Adam A Williams

David Yow is releasing his debut solo LP this June 25. Yow was...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:35:39 -0400

David Yow is releasing his debut solo LP this June 25.

Yow was the frontman for The Jesus Lizard and Scratch Acid, the latter of which is one of the main reasons I learned an instrument, formed a band, and became heavily invested in music.

Colour me excited.

Halcyon Days is the latest release from Savaran/Mark Walters – a musician who manages the impressive...

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 15:33:00 -0400

Halcyon Days is the latest release from Savaran/Mark Walters – a musician who manages the impressive combination of being Welsh, very talented, and an extremely nice guy all at once. The seven-track EP is mastered by Wil Bolton and dedicated to Mark’s late dog Tess, a clearly beloved companion.

In Mark’s words:

“The Halcyon Days tracks evolved over five months between November 2012 and March 2013. For some reason my most subtle, deep, emotional and dark works always seem to be produced in the suppressed light of Winter. Perhaps the enforced isolation and incarceration in the studio due to the inclement weather figures in this, but I know that I also take a lot of visual and audible cues from the landscape and nature at this time.

The EP essentially describes a number of locations visited during the Winter months in the UK and my response to them in musical form. ”

Halcyon Days was released by the Assembly Field netlabel, and though I confess I hadn’t heard of them before (I haven’t been keeping very current lately), it’s a young label that looks very good indeed, with a compilation that I’m going to be sure to check out next.

Anyway, Mark’s EP is great stuff as always and well worth a listen.

Introducing Darwin, the seven month old Dachshund we recently...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:13:12 -0400

Introducing Darwin, the seven month old Dachshund we recently adopted. He’s settling in very well and seems to get on with Finley and Luna just fine.

A rare work plug: the artist Christo (of Christo and Jeanne-Claude fame) has unveiled his first work...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:44:00 -0400

A rare work plug:

the artist Christo (of Christo and Jeanne-Claude fame) has unveiled his first work since the death of his wife. The installation is titled “Big Air Package.”

I wrote about it here

anddd … I’m back. I’ve been having some hand/wrist trouble which...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 16:51:27 -0400

anddd … I’m back.

I’ve been having some hand/wrist trouble which prevented me from playing guitar or typing very much (never a good thing for someone who writes for a living.)

It’s still not completely healed, but I can drive and work, so I figured it’s time I got back to updating this website again.

In the last few months I’ve filled my time listening to the above song a lot, exploring the wine selection of my local supermarket, reading classic Russian literature, and watching Twin Peaks. Oh, and I’m also attempting to learn Spanish.

I haven’t written any music in far too long and still have...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 10:27:00 -0400

I haven’t written any music in far too long and still have an “almost finished” album lying around since last year, so in an attempt to get back into gear I threw together something last night…

The track comprises ebow improvisations on the aluminium kramer guitar and a series of field recordings I made on the last trip to Spain. We tied a Zoom H1 recorder to some cheap fishing line and lowered the Zoom down a mineshaft (shown above) for about 90 feet. The mine complex itself is fantastic, and a complete deathtrap, dating back to pre-Roman times - it was apparently very heavily mined by the Romans and the gold dug up would be floated all the way back to the Tiber.

When listening back, you could hear several layers of life in the mineshaft: first, there were several very angry pigeons, then the poor Zoom appears to have fallen into something dead, as there were really loud flies (and, presumably, maggots), then finally, rats. Amazingly, the Zoom survived.

Anyway, though it doesn’t really live up to the above description yet, a very rough sketch track was made from the sounds and uploaded to SoundCloud here.

Jonathon Keats is an artist, writer and experimental philosopher previously behind such endeavors as...

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 14:51:02 -0400

Jonathon Keats is an artist, writer and experimental philosopher previously behind such endeavors as the opening of a porn theater for plants and the application of string theory to real estate development, in order to buy and sell properties extra-dimensionally.

In his new project, Keats purports to offer the general public the chance to see, and perhaps own, his yeast-based “clones” of celebrities, which include Lady GaGa and Oprah Winfrey.

As the clones are made from yeast, they’re not going to look anything like their forbears, however Keats is still confident that the yeast cells are up to the job of functioning on the same high level which we have come to expect from modern day luminaries like Ms Gaga.

Jonathon Keats’ Epigenetic Cloning Laboratory is opening its doors from September 13 to October 27 at the AC Institute, New York City.

