New 7" single by me out May 11th. Yes, it's true. Honest.

Hello. Well life is really up in the air for me at the moment, for various reasons too dull/personal to bother you all with. However, one glimmer of good news is that there is actually some of my music available on a record from the wonderful Castles In Space label. A proper vinyl 7" single that you can play on a record player, with a cover and an insert sheet. It's been 14 years since I had a proper record of my own out.

It features two electronic instrumentals that I composed last year and polished to something approaching a shine this year. One is a moogy glam stomper, the other a theme tune for a non-existant regional TV news show from 1983. There are 300 copies available, half of the run on black vinyl and the other half on white. I designed the sleeve and all that, the audio was given a sonic buffing by the excellent Jon Brooks (Ghost Box/Clay Pipe/Trunk etc.) and there might be a surprise within that will be of use to about three people... I hope.

Anyway, it's officially released May 11th but you can pre-order it now. Many thanks to those who've already done so, and it's really nice to see names I don't know popping up on the sale pages as well as those that I do. The Bandcamp link is this: https://soundhog-cis.bandcamp.com/album/astrablast-newtown-parkway, and here's a video I did for one side, using a 1980s Sony video camera, a Panasonic mixer, a TV set and a VHS recorder. Hope you like.

It's 2018, apparently.

So it's been quite literally years since I posted on this thing. I'm still alive. I've been doing things, just not a lot. I've joined a noisy band, I've been dabbling in experimental analogue video techniques and made two promo videos for the band Gallops as a result, I've played a live show in a disused nuclear bunker, and other things too boring to mention. 2018 is mostly bringing major problems so far, but it's also bringing a nice actual 7" single release of original instrumental electronic material wot I dun, which should be available in the next couple of months. More news on that at some point soon, I hope. No, I don't make mixes or 'do DJ sets' or any of that stuff anymore. I think it's wise to know when to pack that sort of thing in... Anyway, onwards and downwards.

S*undcl*ud account now officially dead...

Further to the last posting I made, I got home last night to find yet another S*undcl*ud 'strike' made against a track that's been uploaded for over *four years*.  As a result, I've removed all my remaining work from their site as it's just not worth bothering with anymore.  They can go to hell as far as I'm concerned.  Most of the old stuff and any new stuff is at/will be at https://hearthis.at/soundhog for the foreseeable future.  Thanks for reading.

Don't let the changes / a-get y'down / man...

...as Donovan sang in 1970.

Okay, well I've found an alternative place to host my more 'legally-dubious' productions.  I've no idea how long it'll last, as people seem to be flocking to it in the wake of S*undcl*ud's sudden get-tough policies.  But for the meantime, you can find stuff like the Steve Miller remix (hi Richard!), Traffic/Zep, the McCartney remixes and others there.  I may re-upload things like Mansun/Marvin, Beatles/Zeppelin and Edwyn/Goldfrapp as well.  Downloads are available for the moment, it would seem.

So, you'll be wanting the link?  Okay - https://hearthis.at/soundhog/   Let me know if I've missed out anything important.

In other news, the much-worried about live debut of my synthpop project 'Loose Capacitor' did indeed pass off without too many incidents the other week.  I was helped out by my friend David Harper and his Micromoog on bassline duties, while I concentrated on pressing the right lead keys and making sure the ReVox tape machine didn't go haywire.  Everyone on the night was excellent, especially The Twelve Hour Foundation, Revbjelde and Robin Lee.  I may do more music in this mould, should anyone give a stuff.  Video evidence follows below.

I may write more before Xmas.  I may not.  Toodle-pip for now.

Normal service will (maybe) be resumed...?

Just in case anyone was wondering (and just in case anyone still reads this blog, which is unlikely as I can't be bothered updating it recently).  Soundcloud's recent failure to strike a deal with PRS in the UK (and probably other performing rights organisations elsewhere) has resulted in them suddenly 'caring' about people's copyright, and as such they've started letting automated content matching systems run riot over people's uploads.  They'd done this a bit in the past, but now have decided to implement a 'three strikes' policy, which applies to new uploads as well as stuff which has been online for years.  They recently deleted a 'bootleg' track of mine (despite it being uploaded with the permission of one of the artists involved - hardly worth contesting under the circumstances) and made the first strike.  Two and I can't upload anymore, three and my account gets nuked. 

So reluctantly I've removed a lot of my stuff (Traffic/Led Zep, the Steve Miller extended mix etc.) from Soundcloud.  I might look for an alternative means of making them available, hopefully without resorting to YouTube, but don't hold your breath as it's not a priority for me at the moment.  I hope you downloaded them all already, 'cos you can't now.  Something tells me SC are unwittingly (or maybe unavoidably) plotting their own demise here, big style.  Fuck 'em.

In other news, I feature on a new CD alongside some other rather excellent talents.  I contributed two pieces under my 'Loose Capacitor' alias, and you can hear them (and maybe even download/buy the ludicrously cheap CD) here: http://buriedtreasure.bandcamp.com/album/the-delaware-road  There's also a live show on Saturday 14th November at South Street Arts Centre in Reading (UK), where I will be performing the two tracks live, with help from a friend and a ReVox tape recorder.  This will be the first time I've played anything in public other than a record/CD player.  It could be interesting.  http://readingarts.com/southstreet/event.asp?id=SX8C71-A7826C72  Tickets on the door or in advance - do come if you can. 

That's about it, probably for 2015.  A great end to it all, eh?  Wankers...

2015? What the chuff happened to 2014?!

Hello.  Well, I didn't do/say a lot last year, did I?  Nope.  Anyway, just to say that I'm still here.  Still buying records.  Still not making any mixes.  Still moaning about everything under the sun.  Yeah, well...

News for 2015?   Just a little.  There will be a 7" single containing a track I did with friends a few years ago, along with a new remix I've done of it on the b-side.  There will also be an LP out with a couple of my analogue electronics excursions on it, and there may be some more stuff to come.  Perhaps these things might lead on to other things... unlikely, but who can say?

Oh, and I've signed up to that 'Ello' thing.  I doubt you have.  However, on the off chance that I'm wrong about that, I now have a page at https://ello.co/soundhog  Not that I know what to do with it.  I'll probably just post pictures and videos of things I'm interested in.  Synths and records, basically.  Still, it's free at the moment, so you won't be losing anything much by having a look.  Apart from valuable seconds of your diminishing lifespan...   T'ra for now.

Maybe I'm (not) Amazed this hasn't had one million listens... McCartney Rearranged.

Happy 2014.

I can't be arsed typing too much here, but I've reuploaded some old stuff on the Soundcloud page, and also uploaded something new as well... I daresay you missed all of them.  Here's the new track, which is a reworking of McCartney's first post-Beatles ultra-classic.  Longer and subtly rearranged, basically.  If you want to see what else has been happening, click the link I posted a few lines up.  That's it.  See you in another year or something.  Maybe.  Maybe not.