31/12/2007

send away

i think i've finally got a version of send away that works completely. i bit the bullet and just hacked the last section right off, so instead of going back into the 'climactic' beat bit, it just ends there, going into the synth sound etc. it still goes for over 3 minutes and i think it is a complete song - it doesn't feel like anything is missing, and it also no longer feels like there's a totally redundant section in there.

i've also registered the punches or the lies and i saw this and thought of you with cdbaby. i'll be sending some copies of tpotl off in a few days and then the album when it's ready. the main thing with this is that all the music will then be available via itunes and most of the other e-retailers on the web. it also means we now have bar codes for both - i'll send the istatoy one to you for your artworking.

25/12/2007

thinking of thinking of you

i had much trouble sleeping last night - i often have nights where thought processes take over sleep processes and the sleep just has to find a bit of room anywhere it can. anyway, one of the things that kept me awake was a possible idea of how to present the images you've been producing in the packaging. so here is a suggestion - feel free to get excited or flame as appropriate....

we print the images on transparency as either a booklet or, more possibly, a set of cards. the images as they currently stand are great. i don't know if there's more to come, but if there is, that's also fine. we then either add all the written info we require around/over some of the images, or make separate cards, again on transparency, with that info. we then house these in a box with the cd on a button under the lid. i'm imagining a box about the size of a regular cd case. on the outside of the box is something graphic, screenprinted, based on something of the forms on the imagery inside, but as one or two colours - graphicised (if such a work exists). it would also include the title and band name on here, and possibly tracklisting on the back, though somewhere easily accessible on the inside would also be an option (perhaps in the space under where the cd sits so it's only visible when the cd is removed).

i'm imaging a box made from solid card, possibly even with strips of ply for the sides, then covered in the screenprinted paper/material.

thoughts?

24/12/2007

i'm glad it was those images that made you think of me

...because they are really very good. any idea how you might like to start incorporating them into the book(let)? i've been toying with the idea with a slightly more exyensive use of rubber stamps for this one as well. and screen printing as well, but am happy to have those ideas subsumed by the aesthetic rather than force them in. however, i do really wish to keep some sort of handmadeness in the actual image making.

the gig on jan 6 has officially been postponed due to issues with the venue among other things. at this stage it looks like being rescheduled for march. so that actually gives us a realistic deadline, too.

when shall you be back from you journeying? we are pretty much around anytime except the week of the 12th-19th.

as to the image formatting issues on blogger - what other options are there? i don't mind what you've done, linking to a higher res external thing.

i think there's enough happening on this blog and the myspace site, and i plan to overhaul the virb site very soon to make it into an information site, so that the official telafonica site is becoming a little redundant. make it into an artwork for yourself. don't deliberate so much, just get this kind of stuff there. i think i would like that a lot.

16/12/2007

i saw this and thought of you

Some of the images i've been working on from those photos - could be a good visual starting point for the album artwork. Will email a higher res image to you.

11/12/2007

a partial response...

Another missed JLN for us. Glad it went so well. What were the numbers like?

I felt fairly ho hum about the set on the night. Had a similar sense of some reasonably positive feedback but it was certainly not glowing. I guess for me there's just a big gap between where we're at as producers and what comes off live. I find this bothersome I must admit...

One piece of constructive feedback I received was that in some songs your vocal almost blew anything else away including both cell and I! I feel that this is one potential problem with the current set up. It's pretty crazy really for you to be expected to perform a song and know how the mix of the vocal is sounding from the audience. At the moment of course - the sound person can't fix anything in the mix... Could you send the vocals separately from the laptop to the desk?

It's also pretty clear to me that for the kind of set we're playing there really needs to be some more practice time put in. Obviously it's been difficult enough getting in what time we have. I just felt on Thursday night - whilst there wasn't any real problems as such - we just weren't really in sync.

As kind of previously planned - we've decided not to play any more shows before feb 4... As for the future - I pretty much see it as an open opportunity to go in whatever direction. I think we have a lot of potential for collaborative working across the globe - but we cant really know until we get there.

