I completely forgot to spiel about my involvement with a total wonder-film directed and produced by my bros Sam Walkerdine and Luke Marsh.
I was super touched when Luke approached me to get involved with both the graphic design and soundtrack for a documentary film about the beach combers on the island of Texel off Holland. Sam and Luke spent intense amounts of time navigating hours upon hours of interview clips before they hammered the footage into an intriguing, melancholic masterpiece of a short film. I remember Luke showing me a beautiful time-lapse of the sun setting over Texel. When I asked if they'd use it he said, "nah, it's a bit telly." Their stubborn dedication towards an honest account makes for a better watch.
Despite seeing works in progress and cut after cut, it's only tonight that I've seen the final version thanks to a Facebook link popping up on my feed. I'm proud as anything that it's my music accompanying the footage and my design work helping to tell the tale (though, Luke's motion graphics work sets it off perfectly). Most of all I'm proud of my friends Luke and Sam for properly nailing the shit out of their film. Look:
What has one worked on? One worked on much and told nothing to no one, until now. I have a sleeping puppy but often the sleeping puppy is a devil in disguise and he seamlessly transforms the flat into a right old piss and shit safari. A rare moment of calm is the time to update the weblog, so here it is, the first of an update-a-thon.
Months ago, near the start of the 2011, I shacked up with the dark and murky Outfit in the darker and murkier Hot Club de Paris praccy room and recorded some of the songs they'd penned-off since the demise of Indica Ritual. Shuffled and sorted mainly from Lodge residents, the new band was open, delicate and moody - a total departure (i felt) from the taut-as-fuck-everything-on-at-once approach of Indica.
We recorded 5 songs and whilst only three of the songs got a public airing on their totally decent website, I hope that somewhere down the line ears will hear the rest of what we did and like it.
My favourite song from the session is without a doubt Mirror Park. Describing it is to do it a complete disservice (because it's difficult not to use the words 'jazz' and 'chill' with a hyphon between them), so hopefully it'll end up somewhere sometime soon. Maybe they'll let me post it here.
Their first release was the blissy Two Islands on Hari'sDouble Denim label. It's a belter of a song that suits the more hi-fi production approach the band have employed since our lo-fi, sit on the floor session. It's also illustrative of Andy's recent shift towards more emotive and personal lyric writing. Suits his massive brain well. I do hope however, that the pop-shine of Two Islands doesn't mark an abandonment of lo-fi production and that other records might contain the scratch and murk that suits them so well. All in all, recording Outfit was one of the funniest and rewarding sessions I've worked on and I hope all this good press snowballs into a lengthy career for 5 inventive and truly talented bros.
Up next: recording with Vasco da Gamma, new Hot Club de Paris studio, Bad Meds, In the Room Print Co, the great Lost Art re-brand and a recording session with this man:
