Sunday, December 07, 2025

WELCOME TO CRISPYCAT RECORDINGS

If this is your first time here, rest assured you are not alone - in fact, you are amongst over 1.6 MILLION people who have visited Crispycat Recordings to date...
 
We issue the solo and collaborative work of musician, podcaster and abstract artist
DAVID REILLY

This is the Cloudland Blue Diary, with daily entries
from Sunday 5 March 2005 through to Saturday 6 December 2025...
 (Scroll down for the latest entries)

To go to another section of the site, click on an icon below

ABOUT    NEWS    MUSIC    PODCASTS    ART    RECOMENDED LISTENING
                         

In the diary, currently, 150 days are "picture only", across 6 periods in 4 of the 21 years:-

2016: 15-17 October (3 Days)
2021: 8-21 May (14 Days)
2022: 18 April - 10 May & 6 July - 5 September (85 Days)
2023: 1 - 15 October & 18 October - 19 November (48 Days)

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 85 further new releases having been issued in the last five years.

The current 16 strong pipeline (see below) will take matters to the end of 2026, beyond the 30th anniversary of Cloudland Blue Quartet's debut recordings, pushing the total CBQ releases available on Bandcamp to 140.

Meanwhile, retrospective releases by David's groups Creek, Crazy Wisdom and Capital Models have also been being issued by Crispycat Recordings and these are set to continue, with around 50 planned over the next 18 months or so...

In 2025, Crazy Wisdom and Capital Models have also released new recordings...

LATEST CLOUDLAND BLUE QUARTET RELEASE



As always from Crispycat Recordings, entirely Free to Stream or Name Your Price (including zero) to Download (with bonuses)

For lovers of Frippertronics, "Disquietmusik IX" is the ninth in the annual series of Guitarscapes albums from Cloudland Blue Quartet, following on from the successes of "Disquietmusik" in 2017 through to "Disquietmusik VIII" in 2024, all eight of which remain available on Bandcamp.

These annual recordings of, frankly, weird and, occasionally, very annoying "music", have become the basis of much of what Cloudland Blue Quartet does over each following twelve month period, popping up, often re-pitched and/or re-tempo-ed, in the strangest of places, underpinning other new recordings or in his remixes of his own and of other artists' works.

"Disquietmusik" has come to represent a signature sound of CBQ's oeuvre.

Free to Stream/Name Your Price to Download, the 67 min LP is expanded in the download bundle by over 5hrs 20mins, making this the equivalent of a 6CD Box Set.

The 3 bonus albums, "Disquietmusik IX (Reversed)", "Disquietmusik IX (16 RPM)" and "Disquietmusik IX (16 RPM) (Reversed)", each give a different perspective on the pieces.

CBQ has said: "If I decided not to do anything else from now on, I'd still do these every year..."

CLOUDLAND BLUE QUARTET RELEASE SCHEDULE
     

Wednesday, 24 December, 2025: Twentytwentyfive: The Originals (17th in The Collections Series) (Compiled December 2025)
Wednesday, 31 December, 2025: Twentytwentyfive (Compilation of Rarities recorded throughout 2025) (18th in The Collections Series) (Compiled December 2025)
Friday, 2 January, 2026: Shostakovich (10th in The Composers Series) (Recorded March 2025)
Friday, 6 February, 2026Low Peach Winter Sun (40th in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded July 2025)

   

Friday, 6 March, 2026: Materialisation (with Joe Higham) (41st in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded June and July 2025)
Friday, 3 April, 2026: Dissolution VI (6th in The Dissolution Piano Series) (to be recorded March 2026)
Saturday, 11 April, 2026 (Record Store Day)GLAM! FOUR (5th in the GLAM! Covers Series) (Recorded February-October 2024, to be revised early 2026)
Friday, 1 May, 2026: Cobalt (42nd in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded August 2025)

   

Friday, 5 June, 2026: Dark (43rd in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded August 2025)
Wednesday, 10 June, 2026: Drift (Slow Songs 1996-2026 30 Years of Cloudland Blue Quartet) (19th in The Collections Series) (to be compiled May 2026)
Friday, 3 July, 2026: Across the Landscape (44th in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded October 2025)
Friday, 7 August, 2026: Broken (19th in The Songs Series) (Recorded November 2025)

    

Friday, 4 September, 2026
: Elevation (45th in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded November 2025)
Friday, 2 October, 2026: Music for Guitar and String Quartet in 18 Movements (46th in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded November 2025)
NEW ADDITION! Friday, 6 November, 2026Swan Songs (6th in the GLAM! Covers Series) (to be recorded early 2026)
 NEW ADDITION! Friday, 5 December, 2026: Disquietmusik X (10th in The Disquietmusik Frippertronics Guitar Series) (to be recorded November 2026)

(All artwork, releases and release dates subject to change)

UPCOMING LIVE PERFORMANCES
            

There are currently no performances planned

Performances include solo appearances, as Cloudland Blue Quartet, presenting sets of either songs or soundscapes, and group performances, with the current line up of David's 1980 new wave band, Capital Models 

At present there are no plans for his electronic improvisational quartet, Creek, to play live and nothing in the calendar for Cloudland Blue Quartet or Capital Models but a gig by vocal/electronic trio, Crazy Wisdom, is mooted in 2026...

