Petty engineering design rant 1 - juice carton spouts

Right, let’s design a spout for a carton of juice. So, what would be some good criteria for a well-functioning spout? Here’s a few suggestions:

1. easy to open.
2. re-sealable, keeping the liquid inside the box.
3. has an opening that allows juice to flow freely while pouring.
4. lets air back into the box so that the pouring liquid doesn’t sputter all over the place.
5. lets you get all the liquid out of the box without retaining the last 10% of the contents.
6. allows you to open without dirt getting into the box.

And somewhere down the line you might have “cheapness” and “ease of manufacture” as criteria.

So, Messrs Tetrapak/Somerfield/Tesco/Asda/Waitrose/Sainsbury/Morrisons/etc, how on earth did you come to the conclusion that this abysmal monstrosity would be a good design:












Eh? Eh?!

It’s difficult to open, doesn’t keep the liquid in, only allows a dribble to come out, splashes unpredictably as the air tries to get back in, keeps the last little bit of juice as some kind of hostage (presumably for some mysterious dark scheme of its own), and to open it you have to poke the dirty (and shaped-so-you-can’t-possibly-clean-it) bit into the box! (Take a breath.) Fail, fail, and fail again. Opening the box the old-fashioned way with a pair of scissors is better on at least 4 of those criteria...

And I bet it isn’t any cheaper or easier to manufacture than any of the other liquid-container-openings out there. Bring on the pair of scissors.

Rant over :o)
J

AHMTS Song by Song 13/14 - You Come Running/Good Night

listen here and here

You Come Running is basically a reprise of The Turning Song - the few times Tim and I played it live it was performed as one 8-minute piece (old live version here), and was in fact recorded as one long song. This arrangement of Amazing Grace is what Tim soloed around after Farther Up and Farther In on Puzzle. I love weird chords. You should have worked that out by now. Thanks to Lorna for singing this one so beautifully (I was getting tired of my own voice!), and to Peter Moles for lending Tim his soprano sax for the recording.

Good Night is a little piece I’ve had lying around for a while now, but never knew what to do with. It seems a nice fit here for a gentle close-out to the album.

Odd things we sing 1 - Hark the Herald

Okay, so maybe you keep track of the meaning of what you say already, but I find it easy to get sucked into a song (particularly if I know the tune and words well) without really thinking, or indeed understanding, what it really means. Occasionally, I happily sing along with something and I’m like “What the heck did I just sing?! Would I have ever said that phrase in real life if it didn’t have a tune to go with it?” So here’s an attempt to pull apart some of the things we sing without thinking about it, and put some of those words into plain English.

First up, that Christmas classic, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. I like this song. I love belting it out with hundreds of people at Christmas time. But lyrically, it’s incredibly dense, and because it’s so old (Charles Wesley, 1739) has some turns of phrase which might not be readily deciphered at the speed at which we sing it...

(normal words here for comparison)

Listen! Messengers from Heaven are bringing amazing news:
A king has been born - one who deserves praise and honour!
He will reign on Earth with peace and mercy,
And provides the way by which God (set apart, perfect, will not tolerate the presence of sin, holy) and humans like me (broken and sinful, however hard we try) can be reunited.
All nations and people can share this joy, not just the Jews - we are now included in his chosen people!
Come and join in this triumphant celebration;
Sing along with the angels: “The Saviour of all mankind has been born as a human baby, and in a run-down slum in some dead-end town.”

This saviour is not some lowly messenger from the lowest ranks of the angels,
But is the ever-lasting God himself, loved by the whole of Heaven, and is himself above all things.
He comes into the world when it had just about given up all hope (there had been silence from God for 400 years before this),
And he comes in the unlikeliest of guises: a baby born to an unexceptional teenager - though in this case extraordinary - a pregnant virgin.
Come and see the full enormity of God: Father, Song and Holy Spirit, invading our world in a small bundle of weak and needy human flesh - Deity crammed into the earthly.
He comes to live with humans as a human himself. And he does so not grudgingly, but with pleasure - it was his choice all along.
Jesus is the light of the world.

