Featured post

VIDA DE-sign by Michael Buckingham, aka Mick Muttley

Dear friends (yeah really, one of those) I have become a women's wear designer for VIDA! http://shopvida.com/collections/voices/ ...

Tuesday 30 December 2014

SubVersion Stop 241: Lata's Favourite Muttley Mix (May 2005)

Some might remember I made a dedication mix to Subversive Mind's Lata (previously active on SC up to 2007, a good friend to this day), released through Phuturelabs, called "All Shall Be Well". The blogpost generated over 1,000 views by Summer 2012 and due to worry I decided to delete it because it seemed things were getting out of hand. But seeing her again recently and with the launch of the All Will Be Well record label, whether related or not, my spirit was soothed a bit. Through schizophrenia trusting I have decided to publish this mix that was actually the first set emailed in 3 parts to my sister in 2005, but through agency seems to have had the most affect on Lata in regards to how she puts up with me. The mix is a Drum & Bass mix, all tracks from 2003-2005, and weaves a theme that is still active in my thoughts through the narrative, personalities related, and the mood of the musics.

Blessings to a good friend, and I hipe Pt 7 of www.subvertcentral.blogspot.co.uk's Drip-Feed will excite you.

15 Minutes Of Fame Pt. 77 - Muttley - Forever Switched On
[b]01.[/b] Teebee - Forever Lost (The Legacy LP, Subtitles, 2004)
[b]02.[/b] Klute feat. Meecha - Silently (No-One's Listening Anymore, Commercial Suicide, 2004)
[b]03.[/b] Keaton & Verse - White Crow (Crunch 12')
[b]04.[/b] Artificial Intelligence - Switch On (Commercial Suicide 12', 2004)
[b]05.[/b] Big Bud - Blu 4 U (Soundtrax, 2005)

http://kapsil.net/muttley/2014/15%20MOF%20Pt.%2077%20-%20Forever%20Switched%20On%20%28May%202005%29.mp3

15 Minutes Of Fame Pt. 78 - Muttley - Closer

[b]06.[/b] Cyantific & Tactile - Love Without Sound (Hospital, 2003)
[b]07.[/b] Blame - Closer (?, 2003)
[b]08.[/b] Spor - Brickbeats (Barcode 12', 2005)
[b]09.[/b] Loxy & BCUK - Clown Killa (Tech Freak, 2004)
[b]10.[/b] Human Resource - Dominator (Raiden remix) (Renegade Hardware 12' picture disc, 2005)
[b]11.[/b] Calyx - Get Myself To You (No Turning Back LP, Moving Shadow, 2005)

[url]http://kapsil.net/muttley/2014/15%20MOF%20pt.%2078%20-%20Closer%20%28May%202005%29.mp3[/url]

15 Minutes Of Fame Pt. 79 - Muttley - Pressure Point


[b]12.[/b] Klute - Saviour (No-One's Listening Anymore LP, Commercial Suicide, 2004)
[b]13.[/b] Dkay - Casali (? 12', 2004)
[b]14.[/b] Psidream & Mechawarrior - Pressure Point (Barcode, 2003)
[b]15.[/b] Dom & Gridlok - Moodswings (Dom And Roland Productions 12', 2005)
[b]16.[/b] The Upbeats - Werewolf (Bad Company Presents Bad Taste CD, 2004)

http://kapsil.net/muttley/2014/15%20MOF%20Pt.%2079%20-%20Pressure%20Point%20%28May%202005%29.mp3

Lata's first post on SubVersion reviewed by someone (maybe even Lata? if so, hello :wave:) this afternoon.

http://subvertcentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/do-we-ever-make-choices.html

SubVersion Stop 240: SubVersion's End Of Year 2014 Charts

An example of a previous chart:

2012 (7 contributors - 10 entry format)

This year it's a max of 15 extravaganza with the SV Drip-Feed underpinning everything.

I'm at the bottom for reasons of space. :)

Jonathan

01. Favourite track: Tom Chang - Spinal Tap: Goes to 11

02. Favourite album: various - The Orchestra of Futurist Noise Intoners (Sub Rosa)

03. Favourite label: Dancing Wayang

04. Favourite mixtape: DJ Trax - Mixrace 92-96 mix (for Blog to the Oldskool)

05. Favourite SC thread: In this thread we post tips to decrease apathy

06. Favourite gig: Dave Phillips, Rammel Club, Nottingham

07. Favourite book: Ivan E. Coyote & Rae Spoon - Gender Failure (Arsenal Pulp Press)

08. Favourite food (or Snax): Borders' Dark Chocolate Gingers

09. Favourite guilty pleasure: I'm too old to feel guilty about pleasure.

10. Favourite random moment: looking at the Championship table today and seeing Brentford in third after a 4-0 win

InfiniteSloth

Label (overall): Samurai
Label (for concept and art direction): Weevil Neighborhood
Snax: almond butter and raw cashew cheese tacos
Remix: Hidden Element and Liquid Break - Outsider Blues (Icarus Remix)
Gig: NOizefest, New Orleans
Streaming platform: Spotify
Dig: Max Roach 4 Plays Charlie Parker
Youtube channel: Numberphile
Random moment: Lenny Kravitz strolling down the street while I was walking the dog.
SC thread revivalist: firefinga

Kermit McBollocks Muppet Version 10

Favourite trak - Kermit Ensemble - It's Not Eezy Being Green
Favourite albm - ASC - Troof Bee Told (Soylent Seesawn)
Favourite fred - Kermit's Dictionary Fred, wer I correct der fadar about his grown up werd usage.
Favourite muppet - Muttwee, the ever-stinking ferris Wheel Of Fortune of the internet.
Favwit book - Pool Mackendra - Change Yor Loif In Seven Daze - vewwy moteevational!
Favwit feckwit - Russell Brand, he iz raizin his Sultan status of shitness by der day.
Favoureet telly - Mongrels, so oi can curse at der Nelson for not pimpin der Destinee
Favvit food - caveearr, ho ho ho and a bucket of finest Champagne.
Favourite mix type - Stattzi
Favweet label - Elmo, it bee zee ome of Muttwee's loif in pictures, and in the past tense.

Yelp! 

firefinga

*) SC Thread of the Year:

Most "current" sounding subvert dnb made in the 2000's?
http://subvertcentral.com/forum/show...-in-the-2000-

*)Label of the Year:

Euphony's Omni Music, Pinecone Moonshine, Subtle Audio, R & S

*)Mixtape/Radioshows of the Year:

DJ Trax and Nucleus' "Catch A Groove" Shows, Code's "Sublte Audio" shows, both on Jungletrain.net.
Euphony's Omni Sessions, Law's and eXtreme's mixes.

*)Guilty Pleasure 2014:
Reading the News section on Factmag.com and occasionally posting links on here.

*)TV Show 2014:
Last season of "Breaking Bad"

*)Movie 2014:
Snowpiercer
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1706620/

*)Book 2014
Bernie Krause "The Great Animal Orchestra"
http://www.thegreatanimalorchestra.com/

*)Album 2014:
+)Subtle Audio Vol. III
+)The Bug "Angels & Devils"
+)Dev Null's "Darkside Compilation" on 8205 Recordings:
http://8205.bandcamp.com/album/darks...mpilation-2014

*)Track of the Year:

DJ Trax and Naibu "All Is Silent" on Subtle Audio Vol. III

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q-OvAYtkq0A

Euphony

01. Favourite track: Too numerous, but the following had me groovin' in my undies; Entama - Primeval Forces (Cadence)

02. Favourite album: Cryogenics - Through the Eons LP or Rainforest - Path of the Warrior LP

03. Favourite label: Monochrome

04. Favourite mixtape: Anything mixed by Cryogenics :)

05. Favourite SC thread:

07. Favourite book: Intelligence in nature (Jeremy Narby), Chaos, Creativity and Cosmic Consciousness (Sheldrake, McKenna, Abraham) and Ninja by John Man

08. Favourite food (or Snax): My delectable spicy casseroles

09. Favourite guilty pleasure: Walking on my own in the rain

10. Favourite random moment: Either: going out for a pub meal and sitting there complaining about the fact that they had to change the menu, as the previous one was really good and better value, and complained to the staff as a result. We also didn't like the way they had re-decorated, but we kept that whinge to ourselves. Anyway, it wasn't until we were driving home out of the village that we suddenly spied the pub we were meant to (and thought we were!) eating in! d'oh!....That's something my dad would do! jaysus....or: Trying to gatecrash Brad and Angelina's film set in Gozo only to be chased away by dogs

J-Breaks, www.omnimusic.org

02. Favourite album: Kontext - Dispersal (Absys Limited). Definitely my favourite release this year! I've come to expect original ideas from Stan for a while now and I'm never disappointed.

Daniel Crossley, www.fluid-radio.co.uk

08. Favourite food (or Snax): It's cooking fillet steak 'asado style' over the grill outside our van in the many wildcamping spots we found throughout Argentina

dionysus

01. Favourite track: Maybe not the greatest song eva! But the track I've listened to the most is:

Dawn Day Night - The Re-Animation of Scottie

Have a good New Year y'all! Off to Barca...
 
