Cloudland Blue Quartet – Splinterheart
Alice Cooper – 1969-2009 (2xCD-R)
Philip Glass – Solo Piano Music
Up at an unfeasible 5am this morning and working on the new LP – tweaking stuff here and there and performing a full remix of “Here They Come with the New Machines”, featuring a gradual fade up of the backing track and the whooping backing vocals in the second half of the piece...
I also had the idea of revamping “The Cage of Expectation”, adding some of Peri Urban’s work to it and seeking and finding an artificial voice programme from an American University to convey the recently abandoned lyrics...
Both these now sound a lot more complete but something wasn’t quite right with the album as a whole though, despite all this work...
And I noticed last night, when I went to pick Anne up from Fife, that I seemed to have “done my back in” somehow – this morning the pain was horrendous...
It was yet another scorcher of course...
Despite the back scenario, we went out for lunch to Café Citron, where we endured disappointing service and very rude fellow customers...
It was just too busy and no-one wants to see a young teenage boy lying full length on a sofa in a small packed coffee shop, playing with a gameboy as his parents sit in front of him on the same sofa talking pish very loudly...
Over to Jane and Bobby’s to pick up Jane as she and Anne were off plant shopping this afternoon...
Young Kitty was going to one of the many parties she attends and Uncle David took a detour to deliver her to the sparkly dressed chum who was hosting today’s excitement...
As you can see, Ollie wasn’t going to a party...
Off went the sisters on a shrub hunt while your correspondent returned to his studio to resume work on the latest Cloudland Blue Quartet masterpiece...
I realised what was missing was one more track to open proceedings and I duly conjured up “The Apple of Your Eye pt 1”, with the previous Bach based version becoming pt 2...
Pt 1 features the Ginestera loop abandoned earlier last weekend, along with some more soundscapes from Peri Urban...
Originally, I added in the vocal from what is now pt 2 but it sounded just slightly too odd, it being in a different key and having different timing and so forth...
So I quickly recorded a new vocal – the lyrics are exactly the same - and, all of a sudden, there it was, quite possibly finished – in fact so sure was I that it was indeed finished, that I burned a copy to take round to Alan and Penny’s for this evening’s get together at Castle Brodski...
I also re-saved the backing tracks which had been changed over the last few days and burned a new “Live backing tracks” disc and sang along to it – it sounded quite good and I imagined a full show with dancers and films – no, really – of course that’ll never happen and I’ll no doubt just end up playing a few of the songs badly on an acoustic...
The trip to the Brodskis’ place, which included two walks and a bus trip, was a struggle re the back pain but it was still beautiful and sunny...
...as we arrived right on the agreed hour of seven, whereupon a very enjoyable and entertaining evening got underway...
Much drinking and carousing took place and I was drawn to jump the 40 feet or so down onto the grass from the balcony but managed to resist the urge...
...while Brodders smoked and drank beside me...
A tasty tuna steak salad...
...lovely home made cakes...
...and beer and wine nourished, as the sun continued to blaze...
We were entertained by the Internet bunny rabbit...
...and Alan’s recorder playing...
...as we wondered how this lovely wee boy...
...could have turned into this ranting monster...
...it’s actually Alan demonstrating his reaction at finding that his prized vinyl copy of the Beach Boys’ “Surf’s Up” had been warped by the sun when he left it on the parcel shelf of his car, not long after Anne and I brought it back to him from Massachusetts in 1999, after searching high and low all over the east coast of the USA for said LP...
Around 1am, I remembered I’d brought my CD for Alan so he put a couple of tracks on and gave some pointers re the mix on “Hurt Heart Hardened” for me to work on tomorrow...
So it’s not finished after all...
A taxi at 2 brought us back to Crispycat Towers...
A very enjoyable (apart from the back pain) 20 hour Saturday...
Highlight of the Day : A visit to castle Brodski...
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