before time 1980 techyness dream eating

on friday morning i just missed a call from a student... i knew roughly what he was going to say...

sorry i'm late, or, sorry i'm not coming...

anyway, the answerphone message he left remained unlistened to until this morning...

also on friday i finally got my windows 7 computer to sync up to my HTC Hero phone...

which means that:

a - i could install the new ROM that came out for the hero (on orange) a few weeks back

& b - i could back up all my text messages that would have been deleted by this process..

they all got backed up onto my gmail... which is really odd, seeing text messages in gmail...

so anyway, it all happened, it all works, which is pleasing...

i woke up this morning and looked at my phone, and it told me i had an answerphone message from june 22nd 1980, this being the answerphone message from friday morning,

from before my phone got it's ROM changed and therefore before my phone's current conciousness came into being,

like imagining events from before i was born...

anyway, i like the fact that it chose june 22nd 1980... pleasing x

but while i'm talking about things working, i have a few positive and one negative "things working" stories to tell,

1stly the negative, the mopho is not responding to treatment, or at least, not the last bout of trying to fix it that i gave it, with the arrival of the soundcard with it's MIDI in&out i can now talk to the mopho, and i've tried a few different ways of getting it back on it's feet but it's resisting...

but in a positive way, i was able to take the sound i use in an SJP song, put it into the computer, then load up the Tetra sound editor and manually program that in so i have the exact sound now... and all the original mopho sounds i programmed are all similarly in my computer now, in code, so i can get them into the tetra slowly... and maybe someone @ DSI will tell me how to load them onto the tetra in a much easier way...

but sad for the mopho, i can't help be struck by the fact that it broke (or i found out that it was broke) on the day i ordered the tetra... to anthropomorphise my mopho a little, either it knew it's old age was coming and it just managed to hold on until i had a replacement, or it saw that i was getting the tetra and it broke itself in a fit of anger..

so, fantastic that i have the tera now, but what would i have done if i hadn't been buying the tetra when it happened?

my other (partial) success concerns the tetra and the spin doctor... the spin doctor being a purple object with 16 knobs on it that you can plug into any MIDI device and set those knobs to controlling the device, i got it from D (moog drummer D) on thursday...



i'm currently plugging it into the tetra, which is a beautiful synth, but it doesn't have that many knobs on it, you can assign 4 of the knobs to whatever you want, which is great, but i want to be able to control more than just those...

so far i've been able to set up 11 knobs on the spin doctor to control the tetra and it's lovely...

there are many, many more settings i might want to change yet, and also i need to do a bit of learning as to how to speak in NRPN MIDI messages, but it's a really nice and intuitive way of interacting with a synth and i'm really digging it...

ok one more thing, i dreamt of bass player A last night - well - this morning, and it was the end of a long day, moving things, and suddenly he came out with this amazing veggie indian food... and offered half to me - by saying "well, you're not going to get a quote on it", which seemed to me to be inviting me to eat...

and i ate, in my dream...

x

Tetra

it arrived on wednesday, while A was here trying to fix my rhodes (to no avail, although he brought us closer to knowing what is wrong)...

i took it into work on thursday and played with it after teaching, with old friend D on the drums... lovely to play with him again, and lovely, if new & a bit odd to be playing with the Tetra...

it's basically 4 mopho's in 1, and in protest at being outmoded my mopho has been behaving strangely ever since i ordered the new beast...



i booted up the old computer, to speak to the mopho, and i think i can fix it... but it will take a bit of time, and of course my old computer died the very next day so i have to wait until i get some MIDI going in & out of my laptop before i can do the fix on the mopho...

once upon a time i would write bits of tunes or sounds on the mopho and dream of having just a little more control and sound possibilities and using the mopho live to give me a rhythmic pattern to play over... in particular i was frustrate by the notion of being able to set up a lovely groove on the mopho, but being unable to change to the next groove (verse => chorus) during the song...

the tetra is currently balancing in my mind between being clearly much more able to deal with that dream of performing with it, but perhaps not solving that specific problem... not that i know this, and i'm going to try and get it to work how i want it, i just have to think quite a lot about the situation and what i now have at my disposal...

loving the possibilities x

2010 new tune BSG good again

ok,

so i spent last night and most of today with Emivore... we walked on the heath this afternoon, cycled there from hers, lovely to know that's easy...

