It’s probably worth noting that most of the time, I can’t get arrested, press-wise. For myriad reasons, more people are apt to talk about what I do than write about it… perhaps I’ll explore my hunches as to why in a later post, but for now, I get to celebrate one of those rare weeks when this isn’t the case at all!
Torycore ::
So let’s start with Torycore. I’ve just got back from a weekend playing a sold-out show with Torycore at Glad Cafe in Glasgow as the finale of the Behaviour festival. Torycore is me, Lucy Ellinson & Chris Thorpe – we take government words and put them to a soundtrack designed to shine a spotlight on the malevolent evil at the heart of so much that our current overloads are doing. (the idea for Torycore was Lucy’s after the three of us went to see an incredible Cannibal Corpse and Triptykon gig in Birmingham last year – that’s us with Alex from Cannibal Corpse and Tom from Triptykon in the picture).
We were booked to go on BBC Radio Scotland’s culture show, but it was pulled, I guess after they read this interview, for being too political… It’s a shame that the set of policies that are causing death, poverty, homelessness and failing public services all over the country aren’t pulled for being too political as well… Seems it’s OK to do shit like that, just not to object to it… Ah well. Anyway, here’s the interview with Lucy and I in the Scotsman.
We also got a review in the same paper afterwards, which is rather good, though clearly I don’t agree with the writer’s assertion that we should editorialise more – here’s the Torycore review from the Scotsman.
FingerPainting ::
We spent all of last week rehearsing, writing and preparing for Torycore (what a fantastic luxury to be able to spend the time doing that! …Made possible because the show won the Arches Brick Award at the Edinburgh Fringe last year… which may be the first thing I’ve ever won, at least since a swimming race at a holiday camp when I was 10 and the only person who entered…). But all that meant that only a week after FingerPainting came out, I was out of promo mode for most of the week. I’m sure that was a relief for some, and I’m very grateful to those who continued talking about, sharing and buying the music!
We did get some nice press for FingerPainting while I was off being angry and metallic – This write up of the full 11 hour release at NoTreble.com was very much appreciated, and John Toolan wrote another beautiful in-depth review of the album for ThisIsNotAScene. That there are writers of John’s quality willing to keep writing about seemingly unclassifiable music fills me with hope for the new music landscape, when we can let go of the kind of boxes that music needed to fit into for record shop display purposes… (see also Anil Prasad, Dann Chinn and others…)
Sonic Cauldron Gig ::
And finally, two lovely mentions of my duo set with Andy Williamson supporting Juffage at his Sonic Cauldron gig at Left Bank in Leeds a couple of weeks ago –
This one from CounterfeitMag.co.uk,
and
This one from MusicalMathematics.co.uk.
…and John Toolan also posted some pics from the gig on his blog.
Hopefully, there’ll be more media activity around FingerPainting going forwards. Magazine reviews take a while to come through due to the lead-time they have on things going into the mags (a lot of records aren’t released til months after they’re finished just to make sure that magazines get their copies in advance… I don’t have the luxury of the time to do that, sadly…) – this means that some places won’t write about it cos they have a policy of not writing about things that are already out, whereas others seem to have grasped that the world of release schedules has changed and a new record is a new record til the next one comes out… 🙂
So, if you want to write about FingerPainting, please do. We’d really appreciate any help getting the word out about it. I’ve done a couple of other interviews about it, which should be coming out soon, with more lined up, and some likely radio play. Til then, if you haven’t already, please give it a listen, and if you like it enough to buy the rest of the music in the set, that would be truly wonderful.