Muttley

01. Favourite track: Grouper - Holding (Kranky, released October 31st 2014).

(1st of Top 20; remainder 19 of Top 20)

Angel Olsen - Windows
Ryan Teague - Scale And Ratio
Digital & Spirit - Wayout
Colo - Doorframe 1
Betty Davis - If I'm In Luck I Might Get Picked Up
Audion - Motormouth
Tropic Of Coldness - Distressing Dilemma Of Rational Choices
Saaad - After Love
Blue Six - No Two Things
Little Red - Down
Bat For Lashes - Skin Song
ASC - Some Other Life
Mizeyesis - Spring Hope
Equinox - Tribulation
VVV - Turn Away
Jo Quail - South West Night
36 - Always
DJ Trax - '89 'Till Infinity
Foci's Left - Anything Becomes Possible With Time

02. Favourite album: Little Red - Sticks And Stones (All Will Be Well)

(1st of Top 5; remainder of Top 5)

Grouper - Ruins
Jo Quail - Caldera
Christopher Willits - Opening
Metamorphosis - Conception 1982

03. Favourite label: For once, as there's too many labels I like to choose from, it's a production house: Novation.

I bought this analog synthesiser in the Summer as a proto-housewarming present, and have since been making several practice live sets with the machine. It looks like this:

http://d19ulaff0trnck.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/novationmusic/products/Bass-Station-II/BS-II-Banner-ii.jpg

Here is the ongoing live sets archive:

http://subvertcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?60699-Foci-s-Left-Live-Set&highlight=foci%27s+left+live

04. Favourite mixtape: Little Red @ Old Fire Station, Oxford, Friday 14th November 2014. Second would be Blevin Blectum's Liveondublab set (on SoundCloud), actually from 2012, while following that is SB81's 92 Hardcore Favourites Mix.

The latter two are reposted at www.soundcloud.com/subversion-2, my and Statto's joint account.

Of my own spurious output it's FTAL 005 - Handling Grief (in the 60,000 unique viewers strong For The Ambient Lovers (FTAL)...review and mixtape archive 001 thread:

http://subvertcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?56404-For-The-Ambient-Lovers-review-and-mixtape-archive-001/page12

05. Favourite SC thread: "today, I..." (begun by Statto in January this year. Because I'm partly a narcissistic bastard).

http://subvertcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?60224-today-I

06. Favourite gig: Little Red + Stuart Clark + Gus Hewlett @ Old Fire Station, Oxford, Friday November 14th 2014.

http://www.subvertcentral.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/subversion-stop-233-little-red-stuart.html

07. Favourite book: Carlos Castenada - The Art Of Dreaming

(Excerpt from the book, as I haven't really read any other books this year)

"You are not yet ready for a true merging of your dreaming reality and your daily reality", he concluded. "You must recapitulate your life further".

"But I've done all the recapitulating possible", I protested. "I've been recapitulating for years. There is nothing more I can remember about my life".

"There must be much more", he said adamantly, "otherwise, you wouldn't wake up screaming".

I did not like the idea of having to recapitulate again. I had done it, and I believed I had done it so well that I did not need to touch the subject ever again".

"The recapitulation of our lives never ends, no matter how well we've done it once", don Juan said. "The reason average people lack volition in their dreams is that they have never recapitulated and their lives are filled to capacity with heavily loaded emotions like memories, hopes, fears, et cetera, et cetera.

"Sorcerers, in contrast, are relatively free from heavy, binding emotions, because of their recapitulation. And if something stops them, as it has stopped you at this moment, the assumption is that there still is something in them that is not quite clear".

"To recapitulate is too involving, don Juan. Maybe there is something else I can do instead".

"No. There isn't. Recapitulating and dreaming go hand in hand. As we regurgitate our lives, we get more and more airborne".

Don Juan had given me very detailed and explicit instructions about the recapitulation. It consisted of reliving the totality of one's life experiences by remembering every possible minute detail of them. He saw the recapitulation as the essential factor in a dreamer's redefinition and redeployment of energy. "The recapitulation sets free energy imprisoned within us, and without the this liberated energy dreaming is not possible". That was his statement.

Years before, don Juan had coached me to make a list of all the people I had met in my life, starting at the present. He helped me to arrange my list in an orderly fashion, breaking it down into areas of activity, such as jobs I had had, schools I had attended. Then he guided me to go, without deviation, from the first person on my list to the last one, reliving every one of my interactions with them.

He explained that recapitulating an event with one's mind arranging everything pertinent to what is being recapitulated. Arranging means reconstructing the event, piece by piece, starting by recollecting the physical details of the surroundings, then going to the person with whom one shared the interaction, and then going to oneself, to the examination of one's feelings.

Don Juan taught me that the recapitulation is coupled with a natural, rhythmical breathing. Long exhalations are performed as the head moves slowly and gently from right to left; and long inhalations are taken as the head moves back from left to right. He called this act of moving the head from side to side "fanning the event". The mind examines the event from beginning to end while the body fans, on and on, everything the mind focuses on.

Don Juan said that the sorcerers of antiquity, the inventors of the recapitulation, viewed breathing as a magical, life-giving act and used it, accordingly, as a magical vehicle; the exhalation, to eject the foreign energy left in them during the interaction being recapitulated and the inhalation to pull back the energy that they themselves left behind during the interaction.

Because of my academic training, I took the recapitulation to be the process of analysing one's life. But don Juan insisted that it was more involved than an intellectual psychoanalysis. He postulated the recapitulation as a sorcerer's play to induce a minute but steady displacement of the assemblage point. He said that the assemblage point, under the impact of reviewing past actions and feelings, goes back and forth between its present site and the site it occupied when the event being recapitulated took place.

Don Juan stated that the old sorcerers' rationale behind the recapitulation was their conviction that there is an inconceivable dissolving force in the universe, which makes organisms live by lending them awareness. That force also makes organisms die, in order to extract the same lent awareness, which organisms have enhanced through their life experiences. Don Juan explained the old sorcerers' reasoning. They believed that since it is our life experience this force is after, it is of supreme importance that it can be satisfied with a facsimile of our life experience: the recapitulation. Having had what it seeks, the dissolving force then lets sorcerers go, free to expand their capacity to perceive and reach with it the confines of time and space." ~ Carlos Castenada, The Art Of Dreaming, p147-149.

08. Favourite food (or Snax): Beef Rogan Josh, Slimming World Fakeaway Style, with added Chickpeas.

Rogan recipe (For clarity when using Lamb instead of Beef as in the original Slimming World guidelines - just get some fry Beef Steaks or Boneless Beef for the Beef version and cook for the same time)

"This rich and meaty north Indian stew is infused with enticing spices that leave a lovely warmth in your mouth. We've
added carrots and swede, though you could use other root vegetables like potato or parsnip).

Free on Extra Easy and Original SlimmingW plan, 9 1/2 on Green (more vegetable based weight loss plan, the quickest diet)
Ready in 2 hours.

Ingredients

low calorie cooking spray
500g lean lamb steaks, visible fat removed, cut into bite-sized chunks
2 onions, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2cm piece of root ginger, peeled and finely grated
2 cinnamon sticks
2 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cardamom seeds, crushed
4 tbsp medium curry powder
400g can chopped tomatoes
1 tsp sweetener
600ml boiling lamb stock
2 carrots, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 swede, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
salt and freshly ground black pepper
small handful of finely chopped fresh coriander, to garnish

(Me: you might want to add natural yogurt/creme fresh to cool the heat down).

Spray a large, heavy-based casserole pan (or wok) with low calorie cooking spray and place over a medium-high heat.
Add the lamb and cook for 4 minutes, stirring, or until browned (you may need to do this in batches).
Transfer the lamb to a plate with a slotted spoon.

Spray the casserole pan with low calorie cooking spray again and add the onions.
Cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring often, until soft and lightly browned.

Add the garlic, ginger, cinnamon, chilli powder, paprika and cardamom seeds.
Stir-fry for 2 minutes then add the curry powder and return the lamb to the pan (or wok).
Stir-fry for 2-3 minutes then stir in the tomatoes, sweetener, stock, carrots and swede.
Season well and bring the mixture to a boil.

Reduce the heat to low and cover tightly. Simmer gently for 1 hour 30 minutes or until the lamb is meltingly tender.

Remove from the heat, scatter over the coriander and serve with rice of your choice.

*

I have had so much amazing food this year, mainly from The First Floor, Cowley, my favourite restaurant in my life so far. Some dishes:

Indian: Mutton Dopiaza / Handi Ghost / Butter Chicken / Chef's Special Lamb / Lamb Madras
Chinese: Szechuan Beef and Sweet Chilli Curry / Lamb in Oyster Sauce / Tofu in Sweet Chilli Sauce / Chinese Seaweed / Chicken in S&S sauce
Thai: Chicken Massaman Curry / Deep Fried Fish / Chicken Satay / Chicken in hot Mustard sauce / Deep Fried Thai Noodles

Other Oxford restaurants that come recommended are: La Cucina Italian (St. Clements); Thai Orchid (St. Clements); Arbat (providing you don't have an unremarkable starter, the Cheese-topped grilled Gammon with a Toffee Madeira Cake for dessert is great - Russian  - Cowley); Majiliss (Cowley); Mirch Masala (Cowley); Rice Box (Cowley); The Beehive (Carterton - particularly Puy Lentil & Sweet Potato curry).