2 years ago today i improvised a short piece of music, 1st on the piano, then on the rhodes...

the rhodes part i repeated twice, with the original piano part coming in on the repeat...

this tune - 1st january 2008 - is one of the tunes on my myspace...

since i woke today i've been itching to get back here to do a similar thing... but my music making equipment is in disarray and i currently have 15 minutes left of this 1st of january 2010...

one of the differences between me now & me 2 years ago is that it's easier these days when things don't work out how i want them to... at least in this setting... today i don't mind letting it go, the kind of mania that used to fuel the weekly improvisations is a little eased... so there won't be a "1st january 2010"...

having said that i did just set up the juno 6 and got it going into the computer...

over the holidays (both down in seaford with emivore & in blewbury for christmas) i had my DSI mopho with me... without any kind of keyboard around me i was glad to have it... the opportunity to make music... so i made a few nutty loops & i got into the habit of it...

so the other night, (30th/31st december) i couldn't sleep, i got up and started writing down ideas about my scifi novel (more on that later) - i also got out the mopho and programmed a simple thing to keep me company while i wrote... well... simple thing has been floating around for the past couple of days and i really like it... so i'm excited about putting it down into the computer and building something out of it...

in general this is pleasing because i have about 10 different ideas in the mopho, from this last holiday season and from trips i've made before, and it'll be nice to get them all recorded into the computer and work on them (if they deserve working on)...

ok - and lastly, i'm in the middle of BattleStarGalactica season 3 and it's good again... the 1st season was great, the 2nd season lost it, this 3rd season is back on track and it makes me happy... i guess the writers strike in america was to blame for the faulty 2nd season, or am i just making that up? the timings don't necessarily match up.. anyway...

balthazara here x happy new year x

yr4wk8

yr4wk8 moog & overdrive from longcat on Vimeo.

x

yr4wk7 overdrive heaven

yr3wk7 mopho, hammond & blackstar overdrive from longcat on Vimeo.

thursday... very late, no good... but don't you just love this overdrive?

fixed my puncture yesterday, had a fine day of cycling as a result...

went down to an odd fete in a park in poplar for work, met a few nice kids...

then back to whitechapel (although to be fair this was all taxis' from whitechapel to poplar and back)... a lovely chat with G & H @ CM's office...

then into town to see felinity, no cinema but some food & a few gin & tonics, a lovely night, much laughing... walked her to waterloo, then sat in the royal festival hall for awhile using their wifi for my phone... then a cycle home with herbie hancock in my ears, magnificent, foolish yes, but beautiful... i love that bike..

x

nothing for nobody

i'm taking some time off...

i've got 2 weeks off from my work, and i'm also taking a break from all the rehearsing, recording, mixing i'm doing for other people...

off down to brighton on tuesday to see my glorious god daughter & her lovely mum...

dinah's in poland,

my time is my own...

got hold of a BlackStar HT-Drive overdrive pedal this week... i'm just listening to the improvisation i recorded tonight with the hammond & the mopho going through it...

valve distortion... it's a beautiful thing... of course whether anyone else other than me will like it is another matter, but right now i'm in a pretty much - it's all about me - zone anyway...

x

yr4wk4 mopho & revelation

yr4wk4 mopho & revelation from longcat on Vimeo.

i announce it in this video i made in the early hours of my birthday, so i announce it here & now...

me & dinah are no more... not as a couple... friends still... always will be i hope, and still living together - at least until august...

it's difficult, for both of us... a sad time...

x

yr3wk47 rhodes thru mopho

yr3wk47 rhodes thru mopho from longcat on Vimeo.