Give honour to the Prince of Peace, who has come to us from Heaven.
Give praise to the one who is holy and perfect, who is the source of all light and life,
And who alone has the power and authority to heal our sinfulness and suffering.
Although he is all-powerful, he willingly lays down his power for a while, and gives up all his rights.
He is born so that people like you and me are no longer trapped by sin and death, but we have life again, and even after we die, will one day be raised to new life with him in Heaven.
Listen to the angels singing: “may the King of Earth and Heaven be given all the glory which is due to him!”

Christmas is pretty big, isn’t it?

Quality over Quantity, and the Christening of the Loop Frog

I had a gig last night. It was one of those ones that I wasn’t really looking forward to - uncertainty as to whether the night was actually on, coupled with the fact that they’d put me on at 10pm on a dark wet tuesday evening, meant I wasn’t really expecting much of a turn-out!

And there wasn’t. But, bizarrely, that didn’t matter - I had a great time with the minute but enthusiastic audience - made up of the sound guy, the barman, a few members of my family, and a few members of the previous band’s entourage (Man and Superman - good old-fashioned fuzzy noisy rock - showing the Ark’s expertise at matching and sequencing similar acts - not. Nothing like a bit of contrast...) - who whooped, danced along happily to odd time signatures, bantered away with me between songs, and generally had a great time. They even demanded photos with me afterwards.

In particular, one exchange which went like this:

“Wooooah, how do you DO that?!”
“Well, I’ve got this little pedal down here...”
“I think there’s a frog stuck in the keyboard!”
“Yeah, Loop Frog!”

So, in honour of Man and Superman’s groupies, who made an empty gig worthwhile: Pedal, I dub thee “Loop Frog”.



Setlist:
Part Trust
Insult Like the Truth (Charlie Peacock)
Economology
Icarus >
A/D Loop Jam
Lazarus
Since 3 Days Ago
Starmaker
Puzzle
Doubting Thomas (Nickel Creek)

AHMTS Song by Song 12 - Lilies & Sparrows

listen here

Putting your trust in something or someone is often easier said than done, especially when the person in question is somewhat intangible. This song comes from a beautiful section of something Jesus said to the crowds of people following him, recorded in Matthew 6:25-34. (Part of a larger block of things he said, widely referred to as the Sermon on the Mount - see Matthew 5-7).

 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

I think one of the hardest aspects of our human condition is the surrendering of our own plans - after all, who doesn't like to be in control?!

Fiona plays some beautiful saxophone in the background of this one - I love those bends in the last chorus!

Launch gig recording up for free download!

For those of you who missed out, the soundboard recording of the launch gig is now up here.

Most of you will probably want the mp3 files - right-click and hit "download linked file" to download them. (Audiophiles can grab the flac files and expand them to full CD-quality audio.)

Setlist:
Romans 7
Icarus >
Reba Loop Jam
Part Trust
Lilies & Sparrows
Come Awake (David Crowder*Band)
Since 3 Days Ago
Transformers
Economology
Farther Up and Farther In
Puzzle
Starmaker
Angels with Dirty Faces (The Beulah Band)

Happy listening!

p.s. Dan Glover Band?, who opened the evening so tastefully, have a couple of their tracks up here.

AHMTS Song by Song 11 - Starmaker

listen here (and download for free)

The most recently written piece. All the other songs were in place in some form at least, but the album still felt incomplete. It wanted two more things: 1. a title, and 2. a song - for which I already had a semi-formed concept:

I’m quite happy to discuss all sorts of things about God: complicated doctrine and theology and where dinosaurs might fit into the picture and something of what he’s like in a theoretical kind of way, but often pull up short of describing what he actually means to me at a more personal level (even now, I think only one of my songs mentions Jesus by name in the lyrics). So perhaps this one goes a little way towards remedying that.

Then the other week Karl pointed out a little throwaway sentence in Genesis (v1:16b), which says simply “He also made the stars.” Incidentally. By the way. A little side-project because it amused him. Title and punchline wrapped up right there.

