Undying Inc. - Indian Extreme Metal Band.

OK, Andrew Dubber tweeted about these guys a few days ago - I opened the website, and left the tab open for later perusal. I wouldn't have left it this long if I'd known. Wow. Seriously great band - supremely heavy, scary, screamy, shouty extreme metal. Like Meshuggah, Cavalera Conspiracy and Pantera thrown into one band. Outstanding.

Here's their myspace player - check out the page at http://myspace.com/undyinginc4 -

[EDIT - OK, so Myspace don't let you embed the player - they replace it with a video of some octopuses. Ah well - click the link below to check them out ]

via myspace.com

 

Waiting For Flapjack - the soundtrack

Finally recorded something I like! Yay!

It's a pretty low res recording, cos I did it on my Nokia N97, just using the voice recorder, but given that, it's actually pretty good :)

The loop was recorded and I was playing over it, then decided to record it, so I stopped it, hit record and re-triggered the loop. Everything else is as I played it...

Enjoy - this is the sound of waiting. :)

Playing fretted bass for the first time in AGES!

Haven't had some moderate musical successes over the last few days on fretless bass, I thought today I'd have a play with my 6 string fretted bass - it's an awesome instrument, sounding and feeling unlike any bass I've ever played (it is a one-off...) 

I hadn't played it for quite a few months, given that I usually only take one bass to gigs these days and it's the fretless, hence I practice on it too... 

But it was fun to have a play around (despite the bass really needing a set-up). 

Here's a little snippet of what I was playing, recorded to audioboo. 3 loops - the first one a rhythm track, second one some chords, third one gnarly distorted tremolo sound. 

Enjoy :) 

The Nels Cline Singers – Draw Breath

I do from, time to time, go on obsessive binges on the music of one artist. Over the years, I've got nuts over Joni Mitchell, Bruce Cockburn, Bill Frisell, Iona, Yes, Eric Roche, Jonatha Brooke...

One of the more recent ones is Nels Cline - an incredibly diverse and creative musician, whose music is impossible to describe beyond the instrumentation and the injunction to listen to lots of it before making up your own mind about what it is that he does... I'll post a few tracks here, but here's a favourite of mine, from his album 'Draw Breath' - the track's called Confection, and I loves it :)

via last.fm

Lobelia and I got lucky...

Every now and again music and opportunity line up. Doesn't happen often - live albums are rarely of the best night on the tour, unless the band is recording every night. Often, the tech and the tunes are on different calendars.

However, for Lobelia and I, the planets aligned when we played a house concert in Nebraska a couple of years ago - it wasn't actually in a 'house', it was in a recording studio, doubling up as a venue.

We played the best we'd ever played and got an awesome recording of it.

It's not on bandcamp yet, sadly, but will be soon - til then, here's one of the tracks on last.fm:

via last.fm

Jeff Schmidt - Outre

This album's been out for a few years now, but is one of the few solo bass records that I come back to time and time again to listen to. 

As I've said before, I don't like most solo bass playing. Jeff's a massive exception to that rule. His music is amazing. 

He also did an amazing podcast about the making of the album, and continues to blog smart musical things at beautiful-bass.com

Here's the album, listen, then download it, it's amazing:

http://jeffschmidt.bandcamp.com/album/outre">From Under The Weight of Knowing by Jeff Schmidt http://jeffschmidt.bandcamp.com/album/outre">From Under The Weight of Knowing by Jeff Schmidt

She Makes War - Three...Two...One EP

I heard this months ago, when Laura first put it out. Came back to it today after Laura (AKA She Makes War, AKA @warriorgrrl ) added it to the 'Bandcamp directory for the Stevie-Connected' at solobasssteve.com  - we were listening on the laptop, but it deserved big speakers. So we bought the download (a bargainous £2 ), and are now enjoying the 3rd time through it in a row. Top stuff. 

http://shemakeswar.bandcamp.com/album/three-two-one">Picture Of Us by She Makes War http://shemakeswar.bandcamp.com/album/three-two-one">Picture Of Us by She Makes War

The bass playing I'm most proud of from the last couple of years....

Well, there are two things I'm really proud of. One is the Lawson Dodds Wood album, which isn't on bandcamp.. .yet... 

The other is this track by Miriam Jones. It's called Routine Runaway, it's a heart-meltingly joyous song, and I really love the way the arrangement came out. A lot of it was my idea, arrangement-wise, and I'm grateful that Miriam trusted me when the first time we tried it it sounded like arse... Jez Carr's piano on it is fab too... 

have a listen, then go buy the EP. :) 

http://miriamjones.bandcamp.com/track/routine-runaway">Routine Runaway by Miriam Jones http://miriamjones.bandcamp.com/track/routine-runaway">Routine Runaway by Miriam Jones

Ben Walker - This Is Not An Album

Despite his protestations, This Is Not An Album is, basically, an album. And a fine collection of songs it is too. 

Ben Walker is the posh mentalist who stalks TV chefs, mentioned in this video. He's fab, he's all over youtube, and he writes a lovely blog at www.ihatemornings.com  

But underneath it all are wonderful, funny, catchy songs - comedy songs are a risky business. If they aren't great songs, they suck. They just don't work. Ben makes it work, cos the tunes are fab. And that's why he's involved in Office Gigs. 

Have a listen, and if you like it, grab the download and toss him some paypal moneys on the way: 

Nail - Galvanized. Awesome Fusion Goodness

OK, so this is my third post here about Nail/Neil Alexander. I know, I'm sounding a bit obsessive. But he's awesome. They are awesome. 

And this, dear friends, is the magic of the internets - Neil doesn't need to be 'famous' to validate how great he is. He doesn't need adverts, he just needs to let people hear it, and take it from there. 

The music reminds me of the best of what Herbie Hancock did in his electric phase, but with a whole load more cinematic textural stuff going on. Everything that was great about when fusion was a really exciting thing in the 70s, without any of the stuff that made it awful for most of the 80s and early 90s. 

Neil's still finishing off his BandCamp page, but here's the Nail album, Galvanized, for your listening pleasure. If you like it, grab the download. 

I'm a fan!

http://nailmusic.bandcamp.com/album/galvanized">Rain Road by Neil Alexander & NAIL http://nailmusic.bandcamp.com/album/galvanized">Rain Road by Neil Alexander & NAIL