Electric Thoughts

Petty engineering design rant 6 - ambidextrous cheddar

2011-11-19T15:02:00.000Z

It's been a while since the last entry, but this week I came across a new curiosity for which I thought it was worth resurrecting the series. This one is definitely in the "utterly inconsequential" category, to the extent that it doesn't actually annoy me in the slightest; rather, it just intrigued me. Enter stage left: The Lake District Cheese Company.

The Lake District Cheese Company have been taking their packaging seriously, including the now-becoming-standard re-close-able* zip lock thingy. If you'd care to click the image to view it full size, I'd like to draw your attention to the helpful scissor-cutting dotted line in the top left-hand corner. If you turn the packet over there's an identical one on the other side, again in the top left as your look at it.

Now imagine cutting the packet open along the line with a pair of scissors. It won't take the right-handed amongst you very long to come to one of two conclusions:

a) the packaging designer was left-handed;
OR
b) the packaging designer was right-handed and an idiot.

That's all really. Like I said, of no consequence whatsoever. My desire for cheese probably won't let me go without a cheese-packet-opening solution for very long. But if you think it's necessary to issue instructions on how to safely and conveniently open your packet of cheese, it might be an idea to try it out with a representative of 90% of the world's population first**.

*interestingly, my spell-checker refuses to accept the existence of either "reclosable" or "recloseable" as English words. Ho hum.

**Ooh, ooh, I've thought of a third possible conclusion! Maybe they're marketing their cheese as a foodstuff for the "left-handed cheese connoisseur" market! In which case, I feel excluded and miserable.

...and back.

2011-10-12T23:12:00.001+01:00

We've been back in the UK for a couple of months now, and in many ways it's like we've never been away. You can catch up on our adventures here, and I'm gradually adding batches of my better photos here - more as and when I get round to it.

So, music. I kept up a little bit of songwriting, though the majority of it exists in unassembled scribbled note form. Interspersed with the joys of job-hunting, I'll be trying to squidge these together into something coherent. Also, I brought back a new instrument, which will no doubt be incorporated somehow.

I'll also be trying to persuade myself back out into the open mic circuit sometime soon (I write this here in an attempt to make this actually happen...), and maybe even trying to get a bit more of a band together. You have been warned.

J

Away...

2010-09-11T10:52:00.000+01:00

Just thought I should point out that I'm away for the next 10 months or so... So don't expect too many updates or DLDown activity (hope to keep up a little songwriting, but don't really have much in the way of access to recording equipment...).

A few thoughts and pics from our travels will be at Bring on the Snow Leopards! - you'll need to email me to be invited if you want to see it.
J

Petty engineering design rant 5 - the spoons of doom

2010-06-30T17:31:00.009+01:00

P.E.D.R. returns with a light-hearted entry, which some of you may be familiar with: my parents' cutlery, and in particular, the spoons. I don't have a picture of the real thing, so imagine something like these ones:

but with slightly chunkier handles. Handles, in fact, whose chunkiness outweighs the business end of the spoon. And thus the spoons, following the simple physical laws of leverage, tend to overbalance if you don't put them far enough onto your bowl.

The best and most amusing effects occur when one's dish contains an edible delight with a bit of viscosity to it, such as a thick soup, or a pudding, or porridge or similar. (Well, perhaps not porridge in my case, but the delightfulness of edible dishes is strictly subjective... Let's stick with puddings for the sake of this particular argument.)

Thus, at some inevitable yet indeterminate point through the course of the meal, the forces of gravity acting on the handle finally create a turning moment sufficient to overcome those being applied by the viscosity of the pudding, and the dessert-laden miniature impromptu Roman siege engine of doom catapults into action and claims another victim. A positive triumph of utensil engineering. Yes indeed :o)

Solas Festival

2010-06-28T14:07:00.003+01:00

Popped along for the Saturday of Greenbelt's younger Scottish sibling, Solas. Here's a few highlights of the great acts I had the joy of seeing (follow links to see their websites and/or give them a listen):

Sol/Rory Butler: Some excellent playing here, both in lovely solo acoustic form (I'm jealous of this guy's guitar skills!), and in tight, electric, complex full band form.

Calamateur: Met before at The Art of Joy, and great as always - nice to hear a few songs from his great new album, Each Dirty Letter, which is now in regular rotation in my iTunes. Forthcoming single Banoffee is particularly catchy, with it's bubble of joy in danger of breaking out from Calamateur's usual slightly-downbeat persona.

Yvonne Lyon: 3rd time seeing Yvonne (after first meeting at a gig in Aberdeen), ably accompanied by husband DL. Yvonne "attempted to sneak onto the stage to start without anyone noticing" to open with Fearless, which fitted the relaxed atmosphere in the Northstar tent. The audience lay around, joined in singing, and even danced in their sun-loungers for a prize of Percy Pigs. Juliet Turner added some nice harmonies to a few songs. Lovely.

The Lowly Knights: Boisterous, infectious, multi-voiced, instrument-swapping, bouncy folk-rock. A friend recommended them to me (apparently, one of the front-men, Neil Mullan, was part of the Aberdeen crowd when I was there: recognised, but never properly met in my case), and I wasn't disappointed. Their two EPs are well worth the download, and can be heard here, but it's the enthusiasm and energetic harmonies of their live performance that grabbed my ears.

Juliet Turner: Lovely songs, with her accompanying guitarist pulling out some delicious acoustic-guitar-dripping-with-ridiculous-reverb solos. I was slightly surprised at the cynicism of some of the songs, but I think that's part of their effect.

We See Lights: Enjoyable indie with nice vocal harmonies. They make a nice feature of their accents, à la Proclaimers (they even have a song entitled Singing in Your Own Voice, which may or may not be anything to do with this). Check out their new album Ghosts & Monsters.

Jo Mango: You've probably heard of her already, as I had, but this was the first time I'd actually heard her music. Totally weird, but utterly spellbinding. Bizarre songs, including one about moths and libraries, and another about a trapped starling, but a beautiful performance that held the audience captivated. Nice range of odd and unusual instruments, including harmonium, glockenspiel played with a bow, finger piano, autoharp (courtesy of Suzuki corp!).

Martin Aelred: A stunning 2-song operatic interlude before the headliners - awesome voice, the crowd loved it!

McIntosh Ross: Foot-tapping mix of celtic-ness and country. I had meant to leave after a couple of songs to get home not too late, but found myself still there at the end of the set. Nice pedal-steelage, and a nice a-capella spiritual as the first encore. Not my usual cup of tea perhaps (okay, rubbish metaphor, given that I don't actually like tea, but anyway...), but a most enjoyable end to the evening.

Overall: so glad I went. Lovely location, beautiful weather, great music, nice time mixing and playing at the open mic tent. It felt slightly undersold (I suspect it probably was), but hopefully it's reputation will spread in time for next year. In some case it was actually quite nice for it to be a bit quieter, enabling the crowd to lie on the ground to listen rather than being crammed up against somebody's armpit.

Honorable mention: the food! Was expecting festival prices and quality, so imagine the delights of finding a stall with options of venison or pheasant burgers for the mighty sum of £2.50.

Bring on next year's!

It's quiet... too quiet...

2010-06-16T20:09:00.006+01:00

So yeah, it's been a wee while since I've updated on here. Thinking about trying to book a gig or two soon, but in the meantime, perhaps you'd like to point your browsers at the reason for the recent silence: pixelbrain. pixelbrain is a collection of programming artwork I've been working on, using a programming package called Processing. Prints should be coming soon...

New free download

2010-04-20T16:26:00.004+01:00

The recording from the Inter:act India trip fundraiser at The Lot on March 20th is now available for free download, including the full sets from DLDown, The Northern Collective and Chasing Owls.

It even includes our original cover of Switchfoot's 'Redemption' in barbershop quartet style...

