Welcome to Crispycat Recordings....

WELCOME TO CRISPYCAT RECORDINGS

We issue the solo and collaborative work of musician, abstract artist and podcaster 

DAVID REILLY aka CLOUDLAND BLUE QUARTET (CBQ)

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This section is the Cloudland Blue Diary

 

The diary comprises over twenty-one years of daily entries, from Sunday 5 March 2005 to Monday 13 July 2026

The entries re the recent trips to Norway and Manchester are all now published...

(Please scroll down for the latest posts)

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SITE DIRECTORY

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

ABOUT    MUSIC    PODCASTS    ART    RECOMENDED LISTENING

                    

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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 almost 100 further new releases having been issued in the last five years.

The current 9 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 also released new recordings, with seven new EPs from Crazy Wisdom and their remastered back catalogue, which you can find here; and, from Capital Models, two new studio LPs, a live LP and an update to their all encompassing "Repertoire" virtual box set, all of which, along with original recordings from 1980 and reunion tapes from 2011, can be found here...

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NEWS

LATEST ALBUM FROM CBQ

On Friday, 3 July 2026, Cloudland Blue Quartet released "Music for Guitar and String Quartet in 18 Movements", the 44th in The Soundscapes Series, recorded in November 2025.

As always from Crispycat Recordings, this release is entirely Free to Stream or Name Your Price (including zero) to Download (with 86 minutes of bonuses!)

It sounds like someone playing a 21st Century guitar (with distortion and looping involved) over some cleaned up but still slightly distressed, found string quartet recordings from the early 20th Century...

But that's not what it is...

It is, though, 57 minutes of music, in six parts (Movements 1-6, 7-9, 10, 11-13, 14-16 and 17 & 18)

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NEXT NEW RELEASE

On Friday, 7 August, 2026: Across the Landscape (45th in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded October 2025)

"A fragile object moves across the landscape, seeking a signal, untitled.

Dark for a long time, in the tone of a sentry, the first time after winter, it will swallow the plateau.

The night archer looks out at the world from inside the jaws of a wolf, condemned to non-existence, evaporated like air, taking the side roads."

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UPCOMING LIVE PERFORMANCES

            

There are no live performances planned at present...

Performances will 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, Capital Models or vocal/electronic trio, Crazy Wisdom...

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CURRENT CLOUDLAND BLUE QUARTET RELEASE SCHEDULE

    

Friday, 7 August, 2026: Across the Landscape (45th in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded October 2025)

Friday, 4 September, 2026: Broken (19th in The Songs Series) (Recorded November 2025)

Friday, 2 October, 2026: Elevation (46th in The Soundscapes Series) (Recorded November 2025)

Friday, 6 November, 2026: Swan Songs (6th in the GLAM! Covers Series) (Recorded December 2025)

   

Friday, 5 December, 2026: Disquietmusik X (10th in The Disquietmusik Frippertronics Guitar Series) (to be recorded November 2026)

Thursday, 24 December 2026: Twentytwentysix: The Originals (a collection of tracks from releases issued throughout 2026) (to be compiled December 2026)

Thursday, 31 December 2026 : Twentytwentysix (a collection of rarities recorded during 2026, many receiving their first official release) (to be compiled December 2026)

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

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LATEST PODCAST

Since 2014, David has produced over 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.

Click on the pic below to go to Mixcloud 

Unfortunately, with only the most recent 10 able to be made available, 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.  

The latest edition was published on 11 July 2026.  Volume 27 features tracks from these recordings, including 3 unreleased CBQ works...

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NEW COLLABORATIONS

David has commenced work on new collaborational projects with Edward Spark, Blue Sun Chasing and Duke Gray of Oddsfiche.  No prospective release dates are yet known

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NEW CRAZY WISDOM

Following the reactivation of Crazy Wisdom in 2024 and the release of several EPs and the back catalogue last year, Crazy Wisdom are planning new music for 2026 and the start of this project is imminent

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CREEK REISSUES

The re-issuing on Bandcamp of Creek's long-deleted back catalogue is set to recommence in the Summer of 2026

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DIARY UPDATES

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

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)

2026: Some posts from recent trips to Bergen, Oslo and Manchester have been published initially as "picture only" but the diary will be updated as soon as possible throughout July 2026

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!)

Group discussions can be enlightening...

Playlist

The view from the office this morning...

Into week 29?  Yep week 29...

Tasty breakfast...

And then, discussion 1st thing amongst me, JB and Keith as to where the band ought to be going...

JW read all the posts but did not chip in...

JB was wondering what we might play on Friday when we reconvene - it will be his first session with the band since our gig at the start of March...

...so, almost 5 months away from the band - during which time we rehearsed with Martin and played the Stewart Brewing 48 song, four set gig - now over a month ago...

My first thought was, well, we have nothing to rehearse for, so we should probably look at the songs that changed or newly added during Martin's time with the group, which would be...

American Pie - newly introduced to the set

Take it Easy - solo was shortened

The Model - Martin played the motif during the instrumental parts

Love is the Drug - song was shortened

Candy - one of the chords was changed to a 7 version of the major chord

Folsom Prison Blues - extra guitar solo was introduced

Heroes - Martin played Robert Fripp's motif note for note throughout the song

Human - the song was redone using the correct chord sequences as per the record

Make Me Smile - new intro from Keith

Ring of Fire - newly introduced to the set

Stuck in the Middle - guitar solo introduced, song slowed down

Summer of 69 - newly introduced to the set

Another Brick in the Wall - newly introduced to the set

Valerie - newly introduced to the set

Sit Down - newly introduced to the set

I'm a Believer - newly introduced to the set

Sugar Sugar - Martin played the wee catchy motif during the intro/choruses

However, I also posed the question as to whether anyone could face playing all these yet again...

