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.

7" out now - the 'legendary' psych edits...

Well I never thought I'd see the day, but the day's arrived.  Two re-edits I originally did in 2006-ish* have finally made it to vinyl thanks to the lovely chaps at the Spoke label.  The Dakotas edit might be familiar to anyone clever enough to listen to the Mix90 series, while the Open Mind edit has never seen the light of day until now (aside from one airing at a DJ night in Preston in 2007, played from a 10" dubplate.  Yes, I remember these things...)

So, if they float your vessel click on THIS LINK to be transported to the magical shop of Spoke, stick some details in and all that, and they'll send you one.  There aren't a limitless supply of 'em, and from what I hear, they're already finding new homes rather quickly.  Their other releases are well worth checking out, too.  Advert over.
 

* I just thought I'd mention that to deflect any accusations of jumping on the already-heaving 'psychedelic' bandwagon, like so many other cynical chancers have done recently.  I've got a 25+ year history with this stuff...

Post summer update - lots of things...

Hello, adoring fans.  Oi, stop sniggering.

Just a brief round-up of goings on in my world, which you've probably missed.  Right, let's get the stuff to listen to out of the way.  First up, I bought myself a new synth a couple of months ago, so it only seemed right to make lots of atonal noises with it.  That's why I like synths.  If you fancy an improvised 20 minute soundscape, click the play button below... 

Nice, eh?  Anyway, moving on...  I also found a cassette of some stuff I did sometime around 1994/5, using lots of gear that a friend had which I couldn't possibly have afforded.  It was an attempt to make dance music of a sort, possibly the kind of thing near the end of the night to calm people down.  Basically, that means the tracks are quite slow.  I only have the cassette left as far as I can work out, so they're sonically a bit challenged, but I like that.  I like cassettes, you see.  Not in an ironic hipster idiot way.

 


What else...?  Oh, yes.  I did an official (for a change) remix for Victoria & Jacob, which I was quite pleased with.  You can listen to it below, or buy it (yes, I said buy it... one of those 'pay what you want' jobs) over on Bandcamp, in a compilation of other mixes of the track - LINKY LINK - Please chuck them a few quid if you like it, and maybe leave a comment or two somewhere.  Go on, I dare you.


And finally, news just in about something I've been waiting to happen for a long, long time.  Soundhog psych-edits on seven inch?  Yes, you read right.  More news as and when I have any, and probably at the Spoke Records website as well, but here's some sticker artwork for you to be getting on with, which should give you an idea...

T'ra for now.

Soundhog does Spacelab...

Ok, so a fairly straight Kraftwerk cover isn't the most interesting thing to do in 2013, I agree.  However there is a good reason for it.  Some friends of mine up in Scotland put on a night where people were playing 'werk tracks totally live, which was set up as a response to a similar event in Cardiff, which was set up as a 'consolation' to the 99.99999% of fans who didn't get tickets for the concerts at the Tate Modern earlier in 2013.  Still with me?  I'd hoped to be able to attend and play something, but it didn't happen.  Therefore I decided to record a cover version to play out over the P.A. system instead.  Perhaps as people were leaving...   This is that cover version.

As the main ethos behind the performances was that they were to be done totally live, with no sequencing or backing tracks, all parts on this were recorded totally 'manually'.  Given my ultra-rudimentary keyboard prodding skills, this was no mean feat.  Anyway, I think it came out quite well.  Those bored already will probably have stopped reading ages ago.  Those who care about what I used can read on...

There are 8 audio tracks here.  The opening scale which turns into bleepy space noises was done on a Korg Monotribe, as was the drum track and little up/down octave line.  The note change is achieved by setting the LFO to a square wave, carefully tuning the 'INT.' control and flipping the 'target' lever from VCF to VCO when needed.  The drum hits were punched in and out in the process.  At the same time, I was using the sync-out to trigger a Roland SH2 which I played the main bassline on.  I really could have used some extra hands here, it took a few attempts to get through it without mistakes.

