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Sleeping On Trains By Daylight

Shoeb Ahmad



Last Updated: 12/13/2009

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Status: Single
City: Canberra
Country: AU
Signup Date: 5/31/2005

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Saturday, January 05, 2008 

I've decided to make this blog the last writeup here on myspace but also a catalogue of all the reviews I have gotten so far. I will update this as they come in!


The first four are from Gayle Brogan, who runs the awesome Scottish mailorder Boa Melody Bar.


Vinyl Sketches
'One of the best things about running the mailorder is when you order in a release by an artist you've never heard of on a label you normally enjoy, put on the cd and go ... wow! This is one of those releases. 6 pieces of short piano abstracts - with delayed notes cascading like snow flurries in sunshine. Just lovely.'


Sonar Love Songs
'Another lovely release from Shoeb Ahmad - guitar textures delayed / reverbed to the nth degree drifting towards the horizon, sometimes sounding like a guitar, with elongated notes extending ever outwards and sometimes like a ghostly shadow of the sound. Gorgeous.'


Mammoth/Deer split w/ ManKilled
'6 tracks from Canberra's Mankilled - slow bass heavy brutal grind, a direct contrast to Ahmad's ethereal drift. There are some tracks of time-suspending reverbed guitar wash similar to the Cook an Egg release and also a couple of moon orbitting songs with vocals courtesy of Wendi Graham. Again, gorgeous stuff.'


Pieno - Prepared
'Nom de plume of Shoeb Ahmad who also runs the Hello Square record label and has released some very fine discs under his own name. 3 tracks of prepared guitar with some post-processing by Shoeb, Lawrence English and M. Rosner. Track one pairs singing tones with ominous rustles; the second strands of guitar strings woven into a celestial ringing; lastly submerged melodies reel in a submarinal swoon. Gorgeous.'


This one is for my collab track on Scott Da Ros' album of 2006 'One Kind Of Dead End'. It was written by Aaron Newell @ CokeMachineGlow.


Dilshad And Tohti By A Frozen Lake
'Dilshad and Tohti by a Frozen Lake" is easily the most remarkable thing on One Kind of Dead End. Da Ros (and cohort Shoeb Ahmad) puts his head down, stretches out eerie, icy -- ok, fuck it -- "glacial" strings, and, at intervals, gently crumbles drum fills underneath them, uncovering the missing link between Kid A and Ágætis Byrjun by way of Eluvium. ... it's also one of the most beautiful musical moments I've heard all year...'


The next two are from Frans De Waard's long running Vital Weekly.


Mixed Doubles
'Lots of Australians in this particular weekly, and Shoeb Ahmad is a new name for me. He has had two 3" releases on Sound & Fury an Wilting Flower before, but these are on his own Hellos Quarerecordings. Nine pieces are to be found on 'Mixed Doubles', four which are remixes by people who are likewise new to me, except Prettyboy Crossover. At the start are the five original pieces by Ahmad, which shows his love for drone rock, but captured and over powered in the realm of the computer. We hear sustaining sounds of processed guitars, feeding through what are no doubt plug ins, kind alike something Willits does (see elsewhere), but less refined. Nice it certainly is.'


Mammoth/Deer split w/ ManKilled
'...Shoeb Ahmad has five pieces here, which he calls 'shoegazey pop'. Much alike the previous five pieces, but it seems that he uses a bit more computerized processings here, making things a bit more grainy and low resolution like. Rhythm is also used here to a wider extent, making it indeed a bit pop like, and the overall atmosphere is pointed downward, to the shoes, or inward to the self. Nice stuff all around, certainly when these two don't seem to match very well.'


This one was written by Scott McKeating in Issue 12 of UK's Rock-A-Rolla Magazine


Sunday, August 19, 2007 
Hey all,
just writing to mention you can now pick up copies of my new processed piano work which is cryptically titled 'Piano Music'. Kind of like an extension on ideas from Vinyl Sketches while revisiting old methods of manipulations and further embellishments, this four piece suite now is available at www.low-point.com or from me in the next couple of weeks.
Also, I have just released cube010 on hellosQuare and it is also now available at the hellosQuare myspace (look at my top friends list). It features three miniatures by M.Rosner (Apestaartje, Room40) and two pieces by Gareth Hardwick (he of the Low Point label plus Unlabel and Blackest Rainbow in the UK) on the trademark white with hellosQuare CDR in wraparound art and plastic sleeve. Two good lads with good music on Canberra's number 1 DIY label :-)
Peace,
Shoeb.
Sunday, January 14, 2007 

Hey dudes + dudettes,
hope yr all doing well and you've had a good new years break.
Just writing to let you know that I've gotten copies of Vinyl Sketches and Summer Drift back from the labels and I must say, they look very fucking rad indeed !
All about the cool packaging eh ?
Anyways, they are in limited editions and you can pick them up through me right here via Paypal. Vinyl Sketches is $15AUD with postage and Summer Drift is $12AUD with postage. Also, you can buy the two releases together for $25AUD with postage. Just drop a line to hellosquare.shoeb@gmail.com about the double disc thing or any other questions you may have.
I'll be playing a couple of shows in Melbourne later this week plus two in early February with Blarke Bayer (Ben from My Disco) so keep checking for details and such.

Take care and I wish you all much prosperity for this upcoming year,
Shoeb.

Currently listening:
Together Alone
By Crowded House
Release date: 14 October, 1993
Friday, September 22, 2006 

Current mood:  sore
So I was playing football (soccer) with some Bangladeshi lads here in Wollongong on like Tuesday and I managed to sprain my ankle. I've not sprained my ankle since early high school so I was nervously trying to figure out how it'd be better in my head and it's pretty fucking painful. Anyways, I was on crutches for a day to ease pressure off the foot and I'm on it again in cripple hobble form.