From a musical point of view, this one was quite a challenge. The melody, chords and timing worked fine in the verses, but trying to work out just where to put the notes in the mid section and guitar solo was a total git. Now of course, I can’t see what the problem was, but at the time it was just brain-meltingly confusing trying to remember when to start the next phrase. Fun though! - I like 7/8. It was also nice to work on something a little different in sound - it puts me slightly in mind of 90s pop band Dubstar - anyone remember them?

3 Free Single Downloads and Store Update - Physical & Digital

The three single from Also, He Made the Stars... are now available for free download at DLDown's download store - just click the images below.



Also, just wanted to let y'all know that DLDown's physical and digital stores have now been combined into one. Practically this means:

• CD purchases include an immediate download of the album.


• You can preview both the songs and the album artwork before you buy.

Check it out here!

J

You people say the nicest things...

A couple of my blogging friends have kindly taken it upon themselves to include me and my music in their blog posts:

1. There's a smashing review of Also, He Made the Stars... at New Life From Old.

2. There's an equally smashing review of the launch gig (proudly featuring support from Dan Glover Band?, whom you should also check out) at Grace Note Showers.

Muchos thankses.
J

AHMTS Song by Song 9/10 - Hide & Seek/Found You

listen here and here

I think perhaps everyone feels like this sometimes - that lonely feeling of ‘What’s going on? And why have I been left to deal with it on my own?”. It was written more about my relationship with God than anything else, but I think the addition of Lorna’s harmony vocals accentuates the human relationships aspect too.

(For any MBCers: cue hand movements. “...these-way relationships and that-way relationships and the-other-way relationships...” :o) )

I like the feeling of unresolvedness that's left at the end - these things don't always tie up as neatly as it might look like they're going to, or we might like them to.

So, we went to a debate about assisted dying the other night...

For once, a ‘serious’ nothing-to-do-with-DLDown-or-music post. These are simply my own opinions/observations/reactions to some of the things that we heard discussed (at least as I understood them). I can’t claim to have any kind of experience of this, but it was very clear how emotionally charged the topic is. I don’t intend to belittle any of the anguishing experiences some of those present had evidently been involved in.

For a little background, you may wish to have a glance at:

Assisted Dying: A Good Death or a Choice too Far

Margo MacDonald's proposed End of Life Choices bill

Also, this post highlights a few of the grey areas (the blogger's views, not necessarily mine).


It was fascinating. We heard emotional statements put forward by both speakers, one very much ‘against’, one very much ‘for’ the legalisation of assisted dying (or since it involves the individual’s choice, assisted suicide is probably a more exact, if more aggravating, term). It certainly raised more questions than it answered, but maybe that’s not a bad thing.

Obviously, I can’t tell you what stance I would take if it were me in that situation, either as a suffering individual, or as a friend or family member - I just haven’t been put in that situation. However, over the course of the evening, I found myself inclining more towards the ‘against’ arguments, if only because the scope of the speaker’s answers and reasoning were so much wider.

So here’s a few observations/questions which I would have liked to raise, had I thought of them at the time, and/or had I not thought they would only aggravate an already emotional discussion:

1. It was ‘agreed’ that the proposed bill in question not only deals with terminally ill patients suffering from a painful or debilitating condition, but would also encompass others including those whose mental, existential or physical condition makes them not want to live any longer:
   
   
   
   • How and where can we draw the lines?
   • Is a person suffering from, for example, depression (which may be temporary), or Alzheimer’s (which is not), in a position to make a rational decision about this?
   • What safeguards would be put in place to protect the vulnerable, or those who feel (rightly or wrongly) that they have “become a burden to others”?


2. Should it be medicalised? Or is it a social issue?


• Who can carry out such assistance?
• doctors?
• friends?
• family members?
• What is the difference between assisted dying and euthanasia? And the cessation of life-support?
• Would doctors be required to assist, or could they opt out?
• Would the inclusion of assisting “patients”‘ deaths change medicine from being solely a healing profession, and can we allow that to happen?


