2020: Year In Review

Out collecting video footage, winter 2020. (photo by Sybille Muschik).

I'm disappointed that I only wrote two blog posts in 2020, but given how busy the year was for me, both in and out of the studio, I can't say I'm surprised. A lot of things I spoke about in the 2019: Year In Review post that I hoped to accomplish in 2020 simply didn't happen.

The year started off with a commission from Johnny Who Entertainments, an independent film company in the UK. I was asked to remake the theme from the 1978 BBC TV show Blake's 7, originally composed for orchestra by Dudley Simpson. It turned into one of the most complicated and multi-layered pieces of music I've ever worked on. My goal was to pay homage to the aesthetic of the original, and improve upon it with some modern touches. In this regard I succeeded, but I just about burned out. I have fond memories of watching the series when I was a kid. As yet, the theme is unreleased.

In March, after much rehearsal, I accompanied my band No More Cries to Vancouver to play at the Roxy Cabaret. This was right at the beginning of the Covid scare, and the show was cancelled the night we made it to the city. So I spent a couple of days wandering the downtown area as anti-pandemic measures were rolled out. It was a surreal experience.

First signs of the end-times, Vancouver, March.

One high-point of the Vancouver trip was getting to see a Moog One with my own eyes at Tom Lee Music, and lo, even try it out. But $10,000 CDN is far beyond my budget, so I came home with a far more sensible Behringer Model D. We also looked at some incredible grand pianos in their showroom, one of which was in the region of $70,000.

A Moog One in all it's glory (and a Subsequent 37 above it).

It was while in Vancouver that I lost contact with my good friend and collaborator JLA, the other half of Disco Antenna. We'd conspired to release the Disco Antenna album 'Disco From The Stars' last year, but for various reasons that never happened. He did, however, give his blessing on the final mixes and artwork, as well as the DFTS video that's waiting in the wings. I miss you, J...

UPDATE: JLA is alive and well! We'll discuss a release date for DFTS in due course.

Throughout the year I composed new music for Sybille Muschik's Shoreline Studio YouTube series (now 20+ episodes strong). As of this post, 55 minutes' worth of music is nearing completion. I'd planned to release it as 'Music of the Lake II', but since only one of the four pieces is to do with the lake specifically, it'll be called 'The Floating Island' instead. Stay tuned for that very soon.

The floating island (photo taken from roughly the middle of the frozen lake).

In October, No More Cries filmed a music video against a giant home-made green screen. It's currently in post-production.

Doing my best to look like I'm in a rock video.

My album, 'Dreams of Sleeping Engines', still hasn't seen the light of day, beyond some physical copies that got handed around in 2020. I need the time to concentrate on promotional videos before I release it digitally. To that end, I've made my own green-screen at home.

August 2020 marked the 10th anniversary of my e.p. 'Let's Build Mecha'. For some time I've wanted to remaster it, and put together the video I filmed (but never edited) for 'Production Line'. So this seemed a good excuse. The remastering part is done, and I'm very happy with it, but the film is still in mothballs. This year for sure (haha!).

Meredith Higgins' five-song CD, 'Waves', which we produced at Wild Bill's Studio, saw a physical release at Christmas. It's set to be released digitally very soon, so watch this space.

Recording sessions for Danny Brickell's second album were also completed late last year, and it's currently at the mixing stage.

What else is new? I now have an instagram account, where I'll post occasional images related to my work.

2018: Year In Review

MS-20 + Talk Box

2018 was, surprisingly, a creative year for me. Here is a run-down of the audio-related projects I was involved in:

-Mixed six No More Cries songs for a film project (none were used - but they'll end up on the double album in the works). Recorded roughly 10 more backing tracks for the album to add to the 12 or so already in the can.
-Mixed and mastered Danny Brickell's debut CD, and recorded 8 or so tracks for his follow-up.
-Mixed an EP's worth of songs for Jessica Harvey, recorded three new tracks for her.
-Recorded (and filmed) around 7 songs for Chad Stump, and contributed keyboards and vocals to his wedding song.
-Recorded five songs for Meredith Higgins, for which there is some session work in-progress.
-Remixed 'Our Revenge' for Zwaremachine.
-Remixed a song for Schultz (yet to be released).
-Composed a complete backing track for Taylor Waters (yet to be released).
-Mastered four Disco Antenna songs for one-off lathe-cut vinyl and subsequent digital EP.
-Remastered Disco Antenna's 'Side A' and 'Side B' for the forthcoming full-length album (to be released 2019).
-Made a new sound collage for The Manitou's 'Atmospheres', and mastered the album (to be released 2019).
-Wrote one song for The Manitou's 'Dreams of Sleeping Engines', recorded vocals for six songs. This album is in the mastering stage.

