Started preparations for the Bunkers Hill gig on the 4th September and got some new sounds and sequences programmed today, but there is a lot more work ahead. Steve Humphries will be joining me for the encore of my set and we will perform a piece or two as Astrogator. As ever it will be all new music from both acts. NB it looks like we will be going on first so will probably start playing about 8:30, rather than 9, so that Dave can go on just after 10.
Gear will be much the same as the Rose of England gig, but with the addition of the Prophet 600 and my other new aqcuisition.
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Awakenings 12.8.05: Create, The Glimmer Room & debut of Astrogator
The Glimmer Room went on first with a very minimal setup, which was good, as Steve's gear took up quite a lot of the stage. Andy and Mark were both using laptops, Andy had a controller keyboard and a Nord Modular rack and Mark played bass and guitar. Their set was pretty chilled out and included re-workings of material from both of Andy's previous releases, Tomorrow's Tuesday and Grey Mirrors.
Steve was on next with a run through of his set for E-Live. The set included some new and old stuff, Kindred Spirits and Biospherical Imagery Part 1 (Awakenings Mix). His keyboard setup was pretty impressive and sounded rather nice. For the encore I joined Steve onstage and we played two pieces together as Astrogator. The two pieces were completely unrehearsed improvisations which seemed to go down well.
We hope to have a repeat performance at my next gig, where Steve will join me for the encore. All this will be good preparation for when we play together at E-Live in October at the end of Steve's Create set.
Minimal gear for the night:
Adrenalinn
Korg ER-1
Nord Modular, with laptop to edit
Roland SH-101
Sequential Prophet VS
Sequential Prophet 600
Unfortunately none of the pictures with me in came out very well, but there are a few good ones of Steve
The evening also saw the release of the Astrogator CD 'The Darkness Between' which is now available by mail order direct from the band. See the Astrogator music page for samples and ordering details.
Steve was on next with a run through of his set for E-Live. The set included some new and old stuff, Kindred Spirits and Biospherical Imagery Part 1 (Awakenings Mix). His keyboard setup was pretty impressive and sounded rather nice. For the encore I joined Steve onstage and we played two pieces together as Astrogator. The two pieces were completely unrehearsed improvisations which seemed to go down well.
We hope to have a repeat performance at my next gig, where Steve will join me for the encore. All this will be good preparation for when we play together at E-Live in October at the end of Steve's Create set.
Minimal gear for the night:
Adrenalinn
Korg ER-1
Nord Modular, with laptop to edit
Roland SH-101
Sequential Prophet VS
Sequential Prophet 600
Unfortunately none of the pictures with me in came out very well, but there are a few good ones of Steve
The evening also saw the release of the Astrogator CD 'The Darkness Between' which is now available by mail order direct from the band. See the Astrogator music page for samples and ordering details.
Monday, August 08, 2005
Gig and other announcements
The next Modulator ESP gig will be with my old friend Mr David Davies at Bunkers Hill Inn, Hockley, Nottigham on Sunday 4th September 2005. See my gigs page for details.
Also worth noting, I will be making my live debut with Steve Humphries (Create) as Astrogator at the Create Awakenings gig at the Brudenell Club in Leeds on Friday 12th August 2005. The gig will also see the launch of the debut Astrogator album 'The Darkness Between' (artwork below). See the Astrogator music page for details and mp3 samples. I've also recently designed a nice little website for Steve's Create project.
Also worth noting, I will be making my live debut with Steve Humphries (Create) as Astrogator at the Create Awakenings gig at the Brudenell Club in Leeds on Friday 12th August 2005. The gig will also see the launch of the debut Astrogator album 'The Darkness Between' (artwork below). See the Astrogator music page for details and mp3 samples. I've also recently designed a nice little website for Steve's Create project.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Nice day out to Manchester
Had a very nice trip out to Manchester today, to view a vintage Prophet 600 synthesizer. Took my girlfriend and went by the scenic route through the Peak District. Nereta did an excellent job navigating us there. The guy selling the synth was really friendly and it was in excellent condition and sounded gorgeous, so I just had to buy it. Then as we were in the neighbourhood we popped round to Steve H's to see his new house and visit his local for a rather splendid pub lunch. After which we headed back to Nottingham. Had a bit of a play with the P600 this evening and it looks like it will slot perfectly into my live and recording rig and that I may now be able to retire the trusty Yamaha AN1x.
