END OF YEAR

Just real quick to say thanks for all the nice Jilk related stuff.

We done a lot of gigs of the recent times and they've been ace...the live thing is getting exciting. 

The album is finished(ish) and should come out next year...just working out the best way to put it out. I've seen the artwork and its ace - the music is ok too ;-)

Thanks for all the Carry On eps that got purchased this year and for all the techno heart EPs that got downloaded. Thanks to Bristol promoters (kit, birdcage, drawn, Fear of fiction) bit-p (coppe, leigh) and Jilk mates for doing recording and live helpz

Cags
Neil
Paul
Helen
Robbie
Hev
Terry
Luke
Ben Capp
Ben Bird

In the end I couldn;t think of an album of the year  - its stupid. But it was either The Swans, Grizzly Bear, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Portico Quartet, Frank Ocean, Grimes or something I've forgotten about. 

Music's nice innit:

GIGS AND ALBUMS YOU LIKE

Gigs and albums

We're playing the wonderful Birdcage on Saturday 20th October - get there early to catch the awesome support Rich Clarke

INFO HERE: https://www.facebook.com/events/371416912934393/?ref=ts&fref=ts

We're also playing this wicked gig at The Croft on November 21st

INFO HERE: http://www.the-croft.com/whats-on/eventdetails/21-nov-12-solarference-the-croft/

You also need to have these albums in your life -

http://boomkat.com/cds/578344-godspeed-you-black-emperor-allelujah-don-t-bend-ascend

http://boomkat.com/downloads/565260-swans-the-seer

Preferably on Vinyl - preferably as loud as you bloody can. The Swans album especially is a shitting force of nature - I've never heard anything like it, yet I recognise all of its composite elements, if that makes sense?

I think I've heard this kind of music done very badly before. It made me think about what it was in this album that made it so effective?

I think that even across relatively experimental tracks that lasts 30+mins there is intelligent, interesting and engaging song writing and there is naturally the opposite. In other words - Swans are fucking great at what they do - and what they do happens to sound like Cormac McCarthy orchestrating some punk chaos engine while the world collapses. ITS NOT PRETENTIOUS, ITS JUST HOW I FEEL.

Its 2 hours long - but you need to sit through it in one go…it will own you.

BIT POD EP 7

So every month Bit-P do a podcast - and I am lucky enough to put it together. This basically means making an ace mix tape of all the stuff I like at that time and finding one or two guests to put a mix together for us.

I basics get to listen to wicked music lots and talk in between the wicked music. check out the difference in mic set up in some of my talky bits - cus I recorded it on two separate days and one of the days got a much better sound on the mic...see if you can guess which bits and let me knowonapostcard and I'll give you a free Jilk song that no one else has got on CD

also here is the bitpod > http://snd.sc/RoHv4A 

Tour Dates

TOUR DATES FOR THIS YEAR MAYBE NOT COMPLETE LIST AND STUFF MIGHT CHANGE BUT LETS GO WITH THIS YEAH>

17th of August - Grain Barge Bristol
22nd September - Start The Bus Bristol Brisfest After Party (with Hidden Orchestra)
27th September - Grain Barge Bristol (Bit Phalanx Coppe Tour)
4th October - Mr Wolves Bristol (with Drawn Recordings and another awesome Orchestra)
6th October - Ginglik, Shepherds Bush London (Bit Phalanx Coppe Tour)
7th October-  The Marlborough Theatre Brighton (Bit Phalanx Coppe Tour)

Redundancy

In the year since I was made redundant I have done the following instead of going to an office for 7 hours a day 5 days a week -

Worked in a pub (never done it before)
Worked on several festivals as manual laborer or seeing if people are eligible to get back into Glastonbury after having lost a ticket.
Filled 100 sand bags with sand
Helped out a fair trade coffee stand I used to work for
Cleaned a music management office once a week for 20pounds a go while listening to loads of ace music
Listened to loads of ace music
Done a monthly podcast with people I used to buy cds of
Worked at a sustainable logging yard, helping prepare trees for cutting (I've used several power tools I've never even touched before)
Released an EP
Written an album
Played loads of gigs
Been involved in a tour
Doing another tour in a month or so
Made music for a computer game
Done some naughty naked things with a lovely girl
Made music for UCAS corporate videos
Sound design for a piece of theater in London
Met and spoken with lots of friends during the week, when no one else is around
Enjoyed the sun when no one else is around
Appreciated that happiness in life can come from just talking to people and success isn't something you have to measure in terms of career - although that's cool as well
Drank lots of coffee and written bollocks on my MAC like a wanker
Done some drawing
Seen a wicked tree
Gone for walks
Cooked things I haven't cooked before.

