'Eremite' Video

A video for my track 'Eremite', from the 'Eremite' E.P. released earlier this month.
Please watch in HQ.

Weekend of Wonders @ The Sage, Gateshead

Music venue The Sage in Gateshead is hosting a kind of mini-festival next month called 'Weekend of Wonders', the vague theme of which seems to be horror movie soundtracks.

I'm going to see Goblin on Thursday 24/02 (who are apparently playing in front of a screen showing clips from the Argento/Romero films that they worked on, as when I saw them at Supersonic 2 years ago).

I'm then seeing Mogwai on Sunday 27/02, hot on the trails of their new album, 'Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will'.

You can read more about 'Weekend of Wonders' here.

'Eremite'

My new E.P., 'Eremite', is now available to download for free on my website.

It includes some soundtrack material and other instrumental work recorded in the past few months.

7thSun - Eremite
01. The Whirring Sound of Wings
02. Trapped on a Tidal Island
03. Eremite
04. A Light Fall of Snow
05. Artificial Fire.

For full details, please visit http://www.7thsun.co.uk/

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

Trailer for Jim Jarmusch's film.

The score by RZA is also excellent, although the Japanese version of the soundtrack is the only one worth owning. Substix has posted his version featuring RZA's score and the other tracks in the film, check it out.

An Inspector Calls

The Mercurie Theatre presents
'An Inspector Calls' by J.B. Priestley
at the Church of St. Thomas the Martyr
Haymarket, Newcastle

Running from Wednesday 20/10 until Friday 22/10.
Tickets will be available on the door.
I am playing Eric Burling.

Velvet Starfish at October Zest

Friday 15/10/2010
St. Hilda's Church Hall, Jesmond
Newcastle

Set List:
01. Pictures of the Sky (7thSun)
02. Finest Little Space (Moulster/Powell/Yorke)
03. Be Gentle With Me (McKechnie)
04. Time (Mason/Waters/Wright/Gilmour).

Thanks to Davey for the photograph, and thanks to those who turned up.

October Zest

My band 'Velvet Starfish' are performing at St. Hilda's Church Hall in West Jesmond next Friday (15/10) at 7.30.

Our performance is part of the concert 'October Zest' which features several different performers and a range of musical styles.

Tickets are £5 on the door and include a glass of wine. All proceeds go to St. Oswald's Hospice.

Review: Mogwai - 'Special Moves'/'Burning'

'This recording is meant to be listened to on vinyl', it states on the back of Slint's 1991 album 'Spiderland'. The same could be said of Mogwai's new live album, 'Special Moves', because the vinyl edition contains six extra tracks which are easily as powerful as the other eleven performances on the CD edition. MP3s of these tracks are downloadable by means of a code supplied with the CD.

This is only half the story, however: 'Special Moves' is accompanied by the live DVD 'Burning'. Both the live album and DVD were recorded over three nights in Booklyn last year, although both feature different track selections and alternative mixes. Shot effectively in grainy black and white, the film does an effective job of capturing what it's like to see the band live (and my ears are still ringing from the volume of the screening in Newcastle several weeks ago).

Mogwai remain one of the very best live bands around, managing to apply the right degree of professionalism to their performances while maintaining a sense of humour about the whole thing. The highlights of this live package are, unsurprisingly, early career highlights 'Mogwai Fear Satan' and 'Cody', but it's also nice to hear tracks from the fantastic 'The Hawk Is Howling': pieces such as
'I Love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School' which envelop the listener with carefully structured washes of sound.

'Special Moves' and 'Burning' will present no surprises to seasoned Mogwai listeners who have seen the band live before, but they do show that the band are very much alive, comfortable with the legacy of their past and looking to explore new territory on-stage as much as in the studio.

Mogwai are on tour in February next year and are working on a new album at present.

'This is the first thing' by Philip Larkin

This is the first thing
I have understood:
Time is the echo of an axe
Within a wood.

Philip Larkin, 1943.

The Jesus and Mary Chain - 'Darklands'

The title track from the album 'Darklands' by The Jesus and Mary Chain, 1987.
Still one of my favourite summer albums, despite the fact that all of the lyrics are about rain.