09. Favourite guilty pleasure: losing 1 1/2 stone by Summer to take my weight down to a much healthier 16.7. For 6'5 I want to be getting down to a weight that still isn't overweight - hoping to touch 16st next year.

10. Favourite random moment: Favourite and least favourite at the same time - struggling with personal identity and family relationship as to how my family in relation to my friends fit into my world.

11. In light InfiniteSloth's adaptation list I'm adding two optional to others entries to mine, one being: favourite festival. Which is:

Pindrop Performances Presents: Midwinter Drone Fest @ Modern Art Oxford, 11.12.14 (Petrels, Paddox, After The Thought, James Maund, Lee Riley)

Mind blowing event.

12. Favourite below radar movement: Eilean Rec. - https://eileanrec.bandcamp.com/

EOY Charts 2013-2015 SC thread

Sunday 28 December 2014

SubVersion Stop 239: Tropic Of Coldness - Personalised For Muttley Live Session 17th December 2014

SV Xmas Drip-Feed Pt 5, exclusively available in For The Ambient Lovers (FTAL) archive. 

Tropic of Coldness are an ambient and electroacoustic superduo with former members from psychedelia/electroacoustic band Fuji Apple Worship. They've careened their complexity in disparate, streamed arrangements into "Demography Of Data" as Tropic of Coldness, a highlight album of my 130 subjects on www.fluid-radio.co.uk (under my penname). That LP is available here in CD and digital formats for an inexpensive price - make sure you check it.

https://organic-industries.bandcamp.com/album/tropic-of-coldness-demography-of-data-oi014

If you like what you hear and want something the duo made for me personally, under their agreement I'm dripping this for Xmas 2014. It's a 28:33 long live session with somnambulant, sleepytime bent. Recommended if you like Eno's "Music For Airports", Harold Budd & Robin Guthrie's "After The Night Falls" and ASC's "Truth Be Told", all timeless records in Muttleyland. 

Find the live session as #300 in FTAL (For  The Ambient Lovers...review and mixtape archive 001)

http://subvertcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?56404-For-The-Ambient-Lovers-review-and-mixtape-archive-001/page13

28:33 / 320kbps

Tropic of Coldness' track "Distressing Dilemma Of Rational Choices" is included in SubVersion's End Of Year 2014 Charts in my contribution. :)


Monday 22 December 2014

SubVersion Stop 238: SV Xmas 2014 Drip-Feed 4 - Simon Bean - Lust 320 Mp3 free download

For the fourth part of SubVersion's first Drip-Feed series, we're presented with a fantastic exclusive track from fellow Omni Music producer Simon Bean, who has remixed Eschaton and Foci's Left priorly. Ambient electronica styles in a jungle framework with lots of melodic pad sweeps. :)

http://kapsil.net/muttley/SubVersion/Simon%20Bean%20-%20%20Lust.mp3

Thanks so much to Simon Bean for providing the track. Find more Simon Bean at www.omnimusic.org

SubVersion Stop 237: Wire Chart 2014

In Stop 215, I wrote about “buying one record reviewed in The Wire each month”, culminating in a "proper" Wire chart of 15, comprised of one record per issue for 2013 plus three more I'd bought that were also reviewed that year. I've been carrying that on and hence now have another chart for 2014. The # marks denote the issues in which the records featured.
___________________________________________________

SubVersion 2014 15

#359 Logos - Cold Mission (Keysound)
#360 various - The Orchestra of Futurist Noise Intoners (Sub Rosa)
#361 Anne Hytta - Draumsyn (Carpe Diem)
#362 Sleaford Mods - Divide and Exit (Harbinger Sound)
#363 Dub Spencer & Trance Hill - William S. Burroughs in Dub (Echo Beach)
#364 Tom Chang - Tongue & Groove (Raw Toast)
#365 Jacaszek & Kwartludium - Catalogue des Arbres (Touch)
#366 Electric Funeral - Total Funeral (Southern Lord)
#367 Robert Curgenven - Sirène (Recorded Fields)
#368 Oren Ambarchi & Eli Keszler - Alps (Dancing Wayang)
#369 Pharmakon - Bestial Burden (Sacred Bones)
#370 Mamoru Fujieda - Patterns of Plants (Pinna)

+#361 N.E.W. - Motion (Dancing Wayang)
+#365 David Ross & Clive Bell - Recovery Suite (Ini.itu)
+#368 Darius Jones - The Oversoul Manual (AUM Fidelity)

Compiled by Jonathan Tait, subvertcentral.blogspot.co.uk
___________________________________________________

Note that this isn't a “best records of the year” list. There are others that'd make that kind of list, such as...

L'Ensemble Volta ‎– Les Nuages de Magellan (ReR Megacorp)
Morton Feldman - Two Pianos and Other Pieces, 1953-1969 (Another Timbre)
Mortals - Cursed to See the Future (Relapse)
Nu Era - Nouveau Synthetic Compositions (Omniverse)
Dave Phillips - Homo Animalis (Schimpfluch Associates)

Rather, it's a list of records each of which made me go: “this is great!”

If I had to pick one to be my record of the year, it'd probably be either Patterns of Plants (pianist: Sarah Cahill) or Catalogue des Arbres. The flora theme there is quite unintentional.

Thursday 18 December 2014

SubVersion Stop 236: SV Recommends Muttley - Take Me Where The Giver Grows Mix (December 2014)

http://kapsil.net/muttley/2014/SV%20Recommends%20Muttley%20-%20Take%20Me%20Where%20The%20Giver%20Grows%20%28December%202014%29.mp3

SubVersion Xmas Drip Feed Pt 3.

If you're interested, don't listen with a look at the tracklist to start with. It sinks in deeper this way. When you look at the tracklist after, it makes more sense. ;)

A birthday present for my 2014 linkworker Jo this is. But it's universal enough to warrant publishing. All Muttley / Foci's Left sets have concepts.

For the tracklist, see the ID3 tag.

Enjoy :)

Sunday 14 December 2014

SubVersion Stop 235: SubVersion Xmas Drip Feed 2 - Foci's Left - Everywhere (Ad Music) EP - Nightshift forum exclusive

SubVersion Xmas Drip-Feed 2 - Foci's Left - Everywhere (Ad Music) EP - Nightshift forum exclusive

*EP Exclusively available in this Nightshift thread*

'Everywhere (Ad Music)' is a collection of short tracks, or 'vignettes' for advertisements worldwide, marking 9 years of Foci's Left sound and music production.

For this project I'm joined by critically acclaimed top 20 album artist, the Italian Bruno Bavota, who lends his light touch to the piano keys on "Everywhere (Interlude)".

Opening the EP meanwhile is "Future Past", a fully realised part for "Grumpy Love" LP, my debut album.

Not previously included in the published project, this track is a personal Foci's Left favourite with synthetic guitar, strings and acoustic bass. Find Nightshift's review of "Grumpy Love" in 'Reviews' here:

http://nightshift.oxfordmusic.net/2013/oct.pdf (Little Fish's Juju and Candy Says on the cover of this one).

"Ball Of Wool I" made part of the Nightshift acclaimed "Eternal Sands" "epic 15 minutes", in "Derelict Career" LP (http://nightshift.oxfordmusic.net/2014/sep.pdf) as a layer, whereas here it's a standalone eerie composition. Dave at http://www.lowlightmixes.blogspot.com likes it too. Check out his ambient mix blog.

"Holding Pattern" is a soporific tune dedicated to my linkworker Jo. Elsewhere two other dedication pieces, "Artemis Song" and "Statto's Song" for two very close friends introduce choral and overdubbed new age elements but without cheese.

Some tracks here are offered as .wav, so you can do stuff to them in highest quality, but if you'd like Mp3s let me know.

This EP has come about as a free download ultimately as thanks for the support. I genuinely appreciate it, as one of the few pushing ambient and drone into different places in the local Oxford establishment.

Recommended if you like or love: After The Thought / Water Paegant / Lee Riley / Paddox / Reidenol / Indica Blues / Flights Of Helios / Manacles Of Acid.

Download and comment here

Monday 8 December 2014

SubVersion Stop 234: SubVersion's Xmas Drip-Feed 1 - Gappy Tooth Industries (GTI) ticket offer

The SV Xmas Drip-feed is a new occasional series based on the content extravaganza model hyper-accelerated by the information age. 

First is a simple question to give you more incentive to check out the first-listed monthly independent promoters of Oxford in Nightshift Magazine (www.nightshift.oxfordmusic.net) / http://nightshift.oxfordmusic.net/2014/sep.pdf.

http://nightshift.oxfordmusic.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8352

Question: GTI (Gappy Tooth Industries), running for the best part of 13 years, has for the last 5 years focused on 3 act shows. This show on Friday 12.12.14 differs. How many acts then, are there this time?

