was meant to be working yesterday - for the next 2 years that's going to be pretty much a default setting for me - but the new medication that i'm currently taking really knocked the stuffing out of me - fortunately it's very short term so only 9 more days and i'm off it.
I thought i'd relax for half an hour or so and get my equilibrium back by playing with some sounds before getting on with work. 6 hours later i took the headphones off with a new piece of music finished that mixes my synth drones with one of Banks Bailey's beautiful field recordings from the Rincon Mountains in Arizona. I'm waiting to hear his take on it but i'm pretty happy with it. it's pretty gentle stuff which is where my head is at currently. my one real concern with it is the artificial synth noise which i might try and soften into a more organic sound but i'll wait an see what B has to say on it first.
Beautiful sunny day here with my mother and her husband on their way to visit bringing me my old gramophones that they've been storing. I'm going to use them in a class on tuesday and thursday this week as most of my students don't even know about vinyl let alone the old shellac 78's. Bloody philistines.
Showing posts with label college. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college. Show all posts
Sunday, 26 September 2010
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
first review of the new album
Always super quick off the mark, the ever lovely Frans over at Vital Weekly has posted up the first review of the new(ish) album.
He's wrong about it being my first album of shorter tracks, there've been 6 others, but on the whole I think it's a pretty fair assessment.
IAN HOLLOWAY - HANDLE THIS WINO LIKE HE WAS AN ANGEL: BAUBLES & GEWGAWS 2002-2008 (CDR by Quiet World)
As far as I can remember, I think that all of the releases by Ian Holloway had just one track. Usually a drone based piece of around forty minutes. That's about the extend of his work, with minor differences here and there. Then this new release comes a major surprise. Apparently Holloway sometimes creates weird, little pieces on his computer, which he calls 'little diversions, games, distractions and brainstorms' which never fitted on any 'real' release. All of these little pieces were kept over a period of eight years and are now collected here. This is by far not the Holloway we know, no long form drones here, hardly any organ like sound, but something which is probably best defined as plunderphonics. Lifting his sounds from various types of media (CDs, TV, internet: who knows) he cuts and pastes them together in a highly vibrant manner. The CD opens with 'Why M', which seems to be more a click 'n cut piece, but quite soon after orchestral music comes in. Looped, transposed, shifted in true plunderphonic fashion. As said sometimes things are more abstract, in a clicks 'n cut manner, but these tracks are all pretty short. Its a pretty interesting release, but perhaps a bit long for the limited amount of ideas that these pieces have. I think Holloway could have been a bit more selective with these pieces, throw out those with the weakest ideas and over the top effects, like 'Monday's Time', and have with ten or so (instead of fifteen now) a much stronger album. Now its all a bit too sketch like and a bit crowded. I am pretty sure his dedicated fans will be shocked by this release, but I thought it was pretty good as well as funny. (FdW)
interestingly Darren Tate said something similar about it needing pruning but the whole point of releasing ths album was that it was a folder full of tracks that i'd grown to be inordinately fond of and so to leave any out would have felt odd.
It's always nice to get the first review back i'm not overly concerned with them but it is a good feeling when someone says something nice about your tunes.
.....................................
have spent most of today discussing the impact of punk music on subsequent genres with a bunch of music technology students. there are definitely worse ways to spend a day.
He's wrong about it being my first album of shorter tracks, there've been 6 others, but on the whole I think it's a pretty fair assessment.
