Ah, dear listener! I present myself here with my good buddy Gary, rather sheepish and shamefaced at being absent from this church of sonic jewels for the longest time.  I have been a bad listener, I'm afraid.  Bereft of mojo, time and without my little studio. Mea culpa. 

If you've read this far, you already have a whiff of the legendary about you.

So one day, quite recently,  the Phaigester messages me and opens his raincoat to reveal a select library of stellar little ear-nuggets he's been hiding away. What beauties, I tell thee! What beauties!
He lives here and you should visit if you haven't before 
https://soundcloud.com/thephaige

Three grabbed me instantly..deep, swirling soundstrata, complex and intriguing in equal measure. 

Perched on my bed, yodelling into the abyss, I attempt to add to his painting.  Teleported into that great,  inkyblack wonderland of transcendent joy again.

Hats off to Gar. Inventive, musical and patient. Thanks for your art and resuscitating me.

3 tracks..8mins plus..big ask. But hey, if you've read this far whilst listening you're halfway through 

Cheers me hearties, catch  you soon
Be good 

Nick

All music, production and artwork   Gary
Vocal and lead on track 1    Ridiculous

Peripheral

I can’t see you, I can’t be with you
I can’t hold you or feel your welcome touch
As we slip into the water

I always sense you, I always feel you
Moving with me, our thoughts alike so much
As we slip into the water

When you slipped away on that awful day
You made me promise to live my life my own way
As I walk with you into the water

No more peripheral
It is logical
It is you and me

Tlaslila

I feel
Like I want to ride across the desert
Baking sand, tears of sweat in my eyes
Then climb climb the black mountains
Oh-oh-over we go, sail into the grey blue skies
I feel cold, dark deepness,
Feel fearsome rain,
Then fall
Fall into your arms again

Strange Agent

Strange Agent
You're never gonna find the man
Strange Agent
He'll let you run while you can

Fool you summoned him from beyond
Fool you thought he'd give you what you want
But that ain't the deal
Spinning the wheel
He's found something to steal
There's a soul to pay

Strange Agent, running wild in your head
Strange Agent telling you to talk with the dead
He's taking you by the hand

It's In The Room EP ThePhaige with Nicholas Ridiculous

I am a singer songwriter producer from the North West in the  UK.....I love Jazz and Soul...in fact  all music brings me joy!, My music has had mainstream play on The BBC music app  on The Sun Lounge  show with Adam Dunning and BBC introducing  in Manchester with “ Roesh”  Jazz FM Curved Radio in Australia  and  KJazz radio UK . Please go over and  listen to my music on  Spotify.    I have been very lucky to have collaborated with some very talented musicians and singers, and a special thanks to all of them because I have learnt so much and I am still learning.Please check out my recent interviews with Meryana Tamera on Radiosparx!