Have I forgotten anything? Probably. 2019 will see at least three of my albums come to light, and hopefully the long-awaited debut from No More Cries as well.

Things are also looking bright for some Audio Drama work this year. Watch this space!

Digital EP: Side B by Disco Antenna

Lots has been going on behind-the-scenes, so let me start with a quick update. Five finished songs for the new Manitou album are in the wings, and I'll be looking at releasing those now that the new Disco Antenna EP is complete. I've also been hard at work with the band No More Cries, arranging keyboard parts for their songs, and working with other local artists at Wild Bill's Studio.

Side B, as the title suggests, is the follow-up to Side A, the Disco Antenna release from last year. In due course both releases will be combined into a full album.


1. Disco from the Stars (suite) is a song that dates back to 2010, when Disco Antenna first became an entity. It was my attempt to write something in the disco style after Jimmy, my collaborator, and I had begun work on his song, 'There To Remind Me.' It existed as a rough demo for a long time, for which Jimmy provided some vocal ideas that eventually became 'Superstitious.' When I came up with a proper chorus for the track I decided the Superstitious vocals weren't really going to work. It wasn't until last year, and the success of the segue format of Side A, that the idea of making the two songs into one came about. There was just one problem ... it was such an ambitious undertaking that it was going to take extra time. But for me, it was worth it. We released 'Superstitious' as a single last year. I've since done some tweaking to the mix for this 18-minute 'suite.'

2. Prayer (suite). When searching the archive of Jimmy's material for another song to include on the EP, 'Prayer' jumped out at me. I'd actually suggested it would make good Disco Antenna material in an old e-mail. Unfortunately, between that e-mail and its rediscovery, Jimmy discovered he'd lost the vocals in a hard-drive crash. But all was not lost: he had the backing track and the original Orion session. It also provided him with an opportunity to write new lyrics for the verses. The demo was something like four minutes, maximum, and it wasn't my intention to stretch it out to 10 while adding my parts. I had, in the back of my mind, the idea to keep each EP under the maximum 24-minute running-time of half a vinyl LP. In this case, I had to go where the music led me.

Video:

Instrumentation-wise, these songs include the usual Disco Antenna kit: Synapse Orion, Novation K-Station, Orchestra Silver, Roland HS-60, Ticky Clav, Crumar Performer, our patented secret mix of drum sounds, bass guitar, and tambourine. A Yamaha TG-33 guest-stars on Superstitious, and a Yamaha FB-01 guest-stars on Prayer. Oh, and there's some Minimoog V for good measure.

New Equipment: Roland JU-06

The JU-06 sitting atop its ailing predecessor, the HS-60 (Juno-106S).

Since the last update I've been spending a lot of time at Wild Bill's Studio working on other people's projects. The only project of my own that's seen any advancement is the new Disco Antenna record (Side B), which is just awaiting some last-minute vocals. With Christmas approaching like a bat out of hell, I'm looking to complete at least five tracks for the new Manitou album.

One of the things that's been holding me up is my ailing Roland HS-60. Ever since I rescued it from a thrift store, the integrity of its circuitry has been slowly disintegrating, to the point that it now pops and crackles like a popular breakfast cereal whenever I turn it on. The album in question relies heavily on its contribution. A lot of the parts were written using TAL's excellent U-NO-LX software (Juno 60 emulation). But the problem with that is this: any time you multi-track the same patch, an unflattering chorus effect is produced. Something to do with the digital waveforms being too similar. Something sciency, at any rate.

The JU-06, then, promised to be a new DSP/hardware emulation of the Juno-106/HS-60, and hopefully an answer to my problems. So far it's delivered, sound-wise - if not in other areas. Time will tell if it truly is a replacement for the original.

Here are some first impressions. The controls are a little smaller, but not terrible to work with. It sounds very close to the original. Recreating some of my U-NO-LX patches on it has accentuated the inaccuracies of that particular VST. I don't see this as a problem, however, since the U-NO brings its own flavour.

The USB and MIDI implementation are, quite frankly, terrible. For instance, USB is the only way to power it (aside from batteries) and doubles as MIDI and audio conduit. This would be fantastic but for one thing: when it interfaces with my DAW (Sonar 8 in this case) it becomes the sole audio interface, incapacitating my Focusrite Saffire Audio box that handles all my inputs and outputs. Luckily there are dedicated headphone and audio outs, and MIDI in/out jacks.

