Back from holiday/ latest gig news

Well I got back from a nice week in Cornwall to prepare at rather short notice for my next gig. Whilst in Cornwall I visited some nice places including The Eden Project, Boscastle, Tintagel, and Goonhilly Earth Station. Whilst there I logged onto my email to find that my old bandmate Dave Davies had sent me an email to tell me he had booked a gig and ask whether I wanted to play. Obviously I said yes, even though it was a bit short notice, so here I am with less than a week to prepare. The gig is at the Rose of England, Mansfield Road, Nottingham on Saturday 4th June. all the details are on my website. Mini-flyer below

Fear of Backwards continued

Well, I managed to get the remaining three parts up this evening. I'll look into uploading the second piece from the gig when I get back from my holiday

Fear of Backwards Part Two

Fear of Backwards Part Three

Fear of Backwards Part Four

Fear of Backwards

I finally got round to listening to the recording of the first piece from the Awakenings gig and decided I quite like it. It's a bit rough in places, but has some nice development, though the levels of some bits are a bit off, but hey, it's live.

Due to the interminable slowness of my dial-up connection I've got to upload it in 4 parts, and will hopefully finish uploading the bits over the next few nights.

Anyway, here is the first bit: Fear of Backwards Part One

Even more Awakenings photos

3 out of a further 10







The rest are on the Modulator ESP Images page

More Awakenings photos

Here's some rather psychedelic photos courtesy of John Sherwood







I particularly like this one :-)



More to come...

Awakenings 22.04.05

Well the big gig finally arrived last Friday and I think it all went pretty well. It didn't take me too long to get to Leeds and I found the venue really easily from memory.

It was the first tryout for my new live set-up and as I'd not had chance to try this out before the gig there were a few teething problems, but nothing major.

Finally got everything set-up, posed for some photos then went out for pizza.





I was onstage at approx 8pm and played for around about an hour, performing two new, improvised and as yet nameless pieces.

The whole experience was quite nerve-wracking and has to be my scariest gig so far, as there was quite a large audience (by my standards), full of 'EM Rock Stars' including Steve Dinsdale of RMI, Dave Gurr and Xan Alexander of the Omega Syndicate, David Hughes of Skin Mechanix and Ron Boots who was headlining. There were also quite a few faces I recognised from the National Space Centre gigs and an unexpected appearance from an old friend who'd driven all the way from the Lake District to see me play.

So first the first few minutes I was rooted to the spot with fear, praying that everything would work and I'd not make a huge cock-up of it all.

After a nice atmospheric intro (well apart from a some uncontrolled resonance in one of my fx patches producing some rather alarming distortion) I started to settle into a groove and began to enjoy myself. After about 26 minutes (how time flies when you are having fun) I decided to gradually bring things down and fade out on the weird noise fx (and some more distortion - oops - forgot about that)

The applause was nice

Part two began a few minute later after some frantic re-setting and patch changing. Unfortunately there was a bit of a cock-up with the drum machine as I forgot to turn it down, but heh, that's what you get with live music. I didn't think the second piece worked as well as the first and I got a bit stressed as things weren't sounding how they should and it just didn't seem to flow as well as the first part. Soon of enough though another half hour had come and gone and it was time to finish part 2.

More applause, perhaps it wasn't so bad after all.

After me was Ron Boots and Harold van der Heiden, with some melodic EM in a sort of Klaus Schulze vein, though I was a bit too shell-shocked to pay too much attention for the first half of Ron's set, I definitely got into it in the second half.





after that it was time to pack up, then get lost in Leeds and finally home to bed.

I've not listened to the minidisc recording yet as I've just had quite a busy week

Moe photos will be posted in due course.

Awakenings Update

Well, it's less than a week now 'til the gig. I've finally settled on what gear I'm using and had a day off work on Friday to do some concerted programming and practicing. Everything went well until one of my racks fell on my head whilst I was doing a bit of re-wiring. Talk about suffering for your art, I got a nice gash and there was blood everywhere, but my girlfriend reckons it wasn't that deep and I've just got a sore head now.

I've been having lots of fun preparing so here's hoping it all comes together on the night.

The last few weeks...

... have been pretty hectic all in all

Squeak update:

Poor little Squeak had to go under the knife to find out what was wrong with her, a very costly and traumatic procedure. It turned out she had gallstones, a diseased liver and irritable bowel disease. However, whilst the prognosis wasn't too good she currently seems to be responding well to treatment and almost back to her old self. Unfortunately she's on medication so we have the stress of giving her her pills everyday

Astrogator Update

As it looked like Squeak was on the road to recovery I decided to go up to Steve H's house on Good Friday for an improv session. Not knowing what room their would be I took a very minimal amount of gear (Nord Modular, MAQ 16/3, Microwave Xt and P3). We had quite an enjoyable day, recording most of the stuff we played. I found the minimal gear set-up quite powerful and decided to use something similar for my Awakenings gig.

