Dance of the Minor Officials

Over the years I have had two music setups I had really got to grips with. Back in Glasgow I had an analogue 16 track desk, a wavestation and my KTk, then later in Lilithgow I moved to a setup based around a creamware Pulsar. Both of which I managed to make a fair bit of music with.

My current setup has been kicking around for a few years now but has finally gelled: Macbook Pro, Logic express, Evolution Midi controller keyboard and a handful of software synths and effects that I have accumulated over the years. Over the last couple of months I feel I am really getting to know it.

The track ‘Dance of the Minor Officials’ is part of that getting to know process. Just playing with the recording process and sounds. More often than not these pieces remain as fragments and ideas but this one got finished. Its more “soundtracky” than my normal work.

Haven’t been doing a vast amount of reading of late – apart from Bleak House over christmas, oh and Distress by the brilliant Greg Egan – my brain has been in need of a rest. However I think I have watched enough DVD’s (House, Jeeves and Wooster , The Wire and Dr Who season 4 – all still part way through, all excellent) for a while and am now heading back to books.

This is the ‘to read’ pile that has built up over the last couple of months. Mostly bought because of online reviews or recommendations – which probably explains why it is such a random heap. First one off the pile is not pictured here – the Affinity Bridge which is next to my bed.

Fortunately I have a couple of transatlantic flights and a hectic trip to London and Amsterdam coming up so should be able to make a decent dent in this lot.

Winter Holiday is for reading to the children BTW.

I only discovered last FM recently but I have to say I like it a lot. (It is certainly much nicer than ‘my space’ which is so ugly I don’t even look at bands I like there) I have already found new music I would probably not have come across otherwise. I was also pleased to discover that ‘junklight’ exists as an artist on last fm. I have ‘claimed’ my self and have uploaded some of my music so you can hear it via the last.fm radio etc.

You can find me here  

light fraction

Another new track – this one is from august. A long ambient piece based very much on Brian Eno’s ideas – multiple loops of differing lengths.

Melancholy wah

A new track. I have recently been lucky to catch up with a friend from my school days – Jeff Pickthall. We shared a pint or several the other night and amongst other things got to talking about music. Back in the day when I was a teenager, Jeff was one of the people who had a big influence on my music tastes and introduced me to many great bands and musicians. He is also a very talented musician in his own right.

We talked a bit about collaborating. Now Jeffs tastes are fairly funky compared to mine so I figured it wouldn’t do any harm to have a go at making something a bit more upbeat.

However as you can hear despite a wah based rhythm it still ends up rather contemplative. Hmm. Back to the drawing board. Perhaps I need to figure out some of those drum things….