Point your browser here to listen/download for free/relive/catch up on what you missed!

A review!

2010-04-19T16:04:00.002+01:00

A very nice review of Also, He Made the Stars... from Cross Rhythms - point your browser here.

Their 2007 review of Puzzle can be seen here.

:o)

Odd things we sing 6 - lost in translation - let’s hear your contributions!

2010-03-02T14:30:00.004Z

Does anyone else think of yellow-safety-jacketed guys with theodolites and trundle wheels when we sing When I survey the wondrous cross?

And as mentioned in a previous post, another personal favourite is the “consume me from the inside out” line from Hillsong’s From the Inside Out - so are we talking aliens or tapeworms? Or perhaps a drink of concentrated sulphuric acid?

So what are the lyrics we sing that make you giggle/smile/snigger or grimace in bemusement? Share your favourites with the rest of us by commenting here...

Petty engineering design rant 4 - printer cartridges

2010-02-27T17:53:00.002Z

Right printer, my letter is entirely in black, no colour whatsoever. Why oh why, then, do you refuse to do anything at all unless you have ink in both your black and colour cartridges? Likewise, why do you need me to buy a black cartridge to print a document entirely composed of blue text? Or indeed red text? Is there any actual truthful reason you need both, or is this really the cheap money-making scam it appears to be?

This is a petty annoyance with a more serious point behind it. I’ve had the joy (ahem) of working for a few places with fairly beefy printers connected to networks serving say a couple of dozen people, and so were under fairly constant use. I shall keep the manufacturer’s name under my hat for now - suffice to say they’re a big brand, reputable company which you will all have heard of - but I suspect the following practice is probably fairly widespread.

After a few weeks use, the little status display screen on the top would switch to something along the lines of “fuser unit 2317 pages remaining - order replacement part”. 2317 pages remaining until what? Is it going to self-destruct? Explode in a cloud of magenta toner dust? It’s obviously an artificial countdown, as to predict the failure of a component that precisely would require some seriously complicated monitoring equipment which would obviously be far too expensive to include in your average office printer.

What actually happens when the countdown reaches zero is... nothing. The printer just sits there blinking “replace fuser unit”, and refuses to do anything else until you comply. After the prerequisite bureaucracy and stressed budget balancing, some 3rd party printer servicing bloke appears to replace the part, has a look at the old one, and reckons it’s still got at least a couple of hundred thousand more pages worth of use left in it. You can’t reset the counter manually, and the printer recognises if you try and put the old one back in.

So does that imply that the printer company have actually gone to the trouble of putting counters in individual components, just so that they can extort another £250 (or whatever price it is) out of you for a replacement for a part that didn’t actually need replacing? Not only have they thought “we can make some money out of spare parts”, but they’ve sunk to the base level of designing in bogus lifetime counters so that the end user will think “I’ve spent 3 grand on a nice colour laser printer - I can’t afford to not buy these spare bits to get it up and running again”, and effectively holding departments hostage until the ransom gets paid. Outrageous behaviour! I can’t understand how reputable companies are allowed to get away with such a blatant scam! And what an utter pointless waste of resources. Yes, regular maintenance is good, but don’t use that as cover for your greed.

As a final peeve, I’d like to wonder out loud about all that used office equipment that gets shipped off under “re-use” schemes to developing countries after businesses upgrade their kit. Are these final end users, relying on donations of useful second-hand-but-serviceable equipment going to be able to afford a new unnecessary replacement for a part that doesn’t need replacing? Are they going to be impressed when their shiny new printer manages a measly couple of thousand pages and then sits there blinking? No. Shame on you.

Petty engineering design rant 3 - toothpaste tube lids

2010-02-13T22:09:00.003Z

Okay, a short one this time: those flip-top toothpaste tube tops which tempt the brusher into supposed easy access to the minty-fresh delights within, but which actually just result in a trailing tail of said paste being smeared elegantly over the tube, your hand, and everything else in the vicinity. Who thought that was a good idea? Same goes for flip-tops on squeezy bottles of honey or ketchup - although with those you at least have a reasonable chance of being able to wipe them clean - on the toothpaste tube, the paste gets stuck forever in the handy little grooves they put on the lid to help you grip the top while unscrewing it. Like you should.

Screw top, or flip-top if you absolutely must, but not both. Thank you.

Woah!

2010-02-13T17:36:00.003Z

Just happened to have a look on our Internet Archive page (which hosts a few live DLDown shows you can download for free), and apparently one of the shows there has now had over 4800 downloads - crazy! Thanks people :o)

Live Downloads page is here.

Odd things we sing 5 - What the Lord Has Done In Me (Hosanna)

2010-02-12T16:40:00.004Z

I thought there was something slightly odd about this one when we sung it a few weeks ago and, having sung it again last week, I think I’ve worked out what it is.

Let the weak say, "I am strong"
Let the poor say, "I am rich"
Let the blind say, "I can see"
It's what the Lord has done in me

Hosanna, hosanna
To the Lamb that was slain
Hosanna, hosanna
Jesus died and rose again

Yep, fine, brilliant. (“Hosanna” - a Hebrew expression meaning "Save!" which became an exclamation of praise back in ye olde bible times. The people shouted it as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey.)

Into the river I will wade
There my sins are washed away
From the heavens* mercy streams
Of the Saviour's love for me

After a little bit of searching through biblegateway, I’m guessing (feel free to enlighten me) that we’re talking about the River of Life mentioned in Rev 22, and/or the River from the Temple in Ezekiel 47, and/or the image of baptism. Again, no problem with that, as long as we all know what we’re talking about.

(*momentary side rant: please get your punctuation right! In this particular context neither heaven’s nor heavens’ makes any sense. Okay, I’m a pedant. Why do we tend to write song words with inadequate punctuation? It can make all the difference between perfect sense and abject confusion.)

I will rise from waters deep
Into the saving arms of God
I will sing salvation songs
Jesus Christ has set me free

Okay, fine with that image too (although, if we’re being pedantic, as is my wont, perhaps we might prefer an image involving God reaching down into said waters deep with his saving arms and lifting me out, rather than me somehow learning to levitate. I digress.) - at least in isolation.

I think what I’m getting at is the mixing of the water images:
v2: river of life - providing purity, life, health, etc - definitely a good thing.
v3: waters deep - symbolic of something negative/dangerous/threatening that we need saving from - or at least that’s how I read it - am I just reading it wrong?

Mixed metaphors can be confusing, but this one’s interesting because it’s almost the opposite problem: applying one metaphor (water) to two opposing concepts in one song.

All this really to highlight the following: songwriting technique is so important, and never more so than when songwriting for other people to sing in corporate worship. I think everyone needs to understand the words which are coming out of their mouth before they can truly use them to worship God. That means not just packing in all the Bible images you can because they sound good. It means not drowning people in archaic imagery and christianese. (We’re so used to singing about lambs and shepherds that we forget that the average punters (including ourselves) aren’t that au fait with ancient Hebrew shepherding practices. And don’t get me started on refining processes - is there some kind of underground smelting culture in our church which I’m unaware of?!**) It means using your creative talents to construct clear and helpful images which inspire awe of God in people and worship to him. It takes hard work and practice to craft a decent set of words (I know, and I’ve only ever written songs for one person (me) to sing, which is infinitely easier than writing for a bunch of people!).

I’m not writing this series just to bash songs I don’t like. In fact, I love a lot of these, and I‘ll say again that I have the greatest respect for those gifted songwriters who can produce the wonderful songs that we sing. But because songs and songwriting are things that I care about, I tend to get bugged by things which could be done better. Keep striving for excellence people, and don’t give up!

