30/09/2007

oblivion with bells

how does underworld continually manage to blow everything else right out of the water?




needless to say, i've pre-ordered my copy.

24/09/2007

trimming the garden



got the leafcutter john tickets today. they're $23.10 each. if you know anyone else that wants to go, they're all general admission tickets, so they can get them without having to split up.

are you guys around on the weekend of 5th, 6th and 7th of october? if you're around for any of that, would you be interested in playing a set at the hope street markets in downtown surry hills? we've been asked if we were interested. there's some reasonably good musicians playing - sui zhen and painted stones being two that i've heard. the markets themselves also seem fairly good - even ben frost has a stall there. anyway, let me know as soon as you can - it may be too late already but if you're free i can find out.

promo copies of the ep have been distributed around fbi so hopefully it might get a bit of play over the next few weeks.

19/09/2007

it's ok, i'm wearing my muscle suit

yeah, i understand what you mean in terms of solidness. i think it could just be a matter of paper selection, though, to make it more solid. i really like the format as it allows a lot of space for content, yet is simple to manufacture, fits in with the size of regular cd packaging and contains absolutely no plastic. i also remember many years ago, a discussion we had where you said you liked custom packaging but normally got annoyed with it because it was a pain to get the cd in and out. this format overcomes that completely as well because you can get the cd in and out without actually having to open the package. i just like it because it works on so many levels. so my recommendation would be that we thicken up the paper for the album to make it more solid. once it's folded up it's actually 8 layers thick. the ep has quite thin paper but the whole thing is relatively substantial, thicker paper would make it quite solid, i think. i've also tweaked the sizes a touch just so it's not quite such a tight fit as the ep ones are (which is not too much of a problem for thin paper, but could be for thicker).

i quite like the strength of the kick in send away, but because we are compressing and limiting stuff live, when it comes in the volume of everything else drops a touch. so, yes, we probably just need to pull the volume back slightly on the kick and it should fix the problem.

i don't want to punch you or lie to you

I think I can rustle something up for the TMN release. I’ll put some thought into it tonight. When you say origami – I assume you’re referring to the same techniques as used for the EP… I’m not sure about it for the album – I like it… it just feels very EP-esque to me. I just wonder if we could create something that felt a bit more physically solid or substantial.

The other night seemed okay – I am enjoying playing the new stuff quite a bit.

I was thinking that the kick sound in send away might need to be paired back – it tends to overwhelm me when it comes in – what do you think?

17/09/2007

on a roll

well, now that we've got the first telafonica release out of the way, i've got a few more things coming up!

firstly - the monstrous now will be launching their album on october 13 at just like now. i need to therefore have it all done by then. got any graphic things lying around that you'd like to try out on it? :) i don't mind it having a similar aesthetic to the telafonica stuff, though it would be good to differentiate them in some manner. the actual packaging format will be identical.

secondly, i'm still hoping we can have the album ready to go for december 6, so start thinking about packaging design for that. again, 4-4-2 music has decided that the origami package will be used - it's just content we need to come up with now. we'll be playing the december 6 show alongside the monstrous now, so i'm looking forward to having all the 4-4-2 music wares out on show (and sale).

i enjoyed playing the other night - i felt fairly comfortable in that environment and am very happy that all the new tracks seem to be working well live. i want to play out more!

13/09/2007

some lyrics etc

i've thought that i wouldn't mind doing blending the edges on saturday too - i actually thought that one worked quite well. it would probably need to replace something from the list - maybe the sun sets on the age of the instrumentalist?



requited love

do you still the scars on my face? do they bother you at all?
do you still hear the tantrums in my voice? will you reach down when i fall?
do you still see the wrinkles on my heart? do they bother you at all?
do you still recognise the selfishness in me? will you reach down when i fall?

'cause when you look at me
and see what's really there
when you look at me
and place yourself there
your love is requited

do you still feel the sweat on my back? does it bother you at all?
do you still feel my wanderlust? will you reach down when i fall?

setlist and fonts

following my conversation with marcella on the phone - here's a starting point for a setlist for saturday:

1. requited love
2. this is the new thing
3. item number
4. the sun sets on the age of the instrumentalist
5. send away
6. heartland

feel free to edit!

don't know if you guys are font collectors - i definitely am! - but peter saville is definitely up there with the best as a graphic designer for music and his general font use is really similar to the kind of thing we tend to do with telafonica - so this might be of interest - http://www.btinternet.com/~comme6/saville/fonts.htm

laptopjam


12/09/2007

posthumous

Overall, I enjoyed the sound of the music. The vocals to me – whilst perhaps not the tightest or polished – still had an enjoyable quality… rough and tumble perhaps. Songs like This is the New Thing, Heartland and Listening in for Static all require a fair bit of energy to sing and I think this raises the tone to more of a band show, which is fun... I guess some more practicing would help with tightness tho!