3. The ‘for’ speaker referred often to ‘autonomy’ and ‘the right to choose the time, manner and place of our death’:
   
   
   
   • What is autonomy? In what sense does any human live in isolation? Is there a distinction between autonomy and selfishness, and if so, what?
   • Are these really rights? No, really? Where do they come from? Who grants them?


4. The ‘against’ speaker spoke extensively about the impact of such legislation on wider society:
   
   
   
   • What is the value of a human being? How can we judge it? Do we want to head towards a culture where your worth is dependent on your use to society? To what extent are we in that culture already?
   • In what way would this particular law change be a step onto the ‘slippery slope’ of changing other laws, and changes in attitudes and society.
   • What is the potential for abuse of the system, allowing murders to be veiled as compassionate acts?


5. The ‘for’ speaker effectively dismissed the concept of ‘the sanctity of life’ as a deluded faith-based anachronism (and thus effectively dismissed the opinions of any person of any faith into the bargain):
   
   
   
   • Is an atheistic belief any less an act of faith than a theistic one?
   • Does the concept of ‘the sanctity of life’ (with or without that grand title) resonate with those who are atheists or who profess no faith?
   • Can you legitimately leave out from this debate the opinions of those with some sort of faith? (Perhaps in this country the ‘faithful’ make up only a minority - looking at the world as a whole, it is almost certainly atheists who are in the minority.)
   • How do the views of a person with faith apply to this debate? For example, should all members of a certain faith adhere to a particular ‘party line’?

In my impression, the ‘for’ speaker was on the defensive a bit, accusing her opponent of “brainwashing” the audience with emotive examples, before going on to do exactly the same thing with equally emotive case studies from the other side.

To be honest, both speakers had some pretty bald statements which frustrated me, but one particular “I rest my case” from the ‘for’ speaker set me screaming (internally!) “What case? What case? All you’ve really said is “I think we should do this, therefore we should do it - it’ll provide immunity for few individuals” and backed it up with a couple of isolated examples which do nothing to address any of the bigger societal and legal implications!” Her entire contribution to the discussion on new laws opening the way to other law changes, society and attitude changes was “there is no slippery slope”. That’s not debate, that’s denial.

But I think what swayed me most was this:

On the whole it felt like the ‘for’ case was based around “I”, whereas the ‘against’ case was based around “how can we preserve the value of the individual, protect the vulnerable, and work to the best of our abilities to improve people’s situations”. Maybe that’s just me submitting to emotional arguments, but I know which of those appeals to me more.

As I said before, I can’t honestly say that I might not sway the other way if it were me or one of my loved ones.

love,
J




(As a final footnote, it was also interesting to observe the distinct polarisation between the reactions of old and young (I’m obviously generalising, but the trend was quite evident):

There were several groups of older people who had obviously been through some incredibly difficult and distressing times. However, while trying not to belittle that suffering, judging by the muted cries and sharp intakes of breath that greeted the ‘against’ speaker, they were obviously having difficulty hearing past the emotion, and weren’t taking in what he actually said about the wider implications. The younger people seemed, on the whole, much more uncertain, but also much more open to debate. I suspect that’s a reflection of genuine emotional involvement with these issues rather than a case of stubbornness growing with age - at least I hope so!

One of the most encouraging contributions to the debate was from a gentleman who is a retired police officer. He appealed for calm rational debate. I don’t know if that’s possible, but I think we need to try.)

Launch gig videos

A big thank you to all who made it out to the launch gig on Thursday. Here's a couple of wee videos courtesy of BrunetteKoala:

Dan Glover Band? - One of Two



DLDown - Since 3 Days Ago



More videos coming soon courtesy of the mighty Faramir Chowyunthin Gamgee, hopefully with lovely synced-up soundboard audio...

love,
J

AHMTS Song by Song 8 - The Turning Song

listen here

This is one of the very first songs Tim and I ever wrote, not long after we started jamming together in 2005. This one of course features Mr Buick’s mighty saxophony.