So I'm playing 1/4 Inch here in Wollongong on the 4th of October in support of Richard Chartier (12k/Line) and Filastine (Soot) which is pretty spivvy. I guess the big thing with this gig (apart from the others on the lineup) is that I'll be playing in a live improv duo with Adrian Klumpes from Triosk. We got in touch somehow a few months back and swapped tunes and we decided on doing this duo shit. So Adrian drove down this way yesterday and we set up our instruments at the Uni and had a bit of workout and it's come together nicely. With me going back to Canberra for the week this Saturday and Adrian being in Sydney, there's a good chance we might not be able to have another jam before the gig but it should be rad either way.

I think my ankle's still gonna be swollen as fuck for like the next few months. It hurts pretty badly...which kinda has me nervous about a break in the bone. If that's the case, my pain threshold is bizarre.

Greg from Jasmine Loop Control does Wilting Flower Records and he's agreed to put out 'Summer Drift' as a 3" CDr, which is pretty cool (You can listen to 'Time Left, Time Elapsed' from Summer on the player...). Another piece 'Schwarzer' will be released as apart of noise and drone compilation he's doing too. I've started recording new things too. More song based with vocals but still washed in processed sound. 'Laptop-aided country folk' maybe ? I'll update you on that as it comes along.

Talk soon homies,
Shoeb.
Currently listening:
Born Sandy Devotional
By The Triffids
Release date: 08 August, 2006
Friday, May 05, 2006 
I don't partake in the intake of goon - that shit's bad but my roommates do equate to poor uni students who like to get a little drunk so they've been on top of that shit tonight. I think I'm partaking in beer drinking tomorrow night when a little cash settles into the bank account and after I go up to Sydney to buy some Krispy Kremes cuz yes, I'm motivated by food !

Just letting you who read this thing - go and check out Scape Music. That shit is totally on, nice minimal clicks and cuts, loop games and digitalis for mellow out time. I think I'm gonna give the Andrew Pekler and Jan Jelinek a spin now :-)

Oh yeah , also - Wendi from Radarmaker asked me if I'd like to make one or two tunes in the 'Four-Tet' style for a short film her boyfriend and her are going into pre-production for. Not sure if it'll get into the film but going under the microscope is just as good and I think it's the one they'll be making around the time I'm staying at their house too. So looks like it's gonna be a busy weekend.

Take care guys.
xx Shoeb
Currently listening:
Loose In The Air
By The Double
Release date: 13 September, 2005
Monday, May 01, 2006 
So amongst all this rediscovered love of writing simple 3 chord songs on guitars, I've also managed to rediscover the harsh metronomic sounds of Suicide!. If you can find the album anywhere, fork out the cash and pick it up cuz it's totally essential in anyone's collection. Alan Vega's deadpan matinee idol voice spitting out tales over Martin Rev's cold electronics has got to be some of the most harrowing sounds in pop music ever. The primitive minimalism of it all somehow threw up beautiful chord progressions like in 'Che' but in the end, you'll probably never forget the violent screams in 'Frankie Teardrop'...
Currently listening:
Suicide (First Album)
By Suicide
Release date: 18 January, 2000
Friday, April 28, 2006 
Hey to anyone who's reading this.
Hope yr well and sitting back when you can !
A few things to mention first :-

*Gudrun Gut played a snippet of 'Experiences That Make You Cry' on April 7th on her Ocean Club Radio show on Radio 1 Berlin. I think she does a faves of the week off Myspace type thing which I thought was pretty rad. She also said Canberra in this interesting way, not mispronounced but emphasized differently - Very Cool !

*'Sleeping On Trains By Daylight' will be seeing an imminent release via Endemik Music digital distribution on iTunes, Real Music and a few more online mp3 stores in the next couple of months. I'm just about to send off the mastered tracks, a list of credits and a whole bunch of photos for the artwork to be done and settled !

*I'll be playing a few shows at the start of June - one in Sydney and two in Perth. It should be good to get over that way again as the peeps I met last time and others who I've met from over that way are just great to hang out with. 3rd June kicks it off with an instore performance at Sound And Fury Records in Sydney with a supporting set by Chris Moller of Starboard (to be confirmed though...) happening before. I may also be playing with Evan Dorrian on his drum specific kit in a duo formation. Then I head over to WA to play on the 9th at Fremantle's Swan Basement and the 14th at The Rosemount in Perth. The 9th is with the good people from Jasmine Loop Control and Pacific By Rail not to mention a special 'Shoeb Ahmad Trio' for the night with Wendi and Noah from Radarmaker. The 14th is just as special with Radarmaker, M.Rosner, Polaroid Ghost and Hoopers Store all playing as well as myself in solo form. If you guys can make it to any of the gigs - come and say hi, I'm quite personable :-)

*Also at the gigs, hopefully I'll have some limited edition CDRs for sale with some new things I've done. Recorded with a lo-fi aesthetic, the CDR highlights vague folk guitars (clean and effected) lying on a bed of percussive noise,vocal complications and also features drum work from Switch 3's Evan Dorrian on one track. There will probably be one pure field recording piece done sometime in March in Sydney on there as well for good measure. Think more Dean Roberts then Slowdive this time and you should be on the right track !

OK - keep an eye out for news on a remix release to be organized and worked on in the upcoming winter months and again, stay cool and take care of yr loved ones becuz once they're gone - you won't be able to ever again !

xx Shoeb.
Currently listening:
Seawards
By Sickoakes
Release date: 18 April, 2006