Why don't people make tracks like Choke and Fly anymore?

I've been in Brighton today for a Flash Developers conference (so far, very, very good indeed). The day got off to an inauspicious start with me leaving my phone on the train, and then not being able to find my credentials, but I got in ok in the end and have been doing some high level geeking out over AS3.0, Flex and Apollo (if you hafta ask...). On the train on the way down (in a vague attempt to make this blog relevent to the site it's on), I put together my Ableton set for tomorrow's rehearsal ahead of the Big Chill Winter Festie. I've got a new idea that I'm going to try out in the studio which involves a very minimal, repetetive piano riff and bubbly bassline that i'm hoping we can improvise around. I think our best moments this year have come from keeping the electronics really simple and giving space to the violin and harp to do what they do best so I'm hoping it all works out. If it does, then we'll play it on Saturday. It's nice to throw in little experiments like that into live sets and a good way of writing.

In other news, I finally finished a remix for On/Off which has been 2 years in the making...no lie. I can't tell you what a relief it is to finally get this out of my system. Now i've just got to do the same for the Dollboy remix and i'll be a happy bunny. I'm actually really chuffed with the way it came out...nice and chunky. It'll be released early next year on their unnatural selection album.

More soon, but I'm off for an early night now...back to Brighton at 7 tomorrow for more head-geekery.

Once again I have been burning my midnight oil and seeing, listening to and buying an awful lot of music.

On Friday I went to see Rachel Unthank and the Winterset with an old friend of mine. It was such a lovely night in so many ways, and soundtracked perfectly. I've talked a lot about Rachel in the past. She's been one of this year's MySpace discoveries for me and I had been looking forward to this gig for a while. It didn't disappoint. With a disarmingly frank stage presence and plenty of banter between band members juxtaposed against some heart-wrenchingly sad songs (like the story of Donald the Whaler: He's mine for only part of the year/And I'm left all alone with only my tear) - it wasn't maybe what you'd expect from a Friday night out, but it really was beautiful. It also made me reconnect with some North Eastern roots, which i'm going to do some more when I go up there in January for a week. I didn't get the chance to chat with the band afterwards so I didn't even get to find out if Jackie was single. Dammit... ;o)

On Monday I finally caught two friend's bands who happened to be sharing a bill, again at The Spitz (thank God for The Spitz...), The Escapeologists and Hush the Many who were both absolutley great. The former are Pavementesque noisy trousers and the latter, fragile, slightly postrocky torch songs. I've also managed to track down CliqueII who we played with at the Photonic Festival in 2004 and have been produced some stone cold classic clicky electronica. Also on that tip (although a little lusher) is some new Maps and Diagrams stuff. I've known Tim for a while and he just gets better and better.

On my music front, I spent most of last night writing minimal techno with Josh Posthuman. Bit of an interesting experiment and a totally different working process for me. We'll see what happens...

No piccie today. I have nothing more to give. oh, btw, if anyone has a Canon D20 they're not using...well, you never know.

Well, we're back after our unscheduled outage. Fortunately, I had remembered to back up the database a few weeks ago so I didn't lose too much data. I did sadly lose some comments though so that's why they're missing...just in case you think there are some nefarious censors lurking here.

It's been a remarkably uneventful few days though, that aside. Last weekend I went down to Wiltshire to record a choir that my friend Squirrel had put together for me. We hired some awesome mics which made everything sound so clear - it was like having a direct input of the sound into your brain. Sadly, we hadn't had time to rehearse the choir fully and we didn't get what we wanted. It was a useful learning experience and I'd like to thank everyone that participated. The actual session was for a Christmas Carol that I had written with my ex-girlfriend and I really wanted to get it finished before Christmas. I'm going to try to fit in some sessions in London before the year is out, but to be honest, it's not looking good for getting it finished. We'll see.

I've also been doing a bit of writing this week and feel that I'm finally getting somewhere with the album tracks. I'm beginning to get a shape for them and last night was particularly successful. Just waiting for the boys to return from their travels and then get down to the strings and beats to finish.

Tomorrow, i'm off to see Rachel Unthank who i've mentioned on this blog before. I've been looking forward to it for ages and i've barely stopped playing her album since coming across her on myspace. Should be a cracking night...full report over the weekend.

Only one photo I can really post right now...one of me, post haircut. Yes, the bedraggled long hair is gone, finally! Many will disagree, but personally...I think I look damn cute ;o)

Dave recently posted an interesting thing on his blog about people finding him via google searches and this got me to thinking. I recently got an email from a very, very old mate who had found our site and it was really interesting to hear what she'd been up to. I remember when Friends Reunited first became a craze and the sheer voyeristic joy of seeing who had done what and, lets be honest, finding out what had become of your childhood sweethearts or whether you were doing better than the your class nemesis. One thing that I found massively amusing was the fact that most of the people from my hated secondary school were, despite the enormous sums their parents had paid for their education, working in shitty office jobs in the North East, or being City drones. I think there was only one other person from my year at Durham School who was doing anything even remotely creative.

I have a very hazy memory of a lot of the people in my past. For starters, I'm dreadful at keeping in touch - even with close friends and family. Example: My sister has been living about 20 mins from me for the last 3 months and I haven't seen her yet...oh, and it's my Mum's birthday today and I haven't sent a card. er....happy birthday Mum! In fact I can't remember the last time I sent a card to anybody. It's not even like I don't remember the birthday, or that a particular person is a valued friend...I totally do. It's just matching thought to deed isn't something that I excel at and by the time i've gotten round to getting to the card shop/post office, or writing that long overdue catchup email or letter, it's normally long past and everyone has moved on, myself included.

That said, there is someone I regret losing touch with. So, a la Dave, and in case the power of Google find them, or someone that knows them, stumbling across this page:

Rebecca Middleton. My long lost pen friend and one of the nicest people I've ever met. Last seen singing Soprano at Queen's College Cambridge in about 1994ish. If you're about online, drop me a line. I hope you're still singing.

Speaking of singing, I'm going to record my first choral piece this weekend down in Wiltshire. I don't really know exactly how it's going to sound and I'm quite nervous to be in front of a choir, even though i've done lots of these things myself from the other side. The fruits of our labours will be posted online as a Christmas treat once it's sounding done.