"Magic is what we do. Music is how we do it." -- Jerry Garcia

Welcome to my page, my peers, associates, friends, and musical family. I'm a lifelong, multi-instrumentalist musician who records prolifically and joyfully. You'll hear me play guitar, bass (regular four string, and four and five string fretless), mandolin, banjo, keys (piano, organ, synth), lap slide, sitar, and sing on my recordings here. I've been in a few dozen bands in my life, playing everything from bluegrass, jazz, rock, jam band, reggae, funk, afrobeat, Middle Eastern, traditional Irish, singer/songwriter, pop/covers, to experimental/avant garde. 
  Since I found SoundCloud a couple years ago, I've found many talented, creative people with whom to create music. However, in the summer of '23 I formed a band called The Eclectic Collective with some of my favorite musicians I've met through here. It started as a loose collective of musicians and coalesced into a core group of musicians who find other musicians with whom we'd like to make music, then run their songs through our process, and in effect add a full band. That core of The Eclectic Collective includes Tez (Llanpsych), J.J. Terrel, Ken (K2 and the Three), Stephen (Texmex Shaman), Chris (cgmaness), and Mark (mistermark). A couple of other musicians are frequent collaborators, as well, including Artur of Surfers Like Us, and Steve Vervaet of Steve's World. More recently, we've been joined by Carl of The Beautiful Dark fame. 
  The magic of music is amplified exponentially by each person adding to it. So, we really try to add our sorcery all kinds of music from all kinds of artists. Sometimes, we keep it within the group, but a lot of what we do is collaboration with other artists. Therefore these days, 100% of what I do is collaboration, within the group or with other artists on the side.
  I, and we, are also available for hire if you have a song or lyrics and you really want to add bigger instrumentation or a band and good production to it. 
  A small sampling of the artists whom I consider primary influences, and whom you will hear coming through my fingers include Phish, The Flaming Lips, The Grateful Dead, Radiohead, Rye Cooder, Steve Earle, Miles Davis, Fela Kuti, Arcade Fire, Mikey Dread, Yellowman, Purpleman, The Meditations, Michigan and Smiley, Lee Perry, Dillinger, Django Reinhardt, Impossible Recording Machine, The Allman Bros Band, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Bela Fleck, Les Claypool, Sam Bush, David Grissman, John Prine, Talking Heads, Beastie Boys, MMW, Moe., Morphine, Ween, Steve Lukather, Michael McDonald, John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, John Scofield, Victor Wooten,  Cannonball Adderly, Thelonious Monk, Flea, Parliament Funkadelic,  Frank Zappa, Prince Paul, Pete Rock, Thievery Corporation, Amon Tobin, Chet Baker, Joao Gilberto, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Carol Kaye, Tame Impala, Mumford and Sons, Japanese Breakfast, LCD Soundsystem, Beach House, Sean Lennon, and Billy Strings, but of course there are many more. I also really like and am influenced by traditional Iranian, Palestinian, Indian, Sri Lankan, Sudanese, Mauritian, Somalian, Egyptian, West African, and Syrian music. I welcome anyone who plays non-western music to contact me for a collaboration, too.
 I'm overjoyed to have found my community on SoundCloud. This is a truly unique forum where everyone is sincerely trying to build each other up. The profoundly supportive and positive SoundCloud community has really opened up an exciting new world of collaboration for me. That is the main reason I'm in the Cloud, actually, to connect with other musicians and make music that I enjoy listening to, and hopefully others do, as well. I am ALWAYS looking to collaborate with interesting musicians, mostly though BandLab, which is where I record almost exclusively. It's a solid, free digital audio workstation hub where you can share recording projects, even if it's not where you make your recordings.
  Everything I do is live instrumental, not programmed, and using no computer beyond my phone. That's not to say that I would be opposed to using that kind of tool, it's just not my preferred medium with which to paint. If you like my music, please share it. If you want to collaborate, my BandLab handle is @bingo_pajama. Feel free to contact me at cornbreadband@hotmail.com, as well, even if you aren't on BandLab.
  If your music is primarily AI, please don't come around my page, as I'm not at all interested in complimenting a machine.
  Here's a link to music I've recorded live with a group of musicians here in Pittsburgh called The Northumberland Street Ramblers.
Check out The Northumberland Street Ramblers on #SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/fU4Me

27/9/2025 Comment section is bugged so my replies don't always get through! Thanks for all the feedback!
*Best to use Headphones*

Main
https://soundcloud.com/user-820148039

This is what I did.
Fast asleep now
Time was our only enemy 
Be good
Nick

There is so much talent and variety here, and most of the people are pretty cool too. I love being part of this community. Listening to your music and being heard in return is enough.

Still reading? OK I'm gonna muse a bit. It's hard to fully convey how much this forum has meant to me. There are people I've never met that feel very much like old friends -- and in a very real way they are.
If I follow someone I make every effort to listen to and support their efforts. It's certainly not a transactional relationship but I do tend to limit my follows to people who engage in mutual listening and engagement. If you listen and leave a comment I always try to listen to *your* music when responding! If you follow at random without any feedback I hope you get something out of that too... ; )