J

**Okay, I nicked this particular observation from Nick Page’s excellent “And Now Let's Move into a Time of Nonsense”.

The Shack vs Mark Driscoll

2010-01-30T16:04:00.005Z

Over the last couple of days I’ve been following some interesting discussion stemming from a couple of facebook posts by Matthew Henderson (pastor at my old church in Aberdeen) which link to articles talking about the theology and ideas put across in William Paul Young’s The Shack.

It’s been very interesting, the responses ranging in subject from bits of heresy and poor theology to how parts of the book have helped and encouraged individual readers, to the difficult balance between exact theological accuracy and artistic creativity, to some commentators utter disbelief that anyone could take any word in The Shack seriously.

I enjoyed the book as a whole, and found it helpful in thinking through some interesting ideas about the nature of God, some of which I agreed with, others which I didn’t. Perhaps the biggest issues in my mind are that it doesn’t really portray the holiness (or “otherness”) of God that well, and the general impression that sin isn’t that much of a problem (see Tim Keller's post here for more on this).

In one of the comments posted, this little talk from Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church was highlighted. Now, I’ve heard a few of his sermons from time to time, and on the whole I like a lot of what he says. And on this one I generally agree with what he’s saying: that Christians not being sure of what they believe is a big problem. But I found myself disliking the way he went about it - he tends to present very bald statements in a “take it from me” kind of way while his audience (how many of whom have bothered to read the book?) chuckle appreciatively in the background. I don’t like the way in which he condenses long discussions and ideas down to pithy accusations. Here’s a few examples, along with my slightly peevish responses :o) :

“The book is about the trinity” - well yes, but primarily it’s about grief and loss.

“It’s graven imagery” - (minor tangent: nice to see you’re quoting from a nice modern translation of the Bible, completed in 1611) - I don’t know, but I don’t think the author is suggesting we go out and start worshipping big black women. So what about all other works of fiction that seek to suggest something about God? What about music and songs? Artworks? I heard a quote somewhere recently that said something like “It’s a shame that the evangelical church is so suspicious of interpretation and creativity, except in the sermon every week.”

“It’s goddess worship” - eh? I think you’d be hard-pressed to come to this conclusion from the book - it makes very clear that in this story (a work of fiction no less), God happens to choose to reveal himself to Mack in this way (if you don’t know the book, the God-the-Father character reveals himself to Mack, the main character as a large african mother-figure with the name Papa) because it’s the form to which Mack will best respond at that time - in another part of the book he appears as a father figure. Interestingly, the Bible refers to both masculine and feminine qualities of God (as you might expect, given that both human male and female are created in the image of God), but generally refers to him as, well, Him.

“It’s modalism” (that is, the belief that the trinity is one, but acting in 3 different capacities (modes, I guess) when the fancy takes him) - “Papa says: “I am truly human in Jesus”.” - Actually, my overall impression from the book was of three very distinct characters, yet somehow all one - which seems a reasonably fair reflection of how we generally (try to) understand the trinity. In any case, you could equally read the above quoted sentence in the form “I (the three-in-one Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Spirit) am truly human in Jesus”.

But the one that really annoyed me most of all was his opening statement:

“How many of you have read the book The Shack? ...(hands up)... if you haven’t, DON’T”

WHAT?! What kind of useless advice is this? How can we possibly hope to engage with any of these issues from a position of ignorance? We should be reading it AND ALSO weighing it up against scripture to find its holes and inaccuracies. Since the book is out there in society already, perhaps we should be making use of it to challenge and engage with people (both affirming the helpful ideas and countering the bits we’re concerned about) rather than indignantly picking holes in it.

So pastors, please keep teaching the sound theology, but how about teaching the rest of us how to weigh up things like this against the Bible and to counter them ourselves. As Mark implies, the major problem itself is perhaps not so much the book itself, but its widespread undiscerning acceptance as truth.

But I think it’s equally dangerous to create a bunch of followers who can now counter an argument in favour of The Shack with one-liners such as “It’s goddess worship” without having bothered to read the book and weigh it up against scripture themselves.

Spleen vented. Thank you. What's everyone else's take on The Shack?
J

p.s. please stop shouting at me - the amount of my agreement with your sermon is not related (in a good way, at least) to your decibel level.

Odd things we sing 4 - Amazing Grace (v6)

2010-01-29T15:22:00.001Z

“The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine”

- one of the original verses of Newton’s great hymn - not one of the ‘traditional’ four that we normally sing, but resurrected for inclusion in the new Chris Tomlin version.

Anyone care to comment on exactly what this means, and where I might find it in my Bible? Alternatively, do you think it’s just a metaphor describing the most solid and stable things we know as tenuous and shaky compared to the constancy and steadfastness of God’s love for us?

I’ll gladly join in singing it again once I understand what it means. Till then, it makes me uncomfortable...

J

Genre-hopping and a 1* review

2010-01-20T13:02:00.003Z

I am the proud owner of my very first 1-star review!

You can read it here at Louder Than The Music.

I’d been pre-warned that the reviewer hadn’t really warmed to it, so it was with some trepidation that I clicked the link.

But that quickly melted into amusement as I read through the article - you see, I’m still not quite convinced it’s a review of my work. It is, however, an interesting case study on the preconceptions which accompany different genres.

So, next I headed over to that oracle of all tenuous wisdom: wikipedia, and specifically the ‘New Age music’ article.

An interjection at this point: for some reason, when the reviewer put my CD into iTunes, it labelled up the CD’s genre as ‘New Age’. I don’t know why. On my iTunes it’s labelled ‘Singer/songwriter’, and on the iTunes Music Store it appears to have fallen into the ‘Religious’ category (which isn’t necessarily much of an improvement!)

So, yes, wikipedia. It has two definitions:

“New Age music with an ambient sound that has the explicit purpose of aiding meditation and relaxation, or aiding and enabling various alternative spiritual practices, such as alternative healing, Yoga practise, guided meditation, chakra auditing, and so on.”

Not very me. Although I can see that the first track (an instrumental intro to the album, all of 54 seconds long) might reinforce that view.

“Music which is found in the New Age section of the record store.”

Haha, that’s brilliant! So, basically it’s the “couldn’t figure out where else to put it” category. I can live with that, especially when the other artists and influences mentioned include the likes of Pink Floyd, Mike Oldfield, Brian Eno, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Philip Glass - elements of which you might well find subconsciously incorporated into my music.

I really don’t mind that the reviewer didn’t like it - after all, all art appreciation is subjective. (Around the time of making Puzzle I shared a flat with a heavy metal enthusiast - whilst we could both appreciate the work and skill put into the music the other listened to, we would have never actively chosen to listen to it. Perhaps I need to be more broad-minded.)

But I do mind that the reviewer got so blinded by the New Age thing that they evidently didn’t bother listening to the music. Where are the references to particular lyrics, images or musical bits they liked or disliked? Where’s the discussion of the themes that the artist might be trying to portray? How about even mentioning a particular track by name? Anything? I mean, I enjoy the genius of Scrubs as much as the next man, but what’s it got to do with me? Ah well, can't please everyone...

J

(In the interests of contrast, you might also wish to have a look at this slightly more positive example at New Life From Old, or listen for yourself at DLDown's bandcamp page.)

Odd things we sing 3 - From the Inside Out

2010-01-12T18:12:00.001Z

I was reminded of this one when we sang it the other day. I really quite like this song. We very nearly picked it for our wedding service, but eventually decided against it. I think it might be something to do with these lyrics from the 2nd verse (full lyrics here):

Your will above all else
My purpose remains
The art of losing myself
In bringing You praise

Now, I’m pretty certain I know what they mean: it’s about humbling ourselves, putting God in first place ahead of ourselves, forgetting about our own wants for a while as we give God glory.

Yet for me it still has something about it that makes me stop before singing this verse. Maybe it’s only me who sees it this way, but the first time I sang this song, I took these lines as implying that we should be aiming to lose ourselves in some kind of zen-like trance while worshipping God. Which doesn’t sit comfortably with me.

