A Manifesto of Sorts

I don't know what I'm doing.

ROC Group 9 (Yeovil)

Another day, a new song (almost) based on this place.




This was at Southwoods, at the edge of Ninesprings, ripped from the woods. It was part of the UKWMO - an early warning system of sorts. A place of melancholy and discussion when we were kids. It was assumed everyone was watching the skies. Close Encounters was real then, a Russian missile attack inevitable. Its gone now, the fear is of a different kind of alien, a different kind of Soviet.

I wish I'd been part of this expedition, would've been cool to find out what was really in there. I'm sure they are lying about the demons they found though because everyone knows that when the Royal Observer Corps moved out, the demons moved in.




Chatter. Fallout. They listen.

Are. Still. Listening.

Are Glistening.

Are here.

The Loplop Sluice

I've just been working on a suite (tweet) of 3 songs provisionally entitled The Loplop Sluice, named after the Ernst bird series and featuring Hitchcock / Du Maurier references amongst slews of disembodied electronic (and real) birdchatter and starling formations. Then, by accident I came across An Offering To Loplop, which seems to be a blog of art inspired by Loplop and may in fact be related in some way to this, which I haven't really fully investigated... So, wormholes... this weekend's will be Loplop inspired, which will probably mean that The Loplop Sluice itself will change. The original plan I had for the 3 related songs has already changed slightly because I couldn't quite generate the exact tune in my head using my limited musical skills (some of you will have heard the 1st album...) and I have a natural disaffinity with improvisation per se (unless it's inspired by accident / chance meeting) since I'm a little anal retentive in generating music, if not much else, and want everything to be planned out meticulously and, importantly, to sound like the music in my head...

The Old Odilon Redon, Yeovil

Looking for pictures to illustrate the last post, I found this great blog entry on The now reconfigured Odilon Redon, otherwise known as The old Odeon Cinema in Yeovil. As far as I know, it was only called Odilon Redon by one person, an LSD damaged guy I used to know but whose name I have now forgotten - I can see his thin face, streaked with bad tidings, his gingery hair clinging to his face, his arms crossed across him like he's trying to hug himself to death - but that name has stuck with me. Back then, I don't think I even knew who Odilon Redon was (I'm not convinced he did either) but I found out and, well, you can't say his art doesn't fit. Here's Odilon's take on the Cyclops, for instance: Now, I'm pretty sure I knew that guy from kicking around Yeovil back in the 80s too. The one-eyed were legion, propped up by bars and chunky-cut scrumpy, full of stories of witches and wires and dead soldiers. But the Odilon Redon endures, sort of. It's there in spirit and has been almost assimilated. Inside, it looks even odder, like a David Lynch bedstore or something from a lost Kubrick still. It's sort of important to the IX Tab story - at least one of the tracks on the new album will be about it, in a psychogoegraphical not about it at all kind of way.

In The Blake Midwinter Remix

The everlovely Richard Fontenoy of Freq and the Drift of Signifieds has done a lovely, drifting spectral dub remix of In The Blake Midwinter, called Why Be Bleak In the Blake Midwinter which is available for free - I assume he's okay with that; it's not like I actually asked - below: Very much worth it if you thought the original was a bit misplaced and spiky and gulpy and annoying (I think that sometimes too). The DoS remix spruces it considerably, I think... makes sense even of the wooden drums. Here's a Mediafire link to the track, which goes down as the first IX Tab remix (hopefully, there'll be many more): Why Be Bleak In the Blake Midwinter (DoS Spectral Dub Mix) By the way. the image is a postcard of St John's Church in the centre of Yeovil and the photograph was taken last year. Things are different this far West.

The Outer Church

Apologies for those who are already fully sick to the teeth of hearing about this (i.e. everyone who's ever heard about it) but I'm very excited to be playing at The Outer Church with Hacker Farm and Kemper Norton in a few weeks time. It's great to be playing my first gig as IX Tab with such great mates at such a fantastic event.Seems like lots of the bloggerati are coming down to the coast to see us too so it's gonna be a real gathering of the tribes, the biggest since the time Ekoplekz and Hacker Farm played Resonance FM back in 2010 (Christ, that doesn't seem like any time). In fact, my trip that day with Nick Ekoplekz is in a large part responsible for the re-emergence of IX Tab since he was winding me up the whole way about getting off my arse and releasing something. I might even have played him (on cassette!) a very rough sketch of Seams Of Goodwill on the journey back... Many many thanks to Joe Stannard for organising all of this.

Foxy Digitalis

Wow. There's a lovely, amazing and thoughtful review of Spindle & The Bregnut Tree, over at Foxy Digitalis. And they even get the Milorad Pavic references. Very honoured to be reviewed like this; might have to order another edition from the printers now, though...

Norman Records

Ok, well there's a definite sample bias here obv but THIS is still a lovely review of my album over at Norman Records...

