume just went up again.

OK folks, it's the man himself, Tom Jones, and a little bit of the Art of Noise, beat boxing its way out of my speakers. A song for every party known to man.

KISS...... 'think I better dance now'........ no Tom please don't.

Idiot Country

2010-05-27T08:15:00.002+01:00

I have just listened back to a track that I am working on at the moment provisionally called ‘Reaper’ (and no, it’s not a Seventies Progressive Rock tune) after having left it alone for a week or so.

Listening, something occurred to me. Had I made this sort of thing back in the eighties, to this quality, I would have been wetting myself with joy, and would have been convinced of my impending stardom. Actually back then I was pretty convinced of my impending stardom every time I finished a track, but listening back now I am wholly unsurprised I never made it passed the demo tape stage. This last little ditty puts nearly all I did back then into shadow, and yet I am not impressed. I am so much harder to please these days.

Why is that? Is it because I have so little time to work on these things, it takes so long to finish something that I expect it to be awesome when I have. Back then I could turn out a tune in a day or so, and have lyrics down pat in a few hours. Now it takes months even to get a rough copy together

The technology has made life so much easier. It is now a breeze to get what’s inside your head, out, and into the ears of others. The worry is now that no-one will want to listen to it. Luckily I decided way back only to make music I wanted to listen to. So chances are absolutely no one will want to listen to it, but at least I won’t be disappointed this time.

OK so a technology rich track for today, well this could be most things I listen to, but recently I have been getting back into Electronic whilst boxing my little heart out. The opening track of their first album is an absolute barnstormer ‘Idiot Country’ shouts at you from the get-go and doesn’t let up until it finishes. And politically quite relevant in these times.

“It's an open act of defiance, and it's aimed direct with you
We could form some kind of alliance, we could do what we wanted to do
And the young would live forever
And the sun would shine through the blue
If we got our hands on this nation,
we could do what we wanted to do”

Turn up, shout at the world..........

Just look at you now

2010-04-01T18:29:00.008+01:00

Caught up with Dave James and family on the weekend, showed Dave some software I have been using and he's getting all fired up about remastering some of his old stuff which will be great.

(Picture above taken by Holly when we were out for a walk)

We did quite a bit together in the early eighties, but never got anywhere with it because of two main reasons 1) we didn't have the fire in our bellies to go for broke, and 2) we were a bit crap!.

That's not saying that what we came up with together ,and individually, did not have its merits, because some of it is very good and probably worth a rework. We just weren't up to scratch in those days.

If you are a nostalgia monkey like Dave it certainly spells good times revisiting these bits a pieces we put together back then. I prefer to remember the feeling of doing something totally new (even if it was not executed that well). It's the same buzz I get now when I put something together (even corporate intros), the feeling of achievement and creativity. Knowing what you did is totally yours.

Dave Stewart once said he wished someone would develop a mixing desk with a urinal attached, because in his words "sometimes you finish a song and listen back the to the mix and its so good you want to piss yourself". I totally get that.

Song for today has just be chosen by my youngest daughter as she sits on the loo. A track from Howard Jone's album 'Revolution of the Heart'.

This is happy, synthy, bouncy and always requested on the journeys home from school.

"Just look at you now, riding on that silver wave
That keeps on going, through the sun and through the rain,
Through the good and the bad times
Through the joy and through the pain"

A great artist still writing great songs.

This Corrosion

2010-03-30T11:11:00.002+01:00

The rain came down and floods came up.

It’s certainly raining in biblical volumes today, this planet seems to be fighting back in a big way these days. Earthquakes, tidal waves, the lot! Do you think it’s pissed at us at all. Or perhaps it’s just science and stuff happening all at once, coinciding with our heightened awareness of what we do to our environment.

But then again, if we are part of the environment, surely what we are doing is natural too. If a beaver builds a damn we call it nature, even if the flow downstream suffers. When we do it, it’s an abomination.

When a plague of locusts sweep entire crops clean of their harvest, they are a pest, but still nature. When we burn down forests to plant those crops we are evil.

Most species in this world do all they can to survive and prosper, with no consideration to those further down the food chain. Are we any different? Are we just the latest dinosaurs, waiting for extinction, before a better thing comes along?

Are we as all powerful as we like to think we are, or just a blip on the scope of earth’s history? Soon to be forgotten as this planet gets on with its work of supporting whatever comes along.

Who knows, but I do think we are given one life, and we should damn well use it.

Believe what you want, love what you want, do what you want, just don’t waste it!

Stepping down from the soap box for a moment, song for the day just happens to suit a mood, since I am in work on my day off, I’m cold, fed up and thinking what I could be doing instead.

Andrew Eldritch has done some very cool songs in his time, and this is the finest. ‘This Corrosion’, from the Sisters of Mercy Greatest Hits (A Slight Case of Over Bombing).

Kick off with the angelic choral voices (Biblical again) then slam dunk into a course square wave synth bass line…..’ Hey now, hey now now, sing this corrosion to me’

On daze, like this
In times like these
I feel an animal deep inside
Heel to haunch on bended knees

Brilliant LOUD !

Areas

2010-03-12T12:16:00.005Z

Where does all the money go? We don’t party, we don’t holiday every year, we don’t go out for meals on a regular basis. We don’t have expensive hobbies, or a drug habit. We don’t buy flash cars or lovely clothes.