We awaited JW and Keith's input...

In the meantime, I noted too that disappointingly, there had been zero reaction from JW or Keith to my ideas, put forward in early June, pre Stewart Brewing, that I'd like to write some new Capital Models songs to play alongside the original canon, which we've played a few times - and even released on Bandcamp...

....but not managed live...

With that in mind, I'd posted up three new song ideas that we might perhaps work on when we got back together with Johnny B...

I felt they had that same oblique feeling which permeates much of the original work...

But, fucksake, tumbleweeds...

Today, I opined that perhaps the time has come to be a "real" band as opposed to a covers band and play our own stuff...

All the skills we have in playing crowd pleasers might be put to more gratifying use...

 Stewart Brewing and, latterly, the Dockers, were not great experiences (apart from the cash - which we've all agreed, while nice, we don't actually need)....

I did enjoy the March gig (10 top songs - a rehearsal for which I'm listening to as I type) - mainly because I wasn't having to play almost 30 songs which I don't actually like that much...

JB thought songwriting in a band isn't easy. He said it's a "spark" thing that may emerge in a jam or from a strong idea. He wasn't sure how we'd get there. He said usually someone has to step forward with an idea everyone can get into and apply some energy...

Keith popped up, helpfully, with "I’ve been hard at work since 05.30 this morning and had other things to do rather than respond to “hobby” communication so far. That’s not going to change quickly either."

To be fair, with the Edinburgh Festival upcoming, this is probably Keith's busiest time of the year - he's the only band member now with a regular job...

JB reckoned Keith was right - but while what we do might well be seen as a "hobby", the band still means something and maybe we should start the session with a coffee and chat...

... and then, all being well, try to work towards a set that's more of a challenge for us all, just to get the juice flowing...

He reckoned that one idea would be to do a whole album set - for example, he sees bands doing a "Revolver" set, a "VU banana album" set, a "Rumours" set etc...

And it doesn't have to be faithful to the source either. A kind of post modern jukebox thing. Like the Bowie/Velvets/Roxy/Eno set we played at Fopp last summer...

I thought that sounded like a good idea...

Keith agreed re coffee and chat to start re Friday's session but that, while it would be great to be able to do all of what was being suggested, he'd rather rehearse fairly regularly and keep on top of things rather than cramming it, leading up to a gig....

He was still up for covers stuff, but not any of the "cheesy shit" like "Amarillo"...

He put forward that if any one of us really doesn’t want to do a number, we shouldn’t be doing it...

Of course that could decimate our repertoire pretty quickly!

I said, ok, we should keep our powder dry, so to speak, until Friday and then we can discuss matters and take notes re how we want to move forward...

I suggested we all bring all of our song sheets along, alpha order for ease of location and we can hopefully play through a few songs and ideas...

John B said we could have a think about how we might adapt the current set material - for example, if not a classic album then a night of Dylan or Bowie etc...

I reckoned a night of Dylan would be fairly easy and Keith said he'd recently bought his first ever Dylan LP,  "Highway 61 Revisited" and enjoyed it...

I closed the discussion with "Maybe we could do that one!"...

Lunch - and the remains of yesterday's top Pilaf...

As for the rest of the day, it was mostly spent writing up entries here and finally getting up to date...

A lead I ordered yesterday to play the mobile unit "wired" via the Sony speakers turned out to be no use, as the Sonys will only accept stereo plugs - so it's impossible to play stereo sound through the two speakers using a wire...

Annoying but only £3 down the pan...

We also started watching "The Beast in Me" with Claire Daines from "Homeland"...

Promising...

Late on, I found a recent Alice Cooper concert, professionally recorded so nabbed that...

Prior to that, through out the day, Caravan, Yes, Pink Floyd, Matthew Florianz and John McLaughlin had been soundtracking nicely...

And I picked up some more Greg Belisle-Chi too - which wasn't quite as good as the LP I got yesterday...

That was it, I think...

Highlight of the Day : Band discussions and ideas...

Today's New Music : 

Cauliflower can be very tasty...

Playlist

A Sunday of, mainly, catching up...

I was 21 days behind with this and, today, managed to write up one more day from Norway, plus 11 post Norway, including the trip to Manchester...

So, 9 to go...

Another podcast is due tomorrow...

So, kind of getting there...

Then, I have financials to deal with - which perhaps ought to be taking more priority...

Also, tidied up the desk...

Re the ongoing interference with sound from the laptop if I'm online, my main source of listening now is the mobile listening unit (Samsung phone with 256GB SD Card) via the two Sony Blue Tooth Speakers - great sound by the way...

So I toyed with the idea of taking down the Mission speakers and replacing the Sony speakers in the back room and moving the Marantz CD player through there too...

In the end though, I left things as is...

Of course, after taking the lead out of the laptop headphone socket and, then, putting it back in, it took me three restarts of the stupid computer for it to realise I wanted to play stuff via that socket...

Fucking computers...

We also put up more pictures in the hall - or returned pictures to the wall...

Did a new mix of the due in August CBQ LP "Across the Landscape", taking the guitar based elements down a notch as on recent listens found them to be too in my face...

And, having not moved the CD player, I was able to listen to this (satisfactorily) as I worked on stuff at the laptop...

More "Bones", then, Anne set about making the tea...

This was superb - Cauliflower and Pea Pilaf...

...and there is some left over for my lunch tomorrow..

Result!

Later, we made our way through the final six or so episodes of Season 3 of "Shrill" which, while good, will not leave a hole...

Ended the day with a new dicsovery, guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi who is depping for Ben Moinder with The Bad Plus in Europe for four dates...

So that was good...

Highlight of the Day : Cauliflower and Pea Pilaf...

Today's New Music :