Sequential Circuits Prophet 600
Sequential Circuits Prophet 600
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Chesterfield Jam 2 Report (23rd & 24th June 2005)
Well the 2nd Chesterfield Jam is done and dusted. Once more we booked two days at Digital Image Studios in Chesterfield.
Day One: We arranged to meet at the studio for about 10. Steve beat me there and was having a cup of tea and chat with Glen whilst waiting for me. I was itching to go so started unpacking whilst Glen made me a brew. With Glen's help we managed to get all the gear through the house to the decking outside the studio (see photo). As we had both decided to streamline our gear as much as possible and Steve had invested in some new stands so we were set up in double quick time. The only slight problem we had was Steve mangaing to scrape his Mum's car when moving it after we had unloaded. Luckily we managed to get some stuff to cover it up when we nipped out for lunch.
True to his word Glen had re-arranged things so that we could use the large half of the studio and had plenty of room to spread out in comparison to our rather cramped experience last time. This was extremely fortunate as it was a very hot, extremely muggy day and we would probably not have survived the heat.
Glen outside the studio:
Once set up we got straight into recording and did a mixture of ambient and sequence based tracks, plus work on some ideas for use in our upcoming live performances.
Astrogator in the studio:
We nipped out around 6 to book in to the hotel and thanks to Glen's wonderful map drawing skills managed to get almost but not quite completely lost, though not for too long as Chesterfield isn't actually that big. (the B&B we used last time had unfortunately just been sold). On our return we did another session until 10 then went for a curry. We went to the same place, got the same table and had the same food and it was gorgeous just the same.
We went backed to the hotel for a well deserved shower and off to bed, ready for an early start on day two.
Day Two: We awoke to find the weather had changed somewhat and found that although it was still hot, it had clouded over. We had fun getting back to the studio due to some roadworks prompting a bizarre diversion through the countryside. After another diversion for breakfast we arrived at the studio in the middle of a huge downpour and got completely soaked. No sign of Glen as he'd been out for some beer the previous night, so we had quick cuppa then back into the studio for some more recording. Strangely enough the heat was even worse and got extremely tiring. We had quite a productive day ending with a totally retro Mellotron and sequencer fest. Then it was time to pack up at the end of two days that had flown by.
Big thanks to Glen for cups of tea, helping with carrying the gear and generally just a being a cool dude, even on day two when he was nursing his hangover. We both can't wait for the next one, but we've got a few gigs to perform first.
More photos here
Day One: We arranged to meet at the studio for about 10. Steve beat me there and was having a cup of tea and chat with Glen whilst waiting for me. I was itching to go so started unpacking whilst Glen made me a brew. With Glen's help we managed to get all the gear through the house to the decking outside the studio (see photo). As we had both decided to streamline our gear as much as possible and Steve had invested in some new stands so we were set up in double quick time. The only slight problem we had was Steve mangaing to scrape his Mum's car when moving it after we had unloaded. Luckily we managed to get some stuff to cover it up when we nipped out for lunch.
True to his word Glen had re-arranged things so that we could use the large half of the studio and had plenty of room to spread out in comparison to our rather cramped experience last time. This was extremely fortunate as it was a very hot, extremely muggy day and we would probably not have survived the heat.
Glen outside the studio:
Once set up we got straight into recording and did a mixture of ambient and sequence based tracks, plus work on some ideas for use in our upcoming live performances.