We do : have two daughters, a massive mortgage, work so far away that petrol bills are crippling, pay tax, tax, and more tax, have crappy pay rises well below inflation, have no overtime and very, very bad luck with things breaking down all the time. Oh and massive overheads.

Better off than most of the world I suppose, but it does niggle that I have to work my socks off to get the same as those who prefer to live off the state. If I could afford toys I would throw them out of the pram (Maclaren - second hand, couldn’t afford new).

As you can guess I have just done my finances! Something’s gotta give….. as they say in the
States

Time to relax and refocus.

This week I have been zoneing out to a brilliantly produced track by New Musik. A little known track from their less than successful second album ‘Anywhere’

‘Areas’ is simple and gentle. It has a fantastic stereo mix and an inspired reverse vocal that gives it a creepy feel. It goes nowhere in particular and takes it time getting there.

It is simply BLISSFULL

Enjoy…….. now I’m off shopping, what the hell!

Clean Clean

2010-02-18T09:34:00.003Z

I was lucky enough over Christmas to have a homemade gift from my eldest daughter in the form of her very first Compilation CD for me. Coming from a generation of music compliers I was chuffed she had discovered the joys of fitting music together for people.

Most of this is done via her Spotify playlists of course, but to have a physical CD compiled from all the tracks I keep telling her are brilliant was a real treat. She has yet to quite master the art but showed great promise with the whole thing kicking off with ‘Clean Clean’ by the Buggles.

Now, I have always quipped that I would like this song played at my funeral. But I have no idea why this particular track would be the one I want in peoples’ heads when they are saying goodbye. It’s not a sad song, or a meaningful song, in fact the lyric is quite silly. I think it just represents the energy and enthusiasm I always love in music, and of course its produced by Trevor Horn, which immediately raises its musical stature in my eyes. It’s odd, quirky, and complete pop fluff…. And to be honest I love it.

On line the other night, I quite by accident stumbled upon the fact that the Buggles second album ‘Adventures in Modern Recording’ (yes that’s where I got the name for this Blog) had been re-mastered and released with extra tracks. As you may expect, I am currently looking out for the postman every day waiting for that small brown box from Amazon… I really can’t wait.

So crank your stereo up to 11, pick up you air guitar (or bass), and let rip

‘lying on the wasteground with a blanket on his face
indicating that he's left the human race
hell went open when the world came in
gotta keep your head if you wanna win’

Fake Plastic Tree's

2010-02-16T14:20:00.005Z

We are wired, through our heads and connected by web to every corner of the earth.

We are wired, through our souls and soldered to those we Facebook and Twitter.

We are wired, through our bodies, through TV and Radio, from Nintendo to Microsoft.

We are wired, to the universe through every cell that makes us, and the time that flows through us.

We are wired, to each other, through love, hate, curiosity and sex.

We are wired.

This is not so much a lyric as a voice over for a piece I am working on, not sure how I am going to use it yet, but it sounds right for the space it needs to fill. Sounds quite arty doesn't it, but it's not. I am just trying to get a feel for what I am doing and when I played this piece of music back the other day I could hear a soft voice saying things like this over the top. So I wrote down what I heard and there it is. The first official sample of the new musical doodle I am contructing out of samples, keyboards, bits of lego and cellotape.

Todays song I played for the first time in ages over the weekend, just to break the drone of continual funk / hip-hop ouzing out of my eldests bedroom.

'Fake Plastic Trees' by Radiohead. For those who know it, I assume you all love it. For those who dont, its well worth the discovery. Pathetic, meloncholic, and wholly lonely in its feel, a kind of latter day 'Elinor Rigby'.

Radiohead at their artistic best.

Enjoy, but don't cry!

Dumb

2010-01-29T12:07:00.000Z

We all sail our ships across a dangerous sea, steering into the wind, reading the maps on others faces to steer clear of the rocks. Occasionally we crash into the rocks and are saved by passing friends, or we go down all hands with no hope. Clinging to the rocks of life, waiting for some distant light to spell the arrival of help. Sometimes it comes and sometimes it doesn’t.

In this stormy weather it is easy to lose your bearings, lose sight of the horizon, or even sail inadvertently into the doldrums, left to drift for what seems like an eternity all alone. We all need help now and then, and being the saviour can be an inspiring feeling. But it too has it dangers, where the genuine offer of help is mistaken for other motives. Approaching lights mistaken for enemy vessels.

I will never profess to understand people as much as some others do. I seem to go crashing about the place being myself no realising what is occurring around me.

Dumb dumb dumb.

Song for today has a beautiful guitar opening into a Jazz riff, all lounge-lizardy, and then the cutting lyric creeps in under Paul Heaton’s almost whispered voice.

‘Either you are simply Beautiful, or I am simply dumb’

Dumb by the Beautiful South. Let it wash like waves over you.

Carpet Crawlers (2001)

2010-01-22T12:29:00.004Z

It’s been an oddly distressing week and a bit. Kicking off with our trusted washing machine blowing up, peaking at an incident in Costco on the weekend, and generally getting dragged into the mud with a ruptured water tank and ill relatives.

