Saturday, December 21, 2024

WELCOME TO CRISPYCAT...

WELCOME TO CRISPYCAT RECORDINGS
We issue the solo and collaborative work of musician, broadcaster and abstract artist
DAVID REILLY

ABOUT    NEWS    MUSIC    BROADCASTS    ART    RECOMENDED LISTENING
This is the Cloudland Blue Diary - to go to another section of the site, click on an icon
                         

DIARY
The diary is up to date, with daily entries from Sunday 5 March 2005 to Wednesday 18 December 2024...
 (Scroll down for the latest entries)
151 days are "picture only" entries, across 6 periods:-
2005 (5): 8-12 September (5); 2016 (3): 15-17 October (3); 2022 (85): 18 April - 10 May (23); 6 July - 5 September (62);
2023 (58): 21 September - 15 October (25); 18 October - 19 November (33)
It is always the intention to update "picture only" days with the relevant text but doing so is, of course, subject to opportunity (and, indeed, memory!)

CRISPYCAT RECORDINGS ON BANDCAMP
To go to the Bandcamp discographies of these Crispycat related artists, click on an icon.

                    

Crispycat Recordings released the first 25 Cloudland Blue Quartet albums (recorded between 1996 and 2012) to Bandcamp in 2013.

A further 8 LPs were released between 2013 and 2019.

Then, with the advent of lockdown, David spent much more time on new Cloudland Blue Quartet works, with the result that, since May 2020, new music has been released almost every month, with over 60 further new releases having been issued in the last five years.

The current 16 strong pipeline (see below) will take matters to April 2026, pushing the total Cloudland Blue Quartet releases available on Bandcamp beyond 100.

Meanwhile, retrospective releases by David's groups Creek and Capital Models have also been being issued by Crispycat Recordings and these are set to continue, with over 40 planned between now and mid 2026...

LATEST RELEASE

Friday 20 December 2024Sombre Reptiles - Songs of the Sombre Reptiles 1980-1995 (Song Compilation)



Between 1980 and 1995, Sombre Reptiles released 35 LPs. At present, all of these albums are deleted.

"Songs of the Sombre Reptiles 1980-1995" is an 81 Track Virtual 6CD/10LP Box Set covering this pre-Cloudland Blue Quartet period.

The versions of the songs included in the Box Set are taken from eight sources, recorded between 1993 and 1996

The three long deleted volumes of "Songs of the Sombre Reptiles", originally released on cassette in 1993 and 1994 via Edinburgh Record Shop, Reptile Records - all but 3 of the 57 tracks from these three records are included

Further album tracks from the final four Sombre Reptiles records, "Galleryshard (1993), "Kernelcrux" (1994), "Bitter Sweet Covers" (1995) and "Starcrossfix" (1995)

Previously unreleased re-recordings from 1996, just before Sombre Reptiles became Cloudland Blue Quartet

As always from Crispycat Recordings, entirely Free to Stream and Name Your Price (including zero) to download

CURRENT CBQ RELEASE SCHEDULE

Tuesday 24 December 2024Cloudland Blue Quartet - Twentytwentyfour: The Originals (Compilation of 2024 Releases)
Tuesday 31 December 2024Cloudland Blue Quartet - Twentytwentyfour (Compilation of Rare and Previously Unreleased 2024 Recordings)
Friday 3 January 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet & Edward Spark - The Great Carving (Collaborative Electronic Instrumental LP)
Friday 7 February 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Variations on Brian Eno's "Discreet Music" (Soundscape Variations LP)

   

Friday 7 March 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Wrexham (Soundscape Piano & Guitar Based LP)
Friday 4 April 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Dissolution V (Soundscape Piano Based LP)
Saturday 12 April 2025 (Record Store Day)Cloudland Blue Quartet - GLAM! III (RSD Special: Covers LP)
Friday 2 May 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Variations on Brian Eno's "On Land" (Soundscape Variations LP)

   

Friday 6 June 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Strand (Soundscape Piano & Synthesiser Based LP)
Friday 4 July 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Gould (Soundscape Composers LP)
Friday 1 August 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Variations on Fripp & Eno's "No Pussyfooting" (Soundscape Variations LP)
Friday 5 September 2025: Cloudland Blue Quartet - Variations on Fripp & Eno's "Evening Star" (Soundscape Variations LP)

   

Friday 5 December 2025: Cloudland Blue Quartet - Disquietmusik IX (Soundscape Guitar Based LP)
Friday 3 April 2026Cloudland Blue Quartet - Dissolution VI (Soundscape Piano Based LP)
Saturday 11 April 2026 (Record Store Day)Cloudland Blue Quartet - GLAM! FOUR (RSD Special: Covers LP)

   

(All releases and release dates are subject to change)

SCHEDULED LIVE PERFORMANCES

            

Saturday 29th March 2025, 8:00pm - Capital Models
Leith Dockers, 17 Academy Street, Edinburgh, EH6 7EE
Repertoire: 3 sets of top covers, from Elvis to Taylor Swift

Saturday 24th May 2025, 8:00pm - Capital Models
Leith Dockers, 17 Academy Street, Edinburgh, EH6 7EE
Repertoire: 3 sets of top covers, from Elvis to Taylor Swift

In addition to these, there are these further possible appearances...

