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"If I knew I were alive, I could do so much better. If I knew what I had, then I could use it more wisely. If only I’d known before then I’d be in a better place already. If only."
London-based singer-songwriter Douglas Dare releases new EP, following on from his debut album Whelm. Named after album track Caroline and new track If I Knew I Were Alive, it also features remixes by fellow label mate Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles and Houndstooth’s own electronic producer Ross Tones aka Throwing Snow.

Caroline has always been a precious track for Douglas, one of the first tracks he recorded and a story in which he imagines his grandfather is writing to a loved one during the war. As the only song on his debut album that is stripped down to just his voice and piano playing, and it being a favourite amongst fans at his concerts, it was a natural choice as a first single.

The new track If I Knew I Were Alive Douglas wrote by creating beats, looping them and recording parts live. Dancing around to the beats in his room, he started singing melodies and coming up with ideas that he wouldn’t usually have, sitting at the piano. The idea that we can do a lot more if only we appreciated our own ability and opportunity encouraged Douglas to not take the track to anyone else to re-record it, but to work with what he had created himself.

“The recording has this demo quality, which I really enjoy. I love how revealing a demo can be. It seems to expose the fundamental ideas the songwriter had and the basic quality of the recording is very revealing. One of my favourite records is PJ Harvey’s ‘4 Track Demos’, where the songs are so stripped back that you can appreciate the finest details.” – Douglas Dare

Ryan Lee West, who crafted the Rival Consoles remix of album track Swim explains, “the track existed in a minimal state for a while, and I kept thinking something was missing. There's always something missing! And then out of casual chance, I was sorting through my portable recorder files, and I came across a recording of an installation that I did, which included four motors hitting glockenspiel or xylophone notes at random. I chopped it up in a few seconds and it worked perfectly. It adds texture and movement to the remix. But what's important about these sounds is that they are not in time. I think this remix creates sense of space, subtlety and physicality.”

"The original is so well put together, and the vocal so unique that it was a hard one to approach. I set out to reflect the beauty of the vocal in the intro, so that I could build it into something darker later on. This also mirrors the meaning of the vocal. The last sections are meant to evoke feelings of being washed away by a torrent” – Ross Tones about his Throwing Snow remix of Nile.

The cover photograph was taken by Douglas Dare himself; printed on silver card, so that the seawater shimmers against the light.

Douglas Dare and Rival Consoles will both perform a special in-store show at Rough Trade, presenting their respective EP releases, before embarking on an Erased Tapes U.S. West Coast tour and Douglas accompanying Fink throughout 13 countries in North America and Europe from September to November as their special guest.

TICKETS: www.erasedtapes.com/artists/events/22/Douglas+Dare

TRACK LISTING:

A1. Caroline
A2. If I Knew I Were Alive
B1. Swim (Rival Consoles Remix)
B2. Nile (Throwing Snow Remix)

MORE INFO: douglasdare.com · erasedtapes.com

Whelm

Caroline

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Douglas Dare – Caroline

All songs by My bubba, written during Scandinavian winter months full of longing for warm, exotic places - except East Cave, where the lyrics come from a Slavic folk song, and Sexual Healing, by Marvin Gaye & Odell Brown. Recorded in Seahorse Sound Studios, Los Angeles, and House of Blues Studios, Encino. Produced and mixed by Noah Georgeson. Mastered 
by Golden Mastering.

Sexual Healing

Song 1

Veteran Erased Tapes recording artist Peter Broderick set to release new studio album 'Partners' on 19th August 2016.

Order it on LP/CD/DL here: www.erasedtapes.com/store/index/ERATP088

In an email to Robert on February 3rd 2016: 

Dear Robert.

There’s a lot I’d love to tell you about this music.

The inspiration really came when I decided to learn to play John Cage’s In A Landscape on the piano . . . I listened to a recording I had over and over again, five seconds or so at a time, picking out every single note. Then cross referencing what I’d learned with other versions of the piece as well as the original score. The feeling of playing this piece really brought me close to the piano again, and brought new life to my own piano songs.

Beyond Cage’s music, his life and practice have interested me more and more, after having read about his love for foraging wild foods and using chance operations to compose music, in a sense taking his ‘self’ out of the music. I love his so-called ‘mesostics’ and began to write several poems using that method, around this phrase:

I    
N

A

L
A
N
D
S
C
A
P
E

When it came time to record in the studio, I rolled two dice to decide how many poems to read. I rolled 5. Then I assigned a number to each poem and rolled the dice to see which five poems would be read and in which order. That’s the first track Partners, which is also the last word of the last poem I selected through this chance-based process. Track two is my version of In A Landscape. I love playing that piece so much. Carried  is a piece I wrote in Berlin which I’ve played live from time to time. There was a soft vocal loop playing out through an amplifier in the room while I played the piano.

Under The Bridge is my first ever chance-based composition, written by assigning different numbers to different notes and then rolling dice to decide in which order to play those notes. Conspiraling is another piece I’ve been playing for a while. Actually a version of this was recorded in the session that became ‘How They Are’, but it didn’t quite feel right. I like to pretend my voice is like a synthesizer in this song. Then there’s Up Niek Mountain which is a piece I finished composing while in residence at a farm in the Netherlands back in 2010, and is named after one of the family farmers there, Niek, who passed away shorty after I was there. We miss you Niek. The last song is a cover of Brigid’s Sometimes. Brigid to whom I dedicate this recording.

And then there’s Tucker, Mr. Martine, who agreed to record this album without me ever hearing the mixes. We talked about all the sounds and he set up several devices with which to manipulate the sound live, as it was being recorded and mixed down to tape. Francesco also agreed to master the record without me hearing it. I like to imagine maybe one day, five or ten years from now, I’ll walk into a café or roadside diner and hear it for the first time, playing as background music while people eat.

OK surely that’s enough for now! Sorry for blabbing, Robert. Your support has really meant a lot to me. I’ve loved having you in mind while working on this project, knowing it could very well have a home on your sweeeeeet label. Hope all is well.

With love,
Peter

Partners

Sometimes

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Peter Broderick - Sometimes

From the album Modern Country, out now on Merge Records.

Modern Country

William Tyler "Gone Clear"

Tindersticks - My Autumn's Done Come

Bill Kalinkos, clarinet, John Orfe, piano

Evensong Extras

As Desperation Sets In

Tiny Ruins - Adelphi Apartments

Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch - Etimasia

Brooklyn-based composer and performer (strings/voice). Founding member of itsnotyouitsme, Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Signal, the Wordless Music Orchestra as well as a member of ACME, Newspeak and Escort. New album, Past Lives available on Cantaloupe Music http://www.cantaloupepress.net/ photo by Alice Teeple

As Desperation Sets In

Caleb Burhans