The title came before we had written any of the lyrics: when we were working out the interlocking sax and guitar riffs at the beginning, we just couldn’t keep track of how many times we had played the phrase, and thus how to move to the next section together. Tim hit on the method of turning through 90 degrees each time through the riff, so when he was facing the right direction again we knew we’d done four, hence The Turning Song. Genius! Fortunately, we got a bit better at it than that before we ever played in front of any microphones...

The lyrics sort of fell into place after that - something roughly along the lines of the parable of the lost son. As my old pastor Matthew said (I’m quoting roughly from memory, and he may well have been quoting from someone else): “There’s no good thing I can do to make him love me any more than he does already, and there’s no wrong I can do that will make him love me any less. He loves me because he loves me because he loves me.”

AHMTS Song by Song 7 - Left to My Own Devices

listen here

Nope, not a cover of that Pet Shop Boys one! Though I do have something of an unexplained soft spot for some of their stuff...

I don’t really know what to write for this one...

I guess it’s a reflection of the fact that whilst I find believing the basics of my faith relatively easy, carrying out the implications of that can be much harder. There’s often that sense of ‘I could/should be doing this better’ or ‘there must be more to it than this’.

Then again, we've got to start somewhere, and to want to want to do something could be the first step towards actually wanting to. Which in turn is a step towards actually doing it. Whatever 'it' is.

As you’ll have gathered, I like complicated or layered parts, so for the drum parts I had to hold myself back from doing anything that didn’t fit the monotonous feel of the song.

Halloween

Thanks to all to made it out the Halloween gig with davesnewbike and Fair Witness. A great time was had by all!

Don't forget the album launch gig on Thurs 12th Nov at the Lot - details here.
J

The Speed of Sound - disposable music?

A friend posted a link to this article on facebook the other day, and I thought it had some interesting points.

Particularly the stuff about listening attention span, given that with Spotify et al, we have more-or-less free, infinite access to any song we want from any era at a moment’s notice - Mr Harris’s point being that there will soon be no room for ‘filler’ material or ‘grower’ albums, as songs which don’t grab you first time will be immediately discarded in favour of something more catchy.

Now, the lack of filler material on an album can only be a good thing, encouraging artists to pay more attention to putting out an album that is of a brilliant standard all the way through, but I’m less convinced on the ‘grower’ part.

I don’t know about you, but if and when I get round to (affording and) buying a new album, I’m usually tenacious (or bloody-minded) enough to listen to it repeatedly until I ‘get’ it. There’s something delightfully satisfying about that sense of slowly getting to know and appreciate a deep work of art, hearing a new layer or catching a previously undiscovered nuance on each listen.

Many of my favourite albums come under that category of ‘slow grower’, which on the first few listens did little to grab me, but later on reward me with that ‘old friend’ feeling, still having something new to offer even after countless repeats. Disposable music is a sad thing.

The challenge for the artist, more now than ever, is to create something with just the right blend of catchiness and true depth - a tall order!

AHMTS Song by Song 6 - Icarus

listen here

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, sometimes I read a phrase somewhere or hear a line in a song which makes me think ‘nice idea, but they could have developed that so much further... wait, why don’t I do it?’. In this case it was a line from Phish song, The Squirming Coil. I think it’s fair to say that in many of their songs the lyrical content is very much secondary in importance to the intricacies and ebb and flow of the music, and on the whole this one is no exception. However, the lines

“...like Icarus, who had to pay
With melting wax and feathers brown
He tasted it on his way down”

seemed to be crying out for stretching into something more expansive. My favourite songwriting experiences are when the words and music develop simultaneously, and kind of meld together of their own accord. This was one of them. The descending chord sequences in the ‘spiralling down’ and guitar solo sections are a couple I’m particularly fond of.

