Friday, April 30, 2010

Break time...

Playlist
Asia – Phoenix
Bidini Band – The Land is Wild
Biffy clyro – Only revolutions
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
City & Colour – bring Me Your love
Coldplay – Viva la Vida
Dar Williams – Promised Land
David Sylvian – Manofon
Great Lake Swimmers – Lost Channels
Guilt Machine – On This Perfect Day
Lucy Kaplansky – Over the Hills
Mastodon – Crack the Skye
Morrissey – Years of Refusal
Muse – The Resistance
Neal Morse – Lifeline
Paul Linklater – Smooth Sailing and How
Rex the Dog – The Rex the Dog Show
Royal Wood – A Good Enough Day
2Raumwohnung – 36 Grad
Chris Lyons – The Well Tempered Klavier
Innerpartysystem - Innerpartysystem
It Bites – The Tall Ships
Blue Roses – Blue Roses
Sam Baker – Pretty World
Suzanne Vega - Beauty and Crime
Udo Lindenberg – Stark wie Zwei
Unkle – End Titles
Asia –Omega
Horace Silver – Finger Poppin’
Horace Parlan – Up and Down
Donald Byrd – Ethiopian Knights
Cloudland Blue Quartet – The Killers at the Counter

Four months down of 2010...



Some better listening today as I shuffled some recent releases on the old nut phones...

Word from Australia - my DVD of wav files has arrived at Sour Grapes Productions for some remixing of "Black Earth"...



Lovely clouds...









Last minute April buys this evening at FOPP - the new Asia and three more £3 Blue Notes (they're back) - one each from Horaces Silver and Parlan and some 1971 funky stuff from Mr Byrd...

Tasty...

Out to visit Meg the Black Cat's ex-mum Julia at Armadale, taking the pie on holiday...



Aparently Meg, when very young, was stripey and went by the name of Misty...

Weird...

Back to an empty-without-cat Crispycat Towers to rip and upload the new CDs and open cards re my upcoming birthday...

Onward into May...

See you soon...

Highlight of the Day : New Asia...

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Roosting chickens spotted...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet – New recordings

Tomorrow I’ll take a break from CBQ stuff...

This evening though...



...I worked on “The Killers at the Counter”, honing the lyrics from the previous improvisations and re-recording the vocals...

As is usually the case, the first “consciously shaped” version seems weaker than the original “made up” version...

Out late doors to pick up Anne and Lynn from a night of good food, good drink and good chat...

Back home for “This Week” , not a good one for Gordon Brown – finally, finally the chickens are coming home to roost...

Highlight of the Day : New music...

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Shiny and new...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - The New Recordings

Another day spent listening to the new stuff...

As ever, my mood regarding my music swings from "crap" to "hey, not too bad"...

Confidence is not my strong point...

All in all though it's still early days...

Rubbish rainy and windy conditions this morning gave way to sun and warmth by early evening...





Spot the squirrel...



I like squirrels...

And so, it was back to the gym while Anne and Lynn attended their Zumba class...

Just as well I was exercising really, as I'd enjoyed a rather slap up lunch at chum Spike's place, Club India (leading to a nothing but an apple and an orange for the rest of the day scenario)...

The new Adidas Sambas were worn, while the trusty old pair made their way to the bin...





Five miles were covered reasonably comfortably for the first time since the onset of the lurgi, which now appear to be on their last legs...

Watched Inter Milan beat Barcelona, while Queens managed a 0-0 draw away at Raith Rovers - they can no longer come second but remain third above Ross County on goal difference with one game to play - away at Partick Thistle on Saturday - a game to which I was invited hospitality-wise but, alas, cannot attend...

Late on, "Flashforward" on Tivo from Monday entertained - it's getting better every week...

Lights out...

Highlight of the day : Five mile run in my new shoes...

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The killers at the counter...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - The New Recordings

Making myself sick of the new stuff by constant listening and evaluating, ha ha....

A reasonable day....



..and work this evening on "The Cage Sonata" - a remixing job, with adjustment to the percussion track, followed by (hopefully) the final tweaking of "Krebs Went to War"....

Then "CSI" - one of the worst episodes we've seen - based around pant-sniffing - I kid you not - and, on Tivo, last night's "Glee" - which was little to Madonna-centric for our tastes, though still enjoyable....

The day ended with some lyric writing and singing on an instrumental track based around a Janacek piano sonata and previously entitled "Flown"....

It's now called "The Killers at the Counter"...

Dark...

Highlight of the day : Writing and singing...

