Astrogator, The Omega Syndicate, Create & Modulator ESP, Live at the Awakenings 8th July 2006

The gig last saturday went really well, I got there last but was set up first, which shows that keeping the same rig from one gig to the next really helps.

I went on first at just after 7pm (halfway through my tea) to perform for roughly half an hour as Modulator ESP, doing a lightly more ambient set than usual and using my laptop to edit Nord Modular sequences on the fly. i also had some sequences set up in the Regelwerk, which was triggering the SH-101 and Mono/Poly. The time went really quickly without any major cock-ips and I was fairly satisfied with my set. Audience feedback was pretty good.

Next up was fellow Astrogator Steve Humphries aka Create, who performed a couple of nice spacey pieces for his solo set, he had a few technical difficulties in the first one, but carried on regardless. there were also a few humourous samples, just for fun. I really enjoyed Steve's second pice which had some nice minimal backing sequennces.

Next up were The Omega Syndicate, with new members Glenn Alexander on keys and Rob Clynes on guitar. What followed was a powerful set of sequence heavy EM/prog/space rock. The new boys added extra dimensions to the TOS sound and allowed Dave and Xan to concentrate on some nice lead work and sequencing respectively.

Finally to round off the evening Steve and I performed a live improvised version of Dreamlight, which sort of had the main themes and ideas from the rehearsal versions, but with a slightly different structure and extra bits. I really enjoyed this set and according to Steve the recording sounds pretty good so who knows, maybe it will be made available as Dreamlight Live.

The only downside was that the audience was quite small, though we had a nice surprise in that a US EM fan who happened to be in the UK came over from Manchester to see us. Thanks Tom. Read his review on the Awakenings website.

We released the new limited CDR 'Dreamlight' and sold quite a few copies on the night.

All in all a fine evening of EM

Photos soon...