Monday, January 13, 2025

WELCOME TO CRISPYCAT...

WELCOME TO CRISPYCAT RECORDINGS
We issue the solo and collaborative work of musician, broadcaster and abstract artist
DAVID REILLY

ABOUT    NEWS    MUSIC    BROADCASTS    ART    RECOMENDED LISTENING
This is the Cloudland Blue Diary - to go to another section of the site, click on an icon
                         

DIARY
The diary is up to date, with daily entries from Sunday 5 March 2005 to Sunday 12 January 2025...
 (Scroll down for the latest entries)
155 days are "picture only" entries, across 7 periods:-
2005 (5): 8-12 September (5); 2006 (4): 5-8 May (4); 2016 (3): 15-17 October (3); 2022 (85): 18 April - 10 May (23); 6 July - 5 September (62);
2023 (58): 21 September - 15 October (25); 18 October - 19 November (33)
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 60 further new releases having been issued in the last five years.

The current 13 strong pipeline (see below) will take matters to April 2026, pushing the total Cloudland Blue Quartet releases available on Bandcamp beyond 100.

Meanwhile, retrospective releases by David's groups Creek and Capital Models have also been being issued by Crispycat Recordings and these are set to continue, with over 40 planned between now and mid 2026...

LATEST RELEASE



Released on Edward Spark's birthday, "The Great Carving" is the follow up LP to 2023's "Fallentime". It sees the return of Edward Spark and CBQ in a new 19 track collaboration, featuring Mr Spark's signature electronics and hip-hop beats, along with CBQ's distinctive guitarscapes, field recordings and found short wave radio broadcasts.

Conceived as one 66 minute piece, it is best listened to "gaplessly" via downloading the files

The download version contains a further 2 hours 20 minutes of bonuses, featuring the "solo" versions of the LP, from CBQ and from Edward Spark, along with a selection of CBQ remixes of Sparky's original pieces around which the main album is based, plus two further songs from the sessions which produced the closing track of the LP and recent single, "Vitriol".

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

CURRENT CBQ RELEASE SCHEDULE

Friday 7 February 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Variations on Brian Eno's "Discreet Music" (Soundscape Variations LP)
Friday 7 March 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Wrexham (Soundscape Piano & Guitar Based LP)
Friday 4 April 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Dissolution V (Soundscape Piano Based LP)
Saturday 12 April 2025 (Record Store Day)Cloudland Blue Quartet - GLAM! III (RSD Special: Covers LP)

   

Friday 2 May 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Variations on Brian Eno's "On Land" (Soundscape Variations LP)
Friday 6 June 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Strand (Soundscape Piano & Synthesiser Based LP)
Friday 4 July 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Gould (Soundscape Composers LP)
Friday 1 August 2025Cloudland Blue Quartet - Variations on Fripp & Eno's "No Pussyfooting" (Soundscape Variations LP)

   

Friday 5 September 2025: Cloudland Blue Quartet - Variations on Fripp & Eno's "Evening Star" (Soundscape Variations LP)
Friday 5 December 2025: Cloudland Blue Quartet - Disquietmusik IX (Soundscape Guitar Based LP)
Friday 3 April 2026Cloudland Blue Quartet - Dissolution VI (Soundscape Piano Based LP)
Saturday 11 April 2026 (Record Store Day)Cloudland Blue Quartet - GLAM! FOUR (RSD Special: Covers LP)

     

(All releases and release dates are subject to change)

SCHEDULED LIVE PERFORMANCES

            

Saturday 29th March 2025, 8:00pm - Capital Models
Leith Dockers, 17 Academy Street, Edinburgh, EH6 7EE
Repertoire: 3 sets of top covers, from Elvis to Taylor Swift

Saturday 24th May 2025, 8:00pm - Capital Models
Leith Dockers, 17 Academy Street, Edinburgh, EH6 7EE
Repertoire: 3 sets of top covers, from Elvis to Taylor Swift

In addition to these, there are these further possible appearances...

Occasional Thursdays, 8:00pm - Cloudland Blue Quartet
Out of the Bedroom, Safari Lounge, 21 Cadzow Place, Edinburgh EH7 5SN
Repertoire: 3 song acoustic set (if attempting to secure a slot the date will be added here)

Performances include those solo, as Cloudland Blue Quartet, presenting sets of either songs or soundscapes, and group, with the current line up of David's 1980 new wave band, Capital Models, currently playing covers (from Elvis to Tay Tay but about to embark on a project to re-lrearn the bands original canon from 1979/80). 

