I just got some film developed from around spring and summer this year, and some of it turned out pretty great. Thought I'd bang it on here, for my sake more than anyone elses:
Saltaire houses in the sun always look 10/10
Robert's Park in Saltaire during a particularly sunny day
Me enjoying said park
Me, pointing to the monitor during my Endless Hum gig in Shipley
Me enjoying the monitors at the Endless Hum in Shipley
Sophie in her KoRn t-shirt, enjoying Robert's park again
The car park at ArcTanGent festival near Bristol
"Get a picture of me giving the car a thumb's up!" - at ATG
Me outside the backstage area of the ATG stage I was playing
Onstage at ATG
Playing ATG. Was absolutely boiling...
...until it pissed it down. Sheltering from the elements in the car
Lutterworth (nr. Leicester) Travelodge, en route to London
Me looking smug in London. When in Rome, I suppose
Onstage at Leeds City Varieties, supporting Mono
Sophie laying some violin down on some new satan tracks
Back in 2006, when EP1 first came out, it was nothing more than a scrappy little collection of stuff I had been making on my computer. In fact, I'm pretty sure up until I put the thing on the satan Bandcamp back in 2014, you couldn't even get wavs of it - just shitty mp3s that had been passed around various websites.
Because of that, and the fact I've had physical pressings of a lot of satan records, but never the first one, I decided to do something about it.
So I put together the very first EP1 CD version. A handstamped card envelope, as a little nod to those 2006 days when I'd burn whatever tunes I'd finished onto a CD before giving it out at gigs, containing a professionally pressed CD, and a neat little tracklisting (also printed all professional, like). It's pretty cool, right?
The CD also contains 3 tracks that were never on the original EP1 (I'll let you decide why that might be lol), including a demo of Noise 1 and two little doodles I put together when I first started expanding the gear I had at the time.
I've a lot of time for EP1 - it wasn't really a finished, slick record, more just a collection of demos, scraps, demos, doodles and all sorts. One was even a college project from my time at Leeds College of Music (now re-named Leeds Conservatoire), and one was a cover for a message board. So not the real statement of intent debut releases usually are, but this was 2006, and this was me putting things together by myself and testing the waters to see if anyone actually liked the idea of 4 minute post rock songs with drum machines.
This time, a little bit like last time, it's a single. It's called Dude, You Might Wanna Put A Vest On, and it's out now everywhere (but PWYW on Bandcamp if you're feeling generous)
It's a gnarly little techno stomper thing, made earlier this year. When you've no real 'investment' in the music biz (ie. no manager, label, agent, etc) you can sort of do whatever you want, which is why I've been experimenting with different release methods and stuff lately. Sort of like how I made two albums worth of material, but sequenced them as two really long tracks when I did Circles 1 & 2, or how I can easily just make up some tapes and have them out a week later. It's fun, but obviously not without its drawbacks.
For these two recent singles (Patterns and Dude... were both made at the same time-ish), I thought I'd have a bit of fun and get out of my comfort zone a bit. Try a few new things, step out of my little ambient bubble and get a bit sweaty in the techno world again, and in the case of Patterns - try melding ambient spoken word dreaminess to frenetic breakbeats. All part and parcel of being/ doing worriedaboutsatan I suppose. I did toy with the idea of doing Dude under a pseudonym, but seriously, who has the time for shit like that anymore? Not me, I'm old, lazy and cantankerous, so just thought I'd subject you lot to it instead ;)
Anyway, I hope you like it. It was a lot of fun putting it all together, and if you know where the title's from, drop me a line and I'll give you a download code to something off the satan store gratis.
Enjoy, and I'll see you soon for another ambient album lol
Did another one of those track breakdown things, now up on my youtube. This time I'm talking you though what was the sort-of lynchpin for Bloodsport: An Absolute Living Hell, pt.1.
This was one of the central tracks to Bloodsport, and the rest of it fit really neatly into place after I finished this one off. I can't remember if I talked about it in the video, but this one only really came about because I got myself a drum machine for live stuff, and a distortion pedal shaped like a can of Irn Bru, and wanted to put them together to see what would happen. And would you believe it, this happened, lol.
Back in the pre-satan days, we're talking maybe 2001-2005ish, I was fairly active on a few message boards and newsgroups online about Icelandic music - like a lot of people my age and with my music taste, when Sigur Rós blew up, they opened a lot of doors for other bands and artists from the country. Alongside the bigger stuff like múm, Björk, etc. there was a real burgeoning underground DIY scene too. I'd log on and find out about really weird punk stuff from the 80s, or some kid in his bedroom making pretty folk records, or a hip hop group from the countryside, and all sorts of mental stuff. It was great, although absolute hell trying to import some of these CDs, let alone vinyl or anything else. A lot of us had to either make do with what few mp3s record labels and shops would put online (12 Tónar and Bad Taste were amazing at that), or trade in *ahem* not so legal mp3s. In our defence, this was a looooong time before Bandcamp, Spotify, Youtube, Soundcloud, etc. but yes, not exactly proud of doing that...
Anyway, Prins Polo was always part of that scene, along with stuff like Seabear, Kimono, Mugison, Siggi Ármann, 7oi, Gavin Portland, Ske, Skátar, Skytturnar and loads, loads more. I have a Siggi Ármann CD somewhere still - he was a PE teacher that made the most melancholic downbeat acoustic folk you can imagine. Sigur Rós even took him on tour for a little bit I seem to remember. Anyway, Prins Polo had a band called Skakkamanage, who were really great - on one of my first pilgrimages to Iceland, the only musical thing I could afford was a 7" of Hold Your Heart, a scrappy little indie EP they put out on their own label. I somehow managed to hold onto it for all this time, as I'm known for losing things like that fairly easily.
Truth be told, I should've kept up with Prins' solo work, and Skakkamanage a bit more, but it was just so hard to get that music over here, and by the time I'd gotten a bit older, I guess I just moved away from a lot of that stuff. The newsgroups and forums I'd frequented all started shutting down, and the industry sort of moved on, and so did I, which is a real shame as some of this music is absolutely wonderful, and I fear a lot of it has just been lost or forgotten about. I'll do a mix or something soon with some of my favourites.
It's not as if I'd ever met him, or religiously followed his musical output, but his passing really hit home. It's a stark reminder to check in with older groups and artists that you haven't thought about in a while. It's a proper 'that was a real moment in time' , remembering those early days of the internet and unearthing all this music you'd never have a chance of hearing otherwise.
So yes, check in with those old boys and girls and see how they're doing - none of this lasts forever.
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