People experience meeting with God in all kinds of different ways, but I believe we are to do so fully engaging our minds just as much as we might engage our senses. God made us intelligent thinking beings, and cutting that part out of our worship experience just seems wrong to me. True worship comes as a response to understanding what God has done for us, and that involves using our brains.

So there you go, a serious point out of a misunderstanding of some slightly ambiguous lyrics :o)

Petty engineering design rant 2 - central heating controllers

2010-01-09T13:56:00.004Z

So, second post in my ‘being irritated by little things which really shouldn’t matter, but somehow just do’ series:

Now, obviously my heating system needs some method of user input, which should preferably be nice and simple to operate, logically laid out, quick to adjust and so on (and perhaps in these carbon-saving times, designed in a manner which might encourage me to use it slightly less).

I quite like the older-style mechanical ones - you know, the ones with the rotary dial bit with little teeth you flip up and down, or pins you put in holes, or something like that. One glance at it tells you exactly what it’s doing - when it’s going to come on, how long for, and when it’s going to switch off again. To alter the setting it’s dead simple as well - flip a few teeth, move a pin or two - takes about 10 seconds from start to finish.

Our boiler’s controller, however, is a clear casualty of “it ain’t broke, but we’ve got to get the word “digital” in here somewhere even if it kills us” syndrome:

I had a look just now to check what it was set to, and it took me 21 button presses! 21!!! And that’s assuming you get them in the right order to navigate yourself through its invisible menu system (it’s like one of those ancient text-based computer games: “There are exits to the South, South and South. You can see a drowning polar bear. You are holding a garlic press and half a packet of cheese-and-onion Hula Hoops. What would you like to do?” - except much less sensible and intuitive). To actually change the settings will take 30+ presses, again assuming you make no mistakes along the way.

Also, it would be amazingly useful if it had a ‘boost’ button like some do, which allow you to stick it on for another hour, safe in the knowledge that it will turn itself back off again by itself so you can just forget about it. Our one? Well, hitting ‘advance’ makes it go on until the next set ‘off’ time - which could be anytime within the next 23 hours and 59 minutes. To find out when, if you’ll remember, will require an error-free succession of not less than 21 button presses while crouched at an awkward angle at the bottom of a dark cupboard.

Useful. Not. Grrrr.

Vociferation concluded.
J

Odd things we sing 2 - Days of Elijah

2010-01-08T19:10:00.004Z

Right, well, the purpose of this series is not just to slag off other people’s songs, but to try and explain (or guess) what the writer might have been getting at, and if I’m going to criticise, to do so in some semblance of a constructive manner.

Post no.2 is Days of Elijah by Robin Mark. This is one that went through a phase of being sung all the time, then through an equally protracted phase of being rejected and denounced by everyone (wrongly, in my opinion). Here’s the words:

These are the days of Elijah,
Declaring the word of the Lord.
And these are the days of Your servant Moses, 
Righteousness being restored. 
And though these are days of great trial,
Of famine and darkness and sword, 
Still, we are the voice in the desert crying
'Prepare ye the way of the Lord!'  

Behold He comes riding on the clouds,
Shining like the sun at the trumpet call; 
Lift your voice, it's the year of jubilee, 
And out of Zion's hill salvation comes.  

These are the days of Ezekiel, 
The dry bones becoming as flesh;
And these are the days of Your servant David, 
Rebuilding a temple of praise. 
These are the days of the harvest,
The fields are as white in Your world, 
And we are the labourers in Your vineyard,
Declaring the word of the Lord!

There's no God like Jehovah.
There's no God like Jehovah!

In Nick Page’s wonderful book “And Now Let's Move into a Time of Nonsense” (you should all read it, especially if you’re at all involved in worship leading or songwriting - humorous, relevant and useful), he talks a bit about being careful of putting too many obscure biblical references into a song - and this song is the worst offender - The Source music book has something like 17 different scripture references at the top of Days of Elijah’s page.

And I quite agree - songwriters should be making sure that our songs are readily accessible and understandable by the majority of those who might sing it, and worship leaders need to be choosing songs in the same way (as well as being true, relevant, edifying, etc).

But this is one song that, I think, has been unnecessarily vilified, because the theme of the song is actually dead simple. Here it is:

In the past (“those days”), God did lots of amazing things (through unextraordinary people like you and me).
Now (“these days”), God is still doing lots of amazing things (through unextraordinary people like you and me).
“Those days” are “these days” - there is no discontinuity in the work God is doing.

Or, even more simply: God worked. God is still working. He used ordinary people like Elijah, Moses, Ezekiel, David then. He uses us now.

So worship leaders, use discernment when picking your songs, absolutely. But if you’re quibbling over a song like this because you think people might not understand, then take the time to learn what the writer meant, and take 20 seconds before you sing it to explain what it’s about. Everyone wins.

Sub-zero Architecture

2010-01-04T18:03:00.008Z

We stayed at a big house near Aberfoyle for a week over Christmas. This is what happens when you set 3 engineers loose in the snow. I defy you to deny its awesomeness.
J

Petty engineering design rant 1 - juice carton spouts

2009-12-13T17:55:00.006Z

Right, let’s design a spout for a carton of juice. So, what would be some good criteria for a well-functioning spout? Here’s a few suggestions:

easy to open.
re-sealable, keeping the liquid inside the box.
has an opening that allows juice to flow freely while pouring.
lets air back into the box so that the pouring liquid doesn’t sputter all over the place.
lets you get all the liquid out of the box without retaining the last 10% of the contents.
allows you to open without dirt getting into the box.

And somewhere down the line you might have “cheapness” and “ease of manufacture” as criteria.

So, Messrs Tetrapak/Somerfield/Tesco/Asda/Waitrose/Sainsbury/Morrisons/etc, how on earth did you come to the conclusion that this abysmal monstrosity would be a good design:

Eh? Eh?!

It’s difficult to open, doesn’t keep the liquid in, only allows a dribble to come out, splashes unpredictably as the air tries to get back in, keeps the last little bit of juice as some kind of hostage (presumably for some mysterious dark scheme of its own), and to open it you have to poke the dirty (and shaped-so-you-can’t-possibly-clean-it) bit into the box! (Take a breath.) Fail, fail, and fail again. Opening the box the old-fashioned way with a pair of scissors is better on at least 4 of those criteria...

And I bet it isn’t any cheaper or easier to manufacture than any of the other liquid-container-openings out there. Bring on the pair of scissors.

Rant over :o)
J

AHMTS Song by Song 13/14 - You Come Running/Good Night

2009-12-13T16:39:00.003Z

listen here and here

You Come Running is basically a reprise of The Turning Song - the few times Tim and I played it live it was performed as one 8-minute piece (old live version here), and was in fact recorded as one long song. This arrangement of Amazing Grace is what Tim soloed around after Farther Up and Farther In on Puzzle. I love weird chords. You should have worked that out by now. Thanks to Lorna for singing this one so beautifully (I was getting tired of my own voice!), and to Peter Moles for lending Tim his soprano sax for the recording.

Good Night is a little piece I’ve had lying around for a while now, but never knew what to do with. It seems a nice fit here for a gentle close-out to the album.

Odd things we sing 1 - Hark the Herald

2009-12-11T16:58:00.004Z

Okay, so maybe you keep track of the meaning of what you say already, but I find it easy to get sucked into a song (particularly if I know the tune and words well) without really thinking, or indeed understanding, what it really means. Occasionally, I happily sing along with something and I’m like “What the heck did I just sing?! Would I have ever said that phrase in real life if it didn’t have a tune to go with it?” So here’s an attempt to pull apart some of the things we sing without thinking about it, and put some of those words into plain English.

First up, that Christmas classic, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. I like this song. I love belting it out with hundreds of people at Christmas time. But lyrically, it’s incredibly dense, and because it’s so old (Charles Wesley, 1739) has some turns of phrase which might not be readily deciphered at the speed at which we sing it...

