albums of my year #4

bibio's the apple and the tooth.
i am a new convert to this music, thanks to stephanie, and i picked this up, initially unaware it is more of filler between records than a full-on new album, it has a few new things and some remixes, but i really love it. amon tobin and fourtet have been favourites of mine for years, but bibio, clark etc are a new fascinating hybrid of this.

albums of my year #3

i am sure this will be a shoe-in for most people's end of year lists. It IS a wonderfully rich album, musically and lyrically and i am only annoyed it took me most of the year to not pay attention to everyone that was telling me how good it was. Also regret i didnt see the live show. oh well.

albums of my year #2

from one of my favourite labels, one of my favourite bands have consistently grown and experimented in a way that feels totally appropriate, never contrived. Jeremy Earl and Christian DeRoeck may well have made hiss and background noise cool again, but this isnt lo-fi for lo-fi sakes. I love it.

albums of my year #1

hearing arvo part's tabula rasa was as important important a moment in my music education as hearing eno's music for airports was. i have bought all the scant releases since but it wasnt until this year's In Principio that i had similar feelings of wonder from a release. Ivo Watts-Russell, former boss of 4AD Records took me to see Part conduct St John's Passion at the Almedia Chapel in London in the mid 80s and it was astonishing. I owe you a debt of gratitude for that Ivo. I would love to see this work performed there also. I will try and make it happen.

the incredible DIRTY THREE with Nick Cave

i invited some friends over to my hotel room tonight ; )





(actually this was on the fab pitchfork tv pages!)

Vintage Dirty Three Are More Vital Than Ever Before...

Tonight's triumphant return to the London stage could not have been timed better. Lest we forget, and i assure you i won't...DIRTY THREE ARE THE BEST ROCK N ROLL BAND ON THE PLANET, bar none....

This is no idle boast by the way..this is gospel.

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, Dec 7th, 2009

A violin, a drum kit and a guitar? no effects, no stacks of amps? it shouldnt be possible to make noises as beautiful and brutal, as apocalyptic as this with such a sparse set-up.

but listen, Dirty Three have been a fuckin revelation for years and so the industry continues to remain largely ignorant to their exceptional and original talents. If that music show on BBC2 has managed to ignore them for however long that show's been running, then there's a fair chance that when the band play London in ten years hence, nothing will have changed. Except the tv show probably wont be on anymore

They have curated ATP, sold out Shepherds Bush Empire, and yet the music press, the radio and the television people probably think they broke up long ago. It irks me, but i guess no more than most things one has to deal with when running a label. It's my challenge, to keep ensuring more new people are turned on to their music and it was beautiful to see such a diverse and predominantly young crowd there tonight.

In what can occassionally be a 'pleasant room' for live music, the dirty three from melbourne transformed QEH into a burning cauldron of emotive sounds and feeling that captivated all of us present.

In my forty something years of confusion and contemplation on our sceptred isle, i have spent many days being sad angry and bewildered, confused euphoric and hurt, in love and out of love, happy, in pain, bitter, and rarely content. Dirty Three have been my companion through all of these days and i love their music like the oldest and dearest of friends. I simply could not have imagined existing without it.

After a stunning set of new songs from Josh T Pearson which brought tears to my eyes, for oh so many reasons, Warren Ellis, Mick Turner and Jim White stroll onstage to a warm welcome.

As Warren approaches the mic he begins to improvise a fabulous fantasy horror tale about being trapped in a chalet at butlins by a burning sausage..it made us laugh hard before they launch into a blistering version of Last Horse In The Sand, a wonderful song to open with, from our first release with the band Ocean Songs. Then in what is one of my best live moments of 2009, they started to play Some Summers They Drop Like Flys from the extraordinary Whatever You Love You Are album which is certainly one of the greatest records of all time.
They return to the earlier Ocean Songs for a mesmerising rendition of Sea Above Sky Below.
Initially so soft and subtle, the song builds with mick and his morphine waltz guitar, delicately fingering graceful arpeggios while rocking slowly back and forth on his heels. Jim White makes his brushes flap softly like a hummingbird hovering above water...before his beaters with their white cottonbud heads begin creating the thunder rumbling above, a warning ahead of the crashing waves, as Warren's sad lament turns from at once gentle lilt to full force storm. Suddenly the clouds part and its over.

