The Things That House Concerts Allow That Other Gigs Don't

Thanks to just getting a comment on the video, I've been watching this video of me playing Jimmy James, from a house concert in north London last year. 

Apart from the slight weirdness of me sitting watching myself on Youtube (I was watching to see what sounds I used in order to answer the question in the comment), I was struck by the really slow build on the loops. Then realised that the reason it sounded unfamiliar is that it's only at house concerts where I can get away with playing that slow, that measured, where I can give each layer and musical idea the room to grow that it deserves. 

The reason is this - for music to work, the silence in the room needs to sound good. If what happens when you're not playing is nasty background noise - whether it's traffic or coffee-machines or people talking, or air-con units... whatever it is, the music can't have holes because it's primary purpose becomes covering up that other noise. After that, you get to be good, interesting or whatever... 

Have a listen, tell me what you think - I love the pacing of this, and it's inspiring me to want to get some new music written, with lots of holes in it. Swiss Cheese music. :) 

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

Lessons Learnt From An Aged Feline

This was an album that came free with the first 100 CD orders of Not Dancing For Chicken, 7 years ago... it's been available on Last.fm for a while, but at pretty low resolution...

here's the high res version, for streaming or download - enjoy!