(normal words here for comparison)

Listen! Messengers from Heaven are bringing amazing news:
A king has been born - one who deserves praise and honour!
He will reign on Earth with peace and mercy,
And provides the way by which God (set apart, perfect, will not tolerate the presence of sin, holy) and humans like me (broken and sinful, however hard we try) can be reunited.
All nations and people can share this joy, not just the Jews - we are now included in his chosen people!
Come and join in this triumphant celebration;
Sing along with the angels: “The Saviour of all mankind has been born as a human baby, and in a run-down slum in some dead-end town.”

This saviour is not some lowly messenger from the lowest ranks of the angels,
But is the ever-lasting God himself, loved by the whole of Heaven, and is himself above all things.
He comes into the world when it had just about given up all hope (there had been silence from God for 400 years before this),
And he comes in the unlikeliest of guises: a baby born to an unexceptional teenager - though in this case extraordinary - a pregnant virgin.
Come and see the full enormity of God: Father, Song and Holy Spirit, invading our world in a small bundle of weak and needy human flesh - Deity crammed into the earthly.
He comes to live with humans as a human himself. And he does so not grudgingly, but with pleasure - it was his choice all along.
Jesus is the light of the world.

Give honour to the Prince of Peace, who has come to us from Heaven.
Give praise to the one who is holy and perfect, who is the source of all light and life,
And who alone has the power and authority to heal our sinfulness and suffering.
Although he is all-powerful, he willingly lays down his power for a while, and gives up all his rights.
He is born so that people like you and me are no longer trapped by sin and death, but we have life again, and even after we die, will one day be raised to new life with him in Heaven.
Listen to the angels singing: “may the King of Earth and Heaven be given all the glory which is due to him!”

Christmas is pretty big, isn’t it?

Quality over Quantity, and the Christening of the Loop Frog

2009-12-09T12:11:00.002Z

I had a gig last night. It was one of those ones that I wasn’t really looking forward to - uncertainty as to whether the night was actually on, coupled with the fact that they’d put me on at 10pm on a dark wet tuesday evening, meant I wasn’t really expecting much of a turn-out!

And there wasn’t. But, bizarrely, that didn’t matter - I had a great time with the minute but enthusiastic audience - made up of the sound guy, the barman, a few members of my family, and a few members of the previous band’s entourage (Man and Superman - good old-fashioned fuzzy noisy rock - showing the Ark’s expertise at matching and sequencing similar acts - not. Nothing like a bit of contrast...) - who whooped, danced along happily to odd time signatures, bantered away with me between songs, and generally had a great time. They even demanded photos with me afterwards.

In particular, one exchange which went like this:

“Wooooah, how do you DO that?!”
“Well, I’ve got this little pedal down here...”
“I think there’s a frog stuck in the keyboard!”
“Yeah, Loop Frog!”

So, in honour of Man and Superman’s groupies, who made an empty gig worthwhile: Pedal, I dub thee “Loop Frog”.

Setlist:
Part Trust
Insult Like the Truth (Charlie Peacock)
Economology
Icarus >
A/D Loop Jam
Lazarus
Since 3 Days Ago
Starmaker
Puzzle
Doubting Thomas (Nickel Creek)

AHMTS Song by Song 12 - Lilies & Sparrows

2009-12-03T22:32:00.003Z

listen here

Putting your trust in something or someone is often easier said than done, especially when the person in question is somewhat intangible. This song comes from a beautiful section of something Jesus said to the crowds of people following him, recorded in Matthew 6:25-34. (Part of a larger block of things he said, widely referred to as the Sermon on the Mount - see Matthew 5-7).

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

I think one of the hardest aspects of our human condition is the surrendering of our own plans - after all, who doesn't like to be in control?!

Fiona plays some beautiful saxophone in the background of this one - I love those bends in the last chorus!

Launch gig recording up for free download!

2009-11-27T17:10:00.004Z

For those of you who missed out, the soundboard recording of the launch gig is now up here.

Most of you will probably want the mp3 files - right-click and hit "download linked file" to download them. (Audiophiles can grab the flac files and expand them to full CD-quality audio.)

Setlist:
Romans 7
Icarus >
Reba Loop Jam
Part Trust
Lilies & Sparrows
Come Awake (David Crowder*Band)
Since 3 Days Ago
Transformers
Economology
Farther Up and Farther In
Puzzle
Starmaker
Angels with Dirty Faces (The Beulah Band)

Happy listening!

p.s. Dan Glover Band?, who opened the evening so tastefully, have a couple of their tracks up here.

AHMTS Song by Song 11 - Starmaker

2009-11-25T12:21:00.003Z

listen here (and download for free)

The most recently written piece. All the other songs were in place in some form at least, but the album still felt incomplete. It wanted two more things: 1. a title, and 2. a song - for which I already had a semi-formed concept:

I’m quite happy to discuss all sorts of things about God: complicated doctrine and theology and where dinosaurs might fit into the picture and something of what he’s like in a theoretical kind of way, but often pull up short of describing what he actually means to me at a more personal level (even now, I think only one of my songs mentions Jesus by name in the lyrics). So perhaps this one goes a little way towards remedying that.

Then the other week Karl pointed out a little throwaway sentence in Genesis (v1:16b), which says simply “He also made the stars.” Incidentally. By the way. A little side-project because it amused him. Title and punchline wrapped up right there.

From a musical point of view, this one was quite a challenge. The melody, chords and timing worked fine in the verses, but trying to work out just where to put the notes in the mid section and guitar solo was a total git. Now of course, I can’t see what the problem was, but at the time it was just brain-meltingly confusing trying to remember when to start the next phrase. Fun though! - I like 7/8. It was also nice to work on something a little different in sound - it puts me slightly in mind of 90s pop band Dubstar - anyone remember them?

3 Free Single Downloads and Store Update - Physical & Digital

2009-11-20T12:40:00.008Z

The three single from Also, He Made the Stars... are now available for free download at DLDown's download store - just click the images below.

Also, just wanted to let y'all know that DLDown's physical and digital stores have now been combined into one. Practically this means:

CD purchases include an immediate download of the album.

You can preview both the songs and the album artwork before you buy.

Check it out here!

J

You people say the nicest things...

2009-11-18T12:37:00.003Z

A couple of my blogging friends have kindly taken it upon themselves to include me and my music in their blog posts:

1. There's a smashing review of Also, He Made the Stars... at New Life From Old.

2. There's an equally smashing review of the launch gig (proudly featuring support from Dan Glover Band?, whom you should also check out) at Grace Note Showers.

Muchos thankses.
J

AHMTS Song by Song 9/10 - Hide & Seek/Found You

2009-11-17T16:57:00.003Z

listen here and here

I think perhaps everyone feels like this sometimes - that lonely feeling of ‘What’s going on? And why have I been left to deal with it on my own?”. It was written more about my relationship with God than anything else, but I think the addition of Lorna’s harmony vocals accentuates the human relationships aspect too.

(For any MBCers: cue hand movements. “...these-way relationships and that-way relationships and the-other-way relationships...” :o) )

I like the feeling of unresolvedness that's left at the end - these things don't always tie up as neatly as it might look like they're going to, or we might like them to.

So, we went to a debate about assisted dying the other night...

2009-11-14T14:14:00.004Z

For once, a ‘serious’ nothing-to-do-with-DLDown-or-music post. These are simply my own opinions/observations/reactions to some of the things that we heard discussed (at least as I understood them). I can’t claim to have any kind of experience of this, but it was very clear how emotionally charged the topic is. I don’t intend to belittle any of the anguishing experiences some of those present had evidently been involved in.

For a little background, you may wish to have a glance at:

Assisted Dying: A Good Death or a Choice too Far

Margo MacDonald's proposed End of Life Choices bill

Also, this post highlights a few of the grey areas (the blogger's views, not necessarily mine).

