Interviews and Reviews
Justin Case Prog Radio ran a “Prog Week” special on Patchwork Cacophony at the start of February. As part of that they reviewed the album and interviewed me. The interview is long and ranges over loads of topics so make a mug of tea to drink while you’re waiting for the words to finish streaming out at you.
Tags: patchwork cacophony, pressReview: Stagg Splash Cymbals
This was originally intended as a review of some Stagg mini-china and splash cymbals, primarily the DH 10″ china and the DH 6″ splash. However, by chance I ended up with a pair of each of these cymbals and to some extent it has now become an article on the variation between cymbals within the same model line.
First up I want to distance myself from a lot of the automatic Stagg-is-cheap-junk views out there. There’s a lot of brand loyalty and get-what-you-pay-for mentality in equipment circles of all sorts, and drummers are no exception. I’m going to cut to the chase here and say that one of the two DH 10″ chinas I bought is fast becoming one of my favourite cymbals, even next to the Sabian AAX, HHX Evolution and Paiste Sound Creation cymbals I’ve got. But in that comment lies the nub of this review: only one of those two supposedly identical chinas is that lovely. The other is completely different and will be going back to the shop.
Tags: cymbals, staggNew Music Discoveries
Since freeing myself from either listening to Patchwork Cacophony or wanting a break from thinking about music I’ve been immersing myself in new bands and albums. Rather than do a full review of everything I thought I’d just do a quick round-up of things that have been catching my ear recently.
Crosswinds – Meet The Sky
Marcus Taylor and I seem to have managed a repeat of last year’s unintentional trick of releasing two albums in sync. Last year it was Fusion Orchestra 2’s Casting Shadows and Broken Parachute’s Down Is The New Up. This year while I’ve been getting Patchwork Cacophony out the door, Marcus and long-term musical partner Joe Wee have released an album under the name Crosswinds.
Meet The Sky is a folky, funky, jazzy, singer-songwriter mix of tracks featuring Joe on vocals and acoustic guitar and Marcus on electric guitar and production. I snuck in to deliver a few backing vocal parts here and there, along with David Boardman and Dave Leon, and drums are handled by Matt Snowden (who also played on DITNU).
Tags: crosswinds, marcusPatchwork Cacophony Released!
My solo album, Patchwork Cacophony was officially released on Monday, and should be available directly from my website and from amazon in various European countries. Wider distribution should follow shortly. It’s also digitally available through the usual channels but I’d strongly recommend that anyone interested gets a copy on CD. Some digital formats (notably mp3) cause gaps between tracks where there’s meant to be a smooth segue. I’m not sure how iTunes’s AAC handles it. If do you prefer digital, bandcamp will let you download it in FLAC format which properly supports gapless play back, but then you’d still be missing out on the artwork…
I feel like I have written more words about it than any other subject but looking at my blog seems to tell another story, so here’s the full story on the album.
Tags: patchwork cacophonyReview: Waldorf Streichfett
With all of the work sorting out the release of Patchwork Cacophony and doing the refit of the studio it felt like time to have a bit of fun. A month or so back I treated myself to a Waldorf Streichfett string synthesizer and so thought I’d dig in and review it a bit.
As a little bit of perspective, I’ve been keen on getting my hands on a string synthesizer for a while. I find that I actually get on much better with instruments with limited but strongly defined characters than I do with sonic chameleons. I’ve often though of string synthesizers as a bit like the 70’s, analog synth equivalent of the hammond organ,.both being essentially additive synthesizers of a source but with one using (sort of) sine waves and the other saw waves with an amplitude envelope.
As recently as a year ago I actually started fiddling with the idea of building a digital/analogue hybrid instrument of my own but time (and skills) were in short supply. Then, as if by magic, along came Waldorf with the Streichfett!