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Download: Long Mp3

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The second ’single’ from the forthcoming new album. This time things are slowly progressive: moving through a contrast of a dark soundscape with a funky house pulse, building incrementally to lush epic-pop drama. Those listening from the tracking scene might pick a certain influence of Xerxes here, and I’ve no doubt the years of listening to him have rubbed off here.

A minimal journey into the night:

—
Long
It’s long…
Feels like I’ve been waiting here
Forever
Long into the night
A night that never ends
I long for you.

It’s OK
The waiting is right
A combination of choices
Turns silence to voices
But not yet
No not yet
Still so long to wait.

I can wait
For you, forever
Long quiet
Long dark
Longing, as the thunder rolls in…
—

In 2006 I was playing guitar for a jam band which met locally at an old and cold farm cottage outside of town. The project was roughly called ‘Unity Gain’ and never got further than some wonderful funky improv with all sorts of musical elements clashing in unexpected ways. I was on guitar, Luke was on bass and keys (and responsible for computers and recording), Dylan was on bluesy keys, and of course Iain MacKay was on his hybrid electro-acoustic drum set-up. We spent many long Autumn and Winter nights meandering through some interesting jams coming across many little gems of music along the way.

Things never got too dark and heavy as there was an agreement to keep the aim uplifting. Born out of a little frustration with the process the later jams started to wander into darker passionate places. One of these were recorded and I’d like to offer to you here as an mp3. It’s started out in our typical style moving around half formed clichés and unrealised flows, until about 19 minutes in it all starts to really come together. All of sudden a pounding sad doom started to form in Gminor and I chanced upon a simple descending ostinato rooted on the minor 1st and 3rd, while playing out the 7th, 6th and 5th. For months and months afterwards I had this little riff stuck in my head – I loved it’s ambiguous feel of longing, a paradoxical sad resolution.

I just had to make a song out of it! I wanted to make something that had the same building tension as the jam, but not using the same method to get there. I also had a strong desire to build something progressive like an Arvo Pärt piece that had a balance between mechanical repetition and organic flowing melody. But for some crazy reason a funky house beat ended up in there! So by late 2006 I had a very muted and murky G#minor build (to make use of the natural E) without much variation until the point where the chords start to really seriously shift around – and then I had to leave the project for almost a year while I went through the dramas of fixing my studio computer.

In 2007 as Winter started to make way for Spring I picked up the song and quickly hammered out the rest of the 11 minute structure. Whatever idea came to me I simply honoured by putting it in without any concerns of being reductive to any pop rule set – no fussing! With spirited focus every came easy with this song, despite the fact that months upon months of work was done on every single element. Even the vocals, which are usually very hard for me, seemed to slot into place almost too easy (Here I have to thank Ruth Strut for some serious vocal tuition to break me out of some bad long term habits). The result is a long-winded journey into a progressive dirge in the dark, mounting tension from dreamy obscurity to pounding anxiety.

Long won’t be for everyone, it’s lengthy meandering celebrates all things that gently take their time, sometimes drilling energy with hypnotic forgetfulness. Sometimes such is the nature of waiting, of longing. This song is for those waiting.

Download: Lost In The Mist mp3

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A brand new release for an up coming album!

The original working title for this track was ‘ascendingC#Fripp’ which pretty much gives away the intentions I had when I laid down the core guitar improvisation. Built up of layers of Frippertronics-inspired guitar tape-loops, I was aiming to create a swirling cloud of gentle interlocking reflective moods and tension. I’d actually done many of these types of improvisations already, but this was one of the first I decided to record, I think during late 2006.

I then thought the guitar loops were a bit light and fluffy to have on their own and decided they needed a groove to hold it together. I heard on the radio a swampy blues groove by Muddy Waters and wanted to capture some the slow swinging darkness for this song. The guitar improv had no specific beat grid to work with, nor a clear sense where the chords designated themselves. So I just picked an arbitrary slow pace and put in a simple low bluesy bassline.

The floating guitar loops wafted over the top and had as much connection as clouds do to trees. But, as the song’s groove progressed, especially at the end where the bass holds out the long A and B chords, the loops seem to have these magic moments of unintended synchronisation. I left the song uncluttered by not adding any lead pop melodies or samples that would take away from that subtle central attention – so the song serves as either background music or something to study closely for strange minute detail.

Emotionally I found early on I was aiming for a meaning that like so many of my instrumental pieces is tied to geography. New England National Park has a stunning track called ‘The Lyrebird Walk’, the upper portion which has a gentle weaving through dark rainforest on the steep slope of the high Point Lookout range, meeting dreamy sub-alpine heath and forest on the top. The views are world class, but pick the right day and the morning holds a slow mist that drifts up the range rolling over the edge and through the forest. It’s absolutely beautiful, serene as you easily get lost in the quiet and the sound of distant bird calls. Lost In The Mist attempts to hold that mood.

Due to a realisation that future digital audio projects need a higher sample rate (96khz?) and an appropriate strategy to go with that, I will thus be ‘clearing house’ of all old projects that have been using cheaper methods with 44,100hz sampling. I will do these to the best of my engineering ability and make them sound good for what they are. Better stuff will follow after that.

And I am pleased to announce I have just finished one of these 44,100hz projects. Yes that’s right, a new album! Stay tuned for releases very soon!

I’m back in Armidale after being away for nearly 3 weeks. During that time I was up in Queensland on two separate missions. The first was a road trip out to Birdsville with R. The second was some obligatory participation in R’s family events. So >

Birdsville wasn’t quite the untouched desert gem I thought it was going to be, possibly all too willing to pose for the postcard. Windorah was more on the mark in terms of beautiful neglected stillness, along with Cooper’s Creek hosting amazing bird life. Either way, the drive was great fun, easy, and I got many good sound recordings of desert places along the way. And we shall upload at gallery of outback visual delights soon!

Hanging out with R’s family in Brisbane was mixed, and was mostly tiring in the sense of not being able to relate to ‘normal people’ and seeking peace in a world of endless TV and endless shopping. On the other hand these things invigorate the critical imagination and is more fuel for a big idea I have cooking in my head currently. If you visit the ‘normal world’ as an outsider it seems rather insane that no one is brave enough to come out and ’say what is not being said’ and saying it with awesome style, soul and presence without leaving any cow held sacred. More on this later.

I return from being away from the internet for 3 weeks feeling that some things are less important than I originally thought in fluster and hurry. A lot of this is not important. A lot placating people is not important. Doing what my intuition tells me to is important. Just forget everyone else not understanding it, do it anyway. Not enough doing.

The technical part of my brain is consumed with the following issue: sample rates and analogue mastering process. I’ve recently found it very clear what the shortcomings of using 44.1khz sampling in the record/mix/master process – just about every aspect of the sound and effects sounds better at higher sample rates. My system can do up to 96khz but at the cost of using more of my CPU, which is an issue for some songs that have large ambitious mixes. There also is an issue with downsampling the master to 44.1khz for CD and mp3 playback (format restrictions) – there are issues with jitter and loss of depth in each melodic part.

One of my composing/engineering buddies Simon (aka Fable) has developed a mastering process that bypasses the downsampling problems above. He does his mix at a high sample rate, then records the mix onto professional Otari reel-to-reel tape deck using the highest quality tape he can get. The tape of course adds it’s own magic to the song’s mix and is analogue. The tape mix is then re-recorded into the computer at 44.1khz (and appropriately dithered from 32 to 16bit). I’ve heard some tests Simon has done using the setup and it sounds absolutely stunning for digital. It’s something I have to plan to angle toward, but at the moment it is more important to finish quite a few projects in front of me first.

Endless.