A little sampler for my new album "Regulation and Classification", which is coming soon.

Regulation and Classification

Thems the Pulses

Thems The Pulses

Original release on Tying Up Loose Ends #1 - Culport, from Toneburst:
https://toneburst.bandcamp.com/album/tying-up-loose-ends-1-culport

The first, titled "Noise Forecast", is heavily inspired by BBC shipping forecasts, the rhythm of their delivery and the alien yet comprehensible language used within them. The compositional framework for this part of the project is a text-based score which was written in a way that aimed to allow each participant a unique translation. To further contrast the finished pieces, careful attention is made in approaching different artists with varying sonic palettes.

The score for this first installment of the project reads as follows:

"Culport;
Southern Bleakness. 8
Phront - Lofty, Stressure: NIL.
Bromide Sprinkles - Occasional.
Eudaimonia - Swindling, Tempestuous Nodes.
Torrential Data, Deluges: 37, Clustered.
Drainage: In Toto, Preparation Timely."

Unapproved Beliefs

Original release on Toneburst:
https://toneburst.bandcamp.com/album/regulation-and-classification

Programmable tremolo, repeating blocks of fretting or plucking overtones. Overlaid potato prints in different colours; all similar shapes but differing in tiny details.

Original 'Unapproved Beliefs' can be found here toneburst.bandcamp.com/album/tying-up-loose-ends-1-culport

Secret Treaties

Items For Mister Byrne

Maximum Jorts

Midnight Freighter

Unapproved Beliefs (Subfusc Version)

After The Storm

I decided to play around with a couple of synths, a bit of MIDI, a handmade BEW pedal and see what happened. This is the result.
In the process I taught myself a couple of new things about recording too.
I got to the end of the lyrics and realised I really ought to have rewritten the first verse but time was not on my side. So have at thee.
Guest vocals written and performed by Becca Allen.

Free Download

This  is the Great Void

Number seven.  I took a slightly different approach with this piece, layering four or five sounds to make each gong strike and building up the drone from 15 channels of voice (Becca and I).


<a href='https://theartistunion.com/tracks/8ef7b4'>Download for free on The Artist Union</a>

The Overall Immobility of Things

This week's work is the theme for the protagonist of a dystopian sci-fi movie. Sump is a lot like Rick Deckard.
I'm not sure if the reprise is used for the trailer, i.e. for a montage, or for the final moments of the film as Sump stares into his melting ice-cubes recalling the details he hasn't shared with anyone.

Sump's Theme (reprise)

I decided to assemble a track that has been sitting in bits & pieces gathering dust, and apply some of the things I've learned so far to  the arrangement and production.

I'd intended the song to have lyrics, but I've come round to the idea of it being an instrumental, using guitars & synths to highlight the vocal melody. Also my falsetto disappeared about 15 years ago, so my vocals were never gonna work ;)

Blind (Full Version)

This piece, number 24, started off inspired by Black Heart Procession, but then traveled through Gravenhurst and latter day Nick Cave. Once again, it's a bit dark.
Becca Allen joined in on backing vocals and autoharp.

<a href="https://theartistunion.com/tracks/feadd6" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download for free on The Artist Union</a>

That's the Message

I count this as more a remix than an original, as it's based on a series of VCS samples by Barry Cullen.

<a href="https://theartistunion.com/tracks/d79020" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download for free on The Artist Union</a>

It Came From Below

I've re-set a set of my lyrics from the early 90s and created new music to make the mood a little more sinister.

<a href="https://theartistunion.com/tracks/36cf9f" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download for free on The Artist Union</a>

Cheesecloth Redux

I'm not sure what to say about this piece; I wanted to wrong-foot the listener then leave them feeling uncomfortable in the dusk in a vaguely familiar place.

<a href="https://theartistunion.com/tracks/09f780" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download for free on The Artist Union</a>

Annerton Pit

I had a big dirty groove, then I found a bass patch called The Ox. It all seemed propitious.
My good friend Steven McKnight gave me the story, an excerpt from his Diary of a Coconut, and some tasty guitar solos.

SAWFAY

Doctor Swagger and the Diary of a Coconut

Aiming for a little horror, a little of the Electrician.
Vocals by Rebecca Allen, nylon guitar by Steven McKnight.

I'm calling this genre "creepy-little-girl-core"

<a href="https://theartistunion.com/tracks/c0fb5c" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Download for free on The Artist Union</a>

A Hand in the Dark

For the big four-0, I started with a 3-track vocal line, then this happened.  I thought I was building the basis for a double-bass improvisation, but adding anything else felt like overkill.

