We make contact...

This is some of what I've got planned for 2010. Seems about time to get this up and posted, before we get more than a month into the new year.

First up, firmest up: coming in early March, I'll be releasing a remixed/remastered package of the In Camera and Distant Stations EPs. Titled Great Days, a digital download, probably pricing NZ$10 for the complete album. The neato deal-sweetener will be that if you download the whole thing rather than individual tracks, there'll be a bonus EP with three remixes by Jet Jaguar, a few alternative mixes by me, and maybe some more remixes TBA.

What I enjoyed this time (2009)

The end-of-year favourite-albums list thing. I guess they're not annoying as hell if you're really just saying "I enjoyed these things" rather than trying to assess worthiness, pass judgement, set trends or otherwise act like a lifestyle journalist. After last year's attempt at the end-of-year roundup, I've decided the best way to show what I enjoyed, and why I enjoyed it, is just to link to a few youtube clips. Still gonna throw in some blab, but if I start talking rot you can always skip to the clip.

Retrenching Released

Well, Retrenching is now available for download. Just in time for Christmas... Thanks to the wonders of bandcamp.com, it's being offered in a range of formats (flac, mp3, ogg, etc), and I've finally set up a "listen" option on the website. More info (or at least different info) over on the Angry Rabbit release page.

I've decided to make it available as a koha release. For the non-New Zealanders, that's Māori for "gift", "donation" or "parting message" (according to my 1989 Heinemann dictionary). In practice, it often means something more like "choose whether or not to pay, and then choose how much". Bandcamp sum this up quickly as "name your price, no minimum".

Have a listen:

Go on, download it, you know you want to...

Enter Martha

The EP's in the can, and I'm uploading a tune from it to MySpace. This one is called 'Enter Martha'. Stuart previewed it on the Malty Media show on the 24th, and I'm told he got enquiries about it, so it seems as good a choice as any to upload.

A bit more news about the EP: It's called Retrenching. Five tracks and a running time of 20 minutes, so it's definitely an EP this time. Out on Angry Rabbit as usual, I expect in December or January. It'll be available as a download; strictly speaking it won't be a free download, but payment is optional and discretionary. And finally, it's great.

The Uptake

I really don't make enough use of my Myspace site, so I'm giving things a bit of a spring clean, a lick of paint and a new selection of tracks (if not a selection of all-new tracks). I'll be refilling the selection in stages, and I'm starting with two tracks: 'East India Company' since it seems to be popular; and a new one, an outtake from the upcoming EP that I mentioned in my last update.

"It wasn't meant for you..."

So, I've got another EP in the works, no date on it yet but it's coming. Might have a bit more to say about that, but first up some crazy information about music for monkeys - the discovery that monkeys don't much like music for humans - and a couple of clips of music custom-composed for, and approved by, monkeys! It's all in this article from Wired by Hadley Leggett . Adds a bit of weight to Wittgenstein's line "If a lion could talk, we wouldn't be able to understand it".

Sam Was Selling Watches

The End of Years

I wanted to do an end-of-year roundup, but there seems so little point when you can just read the entries under this one. Similar for any end-of-year thankyous: they're the same as the ones below. What does that leave? I could tell you I'm sitting on quite a bit of new material, but that much of it is not in my power to see released. That might be interesting. And I've thought about maybe doing a year-in-review of the music world in general. But the only releases I can think of without prompting are Portishead's third, Third, and Chinese Democracy (which I haven't heard anyway). Well, you'll be getting enough reviews of those everywhere else, but I thought I'd pick up on the idea of bands-back-from-the-dead to mention old things I heard (or re-heard) this year.

Sylhet / Shillong

I've made another tune available on MySpace: 'Sylhet/Shillong'.

The tune is dedicated to my dad, Jolyon. The Auckland CD release gig fell on the same day as his 70th birthday and as that kinda ruled out me being in Wellington I promised to dedicate a tune to him. In the event this dedication turned into a whole new tune, custom-built to reflect his musical interests (well, I hope so). I believe he likes it :)

How to obtain Apropos of Nothing

Apropos of Nothing is now available for a reasonable price at:
Conch Records
Real Groovy
Smoke CDs

And here's a link to the official release page at Angry Rabbit.

Post-Gig Gratitude

Well, I really enjoyed playing those gigs, and I'd like to give some shout-outs to you-who-made-it-so: fellow Rabbits Michael Upton and Stuart McDonald, Dan Smith, Dave George, Jay who DJed for us, Hamish Guthrey, Pete May, Mel Watson, Murray Hepple, Andrew Manning, Kirsten Johnstone, Dylan Chase, Brigid on Drive, Liam Luff, Miles Buckingham, everyone who came along to listen, and everyone who bought a CD (including all o' you who asked me to sign 'em - weird but kinda cool). Thanks all!

Wellington CD Release

For the release of the Angry Rabbit compilation ...Apropos of Nothing, a gig at The Burgundy Room, under Bar Bodega, Friday 29 August
Starts around 9pm

Featuring :
Jet Jaguar
Malty Media
Group Five
Panoramica

$10 entry ($20 entry and a copy of the CD...)

Auckland CD Release

For the release of the Angry Rabbit compilation ...Apropos of Nothing, a gig at Khuja Lounge, Saturday 16 August
Starts at 7pm, ends at 11pm. (we mean it, this is a fixed schedule)

Featuring :
Jet Jaguar
Malty Media
Group Five
+ DJ Bignificent D

$10 entry ($20 entry and a lovely copy of the CD!)

Music and lyrics

Another month gone past. The compilation is progressing nicely. No, can't put a release date on it yet. I feel like that means it's not news, in which case I guess news means "something to sell". Well, nothing to sell just yet, so I'll carry on like last time with some hopefully amusing rambles.

I could add that for my own part in the compilation, I've changed the selection of material I've made, so there's a ready track looking for another home. It's called 'Beware of Trains', which may be good advice, but probably not relevant to any musical element in the track. Still, titles for instrumental music are like that. But then, instrumental music is like that too...