There are loads of streaming mixes available on the internet. Currently I’m listening to Jimmy Behan’s Vol. 3 mix on Fluid Radio – a great range of edgy and ambient, very cool to listen to while working. Jimmy has been around the electronic music scene for a while with some cool original releases, including “In the Sudden Distance” on the Zymogen netlabel.
Category: music
Writing a novel – the soundtrack part two
My last post listed some of the ambient music I had going while I worked on the first draft of my current novel. There were loads of others ambient artists on the list too – Adham Shaikh, International People’s Gang, Ryonkt, Coelacanth, Sawako, Minus Pilots, d’incise, Mollusc, Johnathan Hughes, etc. Too many for big write-ups and links in a post like this, I’ll do individual posts over coming weeks, as the next draft progresses.
I did, however, listen to other kinds of music too, though probably a little more well known and not needing their own links and plugs. Some of these show my age I guess, but I do try to stay somewhat current … somewhat.
Depeche Mode – Songs of Faith and Devotion (I’d always kind of liked them, but this one really captured me. I like them better being more bleak), Ultra, Playing the Angel, Sounds of the Universe
Limp Bizket – Results may vary. Don’t know why, but this is the only album of theirs I really like. Seems like not many other people did though.
Fort Minor, The Rising Tied – I like this more than Mike’s other project, Linken Park.
Genesis – lots of their stuff, but have mostly been listening to the Live in Europe 2007 double disk set, which covers material from most of their history.
Duran Duran – Astronaut, Red Carpet Massacre, Pop Trash, Both eponymous albums.
Blancmange – all three eighties albums got re-released on CD last year, so I’ve had them on high rotation. I wore my old cassette tapes out.
Plus others, a little U2, some Peter Gabriel, The Fixx, Talk Talk, Eagles, Jay-Z(!), Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, Daniel Lanois, Joseph Arthur …
Writing a novel – the soundtrack, part one
Some writers write with children and dogs clambering and slobbering over them while the television blares and the elevated train blasts by the window every eight minutes and the neighbours down below argue about fishing trips and meter money. Others write in silence. I’m closer to the latter, but I do have music on pretty much always as I write. Sometimes it’s very mellow, other times a little more edgy. Here’s a selection of music which has sustained me through the task of drafting my novel.
Woob 1194 – a seminal ambient album that I’m lucky enough to actually own a copy of. Paul Frankland, the artist, has recently made the album, and some other tracks available again through bandcamp. Also listened to other em:t releases like Woob 4495, Gas 0095 and Undark 3396, as well some of the compilations.
S.E.T.I. – The Geometry of Night. This extraordinary album is somewhere between ambient and dance and science fiction. Some of the most startling rhythm patterns I’ve ever enjoyed. This is hard to find on CD, but it looks like he’s made it available on bandcamptoo.
Taylor Deupree – Northern. Taylor was part of the other S.E.T.I., not to be confused with the above (even though some sites do). Northern is minimal music, but as rich and full as can be, almost ambient but not quite. The original pressing (which I have) sold out, but Taylor did a re-issue which was a kind of re-visioning – reloading the original files with missing plug-ins so the sound is different, though I haven’t heard the new version.
Pitch Boys – O.S.T.. One of many remarkable releases on the Test Tube Netlabel (full disclosure, the Venus Vulture album Stick With Me Giselle, Things Can Only Get Better was released on Test Tube last year). O.S.T. is an hour-plus excursion into new realms.
Next post – rock.
venusvulture.com clean-up happening
My website venusvulture.com has been a little neglected, I must admit, probably in favour of this blog.
I do my own coding and uploading, which takes time and effort and I’ve been slack – there are some broken links (the Resting Bell netlabel releases are out of print now, and Bookhabit sold to Smashwords, so my eBook Habitat is also unavailable*), and my publications list is out of date, so there’s lots of clean-up to do.
I’ll be launching the new site in early January with a new look (which I’ve already designed and laid out) with active links.
*I did have the option to move Habitat to Smashwords, but the process is complex and given how little response I got through Bookhabit, I’m not convinced it’s worth it. I also think that Habitat is dated now, in terms of my writing, so it’s probably good to be out of print too.
deepspace ambient
By quirk of fate, Kim Wilkins’s (see previous post) husband Mirko is a an active creator of one of my other favourite pastimes – ambient music. His output as deepspace is remarkable – guided, abstract and considered. His albums include CDs and some downloadable/last.fm listenable works so there’s a chance to listen before you buy.
It’s kind of cool for me to be a fan of both Kim and Mirko, for different reasons.
Twig and Twine – new ambient album from The Green Kingdom
Following the wonderful eponymous album on SEM and delicious follow up “Laminae” on The Land Of, The Green Kingdom’s new album “Twig and Twine” is out now on Own Records.
Listeners familiar with Michael Cottone’s work, as The Green Kingdom, from his earlier albums are in for a treat. Twig and Twine is at once a progression from the earlier works but also a compliment to both. Using more complex arrangements and crisper instrumentation this new album highlights Cottone’s skill as a composer with a fine sense of sound and atmosphere. Part of the blurb on the Own Records site describes tracks that “blur the line between soundscape and structure”, and I second that. This is exactly the kind of engaging music that is precise enough to be both background and foreground. I found that listening to it immediately following his previous two albums, it really shines like a kind of capstone. And as a stand alone album, this is one of my highlights from the year.
urgg
Well, still processing this APRA business. It looks like it might be as much as $200 to opt out of my APRA membership – whew! That would make me wonder about whether to continue Venus Vulture at all – perhaps its the universe telling me to concentrate on writing …
Resting Bell releases off-line
Well, the APRA/GEMA thing didn’t go away or get smooth as I thought it may have. My releases – Signal Artifacts and phantomshadows – are both unavailable until I can sort that out. Kind of no one to blame, just bureaucracy. I’m trying to get more music up and around. Will update soon. Mood – sad.
Venus Vulture track on NTNS best of- compilation
The Venus Vulture track Distant Rainfall part 2 from the Heavy Skies EP has been included on Stroll, one of the four best of NTNS radio – AprMayJune 2009 compilations, which also includes tracks from Resting Bell and TestTube labelmates, Phillip Wilkerson, Sylvie Walder & entia non and d’incise. Mark of NTNS has been a great supporter, as well a playing tracks on the radio show, he also included a track from Signal Artifacts on the end of year compilation Sun in 2008.
Ambient album release on Test Tube
This is a concept piece comprised of long and short ambient tracks from a half minute to around fourteen minutes – the whole album it 53 minutes long, still a soundscape but with perhaps the most melodic stuff I’ve released so far.
Click here for the Test Tube site and download links.
Sean Monaghan - Writer 