Monday, April 26, 2010

The dozemeister...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - New Recordings

A break from working on the new music tonight as I made my way to the Queens Hall to meet up with Dr Prog for ECAT's presentation of "Works from the Experimental Music Catalogue"...



A cooling drink in the bar preceeded the concert, which opened with an interesting eight minute percussion piece by Christopher Hobbs...

This was followed by a Gavin Bryars composition entitled "The Ride Cymbal and the Band that Caused the Fire in the Sycamore Tree" - which was as bad as the title suggests - two cellists setting out some drones over which the pianist played various cliched jazz idioms on a "prepared" piano...

Ouch...

During the third item, John White's "Purple Passage", another (very quiet) percussion piece, performed by the same two percussionists as the Hobbs piece earlier, I'm afraid to say your correspondent fell asleep and, much to Dr Prog's embarrassment, my snoring rang out across the hall...



Oh dear...

To make mattters worse, I was in the very front row and no doubt managed to drown out the performers for a couple of bars before being nudged awake by the good doctor...

Another drink at the interval, alchoholic ginger beer - which certainly carried a bit of a kick - and it was back to the hall for the second half - I left Dr Prog up the front and took a pew (literally, it's an ex-church) right up the back...

Then, piece of the night - fifteen minutes of some very beautiful solo piano misic by Howard Skempton - preceeded Gavin Bryars' "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet" which, to my mind, is a reasonable idea stretched to exasperation point...

I would like to hear the string ensemble with harp without the seemingly never-ending loop of the tramp singing the title...

Just my view...

A chat in the bar with the progmeister before a bus home...

A good, if somewhat embarrassing, night....

highlight of the Day : The Skempton piece...

Sunday, April 25, 2010

My fingers are not green...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - New Recordings
Ali Akbar Khan - The 80 Minute Raga

Up early and working again on "Krebs" before heading out to Patisserie Florentin for breakfast...

A mock-up burn of the new LP soundtracked, including the impossibly long instrumental tracks and the Exec Producer had her first chance to give her opinion of the new music...

Her words of wisdom were taken on board for further work later today...

First though new shoes were purchased, including a pair of Adidas Sambas which, going on the amount of exercise I do these days and the fact that my five-a-side "career" seems well and truly over, may still be in almost pristine condition when I finally pop off...

Back home and worked again on "Krebs" before heading out to Loanhead to do some gardening for my mum...

Your correspondent and his Exec Producer were to be found pruning, raking, and hacking away in the undergrowth...

This was deemed to be a weed...



...the biggest weed I've ever seen....

I must advise gardening is not to my liking - I am an artist...

We returned to Crispycat Towers late afternoon and I continued to work - implementing changes suggested by Anne - and making myself utterly sick of hearing "Krebs Went to War"...

To Tesco for provisions then to the kitchen for a cooking session during which a tasty Chicken and Chorizo Hash was conjured up to the sounds of Ali Akbar Khan's 80 minute Raga...



Early evening was spent in front of the TV watching three programmes in succession on maps...

Meg the Black Cat fell asleep....



Finished off the day as it began, working on new music - creating shorter versions of the three instrumental tracks and finally finalising a mix for "Krebs" which took out a lot of the stuff I've been working on over the weekend - a change for the better as the pudding was being over-egged...

Highlight of the Day : Getting that bloody "weed" out - shame for the weeed though...

Saturday, April 24, 2010

The new thing...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - New Stuff
James - The Night Before

A day spent mostly in front of the PC, working on what is increasingly sounding like "the new album"...



Initially though, an e-mail from shoulder-operation-recuperation chum, Macclesfield Craig, sent me in the direction of the BBC I-Player to view last night's sterling performance on "Later" by Band of Horses...

I was also impressed by Plan B, Melody Gardot and, surprisingly, Jerry Dammer's Spatial AKA Orchestra...

To the gym around nine, having completed an initial mix of "Krebs Went to War" and mailed it over to cohort Edward Spark for his views, seeing as it's based around a cracking electronic track he mailed me earlier this month...



Back home and, post breakfast and dish washing accompanied by James, back to work and, out of nowhere, a new song arrived (or rather the chords and melody did)...

With Anne off to the footie (Hearts beaten 2-0 at home by Motherwell / Queens managing a last gasp 2-2 draw against bottom side Airdrie), I worked on...



Finished off (for the time being of course) "Krebs", sorting out the lyrics, syllable and fitting wise and softening up the vocal perfomance...



Then, wrote the lyric and sang the first take of the new song, snappily entitled "Hurt Heart Hardened" - I am liking this wee pop song...

A chinese takeaway accompanied last night's "Ashes to Ashes" on Tivo followed by an excellent "Dr Who" (also Tivo'd due to collection of food duties by your correspondent)...

