June 2019

Currently working on:

  • Preliminary work on an album based on recent live gigs. Less structured this time and based more on tape loops, found sounds, improvisation and devices. 
  • Tracks for a future Vert:x album
  • Tracks for a future Klaudyna album

Forthcoming:

  • Pulselovers gig at Cast Theatre as part of Doncopolitan's Crawl event
  • The second Pulselovers 'Cotswold Stone' is complete with details to be announced shortly


Recent:

AYITC

Since my last update in February last year, there has been lots of activity:

Submissions to 8 different albums from A Year In The Country (2 of which are yet to be announced). All can be purchased via the shop

Thieves' Cant from the album Audio Albion

Inspired by and partially recorded at Peak Cavern in Castleton, Derbyshire, which lies beneath Peveril Castle, the setting for Walter Scott’s novel Peveril of the Peak.
The cave and it’s surrounding countryside has been a playground for my family since the 1980s where history and geological facts always went unacknowledged in favour of the sheer joy of exploring the terrain, dodging sheep droppings and hoping for the treat of an an ice-cream before heading home.
Theives' Cant was a secret language allegedly created within Peak Cavern by King of the Gypsies, Cock Lorel in the 16th century to ensure his ‘knaveries and villainies’ remained covert and undiscovered.

Features John Alexander of Floodlights on guitar and noise boxes.

The Green Leaves of Shildam Hall from The Shildam Hall Tapes

In the late 1960s a film crew began work on a well-funded feature film in a country mansion, having been granted permission by the young heir of the estate.
Amidst rumours of aristocratic decadence, psychedelic use and even possibly dabbling in the occult, the film production collapsed, although it is said that a rough cut of it and the accompanying soundtrack were completed but they are thought to have been filed away and lost amongst storage vaults.
Few of the cast or crew have spoken about events since and any reports from then seem to contradict one another and vary wildly in terms of what actually happened on the set.
A large number of those involved, including a number of industry figures who at the time were considered to have bright futures, simply seemed to disappear or step aside from the film industry following the film's collapse, their careers seemingly derailed or cast adrift by their experiences.
Little is known of the film's plot but several unedited sections of the film and its soundtrack have surfaced, found amongst old film stock sold as a job lot at auction - although how they came to be there is unknown.

Features Mark Taylor on bass and Sarah Marie on flute and clarinet

Fuggles from The Quietened Mechanisms

Fuggles was inspired by a clandestine field trip to a boarded up, abandoned brewery in the Northern England in around 2013. The building has since been demolished, but the music attempts to recapture the decaying beauty found amongst the broken glass, fallen masonry and the flora slowly breaking though the concrete floor. The melody is an imagined chorus of bottles, packed into wooden crates, then loaded onto horse-drawn carts for distribution to the ale houses of the surrounding town and villages. The title comes from a once wild variety of hops, favoured by British brewers since the 19th century.

Beat Her Down from The Corn Mother

In the early 1970s a folk horror-esque screenplay made the rounds of the film industry but remained unmade until 1982.
The story is set in the late 19th century in a rural British village and revolves around the folklore of the “corn mother” - where the last row of the corn harvest is beaten to the ground by the reapers as they shout “There she is! Knock her into the ground, don’t let her get away!”, in an attempt to drive the spirit of the corn mother back into the earth for next year’s sowing.
This album is an exploration and reflection of the whispers that tumble forth from the corn mother’s kingdom, whisperings that have seemed to gain a life of their own, multiplying and growing louder with each passing year. 

Features vocals from Katje Janisch, Colin Bradley, Allan Murphy, Andy Buckle, John Alexander, Lou Maloney, Elijah Handley, Naomi Handley-Ward, Tammy Handley-Ward and Peggy Handley-Ward.

The Coast In Flux from the reissued The Quietened Village

The sounds which underpin this track were recorded on the beach of the East coast town of Hornsea which lies midway between Flamborough Head and Spurn Point. The area suffers from the fastest rate of coastal erosion in Europe with upwards of 40 villages and hamlets lost to the waves since the Domesday survey was completed in 1086. The music represents the slow loss of earth, stone, bricks and memory to the relentless ebb and flow of the North Sea.

Circles Within Circles from The Watchers

The seasons, years, decades and centuries watched over by the ancient oak is represented here by multiple arpeggios, each passing through numerous delays. Every echo ensures the original germ (or acorn) continues to inform the piece through to the end much like the rings that can be counted in a cross section of the tree itself were it to be felled. The additional guitar from John Alexander of Floodlights, brings a little organic relief, to an otherwise purely electronic piece of music.

Features John Alexander on acoustic guitar.

