laptop finally gave up.

after 5 years, my laptop has finally broken beyond all use.
in the past few months the screen had flickered off and required a lamp shining directly onto it to see anything.
someone had broken one of my usb ports, another was really loose, and the third one has now finally come loose too, meaning no recording. i had almost finished the album as well.

solutions, for my own benefit:

1. try and get a new one on insurance.
2. try and fix the delapidated laptop.
3. buy a new one when i'm not as disgustingly poor as i am (could take months)
4. buy a new one on hp (has this not been banned since we're in recession?)

opinions appreciated.
i'm so frustrated that i'm beyond screaming really loudly, i'm in fact defeated.

favourite listening of late:

herve boghossian - mouvements
autechre - amber, quaristice
various - small melodies comp on spekk
ultra milkmaids - lands

retreating into acceptance.

christmas playlist.

26 songs getting played regularly on the douglas firs stereo:

1. genesis - the brazilian
2. tim hecker - atlas two
3. atlas sound - cold and golden
4. fennesz - glide
5. high places - namer
6. tomoyoshi date - supermarket in the woods
7. anderegg - anomia
8. au - rr vs. d
9. autechre - simmm
10. daedelus - el subidon
11. department of eagles - no one does it like you
12. ellen allien + apparat - jet
13. four tet - ribbons
14. iggy pop - china girl
15. jodi cave - for myria 2
16. joy division - decades
17. julee cruise - rockin back inside my heart
18. nudge - war song
19. radiohead - kid a
20. ruby suns - blue penguin
21. benoit pioulard - together & down
22. chromatics - hands in the dark
23. ecstatic sunshine - herrons
24. windy & carl - btwn you + me
25. glass candy - rolling down the hills
26. rod stewart - young turks

running.

The process of writing lyrics has taken place as thus - running, writing down ideas, accumulating the results then arranging them in concept and rhyme. Quite a long process. 

Murakami  and Gladwell have both recently spoken of the benefits of running as catharsis, and personally I agree - most ideas come naturally to me when running (or walking), particularly when the direction is aimless. 

My favourite time of day is twilight, or, as I recently read Terrence Malick calls it, "the Magic Hour". Nesto Almendros wrote of it on the set of "Days of Heaven", hailing it "a euphemism, because it's not an hour but around 25 minutes at the most. It is the moment when the sun sets, and after the sun sets and before it is night. The sky has light, but there is no actual sun. The light is very soft, and there is something magic about it. It limited us to around twenty minutes a day, but it did pay on the screen. It gave some kind of magic look, a beauty and romanticism." This is the best time of year to experience this, when the sun is furthest away and the light refracts round the earth at strained angle. 

The other day I ran up Arthur's Seat at this time, thinking I was alone, only to find a fox at the top. A fox atop the summit! The hanging valley between the two hilltops is incredible, where at one time assumedly a glacier slid down and carved out the land. If I were a fox, I'd hang out up there too. 

christmas.

Moving home for Christmas to avoid working and being miserable. Also a chance to finish the album. For good.

Recording studio - shed.

Running/catharsis - old railway line.

Listening: Fennesz new album. 

haunted church.

Having heard footsteps going up and down a staircase somewhere in Viewforth Church, when all alone, I became convinced it was haunted. I'm not even sure I believe in ghosts, but the place has always had a strange atmosphere. It was initially the sounds from the balcony, as if someone was periodically standing there, that made me feel uneasy. I was also locked out of the church on the same day as the footsteps, with bolt, which could be easily explained but was very unusual. 

It was only last night when someone I met told me his girlfriend wouldn't walk past the church, positively hated having to go near it... anyway I've always suspected spectres could be figments, or projections of our imaginations. I was told that the site of the church had a previous history of paganism, but I have no idea, nor care if this rings true. 

I've been planning on recording an album called "Most Haunted" for a while. Maybe I'll make this the next one.

travel to jesus h gigs

horrible. in a dark, cold van on the motorway. alone.

church recording at dusk is beautiful.

persistence must prevail.

It is truly difficult to record, sometimes.
I abandoned another song today, as it just wasn't quite in time. Ye gods.

It's ok though. A week of recording next week, then I have nothing to do until the end of the year to finish everything.

listening:

high places - high places
deerhunter - microcastle

recording with fires.