Email your answer with the subject 'GTI' to muttley_subversion@hotmail.co.uk (remember the underscore!) Competition closes 12PM Thursday 11.12.14. You must be an Oxfordshire resident.
First to answer correctly wins the ticket, and also a +1 (bring a friend for free!)

(Note: for ease of giving yourself a good chance, read the thread linked - it's that easy).
Only answers via email will be counted.

Hope to see you there!
Muttley (Foci's Left)



Sunday 16 November 2014

SubVersion Stop 233: Little Red + Stuart Clark + Gus Hewlett @ Old Fire Station, Oxford, November 14th 2014

Little Red + Stuart Clark + Gus Hewlett @ Old Fire Station, 14.11.2014

"I know Friday night at a folk club is not a normal place to go" posits Little Red songwriter and night promoter Ian Mitchell in the headlining of this All Will Be Well label launch gig. The aching lack of affluence towards intimacy in a hyper-accelerated city creates a cause for discomfort and movement. It's one thing feeling safe in a packed club but another feeling like you really belong, which is a quality Mitchell and co elucidate on my gig of 2014.

Speaking to Ian before the event, Gus Hewlett, a folk guitarist equal parts Bill Frisell and James Blackshaw is said to have drum'n'bass chops, a contrast that couldn't be anything more sonically different tonight. Through a generous 45 minute length Hewlett hacks at his strings in sophisticated fashion, adapting a Bob Dylan piece for his second tune and elsewhere trailblazing an arpeggio wedge to gently impose his semi-auteur ear for a melody. Worthwhile, in short.

Stuart Clark is a commanding presence mid evening, an arpeggio-heavy storyteller in the vein of "Lady Grinning Soul" Bowie with just guitar for company. Disappearance's rhetoric echoes on one of his later tracks, where stop-start rhythms fuse with a folly towards lonely abstraction. It's not all reverbed abandon though, as he swoops and swoons about subjects as broad as nature creating stopgaps between time and place. There is a definite sense of human body spotlighted. Pristine playing, gently crystallising voice over instrumental backbeat. The audience are generally at ease by a paradoxically uneasy set. One to watch.

Opening with drum-free, acoustic "Cures", the vocal interplay of frontman Ian Mitchell, producer Ben Gosling and the elusive female vocalist parries inflections from Finn and more contemporarily Fink, but is sweet-natured enough in lyricism, "names carved in a tree"-esque as they sing to engrave itself onto this reviewer's memory. It's a tale about where two lovers first met, and the usual bushy beard, folk-centric influence in context of there being woods that can lead either lover astray. This leads into "The Garden", the triplet acoustic, vocal assemblages making things "wrong to right" - here the sound carries further than the "face melting" joke Mitchell coyly nods to later in the performance, about the material not being wall of sound enough for the Friday night gurner massive. "What Say You?" resonates stronger, the lead track on "Sticks And Stones", what Mitchell dubs to me as an EP on the night, even though the 9 CD tracks are filled out naturally for full length status.

Little Red definitely sound like a very new band, but instead of amateurish triptych on behalf of the singers and instrument players, they form a cohesive whole not dissimilar to Duotone or XL's Blue Roses. They close post-"Chapters" (a track from their forthcoming record) with "The Boxer", where Ian sings "I'll still be coming back for more" after metaphors for being a broken man. Given the right studio treatment of the exciting live incarnation, Little red could have a rosy future, and close this night so finely.

http://www.oldfirestation.org.uk/event/original-folk-music-little-red-stuart-clark-and-gus-hewlett/

Thursday 30 October 2014

SubVersion Stop 232: [2005 Retrospective Muttley Mix Series] Kidzania - MixCloud Only

[2005 Retrospective Muttley Mix Series] Kidzania - MixCloud Only

A retrospective series of mixes by Muttley (www.kapsil.net/muttley / www.subvertcentral.com), recorded in 2005, before the first Muttley mix was uploaded online (Feb 06 Selection, on dnbshare). All about the tunes here.

I'm getting a few of these uploaded in one go and I'd actually be more interested in talking to you about the tunes personally than I would having you try and root around Discogs when there is so much great jungle/dnb being ignored now.

As such, "Kidzania" (the title is taken from a type of nursery exercise for children) is intended as study for teens getting into the sound - I recorded this series in 2005, when I was 17. No-one was playing sounds like this all in the same set in Kent back then where I was. So, I resorted to reclusive mixing until I reached a possible audience level.

The vinyl (the only format I could get most of this material on - pre-digital inclusivity proper) was recorded onto CD-Rs and mixed with a Gemini twin CD deck.

http://www.mixcloud.com/muttleysubve...d-only-series/

Tracklist for Pt. 1 (timestamped on MixCloud when each track comes in)

01. Kemal & Black Sun Empire - Stranded V1.0 (oBSEssions, 2005)
02. Resound - Circular Structure (Counter Intelligence, 2004)
03. Beta 2 & Zero Tolerance - Front Door (Soundtrax)
04. Breakage - Rise (Bassbin, 2005)
05. ASC - Serenity (Strictly Digital sold download, 2003)
06. High Contrast - Savoire Faire (Hospital, 2002)
07. ASC - Chrysalis [Edit] (Strictly Digital sold download, 2003)
08. Klute - Don't Wanna Be Alone (Commercial Suicide, 2005)
09. Silent Witness - Amazon (DNAudio, 2005)
10. Phace - Polymers (Subtitles, 2005)
11. Silver - Angry & Bitter (?, 2005)
12. Tactile - Spaced Out (Timeless, 2004)
13. Counterstrike - Phantasm (Moving Shadow, 2004)
14. Skitty - Fall Down (Renegade Hardware, 2004)
15. Klute - Rosemary (Commercial Suicide, 2005)
16/17. Ewun vs Counterstrike - Face The Zulu Warrior (Barcode / Moving Shadow, 2004)

Any feedback much appreciated.

Cheers
Muttley

Sunday 19 October 2014

SV Stop 231: Vinyl sales to top 1 million per year for the first time since 1996

dionysus links an article on SC from the Financial Times, which you can read by registering on the site with an email address (money is demanded for the news archive or newspaper, naturally). 

http://subvertcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?60874-Vinyl-record-sales-to-top-1-million-for-first-time-since-1996

Some thoughts on vinyl from Muttley

Since 2011, with talk speculating around digital media services like www.boomkat.com selling more and more wax, the vinyl format has seen a paradoxically eternal increase in interest, not guessable since its renaissance began.

Audio streaming, and media streaming for that matter, has always been the antithesis of ownership in the 21st Century. Is it any wonder, just as it takes effort to turn over a record played for a limited time, there is an unlimited service that transcends it? As ever, for every unlimited service, those who are possessive by character need the ownership over streaming a media, it feeds them.

As such, with the increase of services like Spotify re-administrating the boundary between 'sharing' and 'streaming', it's not surprising that many have fallen back on their laurels of traditional formats. It's easier for one: why flick through Spotify or YouTube ads, or indeed get stuck with an ad playing between a release, when you can put on a record or CD, a copy you can call your own?

The fetishisation of ownership has always been there in culture - just read some of Adorno's 20th century tirades on fetishism. Or you could not, as it's a bygone era that started with vinyl in the early 1900s. Plus most of his writing is more drawn out than mine, and that's a major achievement!

Personally I don't (literally and figuratively) buy in to the vinyl fetish resurgence. I'm not fashionable and I never will or want to be. If I really liked the format I would transcend fashion to keep playing it when I want, but as it is over-sized sleeves and disinterested artwork seems the choice of hipster dogmatism instead of a heartfelt inside-industry (meaning punters, producers, art directors etc) choice to re-energise the LP format with big, expansive covers. Covers as with benchmarks like Pink Floyd's LPs that told a story and were quintessential to the listening experience.

It becomes vitalising to say that without the interest in physicality, vinyl wouldn't be resurfacing as much. Usual story there: most copy or media goes digital, more people crave physical. It would still always be here - like tapes and jungle, vinyl has never gone away. The difference remains how great a market share it now has - as reported, over 1 million record sales this year so far. But so what? As given most of these sales are for fragmentary releases, the potency of the figure, without reading the FT article, doesn't indicate a major achievement. This is because a lot of the sales are for singles/EPs, as opposed to the 60s & 70s precursory musical hallmark, the long-player.

Still, it's a plus one for the music industry, and maybe an ushering-in of less disposable marketing methods. Picture vinyl in 5 years: it'll probably go through another dip, falling out of favour through tension/release, accept/reject schizoid-ness of the mass public opinion. We may see even more lame promo videos of fetishisation personified: it's all about the bling, about the bling, drug trippin'. It's no coincedence vinyl is referred to by some as "the black crack"; let's just hope its marketers don't disappear up their own arses just yet.