Gigs

There have been 3 Pulselovers gigs over the past month, this time around I've abandoned the laptop (and the songs) and instead performed long-form experimental sets with little structure. The pieces have been based around tapeloops (on the 4-track and walkman), guitar pedals, noise boxes and a couple of synths. These performances have been really rewarding for me and I plan to use them as a starting point for the third Pulselovers album to be released (hopefully) next year.

I've also played a couple of gigs with friends John Alexander and Harriet Lisa as part of John's Floodlights project.

Last summer, I also joined vert:x on stage for the first time at the Black Prince in Northampton.... very much looking forward to performing with Neil and Dave again later this year.


Vert:x

As you may know, I was invited to join a new incarnation of the band Vert:X last year, initially as a keyboard/noise generator for the Northampton gig mentioned above, but soon this developed into a recording gig too. The first fruits of this project was a radio session for Dandelion FM and a full album, Death To False Motorik which was released initially on CDr before being remastered by the legendary John McBain of Monster Magnet for a vinyl release on the awesome Weird Beard Records. More music can be found here.



Video:


XOND

Whereas Vert:x is currently a trio comprising Neil Whitehead, Dave Millsop any myself, XOND has exactly the same lineup. The main difference is that with Verts, Neil is the main songwriter, but with XOND, it's Dave. Confused?

We recorded an EP earlier this year, and you can buy it here


Klaudyna


This went under the radar a little, but at the back end of 2018, Klaudyna (which is a duo consisting of myself and Klaudyna Pop) released a single via Do It Thissen / Woodford Halse. The 7" lathe cut is still available here. We are making slow progress on a full album which should be finished before the end of 2020.





Video:


6th February 2018

Currently working on:

  • Second submission of the year for A Year In The Country
  • Continuing to work on sketches for the second Pulselovers album

Forthcoming:

  • VCM gig with Derek Williams in Sheffield
  • Pulselovers gig at New Weird Planet 3 in Doncaster (expanded lineup). Tickets


Recent:

Kraut Sketch

Recorded in one take a couple of Sundays ago. This is essentially me trying to get used to the Beatstep Pro with a view of possibly attempting a Pulselovers gig without a laptop. Here you can hear the Roland System 1, the MFB Dominion X and the BassStation 2 all synced up with the BSP with drums provided by Reason.

UnMute Vol 3 (Mutated)

This free download contains the Pulselovers remix of TwoVolt's version of I Start Counting's Lose Him plus 2 Totem's remix of both my Duet Emmo cover (Hill of Men) and Non cover (Mode of Infection) as well as TwoVolt's payback remix of H.O.M.

5th January 2018

Currently working on:

  • Ambient piece for A Year In The Country, collaborating with John Alexander of Floodlights
  • First sketches being made for the second Pulselovers album

Forthcoming:

  • VCM gig with Derek Williams in Sheffield
  • Pulselovers gig at New Weird Planet 3 in Doncaster (expanded lineup). Tickets


Recent:

New improvised piece featuring tape loops and guitar pedals



All The Merry Year Round (AYITC)




17th June 2017

Currently working on:

  • Another potential contribution for a forthcoming A Year in the Country collection (bringing the total to 4 this year)
  • Setlists for summer gigs in Doncaster (M+H, experimental drone/dark ambient POSTPONED), Hull (Pulselovers), Derby (Pulselovers) and Sheffield (with Derek Williams' VCM project)

Forthcoming:

  • Two new tracks (covers) on a new Mute Records tribute album: UnMute


Recent:

Pulselovers at Weird Garden, Lincoln

My first gig of the year was at the wonderful Weird Garden in Lincoln curated by the brilliant Experimental Sonic Machines. This was a solo Pulselovers gig (i.e. without regular six-string maestro Tony Nicholson) which I think went down really well... I enjoyed it anyway. The set included 4 tracks from the first album as well as a couple which have recently appeared on the albums 'The Restless Field' and 'From the Furthest Signals', though in drastically different forms. Pictures will appear soon in the Live section. There's also an old school lo-fi, mono, hand held bootleg recording in my possession which I might post at some point.

Modulations by Curly Wurly

Lupus: Feed

Recreation of the piece improvised at New Weird Planet in Doncaster on the 24th March 2017.
This version recorded in one take on Sunday 30th April.
Free Download
Craig Manga: Volca Kick, Bass, Samples
John Alexander: Projectors, Sharpies, Sandpaper
Mat Handley: Paintbox, Kalimba, Bow, Knife, Pedals
Original lino cut by Rachel Horne

From The Furthest Signals (AYITC)



1st May 2017

Currently working on:



  • New Pulselovers tracks for a couple of different compilations appearing later in the year (3 original pieces, 2 cover versions)
  • An all new live set list for Pulselovers gigs later in the year in Hull, Derby, Lincoln, Doncaster and more (details in the Live page)
  • A performance concept for a solo spot at the next New Weird Planet event in June
  • Initial sketches for the second Pulselovers album, which will probably appear in 2018  


Recent:

The Restless Field

New Pulselovers track Badby 80 is to appear on the forthcoming A Year In The Country album The Restless Field. I feel privileged to be appearing alongside artists whose music I admire, including Listening Center, Grey Frequency, Time Attendant, Vic Mars, Sproatly Smith and Polypores (all of whom make regular appearances on my radio show You, the Night and the Music).

