as the number of enquiries about talanas material reach critical mass, it seems only prudent for us to address them via the means of A BLOG.  so sit ye down, accept our initial apology for the delay and watch as we unravel a yarn of wanton daring, derring-don't and an ancient curse awoken by the chanting of the diabolical mantra "force quit"...


THE EP FIASCO - PART THE FIRST
having confirmed our lineup in the new year of 2009, we started work on new material with a view to create an EP debut.  four songs.  simple as.  bish-bash-bosh.  throughout april, preparations began for the recording of the original tunes that were set to feature on the 'reason & abstract' EP, confirming james dunkley as our producer / engineer.  we release the pre-production video.  people rejoice.  some of us have breakfast.


THE EP FIASCO - PART TWO, aka 'THE REVENGE OF THE CURSE OF THE CASE OF THE AMAZING HARD DRIVE DEATH... CURSE...  OF DEATH'
the merry month of may proved itself not so merry for recording, we then spent up 'til june finalising and improving parts to the songs and waiting on the next available window that we'd all have available to track (that's tech-speak for 'recording', we use this word because the honeys find it well hot).  with dunkley being a card-carrying music industry professional 'n all, our recording schedule had to synch-in with his whilst he juggled travelling to our london studio from the bad-lands of northampton, recording a number of other acts and being booked to do sound for the main stages of events such as sonisphere & download.  when we managed to coordinate we discovered that, due to some form of freak occurrence, various streams of audio data began to corrupt or disappear altogether, resulting finally in the total collapse of dunkley's mac book.  the feedback from the repairs reported that not only had the data been corrupted, but that the hard drive itself had actually started to destroy itself from the inside out, in technical terms meaning we were most likely victim of a dark, ageless curse which had billowed forth from the depths of another plain of existence (ie. not part of the apple warranty).  this continued to mar the project's completion for several months and saw many of us making trips across the country to re-track various parts in their entirety, in many cases several times each.  we're glad to report since though that dunkley's replacement laptop and associated gear is now showing no signs of the curse.


THE EP FIASCO - PART THREE 'A GLIMMER OF NEW HOPE IN THE DARK SWAMP OF ADVERSITY THAT'S QUITE HARSH AND STUFF'
as our available time with dunkley petered out, all involved bust their proverbial guts to make the best of what we had there & then.  towards the end of september, time commitments meant we then passed the project & all its files to tom whiston who stepped in to take the reins as producer.  in coordinating the final re-tracking of various parts towards the end of the year, many of us came to the realisation that the songs featuring on the EP were nearly a year old with few bearing any resemblance in style to those currently being written for the first album (yes, this has now gone on so long that we're even writing the next release), so an executive decision was made - two of the four original songs were scrapped and replaced by one song from the new album.  we've now just spent this past while re-recording everything to ensure that all the songs have the same cohesive sound, with re-written vocals scheduled to be recorded in early january.

none of us could've seen any of this coming.  nearly 10+ months to create a debut EP-length release is madness but is testament to the fact that we refuse to let any old stuff out for the sake of it, instead we wanted to make sure what we release is exactly how we want to be heard.  many of our friends, colleagues and even ex-colleagues have been amazing in offering some great advice & feedback throughout this, but we're now on the homeward leg of this often nightmarish journey.  ultimately, we hope to have the 'reason & abstract' EP out for around late january / early february through eulogy media.


TOUR / LIVE?
touring, let alone trying to book a tour, without available material to promote or provide an example of is something of a lost cause.  as such it's meant that we've had to postpone the leftfield winter tour 2010 with dam until the EP is released.  the demand for talanas live work has been notable nonetheless, with the debut gig at fusion '09 in september being received fantastically well.  we'll hope to 'hit the road' to promote the EP and other new songs around springtime.


BEYOND THE EP?
we've been keeping ourselves busy in the downtime from all this EP business, and already demo tracks of new material are emerging quickly & regularly.  once the mastering process is complete on 'reason & abstract', we'll get to work on finalising & recording the 1st full length album whilst moving towards shooting a video or two.


in the meanwhile, we hope you'll stick with us whilst we sort this madness out.  we promise you it'll be worth the wait.  a bit like a boiling kettle.  but much sexier.

hal, ewan, duff, josiah & joe
(TALANAS)

what happened next? we did.

behold - the fruits of our labours, we have indeed been busy little bees. that is, if bees had only two legs each, weren't exclusively reliant on pollen and incapable of flying when sober...