Thursday 28 August 2014

SubVersion Stop 230: In this thread we post tips to decrease apathy

In this thread we post tips to decrease apathy

This has been on my mind recently, because I have direct experience with lots of it: apathy towards doing anything at all.

I'm not talking "I'm pissed off, so I'm just gonna go smoke a blunt" type apathy. I'm talking everything that centres around general depression.

I don't wish to get involved in much chat about my own problems anymore as I believe it does more harm than good, but I will say this has been happening daily ever since I was deemed unable to work and got signed off. In figures, since May 2008.

I've had good times and bad times all the same, like anyone who lives life. But I'd like to know: how do you help remedy apathy towards doing stuff?

I'll start ...I have become taut to the tendency of taking a nap in the middle of the day. I find this helps give me purpose and focus when planning things to do.


You?

http://subvertcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?60739-In-this-thread-we-post-tips-to-decrease-apathy

Sunday 3 August 2014

SubVersion Stop 229: Mick Buckingham (Foci's Left) - "Tender Thoughts" poem / lyrics

Tender Thoughts ~ Mick Buckingham

Tenderness feels like a lion's grip
Time ticks like a roar muted sharpish
Rickety realism in the face of smashed ribs
An underbelly, carriage for the evermore.

But when it's up
We're cushioned like a rug
Yes when it's up for you and me
I can waver it off like herbal tea
An incense with little potency.

Tender thoughts trip us up
They rest on lifeless momentum
The chaining of conservatism
A force sometimes too much to mention.
Until it's time to smash the horse's cart
Tender thoughts break us apart
A wino's marriage with his bottle
Mottled until the very last drop.

Care too little, tender thoughts are brittle
Care too great - time's shiny like nickel
Counterbalance the truth of soul with the social
And you're usually safe while the milkmen go docile

So tender thoughts may be cherished
But they also cause a lot of grief
The time's when we voice, act, or cling to addiction
An indication of what lies beneath.

Saturday 14 June 2014

SubVersion Stop 228: Holykindof - Stay / Sea (Eilean Rec, 2014)

Holykindof – Stay / Sea (Eilean Rec, 2014)

A musical love letter from BJ Nilsen to Gavin Bryars, Holykindof's "Stay / Sea" touches base with music concrete – several whooshing reversed vinyl noises pervade the atmosphere; lo-fi drone – the entire three pieces encumber around a type of linear erosion; and mood aligned with lysergic pensiveness. Running to 40 minutes, the pace never feels laboured or forced toward a gear-shift. Yes, the atmosphere is rickety, thanks to the noisy-scratchy nature of the sound sourcing, but in general it's in third lever and never breaks a sweat, and doesn't cause you to perspirate.

The scratching is to an un-attuned ear disconcerting over time, whereby you need to have listened to enough other musics before listening to bypass its irregularity. It subsumes the languid cello playing stylishly and gives a welcome change to the landscape of otherwise 'regular' sound. In an age of wanton experimentation, where musicians continually gambit for a break from the ordinary, "Stay / Sea" is not oxymoronic of its title, being strong and steadfast like the waves of an estuary. It is rooted in traditional orthodoxy of instrumentation, yet contains an alien edge. This is due to its potent fixation quality of repeating chords. It is needed, in compositions that rely on the wealth of sublimative, subconscious mind-shaping harvest that pulsates from thought to action.

The shorter the track in this release, the less effective the results. The crop is always worthwhile, a melancholic cloaking device for the emotions. That dial alters in resonance every time you hear it. Like Bryars' "The Sinking Of The Titanic", "Nocturne In S Major" is ruthless in its intention and paints a sullen, purposeful backdrop to much-a-do-about-nothing periods. "Stay / Sea" turns in the covers of sleep like a coastguard watching the blue grass crash. 



Monday 9 June 2014

SubVersion Stop 227: InfiniteSloth is: "Looking for repetitive drone-like compositions"

This thread was posted in the first week of June 2014 on Subvert Central - here's the link:

http://subvertcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?60547-Looking-for-repetitive-drone-like-compositions

"Maybe sparse, but mostly a repetition of the same note or chord" Nic TVG, aka InfiniteSloth begins. It's an interesting subject this - there is an awful lot of drone about, but the trend in the last 5 years - 2009-2014,  has been to fragment structures of ambience into more abstract, yet paradoxically song-based compositions. Just look at how "And Their Refinement Of The Decline" from 2007, posted by me, by landmark artists Stars Of The Lid (Adam Wiltzie & Brian Mcbride) has become "a start" for this topic. As an expert in the ambient field I was humble enough to avoid including my own compositions, and also because they're not entirely drone-based. Yet artists all over have lost the holy grail of minimalism over time - just the other week for instance I was suggested to be "stretching ideas too thin" - I was changing stuff around quickly, not letting it time to ferment and develop potency. This pattern has scatter-gunned throughout the ambient, drone and contemporary classical mecca, and no one no longer stands for a specfic style of drone.

Drone being what constitutes ambience in all music, it's all in the feedback for starters. So I thought: "you want ultra minimal? Try some Paul Bradley then". Here's the link to one of the best minimal drone LPs out there, as recommended by Dave at Low Light Mixes:

http://paulbradley.bandcamp.com/album/anamnesis

Nic said he wanted stuff like this, so hopefully more contributions from far and wide will follow. :)

"If the first 50 seconds of Greg Haines - Snow Airport were looped for several minutes, but played by a human and not synthetically looped. That's what I'm on the hunt for."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM4gA0MTQK8

Statto references lauded composers Eliane Radigue and Pauline Oliveros. "Naphta posted a video of Eliane Radigue on June 2nd (on Facebook), which was the first I had heard of her.

Eliane Radigue - French
Pauline Oliveros - American
Daphne Oram - British

...and all composing from the 50s on." states Nic. 

The post by cube references long-time industrialists Coil (Peter Christopherson passed away in 2010) with a video for the LP "Time Machines". I haven't heard this yet but I loved "Musik 2 Play In The Dark". He also posts one of his own tracks as ennui (I have a download of his "Mindstate Disposition").

The newest post just before publishing this leads the reader into finding out Nic's Another Timbre interest has yielded some repetitive drone fruits. Stay tuned (or dissonantly tuned) for more. 

Monday 12 May 2014

SubVersion Stop 226: What's been happening in the world of Foci's Left (May 2013 - May 2014)

Instead of spam with multiple postings, I'm collecting all of  the essential Foci's Left publicity from May 2013 to May 2014 into one post, upon release of my third album, "Derelict Career".

A lot can happen in a year...in reverse chronological order:

Foci's Left - Derelict Career LP (Foci's Left LP 002)

 01. Pathological Darkness
02. Anything Becomes Possible With Time
03. Eternal Sands [The Shapeshifter's Reprise feat. Eschaton] (Album Version)
04. Talking With Birds Lament
05. Liez
06. Wandering In A Bright Spot (For Advertisements)
07. The Light You Shine Prevents Me From Being Uptight
08. Seeing The Sights (For Film)
09. Spared Merit (Vocal Version)
10. A Rose In The Desert Wind (Simon Bean Re-model)

Released: 12 May 2014
Price: £5

http://focisleft.bandcamp.com/album/derelict-career-lp

The album is called "Derelict Career". Concept: the ambient music protagonist (me) sees that ambient-exclusive musicians are fit for a "derelict career", as besides Brian Eno, the style has no sustainable capital powering it; it must stay a hobby. Ambient is Eno''s invention and to have success, musicians must look outside their niche to move through different styles. Ambient has been going since the 1950s - it is often mixed with new age as a genre, music for Tai Chi, and healing/therapy medicine. So the point to make is to, jokingly so, try and avoid a "derelict career", in order to progress and have an audience - the most important faculty for me; money isn't important, people are.

The album artwork is an exclusive commission from William Rye, a young artist who curated the Unconscious Volume exhibition in Kent, UK in 2012, in memory of my uncle John Buckingham who died age 45 from Motor Neuron Disease. The image has a special clarity for our family, my father being a painter, as I once was, with the brush being melted into the book representative of my career choice to be a writer, whether of tracks, songs, lyrics or poetry. So far I have been successful at this, with my dream jobs becoming more reality than ever before. With each sale, a percentage is donated to William, and the remainder helps to cover any CD packaging / gear upgrading as I venture further into music production. Thank you immeasurably for your time and support.

Reviews

"The long track is great, as well as those which concentrate on soundscaping. But (as you'd probably expect ) I don't like the vocal tracks at all. Anyway, just because I don't like the vocal tracks doesn't mean other people won't". ~ Jonathan Tait, Subvert Central Recordings owner and published letter writer in The Wire 2013 concerning Meredith Monk.

"Overall it seems you're still searching for a sound, but tracks 1-4, 8 and 10 are the way to go in my opinion. Of course you should not really adapt based on one person's opinion ~ better to collect a group of opinions and go from there!" ~ Richard Allen, www.acloserlisten.com editor and central writer.

"Listening to Pathological Darkness right now - really liking it.