IAN HOLLOWAY - HANDLE THIS WINO LIKE HE WAS AN ANGEL: BAUBLES & GEWGAWS 2002-2008 (CDR by Quiet World)
As far as I can remember, I think that all of the releases by Ian Holloway had just one track. Usually a drone based piece of around forty minutes. That's about the extend of his work, with minor differences here and there. Then this new release comes a major surprise. Apparently Holloway sometimes creates weird, little pieces on his computer, which he calls 'little diversions, games, distractions and brainstorms' which never fitted on any 'real' release. All of these little pieces were kept over a period of eight years and are now collected here. This is by far not the Holloway we know, no long form drones here, hardly any organ like sound, but something which is probably best defined as plunderphonics. Lifting his sounds from various types of media (CDs, TV, internet: who knows) he cuts and pastes them together in a highly vibrant manner. The CD opens with 'Why M', which seems to be more a click 'n cut piece, but quite soon after orchestral music comes in. Looped, transposed, shifted in true plunderphonic fashion. As said sometimes things are more abstract, in a clicks 'n cut manner, but these tracks are all pretty short. Its a pretty interesting release, but perhaps a bit long for the limited amount of ideas that these pieces have. I think Holloway could have been a bit more selective with these pieces, throw out those with the weakest ideas and over the top effects, like 'Monday's Time', and have with ten or so (instead of fifteen now) a much stronger album. Now its all a bit too sketch like and a bit crowded. I am pretty sure his dedicated fans will be shocked by this release, but I thought it was pretty good as well as funny. (FdW)
interestingly Darren Tate said something similar about it needing pruning but the whole point of releasing ths album was that it was a folder full of tracks that i'd grown to be inordinately fond of and so to leave any out would have felt odd.
It's always nice to get the first review back i'm not overly concerned with them but it is a good feeling when someone says something nice about your tunes.
.....................................
have spent most of today discussing the impact of punk music on subsequent genres with a bunch of music technology students. there are definitely worse ways to spend a day.
Monday, 6 July 2009
restless mondays
the holidays have finally started. for the students at least. me, i was in work today. it's a very different place when the students aren't there. it's almost creepily quiet but it does give one lots of opportunity to play with all the toys that i don't usually get access to.
today's toy was the upright piano. my piano playing skills are non-existant but i flatter myself that i can, when sat there, produce a nicely minimal construction. as a result I have two 'traditionally' played pieces and two plucked pieces all of which i'm pretty chuffed with. no download of these I'm afraid as they're going into the pot for the as yet untitled new album I'm making with Darren Tate and also for a new solo project I've been working on.
tomorrow's toy is the grand piano in the college theatre.
...............................................................
After work finished i headed to clyne park which is just across the road from my house. It used to be the grounds of the big old manor house (it's called Clyne Castle but it's just a big house) where the folks who pretty much owned Swansea lived. The house is now a halls of residence for the university (rich kids only need apply) and is very nice. As an undergraduate I once helped out at the annual convention of the Association of Social Anthropologists which was held there.
They've recently built some (very expensive) flats behind the castle that whilst being kind of groovy looking and sci-fi are also staggeringly out of character with the suroundings.
here's the castle...
and here're the flats...
(doesn't the big pillar look like a tower of toilet rolls)
like i said, I like them both but not necessarily next door to each other.
But it's the gardens that i really like. Lot's of meandering pathwys through the trees and some real nice views over the bay.
It takes about an hour to walk there, around and back which suits me down to the ground as I'm timing my walks by my copies of the BBC Sherlock Holmes radio series each episode of which is 55 minutes long (and fabulous).
I'm listening to very little music at the moment (although I really should be) as I'm feeling quite 'wordy'. Been reading a lot but what has been occupying a huge amount of my time is my new found fondness for audio books. i've been a fan of radio plays for a while now mostly from listening to the new Sapphire and Steel plays and the adaptation of Brian Talbot's The Adventures of Luther Arkwright starring a pre-Dr Who David Tennant.
They can take a bit of getting used to as they do have a tendency to sound fairly quaint and if you're a sound junky like me it's easy to get lost in the mechanics of the incidental soundworld. But the actors are generally pretty good, as are the production values and so is the writing although as today's listen was the Holmes classic A Study In Scarlet (just a fantastic title) the quality of the writing is pretty much a given. With lines like 'He was beating a cadaver with a cudgel.' how could you resist.