the music from a week & a half ago on a wednesday, the sky video from last week... monday...

x

yr3wk46 mopho juno 6

yr3wk46 mopho juno 6 improvisation from longcat on Vimeo.

i was in such a rush to get ready to "broadcast" by sunday that i forgot to do the last bit, putting it here & on my blog & my webspace...

the blue sky/clouds footage was shot on friday the 8th may, and it was when i was cycling home from there that all the phone calls, assumptions, photographing happened as told in the last post...

x

yr3wk45 (honestly) mopho & drums

yr3wk45 Mopho & Drums from longcat on Vimeo.

last week i presented the LHC 2.1 video as yr3wk45, but it was only a brief lack of thinking...

last week thursday i recorded this here improvisation with lovely D on the drums, it's the 1st of the improvisations to go through the slightly longer allowed time frame, from here on in i'm improvising, then posting last week's improvisation on sunday...

it gives me more time to work on the sound/video for the improv's... it came about because the LHC 2.2 was taking forever and a day to get ready and i realised that sometimes i do need more than a few days to make it happen...

so LHC 2.1 went out the following week (when this one should have gone out by the old system), even though i had recorded this one already...

and in fact on friday i recorded the improvisation that's going out next sunday...

lovely thing with the juno & the mopho...

i hope it makes sense...

enjoy x

Longcat Hadron Collider version 2 chapter 1

Longcat Hadron Collider 2.1 from longcat on Vimeo.

there's an owl that toots at 7:45 am...

it woke me up...

so i came to see if chapter 1 of that large scale improvisation had uploaded...

and here it is x

apple blossom time

i'm down in blewbury for the weekend, came to see the blewbury opera which was great, noye's fludde by benjamin britten...

it's been a long time since i was here at this time of year, the apple trees in the garden are all in different moments of blossom, a couple of them are bright white with dashes of pink... lovely...

reminds me of the old song that's been floating around my head for a month or so anyway...

this house was built on one half of an orchard, cleared of most of it's trees of course, so i've always been around apples, and i love them...

but i was eating an apple last night and i couldn't remember the last time i'd had an apple...

it's just me & mum & dad, dinah was due to come down but she couldn't in the end...

i've been relaxing, developing sounds in my mopho which i decided to bring in the absence of the piano that used to be in this house but is now in me & dinah's flat...

went up the hill earlier, watched the sunset justlike i used to...

as i was walking up i was listening to this week's improvisation - recorded on thursday but not yet in video form... just me & D (drummer) me on the mopho...

a couple of times i'm playing a repeating line while changing the filter, the sound opening out...

and both times the sun came out from behind a cloud...

so i'm walking, with the sun behind me, and as the music expands outwards the light comes out on everything... the sun close to the horizon... everything i can see is lit up by this lovely bright spring sunshine...

quite something...

today i've been imagining doing a gig on my own, with all my sounds... with sequences from the mopho mixed with piano or organ, maybe singing and playing a harmony line on the organ...

imagination such a rich ground to get music from...

x

yr3wk43

yr3wk43 moog rogue, mopho, piano from longcat on Vimeo.

recorded last tuesday... the day before the moog rogue went home to HK (and indeed the opus 3 came home to me)...

x

yr3wk42 mopho & rhodes

yr3wk42 rhodes & mopho from longcat on Vimeo.

from last wednesday, not an april fool...

unlike my post on that day, but what can you do? old traditions surely are worth keeping hold of...

anyway, the improv recorded at the studio, the 1st one in ages on the rhodes...

i just hope i can take advantage of the studio to let out all the musical ideas i have all the time x

1985 books mopho

what happened in 1985?

(the serial number of my mopho is 01985)

which books am i reading?

well in fact i finished one of them today, after watching the film...

but 1st the other, it's the 3rd book of "in search of lost time" by marcel proust and it's almost exactly the same size as my mopho...