I'd really like you to build on current energy... And agree you can't really do the kind of thing you want to by yourself.

Finishing the album... We have time off from christmas to the 7th. We're away from boxing day for a few days - but should be able to do a couple of days in the studio in there somewhere. I must say I find the idea of having it finished before the 6th quite optimistic - but I'm keen to give it a shot.

10/12/2007

coming to a head

had just like now on friday with broken chip and underlapper. underlapper was mind blowingly good (and broken chip was excellent, too). the last time we saw them live, they were doing hip-hop vocals and were fine, but not brilliant. they've morphed considerably since then and are pretty awe-inspiring now.

as for thursday night, all the feedback i've been getting has been fairly positive. those that have seen us play before have pretty much had a similar feeling to what we did - that it wasn't bad, but that it didn't quite take off like it can when it works. (i think the monstrous now were very much the same) but, particularly for those who haven't seen us before, there has been a very positive response - from the sound guy and the barman, who were both quite rapturous (and i've played to many many sound guys and bar folk to know what is real and what is politeness!) to others just there. so in retrospect, i'm fairly pleased with how it went. i agree that problems we did have were probably due to set list structures in that particular environment. i also think that we probably need to have more volume coming at us on stage to help us feel it and that then makes us do things better.

i've been pondering a lot over what to do with the love show come february. i feel a reasonable level of momentum building at the moment (reasonable for us in relative terms, anyway!) and i'd like to keep it going. however, i don't want to just try and graft in replacements for the live show to simply fill in the functions on you two. i would rather set it up differently in order that telafonica as the three of us still exists with a clear identity and function, and the live thing has its own identity, presenting what we create in a live context but without trying to be the three of us. i mentioned to marcella a little while back that i had thought of the idea of a small group of singers - possibly two female and one male - to do live stuff. i like that our live set-up is fairly simple and don't want to complicate matters too much, so that is a fairly simple way of getting something distinctive that isn't just a straight 'let's find a replacement to do marcella's bits' option. having also done the show at the vic on the park, i think it would be impossible for me to do anything meaningful running everything myself (laptop, fx, singing etc) other than just the old press play and sing along, so i've thought of possibly getting steve fox to help me do that stuff. at this point in time, i would pretty much envision all of that happening as a hired hands kind of thing for the live shows, while we continue creating telafonica as we always have.


lastly, this album. i think we can have it ready for january 6. what i think it will involve from a musical perspective is to put aside 2 days. on the first day, we lock ourselves in with the microphones. the songs still needed to be finished (i'm thinking specifically of gem and smells like rain) get done on that day - (re)written, sung, recorded. as do the last few vocal bits that need redoing. the second day we mix it all. now, a lot of the mixing is already done and we've been listening to it all and have a fair idea of anything we want to adjust etc, and then there's the newly recorded things from the first day which we'll have on that day. the mixing day i can do solo if needed, then run it through you guys for any more adjustments, though having at least one more pair of ears during mixing would also be great. i think we've sat on the whole thing long enough to know what it is now, and what needs to happen with new things to be able to pin it down - i think we just have to bite the bullet and do it. so - do you have a spare day or two bfore new year? we'll be away from friday until sunday the 23rd. perhaps a time between christmas and new year, if you're not away of course. otherwise, perhaps we could break them up - do the singing on one free day (weekend?) and then i can do the mixing after christmas.

03/12/2007

finally someone taking notice




is this telafonica's first officially published 3rd party review?

i went along to concrete last night. it is definitely a gig we have to play, so i've said yes to a spot on sunday, january 6. marcella, you said you went back to work on the 7th, so i'm taking the assumption you should be around on the sunday night. it was on the 3rd floor of the building used by the hope street mission for their restaurant and bar and has a great feel to it, and a good crowd. bec paton and clark nova will also be dj-ing on the 6th, so i have to say i'm pretty excited about the prospect.

which brings me to the last point. how realistic might a january 6th album launch be? can we get the music and packaging completed by then?