uuuuuu - the astral travels
 

So while all of you were devouring the new split with Robe., I've been working for a long time on the album I've finally entitled THE ASTRAL TRAVELS. It has honestly took me a year to record this and now I feel exhausted both physically and creatively at the amount of work I've put into this. I'm quite shocked at the amount of detail I've threw into these long slabs of ambience and I truly think it's my best work by far. I have come a long way since I started this project back when I was 15 and didn't know how to work recording equipment, and I really think I've refined my sound and completely matured in the way I approach music. I now fully understand WHAT makes music interesting (for me anyway) and I've used that to the best of my ability.

One gripe I've had with a lot of ambient/drone music is that some of it is just the one tone throughout a 10 minute or whatever duration. And that's all good but not really interesting in the long run... so I've tried my hardest to look at my music from a compositional level and morph the pieces to work as a real piece of music rather than 'jamming out' as a lot of people describe it. The album is quite heavy at first, what with the 75 minute runtime and the fact most of the tracks go over the 10 minute mark but I've put a lot of work into this and I'd like to hear what you guys have to say. Thanks.

97mb zip file...
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LUQY7MZL

YEAH EVERYONE geT THIS

I listened to it while playing this game:


and it was a bizarrely heavenly experience..

Thanks Derek. Looking forward to hearing it. I'm with you on the compositional thing with drone.

Also, if you're up for it, there's a slim chance that another few names will be added to Supernormal. Let me know via Facebook if you'd like to play and I'll see if I can do anything about it.

Downloading... thanks a bunch Derek!

Damn that'd be awesome but there's no way for me to travel down there and I don't have the equipment to pull this stuff off live. I've been getting quite a few offers though so I should really do something about that. Thanks anyway!

And thanks for people checking it ouuuuuut.

Dude, you've got a few weeks. If you want to wing it, there's plenty of people playing who'd happily pitch in (myself included). Have an ad-hoc Supernormal UUUUUU supergroup. G'wan...

School starts a few days before it happens though. If you guys do it next year though I'm 100% in.

Plus I'll be 18 next year which will help make it more possible for me to travel all the way down there without interference from er, parents and the like.

Fucking hell. I didn't realise you were that side of being young. You should be out taking drugs and fucking people while they're still firm. Get off the internet, go get diseases young man.

Hahaha yeah people assume I'm a lot older (in real life and on the internet!).

I started UUUUUU 2 years ago when I was 15 even! I wonder what it'll sound like when I turn 21 and start to descend into death.

dood! quite excited to hear this! I really dug the stuff on the Robe./UUUUUUUUUUUUUUU split.

It's kind of odd that you'd be making this music, for me. It's quite similar to a lot of the Kranky/ Static Caravan stuff from the late-90s. Not in a detrimental, derivative way. I just sort of assumed that you were of the Peel generation rather than the internet generation, if that makes sense. It's like one of those records from the time when 'post-rock' was the less popular term for space rock. Then again, I wasn't really there for shoegaze, I'm sure people older than me could say the same about that. Possibly.

But yeah, it's a good record - one of those ones I'd like to have on wax and have a really decent production/ mastering on it and put on at ridiculous volume. Have you hassled any labels about putting it out? If not, you should.

Yeah I'll be throwing it out to labels soon enough, the good people at SYG are always the first to hear my stuff though haha. Hopefully labels will be interested considering the split with Robe. comes out on dream root recordings soon (Adam, any word on that?) and 'Prescient' should be getting released on cassette by an upcoming label in the next few months. Thanks for the opinion!

Derek - Let's open a paypal account and we can donate a fiver each ( no? Convert currency accordingly) to buy equipment and shit.

Musicians charity, good plan. Someone should set up a label for SYG-related stuff. Not me, I can't be fucked with it. But someone. Diesel first though, please.

Just as an aside, I'd suggest moving 'Kindred...' to a different place on the album because it starts very similarly to 'Falling...', but in a different key (minor third difference, I think?), which gives less of an impression of distinguishing the same tracks. I wouldn't normally criticise sequencing - and it's a good record - but I think this sort of stuff can very easily suffer from sounding 'samey', so I'd say it's worth avoiding.

Ok, let's do something with this forum that is more ''real''. Receipt of poverty at hand, please.

See, it'd definitely something I'd be interested in doing, but I'd get pissed off because then I'd have to tell some people that their music's just shit. Derek (subject of this thread) not included. As it is, I can just politely not bother. So atsonicpark should do it, as he's always going on about being loaded and doesn't seem capable of disliking anything.

I should co-ordinate this. Let me think of a way that could make everyone happy and egos at bay.

I'm really, really, really enjoying The French Eye.

me too, playing it right now..... thanks Derek i really like this!

are we for real? because if so, i'm in.

Thanks everyone for listening.

Yeah an SYG label would be awesome. We could even get Thurston to release a tape (I think atsonicpark knows his email/address). Or, I'm sure ASP, Glice or porky know some high profiled musicians who could throw something into the mix eh?

First thing we could do is you making a donation for me to buy the Radikal Technologies Spectralis synthetiser II:




:)

Hey I don't even own a reverb or delay pedal!

everything is software-based in your music?

I put a £5 microphone up to my amp and play guitar nearly 100% of the time but the final sound is software-based.

:eek:.

Yes, it's criminal.

This should be out in the next coming months on PRIVATE COLLECTION TAPES. http://privatecollectiontapes.blogspot.com/

(Oh and the Robe. split is still to come out... it should be out soon considering we're nearly into September though I suppose)

I missed this earlier this month and just got around to downloading and listening. Very sweet and very impressive Derek. I especially like Shakatari Mound..

Awesome, glad you enjoy!

Hello friends, I've had this 23 minute track sitting around that features desolate chords, melancholic recorder and the usual slew of ambient drones. I'm not quite sure of it so I thought I'd release it to the public and let their ears be the judge:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/k4aduj

Listening to "the astral travels" while making homework. excellent stuff

I liked it. It's a nice choice of chords, there's some interesting phrasing saving it from drifty post-rock hell. I'm not entirely sure about the recorder, because it doesn't quite punctuate as effectively as the 'lead'(ish) guitar (such is the nature of recorders, unless played astonishingly well). Yeah, I like this a lot actually. I think you've got quite a knack for melodies that aren't horrendously trite. The droney bits aren't all based on boring intervals either. Basically, there's a minimum of post-rock in this, which can only ever be a good thing.

Thanks Glice, you sexy thang.

http://soundcloud.com/uuuuuu/king-lear-excerpt

Excerpt of a new piece with the full version probably going to show up on my next full length. It's named after my favourite Shakespeare play.