(btw, Lee - if your reading this I need to borrow your bluetooth thingy as that line's going to be my new ringtone)
Audio books are a different prospect. This is simply someone reading you a story. I first tried them as a substitute for music on a long drive last year. I'd spotted the Harry Pottor books as read by Stephen Fry on a download site and got them more out of curiosity about having Stephen Fry (who I'm a massive fan of) read me a story than as to what he was reading. Needless to say they were fantastic. He reads them perfectly and they are a thoroughly enjoyable romp. I have loads of the things now. Neil Gaiman reading The Graveyard Book was OK but he is a little adenoidal and also sounds as though he shares the same voice as Douglas Adams, although it's probably his full time now as Adams is dead. On the subject of Adams it was cool to hear him read through the first Hitchhikers but i got bored halfway through Restaurant. I gave The Stand by Stephen King a go but a combination of the readers horrid whiney accent and the turgid, emotionless, meandering, cliched tat of the text conspired to make it a loooooong and boring experience which, for some unfathomable reasons I insisted on listening to all the way through.
It's going to take me a little while to work though all the Sherlock Holmes but waithing in the wings are recordings of Stephen Fry reading Chekov's short stories, an early radio play of Night of the Living Dead, The Road by Cormac McCarthy and lot's of Kurt Vonnegut.
peace
ian
today's toy was the upright piano. my piano playing skills are non-existant but i flatter myself that i can, when sat there, produce a nicely minimal construction. as a result I have two 'traditionally' played pieces and two plucked pieces all of which i'm pretty chuffed with. no download of these I'm afraid as they're going into the pot for the as yet untitled new album I'm making with Darren Tate and also for a new solo project I've been working on.
tomorrow's toy is the grand piano in the college theatre.
...............................................................
After work finished i headed to clyne park which is just across the road from my house. It used to be the grounds of the big old manor house (it's called Clyne Castle but it's just a big house) where the folks who pretty much owned Swansea lived. The house is now a halls of residence for the university (rich kids only need apply) and is very nice. As an undergraduate I once helped out at the annual convention of the Association of Social Anthropologists which was held there.
They've recently built some (very expensive) flats behind the castle that whilst being kind of groovy looking and sci-fi are also staggeringly out of character with the suroundings.
here's the castle...
and here're the flats...
(doesn't the big pillar look like a tower of toilet rolls)
like i said, I like them both but not necessarily next door to each other.
But it's the gardens that i really like. Lot's of meandering pathwys through the trees and some real nice views over the bay.
It takes about an hour to walk there, around and back which suits me down to the ground as I'm timing my walks by my copies of the BBC Sherlock Holmes radio series each episode of which is 55 minutes long (and fabulous).
I'm listening to very little music at the moment (although I really should be) as I'm feeling quite 'wordy'. Been reading a lot but what has been occupying a huge amount of my time is my new found fondness for audio books. i've been a fan of radio plays for a while now mostly from listening to the new Sapphire and Steel plays and the adaptation of Brian Talbot's The Adventures of Luther Arkwright starring a pre-Dr Who David Tennant.
They can take a bit of getting used to as they do have a tendency to sound fairly quaint and if you're a sound junky like me it's easy to get lost in the mechanics of the incidental soundworld. But the actors are generally pretty good, as are the production values and so is the writing although as today's listen was the Holmes classic A Study In Scarlet (just a fantastic title) the quality of the writing is pretty much a given. With lines like 'He was beating a cadaver with a cudgel.' how could you resist.
(btw, Lee - if your reading this I need to borrow your bluetooth thingy as that line's going to be my new ringtone)
Audio books are a different prospect. This is simply someone reading you a story. I first tried them as a substitute for music on a long drive last year. I'd spotted the Harry Pottor books as read by Stephen Fry on a download site and got them more out of curiosity about having Stephen Fry (who I'm a massive fan of) read me a story than as to what he was reading. Needless to say they were fantastic. He reads them perfectly and they are a thoroughly enjoyable romp. I have loads of the things now. Neil Gaiman reading The Graveyard Book was OK but he is a little adenoidal and also sounds as though he shares the same voice as Douglas Adams, although it's probably his full time now as Adams is dead. On the subject of Adams it was cool to hear him read through the first Hitchhikers but i got bored halfway through Restaurant. I gave The Stand by Stephen King a go but a combination of the readers horrid whiney accent and the turgid, emotionless, meandering, cliched tat of the text conspired to make it a loooooong and boring experience which, for some unfathomable reasons I insisted on listening to all the way through.