The drama is disturbed briefly by an inane question from the audience about Warren's shoes which he deflects masterfully.

Then all of a sudden we're into Authentic Celestial Music.
The last time I saw the band play this was at the Barbican with Nick Cave and it was an epiphany. Could this top that?
Yes. Mick Turner, "The kid from Black Rock". is tall and watchful, with his boyish charm, like a young Charlton Heston as he builds his chords, stepping through C to D to E with such poise, beside him the flayiing arms of the bearded Ellis and the blur of Jim White's hands as the song moves to an almost unbearable climax. I shake my head in disbelief at how amazing this show is. So-fucking-what they dont play any new material? If i could write one song half as good as any of these, i'd die a happy man.

Everything is fucked.
With turner's elegiac opening, this song really is classic Dirty Three. Warren's violin has rarely sounded more vital as the poetry of jim's initial clatterings suddenly see the song explode in a whirl of arms. Jim White's kit would sound incredible tonight even if it all collapsed around him. As mics fall, as the legs of the floor tom, give way, Jim still manages to paint picassos with his brushes. Yes of course he's the greatest drummer in the world but tonight is still a fuckin revelation to me, and I've seen the band 20 times.


Kims Dirt. one of the first ever Dirty Three songs, if not THE first, which was written with Kim Salmon, sees Ellis walk over and perch on the front of the stage, as White crouches into his snare, and caresses his wood block. At times Jim is like a master magician at work, so sleight is his hand. Where others hit the skin, Jim plays it, and lives inside it. When he drops his stick on to the snare its not a mistake, it is HIS music. When he throws his tambourine on to his cymbal it is to add yet more colour to the palette.

For some reason i am hearing this as an old Russian folk song as if it were being played by Erik Satie on looped guitar! In this very moment it simply illustrates why the Dirty Three are still the most important rock group on this earth. Ellis, the master alchemist, conducts this fantastic music not with a baton but with his entire body and soul. Every muscle and tendon is working overtime as he pulls notes and ushers sounds from the sky as if they were bolts from the clouds. Barely moving one moment, he suddenly leaps, like a coiled panther ready to strike, into the air with a wild kick of his leg, and the music suddenly erupts again.

The word 'THREE' really is SO important. I was in Cocteau Twins and perhaps always felt a spare part, even though i know my contributions were as vital as the others', so i can appreciate how important that we recognise the three of them.


"The next song is all about finding yourself dead in the back of the car cos you had too much fun and it's dedicated to anyone's who's dead or dying here tonight." We ARE laughing but the fact is Warren, we haven't felt this alive at a show in a long time.


Su's last ride is from the album Horse Stories that we recently re-issued after it had been out of print for a while and is another of my all-time favourite D3 songs. So tonight is like my greatest hits show! But unlike a greatest hits show, where the songs will likely sound dull and lifeless and without any of the original energy that drew you in in the first place, the Dirty Three tonight have pulled the skin from these songs and ruffled the feathers so now they are new beasts altogether, recognisable but more important than they have ever been.

As the song begins, Warren lies prostrate on the floor like he is lying in state, and yet while his back is flat and his eyes are looking up to heaven, he manages to strum his violin without moving. This is music I could not imagine having lived without, and makes me think of my friend Al Brooker from the much missed Gwei-lo who died onstage aged 24. He had Dirty Three played throughout his funeral and it was one of the most special moments. Sue's Last Ride builds and drops, once and again, and then as she approaches the gates to heaven, there is a wonderful pause, a long one, maybe 20 seconds, when a lesser audience would have reckoned this to be the end and broken the moment with a misplaced clap, but not one peep was uttered, and then...... CRASH! They are soon banging on the door to be let in, making a racket so magnificently unholy that you'd have to be insane to let them in.