Apart from the financial burdens of things going wrong, and the emotional edge of worrying about those nearest and dearest who are in pain, the biggest impact on my life over the last week was a twenty minute episode in Costco last Sunday.

As most who know me well would be aware, I suffer from quite bad nose bleeds, usually unannounced and very heavy. I have been lucky over the past good few years that these have mainly occurred at home or in work and very rarely in public places. We were walking around Costco on Sunday when suddenly I felt a rush of blood and so duly headed for the loo’s leaving Kirsty and the girls to shop. Now for some reason this was a particularly heavy one, so I took my usual stance over the basin, taps on, endless paper towel on the go, to wait for the bleed to cease. It did not. Not a problem, just very messy.

Then something strange happened, as people came into the loo’s I noticed I was being stared at. Not spoken to, but stared at. Fine, I thought, bloke with a bad nose bleed, it’s fair enough to stare. Then, when a little lad went to use the sink next to me, his Dad pulled him away to the other end of the room whispering ‘don’t go near’. This happened again, and again, and people were queuing to use the sink furthest from me. As time went on, the bleed got worse and obviously the distress was evident. People came and went, and avoided me or whispered to each other. There I was, a man in his forties, smartly dressed, in the middle of the day, having a very bad nose bleed and of the thirty or so people who passed through the toilet not one of them asked if I was OK….. not one!

I have never felt so let down by people in my life. We all quite rightly rally to support those victims in Haiti without a thought to ourselves. But why are we scared of our neighbours? Perhaps I am an interfering busybody, but if I had seen someone bent over that sink I know I would of asked if they were OK. What the hell are people scared of? It saddened me a lot.

Now I know bigger things are going on in the world, but it is these small steps people need to take that will make a change for all of us. We need to look out for each other, not just when it’s a million miles away, we need to get our hands dirty and take a risk every now and then.

So, song for today, well it’s being difficult. I needed melancholy and an insular feel, warmth and irony. A pathetic edge with a solitary sound. So here it is ‘Carpet Crawlers’ by Genesis. Now I am not one of these geek Genesis fans who likes only the old stuff and reads all sorts of meaning into their often bizarre lyrics. I like a lot of what they do mainly for the musical skills they have. So this is a classic.

Tune out, kick back, scrunch those toes into the fleece carpet………. ‘You’ve gotta get in to get out’

Screen Kiss

2010-01-08T13:03:00.004Z

Well we are all snowed in across the great UK and all people can talk about is the weather. So very British of us all isn't it.

Lots of stuff happening at the moment in my world and the one outside of my head. Determined to get even more done this year and waste less time with things that don't really matter. It's easy to get distracted when you are bored, but a busy brain keeps motoring regardless. I want to achieve 50 % more than I did last year, and also cram in some stuff just for me along the way. Is that even possible? I am not sure if time or guilt will allow such an indulgence but I am going to give it a damn good go.

Recently recorded a guide vocal for a friend which was the first singing to microphone I have done in decades, heavens I really need to practice and eat less pies!

As for the white-out, only thing to do is warm the soul with a classic track. Today Mr Dolby may be freezing to the bone recording in his boat on the coast of the UK somewhere, but I like to think it was a warmer time when he recorded 'Screen Kiss' since it ouzes Hollywood charm and West Coast warmth.

Screen Kiss, enjoy, its good enough to melt the snow.

Woke Up This Morning

2009-09-25T12:48:00.004+01:00

The light is now diffuse and natural, and right where it should be. The place nears completion and now suites a bit of thinking and writing.

Tough couple of days again and just coming out of the other side. Looking forward to a good nights sleep tonight, and a shed load of new music in my ears over the weekend. I have three albums lined up by 'Kate Nash', 'Just Jack' and 'Mr Hudson and the Library' so here's hoping there is something good in there for me.

Hoping to steal some time on Sat to start work on the 'all music' stuff I have on the laptop. A two hour wait for my youngest to finish drama should provide a window with any luck.

Life seems to be getting too busy again, and I always hate not being able to take in the scenery as we go along. It almost misses the point of life if you have no time to appreciate what is going on around you. Gets too blinkered, too selfish. Need some time away from it as ever. But that is , as ever, elusive.

So I woke up this morning, and sung the blues. That's where we are with today's song from the magnificent Alabama 3. Hard to chose from this particular pot of awesomeness but logically it has to be 'Woke Up this Morning' made famous by a certain TV show which I have never seen.

This is angry and driving and right where I want it at the moment.

That voice, so deep, colour so black. Go boys..... 'woke up this morning, got yourself a gun!'

How Do You Live Without Sunshine

2009-09-12T18:37:00.003+01:00

Another show, here we go.

And I watch as the talent, raw in its beauty try so hard to impress. But I am already impressed, and there is nowhere further to go with this. The flowered young things dance, gig, and mime to their favuorites, with moves that would make 'Little Miss Sunshine' blush. Ah it must be the weekend again.

I am here awaiting the curtain call listening to the new album by 'Yo La Tengo' still in the excitement of dicovering this band, and wow what a back catalogue I have to look forward to, I hope its all as good as this is.

The sun has been out, and the windows have been cleaned, and the world is now a brighter place. Soft top racing cars call me to the open roads where the stereo would bleed summer sounds to unsuspecting passers by, as all feels good again.