Connecting it into my rig was a complex operation. Mainly because of the way I have my MIDI controller (Akai MPK 25) set up. I use it for interfacing with VST's via USB. MIDI out and USB in/out can't be used at the same time, thus in order to control the JU-06 and VST's without unplugging this and plugging in that, the JU-06 needs its own USB-to-MIDI interface, then routing has to be done in Sonar so that MIDI out from the MPK points to MIDI in on the JU-06. Not a huge deal, but a person doesn't want to think about this kind of stuff when they want to make music!

One last gripe I'll mention about this synth: it can neither send nor receive sysex information. This would have been jolly handy for importing Juno-106 patches and exporting patches from the unit itself. However, the manual does state that the contents of the unit can be backed up via USB. I've not tried this yet - I was so annoyed by the audio interface screw-up that I uninstalled the USB driver - but this will bear investigating when I've filled the 64 patch memory slots.

So, it may sound like I'm 'hating' on this little machine, but for all its quirks it sounds amazing. And one thing I absolutely love about it is the ability to turn off the emulated chorus 'noise'. The HS-60 produces a barely audible white-noise sweep when you turn the chorus switches on. The JU-06 produces this same sound (a little louder and more digital, to my ears) but gives you the option of lowering it or turning it off completely. I used to run the HS-60 through noise-reduction software to overcome this. Some people might find that grounds for heresy, but I like a clean signal.

Now to get some work done!

Update: The JU-06 also choruses when the same patch is multi-tracked, but thankfully not when mixing it with U-NO-LX. I've also re-jigued my MIDI routing. The setup I described above would stop responding to MIDI input at random times. New configuration: MPK > computer via USB, MPK > JU-06 via MIDI Out, then the signal is routed through Sonar. Now that I know this is possible, I can route other synth modules in my collection in the same manner. I can see I'll be needing at least a 4-way MIDI switch box.

Update update: I'm pretty sure the 'chorusing' issue I'm hearing is simply a matter of the same chorus effect phasing when multi-tracked. Perhaps the HS-60 itself does this too and I just never noticed.

Digital Single: Superstitious by Disco Antenna

A lot has been going on at Manitou Productions behind the scenes, including a major upgrade to the studio. Unfortunately, the time spent wrangling hardware and software has eaten into time that should have been spent creatively. I've also taken on some consultancy work, but more about that later. This post is to celebrate the release of Disco Antenna's new single: Superstitious.

Way back in 2010, when Jimmy sent me a demo called There To Remind Me, and Disco Antenna was effectively born, I was inspired to write a song of my own for the project. The working title was Escape Pod - because it had a spacey feel to it. This was quickly abandoned in favour of Disco From The Stars. Jimmy then laid down some improvised vocals: the essence of which you can hear on this track. As years passed and Disco From The Stars evolved, becoming more ambitious and sprouting a chorus along the way, much of the original feel of the demo eroded away. With the release of Side A out of the way, I turned my attention to Disco From The Stars with the intention of finishing it off for the follow-up. We both loved how it had come to sound, but also lamented the loss of the parts that had made the demo special. What to do?


Side A had familiarized us with the concept of creating extended disco 'epics' as well as the concept of songs that blend into one another to form a larger whole, or 'suite'. Thus, it became obvious to give Superstitious its own distinct place within the larger framework of Disco From The Stars. Elements of that original demo were brought back in and polished up to compliment the new production, half-baked ideas were cooked to perfection, and the best bits of Jimmy's vocal improvs were re-jigued to evoke the spirit of the demo while still creating something new and exciting.

The full 17-minute version of Disco From The Stars is still incomplete, but the section consisting of Superstitious is done and dusted, so it didn't take much to lift it out and master it for single release. As we did with There To Remind Me, it's released under a Creative Commons By-Attribution license: you may download and share it as you see fit. You may also use it in non-commercial podcasts or video productions as long as Disco Antenna are credited for their hard work. Here, then, are the pertinent links and embeds:

High quality download via Bandcamp.

Streaming Audio (SoundCloud):

Streaming Video (YouTube):

Work continues on the rest of 'Side B'...

Digital Single: There To Remind Me by Disco Antenna

As part of the promo campaign for Disco Antenna's Side A e.p., I've prepared two edits of the second track, There To Remind Me. The full 9-minute epic has been whittled down to 5:08 for the 7 Inch Version, and 6:44 for the 10 Inch. In case you're wondering, these measurements refer to the width of the vinyl record that singles were pressed on back in disco's heyday. I'm not certain that our "7 Inch Version" would actually fit the format, but as it's being released digitally I don't see that it matters.