I’ve been playing Icarus live for a few years now, but I only got round to recording it properly more recently. The outro jam pretty much wrote itself in the studio. Using the loop pedal is a good crowd-pleaser for live performances, but it’s great to be able to multi-track stuff properly on the computer and edit it afterwards. I just think about what each band-member in my imaginary multi-Jo supergroup would be doing in the jam, and do my best to emulate it.

AHMTS Song by Song 5 - Missing

listen here

Written as I was first getting to know my wife, this is about as close as I’m likely to get to a love song.

From another perspective: after coming back from studying up in Aberdeen, there was a lengthy-ish period when I very much missed it - having my bunch of friends around me, sharing Flat 3 with the guys, my church there, and to a lesser extent the place itself. Then one day I realised that I was no longer missing them, despite still loving them very much. There was as much sadness in that realisation as there was in missing those things in the first place.

AHMTS Song by Song 4 - Romans 7

listen here

This is one of the ‘oldies’ (being all of a venerable 3 years old!). Chapter 7 of the book of Romans contains this passage which is one of the most aggravatingly tortuous pieces of discussion I’ve ever come across - and yet it remains one of the few bits of Paul’s writings that I find I can readily identify with, wrestling with the mismatch between our good intentions and our less good inclinations.

After being played live for a while as an acoustic guitar tune for a long time, it was great to be able to give this one the ‘full band’ treatment. Despite not being a drummer myself, I quite enjoy programming the beats and fills. For the drum fills I transcribe an imaginary Carter Beauford doing something improbable.

AHMTS Song by Song 3 - Economology

listen here

The other day, a friend of mine shared a thought along these lines: Your train is just about to pull out of the station, and you are running along the platform trying to catch it before it goes. In your haste, you barge straight into a guy going the other way. He is in your way. Now there’s an arrogant thought: He is in my way! What makes my way any more important than his?

Don Miller puts it eloquently in his book Blue Like Jazz, where he describes coming to the sudden earth-shattering realisation that “everybody is I”. It’s also nicely put in downhere’s excellent song The Problem:

“Everybody's wondering how the world could get this way
If God is good, and how it could be filled with so much pain
It's not the age-old mystery we made it out to be
Yeah, there's a problem with the world
And the problem with the world is me”

My friend went on to ask what it would look like if we went around with the attitude that everyone else’s way was more important than our own - maybe we wouldn’t get where we were going very fast!

I wonder if climate-change-denial will ever be put on the same level as holocaust-denial? Surely it’s an equally bad level of humanity-caused destruction? - just more insidious and with many more to blame. Including me.

AHMTS Song by Song 2 - Since 3 Days Ago

listen here

For this one I had the chord sequence and structure for one verse worked out, and more unusually, a melody... which then sat around for a few weeks doing nothing.

But it seemed too good to waste, so eventually I thought to myself: just pick a good story, put it into your own words and try and fit it into the melody. I’m quite pleased with the result. The bridge was great fun to write and play, and gives the Rick Wakeman influence a suitable outlet! The backing vocals were entertaining too.

And it is a great story. Some of us are weird enough to believe it’s the centrepiece of history.

Also, He Made the Stars... OUT TODAY!

Buy CD here


Listen/Download: DLDown Download Store / iTunes music store / Amazon mp3


Also, He Made the Stars...

...is a collection of revisited old favourites and brand new material. Some of the songs were written before we recorded Puzzle, but had to wait until now to find a place where they fit. Some of them were written specially for this album, and re-wrote themselves even as I was recording them.

This has been my full-time employment over the last few months, so I very much hope you enjoy it. Please let me know your feedback on it - any reviews welcomed!

Over the next few posts, I’ll be telling you a little bit more about each song: sometimes notes on music, recording or songwriting; sometimes an insight into what I was thinking about when I wrote the song. So without further ado...

1. Planetarium

listen here

A little overture. The bass solo reflects the bass lines of a couple of the other songs (I’ll leave you to work out which ones). I like harmonics.

Boxes!

New album is out on Saturday 24th Oct - CDs and downloads! 3 gigs too!

Hear here

Gigs! And a CD launch!

In excited anticipation announcing: 3 gigs!