They end with Some Things I Just Dont Want To Know, from WYLYA album and a more fitting finale they could not have chosen.

If you have yet to go to a Dirty Three concert, i urge you that it goes on top of that hush-hush list of things to do before dying.

Everything about tonight was just about perfect. I feel so lucky that i got to see them again.

Goodnight..x

snowbird recording....in the snow

wales and winter, the two are intrinsically linked for me. like sun and sea, fish and chips.
I seem to be recording in wales most wintertimes which is not a planned annual event, it just seems to work out that way, like arsenal's apparently sublime football usually leading to another year of nothing at all.
this week, while my loved one celebrated thanksgiving in the equally frosty tundra that is wisconsin, with family and friends numbering close to 30, i was holed up in the northern part of the welsh valleys, on the edges of a slate grey village called Bethesda, at Bryn Derwen Studios in the shadow of a mountain on one side and a massive quarry on the other.
As this studio is really the only place in the world where i like to record and produce, the long journey to get there from my near-london home, doesn't really bother me. The 5 hour drive however was not something i fancied this time around and instead i packed a small bag for my four-day stint and decided to try the train from Euston to Bangor. It seemed like a good idea at the time.......

As i arrived at 10am at Euston, the packed concourse seemed a little odd for a Tuesday morning, and before long i twigged that i could be on for a long day, much longer than the 3 hour train journey had promised! something about 'lines down' and 'hemel hempstead' were the mutterings among the hundreds upon hundreds of us poor fools who stood staring up at a big board with orange electronic lights informing us that our trains were very sorry but were unable to take us where we wanted today. My first day of recording was now looking like becoming a very short day, and so it was as i finally, wearily rolled into Bangor station at something close to 8pm.

Laurie, the distinguished looking studio owner, (reminiscent of a handsome christoper lee), and engineer Dave Wrench (more of Dave later) had driven to the station and welcomed me warmly, which was in stark contrast to the freezing wind and rain which greeted me as i stepped down from the train. The drive to the studio from Bangor is only 15 minutes and as the narrow winding roads wet from the teeming rain, look like soft black curling licquorice, i start to feel hungry , for supper and for work.

Ever the hospitable host, Laurie ushered Dave and i into his kitchen where he served up a lush stew which after the junk i had been nibbling on all day from station cafe to station car, tasted wonderful. i love that kitchen. Its not faux rustic, not even faintly inspired by the Victorian Kitchen programmes on the telly, its 100% authentic and somehow, that makes the food taste even better. Laurie and his family are the real deal. Interesting, thoughtful, eccentric but not in that way we English like to think we're oh-so-eccentric cos we have an open top car or a bow tie. Eccentric in the old-fashioned entrepreneurial sense, in doing things the way YOU want and bugger the rest, and in the way the studio is, and in the way they bring up their children. With morals but relaxed and not remotely uptight. It will soon be eccentric to have morals i guess...hmmm

anyhow sorry for that brief irrelevancy ...


The studio is in the grounds of Laurie's house, in fact it is really part of Laurie's house, which he shares with his lovely wife Gabriel. With their sons now moved away, the house must seem eerily quiet at times, and as it is quite remote, and like an old lovely lived-in country manor that is still very much in its original state, there are of course many stories of ghostly encounters which have been coming out of there ever since i first recorded here with the Duke Spirit many years ago. James Yorkston certainly had a 'visitation' during the night, and i think i heard that the archie bronson outfit boys all ended up in one bed one night after a scare but maybe thats just a myth. But in all my time going there, i have yet to feel anything but love and creativity within the boundaries of this wonderful place. With waterfalls and woody retreats, secret caves and magical forest trails all within 5 minutes of the studio confines, i find this the perfect place for writing and recording. Molly the dog agrees! Our morning walks are the perfect way to start any day.
I tell people about the studio but only people i like! i dont want it ruined!