2 of the 3 dimensions are very close...

looking down at the book or the synthesizer they are practically the same...



the mopho is a bit bigger looking at them end on, but a paperback book with more pages would do the trick... i might find a haruki murakami book that fits the bill...

so to the other - watchmen... i've been reading it for a few days - just in the house - and i got within two chapters of the end last this morning, so decided it was a good time to see the film, which i saw this afternoon... finishing the book when i got home...

the book is great... the film is also good, it's a touch flawed here and there for me, but it's good. it fits the book very well, departing in a few details later on but not too much...

once or twice in the action sequences i wasn't entirely convinced, and action in a graphic novel is easier than in films...

rorsharch is great, great as a character and very well played by jackie earle haley, also his moving rorsharch pattern face, alluded to in the book, is done excellently in the film...

the film also does something i like with rorsharch that the book doesn't do... mirroring the scene on mars where there's a reference to the comedian... (carefully not giving anything away)...

so, what happened in 1985?

x

tv mopho church

so i saw last week's mad men on the i-player... great TV still... i found out that joan, the very sexy - all woman - in the office character is played by someone who was in a couple of episodes of firefly... the scifi thing made by the guy that did buffy...

so i youtubed those 2 episodes and watched them too... i'd watched all of firefly a while back when the film came out, some other computer has the video files on it, maybe the one i left in finsbury park...

also good tv, not as good as madmen, but not trying to be, very pleasing none-the-less...

red riding also turned out to be excellent, i watched the last of the 3 episodes on saturday... very grim, very satisfying...

and i still love my mopho, i noticed today that falling off my keyboard @ the gig on sunday did a little damage... the 4th assignable parameter knob is a little hurt, just cosmetic hurt, it still works fine...

i like it... my serial number is 01985... i keep trying to think of what happened in 1985 but i'm not sure anything did, i was 12/13...

played a song from the musical in an assembly this morning - in a primary school... that was cool, also got to play the piano in the church we're in on saturday, a kawai upright, very nice, with heaps of natural reverb... an amazing place... the whole ceiling covered in angels or saints... i'd like to do an improvisation in there one day if i can...

x

lullabye mopho musical improvisation

yr3wk40 moog rogue & juno 6 from longcat on Vimeo.

on saturday i went down south to see spanna and her beautiful baby, the lullabye i wrote for her is currently the top song on my mypace...

old friends galore, all 4 of us who used to live in kensal rise together, F with her 2nd child, T with her usual wit, spanna with her brand new Mara (and indeed her man A) and me with my hayover...

curious mixture of hangover and hayfever which i was just emerging from when i arrived...

it was due to the red wine i'd drunk the night before after the opening night of the christian musical... really mental day it had been, finishing the lullabye (which involved recording a drum part by the wonderful J @ CM), picking up my brand new mopho which had been delivered to CM, doing the opening night, drinking...

the mopho is heaven on a stick...

i ordered it on wednesday (when i recorded the improvisation above), it was delivered to CM on thursday, picked it up friday, gigged it on sunday...

being last night... i was so excited by the new mopho that i forgot my keyboard stand and had to use the venue's keyboard stand, with sharp, loose screws holding it together and sticking out of it...

the mopho fell off a couple of times... it fits beautifully on the edge of my keyboard (it being ridiculously small) but it's not very stable, must find a better way of stowing it...

N was there - my sometimes benefactor (in fact the mopho is the only musical instrument i've bought recently without his help, he had a hand in my getting both the hammond and the piano module)... he was there with B, the 1st vocalist from hotel full of cops... the band i was in with N... it's probably been a decade since i last saw B, he hasn't changed, except that he's mellowed a little...

there is talk of a HFOC 2.0 in the air...

my beautiful dinah was there too, whooping and dancing...

it was a spanner jazz punks gig... it was good it think, i drank a couple of pints before playing so i was probably a touch ragged but i think we were still good... hard to say, we went down well...

i'm off soon to see TC down @ the studio - which i've started calling Blood Sunset Studio...

bought the watchmen book, i'm going to read at least some of it before i see the film...

x