PODCASTS

Since 2014, David has produced almost 750 editions of the "Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection", his weekly podcast on Mixcloud, reflecting his esoteric taste in music and encouraging listeners to broaden their musical horizons.  

Unfortunately, with only the most recent 10 able to be made available on the Mixcloud platform, each new podcast replaces the one from 10 weeks before.  

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...

Saturday, December 06, 2025

Swan Songs rediscovered...

Playlist


Slept in, after being awake around 3 am...


Don't think it was the carousing last night, I think, in general I was just very, very tired...

So, zero work pre breakfast...

Down...


It was the weekend but nothing was planned...


Working on a project I started back in April and promptly forgot about...

"Swan Songs"...

A collection of covers of, for want of a better categorisation, "Swan Songs" which I hope to record "soon"...

At least I have the cover and, if it comes to fruition, the pipeline dictates it won't be out till next November...


I mentioned yesterday that things seemed to be going well....

Stats

Turnover versus 2024 up 65% - just 44p short of my best ever year, with two releases still to come in 2025

Nos of Sales versus 2024 up 40% - best ever year by a country mile

Nos of Plays versus 2024 up 31% - again, best ever year by a considerable margin, including 3 of my four best ever quarters, with the fourth just 15 plays away from making it four out of four for 2025...

I can honestly say that, even though I remain completely unsuccessful in the big scheme of things, I've never been more successful or, indeed, popular, since starting out in the 1970s...

It's a bit weird considering what most of my music sounds like - e.g. "Disquietmusik IX"...

Out at 11, just as the new replacement earbuds arrived - only ordered them yesterday afternoon on the bus into town...

Over to Mary's...


...to meet up with Jane & Bob re determining whether the wheelchair will fit in their car re the upcoming hospital visit...

Directed Bob to the new Depeche Mode LP of the concert we saw a few weeks back at the IMAX...


A full room...


To the cafe for coffee and cake...


Around 12:30, out...



...and home for German sausages, German mustard, lovely rolls and some "Shetland" and some "Bones"...


Here the mustard - we have one jar left and need to find more but it's proving elusive...


This afternoon, a disappointing draw at home (saved by an 88th minute goal) for Queens...

Generally a bit of a wasted day...

Tried the new earbuds tonight...

Ooofft...

The sound quality is terrible compared to the pair I lost and the pair before that...

And so, a different set ordered...

Supposedly reduced from £80 to £13 so they ought to be good...

We'll see...

Finished the day with another two "Bones"...

Highlight of the Day: Swan Songs rediscovered...

Today's New Music:

Friday, December 05, 2025

Success and an Xmas night out...

Playlist


Up and at 'em, kind of...





"Disquietmusik IX" released at 8am...

A top day for Mr CBQ on the Bandcamp - loadsa spins, loadsa sales...

Very different to last week re "Funtime" - who knows how things work...

Not me anyway...

Sales buoyed as they were not only of the new LP but a plethora of back catalogue items too...

Heading for the best year yet, surpassing the highs of the lockdown when my output was upped considerably and has remained so ever since...

Anyway...


Loads of new stuff downloaded as it was, of course, New Music Friday...

Then, to the gym...


A call from Prog Rock Willie re this afternoon...

Taken on the treadmill...


Out and home...


...via Lidl for some things, including German sausages...


Thought this seagull was on our car but it was another black one...


Home for lunch and listening...

At 2, out and down the hill for the bus and into town with Anne...


...meeting up with Gina at the Booking Office above Waverley Station...


That's better...


Soon, we were joined by unpictured Willie, Christine and Eileen, followed by Gary and the drinking and carousing began...

Around 5:45, we exited...



...bidding farewell to W, C & E as the four musketeers walked up Cockburn St to Tuk Tuk, via Sainsbury for more drinks, and met up with Bernardo for tonight's meal...

...which was supertasty but not very well documented, including zero pics of the participants...




Good times...

A walk down to Princes St for buses and trams home, Gina having headed south in an Uber...


The remains of my beer, seen in my hand in the pic below from Gaz, ended up in the bin...


A short wait for our bus...


...and home we went...




...arriving in time for "Have I Got News For You", during which your correspondent fell asleep (inevitably)...

Bed for me at an unprecedented 10pm...

Not drunk but extremely tired...

A good day...

Highlight of the Day: Xmas night out...

Today's New Music: