ESX photo by http://www.myspace.com/bassaceangel who's getting pretty darn good at gig pix and putting up with my cynical moaning and occasional flatulence!
 

Next new track - Splank! has been posted, its acid hillbilly!

Quite a basic track just Bass drum, snare, hi hat, bass, and guitar and all one take through. Fender Tele deluxe for all the lead parts and the stingray for the bass. Pic as above!
 

New track

'1876' has just been posted and is destined for the Futures album.

Why the title?

Well in order to deal the with future you need to understand the past.

1876 was a key year in American history, it saw the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians slaughter Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in the fight to retain their sacred lands. After the battle, the Indians came through and stripped the bodies and mutilated all the uniformed soldiers, believing that the soul of a mutilated body would be forced to walk the earth for all eternity and could not ascend to heaven. Inexplicably, they stripped Custer's body and cleaned it, but did not scalp or mutilate it. They had achieved their greatest victory yet, but soon their tenuous union fell apart in the face of the white onslaught. Within a year, the Sioux nation was defeated and broken. "Custer's Last Stand" was their last stand as well.

1876 saw the most disputed and intense presidential elections in American history. S.J Tilden defeated R Hayes in the popular vote although disagreement regarding the voting itself remained. In time deal was struck between the two known as the Compromise of 1877 which resulted in African Americans being barred from voting.

Oppression remains a human trait.
 

Drop a line if you need a mixer! I love the stuff.
 

Perspectives is now available for download via napster, click on the link above.

Bands, Artistes etc do yourself a favour and talk to Nashville Noir, Jason & Dustin are men of thier word and have a huge distribution network worldwide. Talk to them, now! Click on the logo below


 

Another new track destined for the next album has been posted as track 5 on my player

Time for the past – I am in danger of getting (if not already!) rather pretentious on this one! Its really just about us considering our own past and growing and learning from it to avoid the pitfalls to come. My existence has been a strange mixture of creativity, anger, laughter, disaster and contentment. People come and go and all have an impact on us and are greatly appreciated. Making time for the past and learning from it ensures survival but the story continually continues and becomes the future!

I knew i'd find a use for thoes Djembe samples I took!
 

Next up from the new Futures album...

Respect

If theres one word that can change the world.....

Ok so I'm a bit of an old pretentious hippy but in the light of world and domestic events past, present and in the future respect is a route to racial harmony. Sadly in so many cases this goes against the inherant animal in the human psychie resulting in what seems an endless cycle of contempt. Change is possible.
 

Experimental Music.....

I have had a couple of emails from fellow myspace musos questioning my use of the term Experimental for my music. Firstly lets make a few things clear, experimental music is not solely generated through oscillators, filters and envelope generators OR sampling come to that. Experimental does not just mean electronic. As soon as you move away from harmonic conventions you are in the realms of experimental music.

So for those who might ask why my music is termed Experimental here is a breakdown of why the track Reefer falls into this category:-
1. Timbre - the sitar is a Telecaster electronically manipulated, there are non instrumental timbres in there.
2. Structure - this is a rock track that is structured as a north Indian classical raga composition, Alap, Jhor, Jhala & Bandish except I have experimented with the format so it is modified
3. Rhythm - use of rhythmic phasing across the tabla part against the jaws harp which has no place in Indian music or even Bhangra however through experimentation there it is and hopefully yoyu agree it works. listen to the bass as the tablas first come in the two rhythms are phased in together gradually.
4. Melodic structure - initially appears call and response however through experimentation it falls into irregular phrasing giving further weight to the rhythmic phasing (drawn from African music and the Gamelan by the way)
5. Effects - again a timbre issue however the use of Burford UFO to generate the rhythmic shards, reversing of certain sections of the melody and leading up to breaks,


I could go on and my point is not to attack anyone but to raise the issue that Experimental music is not only synth based but in fact draws on world music. Sadly music education is very imperialistic and middle class with far too much time spent discussing the ins and outs of orchestral composers (meant with respect) but where did these people get their ideas? Take it a stage back and look at indigenous folk, sacred vocal and world music and you get to the root of it all. Many Universities run courses based around the concept of experimental music where the key focus is using non instrumental timbres via technology which is great but listen to the lectures carefully as the ideas are once again firmly based in African, south American and Indonesian indigenous music.

Experimentation is just that, there should be no boundaries, limitations or especially any pigeon holing.
 

Post rant.......

Well this week saw progress on the vocal tracks for the next album which is a bit of a collaboration between myself and Steve Bevan (theres a nice pic of Steve in the pics bit) who I have worked with for many years. Steve is a great bassist and vocalist but he also has an encyclopedic knowledge of lyrics - scarily so. Give him the first few lines of a song and if he's heard it (even once on radio) and he'll recite the lyrics. Perhaps its all the Bombay bad boy pot noodles he consumes?

Anyway the first tracks with vocals (songs!!!) are on the way and in the next week or so I will post one of them. I have also enlisted the help of an old mate and drummer Mr T C Burton who sneered at my drum programming and is now going to provide some 'real drummer' grooves for the last few tracks if I can persuade him to stop working for five minutes!