Just so chuffed with peoples' responses.

Holy shit...

...Spindle & The Bregnut Tree got into the Pontone best albums list aka the list I go to first when I'm looking for new things to buy... This makes me unbelievably chuffed in ways that shouldn't be shared...

And lots of mates are also in there... it's been a funny old year. Many unicorns.

The West is coming...

Nice words & Dark Woods

IX Tab get included in this round-up of 2012... The rest of the list is worth checking out too...

The Portal

I did a Portal thing for The Wire here. I doubt there'll be too many surprises for anyone who ever followed An Idiot's Guide To Dreaming but you get to see that little horse again...

My version of Bronycore.

Bliss and Pontone

Nice words about the album from Simon Reynolds over at Blissblog, a great little video of the Hacker Farm boys showing their (ahem) wares plus a link to the IX Tab inspiring Pontone mix I did featuring Ekoplekz, Coil, Wooden Wand, NWW, Imogen Heap etc and some unreleased IX Tab rarebits...




There's a new Wyrd Wild West / Wyrd Albion mix on its way from Pontone soon...

Twigwidge = Twiggwytch

If anyone was wondering why the label is called Twiggwytch Recordings (what? No one?) then it's because it was a misheard / misrembered version of this little fellah, which was a kind of odd tv series / radio play / book featuring the crazed tree sprite Twidgwidge, Spirit of the Chestnut tree... which also inspired the track "I m wh u mk ov me" , featured at The Wire website. For a long time, I thought I'd made this guy up.

The Female Version

The new sparkly 'Female' edition of Spindle & The Bregnut Tree, with a radically reworked version of The Sutton Wytch Hunt and different cover etc, has just arrived from Twiggwytch Recordings and the first 3 have been sent out. Thanks to all the people who bought the 1st edition; can't actually believe it sold out.

Wyrd Wyld West

Here's a few exclusive (well, not now) tracks from IX Tab, Hacker Farm and Kemper Norton... My ones are probably going to form part of the next album, provisionally titled An Autistic Summer Of Love, due around Beltane 2013.

Blog Wheels

Lovely words from Ekoplekz here and a lovely picture of the first meeting of the Tribes that I also documented here. I'm obviously pleased with all the positive things I'm getting back re: Spindle & The Bregnut Tree but I'm even more pleased to be seen as a part of all the great things that are happening at the moment (add in Woebot's stuff, Ship Canal et al) and to see so many wonderful people dragging back the culture and sending/bending it into weird shapes. It feels just a little like we're winning.

The Female Version

The new cover art for the Female version has just gone out to the printers. The Female version has a completely different version of The Sutton Wytch Hunt, which has been substantially reorganised and realigned according to various occult deviations. Will be available soon. There are still a few copies of the orginal 'Male' version available as well though they are rapidly selling out as a result of the fantastic article in the December edition of The Wire. A massive thanks to Matt (Woebot) Ingram and photographer Rob Baker... Cover art for Female Version:

Spindle @ The Liminal

Lovely write up of Spindle & the Bregnut Tree by Matt Poacher over at The Liminal here . And love being underneath Luc Ferrari!

Male / Female

Soon, there will be an unlimited Female version of Spindle & The Bregnut Tree to accompany the previously limited Male version. The Female version will have completely different artwork / booklet etc and, while the music will be almost exactly the same on both releases, there will be one track which has been substantially revised and revisited, for mostly alchemical reasons...

Obviously, if you've already bought the Male version (and massive thanks to everyone who did) you don't need the Female one and the revised track will feature on something free, sooner or later...

Poster for something

Barwick Tower & Cows Being Food

Photo via Archidave

A wonderful review of Spindle & The Bregnut Tree here by marxsbeard/cowsarejustfood... Can't say how pleased I am about peoples' response to this stuff and especially like the fact that, even though the album is based on a personal/regional/hyper-local mythology that borders on (and in fact invades) schizoid indulgence (It was almost called The Declaration Of Indulgence), people are getting that its like that and also getting something from it because its like that... which is more or less letting me have my cake and eat it...

I'm enjoying the cake.

Stolen And Contaminated

Cloudboy gets it by not getting it... and nods to Stolen and Contaminated Songs... which is one of the original soundtracks to the room on the sleeve and also an obvious psychic influence and has a genesis in offcuts and scraps and almosts...

I wish I was here to see this...

The Genesis Of Gurnings - CLOACA

I'd not been convinced about the track title Gurnings since... it wasn't the title I had in mind, and just slipped in there when I wasn't looking. But since the whole concept (ahem) of Spindle & The Bregnut was supposed to be about the Calm Localised Ontological Acceptance of Chance and Accident (CLOACA)  then it had to stay... but still the term 'Gurnings' bugged me and eventually I remembered this