So what would I listen to if I had that car right now.

Easy, Nick Heyward, from the outstanding album 'From Monday to Sunday' the track was not a single but it has all the warmth and beauty of a day like today. Top down, open road, smile HOW DO YOU LIVE WITHOUT SUNSHINE
.......... yey !

Forbidden Colours

2009-09-10T19:12:00.005+01:00

Its been a bumpy ride this week, with things not going to plan and various upsets for both grown ups in this household. Unfortunately the worries are about work mainly which is sad since we really shouldn't care that much and really really should of learnt by now that we are not the type of people who get on in this world mainly because we are too honest.

I managed twenty minutes on the keyboards last night and got some spine tingling grooves going, all very 'airy fairy' and not suited to song structures so it will have to go with the 'weird all music stuff' pile. That particular pile is getting quite large now and would merit a collection of its own, which I may well do while I am trying to write the song based stuff.

I have doubts that I will ever actually get around to doing anything more than a couple of demo's but the thought is there.

So after my wispy keyboard romp to which I was groaning along, I decided to quit and listen to some music made by those more competent. The feel was Sylvian, so I pulled him up on Spotify and played some stuff from 'Secrets of the Beehive'
A short while later Holly walks in and said in some surprise 'Oh, I thought that was you singing'.............. yeah right, I wish !!!! She has more faith in my singing talents than I do.

So track for today, is from the man himself and the marvellous Ryuichi Sakamoto who played the piano so beautifully on this, taken from the Soundtrack of 'Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence'. Forbidden Colours is perfect tonally, and rich with East meets West composition, and very very relaxing. Enjoy

P.S. Below a brilliant pic of Isabelle when I showed her some of the more complex arpeggio's you can create on the Juno. The expression says in all !!

Signal to Noise

2009-08-13T09:37:00.001+01:00

Sometimes the background noise interferes with life too much.

That uneasy feeling in your muscles, almost buzzing when they should be relaxed, devoid of caffeine or other stimulant, edgy and unnerving. You can almost hear the system running, the blood coursing through your veins, the electrons firing in your brain, the pain rumbling along like an unstoppable freight train hell bound for the head.

We all need to shut out the noise every now and then, and I could really use a dark cool room right now just to reset the servers and shutdown all the crap running in the background. Even writing gets difficult.

So what should I listen to in my darkened room? Right now, only one track springs to mind. A great summation of a feeling. Peter Gabriel… ‘Signal to Noise’.

Great Mood
Great Strings
Great use of vocal styling’s

‘WIPE OUT THE NOISE’

Freak

2009-07-31T18:43:00.000+01:00

Technology! I am sure it’s going to be the death of me. I have almost certainly racked up more stress hours in front of my PC and synth than in any other place in my life.

Just when you think it is safe to go back into the studio, it all changes again. ME to XP, XP to Vista, and now, Vista to 7. No! I am not going there, getting Vista upgrades has been bad enough, I will tolerate no more.

I am in the process of redesigning my set-up before I have even begun because of Vista compatibility issues. Out goes my CMI PC interface and PC-200 keyboard, because of those darned latency / compatibility problems, and in comes an Edirol sound interface unit and using the Juno G as the mother board.

Back when it was a mono synth, a beat box, and a Tascam 244, the only thing we had to worry about was background hiss and putting the tape in the right way up.
So not all progress is good, and I am of an age now where simple bugs can seem like giant monsters. But I will get there even if the budget has taken another £70 hit, and one day soon I might just start making some music again.

So what have I been inspired by today. Well sadly I looked up one of Heaven 17’s less know albums on Spotify and got totally hooked. This one came along quite a while after they had been mega famous, and almost slipped under the radar. It has all their classic licks and touches, but now with a maturity I hadn’t heard from them before. The album is called ‘Bigger than America’ and is quite anti ‘that great continent’ in a lot of places, but hey its music not politics so what do I care?

Track of the day is ‘Freak’, best played loud and fast at the end of a hard day in work, with the windows down and the shades on, and a finger proudly flipped at my place of employment. This track is H17 at their best, full on, silly lyric, and brilliantly put together, and dare I say it, it knocks spots off ‘Temptation’

New In Town

2009-07-21T12:37:00.007+01:00

Just a quick entry to say my daughter finally read the book I wrote for her.

Rather amazingly she didn't put it down once she had started, it took her a fair few hours but she finished it all in one day.

Initially she didn't believe I had written it (compliment or shame?). I was so nervous about how she felt about it, I had invested over three years into this just for her.

Her response was flattering, but I am used to taking pinches of salt with appraisals from the nearest and dearest.

What really gives me a buzz is the fact that she now keeps talking about it, like she had just watched a film (she also asked if it could be made into one, which is cool). And she remembers so much of it.

Time to find an agent maybe, no rush though, other fish to fry, original intention has been realised.

In honour of Holly the song for today is one we both love.

Perfect modern pop pulp..... 'New in Town' by Little Boots is infectious and bouncy with a respectable dollop of synths.

Classic!!!!

Me Fui

2009-07-10T13:32:00.005+01:00

So it's Friday again and I though I would spend a moment to try and at least get one blog entry completed for this month.