Astrogator in the studio:
We nipped out around 6 to book in to the hotel and thanks to Glen's wonderful map drawing skills managed to get almost but not quite completely lost, though not for too long as Chesterfield isn't actually that big. (the B&B we used last time had unfortunately just been sold). On our return we did another session until 10 then went for a curry. We went to the same place, got the same table and had the same food and it was gorgeous just the same.
We went backed to the hotel for a well deserved shower and off to bed, ready for an early start on day two.
Day Two: We awoke to find the weather had changed somewhat and found that although it was still hot, it had clouded over. We had fun getting back to the studio due to some roadworks prompting a bizarre diversion through the countryside. After another diversion for breakfast we arrived at the studio in the middle of a huge downpour and got completely soaked. No sign of Glen as he'd been out for some beer the previous night, so we had quick cuppa then back into the studio for some more recording. Strangely enough the heat was even worse and got extremely tiring. We had quite a productive day ending with a totally retro Mellotron and sequencer fest. Then it was time to pack up at the end of two days that had flown by.
Big thanks to Glen for cups of tea, helping with carrying the gear and generally just a being a cool dude, even on day two when he was nursing his hangover. We both can't wait for the next one, but we've got a few gigs to perform first.
More photos here
Monday, June 27, 2005
Tangerine Dream 11.06.05 "Retro gig shock"
Well, the Awakenings gig on Friday was just the start of my weeken d of Electronic Music as Tangerine Dream were playing the Shepherd's Bush Empire on the following day.
The gig had been billed as the first live performance of Phaedra an album originally released 31 years earlier in 1974. As TD have quite a reputation for re-vamping older material, sometimes so much that it is virtually unrecognisable, it was all a bit up in the air whether this would be one of these Dream Mix gigs or something more true to the spirirt of the original music.
Steve Humphries came down from Manchester to my house just after lunch where we were joined by Pete Challoner, who had offered to drive us down to London. We made good time and got down to London in time to meet up in the designated pub for a beer before heading off to get a bite to eat from Subway, after which we decided it would be best to get a place in the growing queue.
Whilst queueing I handed out some Awakenings flyers and in doing so managed to avoid the TV crew interviewing fans in the queue. I wonder if Steve and Pete's comments will make the final cut?
After a while queueing we got into the venue and got ourselves some nice seats on the first level of the balcony, just behind Dave and Marion Horrod (EM's biggest fans). After a trip to the bar and a chat with Marion it was soon time for the gig to start.
Which it did with Edgar messing around on electric piano, having some fun with the piano intro to Ricochet part 2, after which he joined the rest of the band onstage in the classic 3 player formation, starting off with their backs to the audience then moving to face the audience after a few older pieces.
Onstage throughout the gig were Edgar on e-piano and synths, Jerome on synths and guitar and new guy Thorsten Quaeschning on synths, occasional percussion and e-pinao. They were joined early on by Iris Camaa on percussion and at various points by Linda Spa on sax and synths and Zlatko Perica on guitar.
They played a varied set of mostly older material, and mostly sympathetically to the original versions, though there were a few Dream Mix style pieces and one new piece. It was nice to see a few nods to their history, particularly the use of huge monitors showing the Arturia Moog Modular V software, though there is some question whether this was actually used. Also from my vantage point I could see that it looked like everyone was actually playing, but it was obvious that there was alot of pre-recorded backing which was kind of disappointing.
The other thing that was really disappointing was an over zealous security woman enforcing the no photography rule. It really spoiled my night. The ights were pretty good, the sound was pretty clear but seemed to lack a live dynamic.
After the gig it was time to hit the road, but not before a quick kebab to keep us going, especially Steve who wouldn't be home for a long time. How little did we know then how long!
Well, it had been a pretty good day so it was no surprise that something had to go wrong somewhere and for us this was heralded by a a strange flapping noise and a warning light on the M1 about 40 miles from Nottingham.