"The Restless Field is a study of the land as a place of conflict and protest as well as beauty and escape; an exploration and acknowledgement of the history and possibility of protest, resistance and struggle in the landscape/rural areas, in contrast with more often referred to urban events.

It takes inspiration from flashpoints in history while also interweaving personal and social myth, memory and the lost hidden tales of the land."


When considering the title of this project, my thoughts went immediately to historical incidents such as the Battle of the Beanfield as suggested by the remit, however as I started thinking on how to translate these fragments of recent rural history into a piece of electronic music, an image came to mind of a photograph that I took in 1983 when on a nostalgic weekend return to my childhood home in Daventry, Northamptonshire.

On that excursion from my adopted hometown of Doncaster, I took photographs of old mates, my primary and secondary schools, and the various haunts where as a child, I played football, rode my bike and collected newts, frogs and other pond life on those endless seventies summer afternoons. One such location was a subway which went under the main road into town which I used to travel through in order to get from my council estate home to the then swanky and modern comprehensive school. On the wall was a piece of graffiti which intrigued me enough to want to capture it for posterity. In black spray paint with letters a foot or so high was the inscription ‘Badby 80 - 8 arrest, 8 innocents’

Badby was (and I'm sure, still is) a tiny village around 5 miles from my old Daventry home, and is located within the boundaries of the nearby Fawsley Estate. It was a magical place where my parents and siblings would spend many a Sunday afternoon exploring the woods, which was famous for it’s deep carpet of Bluebells that covered the entire forest floor each spring.

I could never comprehend how this little hamlet, with it’s idyllic mysterious, woodland, accessible only via a broken down stone archway could be the setting for anything where 8 'innocent' people could be arrested. I tried to find out the details behind this incident from friends and family during my visit without any success. Who were the 8? What was their crime? Nobody knew…. or if they did, they weren’t talking. The photo lay in my box of memories untouched and ignored for decades, only springing back into my consciousness when considering The Restless Field. 




Purchasing Info

The Restless Field can be found in two distinct versions: 


Dawn Edition

Hand-finished white/black CDr album in textured recycled fold out sleeve with inserts and badge.

Limited edition of 104. 

Further encasement details:
1) Custom printed using archival giclée pigment ink.
2) Includes 25mm/1″ badge, secured with removable glue on string bound tag.

3) Back of one insert hand numbered. 


Night Edition

Hand-finished box-set contains: album on all black CDr, 12 page string bound booklet, 4 x badge pack, 1 x large badge, 2 x landscape format stickers.

Limited edition of 104.

Further encasement details:
1) Booklet/cover art custom printed using archival giclée pigment ink.
2) Contained in a matchbox style sliding two-part rigid matt card box with cover print.
3) Fully black CDr (black on top, black on playable side).
4) Black string bound booklet: 12 pages (6 sides printed);
Printed on textured fine art cotton rag paper, heavy card and semi-transparent vellum.
Hand numbered on the reverse.
5) 4 x badge set, contained in a see-through polythene bag with a folded card header.
6) 1 x large badge.
7) 2 x vinyl style landscape format sticker.




1st April 2017

Currently working on:


  • New Pulselovers tracks for forthcoming A Year In The Country collections
  • Two different cover versions (originally by Duet Emmo and Non) for a double collection which pays tribute to the early output of Mute records
  • An all new live set list for Pulselovers gigs later in the year in Hull, Derby, Lincoln and more (details to follow)
  • Initial sketches for the second Pulselovers album, which will probably appear in 2018


Recent:

Sounds

New experimental piece which could potentially be incorporated into a future album track at a later date. Recorded on a rare Sunday afternoon when I had the house to myself. This piece was created using only the sounds of water dripping into a metal bowl in the kitchen.


Live

Really enjoyed the second New Weird Planet event which took place at Doncopolitan H.Q. a couple of weeks ago. Craig and I played an unrehearsed improvisation to John's wonderful Super 8 loop projections. The piece consisted of John projecting two loops of found footage onto frosted windows, distressing the film with marker pens and razorblades. Craig provided a lo-fi techno soundtrack using his recently acquired trio of Korg Volca gadgets (Kick, bass and Samples), which I processed with various pedals, adding extra noise from my trusty home made paintbox and kalimba. It was only a 10 minute set, but the three of us enjoyed it so much that we intend on reproducing it at some point, recording it for posterity... this will probably get posted on YouTube later in the year.