Lots of weird stuff happening around the world at the moment, a reason why I am so keen to lose myself in Sci-fantasy and the silliness that is TV. I have been in admiration of Russell T Davies’s writing this week and it spurs me on to get my own efforts to a publisher to at least give them a chance of a public airing (otherwise I will never know).

Music has been brilliant over the past few weeks, getting well into Little Boots, La Roux and Robyn. Not forgetting to visit some old fogies along the way. A-Ha’s Analogue album being one fine example of that. It’s a good time to fill my head with new sounds to try and cleanse my pallet before I start to cook again.

THIS PARAGRAPH IS FOR MUSIC NERDS ONLY !!!!!

To the Tascam generation I give you a nerdy rundown of how I have set up my new studio. So the beating heart is fabulous Juno G (as a writing tool), squeezed through a CMI – 106L sound card interface to my lap top. Sound output is handled either by my Cambridge Soundworks monitor speakers, or though my Sennheiser head phones. I have a Roland PC200 as a Midi controller for the soft synths and a Korg Toneworks AX3G for passing my Crafter 6 string guitar through prior to the laptop. Vocals handled by a T-Bone GM55 mic through a Behringer MIC800 Modeling Preamp. The laptop uses Sony Acid 7.0 Pro and Soundforge 9.0 for music production / recording / sequencing, and a very carefully chosen set of soft synths to back up the Juno comprising KORG (Wavestation / Legacy Cell / Poly Six), Minimoog 5, PRO-52, Yamaha FM7 and I am trying to get Spectrosonics Atmostpheres to work on Vista but I am having no luck.

Low budget I know, but enough to play around with.

The plan is to build songs various ways to get a good mix of sound, some on the Juno, some hard sequenced on the lap top, some built up from wave files, so it should be interesting.

NERD ALERT OVER!!

Song for today is off an excellent new album by BEBE titled Y. It’s in Spanish but needs no translation. The track is called ‘Me Fui’ and is a brilliant example of modern Spanish pop, absolutely fantastic.

Spotify this album now, then go out and buy it, we just don’t hear music this good everyday.

Happy listening

I Never Said I Was Deep

2009-06-27T18:19:00.002+01:00

This heat would fracture the strongest of men. So I hide indoors and work on the studio for a bit. A Fathers day gift echoes around me, with a vaguely Bowie undertone. My daughters shake their heads with solemnity, 'Dads listening to old fart depressive music again!'

But this is Jarvis, and given the recent Pop Headlines about a certain Mr Jackson, this is poignant in the ultimate.

It's hard to explain how important MJ was without explaining why he fell from favour, especially to two girls who are wondering what all the fuss is about. The music speaks for itself, out side of that I have no comment.

So Jarvis Cocker is playing, and I have just taken an updated picture of the studio to show I am actually making some progress.

Great new album, if not a little dated.

'I never said I was deep, But I am profoundly shallow!'

Enjoy the picture.

The Voyage of the Minds Eye

2009-06-05T12:31:00.001+01:00

A sudden sense of quiet comes over me, drowning out the road drill outside, and the staccato radio bleating its inane unconsidered opinions at me.

As the temperature slips away, and muscles tighten with stress, the focus drifts off to another place.

This is the ‘Gate to the Minds Eye’, flowing over me like cold sheets on a warm day, the ones that never stay that way, ice cold water through the toes at the waters edge, or the cheek stinging breeze of the fresh sea air on the deck of an exotic cruise liner. Or merely the touch of a loved one.

Four muted and subtle chords, the whispered words of a female voice in French, and an agonizing but crystal clear lead vocal.

This track is ‘The Voyage of the Minds Eye’ by Mr. Dolby. How does he get that piano to sound so bright? Great sound track.

And then all too soon it fades.

On Islands

2009-05-14T06:48:00.001+01:00

I view life as a series of interactions between the small voice buried deep within this complex brain and the small voices of others trying to reach out and communicate through what are the seemingly endless barriers that are thrown in our way every day.

It’s bad enough that so much seems to be lost in translation between my heart and the ears of the beholder, but to add to that the maze of emotional trap doors we have to negotiate as to what is, and isn’t appropriate behavior for a particular small voice to witness, and it seems the journey for a sincere thought or emotion is almost insurmountable.

Do we not all find ourselves talking to other ‘tiny sparks of love trapped in organic shells’ and hear ourselves saying things that mean nothing, but feeling emotions strong enough to move mountains? And what do we do with these emotions? Bury them deep into our fantasies and dreams, to emerge in the safety of the role playing mind in the depths of sleep.

There are people I want to tell things to, admit a need or desire, or even a hate or intolerance, but these thoughts remain in the dark for fear their light will burn a hole in the fragile world I have built to protect me. It is important however for us all to admit they are there and form part of the person no one ever gets to decipher.

But sometimes it would be nice to say, ‘actually I really……..’

How appropriate then that today’s ditty is ‘On Islands’ by New MusiK, and wonderful 12 string blast from 1980 which perfectly sums up the above. It has optimism and sadness and a brilliant searing synth lead sound. The kid talking over the end is also kind of cool, if not a little cheesy.

‘Were all the same, all on our own Islands, that reach out for ever more… into the darkest depths of eternal space…searching’

Nothing Compares....