A live "Law and Order" followed some time lounging around listening to the work on "the new album" so far...

It's kind of coming together, five songs and three instrumentals at present, two of which breach the ten minute mark with the third clocking in at just over 30 minutes - one track longer than the entire new James LP - will I have the courage to put it out like that?

Current tunestack:-
Flown
Cold Broken Heart
Hurt Heart Hardened
The Cage Sonata
Krebs Went to War
Never or Now
The Act Itself
Black Earth

"Match of the Day" then bed...

A good day...

highlight of the day : New stuff taking shape...and Dr Who...

Friday, April 23, 2010

Censorship at its best...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - New Stuff
MGMT - Congratulations
James - The Night Before
Various - Fave No 1s 1959-2009

Meg the Black Cat found a comfy wee place this morning amongst some freshly washed shirts...



To HMV this evening with a view to picking up the new Asia CD, "Omega", only to find that, although they have it at FOPP (remember, HMV own FOPP), they either didn't stock it or it was out of stock...

Instead, I partook of the new album from favourites, James, along with a chance regarding the latest form Messrs MGMT...

The James disc is excellent, great tuneful stuff, although, at 29 minutes, it's a little on the short side - mind you, sometimes that's no bad thing...

MGMT was, on first listening, a little disappointing - despite having a track entitled "Brian Eno"...

By the time I got home, the rain was on...



Early evening, I returned to the track "Krebs Went to War" and spent a couple of hours working out parts and generally moving stuff around in the file...

I hope to finalise this over the weekend...

A visit too this evening from soon-to-be-40 chum Chris-with-a-ch to sort out some tracks he'd like nephew Andy to play at the upcoming party...



Anne excelled herself in the Red Thai Chicken Curry department and a good evening was had by all...

It was decided in no uncertain terms that there would be a ban on anything by The Proclaimers, The Pogues, The Wolftones or Dexy's Midnight Runners...

I'm sure you'll agree that that is indeed for the best...

Highlight of the Day : An indoor curry evening with chums...and the new James LP...

Thursday, April 22, 2010

On the blower...

Playlist
John Grant - Queen of Denmark
Peri Urban - Music for Collaborating
Cloudland Blue Quartet - New Stuff

Out for drinks and a curry this evening with chum Prog Rock Willie (I call him Prog Rock Willie although, while Dream Theater is his all time fave band, he also counts Journey amongst his favourites)...

My pic of the day is a young lady using her mobile whilst driving - no doubt she spent some time worrying about this as she saw me collecting the evidence - and that worry is no bad thing...



Anyway, good beer (Black Isle Blond, Peroni and Cobra) and an excellent meal at Lancers with Willie and a group of interesting young, and not so young men discussing the old hell in a handcart scenario...

The Exec Producer rather generously coming to pick me up was also a highlight...

Home, not too the worse for wear on this occasion (despite a goodly input of alchohol), in time for "This Week" before retiring...

Highlight of the Day : A tasty chicken jahlfrezie...

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Trig...

Playlist
Various - 50 Then Unknown Artist CDs from Manchester ‘09
John Grant – Queen of Denmark
Various – 100 or So Recent Releases on Shuffleplay
Various – 6 Minute Gym Tracks

Another lovely day in the offing as I emerged from Crispycat Towers this morning...



Made it back to the gym tonight though still not 100% and, as a consequence, only three and a half miles completed…

Live TV was abandoned as being “too crap” and a Tivo’d programme, “Maps : Power Plunder and Possession”, regarding maps and their significance to history and ongoing social structures, was enjoyed instead…



In footie, never mind Europe (though Bayern Munchen won) with Dundee losing again, Queens are now four points behind second with a game in hand…

“Newsnight” then bed…

Highlight of the Day : Tough one, ok, the gym even though I hate it…

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Czars and queens...

Playlist
Various - 50 Then Unknown Artist CDs from Manchester ‘09
Various – 75 or so Recent Releases On Shuffleplay
John Grant – Queen of Denmark

Life continues to be quiet due to lurgi…

Weather continues to be good, if a bit cold, this says it nicely...



To FOPP at lunchtime – new albums by Asia and by ex-Czars singer, John Grant (backed by recently added to the library, Midlake) were on the shelves at £12 each…

I partook of the Grant disc, determining to acquire Asia at some future point…



At home, no trip to the gym – another night in front of the TV with “The Edinburgh (Dick) Vet Hospital”, “Chinese Food in Minutes” and “CSI” the highlights…

Other than that, the newly ripped to the jukebox John Grant album entertained royally…

Also, a win for Queens over cup finalists Ross County took QoS to third in the table with three games to go and to a points tally which equals their best ever in their recent seven year residence in the 1st Division...