For me – having interaction in the mix of the sound is so much more dynamic and enjoyable. I don’t know if this translates to the audience but I suspect it does in some way. I think this is where live mixing really becomes something more than just hitting play on a sequence… because unexpected things happen. The more ways we can both be involved with the mixing and effecting of the sound – the better.

We need to get cell the mp3s we want her to work on. That way she can sit down by herself and build some songs… this is the best way for her to work. I was thinking perhaps we could give her the song you first sung for us on Friday and see what happens. GEM for me needs more work across the board – there’s something there, but not enough. As discussed we should go back to the drawing board for vocals and then build the sound around the song.

I have a thing on Thursday night with some friends from work… perhaps though – it’s mostly the vocals that need practicing – so you guys could still get together and go through stuff…?

11/09/2007

rehearsal

are you guys free thursday night if i were to come over?

10/09/2007

review/preview

well, as a show, i thought that saturday night was neither the greatest we've ever played nor particularly bad. i did enjoy having more hands on in terms of the actual music, but i thought my singing was not particularly good, especially on listening in for static. federico worked out ok (and his installation actually really suited sounditout's costumes - they work well together in the photos). i was actually not very conscious of him, which is probably good from a performance point of view.

we sold enough cds to cover the mastering and begin paying for the production (which was relatively inexpensive, but still needs to be paid - i borrowed money from the grant for it!). i've just pasted up a version of the artwork to go on promo copies to start sending out so i'll print them out tomorrow and get on with it. which also reminds me i haven't registered any of the new stuff with apra...

as for saturday, i'm quite looking forward to playing in another new environment, and amongst ears which i think should be fairly sympathetic. i've been thinking i'd really like to do the two tracks we ended up leaving out - requited love and item number - perhaps even to open with. we have a 30 minute slot - any other requests? as to actual details, we are first on the bill, which is good as we can set up properly! we begin at 10. the organisers will be there from 8:30 so we can get in anytime from then. we don't have any live art organised, but there is a visuals person booked for the whole night. are we happy to go with whatever is done by them, or do we want to also have some input of our own?

i think we do really need to up marcella's vocal input as both of you stated on friday night. at the moment, we have heartland as a kind of showstopper for when we play live, and dust kind of did that on morpheme, but we aren't harnessing that at all in the new recordings. the real issue is actually just doing it though. we've discussed numerous possibilities - getting gem working, adding vocal hooks to some of the more instrumental things. but i think it's coming down to where we started at the beginning of the year - physically doing the work. i'm very happy to write songs, but the general concensus is that it works much better when cel is writing her own things for her own voice. we're all in agreeance there. without wanting to be pushy, it just then needs to get done in order to solve the problem of not having enough marcella. can i do anything to get that moving ahead?

after saturday, the next big thing is hopefully to have the album ready for the november powwow show. that is my goal. is it realistic?

lastly - is there value in us pursuing theatre? i quite enjoyed listening and watching sounditout!

the punches or the lies


02/09/2007

more credits

Tape Noise (Marshall Watson version)
- additional production by Marshall Watson
- tundrastudios@marshallwatson.net
- www.highpointlowlife.com

Tape Noise (Broken Chip version)
- additional production by Martyn Palmer
- www.myspace.com/brokenchip

Tape Noise (All India Radio version)
- additional production by All India Radio
- www.allindiaradio.com.au

This Is The New Thing (Sunstroke Militia version)
- additional production by Andreas Dorwarth
- www.myspace.com/sunstrokemilitia

Laughing At Trees (TiefenKLANG version)
- additional production by Marcus Eberhard
- www.myspace.com/tiefenklangmusic

Item Number (Andy Rantzen version)
- additional production by Andy Rantzen
- andyrantzen@gmail.com
- www.myspace.com/rantzen

Mastered by Ant Banister @ Mantravision Productions (note 1 'n' in Banister - i got it wrong first time)

e.p. credits

thought i might as well stick them up here - keep the punters informed...

title:
Telafonica - The Punches Or The Lies

track listing:

1. This Is The New Thing
2. Tape Noise (Marshall Watson version)
3. Tape Noise (Broken Chip version)
4. Tape Noise (All India Radio version)
5. This Is The New Thing (Sunstroke Militia version)
6. Laughing At Trees (TiefenKLANG version)
7. Item Number (RantZen version)

All tracks originally written, recorded and produced by Telafonica.
Mastered by Ant Bannister @ Mantravision Productions
442-009
www.4-4-2music.com
etc etc

i've just sent a message out to all the remixers asking for exactly what info they would like to have on there, including contact info etc, so i'll give you that info in the next couple of days. if you perhaps send me all the actual artwork files except for the strip that includes the tracklist/credits, that way i can get to the printing of everything else.

do you have a copy of the 4-4-2 music logo?