Luckily Pete had the presence of mind to pull over on to the hard shoulder and get out and have a look. To all intents and purposes, to us non-mechanically minded EM fans, it looked like his fan belt had come off.
Pete was all for taking a chance on driving off, but I persuaded him to call the AA to check what the risks might be. They suggested we err on the side of caution and wait for a patrol. Luckily we did, as it wasn't his fan belt, but the timing belt, unluckily it took over an hour and a quarter for the patrol to arrive, to tell us we had to be relayed back to Nottingham as it wasn't something he could repair.
That hour and a quarter, standing in the cold on the side of the M1 at 1 o'clock in the morning was incredibly bizarre. We were all a bit tired, more than a bit pissed off with our bad luck and getting quite cold. After we had finished totally dissecting the gig and deciding that TD were a rubbish live act we ended up making up silly songs about waiting for the AA man to the tunes of such classics as Autobahn and Cars.
I think Steve got home about 5:30 am and Pete was lucky to not do any major damage to his car. What a night - there's always something isn't there.
More photos here
The gig had been billed as the first live performance of Phaedra an album originally released 31 years earlier in 1974. As TD have quite a reputation for re-vamping older material, sometimes so much that it is virtually unrecognisable, it was all a bit up in the air whether this would be one of these Dream Mix gigs or something more true to the spirirt of the original music.
Steve Humphries came down from Manchester to my house just after lunch where we were joined by Pete Challoner, who had offered to drive us down to London. We made good time and got down to London in time to meet up in the designated pub for a beer before heading off to get a bite to eat from Subway, after which we decided it would be best to get a place in the growing queue.
Whilst queueing I handed out some Awakenings flyers and in doing so managed to avoid the TV crew interviewing fans in the queue. I wonder if Steve and Pete's comments will make the final cut?
After a while queueing we got into the venue and got ourselves some nice seats on the first level of the balcony, just behind Dave and Marion Horrod (EM's biggest fans). After a trip to the bar and a chat with Marion it was soon time for the gig to start.
Which it did with Edgar messing around on electric piano, having some fun with the piano intro to Ricochet part 2, after which he joined the rest of the band onstage in the classic 3 player formation, starting off with their backs to the audience then moving to face the audience after a few older pieces.
Onstage throughout the gig were Edgar on e-piano and synths, Jerome on synths and guitar and new guy Thorsten Quaeschning on synths, occasional percussion and e-pinao. They were joined early on by Iris Camaa on percussion and at various points by Linda Spa on sax and synths and Zlatko Perica on guitar.
They played a varied set of mostly older material, and mostly sympathetically to the original versions, though there were a few Dream Mix style pieces and one new piece. It was nice to see a few nods to their history, particularly the use of huge monitors showing the Arturia Moog Modular V software, though there is some question whether this was actually used. Also from my vantage point I could see that it looked like everyone was actually playing, but it was obvious that there was alot of pre-recorded backing which was kind of disappointing.
The other thing that was really disappointing was an over zealous security woman enforcing the no photography rule. It really spoiled my night. The ights were pretty good, the sound was pretty clear but seemed to lack a live dynamic.
After the gig it was time to hit the road, but not before a quick kebab to keep us going, especially Steve who wouldn't be home for a long time. How little did we know then how long!
Well, it had been a pretty good day so it was no surprise that something had to go wrong somewhere and for us this was heralded by a a strange flapping noise and a warning light on the M1 about 40 miles from Nottingham.
Luckily Pete had the presence of mind to pull over on to the hard shoulder and get out and have a look. To all intents and purposes, to us non-mechanically minded EM fans, it looked like his fan belt had come off.
Pete was all for taking a chance on driving off, but I persuaded him to call the AA to check what the risks might be. They suggested we err on the side of caution and wait for a patrol. Luckily we did, as it wasn't his fan belt, but the timing belt, unluckily it took over an hour and a quarter for the patrol to arrive, to tell us we had to be relayed back to Nottingham as it wasn't something he could repair.