2009-05-13T18:00:00.000+01:00

A lazy April has left this blog page bare for too many weeks. I apologize for that.
Having to be too creative in work is exhausting my creativity at home. That combined with work on the studio / study.

Well the decorating is done with the help of copious amounts of yellow paint and a permanently streamed Spotify input (what did I do for music before that came along ????? http://www.spotify.com/en/). I have had a great chance to listen to some albums I have wanted to catch up on for years and some very cool new stuff like Lily Allen’s latest. I also got to hear Regina Spektor’s albums which have been great fun.

And somewhere above the wash of Spotify in the study came the pounding of the same online program from Holly’s room. She is luckily not sharing my tastes at the moment (heaven forbid!). For her it’s a perpetually looped ‘Saturdays’ murdering ‘Just Cant Get Enough’. I have tried childishly playing the original even louder to drown her out but to no avail.

Actually they have done a really good job of covering it, but don’t tell Holly that, there’s only one thing worse than a grumpy old Dad who doesn’t like your music, and that’s one that does like it! It’s better for her to think I am trapped in the past, she couldn’t manage the embarrassment of me ‘Daddy Dancing’ to her favorite tunes.

So the Study side is complete, all I need to do now is wire up the creative side, which is causing me much stress.

Today’s tune is one I found on Spotify and is one of the most haunting and relaxing tunes I have heard in a long time. It’s from the soundtrack of the film ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ and is a version of ‘Nothing Compares 2 u” sung in Hawaiian. Trust me, this works brilliantly. So load up Spotify, type in ‘Coconutz’ and select ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ and chill…………….

Walking on Sunshine

2009-04-13T18:56:00.005+01:00

I caught the first half of a Documentary about Heavy Load, the thrash metal rock band with three out of its five members having special needs.

It was initially a refreshing breath of fresh air to see a group of five friends in a band, doing what they do because of the love of it, and not giving a damn about how they are perceived or how good people think they are at what they do.

It is always good to be reminded that in its essence, music is there to be enjoyed, to move us emotionally and physically, to change our mental state for the good. Over thinking it nearly always destroys it.

This group of five chums lived for what they did, and what they did, they did with passion and sheer exuberance.

Sadly the documentary maker seemed more interested in how his work would effect them than how they could exist in such a wonderful state. Shame he spoilt it, and we lost interest about half way through.

Today's message then is, enjoy what you do, live for your music, and don't give a damn what others think.

Mental note....... make music I want to listen to, not what I think others might want to listen to.

So how much fun can you get into one song, Katrina has the answer, her and her Waves crammed so much fun into one song only the 12" version does it justice. Cheesy, bubble gum pop it may be, but its as much fun you can have in a few minutes of pop song. Here goes, and welcome to 'Walking on Sunshine'

Out of your Brilliant Mind

2009-03-31T14:11:00.000+01:00

What was I thinking?

I must be out of my mind!

Exactly where am I going to get the time from to record another album?

I have been trying to decorate the studio for the last three weeks and all I have done so far is take some stuff off the walls, and give a small area a coat of white paint.

It took me nearly four years to write a short book, it’s going to take decades to write 10 to 12 tracks!

I am in the same pit of quicksand that everyone of my age and position is in. Time is the fire in which we all burn. We feed the kids, wash the dishes, make the meals, clean the house, take them to clubs, do the shopping, do the ironing, repair the broken things, and then we fall asleep on the sofa. Something went very wrong along the way there.

It would be so nice just to take 6 months off and have a proper crack at being inspired. Not going to happen, but it makes me appreciated time, and the time I have with those I love.

Busy week this week, already tired and have Ed Burns Thursday night, friends over Saturday night, and Michael MacKintyre on Sunday night. I am going to be good for nothing on Monday!

So, I bought this fab retro 80’s album the other day with loads of querky songs from the period. I’ll dip my fingers into this for todays track. The, oh so brilliant, ‘Brilliant Mind’ by Furniture. I love this track, it has such a depth of feeling and a totally pointless lyric. Viva the 80’s.

Now where did I leave my white shoes?

Quiet Life ..... Again

2009-03-23T19:52:00.001Z

Well I have been stripping back the old study to make way for the new studio. Digging through the boxes and paperwork I came across a stash of CD’s I burned directly from audio cassettes and reel to reel tapes back in the very early nineties.

These are a real treat, I haven’t got the time to listen to them all now, but I picked a classic to get the ball rolling. The marvellous Dave James and his recording ‘Squeals on Wheels’. This version has a 6 minute preamble by Dave and myself just talking total rubbish in mock ‘Smith and Jones’ voices. It’s a classic.

I also found an old photo recently of me being extremely young and full of hope.

God I must only weigh 9 st in this shot. Back in the day I used to read a manual before playing a synth… tut tut.

Sitting next to me was my first Casio CZ101, I love those things, such a cool sound to them (Dave still has a CZ1000, the bigger version). I remember I bought a big shed and set up a rack of synths and drum machines in there all wired to my Tascam Porta Studio, I used to spend hours out there at the bottom of the garden being all creative and making some truly bizarre sounds. I have a CD somewhere called ‘The Shed Tapes’ which is about 40mins of live synth twiddling. Not a classic, but my very own creation.

The smell of fresh cut pine still always reminds me of making music in the mid eighties.

