The song that started it all for us. This song's composition marked our transition from Cinema Dreams (through a year as 'The Loved One') to Thieves Like Us and now Milano Rovente. 

Three years at Uni obsessively listening to Scritti Politti, Aztec Camera (Love), Prefab Sprout, ABC, Jam and Lewis and 70s/80s era Prince led me to a new direction. Intricate arrangements, precise / sequenced synths, funky bass, soulful vocals and big choruses - these aims all came together in Thieves Like Us. Jon was really finding his identity as a vocalist and our resident tech-genius Rich B was able to facilitate the sessions with his Atari ST running Pro24 before we graduated to Cubase. Our equipment list consisted of two Fostex X26 four track recorders, one SM58 microphone, a Boss Dr Synth Module, a Yamaha DX7, two Fostex monitor speakers, a bass guitar, the Atari ST and the recording software. Rich B was also stepping out as a deeply impressive bassist having served his apprenticeship with local youth music groups and many gigs with his bands. 
This new version of Blue For The Girl (originally Blue 4 The Girl with a nod to the little Purple One :))features a fantastic bass performance from Rich B who also plays the tight and funky rhythm guitar lines. Jon gives a bravura vocal turn and I got to enjoy myself far too much using lots of synthesizers to make sure that one of our key songs could be re-launched sounding its best... I even dug out hardware orchestra hits from the JDXa as they were an integral part of the original; you can never have too many orchestra hits!
Written(1997)and Mixed (May 2023)by R Cook 
Produced by R Braithwaite & R Cook
Performed by Milano Rovente - 
Jon Paul - Vocals
R Cook - Synthesizers, Drum Programming, B Vox
R Braithwaite - Bass Guitar, Electric Guitar, B Vox

Synthesizer Hardware - Korg Prologue 16, Roland JDXa, Roland JP8000, Roland R8m, Roland Juno106, Casio CZ1000, Roland D50, Kawai K3, Yamaha RX17.

Blue For The Girl

I wrote this song so many years ago! 

I remember writing it one weekend and then excitedly showing it to Rich B during the break of an orchestra rehearsal on an ancient, mouldy and very out-of-tune piano. We recorded a version just after we finished Lovessence but lost the Pro24 files. We then re-recorded it once or twice more, never being quite happy with the result. I recorded an acoustic version a few years ago but the song has finally revealed itself with this version.
It has ended up as a crisp and punchy funk track with an arrangement full of space but with a fundamentally sad lyric. Although the title comes from a piece by Handel and is based on words written by Milton, I must admit that I saw the title on a re-run of the 80s TV series 'Bergerac' and liked it! They did feature the Handel song in the show so there is, sort of, an authentic link;) Although there is some artistic licence, the words are basically autobiographical, and with some recent events are all the more meaningful to me now than when they were written. 'I am a man of sorrows, holding yesterday because I sold tomorrow'... 
The earlier versions of the song were all ballads but there was something about the juxtaposition of the mood of the words with the funky arrangement that worked for me. Rich B, as ever, indulged me with only the faintest look of disbelief when I said I wanted to include this old hidden gem in our new sessions... but as a dry funk track. 
The song is built on a crisp drum part supported by a funky bass-line and some Nile Rogers-baiting guitar. I only took one synth with me to Rich B's West Wales studio (the Roland Alpha-Juno 1) and layered four (I think!) separate synth lines over the guitar and bass. No quantizing was used for anything other than the drums so all keyboard parts are 'live'. In a new turn of events it is me (!!) and not King Bass Mr Braithwaite who is popping and slapping like a Mark King wannabe but Rich B steps up with some pin-sharp rhythm guitar.
This is one of the key tracks of our rebirth - funky, synthesized, melodic, melancholic, introspective; very much our own sound! This song has taken something like 20 years to find its feet and actually reach a 'finished' version but it is now complete and one of my favourites of our songs.
Thanks to the likes of early ABC, The Kane Gang and early Sade for making very funky English pop; I recommend songs like Spirit, Tears Are Not Enough and Smalltown Creed :)

R Cook - Bass Guitar, Synthesizer (Roland Alpha Juno 1), Drum Programming (Roland R8m and Yamaha RX17), Lead Vocal and backing vocals.
R Braithwaite - Guitar and Backing Vocals
Written and Mixed by R Cook 2023 (2000),
Produced by R Braithwaite and R Cook
Recorded at Mill Terrace and Logopolis 2023

Man Of Sorrows

This show follows Kate through the years 1998 to 2004, and includes music by Kate, other artists' covers of some of her songs, and a very old live track from Kate when she was in the KT Bush Band.

The Magic Of Kate Bush

The Magic Of Kate Bush Show Number 06 - 29 July 2023

An Academy of Saints song.

This song is unashamedly influenced by the songwriters of the 'Great American Songbook' and some of the favourite artists such as Hue and Cry, The Bathers and Gary Clark (of Danny Wilson!).
The arrangement features voice, piano, guitar, drums, flute, muted trumpet, double bass, harp, a string section, a glockenspiel and an ARP Odyssey synthesizer.

The lyrics are about how sweet memories of first love / infatuation are dulled and stolen by the passing years. In the song, the person who held that particular torch for all those years (me;)) is told by the singer to rest now as no amount of revisiting of those treasured memories will change the outcome and each day they are farther gone. The love that you long for will never shine in those eyes whose image is being reclaimed by the past... it looks like the polka-dot girl is finally going to run away. Time has claimed her and all that's left is the keepsake of those first feelings.

Quite appropriately for the first (proper) release from my long-intended orchestral pop project the subject of the song is someone I met through playing in the local youth orchestras sooo many years ago! I never seemed to have the right words.

Written, Performed and Produced by R Cook August 2023

Keepsake - Academy of Saints

Lifelong Kate Bush fan, some time songwriter and recording artist with Rare Flowers, and occasionally performing Kate Bush's songs as The Magic of Kate Bush. I now enjoy creating radio shows about Kate (and other artists) and run a Facebook page 'The Magic of Kate Bush' to promote Kate's work.

machinesforliving is a platform for my music projects. 

I trained as a ‘classical’ orchestral musician and pianist but never felt a passion for the music or instruments I played. Synthesizers were another matter altogether.  I get lost in the scope of the soundscaping and orchestration possibilities as well as the beauty of precision.

I’ve written some background for each song which can be found ‘behind’ each track. Music is a joy and part of the healing.

Some songs are also available on Art City Glimmer's Bandcamp page.

PROJECTS
Art City Glimmer: 2010 - Present. Solo electronic pop.

Milano Rovente (formerly Thieves Like Us): reactivated 2021. Funk, soul, sophistipop collaboration with Rich Braithwaite and Jon Paul.

International Electromatics: 2011-2021. EBM project with writer MM Lewis. Currently on hiatus waiting for new lyrics😁!

Outlier: 2022-Present. Sample-based hauntology project. Sound sources include 1930s movies, obscure library music, 70s easy listening, 20th Century classical, cult TV, dance and electronica.

Academy of Saints: 2023- Present. Orchestral and chamber-pop project. 

Stars of the Silver Age: 2012-Present. Exclusively analogue synthesis-based occasional project. Lockdown album written, recorded and mixed across 4 days using just an SH101 and a Volca Beats. All tracks from that available on own Soundcloud page.

Red Sky: 2018. Umbrella for instrumental / ambient pieces.

Sixth of the Seven Trees- 2015 - present.

New tracks tagged #hue and cry