¶

¶

The most surprising result of the recent Musicophilia poll is that in response to the question of what Musicophilia should cover next, “pretty stuff, in general” was tops, with double the votes of the next closest option.   Emboldened by that result, I’ve decided to post the second full album (and a remix project) of my own work.   Like the first album posted, ‘Complicity,’ ‘The Irish Sea‘ was improvised by adding one extemporous layer of sound to another over the course of a couple days.  (So determined was I to record that you’ll hear a couple of unmuffled sniffles from a cold I was suffering—there could be no second takes.  It was always my pattern to record in a flurry of days, and then most likely not touch an instrument for months till the next session.)  The similarities more or less end at the improvisational methodology.  Whereas ‘Complicity’ is a dark, largely electronic, slightly wide-screen and nocturnal affair, ‘The Irish Sea’ was created almost entirely with a cheap acoustic guitar with some borrowed piano, and it paints a winter day on a small canvas.  Though created ad-hoc, it is entirely listenable, simple, spare and inescapably “pretty”.  I am not a song-writer, but this album turned out to be a collection of songs (even including a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Boots of Spanish Leather”).  It is an intentionally small creation (running just under 28 minutes), but it has stuck with me because it is emotionally evocative and feels whole and self-contained.

¶

As a counterpoint to the unabashed English midlands- and Irish east coast-inspired prettiness of ‘The Irish Sea,’ I have also included in the download ‘Full of Blue-Green Blood‘.  Created several years later, this was an experiment in using only the final mix-down of one of the tracks from ‘The Irish Sea’ (“Full of Blue-Green Doubt,” an acoustic build in a canon-like form), tearing it apart and pushing and pulling it back together to see how far from the original sound and feeling I could end up.  So from the gentle original, using primative wave editing software and no additional sound sources, I created twelve short pieces totaling 24 minutes.  Some are unrecognizable, harsh or menacing rhythm pieces; others more clearly stem from the original but are altered completely in mood and feeling.  ‘Blue-Green Blood’ is not meant to be a proper companion to ‘The Irish Sea,’ but I find it most interesting in direct comparison and contrast to its source material.   The results are not for the most part as ugly as I’d first intended, but I felt the modest experiment was a success—you probably wouldn’t know this album came from one finished song without being tipped off.  Full tracklists and the download link after “more…”.

“Full of Blue-Green Doubt” (2001)

“DNA” (“Full of Blue-Green Doubt” Remix) (2004)

¶

Soundslike  –  ‘The Irish Sea’ (2001)

01   First Tuesday (3:12)
02   Full of Blue-Green Doubt (2:39)
03   The Irish Sea (2:41)
04   Ramble On Within (3:09)
05   Without a Promise (4:07)
06   Boots of Spanish Leather (5:02)
07   The Saddest Reassurance (2:10)
08   Lonely Dog on the Sinking Shore (1:59)
09   Sea Ghosts (3:00)

[Total Time: 27:58]

¶

Soundslike  –  ‘Full of Blue-Green Blood’ (2004)

01  Sea Ghosts II  (2:44)
02  New American Century  (0:39)
03  DNA  (1:00)
04  Blue-Green Garage  (2:12)
05  Deconstruction Disco  (1:02)
06  Incendiary  (1:48)
07  Love During Wartime  (4:45)
08  Nucular Metronome  (1:07)
09  That Laugh  (1:18)
10  Tic, Tic, Tic  (1:08)
11  So Long, Youth  (4:06)
12  Cold Storage  (2:16)

[Total Time: 24:05]

¶

Download Both Here |  Subscribe