Arrival of new...

Playlist

Return To Forever - Returns

William Ryan Fritch - Ill Tides

Bennie Green - Glidin' Along

The Weeknd - Trilogy

Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2017 Demos

The Velvet Underground - 1969

The Beatles - 1967-1970

Cloudland Canyon - Lie In Light

Jan Garbarek - Sart

David Bowie - The Complete Singles Collection 1964-2017

Various - Trojan Presents: The Producers

Cockney Rebel - The Psychomodo

Weather Report - Live in Cologne 1983

Sarah Harmer - I'm A Mountain

Devics - Push The Heart

Gould - The Composer

David Reilly - Rubinmusik 1977-2017

Chick Corea - The Leprechaun

Return To Forever - The Mothership Returns

Orion Tango - The Apple of No

Into Wednesday and, yes, the recordings I've just spent a considerable amount of time on are "not great"...

And so, some new stuff is on its way to Crispycat Towers under good skies...

And, today, some new stuff arrived...

Foam for under the main speaker system...

...and a nice new USB hub...

I can now have 21 things plugged into my laptop...

Which is too many...

Anne out to Zumba, me compiling this week's podcast...

Later, on telly, a week late, "The Windsors" came to an end...

Hope it returns...

Highlight of the Day : New stuff...

Medicine onscreen...

Playlist

Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2017 Demos

Contemplating having to re-sing tonight...

Post mixing today and listening back, many of the vocals leave much to be desired...

The monitoring system I have at present leaves something to be desired (that's my excuse anyway)...

I have a plan...

Outside the weather was fine...

But I gave up on matters and, instead,enjoyed the second part of "Trust Me" and, of course, "Holby City"...

To bed, disappointed...

Highlight of the Day : Hospital dramas...

Flaming...

Playlist

Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2017 Drums and Bass

Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2017 Drums Bass Guitar

Nothing much to report today, other than I did more recording of songs...

More vocals tonight...

As with the bass and the guitar, all first takes...

...after having listened to what I'd been doing so far...

But, only after we once again scored enough points on "University Challenge" to come between the two teams...

On fire, as they say...

Lights out...

Highlight of the day : Recording...

Cake and singing, badly...

Playlist

Return To Forever - The Mothership Returns

Return To Forever - Returns

Various Artists - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2017 Vols 1-52

Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2017 Drums Bass Guitar

Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2017 Drums and Bass

Some snoozing first thing with Return to Forever, then, up and working again...

Mixing...

In the afternoon, out to my mum's, ensuring she got out an about...


...amongst the much grown trees of my early youth...

On to Anne's mum's for family tea...

...and home around 8:30, with the rest of the evening spent singing...

To bed...

Highlight of the Day : Recording...

Run, run like the wind Sven...

Playlist

Various Artists - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2017 Vols 1-52

Various Artists - Trojan Presents: The Producers

Chick Corea - Leprechaun

Jan Garbarek - Sart

Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits

Santana - Abraxas

Return To Forever - Returns

Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2017 Drums Bass Guitar

Return To Forever - The Mothership Returns

A break today from the music work but only after I'd quickly recorded the remaining guitar parts and done some podcast work and uploading first thing...

Out with the Exec Producer, post breakfast at home, to pick up Dr Prog and drive through the town to Leith and Ocean Terminal, where there was a Record Fair...

Some "bargains" were snapped up by both Mr CBQ and Dr Prog

...my own haul comprising these... 

The Exec Producer got the chance to peruse the surrounding shops in this large Mall, while your two intrepid heroes/idiots trawled through boxes and boxes of CDs...

Then, lunch...

...with views...

...at El Falafel...

One of the finest falafel based concoctions I've tasted, with the caveat of course that, later on this evening, The Trumpets of Satan were in loud voice mode...

Indeed they resembled the noise this chap might have made back in the day....

A drive back across town for coffee and cake for my two compatriots at Dr Prog's fave place, Tea & Sympathy...