OK.

I'm over "sex on fire". I think I had a nervous breakdown last week, with that song at the centre of things. I think I embraced the horrific meaninglessness of that song, and enjoyed it. A little too much.

This week I am afresh from breakdown, and listening to Windy and Carl. Deerhunter's new album finally got a release this week. I'm meant to be reviewing it for No Ripcord, but I genuinely find the album impenetrable in many respects. I didn't realize until today that certain songs were not sung by Bradford Cox. I thought that he had just honed down his singing voice. I'll give the review a blast anyhow. I've said since June that the album and show I saw in Glasgow confirm my opinion that Deerhunter are perhaps one of the best bands in the world right now. 

This week will be productive. This week will be productive. This week will be productive. 

sex on fire

that's three listens in 9 minutes.

oh yeah

i left out "sex on fire".

literally the soundtrack to the past week.

drummer - best part of the video.

i'm yet to eat fried chicken whilst listening to it, but will.

album

Tracks:

1. i will kill again

2. a military farewell (soldier's leap)

3. sepulture

4. future state

5. the quickening

6. nature and nurture

7. the shadow line

8. balance of halves

9. grow old and go home (acceptance)

10. soporific

tracks 3, 4, 5, 6 : complete

tracks 2, 8, 10 : nearing completion

tracks 1, 7 : need work

track 9 : to be rerecorded

going well with the bleak, uplifting edinburgh autumn of howling winds and harvest moons: high places, johann johannsson, keith fullerton whitman, oren ambarchi, stars of the lid.

reading - the magic mountain.

watching - times and winds, import export.

today - sax recording.

next week - vocals, drums, organ, electric piano, standard piano.

churches and sheds.

One step closer to finishing the album.

Churches are fantastic places for recording. I can't say that I am religious, but I do hold respect for certain elements of the Christian faith. Without fully involving oneself with formal religion itself, the reverent air of churches is incredible, and mitigating, amongst the intensity of the inner city.

Owing to this, I can work uninterrupted for hours amidst the silent, austere reverie of Viewforth Church. I think within perhaps 3 or 4 more sessions, the album will be 95% complete.

There will be a song posted, here, within the next week - recorded at Sacred Heart church on Lauriston Street. It was intended to subsist on its own, and I may record 4 more to form a separate EP.

Thanks for reading, if you did.

north america.

just last week arrived back from a north american excursion.
if anything, it reaffirmed my dislike of the majority of the united kingdom.
there's a spirit, imagined or otherwise, that does not exist in the british isles, perhaps first established in the frontier period of america's history (and is quite apparent in the first literature of that era). it is a spirit of independence and adventure, and an overwhelming vastness which seems to encourage these elements. it is particularly prevalent in the canadian countryside.

favourite events were: exploring rocky cliffs, swimming in lake georgia and the slabtown creek, getting lost in dense foliage.

i imagine these events will inform writing projects of my own, as opposed to musical ones. however, if i could make music whilst there, it would perhaps come more naturally. creativity in hindsight suffers from human memorys subconscious recapitulative tendencies, and willingness to summarize at the expense of the full range of emotions one feels in the present.

maybe one day i will return, equipped..

now, i record vocals for a near-finished track ("the big sleep") in my parent's shed.
listening mainly to samamidon and au.

news

some news:

1. one track finished, "the quickening".
2. album cover art finished.
3. new album ideas conceived.
4. temporary adandonment of earlier album ideas.
5. album now about 75% complete.

things that are good today:

1. the wire series 2.
2. joy division.
3. san franisco 1975 liberty ale, 5.9%, £1.50/bottle.
4. rogs.
5. outputmessage.

singing.

i need a singing crew for a song or two.
if you can help, please let me know.

the douglas firs opens a new blog.

this blog is not about sexing up a dossier.
this blog is about the douglas firs news, for douglas firs fans.
i can name these fans now, if you like, it'd take about 10 strokes of the keyboard.
you'd be bored.
get out.
here you will find mp3s of new songs, as i need to start posting songs i have no space for.

things that are good today -

*a la recherche du temps.
*the evangelicals, high places.
*the conformist, by bertolucci.
*sleeping with the light and the radio on, in the day.