Like how the brighter synth emerges (1:08) as the track progresses but still with the darker sounds infiltrating the mix. It does really make you feel like you're inside a gloomy, distracted mind. Given the title, that's mission accomplished." ~ Code, Subtle Audio label owner (Mary Anne Hobbs / Aphex Twin featured). 

"I like the sound design going on" ~ Nic TVG, Pinecone Moonshine owner (Equinox, Icarus, Macc et al).

"I listened. And this remind me even more of The Residents. But much much more spooky. Some scary atmospheres in this one. I notice something interesting in your tracks. You don't start slowly and build the tracks - like most of the ambient/drone artists - but instead from the start you insert the listener into your soundscapes. Eternal Sands (The Shapeshifters Reprise) I like the most so far." ~ Kristian (Fyhwds), Noise For Blues For Noise artist.

Credits

Mick Robert Buckingham - all synths, keyboard work, processing, mastering, except "A Rose In The Desert Wind" which is re-modelled by Simon Rametse.

Artwork commissioned exclusively from William Rye, from the "Unconscious Volume" 2012 exhibition, dedicated to my uncle John Buckingham, who died of Motor Neuron Disease in 2002.

Tags

ambient foci's left label omni music simon bean dark drone electroacoustic emotional pianism second self-released lp third album vocal harmonies yin & yang Oxford

Foci's Left - 15 Minutes Of Fame Pt.1 - I Want To Touch The Sky - Derelict Career Promo Mix (May 2014)

01. 00:00 The Inventors Of Aircraft – Early Morning Trauma (Earthtones Vol.1, Tessellate Recordings, Bandcamp, 2013)
02. 01:40 The Angling Loser – Night (Author Of The Twilight, Time Released Sound, 2013
03. 07:45 Abdul Mogard – Studded Procession (Futuresequence, Sequence 7, Bandcamp, 2013)
04. 07:50 Metatag – One Dream Lost One Dream Found (Transmisson LP, Bandcamp, 2014)
05. 09:20 Eeem – Shores Of Midgard (Futuresequence, Sequence 7, Bandcamp, 2013)
06. 15:40 Foci's Left – Pathological Darkness (Derelict Career LP, Foci's Left, Bandcamp, 2014)
07. 17:00 Boards Of Canada – Reach For The Dead (Tomorrow's Harvest LP, Warp, 2013)
08. 21:20 Grouper – No Other (A.I.A: Dream Loss LP, Yellowelectric, 2011)
09. 23:50 Duncan O'Calleiagh – Low Across Dawn Waters (Distant Voices, Still Lives, Parvo Art, 2009)
10. 23:50 Foci's Left – Anything Becomes Possible With Time (Derelict Career LP / Tara EP, Foci's Left, Bandcamp, 2014)
31:34 end

http://kapsil.net/muttley/2014/Foci%...%202014%29.mp3

Enjoy people.

Mick


http://subvertcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?60487-Foci-s-Left-15-MOF-Pt-1-I-Want-To-Touch-The-Sky-Derelict-Career-Promo-Mix-%28May%29

Goldfrapp - Stranger (Foci's Left Instrumental Remix)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MnySVVID3ag  
          Free Mp3 download on the SubVersion SoundCloud:

          https://soundcloud.com/subversion-2/...rumental-remix
Published on 3 May 2014

Bonus audio from the soon-arriving "Derelict Career" LP by Foci's Left, the solo project of Mick Robert Buckingham from Oxford, UK. Due to respect of copyright this original version is online as a stream and not on the paid download of my third album.

The LP will be available at: www.focisleft.bandcamp.com for an inexpensive £5.

Please buy Goldfrapp's records. "Tales Of Us" is a fantastic record closely followed by their debut "Lovely Head" and then "Seventh Tree". You can find Goldfrapp's music available on Amazon, iTunes, and more reputable stores.

Don't forget to check www.goldfrapp.com

Thanks for listening.

Foci's Left - Life In A Less Southern Town (Omni Music Ohm Series 02)

http://subvertcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?60331-OUT-NOW-The-Ohm-Series-Foci-s-Left-Life-in-a-Less-Southern-Town-LP-%28Ohm02%29&highlight=southern 

#6 in the drum 'n' bass bestsellers one week in March 2014, #32 for the month from hundreds (it's not even d'n'b, it's at best electronica).

#Supported by Niels Roosen (www.jungletrain.net owner), Jonathan Tait (Subvert Central Recordings owner), Simon Rametse (Simon Bean, Omni Music), amongst others.

#Critically acclaimed by seasoned www.nightshift.oxfordmusic.net writer David Murphy in print. 

#Collaborative effort with a Brian Eno collaborator - Simon Scott of Slowdive - and Mike Twelve (Seconds Before Awakening / The Giraffe And The Tree).


 The LP is based on emotions I experience writing music in the town of Carterton, Oxfordshire; additionally Oxford, as a means to express myself - as opposed to Rochester, Kent, where I could express very little. "Life In A Less Southern Town" runs the gamut of the ambient, drone, synthesizer and modern classical worlds to offer something unique.

"Erratic Pathway" is remixed on the disc by Simon Scott of Slowdive. Scott worked with Brian Eno on the group's "Souvlaki" LP in the early 1990s.

The disc comes with 4 bonus tracks. CDs ship immediately (please put your address in the Paypal notes and I'll send your copy).

Many thanks for your support - an audience means the world to me.

Mick Buckingham (Foci's Left)

www.omnimusic.org

reviews

"There are two sorts of ambient music. One gets you relaxed, and one makes you uneasy; one's a warm duvet and one's a chill breeze; one's a forgiving hug and one's a suspicious glance.

Although the second album by Oxford musician Mick Buckingham covers both ambient strains, it's definitely better when leaning towards the latter. The most satisfying element of this record is its density - where many ambient composers are happy to let things run, Buckingham has created a CD of real sonic depth, with a lush textural variety, from the pitched-up honks at the opening (that remind us of "Galleons Of Stone" by The Art Of Noise) to "In Our Lives, There Have Been Many Terrors", in which distant metallic clanks are borne on zephyrs through crumbling ruins.

Occasionally the sounds are just too well worn, and the ear can't help but associate echoey piano with lachrymose US soaps, and sawtooth synth hums with encroaching Silurians, but in general this is a well-constructed thoughtful slice of musical atmospherica.

Perhaps "Transistory Stringency" - yes, the titles are best ignored, frankly - is thin and meandering, but in general this record marries the amicable bubbling of early Global Communication with the elegant austerity of Tim Hecker or Leyland Kirby.

The record ends with some unexpected drum 'n' bass action, and if the breakbeat tweaking is a little ham-fisted, the mournful Aphex horns underneath embody the record's true, dark heart. Good stuff, in short, but more misery next time, please, Mick; perhaps we should have written a bad review, to get the ball rolling." ~ David Murphy, Nightshift reviewer, April 2014. (www.nightshift.oxfordmusic.net)

"It reminded me of Vangelis. It's better than your first album. :)" ~ Jonathan Tait, Subvert Central Recordings and published The Wire Letters contributor concerning Meredith Monk. (www.subvertcentral.com)

"That's pretty out there man. I didn't dislike it, that's for sure, but the main thing I took from it is it was very adventurous in what it tries to do." ~ ASC on "Love Never Fails", producer mentioned by Joe Muggs in The Wire 2012 Rewind as breaking new ground. (www.auxiliarymusic.com)

"First impression: your music is very strong compositionally and sonically, very well made and beautifully executed. :)" ~ Pascal Savy, Fluid Radio.

"Yes I liked it. You've got a real talent there. I think you're an innovator." ~ Geoff Brooks PhD, clinical psychologist, hypnotherapist and Reiki healer.

"I like the mood of the release, which I would classify as darkly contemplative. It's always good to play to your strengths, so my recommendation would be to continue further down this path." ~ www.acloserlisten.com

"I like it :) Suddenly starts to get moody when the organ comes in." ~ Shiva, Bitrate Music on "With Aid Of The Assertive" [CD-R Bonus Track] (www.bitratemusic.com), attendant of Technicality raves in the ongoing jungle / drum 'n' bass revival.

"I thought is was nicely meandering without losing its focus." ~ Bob Macc on "Love Conquers All", jungle track in 4/4 and 5/4 time signature. (Outsider, Paradox Music, Subvert Central, Breakin, www.subvertmastering.com)

"Sounds like a good lead into a d'n'b track. The arrangement is very pleasant to me." ~ Nic TVG on "In Our Lives, There Have Been Many Terrors" percussion section. (www.pineconemoonshine.com)

"I like the part where the drums start to fall apart the best." ~ Nic TVG, Pinecone Moonshine label owner (Macc, Icarus et al) on "Love Conquers All".