We're doing something a little different with this release. It's going to be a free download with a creative commons By-Attribution license. This means it's 100% podsafe: you can use it in your podcast, youtube video, or any other non-commercial production. All we ask in return is that you acknowledge Disco Antenna as the author somewhere in your project.

Bandcamp Player:

1. There To Remind Me (7 Inch Version). This is a re-creation of the original 7 Inch Version we made way back in 2010, which was an attempt to pare the track down to its essence and make it as brief as possible. I intentionally stripped some instruments and vocals from the mix, and re-sequenced the 'breakdown' to preserve the song's momentum in the shorter format.

Audio:

Video:

2. There To Remind Me (10 Inch Version). This is an edit based on the 'album version,' with the additional instruments and vocal samples left intact. Something for our listeners who may not have nine minutes to devote to the 12 Inch.

Video:

Digital EP: Side A by Disco Antenna

The Disco Antenna project is a collaboration with my friend Jimmy Aaron that's been in the works since 2009. If you've been following this blog you'll have heard Jimmy’s distinctive vocal contributions to my Gary Numan cover songs, and his programming talents on a remix of The Mechanicals. For this project we decided to choose a proper name for ourselves. This is our debut e.p., 'Side A,' released on New Year's Day 2015. It's a tribute to the disco epics of the past, drawing inspiration from the earliest proto-disco to late 80's electro and the dawn of digital sampling. As the title suggests, it represents the first 'side' of an eventual full album.

Bandcamp Player:

1. Love Is Never Cold. When I revisited There To Remind Me (track 2) to prep it for release, I added an arpeggio that we both thought could be expanded upon. I combined it with elements from the other two songs, added some new strings and percussion and this is the result. It was by far the quickest and easiest track we've done: three days to flesh out the basics, two more days to add Jimmy's vocals and finishing touches. By comparison, tracks 2 & 3 are two of the most labour-intensive songs I've ever worked on. I liken Love Is Never Cold to an overture. Its laid-back groove is a perfect intro to the set.

Audio:

Video:

2. There To Remind Me. This is the first Disco Antenna track Jimmy and I worked on. We even released an early version half-heartedly back in 2010. It began with a vocal demo Jimmy had made, with a backing track created in Synapse Orion. I thought the song had potential, and my initial intention was to polish up the production and add a few ideas that had jumped out at me. It quickly ballooned into a longer and more complex creature. I picked-and-chose from Jimmy’s original synth parts, and added all the disco clichés I could think of. Perhaps I pushed the limits of good taste, but it was all done with sincerity. 

I relied heavily on Orchestra Silver for the strings. It samples real orchestral instruments and allows you to play them via MIDI. I favour layering at least two stringed instruments per patch, such as a viola and violin or violin and cello combo. On this track I had some fun with the pitch wheel to give the violin stabs a more human touch. On the outro I used some synthesized strings from the Yamaha TG-33.

Jimmy's drums, a kit based on the Roland TR-505, were augmented with some percussion from TR-707 and Alesis SR-16. The vocal samples were manipulated with the Akai S1000 (before it was retired from the studio). Bass guitar (both played and sampled), Lounge Lizard electric piano, and Novation K-Station round the track out.

Audio:


3. I Need You. This started with a complete backing track, carefully crafted by Jimmy in Orion and inspired by Giorgio Moroder’s distinct brand of arpeggio-laden synth programming. It took me to another dimension when I started layering my own parts over the top. I really felt like I was tapping into something magical. Because I was working to a rigid backing track you may find the song-structure a little unconventional. It threw me quite a few surprises. We recorded the bulk of this one circa 2013, then it lay dormant until I finished my album Radioatomic.

Orchestra Silver was again called upon for string duty. By this time I had acquired the Roland HS-60, so a lot of the synth parts were done with that. The electric piano was recorded hastily using an old stand-by patch I created on the K-Station, with the view that I'd redo it later with Lounge Lizard. But we both liked it so much that I kept it in. A funky little VST called Ticky Clav was used for the clavinet parts. Sampling duty was taken over by Shortcircuit Sampler. Additional percussion came once again from the Alesis SR-16,
and a tambourine recorded in-studio.

Audio: (Soon!)

4. Side A (Suite) [bonus track] is a continuous-mix of all three tracks. Even though the tracks are designed to blend seamlessly, not every media player takes this into account, so we decided to provide this bonus track so the listener can hear the e.p. as intended.

Audio: (Soon!)

I asked Jimmy if he had anything to contribute to this post, and he provided this short-but-sweet message for our listeners:

"Enjoy the beat, enjoy the music! May it bring back fond memories, and let you make new ones, with 'Disco Antenna'. XOXOXO."

Stay tuned for more video and mixes from us in coming weeks!