It was fascinating. We heard emotional statements put forward by both speakers, one very much ‘against’, one very much ‘for’ the legalisation of assisted dying (or since it involves the individual’s choice, assisted suicide is probably a more exact, if more aggravating, term). It certainly raised more questions than it answered, but maybe that’s not a bad thing.

Obviously, I can’t tell you what stance I would take if it were me in that situation, either as a suffering individual, or as a friend or family member - I just haven’t been put in that situation. However, over the course of the evening, I found myself inclining more towards the ‘against’ arguments, if only because the scope of the speaker’s answers and reasoning were so much wider.

So here’s a few observations/questions which I would have liked to raise, had I thought of them at the time, and/or had I not thought they would only aggravate an already emotional discussion:

It was ‘agreed’ that the proposed bill in question not only deals with terminally ill patients suffering from a painful or debilitating condition, but would also encompass others including those whose mental, existential or physical condition makes them not want to live any longer:
- How and where can we draw the lines?
- Is a person suffering from, for example, depression (which may be temporary), or Alzheimer’s (which is not), in a position to make a rational decision about this?
- What safeguards would be put in place to protect the vulnerable, or those who feel (rightly or wrongly) that they have “become a burden to others”?

Should it be medicalised? Or is it a social issue?

Who can carry out such assistance?

doctors?
friends?
family members?

What is the difference between assisted dying and euthanasia? And the cessation of life-support?
Would doctors be required to assist, or could they opt out?
Would the inclusion of assisting “patients”‘ deaths change medicine from being solely a healing profession, and can we allow that to happen?

The ‘for’ speaker referred often to ‘autonomy’ and ‘the right to choose the time, manner and place of our death’:
- What is autonomy? In what sense does any human live in isolation? Is there a distinction between autonomy and selfishness, and if so, what?
- Are these really rights? No, really? Where do they come from? Who grants them?

The ‘against’ speaker spoke extensively about the impact of such legislation on wider society:
- What is the value of a human being? How can we judge it? Do we want to head towards a culture where your worth is dependent on your use to society? To what extent are we in that culture already?
- In what way would this particular law change be a step onto the ‘slippery slope’ of changing other laws, and changes in attitudes and society.
- What is the potential for abuse of the system, allowing murders to be veiled as compassionate acts?

The ‘for’ speaker effectively dismissed the concept of ‘the sanctity of life’ as a deluded faith-based anachronism (and thus effectively dismissed the opinions of any person of any faith into the bargain):
- Is an atheistic belief any less an act of faith than a theistic one?
- Does the concept of ‘the sanctity of life’ (with or without that grand title) resonate with those who are atheists or who profess no faith?
- Can you legitimately leave out from this debate the opinions of those with some sort of faith? (Perhaps in this country the ‘faithful’ make up only a minority - looking at the world as a whole, it is almost certainly atheists who are in the minority.)
- How do the views of a person with faith apply to this debate? For example, should all members of a certain faith adhere to a particular ‘party line’?

In my impression, the ‘for’ speaker was on the defensive a bit, accusing her opponent of “brainwashing” the audience with emotive examples, before going on to do exactly the same thing with equally emotive case studies from the other side.

To be honest, both speakers had some pretty bald statements which frustrated me, but one particular “I rest my case” from the ‘for’ speaker set me screaming (internally!) “What case? What case? All you’ve really said is “I think we should do this, therefore we should do it - it’ll provide immunity for few individuals” and backed it up with a couple of isolated examples which do nothing to address any of the bigger societal and legal implications!” Her entire contribution to the discussion on new laws opening the way to other law changes, society and attitude changes was “there is no slippery slope”. That’s not debate, that’s denial.

But I think what swayed me most was this:

On the whole it felt like the ‘for’ case was based around “I”, whereas the ‘against’ case was based around “how can we preserve the value of the individual, protect the vulnerable, and work to the best of our abilities to improve people’s situations”. Maybe that’s just me submitting to emotional arguments, but I know which of those appeals to me more.

As I said before, I can’t honestly say that I might not sway the other way if it were me or one of my loved ones.

love,
J

(As a final footnote, it was also interesting to observe the distinct polarisation between the reactions of old and young (I’m obviously generalising, but the trend was quite evident):

There were several groups of older people who had obviously been through some incredibly difficult and distressing times. However, while trying not to belittle that suffering, judging by the muted cries and sharp intakes of breath that greeted the ‘against’ speaker, they were obviously having difficulty hearing past the emotion, and weren’t taking in what he actually said about the wider implications. The younger people seemed, on the whole, much more uncertain, but also much more open to debate. I suspect that’s a reflection of genuine emotional involvement with these issues rather than a case of stubbornness growing with age - at least I hope so!

One of the most encouraging contributions to the debate was from a gentleman who is a retired police officer. He appealed for calm rational debate. I don’t know if that’s possible, but I think we need to try.)

Launch gig videos

2009-11-14T10:52:00.004Z

A big thank you to all who made it out to the launch gig on Thursday. Here's a couple of wee videos courtesy of BrunetteKoala:

Dan Glover Band? - One of Two

DLDown - Since 3 Days Ago

More videos coming soon courtesy of the mighty Faramir Chowyunthin Gamgee, hopefully with lovely synced-up soundboard audio...

love,
J

AHMTS Song by Song 8 - The Turning Song

2009-11-10T11:18:00.002Z

listen here

This is one of the very first songs Tim and I ever wrote, not long after we started jamming together in 2005. This one of course features Mr Buick’s mighty saxophony.

The title came before we had written any of the lyrics: when we were working out the interlocking sax and guitar riffs at the beginning, we just couldn’t keep track of how many times we had played the phrase, and thus how to move to the next section together. Tim hit on the method of turning through 90 degrees each time through the riff, so when he was facing the right direction again we knew we’d done four, hence The Turning Song. Genius! Fortunately, we got a bit better at it than that before we ever played in front of any microphones...

The lyrics sort of fell into place after that - something roughly along the lines of the parable of the lost son. As my old pastor Matthew said (I’m quoting roughly from memory, and he may well have been quoting from someone else): “There’s no good thing I can do to make him love me any more than he does already, and there’s no wrong I can do that will make him love me any less. He loves me because he loves me because he loves me.”

AHMTS Song by Song 7 - Left to My Own Devices

2009-11-05T17:18:00.003Z

listen here

Nope, not a cover of that Pet Shop Boys one! Though I do have something of an unexplained soft spot for some of their stuff...

I don’t really know what to write for this one...

I guess it’s a reflection of the fact that whilst I find believing the basics of my faith relatively easy, carrying out the implications of that can be much harder. There’s often that sense of ‘I could/should be doing this better’ or ‘there must be more to it than this’.

Then again, we've got to start somewhere, and to want to want to do something could be the first step towards actually wanting to. Which in turn is a step towards actually doing it. Whatever 'it' is.

As you’ll have gathered, I like complicated or layered parts, so for the drum parts I had to hold myself back from doing anything that didn’t fit the monotonous feel of the song.

Halloween

2009-11-03T15:39:00.007Z

Thanks to all to made it out the Halloween gig with davesnewbike and Fair Witness. A great time was had by all!

Don't forget the album launch gig on Thurs 12th Nov at the Lot - details here.
J

The Speed of Sound - disposable music?

2009-10-31T14:44:00.002Z

A friend posted a link to this article on facebook the other day, and I thought it had some interesting points.

Particularly the stuff about listening attention span, given that with Spotify et al, we have more-or-less free, infinite access to any song we want from any era at a moment’s notice - Mr Harris’s point being that there will soon be no room for ‘filler’ material or ‘grower’ albums, as songs which don’t grab you first time will be immediately discarded in favour of something more catchy.