"Nice ECM style album cover as well!" ~ James Sargeant, Moshka promoter, Oxford.

credits

 

released 02 March 2014
Mick Robert Buckingham - all synths, instruments and processing, except on "In Our Lives, There Have Been Many Terrors" where Mike Twelve contributes the middle part. All mastering by Foci's Left, except "Love Conquers All" which has additional mastering by Bob Macc (www.subvertmastering.com)

tags

 

license

 

all rights reserved
Foci's Left - Tara EP (Foci's Left EP 003)

Tara "Moose" Buckingham, our 16 year old Colly / Alsatian cross, died on January 9th 2014 of kidney failure. There was nothing more we could do, it was her time. Me and my close family enjoyed 8 years with her. She was a rescue dog from the RSPCA.

As a way to mark this loss cathartically, and as a tribute, I present "Tara EP", a four track chronological excursion of Tara into the afterlife ("Anything Becomes Possible With Time"), emotions in lament ("Non-Corrosive String Solution"), the memorandum ("For Tara"), and finally, my belief she may come back as a woman one day ("To The Woman With No Name"). This is an EP of very personal emotions, from the one who was ironically least close to her because of my own illness.

The EP is an inexpensive £3, being sold as a whole, as it is meant to be heard. 50% of proceeds will go to our local Animal Sanctuary shop, where "Moose" as she was infamously called every day (due to her appearance) was took for walks regularly.

I hope you enjoy the music. Here's to you Tara, hopefully we'll speak again someday.

SPECIAL OFFER

Order "Life In A Less Southern Town LP" on CD-R and "Tara EP" for £10. Email mbucki07 at hotmail dot co dot uk or send your Paypal payment to this address clearly labelled "Special offer" and I'll send both releases to you digitally. :)

REVIEWS

"It reminds me of early(ish) Pink Floyd :)" ~ Jonathan Tait, Subvert Central Recordings on "Anything Becomes Possible With Time".

"My favourite artist at the moment...classic releases!" Simon Rametse, March 2014.

"i like it. i wonder what it would sound like if it gets a bit more complex. nice one anyway. " ~ logburner, Subvert Central forum on "Non-Corrosive String Solution".

"it's rhythmic very odd – it sounds as though everything is always slightly behind the beat – disturbing :)" ~ Jonathan Tait on "Non-Corrosive String Solution".

"I like it, very interesting, I'm going to show the rest of the gang and I let you know what everyone thinks." ~ Shiva, www.bitratemusic.com on "Non-Corrosive String Solution".

"It's nice. It sounds like an improvisation :)" ~ Jonathan Tait on "To The Woman With No Name".

 
credits

 

released 02 March 2014
Mick Robert Buckingham - all synths, piano, strings, processing and mastering, except "To The Woman With No Name" which is mastered by Bob Macc (www.subvertmastering.com)

tags

 

Foci's Left & Geoff Brooks - Hypnosis Session 1 - Dreams (November 2013)
 
I, Mick Robert Buckingham first met hypnotherapist and alternative medicines/therapies specialist Geoff Brooks in 2010, when I was going through a transition in diagnosis from bipolar and psychotic depression to schizo-affective disorder. Within 1 session I felt really at ease and liberated by Geoff's emotive techniques with positive affirmations and anxiety disorders. He trains in imaginal realities, psychotherapy, dream work, EFT (emotional freedom technique), hypnotherapy and Reiki healing.

With 3 degrees with distinctions to his name, I was motivated by my deteriorating 2013 health to seek guidance from Geoff once again. After this particularly resonant opening session to the series - on the subject of dreams and activating their merits - Geoff commented since I was recording these sessions for my personal use if we could make them publically available to be bought on the internet. This not only increases Geoff's audience just by having audio online, but benefits both of us as we split any profits from downloads equally.

The price for the first 51 minute, carefully mastered (by myself) hypnosis session is £15, since Geoff's sessions, lasting roughly 90 minutes each, are £40 each. I hope this gives you a taster into the curated content discussed by me, Foci's Left and Geoff in the session, gives you an insight into what I want to create, a showcase of Geoff's remarkable skills in his respective fields, and maybe motivates you, if you are within reach of Swindon, UK, to look up the Shaftesbury Centre where he works to arrange a session of your own.

credits

 

released 05 November 2013
Mick Robert Buckingham (Foci's Left) provides base subject matter, Geoff Brooks (hypnotherapist) weaves a dialogue to New Age background music. Carefully mastered by Mick Robert Buckingham.

Image is a free online take by Bat For Lashes' Natasha Khan of the coastline while she was on a US tour with her band. www.facebook.com/batforlashes

Foci's Left - Dumping The Rock EP (Foci's Left EP 002)
"Dumping The Rock" is a varied showcase of the Foci's Left sound, but aims specifically to disperse any aggression of past releases toward something more mellow and beautiful. You can map different tracks together in a Foci's Left playlist with this release.

Artwork: "Cyclist" by Antonymes (Ian Hazeldine), who took this picture especially for me upon the release of his album "The License To Interpret Dreams".

Purchasers will receive a bonus Modern Classical piece called "The Calamities Of Confusion [21.12.12] (For Lata S.) in their download.

Total EP running time 13:52. 

reviews
"This is breathtaking man" ~ 247, Futurepast Fanzine ed. on "Overdriven Terrain".

"Love it :)" ~ DJ Trax (Moving Shadow) on "Overdriven Terrain".

"Ah, 'The Calamities Of Confusion' - I like this one". ~ Jonathan Tait, Subvert Central Recordings.

credits

 

released 19 August 2013
All tracks written, produced and engineered by Mick Robert Buckingham (Foci's Left).

 

tags

 



Foci's Left - Grumpy Love (Foci's Left LP 001)
Dedicated to my sister, the beautiful Joanne Buckingham. Modicum: to raise a smile. This is a soundtrack of my llife so far.

Artwork is "Leopards" by Niomi Jackson.
reviews
 
"Introducing ‘Not Seeing Reality’ – the wayward, often mysterious journey that defines the pathway of what we call life. For many, reality is totally dependent on individual perception. The notes begin their life in innocent infancy, but by their teens they have snaked their way into the more unruly, dissonant territory, interacting with one another until a harmonious chain reaction ensues; one that started off with a primary note – a single heartbeat, the survivor in the battle of selection – but one that quickly brings in a thousand more.

Reality is then able to shape-shift into a sporadic, sparse piano line, accompanied by a gorgeous wave of crimson synth. Only, a line doesn’t quite work; it is bloated enough to feel pregnant with the baby bump of melody, oozing out of the thicker line and then submerging the original, vulnerable piano with new life.

Foci’s Left is the alias of Fluid Radio’s own Mick Buckingham, a name that regular Fluid readers will know very well. Told as a chronological tale, Grumpy Love isn’t nearly as dishevelled or as depressed with the state of things past and present as its grumpy name would seem to suggest. It is, in fact, shrouded by heart-felt sensitivity and deep personality. It is very much the opposite of grumpy. After all, there are two words up there; the oh-so-thin space that divides the first word from the second, ‘love’, is close enough to be considered intimate.

Love never fails. Love conquers all.

Grumpy Love is a beautiful, personalized painting, left to hang at a slight angle on the uneven canvas of life, with both enjoyable and difficult moments that come to claim every man. When linked together, they reach a teenage crescendo. ‘Piano Paint’ introduces some beautiful synths that jut into the piano, coating it with an intoxicating harbour of nostalgia – the nostalgic element traces a radiated line of melody, as if the early memory on which it was based has physically escaped, deceiving what we all thought of as reality and instead containing itself within the music as a precautionary measure. It cocoons itself against the decline that age brings and the mood swing of swift change that can affect our recollections as one decade passes into another.

Saturated in the vintage, ambient warmth of pure tone, when the genre itself was in its infancy, the synths are a mesmerising serenade. It shares the same angelic timbre that made the early Brian Eno classic, Music For Airports, such a lovable listen. You can tell instantly that Grumpy Love is a deeply personal recording just from this synth alone. The later drums seem to propel the passages of life forward, with no pause for reminiscing. That comes later on, because Grumpy Love has some beautiful, open spaces ideal for reflection. Life may, at times, feel like ‘An Upwards Slope’, but listening to the music here is to know that the inner serenity of peaceful ease is always there. Always. Here, a thinner drone is disguised as Cupid himself, but the darker echoes of possible distress lie just beyond the doorway. It is the tense, anxious sound of the unknown; a place where dusty road-signs are always blank with unmarked destinations.

‘For Fluid’ is a loving piece of music that is as much a generous tribute as it is a personal reflection. Grumpy Love narrates the passage of life with painstaking thought. The older hand outlines the black tail of a nurtured note like the embrace between a newborn and a parent. In this picture, the thin brush gives life to the paint. It holds itself in the palmed trust of the future, while taking one last look back at the past – this is the final dedication." ~ James Catchpole, Fluid Radio

www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2013/09/focis-left/

"After the disconcerting dissonance of his last demo (FTAL Attraction), Foci's Left - the solo work of occasional Nightshift contributor Mick Buckingham - casts forth a full album set on a far less turbulent plane.

Nine tracks of stretched-out electro-acoustic ambient pianism and electronic minimalism drift and shift with soporific intent, microtonal drones morphing and gradually mutating with precision-restrained variation. Best of the pieces here is the drone-drift of "Decompress The Magnet", while it's marginally more imposing twin "An Upwards Slope" dovetails into it seamlessly. "Regurgitated Impulses" adds a necessary glitchy interlude, while "Piano Paint" is both light in tone and texture but random enough to be distracting.