Anyway back on the Experimental thing I finally figured out how to program a Moog modular which is an awesome piece of kit and is inspiring me to write an all synth based tune (with some mangled guitar) ....am playing with the title 'Pinheads' as we speak......hmmmm
 

hanks for all the great info Paul. Just reading all your blogs today and you're one busy dude.

CHEERZ,
The Cryb Keeper
 

New track up from the Futures CD - Spaces

Collaboration with Steve Bevan on vocals who also penned the lyrics. I have mentioned Steve before and theres a pic of him in my photos, I have probably done more gigs with Steve on bass and vox then many people have had hot dinners! His encyclopedic knowledge of lyrics is quite amazing. The track 'Spaces' might initially seem a little depressing but theres a message in there about how people deal with what life throws at them.

Its not quite the final mix and Steve wants to re run the verses however I thought I'd throw it out there and see what response comes back......?
 

Spaces - The song is basically about trying to find fulfillment through material things & events when really its the basic simple things in life that are going to leave you contented in the end , no matter what or who you are or what you own. Its about searching for contentment in yourself.
 

Two new tracks complete for the album, theres the unsurprisingly titled 'Futures' and as promised 'Pinheads' both not perhaps what you are used to hearing from this old codger but I make no apologies. Both are in your face and to the point!

Futures is a warning, Pinheads is about all of thoes faceless people who annoy you on a daily basis, the pushers and shovers, the person who drives at 25 when you are on a main road and late for work, the people who scalp the shelves in tescos before I get there, the banks who charge extortionate amounts for doing nothing other than screwing you up, all thoes who think that no music of any consequence was written after 1750, all thoes who think that white middle class european music is the only form worthy of academic study and finally the selective christians, these are the ones who are outwardly christian in every sense but stab you in the back for personal gain. I don't rememebr seeing that in the ten commandments! You know these people - Pinheads is a protest, respect and tolerance is the answer.

When can you hear these tracks? Soon........
 

I have posted up Pinheads, not the final album mix but hopefully you will find it suitably aggressive, manic and psychotic! - Occasionally I am angry!
 

Seven Sins - just posted and off the Futures album which all being well will be released Jan/Feb. Some of you might find this one a challenge and it took some time to get right. Do I need to explain the seven sins? The track is all about the personal confilct we all live with, right and wrong. Whilst we try to stay right often we drift into the wrong - especially me, I won't go into details but suffice it to say I havn't always been a good boy!

The right and wrong is often transgressed by individuals, groups and nations in the past present and future. Unless the human race can see the right.
 

I have just posted up the final mix of Seven Sins - you'll find some changes and more punchy sound. Thanks to all thoes who have commented - much appreciated
 

Hi All

The artwork for Futures is now complete - check in my pics, you'll find a new folder with the sleeves etc. Your opinions are welcome and appreciated. The final mixes are all now together and the whole thing is sounding very punchy and tight. i'll postup a few of the final mixes just before release. The wonderfull Jason and Dustin at Nashville Noir are just sorting out the contract as we speak and all being well it should be available for download mid February.

Thank you all for your continued support and encouragement.
 

Hi All

News from the good people at Nashville Noir is that Futures is out for encoding through the distributors and its looking like an April/May release date which is excellent news.

I kind of need to get off my arse and start writing some more stuff, perhaps a little less cynical for the next album........but then thats not entirely in my nature! Having spent last week playing bass in a production of Les Miserables (hell for me...seriously...whats the fee?...is THAT the score!!!!!) I kind of felt that I needed to give music a rest for a couple of weeks but its only wednesday and I havn't missed a day of noodling around on the guitar or bass. Perhaps I should write my own musical........shame Frank Zappa never got to stage Civilisation Phase 3.......giant pianos...pigs...etc makes far more sense than The french revoloution with everyone singing in broad cockney accents with the occasional miseur thrown in for good measure.

Rant over - Futures is imminent..more to follow.....
 

'Apology'

A piece of music for all of the people I have been either a bastard to, or intollerant of.....

Inspired by the film 'Shooting Dogs' and the last two lines -
Marie - 'why did you leave us'
Joe - 'because i was afraid to die'

Perhaps it doesn't appear to mean much here but I urge you to watch the film and understand what actually happened
 

DRUMS

Check out the new mix of Blue Chrome posted on my page today. It features an old mate of mine Terry Burton on drums who is kindly working with me on the new album with all manner of rhythmic mayhem that is spicing the whole thing up somewhat.
Feel free to comment!

 

Just in case any of you are wondering, Blue Chrome - if you don't get it, get on a motorcycle and ride - all should fall into place
 

Bugs - on my player! new track, seriously mangled guitar track in every sense, sort of industrial metaltronica. Have a listen, you need to turn your speakers up to get all of it as theres quite a dynamic range and little bits of detail otherwise missed.


welcome to the united kingdom!


 
 

Haze added to my player today, Havn't been writing much recently due to a fairly hectic schedule so this is hot off the press.