1. A slot at Henry's Cellar Bar - 8pm, Fri 23rd Oct, £2

2. Supporting davesnewbike at The Lot - 8pm, Sat 31st Oct, £7.50 on the door/£5 in advance

And best of all...

3. Also He Made the Stars... album launch gig at The Lot - 8pm, Thurs 12th Nov, ticket price tba. With Dan Glover Band? supporting. It's gonna be great!

Keep an eye on our live page for more details!
J

Cover art and tracklist

Tracklist:

Planetarium
Since 3 Days Ago (Listen here)
Economology
Romans 7
Missing
Icarus (Listen here)
Left to My Own Devices
The Turning Song
Hide & Seek
Found You
Starmaker
Lilies & Sparrows
You Come Running
Good Night

A job-hunting haiku

Sid sighs, his smile slides:
"Justify your existence
On two A4 sides"

website back up, downloads still up!

So, yeah... go listen! And let me know what you think...
J

Icarus
Since 3 Days Ago

website down, downloads up!

Well, the web-server seems to be playing up, annoyingly just as I was in the middle of updating the site...

In the meantime however, point your browsers at our new downloads page for some agreeable soundwaves.
J

Finished!

Well, kind of...

The mixing is complete.

The album had been uploaded to Tunecore, soon to be put up on the iTunes music store.

The artwork has been uploaded to the CD pressing people and deemed to meet their specs (they even liked it enough to ask if they could keep a few copies to use as samples), and the master CD is about to be put in the post.

The website will be undergoing a bit of rebuilding in the next few days to enable me to sell downloads directly from it.

Expect a couple of web singles to be up for your listening pleasure within the next week.

And a couple of weeks after that Also, He Made the Stars... will be unleashed on the unsuspecting world...

Exciting times!
J

A note about artwork and nice people.

Had a very pleasing experience the other day. I'm busy designing the artwork for the forthcoming new album. I have a reasonable back-catalogue of interesting photos and suchlike which I can use, but for one of the pages I felt I wanted a picture of some stars. Obviously, I can't really take any decent pics without some crazy telescope arrangement, so I had a look around the web for some pics, and came across this site.

To cut a long story short, while the guy usually sells his pictures, he kindly decided to let me use one for free for this short run of CDs, and provided me with a hi-res version for printing. So thanks for being generous to a complete stranger. Check out his pics, they're amazing.

J

Progress...

A quick progress report:

• The forthcoming album now has a title - all shall be revealed soon...
• Recording is getting there - a couple of songs have just a few more vocal parts and hopefully a little bit of sax to do. The tracks (likely 14 of them) are now laid out in order and the links between them sorted out. They are a mixture of new material and existing favourites. Then it's just final mixing and mastering...
• I'm beginning to put the artwork together, along with taking quotes for CD pressing, and deciding whether or not to put it up on the likes of iTunes.
• A preview track or two should be up in the next few weeks. Look forward to you hearing them!

J

CDs for donations

As you may have seen from the website already, I've decided to adopt a "sale for donation" model for distributing Puzzle.

This means that YOU get to choose the price for your CD - any donation accepted. So if you haven't got your copy of Puzzle yet, head on over to the releases page and order your copy. I'll even post it for you :o)

J

New website is live!

DLDown's website has now been updated - head on over to www.dldown.co.uk and explore. Let me know what you think!

(if you find any bits that don't work, let me know at band@dldown.co.uk)

J

A slightly frustrating day...

Well, I was quite up for a little more recording, but today the background noise near our flat has been crazy. I mean, there's usually a little traffic noise, but nothing that causes any bother on the mics or guitar pick-up. Today, we've had:

• Big lorries reversing up the street with those big-lorry-reversing noises.


• Lots and lots of fire engines.


• Helicopters. Not sure if it's a swarm, or just one very persistent one.


• Someone in the old brewery opposite shooting seagulls (or possibly just using a bird-scarer).


• Said seagulls complaining about being shot at (or possibly just being scared).