That hour and a quarter, standing in the cold on the side of the M1 at 1 o'clock in the morning was incredibly bizarre. We were all a bit tired, more than a bit pissed off with our bad luck and getting quite cold. After we had finished totally dissecting the gig and deciding that TD were a rubbish live act we ended up making up silly songs about waiting for the AA man to the tunes of such classics as Autobahn and Cars.
I think Steve got home about 5:30 am and Pete was lucky to not do any major damage to his car. What a night - there's always something isn't there.
More photos here
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Awakenings 10.06.05 "It's dark in Leeds"
Well it's been just over 2 weeks since the last Awakenings gig, which was the first of this year's mini-festivals and featured 3 acts, 4m33s Extended, Omega Syndicate and Radio Massacre International. Organisationally this was quite complicated especially with John sherwood the main organiser performing as 4m33s, so I went down early to help man the doors and merchandise stand during John's opening set.
4m33s Extended
John started procedings around 5:15 if memory serves and produced quite a varied set, with much more rhythmic content and support on guitar from Steve munslow aka HyperEx Machina (hence the 'Extended'). highlights for me were some nice sequencing and leads from John and some tasty guitar from Steve. It all came together pretty well, considering the only prior collaboration had been by emailed mp3 files. They also performed some stuff from their 'ambient rock' project Cult of Ashand, which was different.
Omega Syndicate
Dave Gurr and Xan Alexander's set was only their second live performance and unfortunately was beset with technical difficulties, with mixer and sequencer problems. Whilst this made their set a bit disjointed in places, when things got going they produced some excellent music. They made a nice effort to dress up and brought a nice backdrop and lighting effects to enhance their set. Hopefully more gigs will help to iron out the bugs.
Radio Massacre International
Well, what can I say, RMI's set was 'different' to say the least and consisted of nearly 2 hours of continuous music, built up of drones, looped bass and guitar, cosmic synth fx and percussion. It ebbed and flowed at an almost tectonic rate with long almost unchanging sections gradually morphing together. It was also very dark and quite oppressive. Occasional sections of sequencing raised the energy levels but were far from the norm. As John said afterwards, "this will be a classic in years to come".
All in all it was a pretty successful night of EM, the audience was more than the last one and we had some famous guests in the guise of Ian Boddy and Paul Nagle.
Paul was somewhat out of it, but made an extremely astute comment after the gig, when told he was off to Bradford, he remarked, "I wonder if it is as dark in Bradford". Now there's a good name for the album if RMI release their set :-)
4m33s Extended
John started procedings around 5:15 if memory serves and produced quite a varied set, with much more rhythmic content and support on guitar from Steve munslow aka HyperEx Machina (hence the 'Extended'). highlights for me were some nice sequencing and leads from John and some tasty guitar from Steve. It all came together pretty well, considering the only prior collaboration had been by emailed mp3 files. They also performed some stuff from their 'ambient rock' project Cult of Ashand, which was different.
Omega Syndicate
Dave Gurr and Xan Alexander's set was only their second live performance and unfortunately was beset with technical difficulties, with mixer and sequencer problems. Whilst this made their set a bit disjointed in places, when things got going they produced some excellent music. They made a nice effort to dress up and brought a nice backdrop and lighting effects to enhance their set. Hopefully more gigs will help to iron out the bugs.
Radio Massacre International
Well, what can I say, RMI's set was 'different' to say the least and consisted of nearly 2 hours of continuous music, built up of drones, looped bass and guitar, cosmic synth fx and percussion. It ebbed and flowed at an almost tectonic rate with long almost unchanging sections gradually morphing together. It was also very dark and quite oppressive. Occasional sections of sequencing raised the energy levels but were far from the norm. As John said afterwards, "this will be a classic in years to come".