Twice Removed Records is an independent record label based in Perth, Australia which releases...

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 15:42:02 -0400

Twice Removed Records is an independent record label based in Perth, Australia which releases varying styles of underground music which fall broadly under the ambient/drone/noise genres and has thus far been responsible for some releases from artists like Listening Mirror, Bengalfuel and Cycle~ 440. Label boss Gavin sent some recent releases my way and so here are some hastily jotted down thoughts…

First up is Bengalfuel with Roeblin. Bengalfuel is the project of duo Lou DiBenedetto and Joe LiTrenta. The pair have had a run of strong previous releases on Hibernate Recordings and Rural Colours and a selection of other similar labels. Roeblin’s atmosphere is probably what most artists of the type hope to convey when they describe their work as ‘dark ambient’, though in all honestly work labelled as such usually leaves me cold. However, Roeblin definitely does not fall into this camp and its dark, spacious tones really get under your skin over the eleven tracks and fourty-five minutes of the albuym, resulting in repeated and attentive listens.

Craig McElhinney’s Sore Loser was the other album sent over by the label and thankfully it keeps up the quality offered by Bengalfuel. I’ll confess to not knowing too much about McElhinney and I don’t think I’ve come across his work before, but the one long-form track here is strong enough to pique my interest and make me want to seek out more. Like Bengalfuel’s album, Sore Loser also starts off pretty dark and minimal but the artist ratchets things up and produces lots of buffeting noise in a release which packs in quite a bit of variation - my own personal highlight was the guitar strumming somewhere around mid-point.

To hear more from the label, check out their bandcamp page:

http://twicerememberedtwiceremoved.bandcamp.com/

It’s been a busy few weeks but we’ve finally...

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 06:23:00 -0400

It’s been a busy few weeks but we’ve finally finished moving into this place.

My friend (and onetime collaborator) Leonardo Rosado recently returned from a work related trip to...

Sat, 12 May 2012 06:15:55 -0400

My friend (and onetime collaborator) Leonardo Rosado recently returned from a work related trip to find that his home had been broken into and burgled. In addition to the obvious invasion of privacy and the loss of several expensive items, Leonardo lost his main music computer from which he both creates his own music and runs his labels.

In the hope of raising some extra funds to buy a replacement laptop, Leonardo has released his album The Blue Nature of Everyday on Bandcamp for just 6 Euros. It’s a great album and its sale will hopefully enable Leonardo to purchase a new Mac soon and get back to music-making.

Photo

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 16:53:15 -0400

It was my birthday a couple of days ago, so to celebrate we went...

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:45:00 -0400

It was my birthday a couple of days ago, so to celebrate we went camping in the new vw van for a few days, driving all around North Wales, sleeping on the beach and in a nature reserve.

After leaving the safe confines of the A55, we started off the road trip proper by successfully annoying every driver within 5 miles of the Crimea Pass by driving very slowly up the mountain in second gear.

We then headed to Bala Lake as, due to my terrible grasp of geography, I believed it was ‘right next to’ Beddgelert. It wasn’t and so we lost a few hours and a lot of petrol. Upon arriving in Beddgelert, we found a suitable nature reserve and camped for the night, making a barbecue and generally relaxing.

The next day was spent visiting Gelert’s grave, which included the above photo of Gelert himself (of dubious historical accuracy), and following that, we did some driving around Snowdonia and visited an airplane museum, which was great.

Finally, we spent the evening in Anglesey parked up next to the beach and after walking around the local area and doing some reading, headed back home today, once again annoying drivers along the way due to the van’s (lack of) speed.

Last week I bought a thirty one year old Volkswagen T25 Danbury camper van as an early birthday...

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:42:00 -0400

Last week I bought a thirty one year old Volkswagen T25 Danbury camper van as an early birthday present to myself and the last few days have consisted of myself and Hannah cleaning it up, with some minor mechanical maintenance courtesy of my dad.

In all, it’s in great shape and though the 2 litre aircooled petrol engine isn’t exactly economical, it is a lot of fun and seems very reliable. We had a test run and spent the day driving around Anglesey during the petrol strike and intend to spend at least a night or two in it for my impending birthday over Easter. Photos to follow soon…

Hannah purchased a new lens for her Canon and it arrived...