Now, the lack of filler material on an album can only be a good thing, encouraging artists to pay more attention to putting out an album that is of a brilliant standard all the way through, but I’m less convinced on the ‘grower’ part.

I don’t know about you, but if and when I get round to (affording and) buying a new album, I’m usually tenacious (or bloody-minded) enough to listen to it repeatedly until I ‘get’ it. There’s something delightfully satisfying about that sense of slowly getting to know and appreciate a deep work of art, hearing a new layer or catching a previously undiscovered nuance on each listen.

Many of my favourite albums come under that category of ‘slow grower’, which on the first few listens did little to grab me, but later on reward me with that ‘old friend’ feeling, still having something new to offer even after countless repeats. Disposable music is a sad thing.

The challenge for the artist, more now than ever, is to create something with just the right blend of catchiness and true depth - a tall order!

AHMTS Song by Song 6 - Icarus

2009-10-30T09:50:00.004Z

listen here

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, sometimes I read a phrase somewhere or hear a line in a song which makes me think ‘nice idea, but they could have developed that so much further... wait, why don’t I do it?’. In this case it was a line from Phish song, The Squirming Coil. I think it’s fair to say that in many of their songs the lyrical content is very much secondary in importance to the intricacies and ebb and flow of the music, and on the whole this one is no exception. However, the lines

“...like Icarus, who had to pay
With melting wax and feathers brown
He tasted it on his way down”

seemed to be crying out for stretching into something more expansive. My favourite songwriting experiences are when the words and music develop simultaneously, and kind of meld together of their own accord. This was one of them. The descending chord sequences in the ‘spiralling down’ and guitar solo sections are a couple I’m particularly fond of.

I’ve been playing Icarus live for a few years now, but I only got round to recording it properly more recently. The outro jam pretty much wrote itself in the studio. Using the loop pedal is a good crowd-pleaser for live performances, but it’s great to be able to multi-track stuff properly on the computer and edit it afterwards. I just think about what each band-member in my imaginary multi-Jo supergroup would be doing in the jam, and do my best to emulate it.

AHMTS Song by Song 5 - Missing

2009-10-28T11:01:00.001Z

listen here

Written as I was first getting to know my wife, this is about as close as I’m likely to get to a love song.

From another perspective: after coming back from studying up in Aberdeen, there was a lengthy-ish period when I very much missed it - having my bunch of friends around me, sharing Flat 3 with the guys, my church there, and to a lesser extent the place itself. Then one day I realised that I was no longer missing them, despite still loving them very much. There was as much sadness in that realisation as there was in missing those things in the first place.

AHMTS Song by Song 4 - Romans 7

2009-10-26T23:00:00.001Z

listen here

This is one of the ‘oldies’ (being all of a venerable 3 years old!). Chapter 7 of the book of Romans contains this passage which is one of the most aggravatingly tortuous pieces of discussion I’ve ever come across - and yet it remains one of the few bits of Paul’s writings that I find I can readily identify with, wrestling with the mismatch between our good intentions and our less good inclinations.

After being played live for a while as an acoustic guitar tune for a long time, it was great to be able to give this one the ‘full band’ treatment. Despite not being a drummer myself, I quite enjoy programming the beats and fills. For the drum fills I transcribe an imaginary Carter Beauford doing something improbable.

AHMTS Song by Song 3 - Economology

2009-10-25T21:20:00.003Z

listen here

The other day, a friend of mine shared a thought along these lines: Your train is just about to pull out of the station, and you are running along the platform trying to catch it before it goes. In your haste, you barge straight into a guy going the other way. He is in your way. Now there’s an arrogant thought: He is in my way! What makes my way any more important than his?

Don Miller puts it eloquently in his book Blue Like Jazz, where he describes coming to the sudden earth-shattering realisation that “everybody is I”. It’s also nicely put in downhere’s excellent song The Problem:

“Everybody's wondering how the world could get this way
If God is good, and how it could be filled with so much pain
It's not the age-old mystery we made it out to be
Yeah, there's a problem with the world
And the problem with the world is me”

My friend went on to ask what it would look like if we went around with the attitude that everyone else’s way was more important than our own - maybe we wouldn’t get where we were going very fast!

I wonder if climate-change-denial will ever be put on the same level as holocaust-denial? Surely it’s an equally bad level of humanity-caused destruction? - just more insidious and with many more to blame. Including me.

AHMTS Song by Song 2 - Since 3 Days Ago

2009-10-24T22:20:00.005+01:00

listen here

For this one I had the chord sequence and structure for one verse worked out, and more unusually, a melody... which then sat around for a few weeks doing nothing.

But it seemed too good to waste, so eventually I thought to myself: just pick a good story, put it into your own words and try and fit it into the melody. I’m quite pleased with the result. The bridge was great fun to write and play, and gives the Rick Wakeman influence a suitable outlet! The backing vocals were entertaining too.

And it is a great story. Some of us are weird enough to believe it’s the centrepiece of history.

Also, He Made the Stars... OUT TODAY!

2009-10-24T15:12:00.004+01:00

Buy CD here

Listen/Download: DLDown Download Store / iTunes music store / Amazon mp3

Also, He Made the Stars...

...is a collection of revisited old favourites and brand new material. Some of the songs were written before we recorded Puzzle, but had to wait until now to find a place where they fit. Some of them were written specially for this album, and re-wrote themselves even as I was recording them.

This has been my full-time employment over the last few months, so I very much hope you enjoy it. Please let me know your feedback on it - any reviews welcomed!

Over the next few posts, I’ll be telling you a little bit more about each song: sometimes notes on music, recording or songwriting; sometimes an insight into what I was thinking about when I wrote the song. So without further ado...

1. Planetarium

listen here

A little overture. The bass solo reflects the bass lines of a couple of the other songs (I’ll leave you to work out which ones). I like harmonics.

Boxes!

2009-10-23T11:11:00.003+01:00

New album is out on Saturday 24th Oct - CDs and downloads! 3 gigs too!

2009-10-21T21:39:00.003+01:00

Hear here

2009-10-19T16:02:00.003+01:00

<a href="http://dldown.bandcamp.com/track/since-3-days-ago-single">Since 3 Days Ago (single) by DLDown</a>

<a href="http://dldown.bandcamp.com/track/icarus-single">Icarus (single) by DLDown</a>

Gigs! And a CD launch!

2009-10-16T19:15:00.003+01:00

In excited anticipation announcing: 3 gigs!

1. A slot at Henry's Cellar Bar - 8pm, Fri 23rd Oct, £2

2. Supporting davesnewbike at The Lot - 8pm, Sat 31st Oct, £7.50 on the door/£5 in advance

And best of all...

3. Also He Made the Stars... album launch gig at The Lot - 8pm, Thurs 12th Nov, ticket price tba. With Dan Glover Band? supporting. It's gonna be great!

Keep an eye on our live page for more details!
J

Cover art and tracklist

2009-10-09T10:38:00.003+01:00

Tracklist:

Planetarium
Since 3 Days Ago (Listen here)
Economology
Romans 7
Missing
Icarus (Listen here)
Left to My Own Devices
The Turning Song
Hide & Seek
Found You
Starmaker
Lilies & Sparrows
You Come Running
Good Night

A job-hunting haiku

2009-10-07T16:52:00.001+01:00

Sid sighs, his smile slides:
"Justify your existence
On two A4 sides"

website back up, downloads still up!

2009-10-05T10:40:00.002+01:00

So, yeah... go listen! And let me know what you think...
J

Icarus
Since 3 Days Ago

website down, downloads up!

2009-10-04T20:47:00.003+01:00

Well, the web-server seems to be playing up, annoyingly just as I was in the middle of updating the site...

In the meantime however, point your browsers at our new downloads page for some agreeable soundwaves.
J

Finished!

2009-09-30T18:11:00.006+01:00

Well, kind of...