Good times...

Highlight of the Day : New album from a favourite first stumbled across in the bargain bins in the summer of 2003…

Monday, April 19, 2010

Reacquainting...

Playlist
Various – Recent CDs Jukebox on Shuffleplay
Various – 50 Cheap CDs Bought from Manchester Record Exchange in 2009

Under the weather still…

But the weather is good...





Spent the evening in front of the TV watching “The One Show”, “Coronation St”, “Glee” and “Flashforward”…

The rest of the time, I was enjoying the unknown artists of whom I partook last year on my visits to Manchester...

Enjoyed reacquainting myself with music I may not have listened to properly at the time...

Some top stuff including...

Shooting at Unarmed Men
The Pack AD
Kristofer Astrom
Steve Abel & the Chrysalids
Autorotation
Meditronica
The Olympic Symphonium
Amy LaVere
William Fitzsimmons
Flare Acoustic Arts League
aMute
Sherwood
Innerpartysystem
Love Revue
Kleerup
Portico
Loney Dear
EG
People in Planes
The Uglysuit
Grand Theft Bus
Blue Roses…





Quite a good night really, all things considered…

Highlight of the Day : TV and “new” music…

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Krebs went to war...

Playlist
CBQ - Music for Collaborating

Up around 7 and to the living room for an early morning viewing of the latest loaned DVD from chum Lynn, “Watchmen” – a very impressive film which managed to engage me for its full long running time…

I enjoyed the story, the visuals, the music – couldn’t fault it really…

Of course it is “just” a comic book story…

Of the four films watched recently, I’d rank them:-

“District 9” 8/10
“Watchmen” 7/10
“Terminator Salvation” 6/10
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” 3/10

Passed on the opportunity to attend the gym, just can’t shake off this bout of lurgi…

Instead, spent most of the day working on Edward Spark’s piece, converting it from an electronic workout into a song of sorts, tentatively entitled “Krebs Went to War” with the lyrics connected to a short story by Ernest Hemmingway – one of my favourite inspirations for lyrics…



However, it’s far from finished…

Family tea at Anne’s mum’s today included a lovely sponge in celebration of nephew Ollie’s upcoming birthday…

Gave brother-in-law Bobby his revamped classical collection, with which he was suitably pleased, and picked up a request from nephew Craig for some Small Faces material..

Back home, more work on the new piece preceded the usual Sunday night watching of “Match of the Day 2”…

Highlight of the Day : Watchmen

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Cool your jets...

Playlist
Peri Urban - Music For Collaboration
Various - 6 Minute Gym Tracks
Various - The Milano Jukebox 1998-2009
Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
Cloudland Blue Quartet - The Lamont/Urban Soundscape

Up reasonably early and listening to potential collaborational music whilst updating this for yesterday and the day before...

Then, to the gym at 9 for a quick three mile run - still not feeling 100% re the recent lurgi attack, hence the shortened routine...

Back home and, post breakfast, to the PC and created a new piece using several Peri Urban inventions, the soundscape I made from Norman Lamont samples back in November (which I stumbled across again by chance) and a rhythm track from the start of this new project...

So, a 25 minute piece was formed but I did not listen to it until tonight - because my mum arrived at 11 for us to take her through to Paisley to visit her old chum Pat H...

We had an excellent lunch at Pat's (as ever), before Anne and I left the two elderly ladies to their chat and headed to Byres Road - Anne was on the lookout for a handbag re the upcoming nuptuals of the Impossible Songs - I was looking for CDs - nothing in mind (as usual)...

Drawing a blank at the West End, we took the Subway into town and to the Buchanan Galleries...



...outside of which we saw some 21st Century sandwich boards...



I headed down Buchanan St...



...and over to FOPP, where I bought a disc by Texans, Midlake, of which I have recently heard good things...

Then, on to Missing...



...from which I emerged into the sun having missed some rain (and having made no purchases)...



...on to HMV (ditto) and Primark (ditto) and Record Fayre (ditto) before heading back to meet a post successful shopping spree Exec Producer and back by Subway to the car and back to Paisley...

Good chat, tea, filled rolls and biscuits awaited before we bade farewell around 7 and headed back through the evening sun to Edinburgh...





No planes in the sky...

Back home and a very entertaining "Dr Who" included the return of my favourites, the Daleks...

Late on, "Law & Order" and "Match of the Day" ended matters, before retiring with Midlake on the cans...

