#17

excited to see if the bullfrogs made the record. must admit I’ve been playing around with them myself…

#18

Picked this up and loving it. Makeshift Camp is probably my current favorite

Hey thanks - it’s interesting you mention that particular track because a couple of people were asking about it when I first posted a video on Vimeo a while back. I think more than a year ago. I said it would be on the next album for sure. So here it is :slight_smile:

1 Like
#19

It sits nicely between the classic in-the-box sound of Laurie Spiegel and the classic out-the-box sound of Suzanne Ciani, which is my personal sensibility so you know…a lovely spot to strap a tarp between two trees and hunker down for a bit.

Thanks!

1 Like
#20

I’m afraid no bullfrogs on this album :slight_smile: I deliberately made this album to be as uniform, straight road and melancholic as possible. There are no major curveballs on this album. But there will be on future albums.

I kept the more esoteric sounding stuff, off this particular album. Just a bit wary of mixing that material up with the more traditional synth type stuff, on the same album. Sometimes it works, but a lot of time it doesn’t, and it ends up alienating the audience, who end up only liking certain tracks. The biggest issue for me when releasing albums is whether to put a big mix of genres on the same album, or keep it uniform.

I’m not someone who wants to release the same sounding genre of stuff, album after album for 7 albums. It’s too safe. I need to push myself and dip my toes where I can’t touch the floor. That’s what interests me most. I do like a challenge. So the bullfrogs will be back for sure. I want to do more improv, some electro acoustic drone and feedback stuff and Serge / Buchla bleeps and bloops to follow. I also want to do some heavy beat driven glitch coding stuff, but released on separate albums.

The next album will be a Serge 4u improv album.

7 Likes
#21

I totally get that and I really like the way you keep the different systems pure, the clarity of intent is something I aspire to.

1 Like
#22

Heavy beat driven glitch coding? Logtechre would be no joke.

3 Likes
#24

:wink:

5 Likes
#25

If anyone is wondering why the album is not on any streaming services - it was rejected due to “editorial discretion” :grinning:

image
image768×1024 143 KB

2 Likes
#26

That is bizarre, any idea what the reason could be? I mean, it’s an instrumental album and there’s no offensive imagery, what could trigger something like that?

1 Like
#27

I guess they don’t like it :slight_smile:

I do find it a little strange. It’s an instrumental album, there’s no offensive song titles, images. The music isn’t anything extreme, strange or controversial. I already have 5 releases on DistroKid. 2 x Chess Team and 3 x mudlogger albums on that same account. No issues with previous mudlogger releases. I see other artists releasing similar kind of music without problems, so not really sure what the deal is - other than it won’t generate them income and I’m not Beyoncé :slight_smile:

All I can say is - hats off to bandcamp! - they are definitely doing the right things

4 Likes
#28

i’d put my money on the second case. — small (self releasing) artists will increasingly run into issues with distro, especially if they have no back catalog or low play counts. i assume the platforms see it as work w/o any direct return of investment and decline … bummer …

2 Likes
#29

Absolutely insane! I use CD Baby and have never heard of anything like this.

1 Like
#30

Huh. Maybe they’ve spent too much time looking at Urban Dictionary.

That said, I finally got stuck into this last night, walking the pup in the dark to a field in the moonlight, a hailstorm, retreating through a small forest with Hamish in my coat, and finally returning to the woodstove. Really great stuff, well suited to the adventure, and I’ll probably make my own soundtrack for it. Just gotta work up a quick “Hamish’s Theme.”

1 Like
#31

Hey thanks - I used to listen to the masters walking in the paddy fields behind the house with the dogs. I used sit in fields and watch the monsoon thunderstorms and swarms of dragonflies roll in. A little bit surreal, but that’s what that album reminds me of. The Circling track is about 100’s of swallows circling around the house picking out dragonflies with the flashing storm clouds lit up in the background. We actually get a lot of farmers / buffalo’s here killed by lightening because they sit out in the fields under trees.

4 Likes
#32

@prussian_zen @Whinger @niall I ditched Distrokid and joined CDbaby and the album is now up on all the streaming stream services :slight_smile:

11 Likes
#33

Glad that you’re back up!

1 Like
#34

Wonderful!

Your music is powerful magic!

1 Like
#35

just got my cassette!! sounds so good. amazing release.

2 Likes
#36

Just wanted to chime in here to say how much I’ve been loving West of Shetland. Been on heavy repeat on the commutes in and back.
Was cool hearing the backstory behind the name and yours! (Originally from Aberdeen but live in Edinburgh now)

Anyway, congrats on such a lovely release!

3 Likes
#37

Hey thankyou - much appreciated :grinning: