It’s that time of the year again. The time of year when I release another solo album. But this one is different. This one is acoustic. My third solo album [un]plugged is officially out now and available for download right here.
Well, I say acoustic. As the title suggests it’s not entirely acoustic in the traditional sense. The entire record was made using my new Breedlove acoustic bass and my usual live-looping setup. This time I’ve used minimal effects from the Pod X3 Pro and Lexicon MPX G2, concentrating on bringing out the natural sound of the instrument. I’ve been blogging about the writing/recording process quite a bit, so hopefully you’re all familiar with how I came to record an acoustic record after my previous offerings. This album is quite different.
I mastered the album yesterday with Steve Alexander (the other half of Little Alex). The ceremonial naming of the tunes ritual was performed last week, with a couple of interesting results. The final track listing is as follows:
frostbite
into the out
lie down & be counted
repetition is a form of change
sigismund
kalimba
breathe
the avant gardener
midas’ barber
And just like The Knowledge of Things To Come and the Rejectamenta EP the music here is presented in glorious 24-bit better-than-CD quality for your listening pleasure. You can stream the whole album right here if you fancy…
If you like the album, please click the ‘Like’ button on the Bandcamp page (the music tab above will magically transport you there), tweet about it and share the player on your Facebook profiles, blogs etc. This will be such a big help in spreading the word. And you’ll know who amongst your friends will like this music much better than I will…
I really hope you all enjoy this record. If you’re a music blogger and want to write a review then let let me know and I’ll send you a copy. Every little helps.
Thought I’d sneak in a quick blog post before Christmas is officially upon us. It’s also my first attempt at writing the blog using the WordPress iPad app(lication). It’ll be interesting to see what a hash I make of the formatting if nothing else. I apologise in advance if it comes out looking like a dog’s dinner and littered with typos.
I’m sitting here watching the excellent Victor Wooten Groove Workshop DVD which arrived this morning. Yes indeed folks, I am a proper bass geek.
It’s been a fantastic year. The quiet first few months gave me time to record my second solo album The Knowledge of Things To Come (and the 5-track Rejectamenta EP)and put it out via Bandcamp and CD Baby. When things get busy there just isn’t enough time to concentrate on my own music so this year I’ve learnt to embrace the occasional ‘gig drought’ and make the most of my time…
As well as touring with Clare Teal and Lea DeLaria I’ve been lucky enough to play for two shows at the National Theatre this year. In the Spring I was playing the Double Feature in the Paintframe with Ben, Phil and Mark from the Duke Special band. We had a great time and it was amazing to play in such a special venue. I wrote a whole post on the Double Feature earlier this year. Obviously, the Paintframe theatre isn’t there anymore (they started tearing it down straight after our last show) but I reckon we’ll be hearing from the band sometime next year. Watch this space…
A couple of months after finishing the Double Feature I was called back to the National for Dominic Cooke’s production of The Comedy of Errors, which opened in November. We’re currently right in middle of our run of over 80 shows in the Olivier (back in on Boxing Day!). We had some fantastic reviews and he shows are selling out so if you’re gonna come; book your tickets sooner rather than later folks…
Aside from playing and writing I also got quite involved with the fight against Westminster Council’s plans for evening and weekend parking charges. I had conversations with the Musicians Union and the BBC. I wrote about it extensively on my site and Twitter. I even spent one rather wet night in the street outside Westminster City Hall with a load of musicians and bikers (!) handing out leaflets. I have never done that before…
Well, having postponed the charges until January (supposedly so as not to ruin Christmas) Westminster Council has now decided to wait until after the Olympics to implement their ridiculous plans. Although apparently there are Council elections in May so hopefully we’ll have seen the last of them by then. Why anyone would vote Colin Barrow back in after this is beyond me. I shall keep you posted…
So I accidentally bought two new basses this year. First was the Fender 60th Anniversary Precision bass which has already seen plenty of action this year. About a month ago after much searching I bought a Breedlove acoustic bass. Having been playing an ABG for The Comedy of Errors I’ve gotten used to idea and actually really started appreciating he sound (if not the action!). So I’ve decided to record a new solo record next year entirely on acoustic and was therefore forced to buy one. Honestly. There was no other option. This afternoon I put the Breedlove through the looping rig to see how it recorded. This is the first demo, a quick improvisation on the acoustic…
Well that was a long post. It’s been a great year and I’m looking forward to 2012 and all the exciting new projects that are coming up. Little Alex and Triage are both set to be doing all kinds of good things next year. And I’ll eventually have another solo record for you. You lucky things…
Merry Christmas everybody and have a happy new year!
Well the time has come to start releasing new music once more. As you already know I’ve been toiling away on a bunch of new solo bass material here at Little Towers, trying to put together a new album to follow Mandala. As I mentioned in a previous post a couple of weeks ago, the intention was to put out a 10-track album plus a four track EP including the songs that didn’t quite fit on the record.
Well I’ve sorted the track listing for both the album (which is currently going under the title The Knowledge of Things To Come) and the EP and they both work a treat. Today I’ve been speaking to Steve Alexander (of Little Alex), who has agreed to master the EP sometime over the next week so you can expect a release announcement very soon.
This probably won’t mean much at this stage, but here’s the track listing for the Rejectamenta EP:
feel for a pulse
must get out [more]
the rhythmatist
lullabye
This will be the first release I’ve put out using my new Line 6/Looperlative setup, so I’m really excited to see what you all think of the new sounds I’m using. The music is quite different from Mandala, and sounds even less like a solo bass record. I’ve included some of the more ‘glitchy’ tracks from the sessions on the EP so you should get a good feel for what the forthcoming album will sound like. I’m going to release it exclusively via Bandcamp as a download only, using the ‘Pay What You Want’ model, ie; you can pay what you feel the music is worth to you as a listener (including for free). This is an experiment on my part really to see how that model works for niche music like mine and I’ll be blogging the results nearer the time of the album release, which should be in a few months time.
So, I shall leave you for now with a little album artwork preview. I put the cover together myself this time using the excellent free Gimp image-manipulation software, which I would heartily recommend to anyone currently engaged in such activities without the aid of a Photoshop-style safety net.