I ordered a milk shake but their milk shake making machine was out of order so, instead, I merely had them put the ingredients together in a big cup...

  

I opined they ought to add banana and toffee milk and ice cream soup to their menu...

We'll see...

Farewell to the doc and back home for a late afternoon of new music - during which Hearts triumphed 1-0 at Kilmarnock while Queens threw away a golden opportunity to beat 10 man Dundee Utd 2-1, instead losing 2-1...

Outside, the skies were ominous...

Later on, we watched "Frozen"...

We both declared Sven the Reindeer to be the best thing in it...

"Let it Go" was not as good as the version with the screaming goat, a favourite on the Youtube...

The final two episodes of the Spanish thing "I Know Who You Are" were also watched and turned out not to be the final two episodes, just the final two BBCFour is showing right now...

Hmmm...

Lights out on a good Saturday...

Highlight of the Day :  Out and about with Anne and Phil...

Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2017 Vol 32

This week, Mr Quartet features five prog classics he bought in the year of release. Also included in the programme, is a piece from 1970 by Maxwell Davis, new acquisitions from the last 7 days and some top tunes gleaned from the giant library of sound a Crispycat Towers...

Featured recordings:-

Bryan Ferry - Olympia

David Reilly - Rubinmusik 1977-2017

Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft - Gold Und Liebe

Elbow - Little Fictions

Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

Gentle Giant - The Missing Piece (Remaster)

Giorgio Moroder - Déjà-Vu

Jackson Browne - The Naked Ride Home

Jon Anderson - Olias Of Sunhillow

Jonatha Brooke - Careful What You Wish For

Lowcraft - Manticore

Marillion - F. E. A. R.

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

Rheostatics - 2067

The Supremes - Baby Love - The Essential Diana Ross & The Supremes

UK - UK

Yves Montand - Yves Montand Chante Jacques Prévert

Various Composers - Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series Vol 5 - New Music From London

Hope you enjoy the podcast, make comments, delve into the back catalogue and pop back next week for more...

Celebration turns to sadness...

Playlist

Various - Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection 2017 Vol 32

Up early and put together the second part of the podcast and that soundtracked the day..

At lunchtime, a pop by the BHF shop resulted in tasty 2CD set of reggae entering the collection for 3 quid...

A few drinks in the early evening celebrating young chum Hugo heading off to South Africa, then back to University in Glasgow - a big Kraftwerk fan despite being just 21...

Heading home at 7...

Home with some chips and getting sucked back into Corrie re its seeming return to comedy - which suits it better - it really shouldn't try to be the grim and dire Eastie...

What's this?

As we'd entered the house, we were followed in by the neighbourhood scroungers Tiger and Fang...

A pair of irresistible wee cuties...

But, but...

Some very sad news late on that old chum Gavin Calder had passed away this afternoon while out on the golf course...

Parallels to the dreadful loss of Jamie Frain three years ago...

That bloody golf seems to do for my chums...

Gav was one of the nicest guys I've ever known...

He'd only retired last December...

Eight months of freedom...

He will be much missed...

R.I.P. big man...

Lowlight of the Day : The unexpected death of a friend...

So far, so good...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Guitar Bass & Drums 2017
Gould - Glenn Gould - The Composer
Alice Cooper - Paranormal
Teresa Salgueiro - O Horizonte
Alphaville - Forever Young
Ghost Quartet - Ghost Quartet
Fresh - Electronic Music From The Kitchen
Various - A History of the Single - The 2010s
Various - The Wire Tapper 28
Jenkins, K - Adiemus 2 - Cantata Mundi
Cloudland Blue Quartet - The Vendôme EP
King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King (40th Anniv)
Sarah Harmer - I'm A Mountain
Gentle Giant - The Missing Piece (Remaster)
The Supremes - Baby Love - The Essential Diana Ross & The Supremes
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
David Reilly - Rubinmusik 1977-2017
Various - California Dreaming

Jackson Browne - The Naked Ride Home
Elbow - Little Fictions
The Supremes - Baby Love
Giorgio Moroder - Deja Vu

And again up super early and working...