That was the 'machine assisted' part done.  The SH2 was also used to play the main melody line, and the resonated lowish noisy notes.  The pads are done on a Roland RS09 strings/organ unit, which was filtered slightly to make it sound a tad more interesting.  Topping it off are the little spangly high notes, done on my Korg M500 Micropreset (which you might recognise the sound of from its' extensive use on the first couple of OMD albums).  Final touch was to dig out my Commodore 64 and load up "Software Automatic Mouth" (or "SAM"), tell it what I wanted it to say and press return at the right moments.  Mix it all together roughly, and... 

Steely Dan vs Daft Punk - old track, new video...

Another new set of visuals for something I did ages ago (2009 in this case).  The Dan's Do It Again with Daft Punk's first big hit.  Someone asked me for it a couple of weeks ago, and it got me thinking that it really should have had a promo video made at the time.  I wasn't very into doing videos then, but I'm a bit more keen now.  So I've made one.

*edit*  I note this video is blocked from 'mobile devices' on YouTube, the reason apparently being that it uses bits of some record (that I've never heard of) which uses bits of 'Do It Again', rather than for it actually using 'Do It Again'.  Go figure.  I can't change it, so if you can't view the video below, try this Vimeo link instead:  https://vimeo.com/65081656

If the reference points pass you by on this one, you might like to quickly read up on the BBC Micro, teletext graphics and the 1982 TV series The Computer Programme.  Suffice to say, it was a right swine getting that movie into 32K of memory...  honest.

Whole Lotta Helter Skelter - VIDEO ALERT!!

You may have heard the track before - or at least, I hope you have - but it would seem in this day and age, if you're really going to go global with something, you need a 'pop video'.  Well, it would also seem it helps to have a stupid dance (like you're riding a horse whilst having broken arms) for the lumpen proletariat to really fall for it, but I'm not about to plumb *those* depths, thank you very much...

Some more successful people than me (i.e. nearly everyone) have professional people and companies to make videos for their tracks, which they can project behind them on large screens while they do their DJ sets.  Me?  I have to gather up material, and sit here for about ten hours, cutting and pasting and moving and removing and cutting and pasting and stretching and inverting and more cutting and pasting until my home computer starts waving a white flag out of its' 3.5" floppy drive slot.  So, around 300 edits and a couple of migraines later...

The track's still on Soundcloud, and at the moment you can download it in 320k mp3 format from there - the offer will last until the tail end of the year, when my premium membership runs out.  Don't delay, click today, etc.  Do feel free to spread this video around the internet.  I won't mind.  I doubt I'll get a billion views, but let's not be defeatist too early, eh?  Turn it up.

*update*  It's taken off a little bit after being posted on a few blogs.  Here are some of the more interesting things being said about it.  (New quotes added 10/01/13 - mostly from NME readers/followers, which says a lot...)

"That's awful " - @JackMendel4 (twitter, reply to NME posting)
"terrible" - @Mr_JosephSmith (twitter, reply to NME posting)
"and all I can say is... why? :(" - @Vero_bum (twitter, reply to NME posting)
"two rights make a wrong. Make it stop." - @LissaKW (twitter, reply to NME posting)
"why would you even mashup 2 legendary songs? just leave them as they are and enjoy yourself mashing up crappy electro songs" - Brentke (YT user)
"Crap" - SpittingMage (YT user)
"this is akin to diluting your Courvoisier with Slivo" - golem (dangerousminds.net)
"That was horrible. Just proves how much the beatles SUCK." - Brian Weinhofer (dangerousminds.net)
"Not working for me on several levels......" - Bob Valerino (dangerousminds.net) -
"Like all MaSHuPs, They're just a lazy effort of a remix!" - Robb Earl (dangerousminds.net)
"Fucking awful. Trashes two classic songs" - @Sipperana (twitter.com)
"Omits signture desceding (sic) riff from helter sketer. remix FAIL not culture. rip off. Try writing a song. cc." - @CaptDavidRyan (twitter.com)

I feel like I've finally arrived...  if you see any more good ones, do send them to me so I can post them up for posterity.