And all that without the usual banishing of the clock into the kitchen. So I didn't really try.

On the other hand, I have managed to get a fair bit more of the revamped website done (hence the change in theme on here, which gives things away a bit...). Coming soon...

J

Activities

DLDown is slowly getting back into doing some recording. Firstly, this involves getting to grips with the many shiny knobs of Logic Express, then working out how best to go about recording each track.

Usually it's best to get a basic guitar or keyboard track laid down for the whole song, normally with a metronome or temporary drum beat to keep the timing predictable. (A live take with a little ebb and flow in the tempo can add some nice expression to a performance, but it's then incredibly difficult to go back and multi-track other layers over the top.)

This is often the hardest step, and the most crucial to get right, as all the other parts making up rest of the song will then hang on this. I'm having a go at doing this for a re-run of Lilies & Sparrows and new song Left to My Own Devices (live version at The Art of Joy show, here). They're progressing, but slowly.

My other project at the moment is to update the DLDown website. I wrote the previous one fairly quickly in a WYSIWYG editor, which produces a usable page, but horrible source code which is a nightmare to edit. I'm having fun writing the new one from scratch, and brushing up on my html and css programming into the bargain.

Not having paid employment for a while has its benefits :o)
J

Jo has no job...

... and thus finally has time to make some music! Sweeeet!
J

Updates & Downloads

Hi guys,

If you missed the last gig...
...you missed out! We had a great time at The Art of Joy. For me, it was fantastic to dig out and re-learn my songs again, as well as taking up the challenge of learning some new covers and teaching my complicated songs to other people (who, incidentally, saxophonised and vocalled most agreeably). A quality venue (the Lot in the Grassmarket) and that rarity of a sound guy who really cares what you sound like made for a grand evening onstage.

Looking forward to the next one...

Also, you really ought to check out Calamateur, who put on a beautiful performance, showcasing songs from their (or, technically, 'his') super album Jesus is for Losers - which can be downloaded for free here (though I keep meaning to donate for it - it's certainly worth it).

Free Download
Some more exciting news is that DLDown's set is now available (free!) for your listening pleasure. You can download it here - audiophiles might want the flac files, but most of you normal people probably want to click the "VBR ZIP" link in the top left corner to get the whole set of mp3s. Alternatively, click the links in the setlist below to get individual tracks (right click and do 'download linked file').

The setlist was as follows:

01. Lazarus+
02. Part Trust
03. Reasons Why*!@
04. So Many Ways*!^
05. Left to My Own Devices*
06. Icarus+ >
07. Loop Jam (youtube clip here)
08. Lilies & Sparrows+
09. Come Awake%
10. Farther Up and Farther In+!

* 1st time played
+ with Fiona Earl (saxophone)
! with Iain McIntyre and Jack Wilson (vocals; Jack on keys on FU&FI)
@ Nickel Creek cover
^ Lies Damned Lies cover
% David Crowder*Band cover

Website
Um... yeah... so it hasn't had much attention lately - mainly due to not being able to access it except from my parents' computer - which I now live in a different house from. Working on it...

May your hovercraft be ever full of eels,
J

The Art of Joy

As excitably announced before: A gig!

I'm also delighted to have Fiona Earl lending a little saxophony to a few tunes, and Jack Wilson and Iain McIntyre dispensing some awesome vocal harmonies on a few others. Expect the old favourite songs dusted off and tightened up, along with some new covers, and even the possibility of a brand spanking new tune or two.

When: Mon 13th April (Easter Monday), doors open at 7.30pm (we should be on at 8ish)
Where: upstairs at The Lot, 4-6 Grassmarket, EH1 2JU
Cost: £5
Also performing: Fiona Stewart (some stand-up comedy I believe), and Calamateur.

Point your browser at: The Art of Joy

Come along and make our neighbours' last few weeks of aural toleration worthwhile!
J

A gig! A joyful one!

Point your browser at: The Art of Joy

More info when I get it, but it's gonna be great! Time to get practicing...

An excited J