FORTHCOMING MATERIAL
rather than whack off a quick 'rush job' since confirming the new lineup and spurt out a paltry two minute riff-o-rama over your pretty & expectant faces, we've decided to cancel our beer funds, call off our boat trips, get the sherry in and spend some time together in the studio making sure we write you all some decent, firm & obstreperous tunes. the 4 songs (masquerading as the 'reason & abstract' EP) are now ready to record, and we'll be doing so over the next month or two at berry street studio under the watchful ear of the reassuringly tall james dunkley (he does have ever such nice hair and a lovely car, you should see it). you can hear some of the new material, in demo form, in the video posted below.

NEW PHOTOS & MYSPACE
in the meantime, we've had some available hours to whip out a photo shoot & myspace design. the young, talented and inexplicably blonde ross wildish pointed his lens at us in a public park and it all turned out wonderfully (thanks also to donna stapley for painting our faces with pretty-dust), he also supplied some positively fantastic shots of our then immediate surroundings which you can now see incorporated into the new design of our myspace page, skillfully rendered, tweaked and pinched by adam cutler of motionless visions designs. our 'design chap from across the water' has also fashioned us a nifty new logo which you'll hopefully be seeing a lot of in the future.

PRE-PRODUCTION VIDEO BLOG
never give people like us a camera. having sifted through the hours of anatomical footage, we've finally managed to pull together enough that will provide a good idea of what we've been up to all this while and what's ahead, interlock's mart anthony has been kind enough to lend his midas touch to the editing & post production (he was responsible for the 'parasite' podcast & 'straight' video). there'll be plenty more like this to follow over the coming months leading up to the release of the EP, alongside some predictably pointless ridiculousness.



SANDWICHES
nice, aren't they? we like the cheese ones.

hal, ewan, duff, josiah & joe

i'm as pleased as punch to give the news of another of my ex-colleagues from interlock confirming a forthcoming live date.

interlock's last bass-mistress, syan, will be lending her low end rumble to none other than london's electronic-tinged metal vandals tribazik for their album launch on april 28th in central london:



the old street-based noiseniks will be releasing their album 'all blood is red' through eastworld recordings and is currently available at such places as amazon, featuring guest vocals from industrial legend jaz coleman (of killing joke fame). syan tells me she'll be playing through her now somewhat notorious warwick rig for the show and has otherwise been dallying with her own brand of programming alongside her regular appearances throughout the capital as DJ request denied.

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and what better time would there be to update on what myself & others from the ex-interlock camp are currently up to...

HAL
the main pursuit-du-jour currently flipping my lid is talanas. this is the prog/death outfit that joe & i had set up around late summer last year, in order to flex some musical muscles and scratch some tech-metal itches, and that on the advent of the interlock split took over as our main project. we're set to record throughout may at berry street studios (the last home of interlock) with james dunkley and will shortly be launching a new myspace & series of video blogs covering the recording process. gig offers have already started rolling in with the first confirmed being fusion '09 at the elgiva theatre in september.

next up is my work with beth ryan, also featuring mart from interlock and noise:tek / bad sekta / anticulture recording artist tom whiston. beth is currently writing for her debut release through eulogy media this summer and has been performing several new songs at various venues in the UK, she's also confirmed to play fusion '09 this september.

a number of other projects are on the go including some black metal nastiness with ex members of dam & horrid face, some breakcore / noise / death metal crossover with tom whiston and something of a strictly hush-hush 'meeting of minds' with a few metal veteran / pie-eating types (cryptic isn't yet my middle name, but i'm working on it). the now award-winning signature series 7 string from roter custom guitars has seen a lot of work over the past few months, to say the least. weirdly enough, as has my gormless visage for such companies as spiral direct & attitude clothing in the likes of metal hammer & bizarre magazines.


JOE
still holding the mantle of having the single largest kit ever custom ordered in one piece by a mapex europe endorsee, joe has been honing his talents for a more organic (as in, not tied-down to a backing track!) approach for the talanas material. expect some big sounds over this summer.


CHRISTINA
since interlock's demise, christina has been fielding a wave of requests for guest vocals. her continued guest work with london-based black metal legends abgott has fulled yet further interest in the appearance of her rasps, roars & ramblings, however she's executed fair selection in her decisions and is now working with a particular few artists, not to mention developing her instrumental skills and working on her own material.

people can expect to hear christina's vocals in some pretty surprising formats over the coming months, best to stay glued to her myspace blog, needless to say it'll be bloody & brutal.


MART
joining us on beth ryan's work, mart has been part of the live set for a number of months now and has already performed at a number of beth's shows. those wishing to see the results of the infamous forthcoming ran custom 7 string guitar he has arriving some time soon this year can hopefully expect to see it at shows such as fusion '09 at the elgiva theatre in september.

following the response to his cinematographic work on the latter interlock video output (the 'straight' video & 'parasite' blog etc.), mart will also now be pursuing future audio-visual work. i'm also stoked to say that he's handling the editing & post production of the forthcoming talanas pre-production video blog.

H