Paul McCartney vs Soundhog - Take It Away - 'Rubber Dub'

Greetings, rat-fans.  So, to celebrate avoiding Xmas successfully for the 17th year running, I grabbed the first 30 seconds of Sir Paul's 1982 pop masterpiece, and attacked it with various cheap (or fairly cheap, in the scheme of things) sonic devices. These included a Korg Monotribe and Monotron Delay, a Melodica with most of the keys working, a 1970s Sansui hi-fi reverb unit and a Stylophone - an original example, of course.. not one of those iffy new ones - for as close to a live dub mixing session as I'm ever likely to indulge in.  It may not be very 'authentic' (I am after all a strawberry blonde, 41 year old garage mechanic from north Wales) but it was rather fun to do.  Hopefully it'll be fun to listen to as well. 

XMAS SHOCKER!! Mix90 #7 - "...A Good Deal Full Of Nothing" 24/12/12

Soundhog - Mix90 #7 (24th December 2012) by Soundhog on Mixcloud

Link: Listen on Mixcloud
Link: Download from Mediafire

Created & released: December 2012

Tracklisting: 

Side 1:

Ithaca - Journey
George Harrision - Greasey Legs
The Battered Ornaments - Staggered
Sharon Tandy - Hold On
Thane Russal & Three - Security
Nino Silvestre - Mosquita Muerta
Eric Siday - Auto Mobile
Rockin' Horse - Biggest Gossip In Town
The Secret Agent Five - Flight Thirteen
Geraldo 1969 - QE2
Sex Hands - Parker
Vodka Collins - Automatic Pilot
The Monochrome Set - 405 Lines
Harry Forbes - Tomorrow's Achievements

Side 2:
Y Niwl - Undegsaith
Gentle Giant - The Advent Of Panurge
Belbury Poly - Goat Foot
L'uovo Di Columbo - L'indecisione
Dorothy - I Confess
Roger Whittaker - Nasty Spider
Frank Zappa - Duodenum
The Dakotas - Magic Carpet
Pegasvs - Atlantico
Diagram Brothers - Bikers
Spencer Davies Group - Can't Get Enough Of It
The Desperate Bicycles - Smokescreen
Marion - I Go To Sleep
Wendy & Bonnie - The Paisley Window Pane
Kenny Lynch - Puff (Up In Smoke)

---------------------------------------------------------

Nearly one year on after the last one, here's the seventh installment in my sporadic Mix90 series. Number 6 did quite well, for some reason, so being one to take full advantage of a situation... er, yes.

What's here this time? Oh, the usual. Italian prog, Scouse powerpop, Welsh surf rock, Canadian library music, South African psych-soul, Catalonian motorik-dream-electropop, English DIY, German balladry, Japanese glam, Chileian folktronic aceness... plus loads more, knitted together with odd little audio snippets, weird adverts and what have you. Much like the others, really. If you haven't heard them, then get on with it. The world was meant to end a few days ago and we might just be experiencing a temporary delay... Anyway, hope you manage to find time to listen to this one, and I hope you like what you hear if you do. Let me know, innit?

Shock horror. Various things I've been doing recently alert...

Hello.  Remember me?

Right, well I thought I should really post up some of the things I've been up to on here since the last time I made an entry in this blog.  I've been making the mistake of just putting everything up on my f@cebook 'artist' page, but it would seem that very few people are actually noticing anything.  This could be general disinterest, or it could be due to f@cebook trying to make money out of people... whatever, I'll try and put stuff up here as well as a result.

So, first up my Soundcloud page got very full and I ran out of things to delete from it.  Therefore I've made a new one, specifically for older tracks and whatnot.  I'm being fairly selective about what goes up there, but there are a few nice things so far.  The page is here:

Soundhog Archive

One of the things on there is old but previously 'unreleased'.  It's a re-edit of a track by a fairly obscure UK post-psych outfit called 'Second Hand'.  There's more info about it on the Soundcloud page, but here's the track itself - looped up and extended by a couple of minutes or so.  Could prove popular at discos, assuming they're odd discos.

What else?  Well, I've been fiddling about with my small arsenal of 1970s monophonic analogue synthesizers (Roland SH2, Korg M500 and a borrowed Micromoog), finally managing to get them under control of my audio software, thus removing my dodgy keyboard skills from the equation.  The first results of this are a remix I've done (for a competition, never thought I'd do that but still...) of a Pepe Deluxe track.  My Flaming Thirst is an epic pseudo-Bond theme from their recent album 'Queen Of The Wave'.  I've turned it into something which starts off somewhere between 'Oxygene' and 'Wish You Were Here Part 1', and ends up into more motorik territory.  I think the drums came out pretty well, here.  It's not downloadable just yet, but I'll enable that feature once the judging is over.  I won't win, I'm sure, but I tried my best... 