Recent gigs:

Judas Priest - total heavy metal overload at the Sheffield Hallam Arena on 28/3, with the Scorpions as support. I'm not a huge fan of either bands but this seeemed like too good an opportunity to miss and I wasn't disappointed with excellent sets from both bands. :D

Porcupine Tree - the warm-up gig for the tour for the new album 'Deadwing' in Nottingham on 31/3, at the Rescue Rooms, a nice small venue with about 500 capacity. The set included quite a bit of stuff from the new album and this sounded really good. I've since bought the album and like it a fair bit more than the last one, 'In Absentia'

Radio Massacre International - at the National Space Center, Leicester on 2/4. I was completely shattered by the time I got to the gig on Saturday evening as I'd driven down to Bedfordshire earlier in the day to look at a Sequential Circuits Pro One. Unfortunately the Pro One didn't appear to be in very good condition so I decided to pass on it.

The gig was worth the effort though with yet another stonking set from the RMI boys. Nice to see some analog synths in addition to the usual gear (SH3-A and Source for the gear spotters) although the drumkit was conspicuous by it's absence. There were two pieces in each set, a long 45 minuter and a shorter 20 minuter. Most of the sequencing was by Mr Goddard on P3. The first set started with coalescing icy noise fx with projections of the arctic and featured Mr Dinsdale on hand percussion and some strange flutey wind instruments. Gary started on SH3-A and joined in on guitar as the sequences built up adding some nice spacey guitar. The second set started with guitar and bass and just built into the most awesome set of sequencing, with chunky layered guitar, Source solos and fx and strange vocalisations from Steve. Duncan was using the P3's ability to edit sequences from a keyboard to produce some incredible, constantly evolving and shifting sequencer lines. All in all pretty cool.

Driving home from the gig my car started to play up and seemed to be using rather a lot of petrol, in fact I only just made it back into Nottingham, even though I had started the day with a full tank. So I booked it into the garage to find that one of the valves had gone at some point so it was only firing on 3 (out of 4) cylinders. More expensive repair bills.

Awakenings Preparations

For the last few weeks I've been working on my preparations for my Awakenings gig in Leeds on 22nd April. These include: deciding what equipment to use, racking up my MAQ 16/3 and the P3, designing new sound, learning to use the P3 and working on pre-prepared sequences.

Based on my experiences with Steve, my provisional rig for Awakenings is going to be the Nord Modular, MAQ 16/3, Microwave Xt and P3 as on Good Friday, with a couple of extra keyboards (AN1x and Prophet VS) and the Super Bass Station.

Just to make my life even more interesting, last week my girlfriend was diagnosed with diabetes , involving trips to hospital and yet more stress. She seems to be coping OK, but it was a big shock for both of us. Now all I have to worry about is the gig :¬)

TGI Friday

It's been a pretty rubbish week all in all, numerous scares over the health of my cat, Squeak, trying to keep my girlfriend's spirit's up (she loves Squeak) , loads of work and not enough time to do much music. Hopefully Squeak is on the mend and we won't find that there's anything else wrong with her. Off work most of next week so should get some time to experiment with the P3. Only 5 weeks to go now 'til the Awakenings gig so I need to decide what I'm going to do for it...

P3 arrived today

Serial no #1001, the first of the production models, and it's a beauty.

My Sequentix P3 is on it's way

Good news today from Colin Fraser the designer and manufacturer of the Sequentix P3 Analogue Sequencer, the production cases arrived today and units should hopefully be shipping by the weekend. Sent my cheque off today so if all goes to plan I should be getting my P3 sometime next week.

Analog Sequencing

After doing my track for the EM Forum Analog Sampler project I decided to invest in some more analog monosynths to augment my SH-101 when sequencing. To this end I have recently purchased a Novation Super Bass Station (SBS) and a Dave Smith Instruments Evolver. I've also re-arranged a few things in the studio and now have the SH-101, SBS and Evolver hooked up to my Doepfer Regelwerk, though when I get my Sequentix P3 this may take on main sequencing duties. Each of these have their own sound and I'm really enjoying sequencing with them.

Super Bass Station



Evolver

Awakenings Leeds: 11.02.05 SkinMechanix + HyperEx Machina

The first Leeds Awakenings gig was held on Friday at the Brudenell Social Club. After a terrible journey up the M1, I finally arrived in Leeds around 6:30, followed John's directions to the venue and only managed to get slightly lost as I missed one turn-off and had to go round the block.