Highlight of the Day : Dr Who and the Daleks...

Friday, April 16, 2010

Field of spring...

Playlist
Various Composers - My Best Classical Music 2CD Set
Grand Theft Bus - Made Upwards
Dar Williams - Promised Land

New flowers from the Exec Producer...



Out into the sun - no visible sign of the Icelandic Volcanic Dust Cloud which has grounded all flights out of the UK...



Early evening, Chris-with-a-Ch cancelled his planned visit to research a playlist for his upcoming 40th, at which nephew Andy will now DJ...

Out for drinks with chums Mark and Galia at Olorosso before stotting home and spending the evening, post a tasty baked potato, in front of the goggle box...

Highlight of the Day : An early evening drink...

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Chop, chop, chop...

Playlist
Peri Urban - Music for Collaborating
Fripp & Eno - Beyond Even
Spirit - Time Circle

More work on collaborations - again though not actual musicking but listening and uploading stuff for others to download at their end...

Out again to Chop Chop tonight with old chums Ken & Rose...

Pre meal drinks at nearby Cuba Norte...

Great food and good chat - and probably too much Tsingtao to be honest...



Home by midnight and surfed re "The Great Debate" - probably quite good that Nick Clegg came out on top...

Gordy and his secret weapon - his awful creepy smile - was dreadful by most accounts - LibDems now above Labour in the polls but still, worryingly, heading for a hung parliament thanks to Labour's manipulation of constituency boundaries over the last 13 years - and the Tories inability to pin this hopeless government to the wall on its countless errors and mismanagement of the economy...

Highlight of the day : Chop chop...

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The world is full of them...

Playlist
Neal Morse – Sola Scriptura
Return to Forever – Anthology
CBQ & Sour Grapes Productions – Black Earth
Peri Urban – Suggested Collaborations
Edward Spark – ES-013-B
Various Composers – Classical Music whilst Cooking
David Sylvian - Manafon

Back to FOPP at lunchtime today but nothing bought...

Back home and, with Anne off to a “Zumba” class, where she apparently, amongst other things, learned the choreography for the Beyonce track used recently in “Glee”, I spent the evening working on music...

I didn’t touch any instruments though, I was tasked with the listening to of tracks received from Peri Urban for possible collaboration, the listening to of a new mix of Edward Spark’s piece downloaded today and the separating and uploading of the files for the collaboration with the Sour Grapes boys 10,000 miles away near Brisbane...

Once they have downloaded at their end, they will work on remixing matters...

But it wasn’t all music related – I cooked a big pot of jambalaya for our dinner this evening and for Anne’s lunch tomorrow...



On telly, “Jamie Does Marrakech” entertained before more listening to the weird and wonderful sounds created by Mr Urban which popped through the letter box today on a DVD...

Tasty...

Highlight of the Day : New possibilities...

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

New sounds buoy...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet – New recordings
Various – 6 minute Gym Tracks

Soundtracked by an initial mock up of next year’s CBQ album – four new tracks so far – collaborations with Edward Spark (instrumental thus far) and Sour Grapes Productions from Australia (a new song), two more instrumentals based around classical pieces by Janacek and Cage, plus two further songs from the acoustic set last November...

Very early days...

Back to the gym tonight and managed three wheezy miles...

The rest of the night was spent slumped in front of the TV with “CSI” being the highlight...

A good away win for QoS last night at Airdrie took them back to fourth but a draw for Ross County tonight meant the teams swopped places in the league...

I am expecting this soon from Peri Urban...



Highlight of the Day : New CBQ stuff in the lugs...

Monday, April 12, 2010

Fluffy enough...

Playlist
Black Sabbath - The Dio Years
Various - On the Corner
Polar Bear - Polar Bear

Almost a return to normality today...

Still coughing incessantly (and no doubt as annoyingly for everyone else within earshot as it was for me)...

Pills and potions are being administered though and light is appearing at the end of the tunnel...

Managed to make it to FOPP - which is next to this building, in which my dad once worked...



Those nice young chaps and chapesses at FOPP have some tasty new Blue Note compilations, 2CD sets for a mere £4 each...

Partook of this one for now...



Not sure, but I think this is my first CD purchase of April (yep, it is indeed) - not bad, 12 days in...

No doubt it'll go pear-shaped...

Anyway, good funky stuff, man - even though it does include some examples of the dreaded "jazz vocals" (there is no place in jazz for vocals, everybody knows that by now surely?)...

"Flashforward" is getting better...

Anne's light and fluffy cod in breadcrumbs tonight was excellent too...

Highlight of the Day : Probably Flashforward...