So I am feeling the buzz of new music again, and want to listen to some classic stuff. Arpeggio’s in my head walk a meandering line down my backbone (past the dodgy bits).

Japan, oh that voice can be so depressing, but ‘Quiet Life’ has a quiet life all of its very own.

Take me to the far east Mr Sylvian, and don’t spare the horses.

Hope You're Happy Now

2009-03-20T13:09:00.000Z

Its now the back end of a backlash week and we are all feeling the sting of the stinky stuff that is going on all around. It gets to the point where you are so shocked by what is happening you start to emerge out of the other side of disbelief, through the anger, side stepping the sheer numbness, and you get to place where you just have to laugh.

With all the crap that is going on, nobody has felt the need to say sorry at any point.

I feel really sorry that people I have known for years, friends amongst them, have had their livelihoods snatched from beneath them in the name of Corporate Realignment. Press statements detailing how reorganisation will secure the companies future never once touch on the side of remorse for those who have to give up their careers to realise this goal.

Where is the Heart?

The sun is shining, I have had a good day in work, life is treating me fairly well (better that a significant percentage of those on this planet) and I have a skip in my step looking forward to the weekend.

But I am still angry for those who have been shafted.

NiK Kershaw, has a song called 'Hope you're Happy Now' which pretty much sums up the insult these people must be feeling, and how hopeless we feel in the wake of it. Watch out corporate big wigs because.....

'One day a better man than I,
Will feed you fist and humble pie,
And I'll be there to hold his coat !'

Right on the mark this one, thanks Nik... looking forward to the acoustic show in April.
Back into the sunshine, jolly tune in head, skip in step....... Ahhhhhhh !

One Better Day

2009-03-10T12:35:00.000Z

There is a definite air of gloom around the place today. Bad news from the colonies, redundancies abound and the definitive lull that comes between Christmas and Easter.

I have been out filming today, and so have suffered the usual insults and jokes people feel they are able to make when you are in public with a big camera and tripod. But even these were tinged with suspicion and weariness.

As the corporate workhorse turns its frown to those no longer required, and the dark clouds of early March gather overhead, I am drawn into optimism.

A single song can pull away this feeling right now. An optimistic sound around a very sad lyric, but all the same it lifts all this above the self pity and despair.

'Walking round you sometimes.. feel the sunshine
Beating down in time with the.. rhythm of your shoes'

Madness leads to Happiness... 'One Better Day' Thanks boys.

Everything Counts in Large Amounts

2009-02-23T19:44:00.000Z

I have just witnessed the black underbelly of Walt Disney World, and it didn't taste good (unlike the nut in the Gruffalo).

Queuing for a ride called 'Soaring' I saw people push and shove, climb over each other, jump barriers, leap off escalators, and break through cordons just to be the first in line.

I really don't get it, why would they have such a disregard for each other all over a stupid ride. Made me feel sick to my core. It also opened my eyes to what people are really like in situations like that.

So walking away from it all, fast passes in hand, the cool crisp edge of the morning biting my skin, off to meet the others at the racetrack, it came rushing into my head.

'Everything Counts in Large Amounts'

Cue Depeche Mode (hopefully not for the last time on this blog), cue the metallic samples, the Berlin edged vocals, the sheer blackness of the sound.

'With grabbing hands, we grab all we can.
All for themselves after all its a competitive world'

Mums, Dads, children of the world I give you 'Everything Counts' by Depeche Mode.

Its Just the Sun Rising

2009-02-17T16:42:00.000Z

Here I am in Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, left on my todd for a few hours while the girls enjoy the wonders of a waterpark. So I walk. I walk around the spendors of this resort, head full of ideas, heart full of promise, its amazing what a little sun can do. Just taken a break from reading 'The Writers Tale' by Russell T Davies and it has left me charged with ambition regarding my writing.

I know, I know, I promised to get on with some music now, but its is tempting to keep the words comming in maybe a set of short stories which I have planned for some time.

So, the sun is in my face, the calmness of the surroundings is filling me with good intentions, I am toatlly chilled for the first time in maybe years.

Then that bassline kicks in dum dum, dum de dum dum for two bars, followed by the high aria voice, it crystallizes the moment perfectly. 'The Sun Rising' by the Beloved, again perfect for the moment. I never really got this track until this moment, and then it all made sense. It is a pure feeling of warmth.

Damn, I have sunburnt my shins now............

State Of Things

2009-02-07T19:52:00.000Z

Wild and wired at the end of another day chasing chores and cleaning up after the kids, I needed a moment to reflect.

The book is finally finished at long last, although I am unsure if anyone will ever get to read it. It's time now to start back on course in the music world.

Its been 17 years since recording anything other than the odd ditty for the kids and a bit of corporate intro, so its time I dragged my arse back to the keyboard and started to bear my soul all over again.

So this is where I would of liked to insert a picture like the one on Thomas Dolby's blog, of a wheelhouse on a boat decked out in the latest technology (http://blog.thomasdolby.com/). But where is my technology? It's there somewhere under the ironing, honest! I think a major rework is in order... yes I know its another tactic to delay putting finger to ivory (or plastic).... I say finger because that is very much my skill level. But it needs to be done, redecorate the study and make it music-making friendly. A clothes covered keyboard is not quite the 'Nutmeg of Consolation'.