Quick initial mixes of eight guitar, bass and drum tracks...

Which soundtracked the start of the day...

So far then,  I've managed to:-

(a) create 30 drum tracks

(b) record 30 basslines

(c) mix 15 bass and drum versions so that I then managed to

(d) record 15 guitar parts and have

(e) mixed 8 guitar, bass and drum versions re adding vocals

...all of which means, I still have to:-

(a) mix 15 more bass and drum versions

(b) record another 15 guitar parts

(c) mix another 22 guitar, bass and drum versions

(d) record 30 vocals

and, finally

(e) fully mix 30 songs

Then...

(a) recreate 30 mixes with just bass and drums with the bass turned up and the drums turned down for drummer Johnny and I to play along to pending word from drummer Keith re his bass participation...

So, not quite as quick as I'd hoped (which, to be honest would have been super quick) but getting there...

And,as a bonus, every time I get pissed off doing it all and shut it all down thinking it's a load of pish and I should just give up - the next day, when I listen back, it's not too bad after all...

Which is good...

And some of those drum tracks will probably be the basis of a new song-based CBQ LP - my first since 2012...

Of course I still have to write the songs...

Anyway, to Fopp at lunchtime and three £3 purchases made...

Brand new Elbow...

59 tracks by the Supremes...

..and the special 2CD edition Giorgio Moroder from 2015...

In the evening, Anne was out with Jane and her mum for a meal but I did not take advantage to do more work...

Instead, I had a night off...

Watched a documentary on Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, booked the accommodation for Spain, then compiled this week's podcast, recorded the links and put together the first hour...

For such a procrastinator, when I get going, I do alright I suppose...

Lights out post midnight...

Highlight of the Day :  Podcasting...

Guitaring...

Playlist

Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2017 Drums and Bass

Gentle Giant - In a Glass House

Rheostatics - 2067

Bryan Ferry - Olympia

Yves Montand - Yves Montand Chante Jacques Prévert

Gould - Glenn Gould - The Composer

Up super early again and managed quick bass and drums mixes on fifteen of the thirty tracks...

And so those soundtracked the first part of the day...

At lunchtime, a walk down to Stockbridge and a trawl through the charity shops..

Picked up this special edition of Bryan Ferry's "Olympia" with two extra tracks and a DVD housed in a nice wee book package...

...and yes, I do already have the "ordinary" version...

And this by Yves Montands re the words of Jacques Prévert, whom I studied in 6th Year French nearly 40 years ago now...

It's nice...

Noted times for a bus back to the town centre re having spent too much time trawling...

Back home this evening and, with Anne at Zumba, on to some guitaring...

Recorded 1st takes on the fifteen thus far mixed bass and drum tracks (bass also 1st takes of course - this is a quick work project)...

Then, listening to the new purchases and some infuriating searching for accomodation re a Spanish trip early next year...

Lights out...

highlight of the Day : Guitaring...

Bassing...

Playlist

Cloudland Blue Quartet - Disquietmusik

Cloudland Blue Quartet - 2017 Drum Tracks

Up unfeasibly early to work on the drum tracks again...

Kind of finished and so, onto the iPod and out, just listening to drums...

Looking forward to adding instrumentation...

The beast was about its business...

At lunchtime, a card purchased re nephew Olly's excellent 8 straight "A"s performance in whatever it is exams they do these days at age 16...

This was delivered stuffed full of money by a proud aunt...

On the way home, Rory Custard spotted - looking guilty...

In the evening, bass work started...

Sore thumb by the end of it...

Now have 30 drum tracks and thirty bass tracks to sync together...

It's all good...

Highlight of the day : Bassing...