The venue was set a way back from the road and quite easy to miss, but I somehow managed to find it first time. From the outside it looked a bit rundown, but inside it was much nicer, though it was like going through a time warp back to the '70s, all a bit 'Phoenix Nights'.

Steve Munslow (HyperEx Machina) and John Sherwood were already there and had already set-up the PA and Steve's gear. Dave Hughes (SkinMechanix) arrived shortly after I did so I joined in and helped with unloading his gear.
Dave got his stuff set-up and soundchecked for about 7:30 with no technical difficulties. John's new PA was nice and loud and the venue's acoustics were excellent. His lights were quite nice too in a quite hypnotic way :¬)

HyperEx Machina went on stage about 8:15pm, wearing a particularly stylish shirt, and played for roughly an hour. Using only a Korg MicroKorg synth and a Roland MC-307 groovebox he produced a set combining ambient and rhythmic EM, as John said "He played an absolutely magical set, I've seen him live a few times, but this time he really went to town. Mysterious piano chords and swirling pads, intense beats sections, arpeggios and sequences flying all over the place. Brilliant." My friend Pete said it was like a "Berlin Wall of Sound" which I thought was quite appropriate. I quite quite enjoyed the set, particularly the last piece which ended with Steve walking off the stage with the sequences still playing.

A full mp3 download of his set is available from the Awakenings website



SkinMechanix had loads more gear, including a Roland JD800 and a Kurzweil K2000 for the keyboard parts and an Akai DR8 for the backing parts. Dave was apparently quite nervous but once he got on stage and started playing it certainly didn't show in the music, which was confident, melodic, powerful and totally absorbing. Their was plenty of his trademark keyboard soloing and a particularly nice new piece. The already legendary Zeit sequencer was also present on stage, though not actually used live it had been used to generate some sequences on the DR8 and was briefly demonstrated in the soundcheck. Overall, this was a great first gig for Dave's new project and was remarkably free of the technical difficulties that had plagued his previous outfit 'T-Bass UK'



More photos are available from the Awakenings website

The turnout was respectable but we could have done with a few more people, but this was the first Leeds gig, and it was cold and raining, though we did have some people down from Edinburgh. Hopefully a few more will make it to the next one, which features me, Modulator ESP in support of the legendary Mr Ron Boots from Holland.

Modulator ESP on Aiir Internet Radio

Some of my music is going to be featured on the All Electronic/Synth show with Gus between 2-4pm EST/7-9pm GMT on Thursday 3rd Feb 2005

Click on the banner below - Realplayer 10 required

Awakenings 2005 3CDR set is now available

Modulator ESP has two tracks featured on the new Awakenings 2005 3 CDR set.

CD1 features the exclusive track 'Transpatial' recorded live during the practice sessions for my November Awakenings gig last year and CD3 features 'Dark Star Voyage', recorded at my first ever live performance.

The full track-listing and details of how to order are available from the Awakenings website.

Thanks to John Sherwood for organising this.

Sneak Preview - New Track

I've just uploaded a new Modulator ESP track, written between Boxing Day and New Year's Eve. My goal had been to write a track using only analog equipment, to be included in the EM Forum Analog Sampler project, but as I was writing the track I was affected by the events occurring in Asia and the mood of the piece became quite sombre and reflective. Therefore, in remembrance of this natural disaster it is entitled Tsunami
Equipment used:
Roland JUNO-106 (Strings, Flute and FX)
Roland SH-101 (Sequences)
Doepfer MAQ 16/3 Analog Sequencer
Yamaha AW16G Digital Multi-track Recorder (Recording and Effects)

Astrogator website - Modulator ESP updates

New Astrogator website is now online at www.astrogator.co.uk

Modulator ESP website has been expanded and updated.

Astrogator logo unveiled...

Some reviews of my work

Random Fluctuations (self-released, 2001)