Where the album occasionally falls down is a lack of brevity on a few of the tracks - "Piano Paint" for example has run its course long before it concludes - while "For Fluid" is anything but and simply sounds like Mick's plonking random keys on his piano, but beyond such lapses, "Grumpy Love" is a neat enough addition to the ambient drone cannon." ~ Ronan Munro, Nightshift Magazine ed.

(www.nightshift.oxfordmusic.net, October 2013)

"I find you on Bandcamp and I'm listening right now "Grumpy Love". This is strange music so far :) Dark soundscapes and atmospheres but lighten up with childish imagination coming from the piano playing (currently I'm at the ending of the second track). Interesting. " ~ Kristian, Noise For Blues For Noise.

"It is very...interesting :)
Well at times I really like the aesthetic and the goofiness of the sounds. Sometimes it is a tad too much for me I have to admit. Maybe it is something I have to listen to more carefully. But it is very inspiring at times." ~ Nils Frahm, Erased Tapes Records.

"It's pretty amazing. I really like 'Decompress The Magnet' and 'An Upwards Slope', they are my favourites. I'm going to have to burn it to CD for the car." ~ 247, Futurepast Fanzine ed.

"Well done Mick. Congrats!" ~ ASC

"I really like 'Decompress The Magnet' :D" ~ GlassBox

"'Decompress The Magnet' really is outstanding." ~ Roo Stercogburn, Omni Music.

subvertcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?59592-Foci-s-Left-Grumpy-Love-LP-(my-debut-album-OUT-NOW)

"It has a nice flow to it" ~ Roy Buckingham, my grandfather on "For Fluid".

"I am very impressed, the Grumpy Love LP, it really has a lot to offer. 'Decompress the Magnet' has a depth of creativity, emotion and inspiration resonating from it. 'An Upwards Slope' has a feeling of a eternal dose of mystery and passionate adventure of abstract life just breathing in and out through the song... I wish the LP had a fixed price on it because it is of good value. Brillliant work love it!" ~ Simon Bean, Omni Music via Facebook.

credits

 

released 19 May 2013
All tracks composed and recorded by Michael Robert Buckingham (Foci's Left), with additional production on "Decompress The Magnet" by Mike Twelve (Seconds Before Awakening / The Giraffe And The Tree).

tags

 

 

license

all rights reserved. 

Monday 7 April 2014

SubVersion Stop 225: Muttley - 15 MOF Pt. 73 - Almost Certainly (April 2014)

Muttley SubVersion - 15 MOF Pt. 73 - Almost Certainly (April 2014)

"In life we carve the land up, that is not ours to carve, we cannot take it with us, but cut the greater half / And herein lies the problem, and herein lies the blame, you went through life with nothing, you leave it with the same". ~ Glenn Johnston, Piano Magic.

01. Christopher Bissonette - Provenance (In Between Words, Kranky)
02. Fanu - Children (Subvert Central Vol.3, Subvert Central)
03. Sileni - Failspan (Subtle Audio)
04. Weird Attractors - Arrival (Dolphinboy's Jump Off Mix) (Adrenaline Soup CD, Earshot)
05. Paranoid Society - Science (Exegene Unreleased)
06. Hive, Keaton, Echo & Gridlok - Culture (Welcome To Violence LP, Violence)
07. Mecca - It Began In Africa (Unreleased)
08. Martsman & Bad Matter - Cold Love (Lightless)
09. Piano Magic - The Faint Horizon (Ovations LP, Darla)

Recorded 22nd August 2008, the first week of me going out again to nights in Oxford.

Edited April 2014 to include Piano Magic's "The Faint Horizon".

www.muttley.kapsil.net

If you like this, why not check out "Love Conquers All (Outro)" on my "Life In A Less Southern Town LP" on Omni Music? It's of similar style.

Please visit www.focisleft.bandcamp.com

Monday 24 February 2014

SubVersion Stop 224: FTEL 015 (For The Electronica Lovers...review and mixtape archive 001)

FTEL 015 - February 2014

Fanu - Bassoradio 17.02.14
Fanu SoundCloud download




This radio show from Janne Hatula aka Fanu is a running example of the amalgamation between slowfast as a movement and old school hardcore. Pensive buildup moods ("Flocon" by Moresounds) are mixed into mellow Think break steppers like Dillinja's "Sovereign Melody" at 160 BPM. The general mood is borderline chaotic yet timbrally streetwise; flows of breakbeats and 4/4 from The Prodigy's "Everybody In Da Place" juxtaposing well at the slower tempo and connection with older rave music. Fanu's own "Paracosm" makes a brief apppearance, sounding purposeful and extra-tight in the drums department, while Lemon D's All Roads Music gets a showcase through "Big Poppa", a free download on the Inflect Bristol website right now. A rollicking 2 hour sonic microcosm if there ever was one!

https://soundcloud.com/fanu/d-b-show-with-fanu-on-4

Crashfaster - Further LP
Russian Winter Records download




Best bracketed as electronic rock rather than electronica, or dance rock, Crashfaster's "Further" is a great album that deserves patience in every department. The buildup in ultramundane themes such as God ("I've been waiting for this moment, moment to come, well here it is [above the world] / I've got everything I need here, right here with me, above the world" speak of a mischevious crossing between heavenly enunciation and heavenly feeling. Some of the lyrics, especially the shouted ones, are incomprehensible, and it's unclear to me yet, on several listens whether this adds to its otherworldiness. I think it does currently. As for the effects otherwise, the beats are pretty kinky and spiffy, whereas the track ordering feels consistent, even though the last third pales in comparison to earlier on.

http://crashfaster.bandcamp.com/

Recondite - Hinterland LP
Ghostly International download




Recondite's demeanour is similar to Murcof, however Autechre of the "Amber" style gives the record its unique, telling character. Organic beats, little synth ditties, eddying your eardrums like a sandworm in rev-up mode, splay out all the tracks in complex arrangements with the beatwork. 54 minutes of delicate melodies and stylish new age-meets-techno drums and bass to digest. "Leafs" repeats in E, mixing up scales and chords like a proficient instrumentalist. These tracks really are instrumental wonders, vamped with blood red carnations of seriousness and loving totality. Pacing of the record feels very thought-through, dense enough to invite acutely active listening but spacious also to recline you into the passive. A gem of a techno LP from Ghostly International, and surely remaining forever now.

http://ghostly.com/releases/hinterland

FTEL

Thursday 20 February 2014

SubVersion Stop 223: Muttley's Winter 2013/2014 Mixtapes

Muttley - 15 MOF Pt. 69 - Subconscious Junk

Healing the unconscious.

01. -
02. Tim Hecker - Hatred Of Music II (Ravedeath 1972, Kranky, 2012)
03. Wolves In The Throne Room - Prayer Of Transformation (Celestial Lineage, Southern Lord, 2011)
04. Billy The Kid - Drown (The Lost Cause, Lost Records, 2008]
05. Eluvium - By The Rails (The Wire Tapper 33 / Temporary Residence, www.thewire.co.uk)
06. Bat For Lashes - Deep Sea Diver (The Haunted Man, Parlophone, 2012)
07. Transmuteo - Motivational Holography (Motivational Holography, Aguirre, 2013)
08. Max Wuerden - Fulfilled (Or Lost, Ambientmusic, 2013)
09. Beautumn - October Cafe (Northing, Infraction, 2006)
10. Grouper - Living Room (The Man Who Died In His Boat, Kranky, 2013)

Download

Muttley - 15 MOF Pt. 72 - Encounter (February 2014)

A soundtrack for encountering a person, a persona, and the changes in life and experience that result from these cornerstones.

01. 00:00 Slow Walkers - Wake (Slow Walkers LP, Peak Oil, 2013)
02. 00:00 EUS - Amori II (Sol Levit LP, Contradicta, 2013)
03. 04:57 BJ Nilsen & Stillupsteypa - Space Finale 1.2 (Space Finale LP, Editions Mego, 2010)
04. 11:45 Tmmrw - Vision (ENDPR010, Tmmrw Bandcamp, 2013)
05. 13:07 How To Disappear Completely - Still (Still EP, HTDC Bandcamp, 2013)
06. 15:03 Bing Satellites - Encounter (Twilight Sessions Vol.11, Bing Satellites Bandcamp, 2013)
07. 20:23 Secret Pyramid - A Descent (Movements Of Night LP, Students Of Decay, 2013)
08: 25:31 Bat For Lashes - Seal Jubilee (Fur And Gold LP, Parlophone, 2007)
09. 29:01 EUS - Siete (Sol Levit LP, Contradicta, 2013)
10. 30:53 Foci's Left - Transistory Stringency (Life In A Less Southern Town LP, Omni Music Unreleased)

Download (34:16)

If you would like to support what I do, feel free to visit my Bandcamp:

www.focisleft.bandcamp.com