Plots within plans

One must always have projects ... if one does not ... one gets a little fed up with things. Mental sanity is a fragile thing when one works five days a week, Monday to Friday.
I am constantly juggling numerous plans with a view to keeping myself occupied.

• I am continuing my comic - I have put up pages 1-13 on the web now, you can read them HERE.


• I continue to look for new and exciting places for Drive West Today to play in ... I have no gigs lined up for certain ... but I'm working on it, not just in Tassie, looking to play in Melbourne and Sydney and Brisbane again one week soon ... and Basel, Zurich, Berlin, Milan etc.


• I am in long-term discussions with my partner in crime Chris Downes for further developments of the performance we did in August this year.


• I am growing veggies with Nadine ... and fighting off snails.


• Nadine and I are slowly revolutionising our house ... slowly.


• Trying organise a regular night in Hobart for improv/noise etc with a couple of comrades.


• ummm, that'll keep me occupied I think.

Things one forgets to do when one is too focused on plans and plots to keep oneself occupied.

• Stop and smell the roses.


• Enjoy the sun.


• Go for a walk.


• Enjoy a beer with a mate.

It's a delicate balance people, don't forget it!

Biophillia

Gotta say ... Björk's new album is beautifully complex. Dark Matter put my ear's into a state of exquisite bliss. Thunderbolt confused me at first ... but I listened to it another two times ... then I got it, BAM - instant classic to my ears.

I also, just COULD not understand Sacrifice at first ... it has these intensely dense drums that come in over the top of the sluggish movement of the underlying structure, after a few more listens I began to become dimly aware that it works in a way that I had never heard before.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the last few album's use of brass horns, this is strangely augmented somehow on Biophillia by the use of organs and choir which provide this surreal drive to tracks such Hollow and Dark Matter, the best advice I can give is that you listen to this on the best quality equipment that you can find ... beg, borrow or steal ... but don't riot. You will richly rewarded aurally.

Björk's combination of sluggishness and intensity also gets a guernsey on Mutual Core which is also quite a humdinger of music. The final track of the album is a far more subdued and beautiful piece that focuses more on voice, which gives the entire collection a sense of focus that is quite sensual somehow, but in quite a different mode to the rest of Björk's work.

She mixes up programming and the quality of more organic sounds such as choral work with more confidence than ever ... perhaps her collaborator Leila Arab's work has improved dramatically, though Björk's choice in colleagues is always second-to-none and this time around includes awesome "studio as instrument" producer Damian Taylor and again uses the skills of experimental harpist Zeena Parkins.

I note that Björk also did the mixing and producing this time around, Spike Stent, her usual collaborator ain't around and the level of detail in the sound is extraordinary despite having poor quality headphones to delve into this with.

And I cannot believe the font that M&M have created. I know amazing fonts get made all the time and the truth of the matter is that I probably just can't pay attention to all of them because of the media "white noise" ... but the fact remains that it is endlessly fascinating to stare at.

I got the digi pack with the extra tracks on it too ... so I finally scored Nattura ... which is a CRACKING track!! Though it probably doesn't quite fit on the same CD.

Weather is changing yet again

So I don't tend to blog as much as I used to ... but that doesn't bother me so much.
I haven't got much on at the moment so there's not much to talk about, just beavering away at my comic when I get a second ... which is not often.

Though I did play two gigs on the weekend - the Inflight gig on Friday which I organised - a top success, people hung around and the gallery setting seemed to give the whole thing a great focus with the audience really coming to listen. I was an oddly shaped performance space but it seemed to work pretty well. You wouldn't want more than 30 or so people at one moment in there though.

The other gig was up at the Grand Poobah at the new front room they have called the Swamp Art Compostery which was put together by Aiden Howlett and some other bloke who's name I don't know. Quite a fun space that want to start having music at the same time as the Poobah Bazaar is on in the other room, a nice little market. Not too many people, so I just played a lot more loosely than I would normally, got to see my neighbour's baby crawling across the floor to my music ... well, I think my music was a little incidental to his awareness to be honest. Hopefully, as time goes on, the Poobah gig picks up and more people come on a Sunday afternoon. I think it's once a month.

The weather's warming and I reckon I'll spend more time in the garden as I plot my next musical adventure. We are thinking of heading to Germany, Switzerland and possibly Northern Italy next year so perhaps I shall be checking out the possibility of having a few concerts over there, perhaps around June.

new video

Sound Klub IV was a great success! Plenty of folks came to Inflight and hung around throughout the four performances

- Flights Habits

- mumble(speak)

- The Hobart Improvisational Collective

- Drive West Today

Here's a video that Nadine filmed from the sidelines