Nice stuff!  How are things going in Exitland?  We're limping along here, but can't really complain.

Absinthnation

Written by Catherine Anne Davies
Produced by Paul Draper & Catherine Anne Davies

THE ANCHORESS: CONFESSIONS OF A ROMANCE NOVELIST
Debut album released January 8th 2016 (Digital)January 15th 2016(Physical)
Label: Kscope

Preorder on iTunes:
http://smarturl.it/COARN_DIGITAL

Deluxe gatefold CD with 20 page booklet:
https://www.burningshed.com/store/kscope/

"D​avies is making music like nobody else at the moment." - NME

"W​ales's (much more explicitly feminist) answer to Lana Del Rey.​"  - Ann Powers, NPR

Revenge-pop? The prog Karen Carpenter? Barbra Streisand on acid? Bat For Lashes on a book-binge? Whatever way you choose to describe ‘Confessions of A Romance Novelist’, the debut album by The Anchoress, one thing’s for sure: it packs a punch. Did I say “punch”? On tracks like ‘P.S. Fuck You’ it’s more of a kick. In the balls. Of an ex. who most definitely sounds like they deserved it…
 
The album is due for release on January 8th 2016 via Kscope, home to Grammy nominated Steven Wilson, Mercury Prize nominees Sweet Billy Pilgrim, and British rock gods Anathema.  A brand new track ‘Popular’ is available now with pre-orders of the album.
 
Multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, PhD and producer Catherine Anne Davies (aka The Anchoress) sums up the album’s overall concept as "deconstructing normative ideas of love and romance", with each song sung by a different character – “what you might call a musical ghost writing of sorts”. You can hear this distilled in the Prince-inspired feminist manifesto ‘One For Sorrow’ that questions the concept of marriage. There’s a different take on obsessional love in the album’s title track, where the album’s narrator ironically references her “bedroom shrine to Margaret Thatcher”. Meanwhile, 'You And Only You' - an anthemic ode to being better off alone - features the distinctive operatic indie-wail of Mansun's Paul Draper, who co-produced the album with Catherine.
 
Draper helped to capture the collection of songs on which Catherine played a variety of instruments, including piano, guitar, flute, omnichord, mellotron, wurlitzer, glockenspiel, and celeste, as well as multi-tracking up to 25 vocal harmonies on some of the songs. Yet, recording was interrupted by a series of events that threatened to derail the project completely, including Catherine injuring her hand so badly during a 48-hour recording session that she was told she might not play again and had to wear a metal cast for 6 months. She says: “This has been made on a wing and a prayer, lots of favours, one car crash, one death, one broken hand, and a lot of patience on so many parts. Stir in 3 jobs, 4 studios, 2 arrests, 3 pianos, 40 songs and 1 very patient engineer… and you get some way to understanding what a long road it has been.”
 
The album follows two sold-out singles, which were playlisted on both BBC 6Music and Xfm, and received plaudits across the globe, from America’s NPR, to Les Inrockuptibles in France, the NME, and influential websites like The Quietus and Line of Best Fit.
 
The Anchoress is currently on tour with Simple Minds, co-writing Paul Draper's debut solo album, and has begun working on her second album with Bernard Butler.
 
“Deft, engrossing lyrical work with some beautifully dark arrangements… an enthralling return” - CLASH
 
 "A strutting howl of a vocal and grit-edged guitar… a sprawl of dark southern gothic"  - THE QUIETUS

www.iamtheanchoress.com/
 
For more information:
National Press: Gillian@hallornothing.com
Online PR: louisa.worskett@caroline.com
Radio: fuzz.chaudhrey@caroline.com
Regional Press: Tom@hallornothing.com



Confessions Of A Romance Novelis

Confessions of a Romance Novelist

Mixed by Dr Whams
Guitars and Mandolin by Jonathan Roberts

A Vision of the Future is based upon a previous track of mine, Desert Rain, with some minor rearrangment and the addition of samples of Arthur C Clarke taken from a 1964 BBC Horizon programme. The segment appears to be entitled "A Vision of the Future", but I am not absolutely sure of the name of the particular episode. In the full segment, Clarke goes on to predict the Internet and 3d printing among other things. 

It is my understanding that because it is more than 50 years since broadcast, it is out of copyright, and therefore use of the samples is fair use.

A Vision of the Future

This is some of my polymetric harp music.  The left hand is playing a repeating pattern in 12 on metal strings, the left hand a pattern in 47 (12+12+12+11) on gut strings.  The tuning is 8, 9, 10, 45/32, 12, 14, 15.

oops

Another piece with the same tuning and pattern of the previous.

just jazzy

Another polymetric piece.  Left hand has a pattern in twelve, right hand in 23 (12 + 11), but staggered, so the complete number of beats is 12 x 23 x 2= 544.  But I goof and end prematurely this time.  Such is life.

23 skidoo

Another meditation, this time in the Mixolydian mode.

mixed emotion

Another mixolydian mode piece, but this time in 11 x 12 x 13.  Didn't get to the end, which would have taken about ten minutes.

mixed consequences

A work in progress of a song from the forthcoming EP by Sylf

https://sylf.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/sylfmusic/?pnref=lhc

Opia

Opia (by Sylf) work in progress mix

Brian (Thomas is Different)

The Hold

Intro (8 bars):

Arpegiating Keyboard - 16th notes - repeats for 8 bars:

G6, G6, E6, G6, E6, C6, G5, E6, C5, G4, E4, C4, C4, E4, G4, C5, E5, G5, C6, E6, G6, E6

Second Keyboard - echoey stuff - alternates between C maj and Am every other bar:

Bar 1 - C 
Bar 2 - 
Bar 3 - Am1
Bar 4 - 
Bar 5 - C
Bar 6 - 
Bar 7 - Am
Bar 8 - 


Bass is basically an A; alternating between A1 and A2 with an occasional C or A chucked in.

The next 8 bars (bars 9-16) is basically identical but with the introduction of a lead, and for the final bar, there's some anticipatory C chords (G,C,G) to introduce the arrival of a plucking guitar in the next section.

VERSE

(26 bars (further broken into 10 bars, 10 bars, 6 bars):

Bass:

G|-------------|-----|-------------|-----|
D|-------------|-----|---------5-7-|-----|
A|-3-3-3-3-----|---5-|-3-3-3-3-----|-5---|
E|---------3-5-|-5---|-------------|---3-|


Bar 19: C, C, C, C, G, A (A carries on into bar 20)
Bar 20: D
Bar 21: C, C, C, C, G, A
Bar 22: D, G

This is essentially the bassline, with some variations for the whole section. 

Heavy Guitar:

E|-------------|-----|-------------|-----|
B|-------------|-----|-------------|-----|
G|-------------|-----|-------------|-----|
D|-------------|-----|---------5-7-|-----|
A|-3-3-3-3-----|---5-|-3-3-3-3-----|-5---|
E|---------3-5-|-5---|-------------|---3-|

C Major, G Major, A minor, D minor
C Major, G Major, A minor, D minor, G Major

CHORUS:

8 bars.

Bass:

G|---------|---------|---------|--------|
D|---------|---------|---------|--------|
A|---------|---------|-----5-5-|-3-3-3--|
E|-1-1-5-5-|-8-8-5-5-|-1-1-----|--------|


Bar 43: F, F, A, A
Bar 44: C, C, A, A
Bar 45: F, F, D, D
Bar 46: C, C, C

The guitars basically play the same with powerchords.

The Hold

BaldySlaphead

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