Here's the blurb from the boring introduction in case you prefer to read:

The 9th October is my mum's birthday. Three and a half years ago she asked me to make some relaxing music for her birthday present, based on her favourite songs over her life. We talked a couple of times about her musical tastes and songs that meant a lot to her, and I hadn't really started on the project when she sadly died a couple of months later, before her birthday. I promised myself to continue the project anyway. And continue it every year. Part of the reason mum suggested it was because I told her I never finished pieces of music that I started, so I continue partly so her present idea continues to fulfil its original purpose. And also to remember and continue to connect with my mum through her music.

This year I have focused in on the same song that I used last year, and made three very different versions of it. The song is Until It's Time For You To Go, written and performed by Buffy Saint Marie, and covered by maybe a hundred other artists over the years. The version mum loved was by a British group called the Four Pennies. Last year's track was entirely sourced from her original copy, which was absolutely scratched to hell. Clearly well-played and well-loved. The scratches from that feature on the second track I've made this year, but that's the only appearance this version makes.

The first two are heavily inspired by two of my favourite artists, Boards of Canada and oneohtrixpointnever. The last one is inspired by mum, it is basically a cover of the song. I sing it in a style that I'd like to say is a copy of hers, however I have to admit this is basically how I naturally  sing, for better or worse. What I've especially added is very loose timing - actually mum would have been even more free with it, often singing lines a full bar before they should start. It is very rough round the edges, but I like that you can hear her voice in it. And I get to show off my trombone skills. All of the tracks are freshly laid out of Ableton Live, I can't be bothered with all that boring stuff to make it sound good on all stereos and on your phone speaker or whatever. Just listen on decent headphones and it'll be good enough.

The first track includes a sample from Buffy Saint Marie's original version, the second uses the vocals from Claudine Longet's cover.

Every year around now, I release a few tracks to fulfill a promise to my mum just over four years ago. I complained to her that I never finished any music, and she said I could make some relaxing music for birthday, based on the music she loved during her life, to encourage me to get pieces done. She died before her next birthday, but I carried on with the project anyway, to keep me working. And it is working. Most of the music I have released has been under this project!

This year the tracks are not at all based on the music she loved... it is just some stuff I wanted to release. I'm not sure if she'd like any of it, but she'd probably say it was very lively, or that I'm terribly clever, or that she hopes that someone out there will like it. Whatever it is a mum says about something their idiot kids do, and doesn't want to make them feel bad. The first is a banger and I love it, it is probably the first track I've done that I love. The second I did years ago, it is me messing about with a sample of a German Christmas carol (mum loved Christmas, bang there's a link). Finally there's a weird and (deliberately) wonky rendition of Beautiful Cosmos by Ivor Cutler. I find it devastating... it was written by Ivor about the relationship between him and a woman he doesn't live with. It is a picture of old age and the universe that inspires and destroys me.

Nowhere near as much work has gone into these as last year. That's because I'm busy with live musical projects, which is just the same as finishing music, right? Because if people have paid to hear it, it is de facto finished. I hope I have more time to spend on my personal projects soon. In the meantime, please continue to be confused by my bemusings.

Happy birthday mum, and thanks for the sense of philosophical absurdity that goes into everything I do.

Beautiful Cosmos

The United Kingdom is not just an island populated half by the racist, selfish and idiotic, and half by people in despair at the other half. It also has a great tradition of music-making going back to the early 1970's, when Slade discovered an ABBA record washed up on the beach in Birmingham and finally brought music to this septic isle.

Very quickly the primitive Britons settled on their favourite kind of music, that being Christmas music. Literally thousands of Christmas songs are produced every year in the UK, most forgotten. But some live on by being played incessantly through every possible grille in shops, supermarkets, lifts, telephone handsets and family restaurants, up and down the land, from just after Halloween through to just before Easter. The cumulative effect is a nightmarish cacophony that clearly foreshadowed the catastrophe of Farage, Brexit and Boris. 

I have taken some of these songs and twisted them into sonic trainwrecks, to better reflect their status in the British music pantheon. For non-Brits unfamiliar with these songs and the ancient tradition behind them - sit back and settle down, you're about to discover what it is like to be British at Christmas in 2019. If you're British, I hope this subtle reworking of our national festive heritage will prove a distraction from the descent to purgatory you're currently trying to ignore.

Fuck Brexit.
Fuck Boris.
And fuck all the fucking cunts who voted for them.

Christmas Album

Happy Crispmess 2013 Everyone

CHORUS:
Christmas day is nearly here
Christmas day is nearly here
Time to wear fake smiles of cheer
Pretend that we're not sick of it
Because we try to recreate
A time when yule was not so shit
So sing sing sing sing sing
This endless Christmas song

Christmas day is nearly here
Christmas day is nearly here
Time offer worthless gifts
To your friends and relatives
Who likewise offer worthless gifts
Bruised egos and minor tiffs
So sing sing sing sing
This endless Christmas song

CHORUS

Christmas day is nearly here
Christmas day is nearly here
Time to drink eight pints of beer
Because you're trying to forget
The pointlessness of the past year
The failure and deep regret
So sing sing sing sing
This endless Christmas song

CHORUS

Christmas day is nearly here
Christmas day is nearly here
Time to give up on your kin
Because you cannot tolerate
Their endless pointless bickering
You'd rather spend it with your mates
So sing sing sing sing
This endless Christmas song

CHORUS

BREAK

Christmas day is nearly here
Christmas day is nearly here
Choose to smile and drop the sneer
As soon the shortest day will dawn
While light returns to bring us cheer
Wrap yourself in cosy warmth
And sing sing sing sing
This endless Christmas song


In Dodgy Jubilo

Go - a boring introduction

Go To Canada

I'll Go

onegotrixpointnever

Juice

The United Kingdom is not just an island populated half by racist idiots and half by people in despair at the other half. It also has a great tradition of music-making going back to the early 1970's, when Slade discovered an ABBA record washed up on the beach in Birmingham and finally brought music to this septic isle.

Very quickly the primitive Britons settled on their favourite kind of music, that being Christmas music. Literally thousands of Christmas songs are produced every year in the UK, most forgotten. But some live on by being played incessantly through every possible grille in shops, supermarkets, lifts, telephone handsets and family restaurants, up and down the land, from just after Halloween through to just before Easter. The cumulative effect is a nightmarish cacophony that clearly foreshadowed the catastrophe of Farage, Brexit and Boris. 

I have taken some of these songs and twisted them into sonic trainwrecks, to better reflect their status in the British music pantheon. For non-Brits unfamiliar with these songs and the ancient tradition behond them - sit back and settle down, you're about to discover what it is like to be British at Christmas in 2019. If you're British, I hope this subtle reworking of our national festive heritage will prove a distraction from the descent to purgatory you're currently trying to ignore.

Stop the tears on another lonely day

Could be Christmas

What have you done?

Simply wonderful

Overture

Alright? I'm Ben and I make music mostly for a laugh and to keep me happy. All mistakes are intentional.

ooooooooomusic

Pinned to spotlight

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