KUTOSIS BBC RADIO ONE

So, we started setting up at 12, its now 1am and we've almost finished mixing down the KUTOSIS live session for Jen Long's Radio One show. It's sounding great. These guys have some great tunes constructed with driving drums, fuzzy bass and angular guitar riffs with vocals sounding like the audio equivalent of a panic attack (in a good way). Imagine if bloc party's first album was a rhythm section and it met up with at the drive-in's vocal patterns and sweet juxtaposition guitars. It would be pretty great right. Well stop imagining because it's here, in person and on record. In a world of boring Redrow homes they truly are an innovative grand design, comfortable and functional yet extremely enjoyable and exciting to live in. Check them here Specs: Was nice to use a vintage d12 on the kick, along with the fet47 and ns10 driver. On the snare we tried out taping a 451 to an audix i5. used a neumann kam84i instead of the 451. can't remember why but it worked a treat. I love tracking drums out at Monnow Valley. its harder to make them bad than good. the room is just so great. We also used a bunch of eumann 87s as well as a neve ribbon mic up in the room. Spacious. Guitar was recorded with my peavey classic 50 and the bass was di'd with a sansamp. The session is going to be aired on the 13th of November so if you fancy a late one that night, get on it...or if you have a job to get up for, iplayer might be for you.

BESTDAYS

Last year a good friend of mine said he had been recording some song ideas. These recordings were scratchy, lo-fi demos of just a vocal and an acoustic guitar. After spending a cold Saturday together watching Championship football in Cardiff he played me the demos on the drive home. I loved them, brilliant chord structures and great, catchy vocal melodies.
He wanted to work on the tracks and have them 'produced' into a fuller sound. I was game.

I took the demos and started to play about with beats and sounds, aiming to support the songs, rather than distract from them. The ideas came together quite quickly even though we wanted each track to have it's own identity, sitting on it's own whilst not sounding alien to the others. A set of siblings, all unique but belonging to the same family.

In any case, we spent four long days during the summer working on four tracks, two of which can be found here.

some new l.p's

So, after resisting the offerings that town or the internet had to bestow, I had to buy some musical plastic. The choices aren't radical or uber hip, but records I fancied having.

Lana Del Ray - Video games 7"
I heard about this songstress in the summer and pre ordered the single then. Little did I know that the hype bubble around her would grow to the size it has. A great voice and a pretty good song, I just hope that it doesn't pop to early and her new material steps it up.

Kasabian - Velociraptor!
I was never a fan of this band, the 'laddishness' of it all did not appeal to me. However, when they teamed up with Dan the Automator on the last album, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, my ears pricked up and took notice. The production had his stylistic stamps all over it and really made the songs interesting. I then came to read about the dynamics of the band, something that always interests me from a 'producer's' point of view, and the fact that the Noel Fielding look-a-like guitarist does pretty much everything. If only he sang, his voice is better than the lead singers. Anyway, in short, this album is not going to change the face of music but what I do know is that when I play the catchy, groove laden tunes it contains, my little girl goes nuts. It must have some kind of primal energy and I can't argue with that.

The Horrors - Skying
When this band emerged with more style than tunes back in 2005/6 ish they offered me nothing. I heard a few tracks of their last album , Primary Colours, and did not recognise them. It sounded a loss less like a joke. The first thing that grabbed me with this record was the cover, I'm a sucka for a good one. I loved the colours and the silver lettering. I checked it out on Spotify and loved the production, it was self produced, and the sonic palette of the record. Also, there are some great songs on there, and if you don't have tunes then the great production is lost. Apparently the band did a shed load of ecstasy when they were making it. Now, I don't advocate drugs, but...

iReckon.

The news of Steve Jobs passing made me stop and think. I tried to think of what the world would be like without his vision and drive.

He proved that shallow aims such as wealth, fame and power can be a bi-product of an overall greater goal, that a vision should be pure and not tainted by less significant trappings.

Granted, he was a staunch capitalist, but his pursuit for high quality outweighed his drive for dollar signs.

This ethos has been vibrating in my mind for the last few days like a persistent alarm bell. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning and prepare for a long stretch of hours in the studio I say, “Right, just get the job done and finish”. But then I think of the times I went to a studio as a teenager, the times I was rushed through songs, that were rehearsed for hours, by an ‘engineer’ who couldn’t care less if you played a part to slow or sung the wrong line in the chorus. He just wanted to get paid and send you on your way so he could record his ‘solo’ record. Then the alarm bell rings again. I think: it doesn’t matter if the take home profit goes down a little, it doesn’t matter if it takes an extra few hours to get the ‘right’ vocal, as these songs and the time I spend on them are my pursuit for the highest quality, the vision.

Of course, it would be nice to earn a few extra pounds at times, but its not about now. I’m sure Steve Jobs could have chosen a few short term gain options along the way. Thankfully he didn’t.

Like a puppet on a string

Being Elmo looks great. This puppet has taken on a new meaning in my live as my little girl loves him.


Now listen to 'The Puppet' by Echo and The Bunnymen.

The Flaming Lips in a Skull

This is strange but very, very cool.

It also throws up a bunch of ethical questions.

The Flaming Lips have just released a 6-hour song for charity. I bet that was great fun to mix.
They are going to top that by recording a 24 hour song, putting it on five hard drives and then encasing them in HUMAN SKULLS, actual HUMAN SKULLS. They are obtaining the skulls from a shop called 'Skulls Unlimited' and are quite pricey at $1650 each.

This brings new meaning to having a song stuck in your head. chortle chortle.

Here is a part of the six hour song - "I Found a Star on the Ground"
The Flaming Lips - Found a Star on the Ground [Part One of Three] by Slow•Nerve•Action 3

its a family thing

Started work on the second record for 'Gareth Pearson'. Working with family isn't always easy, but we had a great first session. The fruits of our labour will surface very soon. I'll be posting some more pics from the session and some info on the record. For now, enjoy this lovely picture of Gareth, Papa Pearson and I getting in the way of the fantastic SSL desk.