Well well well. Robert came round mine and we did some focussed editing and mucking about. I think we have something very odd, but now somehow understandable, and very pulsing. 


I think the main theme is something that Robert has been developing for some time. As I've said elsewhere, we met up late last year and recorded lots of musical cells that I could than take away and make Eva Hipsey like. A few of those cells became the basis for CHASE. I then got Reaktor out to see if I could find just the right kind of whoosing backward sound that I have a penchant for, and we were off. A washboard like brushes beat and we had some gypsy electronics going.


Robert then came back back to north London, after many fantastical trips, where and when I got him to settle down and add a few more lines and splats. I have to say I very much enjoyed the look of utter conviction and concentration on his face as he improvised in ever expanding spirals over my mis-shapen beats. He's a great player - very precise, always wanting something more - quite at odds with my approach. I'm looking forward to getting the other two tracks up that we worked on - they'll be here soon.

Here is something I have been fiddling with for far too long. Best to close it down by giving it some air. Project Moonbase played it on their show last night - thank you very much for that. 


It has had everything pumped in to it at one point and then scoured back out - I think it was about 12 minutes long at one point. Just as I was about to compose it in to 4 other pieces Sylvie calmed me down and delicately snipped here and there. So although this is a quite a simple piece in all I have been wrestling with it for about 2 years! 


Plodding on with getting the various albums pressed - looking in to packaging this week - if anyone has any oddball ideas on an eva hipsey style packaging approach give me a shout. I wanted to go with a wonderful slimline cardboard box for each album but haven't quite found such a thing yet.

A little woozy number I have been messing about with for a while. Still not quite there, but ready for an outing I think.

On a different note, I am working on releasing a set of delux super short run CDs of the various albums that Eva Hipsey has had a hand in over the last four years. I am trying to work out how to make it affordable and fabulous at the same time. My dream is to release a set of 6 or seven discs that somehow fit together in a lovely way. So all the tracks would still be here and free and downloadable, but there would also be some objects for people to hold and consider. Anyway that's my plan and it could still easily fail in the execution.

I think this follows on nicely from 'Work'. Still dusty, still has some wetted circuitry, but a little sweeter, more burnt sugar. I will gather these together at some point cos I think that'd be good. Then what?

It is Sunday today and the world has changed - it is very much warmer, in a good way. But as I was making this it was cold, and this felt like something warm and buried. I was considering calling it 'back to your cave' but decided that sounded a bit too much like a come on. My favourite noise on this is the vibes supplied by the trusty M-Tron, I don't know where I'd be without it - probably sounding much more bang up to date.

On a totally separate note - I have started making some videos for tracks - it  has been about 10 years since I last spent a proper amount of time with After Effects, but I can report that it is a fantastic program and I got right back on it - and it is a lot of fun. So I'll bung up some work in progress soon.

As this is the time for a return of work in our lives I thought I'd pop up a little piece I have long associated with the concept. Yes it is a bit plodding and most definitely ungainly, but I think it has some charms. I almost always start a track thinking I am going to make some wondrously lopsided electronic waltz, but this time, with the help of an old keyboard from my mate Roberto that provided the essential underpulse, I think I got a little closer. All saxophone is played on keyboard through the wonderful mellotron simulator from Gforce.

I do like a return to work myself, it is a return of a certain fluid identity that I enjoy, and a set of puzzles that keep me from turning my mind to internal matters.

Pure in the box stuff. Not a whisper of anything remotely real world from start to finish. It feels like a sketch that should stay as a sketch, although I will be doing some further tweaks. A small amount of harmonic movement but plenty of frenetic pulse shifting. Anyway It feels good to have just done something, my brain being barely more than soft mush this last week. I shall be firming it up soon as a matter of necessity.

These two were created in an improvisatory kind of way with my friend Roland, a creative relationship that pushed me to listen much harder than normal and that I just really enjoyed.

We took turns on the guitar and the piano, swapping over when we'd confused ourselves enough. Roland ensured that key changes occurred and that of course compelled me to try and keep up. Somehow they both seem infused with wintry sadness, which is odd when I remember that we were having a lot of fun and being generally happy with our lot. But I think we had lots of background melancholia we were able to tap in to.

These are from an album of wonky lullabies we spent a year developing. But, sad to say, as often happens with me, I haven't worked out quite what next to do with them. My desire to release music and be a music maker in the marketplace seems to wane daily. Partly fear, partly a diminishing understanding of what that course offers - an audience, a connection with others, renown, material splendour? I have become so accustomed to making stuff inspired by habit and the pleasure of getting lost in the thing itself, that I often have no clue what is to be done with the end result. In some ways all my pieces are nothing more than family photos to me, unlocking the memories and secrets of their time, something to gaze back on and wonder how it all happened. How's that for melancholia and solipsism stirred in to one tasty cocktail?

I thought I'd put a little clip up of a film I worked on last summer called 'The Polish Language'. I supplied the sound design and music, although there is no music in this clip as it happens. Orla McHardy was the animator and Alice Lyons the poet whose poem the animation is based on, but also collaborated on every aspect of the production.

It was a lot of fun, used an entirely different bit of my head and taught me a lot in a condensed time frame. Recording all the noises became something of an obsession, as I chased around fiddling with pencils and flapping paper around wildly. Sylvie's mum also came through for me with some lovely plaintive viola and provided their woozy piano, which I plonked away lightly on trying not to rouse the dogs or offend any nearby babies.

The other thing that was very interesting for me was how reasonably straightforward it was to work in different countries at the same time. I never once met my collaborators in person, but what with skype and ableton live I found that working together worked just like it should. Our distance didn't seem to slow proceedings at all. It helped that I really enjoyed Orla and Alice's approach - a thoroughly lighthearted extreme commitment.

One bit of additional good news for us all, was that the film went on to win best animation at this year's Galway Film Fleadh and is now screening all over the place. I will stick up a fuller version of the film when it has done the rounds.

I rather hope I get a chance to do some more of this sort of thing - it suits me I reckon. In fact a lot of people when hearing any bit of music of mine will say - 'sounds like a soundtrack that, not like a song at all really'.

First thing to mention is that this was made in a much more melancholic time. These days I have the ruddy faced stability of a happy farmer. There is also something about the use of cello that just wrings out autumn flavoured sadness no matter what one's mood was at the point of creation.

Other things to note; it has my atrocious singing on it, it has some slippery brushed drums done on my marching drum, it used to be called 'sick note' which after a bit I realised was an unintentional pun, and not a good one, and the piano is all one fingered upright. I think it should be part of my 'embarrassing urge' collection, which hopefully I can bundle together and stick up here soon enough.

Well - my soundcloud account is now letting me put tracks up again. And my mind of recent times has been trapped in other trickier pastures. But it feels good to be able to think about sounds and music again.

This is a piece called flesh clocks. It is a fairly empty track in some respects. But, it does have creaky cello from Sylvie and creaky floorboards from me. It has some very malformed bass drops and a shuffling gait. Totally impossible to groove to, but has a kind of glue-ey atmosphere that I am warming to.

Is it too empty? Should there be a guitar solo strapped on? Do I think things are empty when they are actually over full, but I have got so used to them I can't perceive them anymore?