Further On review

Hey everybody,

In the new issue of Creative Loafing, there's a kind review of Further On and a brief blurb about the release show tomorrow night. I'm blessed.

And, Nathaniel from Recompas' new tape comp (I'm on it, so are some other great peoples) is finally out, be sure to track him down to get a copy. I believe he will have some at the show tomorrow night.

5 weird but good records from 2009:

I listened to a ton of records last year, and while this isn't even my top ten, I wanted to write about five unique things I listened to last year.

- Akiro Kosemura "Polaroid Piano" Pianos and guitars hover around amidst atmospheric recordings, this album manages to sound randomly forward thinking by never falling into the traps of sounding too "lo-fi." It sounds intimate without being sappy, it's just a little island unto itself.

-- Wolves in the Throneroom "Black Cascade" Metal in a year that I didn't really listen to metal... this album was a slow grower for me and like the Krallice album in 2008 became my choice for weird, near mystical metal.

--- Alfheimr "These Songs We Sing Will Fade to Silence" Not quite postrock but definitely in that vein, and I haven't really been listening to anything like this lately. But this album has enough variety and textures to keep my interest, go figure.

---- Landing "You Can't Hide Your Love Forever v.5" Mind boggling single from a band I've loved for years, it's two delicate pieces of bedroom/brain music. I'm glad they're back.

----- Subway "Subway II" Kraut-y, groovy dance music with tons of synthesizers and great percussion patterns, as good for dancing as driving around by yourself at night.

synthesizers 1

A couple months ago I got a Crumar Orchestrator from all around good guy Travis Thatcher; so my newest synthesizer is actually the oldest one. It's a great piece of equipment though, the string sounds can be modified quite a bit, and you can make some pretty buzzy low end notes. Anyhow, I'm playing it in the upcoming Warning Light show, and it's kind of become my go to synthesizer for string parts.

Roman Photos tour

2010 Tour: The band I'm also in is hoping to play the following places, let us know if you can help or have any ideas.

March 5th- Columbia, SC
March 6th- Chapel Hill, NC
March 7th- Richmond, VA or Washington DC
March 8th- Baltimore, MD
March 9th- Providence, RI
March 10th- Boston, MA
March 11th- Philadelphia, PA
March 12th- Washington, DC or Richmond, VA
March 13th- Asheville, NC

contact at myspace.com/romanphotos or sleepawayrecordings@yahoo.com

Further On, on the web

You can read about/hear the new Warning Light CD Further On at this website.

It won't be out until the beginning of 2010, but this is still super exciting for me.

Fallow work

Today I recorded and mixed two new songs that I had been mulling over for a while for the Fallow album: a short piece with pads and synths called "Sensing Backwards" and a longer drone synth number I'm calling "Pools of Time" for now. I managed to get the edits done on "Awaiting the Gates" and fix up a basic tracklisting. The album is still short a song, but is nearly 50 minutes as is (people want that?).

Hopefully, this next one won't take as long as Further On to come out.

Ensemble

Coming up, I'll be working with a couple of people in a spirit of collaboration and sound manipulation under a broader concept of the name the Warning Light Ensemble. I've talked to my friends Allen and Chris, and a few other surprise guests.

So look out for all that...

Oh, and we have a show January 21st at the Drunken Unicorn.