It's going to take me a little while to work though all the Sherlock Holmes but waithing in the wings are recordings of Stephen Fry reading Chekov's short stories, an early radio play of Night of the Living Dead, The Road by Cormac McCarthy and lot's of Kurt Vonnegut.
peace
ian
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
sunshine, students, videos and a little bit of nostalgia
it's a warm sultry evening here in Swansea. It feels like there's a storm brewing which would be a welcome relief. i'm not built for the sun or the heat - i have too much surface area - and i'm much happier in spring or autumn - or even winter - than the height of summer.
i've just sent a very enjoyable evening watching the 2nd year performing arts students doing their version of Equus. damn fine it was too. we've been cursed over the last couple of years in the college with performing arts courses full of absolute wankers but this group (and most of the current first years) have been an absolute joy to be around. They were excellent tonight. it's strange when students you like leave (and there're lots of likeable students leaving this week). you want them to have the best of times and go on and live their dreams but at the the same time it's a shame that you'll often never ever see them again. facebook and myspace have changed that somewhat but still.
whilst i'm on the subject of likeable students (although don't tell him i said so), one of our media students, David Strutt, recently made this video for my track 'Tiny Creatures' from the 'Where have we been in the world today?' album. it's only an early edit at the moment as he needs to shoot some more footage but it's a cool start.
one day though someones going to make me a video that doesn't involve static shots of buildings. i suppose it's the curse of writing slow music.
he also did this earlier in the year as a video piece incorporated into a show by the above mentioned Performing Arts students that was toured around the local schools. the music is '50 Pence for Buddha' from my 'Book of Dreams' album.
if you double click either of these vids it'll take you to youtube and i recommend you try out some of his other vids. personally i particularly like his 'ot at the gallery' animation.
new issue of Wonderful Wooden Reasons will be going online in a day or so.
been so busy lately that something had to suffer and it was the zine. once term finishes in a weeks time i'll be able to dedicate some time to diminishing the stack of unplayed submissions.
the one thing i have been listening to a hell of a lot this week is the Dinosaur Jr album, Farm. It's a real return to form an absolute blinder of an album. if you were a fan back in the day then you really should give it a go.
i've just sent a very enjoyable evening watching the 2nd year performing arts students doing their version of Equus. damn fine it was too. we've been cursed over the last couple of years in the college with performing arts courses full of absolute wankers but this group (and most of the current first years) have been an absolute joy to be around. They were excellent tonight. it's strange when students you like leave (and there're lots of likeable students leaving this week). you want them to have the best of times and go on and live their dreams but at the the same time it's a shame that you'll often never ever see them again. facebook and myspace have changed that somewhat but still.
whilst i'm on the subject of likeable students (although don't tell him i said so), one of our media students, David Strutt, recently made this video for my track 'Tiny Creatures' from the 'Where have we been in the world today?' album. it's only an early edit at the moment as he needs to shoot some more footage but it's a cool start.
one day though someones going to make me a video that doesn't involve static shots of buildings. i suppose it's the curse of writing slow music.
he also did this earlier in the year as a video piece incorporated into a show by the above mentioned Performing Arts students that was toured around the local schools. the music is '50 Pence for Buddha' from my 'Book of Dreams' album.
if you double click either of these vids it'll take you to youtube and i recommend you try out some of his other vids. personally i particularly like his 'ot at the gallery' animation.
new issue of Wonderful Wooden Reasons will be going online in a day or so.
been so busy lately that something had to suffer and it was the zine. once term finishes in a weeks time i'll be able to dedicate some time to diminishing the stack of unplayed submissions.
the one thing i have been listening to a hell of a lot this week is the Dinosaur Jr album, Farm. It's a real return to form an absolute blinder of an album. if you were a fan back in the day then you really should give it a go.
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