Intractable

Visiting themes of loss, resignation and out-of-body experiences for week 44.

Songs of a Year

Eyes Like Walls

Enjoying the learning curve using a tracker while channelling Krautrock.

*news* Listen to this amazing version of Platonic Sands by The Institute 91'
https://soundcloud.com/theinstitute91/platonic-sands-chris-allenmysterioso-cover

Platonic Sands

I decided to strap them on with this tune. There may be a slight Horslips reference and possibly a slightly less subtle 'DC reference at the end.
Plus me getting all stentorian on it. One of my favourite choruses, it turned out.

Holy Fool

I pushed the boat out this week, since this piece sees the completion of my Song a Week for a Year challenge. 
I reached towards realisation of that apocalyptic vision I've always had and I'm satisfied that this song approaches it.
Vocals were very kindly performed by Martin Byrne https://soundcloud.com/djmcflymo

Trenton, New Jersey

WeeklyBeats

They Return to Claim What is Theirs

This piece is built on the idea of drones as stasis and time as a fixed grid. Stretching time then changes the auditioned perspective of the drone.

Arcturus Minor

You have failed this city! Let the cloak of night come down!

A slab of semi-fat disco funk featuring everybody's favourite stunts - falsettoes and backwards guitars! Get down!

Blooped Out (2018)

I Believe is a piece of my history, I've always come back to it each time I've been experimenting with a new recording environment.
So this is it's final incarnation, the lead song from an EP is a document of the evolution of a song from inception; cradle to grave.
I've always had a soft-spot for this tune, partly the bile in the lyrics, partly the lift of the chorus, so here's where its journey ends.

https://mysterioso.bandcamp.com/album/blind-ep

Lyrics:
I Believe (I Wish That I Was Blind)

I Believe that you can look into my soul
I Believe that you don't know who you are
This story's getting closer to the truth
It seems so real I can almost taste the freedom

And I wish that I was blind
Now I've seen into your mind
He spoke of lands far away
For lands they were in his mind

Tears in your eyes are what I'm trying to say
If you're the lion, don't think I'm your lamb
Some things I've always kept hidden from view
The key to success was never in my hand

And I wish that I was blind
Now I've seen into your mind
He spoke of lands far away
For lands they were in his mind

21 years and a hundred days
Been lost so long now I've found my way
Who'd've thought I'd've seen the day
Blue skies come and blue skies go
First you drew a line and then you crossed it
Don't curse me 'cos I can't change
Been lost so long now I've found my way
This is the only way
This is the greatest shame

And I wish that I was blind
Now I've seen into your mind
He spoke of lands far away
For lands they were in his mind

Blind EP

I Believe (I Wish That I Was Blind)

Inspired by M. John Harrison's Course of the Heart and the film A Dark Song.

First comes the rose and then the salt lines
I'll speak an angel's name; Raphael, Gabriel, Michael and Uriel
Asteraceae compositae, lay a bed of tree bark
A rose cross concealed, lay a leaf on a ram's horn

Next the carved rhymes which lead to a pause
From the darkness to the light
What was silent now is sound

Slowly light a ring of eight white candles
Hand clap to each point
Cinnamon on the floor, that sweet money spice
Relight the palo santo
Cast out with smoke
Cast out by command

Silence the conscious mind's derisive monologue of doubt
All the while keep breathing
What was hidden has been found

Hermeticon

You are on the back foot, uncomfortable in the dusk in a vaguely familiar place. Something is wrong.
Rerecorded, remixed and remastered for the vinyl release of  Thru the Clouds of Smoke on Twice As High Records.
Oh yeah.
https://soundcloud.com/tah-records

+++++++++++++++++

Through the fence
Past the trees
In the shadows by the bridge
Through the grille in the wall
Can you see something that's wrong

Not a shape
More a thought kept out of mind
Do you want to step away
And believe you didn't see

By the bridge where the water runs down
Where the cats won't go
And the footpath falls away

It's a shadow of a rhyme
It's a fear
It's a dearth
It's a warning
Keep away
Don't you want to stay inside?

Down Annerton Pit

These recordings are all demos.

Interested in the dark side, the quirky side, but mainly in that buttery biscuit bass.

Bassist and composer from Belfast.

Fancy a collaboration? Drop me a line.

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