"Random Fluctuations" is a two-part electronic suite composed and recorded by Jez Creek in 2001. Each part is divided into several sections that all have their own subtitles, so in the end it's kind of a musical story. By listening to Jez' music, I'd venture that he has progrock background - there is a sense of thematic development and multiple part transitions typical of classic Progressive Rock works and also some classic EM albums like Tangerine Dream's "Tangram" or "Logos". So, if you like early 80's Tangerine Dream or the music of Mark Shreeve, then this CD is for you. It's also quite symphonic sounding, with great dynamics and rhythms. Dark sounds get the first part underway. Soon subtle bass textures are introduced as the soundscape becomes even more intense. This is brooding music - very good stuff. After the 6 minute mark the rhythms are deployed full-time as well as some solos and sequences. I found my head nodding as I listened to this. Great themes and melodies! All is quite and mysterious again after 9 minutes into the track. Of course this section is a transition to the next part that has some warm flowing pads and is surprisingly gentle. Very, very good! Slow rhythm keeps things tight, while the melodies do soar in the sonic ether in a soothing and comforting way. There's even a hint of solemnity in there. The rhythm becomes faster and there are some symphonic textures that strongly remind of "Tangram"-era TD. This is uplifting EM at it's best. And, oh, those solos...! It reminds me on EM from the days gone by. The track ends rather abruptly. The second part starts with dramatic string / drum section. Pretty suspenseful stuff. Some e-drums are introduced along with a melodic sequence and we have a rhythmic section that's halfway between sad and mysterious. The dramatic strings and drums return after a while, sounding like an orchestral movie soundtrack. This time the string sounds are combined with the electronic rhythm and piano playing. Some great synth soloing is also welcome. There's a short intermission after which we get upbeat sequencer lines and a fast theme depicting the war I guess (according to the subtitle). Some very 80's electronic drums (Simmons-like) are used to great effect here. A piano theme comes next, with the sounds of wind in the background. The rhythmic elements do not take long to appear and take control of the proceedings. It's a mysterious and somewhat reflective part. Some processed voices are heard as the screaming solo takes over after 17 minutes into the track. Everything fits perfectly - from voices, to rhythms, to sequences, solos and atmospheres. It all calms down and all we hear for a while are phased / processed synth pads along with some recurring effects. But after a while another excellent melodic motif appears. I loved this part - very complex, even reminding a bit on some of Klaus Schulze material from the 80's. The final section starts with bleeping synths and upbeat rhythm. This is a bit techno influenced (mainly in the rhythms department). I loved the urgent electric piano motif although the main theme is a bit too "techno" for my taste. "Random Fluctuations" is a darn fine album of melodic thematic Electronic Music, that those into most of vintage EM will enjoy, be it early 80's Tangerine Dream, the less sequenced Mark Shreeve, some 70's Vangelis or even Dave Greenslade's "Pentateuch of the Cosmogony".

Reality Excursion Sequences (2004), Time Clouds Distant Memory (2004)

Both albums are live minidisc recordings from concert performances in 2004. They feature sequencer-based music, vaguely in the Berlin School mould. The sound quality is nice but I'd prefer more reverb - the sound is a bit dry to my ears. Reality Excursion Sequences starts with "Dark Star Voyage", which is a lengthy suite with multiple parts. The structure is a bit loose, so you kinda know this is a live recording when you listen to it. Some nice textures, but as I've said earlier I prefer a more spacey, reverbed sound. Nice sequencing and solos, though. "Silent Planet" is a nice mysterious track (that also includes rather cheerful sequences towards the end) with repeating bass motif and good sequences / rhythm combination. "Chaos Theory" is a chaotic (pun intended) and busy sequencer track (which initially makes use of the same sequence that appeared on the previous number). The second live album starts with "Time Clouds" that has an atmospheric introduction with pads and soundscapes, but after a while melodic motifs and, subsequently, rhythmic sequences are introduced that drive the rest of the track along in a relaxed, unhurried mode. You will encounter some pretty tasty solos along the way. The second track is called "Astral Dreams". There's an abstract beginning with noises, soundscapes and stuff, but the sequences ought to appear sooner or later, and viola! - they do as we are nearing the 3 minute mark. Low threatening chords are heard as we are propelled forward at a pace faster than usual with Modulator's recordings. I think it's the best of his live tracks (despite some use of preset choir sounds) - the sequencing is very competent here - pure New Berlin School, a bit trancey and yet more like prog EM. The title of the last track is "Dark Star Voyage" - the same as the first track on Reality Excursion Sequences, but it's a totally different version. It starts with a reflective piano part that gives way to rhythmic notes and in the end it's another mid-paced sequencer track, in typical Modulator ESP style.

reviews by Artemi Pugachov of The Encyclopedia of Electronic Music

New Year's Update

Happy New Year to everyone.

Here's a quick update on my project with Steve Humphries:

We met up on New Year's Eve to go through the output from the Chesterfield sessions and decide which tracks to use and what editing, if any, was required. I will be attempting to do the editing during January.

We have also agreed on a name for the project, which is 'Astrogator' a concatenation of the words Astronomy and Navigator, which is quite apt due to the spacey, journey-like nature of the music.

(see also wordreference.com definition: astrogator the navigator of a spacecraft)

I remember the word from a SF book I read in my childhood, called 'Starman Jones' by RA Heinlein (review)

I can also report that Steve's Prophecy is now fully functional :¬)

We intend to release any music on our own label, which is provisionally called 'Ephemeral Dream'

I've designed a nice new logo for the project and will upload it very soon...