*edit*  Well, contrary to my expectations, I did actually come first.  I won loads of nice PD stuff, and I believe the mix (possibly along with an instrumental version) will be going up on that iTunes thing at some point soon, so I'm afraid to say the 'download' button's going to remain disabled for once!  I'll post more news on further developments when I know what they are.

I've also been dabbling with twisted surf music, putting my limited guitar playing abilities to the fore.  I'm hoping to do more of this stuff later in the year, once I get my strings changed.  Spreading myself too thinly?  Yeah, probably...





I think that's about it for now.  More before the end of the year, possibly including a new Mix90.  Or possibly not.  Thanks for listening, if indeed you still are.

The Delian Mix : Radiophonics & Electrosoniks

Link: Listen on Mixcloud

Link: Download from Mediafire

May 5th, 2012 would have been Delia Derbyshire's 75th birthday. In an attempt to celebrate this in some way, I've put together an hour's worth of music and speech. Obviously it features a fair amount of Delia's work, and her voice in conversation. However, I've also added in pieces and interviews from some of her colleagues at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, as well as a few pieces from non-RW composers who were (seemingly, at least) working towards similar goals during the 1950s and 1960s. 

Also, I've tried to avoid the usual chestnuts which get wheeled out whenever people talk of the Radiophonic Workshop.  Yes, some of 'those' tunes appear here, including 'that' one, but mainly because it allows me to include Delia (and Brian Hodgson) talking about them.  Elsewhere there's some pretty unusual and unheard stuff.  Hopefully there'll be something here to interest even the most hardcore Radiophonic nutcases (amongst which I include myself!)  Anyway I hope you enjoy it... and happy birthday Ms. Derbyshire, wherever you may be... 

Tracklisting:

Delia Derbyshire - Happy Birthday
Ray Cathode - Waltz In Orbit
Desmond Briscoe - Excerpt from 1963 Third Programme interview
Delia Derbyshire - Ziwzih Ziwzih Oo Oo Oo Oo
Brian Hodgson - Attack Of The Alien Minds
Brian Hodgson - Tardis Take Off
Tristam Cary - Opus (M1)
Desmond Briscoe - excerpt from 'Wee Have Also Soundhouses', 1979
Delia Derbyshire - excerpt from 1960s interview
Delia Derbyshire - Pot Au Feu
Delia Derbyshire, Brian Hodgson & John Peel - John Peel's Voice
The White Noise - Firebird
Delia Derbyshire - excerpt from 1997 interview with John Cavanagh
David Cain - May (from 'The Seasons')
F.C. Judd - Fairground
John Baker - excerpt from 1960s interview
John Baker - BBC interlude piece (title unknown)
Delia Derbyshire - excerpt from 1997 interview with John Cavanagh
Delia Derbyshire - Blue Veils & Golden Sands
The White Noise & The Welfare State - Silence Is Requested In The Ultimate Abyss
Brian Hodgson - 2001 interview about Dr. Who theme
Delia Derbyshire - excerpt from 1997 interview with John Cavanagh
Delia Derbyshire - Get Out & Get Under ('Know Your Car' theme)
Desmond Leslie - Asteroid Belt
Ron Geesin - Concrete Line Up
F.C. Judd - 'This Loop Business'
F.C. Judd - Perpetua
Tom Dissivelt & Dick Raaijmakers - Orbit Aurora
John Baker - A Job Worth Doing?
Daphne Oram - Missile Away
Brian Hodgson & Dudley Simpson - In The Hall Of The Mountain King
Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange - excerpt from 'The Dreams'
Delia Derbyshire - The Delian Mode
Delia Derbyshire, Brian Hodgson & Don Harper - The Pattern Emerges
Delia Derbyshire - excerpt from 1997 interview with John Cavanagh
Delia Derbyshire & E.A.R. - Synchrondipity Machine
Delia Derbyshire - Time To Go

Steve Miller Band - Fly Like An Eagle - Extended Remix by Soundhog

SMB's 1976 FM radio classic.  Deconstructed, straightened up, dubbed out, pumped up, compressed, extended and reassembled.  Result: longer and louder.  That's it, really...