Byrn Derwen and Dave Wrench are intrinsically linked, like Tim and Eric, or Spurs and Style. Apart from being one of the sweetest men around, Dave is also a brilliant engineer and producer (check out his Race Horses production and Kathryn Williams newie too!), and a master of his studio and all the wonderful equipment within it.
Bryn Derwen did try getting another engineer once to cover for Dave when he needed a break, but it didnt work out. Like it didnt work when Jacques Santini managed Spurs and then later on Ramos tried. They just couldnt hack it.

i am in Bryn Derwen to record the music for the snowbird album i am making with Stephanie and my target is to record as much as i can in the four days i now have left. With Dave at the controls, it really is a breeze. He knows what i like and how i work and by midnight on that first night, we'd already recorded three piano tracks. They have an old upright piano and a lovely old grand, both with bags of character. Apparently the upright was the one favoured by natasha from bat for lashes on their recent visit but i found it a bit too noisy when i used the pedal. The grand makes noises too but they are more 'musical'.

We sleep nights in this quaint little coach-house that is across the courtyard from the studio with a lovely old farmhouse style kitchen warmed by the permanent heat from the Aga where we sit till the wee small hours chatting about norwegian death metal (dave is an officianado) and how crap florence in the machine are. I'd heard earlier in the evening from a good friend who was managing a new artist that he'd been sacked and i am deeply saddened by this as i know just how much heart and soul he put into this artist's career to date. Good people bounce back though and if i know him, he will be ok soon.

I send some good vibes his way before falling fast asleep.

the next 4 days just passed so fast, in a flurry of vibraphones, pianos, bass and guitars and i even managed to drum on 3 songs. That was excellent fun and sounds wicked. So much more fun than the last time i did recording 'by myself'. (1996 for my solo record and i didnt enjoy the experience at all!) I also managed to write and record two new songs while i was here that i am excited for Stephanie to hear. Alot of the pieces that we performed as snowbird on our dates with Loney Dear in the summer have been transformed from sketches into fully fleshed songs and it is exciting to see the possibilities when recording with so much lovely old gear around. Lovely Coles ribbon mics on the piano, an old Selmer amp for guitar, bass and the Rhodes, and a look at the old Altec mic (has a ribbon mic and a dynamic mic all in the one housing) the same one that Bing Crosby used! A set of lovely old electric vibes added a touch of class to the lullaby song, and the gretsch snare was a proper treat. The little back room is actually amazing for drums. If you want a good ole rock sound, then the big live room is perfect, lots of wood, stone and glass, but the little back room is perfect for the softer kind of 60s/70s sound i wanted on the drums.

Yesterday as i sat at the kitchen table battling with the dodgy free online football sites in a desperate attempt to see spurs v villa, dave belied his welsh roots and cooked up a totally authentic italian pasta dish out of the not very much stuff we had left in the fridge. delicious it was but something spooky happened during dinner. We had been sat down for about 15 minutes when suddenly two plates flew across the kitchen and smashed dramatically on the tiled floor. They had been on a shelf and not disturbed in days. It was downright weird cos we tried to vainly find a plausible scientific reason and dave's best was the wood on the shelf expanding with the heat and moving the plate. Possible but then why wouldnt that happen every time the kitchen got a bit warm? anyway, that was a bit 'ghostly' and i took thinking how the greeks used to smash plates at their weddings so that they would be able to recognize each other by matching the two halves even if many years passed before they met again. Quite why they wouldnt meet again when they were just about to get married i am not entirely sure about but it's a thought...There is also the belief that by smashing the plates they forget the past and look forward to the future. So i am thinking that dave's plate smashed cos he's looking forward to doing more production and finishing his wonderful solo stuff, and my plate smashed cos in coming here i am opening a new chapter for myself by recording and writing more. It's been 12 long years since i felt confident enough to do this again, and making music with Stephanie is a real treat and inspiring to me.

the following morning after a fitful sleep only oddly aided by watching Dirty Harry at 4am, i got up to see the whole house and ground covered with thick white snow! it was a sign ..SNOWBIRD..


Thanks to dave, laurie, gabriel and north wales for giving me a week to remember....


ps sorry for not posting for ages, i have had a tedious flu thing that wouldnt go away....nearly better now!