So how do I get motivated in this new project?

Well lets not look back, lets bring it bang up to date with a soul stomping, rip roaring, beast of a track from the mighty fine 'Reverend and the Maker', who lets face it are pretty good.

So track one, look at the mess my music gear is in...... cue the bass synth intro and welcome one and all to the STATE OF THINGS.

Go Reverend!!!!!

Happiness Is Easy

2009-01-29T12:21:00.001Z

It’s a cold a dreary day, and the recession blues are biting everyone to the bone. The grey gloom clouds of fiscal misery hang over every head around here and amidst the layoff’s and cut backs the ugly face of greed has risen from the sewers.

Take away a mans overtime and he tries to screw the company for cash any other way he can. It’s a really sad sight to see and can pull down the happiest of souls and the biggest of companies. What ever happened to dignity?

So solemn the weather and sad the mood, something is needed to raise the soul to a higher place.

Get back to the office, plug in the headphones and search under Talk Talk for the track “Happiness Is Easy’.

Most people think of Talk Talk as an early eighties pop band, with a couple of edgy high viz pop tracks scraping the charts. The real fans tend to appreciate more what they did after that phase. Several deeply intuitive albums showing a mastery of musical styles. Somewhere between these two extremes is the album “The Colour of Spring’ which captures the best of both their worlds and swings between pop and anthem.

Tucked away on this album, ‘Happiness is Easy’ is one of the only tracks I have ever heard where the use of a childrens choir didn’t turn it into total cheese. A fantastic baseline intro promises something dark and then the chorus lifts it somewhere divine.

All better now.

Listen to this track!

Ultra Modern Nursery Rhymes

2009-01-23T13:22:00.000Z

When you are looking for that right combination of melancholy with an uplifting melody there are few better places to look than the rich back catalogue of Terry Halls work.

Sad songs sung to a very bouncy melody are his stock in trade and each has a certain place at a certain time in any ones life.

So, stressful and sad news has been the order of the day this week, and regardless of how people deal with such news there is always a need to actually deal with it.

REACTIONS

I have always thought I react to news rather distantly, or in poor proportion to the closeness of the News. It’s just my way. It all boils to the surface in the end, be it in song or poem or TV rant. I am often more effected by the loss of someone I respect but have never met than someone I am related to but don’t respect.

So needing to be uplifted without making whimsy of serious news I turned to Terry Hall and his collaborative album with Blair and Anouchka and track number 2 ‘Missing’

‘The kids are crying, the dog is dying, and I just got the flu…….. because we’re missing you’

Blissfully dark irony.

Not Being Boring

2009-01-17T13:47:00.000Z

It’s raining again, and I am driving again (not that this blog will be Top Gear with Music you understand, it’s just the way the thoughts have fallen this week). Actually its country lanes as well on the tail end of the school run picking up my exhausted cherubs after a hard days work and they are not in the mood for chat. Isabelle wants to stare out of the window at the rain while Holly no doubt plots her escape.

LUCKY MAN

So the request for music arrives at my ears yet again and I apologise that, once again, it’s a bit dated.

Trevor Horn once said he liked working with the Pet Shop Boys because they use all of his favourite chords, and this tune is a case in point.

The beautiful chimed subtleties of the chord progression at the beginning of Being Boring roused a chorus of approval from the rear seats. ‘I love this one’ they almost said in unison.
And this is where I am the lucky man. I am pretty sure I was not as open to the stuff my Dad would have listened to when I was that age. Kids now despite having more music to chose from than anyone in the past have, seem to have to capacity to give everything a shot. Is this because there is so much out there these days that they no longer differentiate between old and new stuff?

I am jealous that they are growing up in an age where their access to music far exceeds anything we had when we were young. Anyone can get their music out there these days and that only enriches us.

Now, when their musical tastes are forming deep within their subconscious, they hear everything with more choice and colour than ever before.
I am sure this will turn them into broad minded, balanced musical beasts in their future.

‘Things can only get better’

Moments in Love

2009-01-12T14:20:00.000Z

So it was Saturday evening and Holly had just had her 13th Birthday party with her friends in Cardiff. Being a Dad I was entrusted with the safe delivery of two of her male friends back to their rather dodgy abode in one of the rougher parts of Llantwit Major (cars on bricks, boarded up houses, you know the sort of thing).

Having made polite conversation with two outlandish lying thirteen year olds I was looking forward to a bit of piece and quiet on the 30min journey to Tesco (for drink, God did we need it that night) and then home.

I decided on a country lane short cut crossing the back lanes of Cowbridge to the A48. Front fogs illuminating my way through the dark and misty lanes I hit the red button on my stereo for the CD I was listening to earlier in the week to cough back into life.

MOMENTS

The eerie hollow drum machine and car horn sample from the start of ‘Vermillion Sands’ by the Buggles kicked in. I was transported to another place, accelerating into the dark surrounded by and ethereal pop song from the eighties, it felt like being fired from a helium cannon with my balls being suspended in blancmange. A whole body immersion of sound and sight for 6.48 perfect minutes… it’s exactly what ‘it’ is all about.

I even had to switch the stereo off before Tesco because ‘I am a Camera’ was next and you simply can’t start that song half way through after your shopping, it needs to be fresh and pure.