Occasional Thursdays, 8:00pm - Cloudland Blue Quartet
Out of the Bedroom, Safari Lounge, 21 Cadzow Place, Edinburgh EH7 5SN
Repertoire: 3 song acoustic set (if attempting to secure a slot the date will be added here)

Performances include those solo, as Cloudland Blue Quartet, presenting sets of either songs or soundscapes, and group, with the current line up of David's 1980 new wave band, Capital Models, currently playing covers (from Elvis to Tay Tay but about to embark on a project to re-lrearn the bands original canon from 1979/80). 

At present there are no plans for his electronic improvisational quartet, Creek, to play live...

BROADCASTS
David produces a weekly podcast on Mixcloud, reflecting his esoteric taste in music and encouraging listeners to broaden their musical horizons.  Since 2014, over 700 editions of the "Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection" have been recorded.  Unfortunately, only the most recent 10 are able to be made available on the Mixcloud platform.  To obtain an MP3 download link for any currently unavailable Cloudland Blue Quartet Eclectic Selection, simply e-mail your request to crispycat@hotmail.com.  Click on the pic to go to Mixcloud...


Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Remastering the masters of it all...

Playlist
Alice Cooper - Pretties For You (2024 Remaster)
Alice Cooper - Muscle Of Love (2024 Remaster)
Alice Cooper - Easy Action (2024 Remaster)
Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies (2023 Remaster)
Alice Cooper - Killer (2023 Remaster)
Alice Cooper - School's Out (2023 Remaster)
Alice Cooper - Love It To Death (2024 Remaster)
Genesis - Wind & Wuthering
Brian Eno - Music For Films Volume 2
Capital Models - Original Canon 2025
Terje Rypdal/Miroslav Vitous/Jack DeJohnette - Rypdal/Vitous/DeJohnette
Stellarium - Infinite Vector

Up before 6...


Ooops...


Anyway...


Wait, where's the turntable gone?


Anyway...

Happy birthday Rory MacRae...


First idea of the day was to redo the Capital Models re-recordings to exclude the new guitar...

Started it but it was just too much of a hassle so, abandoned - not often that happens...

Instead, on finding a top interview with Alice Cooper, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith re the re-master/box set of Muscle of Love, I also found reference by DD that the running order on the sleeve (which was provided to the printers prior to the tracklist being finalised), works better...

So, I made a new version of the LP - and he was right - as you'd expect...

Breakfast time...


Then, Anne off to Zumba with Lynn...

Then I thought, well the remaster of "Muscle of Love" is not available in the UK, why don't I just do it myself?

So, I did...

With the new running order...

A whole new persective...

I've always loved this LP - and this new version makes me love it even more...

It's always been seen as the album that broke up the band but, to hear the four guys talking about it now, 51 years later, it's obvious they loved doing it and there was so much they purt into it that, literally, no-one got, for them, that was the big disappointment, not the music itself, which they worked on just as hars as they had on all of their classics, from "Love It To death" through to "Billion Dollar Babies"...

Anyway, post watching the interview, I thought, why not remaster the other three as yet to be remastered LPs by the great original band, "Pretties For You", "Easy Action" and "Love It To Death?

Done - and all four burned to CDs to keep inside the boxes of the originals...

Tasty!


Played my original copy of "Wind & Wuthering" in the back room - 48 years old this month...





Then the "Love It To Death" remaster - aaargh - "Black Juju" had its end cut off - had to redo the remaster of that track then burn a fresh CD...



Done...

Quick work...

Anne returned - lunch enjoyed - home made soup from yesterday...

Yum...

A "Bosch" before she left to visit her mum...

Back to the machines...

Liking this background pic...


Some nonsense undertaken then, another listen, Brian Eno's "Music For Films Volume 2" from the 1983 box set, "Working Backwards", which I don't have - but I have this LP and the bonus 12"...



Some considerable time spent on the Capital Models project...

I painstakingly went through all 24 of the song sheets and completely re-did the chord sequences for the boys in the band...

On doing this, I noted some of the tracks on the version I'd created a couple of days ago were split wrongly - so, a new version created and the old one deleted...

With a few chord sequences still to do, tea time...

Superb pasta from Anne, with bacon, creme fraiche, mushrooms, shallots and parmesan cheese...


Yowsah!!

Then, two more of "Bosch" then back to the task in hand...

Done, dusted, sent to the boys...

Usual lethargic reaction to my hours of work...

Oh well...

Upstairs and listening back to the remasters of the first two AC LPs while perusing Dennis Dunaway's tales of the band...


Then, a listen back to the work today on the new version of the CMs' original canon - sounded not too shabby...

Downstairs briefly and, there, perusing singles in the charts in Decembers from 1963 to 1982 in my old "Top of the Pops" chart book - from back in the days when books were all you had for such things...

Ended the day with some Terje Rypdal...



...chosen, at random, from this random box of jazz...


Bed at midnight...

Highlight of the Day : Remastering...

Today's New Music:-