Out With The Old

I've been meaning for some time now to find more of the music I'd been working on when I was most prolific, sometime between 96 and 99 when my S2000 was almost new and the familiar two-tone interface of cubase compact was enough to get started. I found some last week, fecked into a cardboard box that once contained my Tannoys, buried under three decades of unmarked musical storage - ie cassettes. When I finally graduated to the digital age after a misspent youth on turntables and tape edits, ironically the only format I could record on was good old C90s, as a standalone CDR cost a hell of a lot back then( as did memory, not to mention a computer capable of doing the donkey work). But, tapes were cheap, so excuse the appalling sound quality on some of these.



Another issue (this is fast becoming a disclaimer) is that these tunes were never finished or mixed properly, just straight out of the sampler via cheap and nasty cables and into some 3-in-one midi system murk. Only ever really played to mates, who politely listened and offered encouragement, while waiting for me to shut up and pass it back.


'Musique'

This first one, 'Musique' came from a cassette marked '1999' so that's all I can really tell you. Oh, and the obvious sampling of the Kling Klang boys.


'Final Frontier'

This one is your generic Ravi Shankar meets Bill Shatner with a little Incredible Bongo Band sprinkled throughout. I still quite like the drum programming towards the end.


'Live Your Life'

Liberal use of acapella on 'Live Your Life', not a tune as such, more an excuse to do a Hip Hop rhythm at a time when I was well beyond dissillusioned. I fiddled with a bass guitar to create the barely audible b-line.


'Abstract'

This is a wierd one. It survived the transition from tape more than the previous ones. Like many of these, it goes on a lot longer than necessary. Some kind of abstract darkage. Must have been winter.



'Stalker'

There's another version of this on the 1998 Liveset I posted a while back. This is where the thing originated.


'Nowhere'

'Nowhere' is mindless thump-stepping drum and bass - Grizzle had given me some Rhodes multis so I stayed up all night, made this, and committed it to tape. When I switched the power off, the data would be lost forever, and the tape would be thrown into the box with the rest, standard.


'Again'

Here's a final ear shredding and over resonant demo from another dusty tape. At this stage you may recognise repetition of samples throughout. Let's call them signatures or something.

I reckon that's enough self indulgence and shameless self-promotion for a self that doesn't exist anymore, for now at least. With a few more demons exorcised, its time to make some new music again.