All in all it was a pretty successful night of EM, the audience was more than the last one and we had some famous guests in the guise of Ian Boddy and Paul Nagle.
Paul was somewhat out of it, but made an extremely astute comment after the gig, when told he was off to Bradford, he remarked, "I wonder if it is as dark in Bradford". Now there's a good name for the album if RMI release their set :-)
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Gig report: Rose of England 04.06.05
Well, that was a strange one - there was I expecting to go on first as support to Dave Davies (ex-Shadowdancer), when out of the blue I'm going on last and there are some surprise special guests. So Dave went on first to do an experimental electronic set, accompanied by first guest, Dave Atkins (also ex-Shadowdancer) on acoustic guitar. This set had it's moments but came to an end all too soon.
Following this Dave D strapped on his bass, fired up his drum machine and did some Rush covers (Tom Sawyer, Spirit of Radio) and a old Shadowdancer song 'Secrets of the Sphinx. These didn't work too well for me without a proper prper band backing and Dave seemed at times to be struggling, unsurprisingly as he hadn't been able to bring a stage monitor.
Next up was second guest, 'Saltfish John', a local character, from Monserrat, who played (sang) a few 'tunes' (including the Monserrat national anthem and the Beatles 8 Days) whilst playing a snare, military style. Quite bizarre. He also did a couple of songs on acoustic guitar, OK I suppose, but not really to my taste.
After this Dave A did a short set of songs on acoustic. Quite mellow after John.
Then it was time for me to play. I was feeling particularly weird after all the strange goings on so started of with something nice and spacey, to counterpoint the surrealism of the preceding acts. This gradually built and evolved as I added sequences, mostly stuff from Leeds, but with some new layers and edits. I watched the minidisc to time the ending around the half hour mark.
For my second piece I was joined by Dave A on acoustic guitar, which I thought might be a bit of a gamble, but worth the risk. Unfortunately things didn't really gel until about halfway through, with it all going a bit chaotic in places, but I think we pulled it together by the end.
Davids Davies and Atkins
Photos courtesy of John Sherwood. More available from here
Following this Dave D strapped on his bass, fired up his drum machine and did some Rush covers (Tom Sawyer, Spirit of Radio) and a old Shadowdancer song 'Secrets of the Sphinx. These didn't work too well for me without a proper prper band backing and Dave seemed at times to be struggling, unsurprisingly as he hadn't been able to bring a stage monitor.
Next up was second guest, 'Saltfish John', a local character, from Monserrat, who played (sang) a few 'tunes' (including the Monserrat national anthem and the Beatles 8 Days) whilst playing a snare, military style. Quite bizarre. He also did a couple of songs on acoustic guitar, OK I suppose, but not really to my taste.
After this Dave A did a short set of songs on acoustic. Quite mellow after John.
Then it was time for me to play. I was feeling particularly weird after all the strange goings on so started of with something nice and spacey, to counterpoint the surrealism of the preceding acts. This gradually built and evolved as I added sequences, mostly stuff from Leeds, but with some new layers and edits. I watched the minidisc to time the ending around the half hour mark.
For my second piece I was joined by Dave A on acoustic guitar, which I thought might be a bit of a gamble, but worth the risk. Unfortunately things didn't really gel until about halfway through, with it all going a bit chaotic in places, but I think we pulled it together by the end.
Davids Davies and Atkins
Photos courtesy of John Sherwood. More available from here
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
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
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
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 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
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
Friday, May 13, 2005
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
More Awakenings photos
Here's some rather psychedelic photos courtesy of John Sherwood
I particularly like this one :-)
More to come...
I particularly like this one :-)
More to come...
Friday, April 29, 2005
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
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.
I've been having lots of fun preparing so here's hoping it all comes together on the night.
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
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 :¬)
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 :¬)
Friday, March 18, 2005
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...
Monday, March 14, 2005
Monday, March 07, 2005
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.
Saturday, February 19, 2005
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
Super Bass Station
Evolver
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