*edit* - Soundcloud download limit busted (Again?!  Blimey...) so the best I can offer is a GE.TT link for a 320k mp3 version: DOWNLOAD

Whole Lotta Helter Skelter - Beatles / Led Zeppelin

*edit 30/03/2014* It took over two years, but some miserable fuck at Universal Music Group finally took it upon himself to have this track removed from Soundcloud.  Not the end of the world, but annoying.  The video's still up at the moment, and a 320k mp3 can be downloaded from this link here... Makes you pine for the the good old days of EMI, eh?  And I notice there's been no online outcry over this, not even an solitary email of condolence... perhaps only people into shitty tedious over-hyped 'hip hop m@$hups' do that sort of thing?  Anyway, I'm not bitter or anything...*cough*

So after saying I don't 'do bootlegs' anymore, I gone and done another one.  I'm not setting out to make a habit of this, it's just that some nice source material came my way and I had a couple of evenings to kill. I don't think I need to say much else about this, really... it's all in the title and the artwork. Suffice to say, I'm of the opinion that if anyone else had attempted this, it would have been a disaster.  As it is, I think it's come out pretty jolly well.  

Could this be the one which finally gets me appreciated and blogged about with 25,000 plays and a mention in Uncut/Mojo/Old Fart Rocker Monthly and all that sort of stuff, after 10 long years of trying?  Yeah, dream on...  Anyway, find a decent stereo system to play this on, and turn the volume control up all the bloody way.  Please let me know in some way if it tickles your rock buds.

Traffic vs Led Zeppelin - John Barleycorn Must Ramble On

The keen brains may have spotted the fact that these days I don't really do 'bootlegs', or 'm*sh-ups' if you really must use that horrific term (now used in an advert starring Jennifer Saunders, for some revolting sounding chocolate and cheese snack). Many will know I can bang on at length about how what was an interesting art form has become something for the mildly talentless and easily pleased. However, occasionally I do get an idea which I just have to try out. Usually they don't turn out well enough to finish, let alone foist on the general public... or maybe they're too good for the likes of people who think a Nintendo-esque version of a Smiths song is really good.

Anyway, here's something I did, which I think has come out pretty well. It's sort of an attempt to put together a new West Midlands supergroup (with two additional members from the South East), despite three of 'em having tragically left this planet way too early. You'll probably be familiar with the mighty 'Ramble On', from Led Zeppelin's second album. You may not be quite so familiar with Traffic's 'John Barleycorn Must Die', but you should be. Here they are together. 

The band: Steve Winwood - Acoustic Guitar, Jim Capaldi - Percussion, Chris Wood - Flute, Robert Plant - Vocals, John Bonham - Drums, Jimmy Page - Electric Guitar, John Paul Jones - Bass Guitar. If you like it, do please spread it around. If you don't, there's an inexplicably popular, Nintendo-esque version of a Smiths song floating around which you might think is really good.

*edit* - Soundcloud download limit busted (that doesn't happen very often around here), so the best I can offer is a Mediafire link for a 320k mp3 version: DOWNLOAD

Ace Of Wands theme tune ('Tarot' by Andrew Bown) - sH Extended Edit

I'm a bit too young to remember Thames Television's 'spooky' early '70s kids drama 'Ace Of Wands' the first time around (no, really) but I've always loved the theme tune. The work of one Andrew 'Andy' Bown, once a member of '60s heartthrobs The Herd, and future keyboard player for 'The Quo'. He was in a band called Judas Jump at the time of this track, and the sonic qualities of it are very similar to JJ's output, but it's better than anything on their only LP, IMHO (with the exception of the opening cut, perhaps).

Originally a snatch over 2 minutes long, I've somehow managed to almost double it's length (and stuck in a tiny bit of flanging, just for the hell of it). Original 7"s of this are normally well out of my price range, but if anyone's got one going spare..

Andrew Bown - Tarot (Ace Of Wands Theme - Soundhog's Extended Edit) by soundhog