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:19:00 -0400

Hannah purchased a new lens for her Canon and it arrived yesterday, so on the way back from doing some errands we decided to pay a visit to the Duke Of Lancaster in order to test it.

The ship is still as beautiful as ever, though it’s a shame to see it sat rusting.

We’re at that magical time of year in North Wales at the...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 17:43:03 -0400

We’re at that magical time of year in North Wales at the moment when the worst of the winter weather is ebbing away and the annual deluge of tourists hasn’t quite hit yet. This photo was taken a little walk away from the lighthouse at our local beach, which is the northernmost point of mainland Wales.

I was fortunate to receive a copy of Marcus Fischer’s latest solo release Collected Dust a...

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 14:29:00 -0500

I was fortunate to receive a copy of Marcus Fischer’s latest solo release Collected Dust a couple of months ago and thought it was high time I shared some thoughts about it.

For those not familiar with Marcus, he’s a Portland based experimental artist who produces all kinds of fantastic work, such as these prints and guitar picks in addition to a prolific musical output which includes 2010’s Monocoastal - one of the most accomplished albums that I’ve had the pleasure of hearing. I think that Nathan Thomas summed up my own feelings on Marcus’s work just perfectly when reviewing Collected Dust for Fluid Radio - says Thomas:

I enjoy listening to a wide range of music, but it’s rare that I come across something that completely changes my understanding of how music can be made and listened to.

Indeed, Fischer seems to break all the ‘rules’ by turning what is often considered as undesirable qualities in music into something positive, turning hiss, static and clicks into things of beauty. With this in mind, I like Thomas, was also very excited to hear Collected Dust, a series of songs which were originally created for Fischer’s blog Dust Breeding, revisited at this later date and mastered by 12k’s Taylor Deupree. Happily I wasn’t to be disappointed with the results.

Being familiar with Marcus’s blog long before I’d heard a full length release, the tracks within Collected Dust evoked a strange feeling of reminiscence and evoked memories of my own life at the time they were originally conceived. While the tracks were updated, the original spirit was definitely kept and the result is an album which fits perfectly into Fischer’s other works, somewhere between Arctic/Antarctic and Monocoastal, while remaining just as essential as both.

Whether to serve as an introduction to Marcus Fischer’s work or as another piece of the puzzle, I’d definitely recommend picking up a copy of Collected Dust.

Purchase here:

http://www.tenchrec.com/TCH05.html

On a recent trip to the local junk shop I came across this great...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:18:30 -0500

On a recent trip to the local junk shop I came across this great little suitcase reed organ and couldn’t resist picking it up despite my poor long-suffering girlfriend already having to make do with a huge pile of music gear in our bedroom.

It’s pretty lo-fi and is apparently a J Busilacchio, manufactured in the 1960’s. I’ve only had a quick play with it so far but even in my unskilled hands it sounds perfect for the kind of sounds I want to make.

I’ve had a very busy few months and haven’t really felt the inclination to write any new...

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:24:20 -0500

I’ve had a very busy few months and haven’t really felt the inclination to write any new music for a while but that’s finally beginning to change and I’m starting the creative process again, carrying my field recording equipment when I go anywhere interesting and slowly setting up my home studio upstairs, while adding a little extra gear too for good measure.

I hope to have some new music up on here and Soundcloud soon…

I recently reviewed an album by Matthew Shaw, called Lanreath. Named after the Cornish village, the...

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:10:05 -0500

I recently reviewed an album by Matthew Shaw, called Lanreath. Named after the Cornish village, the 45 minute longform piece was a welcome respite from a backlog of work and cold Welsh winter weather.

Read the review here:

http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/2012/01/matthew-shaw-lanreath/

I’m a little late as it was released on Christmas day, but this release called For The Tired...

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:12:00 -0500

I’m a little late as it was released on Christmas day, but this release called For The Tired and Ill At Ease from Dan Crossley’s new label Fac-ture is well worth mentioning. The album is by John McCaffrey of Part Timer fame, appearing here as Scissors And Sellotape and it promises to be amazing.

If you’re at all familiar with Dan and his wife Jess’ work on Fluid Radio and Fluid Audio, you’ll know to expect something really well put together and all the releases I’ve had the pleasure of owning have been really fantastic, both packaging and music.

You can still buy the album and read more about it or join the mailing list on the Fac-ture website here:

http://www.fac-ture.co.uk