I'm not saying that everyone should quit their job - I'm just saying

Rage Against The Machine

I recently put the first rage against the machine album on my mp3 player…no particular motivation - just hadn't heard it in a while.

This album is so bloody good, and they were only like 16 when they made it.
Every riff on there is so phat and huge it makes me so pumped
I'm getting pumped writing about it now
All the music is ace all the time
..and they were like 16 when they wrote it
AND Maynard from Tool sings on Know Your Enemy…go listen to Know Your Enemy right now and if you don't get super pumped by everything that's happening in that song, you are a wrong person.

AND THEY WERE LIKE 16 WHEN THEY MADE IT.

I love it.

Forss is an electronic musician from Sweden. He has recently released an album and app for ipad/iphone based round 'church music'.

You can read an interesting article about it here:

http://thequietus.com/articles/09085-forss-ecclesia-interview

And buy the album/app here:

http://forssmusic.com/dictum

Its wonderful stuff - a little like if Burial had been made to join a church choir at a young age (who's to say he wasn't). It also threw up some interesting points for me. In the quietus interview above Forss (Eric Wahlforss) claims that he is not religious but has since child hood had a connection to the church and holds a deep seated love for 'church music'.

The concept of not being explicitly religious but feeling attached to such an important element of worship is one that resonates with me. I was bought up with a strong but liberal religious influence - both my parents work in the church and are ordained. From a relatively early age I was encouraged to make my own decisions about the church and religion. Today I would not call myself a Christian but I have a theological hunger and a willingness and openness to thinking about God.

I completely understand where Forss is coming from in terms of the atmosphere of a religious building. Architecturally they are stunning and hold a unique peace . On the odd occasion that I look round a city cathedral I am very happy to simple just be in the space. Many of the beats on Forss' album are made from the physicality of a church - stones, wood etc. Capturing this atmosphere by literally playing the church is a fantastic approach.

I find this artistic connection to the physicality, feeling and music of the church fascinating and in turn, it highlights for me a worrying trend in how the modern media encourages us to view the Church. Many feel we are living in a post religion age - the rise of western atheism in the 21st century has been unstoppable and difficult to ignore - in Britians secular society it is difficult to feel that it has not become the norm. I would worry that there is a very real danger that this momentum will mean throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Although we seem, in some areas, to have developed a healthy cynicism about the media - religion and the church appear to not have been granted this same pinch of salt. In short, the over simplistic and heavily socio-political element of the Church comes under easy fire and scorn from both media and consumers of media. The danger here is that a false dichotomy is created between dogma and spirituality - this is certainly a trap that Dawkins falls into. He attacks a child like and overtly dogmatic notion of a deity, and with his attack conveniently eradicates all spirituality. As though the entire church is founded on fundamentalism and unmoving, dogmatic thinking. This is certainly not my experience of a large amount of religious people I have met - both Christian and other.

I am being overly general and to a degree playing devils advocate but on an empirical level I have witnessed this dismissive attitude in a lot of my friends - usually accompanied by a sharp and acidic cynicism about anything religious. This is not an article defending religion - nor am I about to lower myself to Dawkins' level of theology (his God, of course does not exist, it is the God of a child like thought and comes from a man with a deeply distorted sense of spirituality). What the Forss album highlights for me is the potential for a redefined relationship with the Church though art, in which God is not a bearded interventionist in the sky but a relational projection of ourselves that we must aspire to in order to spiritually grow. There is value in Theology and the deeply personal and emotional basis for Forss' work seems to be one way in which we can enter into a dialogue with the Church and spirituality in a  healthy and open way.