At present there are no plans for his electronic improvisational quartet, Creek, to play live...

BROADCASTS
David produces a weekly podcast on Mixcloud, reflecting his esoteric taste in music and encouraging listeners to broaden their musical horizons.  Since 2014, over 700 editions of the "Cloudland Blue Eclectic Selection" have been recorded.  Unfortunately, only the most recent 10 are able to be made available on the Mixcloud platform.  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...


Sunday, January 12, 2025

The beginning of the resurrection...

Playlist
Cloudland Blue Quartet - Live Suite 1977-2005
Cloudland Blue Quartet - GLAM! III (Demo Version)
Capital Models - 2020-01-12
Capital Models - 2024-10-05 Leith Dockers (DR/JB/KA)
Markus Guentner - Kontrapunkt
Cecilie Ore - H2O Trilogy
Capital Models - 2025-01-11 Rehearsal (DR)
Explosions In The Sky & David Wingo - Prince Avalanche (OST)
Capital Models - 2025-01-12
Ingrid Michaelson - Snowfall
Krokofant - 6
zweihandr - zwei
Fellers Island - Lighting the bedtime sky
Ethel Cain - Perverts
Wil Bolton - South of the Lake
Explosions in the Sky - American Primeval (OST)
LLL - Shaping Colours
Cloudland Blue Quartet & Edward Spark - The Great Carving
Quinn Archer - Dark Places [EP]
Happy Apple - New York CD

Up and writing up three days of this drivel...

Scenes from the back room...





Not too early...


But, all too soon it was 9:10 and I was still in my onesie...

A coffee for breakfast then loaded the car and drove over to Paul's to take him out to Roslin...

Chat in the car was much about our respective mums having passed, Paul's just last week...

This was his first play with the band since our gig on 27 July (24 weeks), drummer Johnny's 1st since 28 September (15 weeks) and my, Johnny B and Keith's 1st since the trio gig on 5 October (14 weeks)...

And there was the new desk to contend with...

Arrived at 10:30 and, by 11 we were all set...



A two hour session, during which we played these...

Boys Keep Swinging
No Wallpaper in his House
Carefree
The "In" Crowd
So You Think You Can Dance
Dice With Death
Let's Spend the Night Together
Second Generation
Breaking Silence
Mother of Pearl
Paranoia's Got You
Stuntman
Rock'n'Roll
Orifix  
Computer Operator

...only repeating a couple of songs, the guys all getting to grips nicely with the 10 songs taken from the original band's canon from 1979/80...

While we played, Moira very kindly baked a cake...


Chat...


The instruments awaited...







But we decided to leave it at that - we will reconvene next Sunday and, again, 3 weeks after that, which will be post a Morocco visit by Keith and partner, Elaine...


The boys in the band...


Keith took Paul back to Edinburgh, so, straight home, where Fang arrived at the same time, enjoyed some Dreamies and then, exited...





The weekend continued...


While Anne kept an eye on a 0-0 draw for Hearts in Aberdeen (they had a penalty saved in 92 - if only that had happened at Alloa yesterday!), I edited the recordings - 2hrs 12 down to 58 minutes...

An annoying buzz on the recording, in places drowning out the music, was a mystery, as nothing had been heard on the headphones as we played - I suspect electrical interference on the recorder's USB power lead...

And so, it took a lot longer than it should have, as I had to re-piece together a few tracks by editing together the sections where, in those pieces, the overwhelming buzz was absent...

Reasonable outcome...

In the evening, listening back while Anne watched "Countryfile"...

Tasty home made soup for tea (tinned soup for lunch)...

The opening two episodes of the final (thus far) series of "Bosch: Legacy" watched and enjoyed...

Then, compiling this week's podcast - said week having almost drawn to a close...

Added a new CD player to my basket on Amazon, following a YouTube vid...


£105...

We'll see...



Headphone output, volume controls, excellent internal DAC...

Apparently...

And, finally, downloading a few new to me jazz things via Tom Hull's latest listing...

Including a "new" thing from Happy Apple - which accompanied me to bed before midnight...

Highlight of the Day: Playing with the band and resurrecting the original canon...

Today's New Music:-