Second scan, reality sinking in (in a good way!)

My wife and I went for her second "official" scan the other day, which this time seemed slightly less "unreal" than the first. I've said to a lot of people that, I guess, for people of my generation, seeing an image on a computer screen doesn't automatically make something seem real. Possibly a rather sad indictment of our generation, but a truthful one nonetheless. When we went to the first scan, I felt a curious sense of detachment to the image that I was seeing on the ultrasound. I didn't feel that often talked about moment of revelation that other fathers have on first seeing the image of this little creature slowly growing inside their wife's belly. Ironically, it was at this second scan , where they played us the baby's heartbeat and I could clearly see the little thing (who's much more awake now than before) flex his or her fingers and toes.

Where have all the great covers gone?

This post, which originally appeared on Matrixsynth, inspired 2 things - firstly to try and track down the Morton Subotnick disc pictured with the fantastic, Yellow Submarine-style artwork, and secondly to ponder on what ever happened to the sort of great album cover artwork, that was so cool it made you want to buy the album before you even knew what it sounded like.
The two examples here are two albums that (i.m.h.o.) have the sort of great artwork I'm talking about and I'd now be inclined to add Mr Subotnick's disc to that list...but this could all be because, as my wife continually tells me, at heart I'm just an old hipppie!
If anyone else has strong suggestions on modern day equivalents let me know, but lets make this clear: Whilst there are modern record labels with great artwork (ECM, warp, Factory) they often tend to be rather crisp, cool and slightly-detached, post-modern affairs with none of the messy brilliance of these three or even a classic Grateful Dead cover...but once again that could just be the old hippie in me talking...

Leafcutter John's Forester now available for PC!

Blown away by this as I didn't think it was going to happen. Leafcutter John's Max/MSP based software "Forester" with itelligently multilates and re-arranges audio from audio files or a Cd has now been ported to PC. I've wanted to try this for ages, Simon Fisher Turner had been singing its praises to me some months ago, but until now its been MAC only. I've only had a chance to have the briefest of plays on it so far, but I'll definitely be using it for future tracks. Not only is it free, but you don't need to download extra software from Max/msp to be able to run it.

Check it out you won't be disappointed.

Here's the link

Ps Leafcuuter John is currently working on version 2 of "Forester" and is taking suggestions for what should be included - my vote would be for vst capability (its currently standalone) - so if you've got any bright ideas you should let him know.

Back from Hols, Back to normal

Appologies for lack of recent posts, I nipped over to England, last week, to see friends in Liverpool and London and, needless to say, didn't bother logging in to post anything whilst I was there.
Interested to note that from my (now, outsider)viewpoint London seems to get "harder to take" everytime I go back. I never really noticed the dirt, poverty, rundown buildings when I lived there...but every time I go back it seems to increasingly resemble the set of "full metal Jacket".
I couldn't help but notice when I went to visit Turnkey (big music shop on London's Charing Cross Road) how much that seems to have gone downhill in terms of what stock they have on display. A few years ago, when I lived in London, Turnkey was one of my favourite haunts - Mainly because it had loads of synths on display rigged up with headphones so you could try them out. It was pretty much the only place where you could easily do this (yes, other shops have this facility - but none with the range of stock that turnkey had and none where you could just walk in and try something out without even having to ask a member of staff!). So it was with considerable disapointmaent that I walked out of Turnkey last week, having found that they had hardly any stock, the shop looked more like a warehouse with boxes strew all over the place and the two nits of gear that I wanted to try out I couldn't because they had lost hte power supply for one and the other, the couldn't be bothered to go and find a power supply for! What's happened? Is this the growth of online sales that have made many shops think "F**k it!" and just use their store as a kind of depot?
Whatever. Answers on a postcard please.
London wasn't all bad, though as usual the Fopp chain of discount cd s & dvds stores, in Charing X road, Tottenham Court Road and Camden proved to be both my salvation & downfall. Salvation in that they had many of the obscure stuff that i would never be able to find in Switzerland, downfall in that I almost had to physically restrain myself from spending too much money. I did get some great stuff though:
MSTRKRFT - the looks
Rafael Toral - space
Boards Of Canada - Twoism & Hi Scores eps
Howie B - Music For babies
Triosk - The headlight serenade
Mu-zig - Bilious paths
Robert Logan - Cognessence

I could have bought loads more, but was concious of how much all this was costing in Swiss Francs!

Nora - the piano playing cat.

Came across this on Analog Industries. It's pretty old but good nonetheless. Babu (my dog) doesn't have anything like these skills though he did used to like coming and stamping on the sustain pedal on our piano and even now, when someone plays the piano he comes and sits by their feet!

Tracks from "Feral" played on Resonace Fm's "Rhythm Incursions"

Mr Trick from Resonance Fm's excellent hip-hop and electronica show "Rhythm Incursions" played 3 tracks from my forthcoming C.D., Feral, on his show on Saturday night. For those of you who live in an area where you can't pick up the show, you can listen to the show online via their archive at Samurai FM. The show is the topmost (or most recent) Mr Trick show and few shows back (between one featuring Wrongtom and one by Waxfactor) is a show where he played "Four Suns", a track from my last e.p.

Make sure you check it out and thanks again to Trick for his continuing support.