1st March 2017

Coming up...




I'll be taking part in the second NWP event at Doncopolitan HQ in March. Not with Pulselovers unfortunately, but alongside Craig Manga and John Floodlights for a short set of improvised sound and film. Details below.

This time round acts include:

JUMBLE HOLE CLOUGH (Hebden Bridge)

Zappa-esque lunacy from West Yorkshire, Jumble Hole Clough is a project by Colin Robinson to produce music influenced by the landscape, industrial remains and experiences around his home. Forgotten things half-hidden beneath the undergrowth.

Alongside the themes for imaginary puppet shows, there are e-bowscapes and krautish guitarloops, frazzled kraut jams, Clinton-style wig-outs, and always the most exploratory sound adventures up north.

EXPERIMENTAL SONIC MACHINES (Lincoln)
Experimental Sonic Machines is Peter K Rollings from Lincoln. ESM began in 2010 & the name pretty much explains what it is. It started with whirring & clanging noises from attempts to make interesting instruments never seen or heard before & has developed into music machines using paper discs as programs, playing the basslines & rhythms that naturally emanate from Peter's imagination. And from his admiration for Tolkien, Star Wars & mediaeval mystery plays comes the visuality, the theatricality...he transforms into unknown beings & entities as the performance unfolds, & a life size silver robot - Ernie - bursts into electro-machanical life. Underpinning it is solar power, & power obtained from run-down cells...this is truly environment friendly, planet friendly creativity pushing ambitiously forward gig after gig. He baffled the judges of Britain's Got Talent, for this is pure musi, not some superficial trendy froth accompanied by cute pets. ESM's music is as old as the hills, primordial, profound, daring, risk-taking, & reaching ever further each gig, each unique, never to be repeated.

CRAWLFORM (Bradford)
Crawlform is Ms. Jessica Pink, both architect and destroyer of sound, and is presently in a state of flux. We catch her UK debut at her most interesting point of development, her larval stage. We don't know what to expect of this 'pink noise', except for one almighty head-hump. Jess promises "distortion addled beats, caterwauling echoes and overdriven sounds...and maybe a ukelele." Bring your open minds.

DISEASESOFVENUS (Derby)
DOV is Nathan James Cantrill a solo dark psyche artist from Derby. His layered translucent distorted guitar contrails provide wonderous layers over which he melts vocals. This is soperific 'shoe-gauze' of the finest order, achingly slow, in which to lose ourselves. Music to swoon to.

JUXTAVOICES (Sheffield)
Juxtavoices is a 25-piece antichoir which includes many familiar faces from Sheffield’s leftfield music, poetry and visual arts scene. Although the group performs structured scores, no fixed pitches are ever notated, and the group uses improvisation to shape the detail of the scores as the music progresses. Both trained and untrained voices are included. As well as playing normal concerts, the group is to be found in various unexpected public places as diverse as a bear pit, a library stairwell, a disused steelworks, churches and more conventional concert settings. It includes arrangements of poems by singers Christine Kennedy and Geraldine Monk and others by Samuel Beckett, Gertrude Stein and the grandmaster of sound poetry Bob Cobbing, with solo and collaborative compositions by Martin Archer and co-director Alan Halsey.
Juxtavoices is no ordinary choir. It's not an ordinary antichoir either. You've probably heard nothing quite like them before. Nor, they'll assure you, have they.

AZZURRO PEAKS (Derby)
Azzurro Peaks is Mark Jones, an avant-garde singer/songwriter with translucent pop sensibilities. Over the last two years, Azzurro Peaks has been releasing low-key singles and EPs as well as sharing stages with the likes of the Fat White Family amongst others.
Latest release 'Leave It On The Island' is the kind of fidgety genre-defying record we all dream of. It is exploratory pedal-shaped dronefolk cosmiche of the finest order, with off-kilter acoustic guitar
tunings and yet hook-laden ethereal falsetto vocals. Azzurro Peaks stands on its own and should be applauded for doing so.

SCENTED POETRY (Lincoln)
Scented Poetry is Viborg Vee, experimental artist combining fan-wafted aromatic poetry readings with generative ambientscapes.

MUTIL8 PROJECT feat. LUPUS vs MKO (Doncaster)
An audio-video-experiment in which looped Cine8 film is warped and distressed with sharpies, pins and sandpaper into kaleidoscopic abstraction by John Alexander whilst homegrown glitch-dronewerks are improvised over them by Mat+Handley and Craig Manga.

Very limited spaces on first come, first served basis. Links to tickets will be displayed here when available. Advance £3.50/ £5.00 on door (if still available).

Buy music...


'Pulselovers' by Pulselovers


'M+H' by Mat+Handley


'Live at Weird Garden' by Lupus


'Moments' by Voltage Controlled Music vs Eigenfrequenz