The mixing is complete.

The album had been uploaded to Tunecore, soon to be put up on the iTunes music store.

The artwork has been uploaded to the CD pressing people and deemed to meet their specs (they even liked it enough to ask if they could keep a few copies to use as samples), and the master CD is about to be put in the post.

The website will be undergoing a bit of rebuilding in the next few days to enable me to sell downloads directly from it.

Expect a couple of web singles to be up for your listening pleasure within the next week.

And a couple of weeks after that Also, He Made the Stars... will be unleashed on the unsuspecting world...

Exciting times!
J

A note about artwork and nice people.

2009-09-10T11:18:00.005+01:00

Had a very pleasing experience the other day. I'm busy designing the artwork for the forthcoming new album. I have a reasonable back-catalogue of interesting photos and suchlike which I can use, but for one of the pages I felt I wanted a picture of some stars. Obviously, I can't really take any decent pics without some crazy telescope arrangement, so I had a look around the web for some pics, and came across this site.

To cut a long story short, while the guy usually sells his pictures, he kindly decided to let me use one for free for this short run of CDs, and provided me with a hi-res version for printing. So thanks for being generous to a complete stranger. Check out his pics, they're amazing.

Progress...

2009-09-01T10:29:00.004+01:00

A quick progress report:

The forthcoming album now has a title - all shall be revealed soon...
Recording is getting there - a couple of songs have just a few more vocal parts and hopefully a little bit of sax to do. The tracks (likely 14 of them) are now laid out in order and the links between them sorted out. They are a mixture of new material and existing favourites. Then it's just final mixing and mastering...
I'm beginning to put the artwork together, along with taking quotes for CD pressing, and deciding whether or not to put it up on the likes of iTunes.
A preview track or two should be up in the next few weeks. Look forward to you hearing them!

CDs for donations

2009-08-14T19:43:00.005+01:00

As you may have seen from the website already, I've decided to adopt a "sale for donation" model for distributing Puzzle.

This means that YOU get to choose the price for your CD - any donation accepted. So if you haven't got your copy of Puzzle yet, head on over to the releases page and order your copy. I'll even post it for you :o)

J

New website is live!

2009-08-10T22:07:00.004+01:00

DLDown's website has now been updated - head on over to www.dldown.co.uk and explore. Let me know what you think!

(if you find any bits that don't work, let me know at band@dldown.co.uk)

J

A slightly frustrating day...

2009-08-06T18:10:00.005+01:00

Well, I was quite up for a little more recording, but today the background noise near our flat has been crazy. I mean, there's usually a little traffic noise, but nothing that causes any bother on the mics or guitar pick-up. Today, we've had:

Big lorries reversing up the street with those big-lorry-reversing noises.

Lots and lots of fire engines.

Helicopters. Not sure if it's a swarm, or just one very persistent one.

Someone in the old brewery opposite shooting seagulls (or possibly just using a bird-scarer).

Said seagulls complaining about being shot at (or possibly just being scared).

And all that without the usual banishing of the clock into the kitchen. So I didn't really try.

On the other hand, I have managed to get a fair bit more of the revamped website done (hence the change in theme on here, which gives things away a bit...). Coming soon...

J

Activities

2009-07-27T18:05:00.005+01:00

DLDown is slowly getting back into doing some recording. Firstly, this involves getting to grips with the many shiny knobs of Logic Express, then working out how best to go about recording each track.

Usually it's best to get a basic guitar or keyboard track laid down for the whole song, normally with a metronome or temporary drum beat to keep the timing predictable. (A live take with a little ebb and flow in the tempo can add some nice expression to a performance, but it's then incredibly difficult to go back and multi-track other layers over the top.)

This is often the hardest step, and the most crucial to get right, as all the other parts making up rest of the song will then hang on this. I'm having a go at doing this for a re-run of Lilies & Sparrows and new song Left to My Own Devices (live version at The Art of Joy show, here). They're progressing, but slowly.

My other project at the moment is to update the DLDown website. I wrote the previous one fairly quickly in a WYSIWYG editor, which produces a usable page, but horrible source code which is a nightmare to edit. I'm having fun writing the new one from scratch, and brushing up on my html and css programming into the bargain.

Not having paid employment for a while has its benefits :o)
J

Jo has no job...

2009-07-16T12:59:00.001+01:00

... and thus finally has time to make some music! Sweeeet!
J

Updates & Downloads

2009-04-29T21:35:00.005+01:00

Hi guys,

If you missed the last gig...
...you missed out! We had a great time at The Art of Joy. For me, it was fantastic to dig out and re-learn my songs again, as well as taking up the challenge of learning some new covers and teaching my complicated songs to other people (who, incidentally, saxophonised and vocalled most agreeably). A quality venue (the Lot in the Grassmarket) and that rarity of a sound guy who really cares what you sound like made for a grand evening onstage.

Looking forward to the next one...

Also, you really ought to check out Calamateur, who put on a beautiful performance, showcasing songs from their (or, technically, 'his') super album Jesus is for Losers - which can be downloaded for free here (though I keep meaning to donate for it - it's certainly worth it).

Free Download
Some more exciting news is that DLDown's set is now available (free!) for your listening pleasure. You can download it here - audiophiles might want the flac files, but most of you normal people probably want to click the "VBR ZIP" link in the top left corner to get the whole set of mp3s. Alternatively, click the links in the setlist below to get individual tracks (right click and do 'download linked file').

The setlist was as follows:

01. Lazarus+
02. Part Trust
03. Reasons Why*!@
04. So Many Ways*!^
05. Left to My Own Devices*
06. Icarus+ >
07. Loop Jam (youtube clip here)
08. Lilies & Sparrows+
09. Come Awake%
10. Farther Up and Farther In+!

* 1st time played
+ with Fiona Earl (saxophone)
! with Iain McIntyre and Jack Wilson (vocals; Jack on keys on FU&FI)
@ Nickel Creek cover
^ Lies Damned Lies cover
% David Crowder*Band cover

Website
Um... yeah... so it hasn't had much attention lately - mainly due to not being able to access it except from my parents' computer - which I now live in a different house from. Working on it...

May your hovercraft be ever full of eels,
J

The Art of Joy

2009-04-04T18:38:00.002+01:00

As excitably announced before: A gig!

I'm also delighted to have Fiona Earl lending a little saxophony to a few tunes, and Jack Wilson and Iain McIntyre dispensing some awesome vocal harmonies on a few others. Expect the old favourite songs dusted off and tightened up, along with some new covers, and even the possibility of a brand spanking new tune or two.

When: Mon 13th April (Easter Monday), doors open at 7.30pm (we should be on at 8ish)
Where: upstairs at The Lot, 4-6 Grassmarket, EH1 2JU
Cost: £5
Also performing: Fiona Stewart (some stand-up comedy I believe), and Calamateur.

Point your browser at: The Art of Joy

Come along and make our neighbours' last few weeks of aural toleration worthwhile!
J

A gig! A joyful one!

2009-03-09T20:59:00.002Z

Point your browser at: The Art of Joy

More info when I get it, but it's gonna be great! Time to get practicing...

An excited J

Jo is...

2008-11-27T21:58:00.005Z

...sitting at home listening to a recording of one of his own gigs.
...thinking that this is quite possibly very sad.
...thinking that while life has lots of very good things in it at the moment, they're just a little bit too tightly packed for his liking.
...thinking that, despite potential sadness, listening to himself is adding to his determination to rearrange his life a bit and get his musical brain back in gear, fingers and vocal chords back in practice, and get a new song or two penned.

Watch this space, and be expectant. Just perhaps not immediately...

A new gig; a new download

2008-04-17T23:42:00.004+01:00

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much to everyone who made it out to last night's gig - was my first in ages, and I had a very nice time. Got a good recording of it too, including the debut performance of new song Hide & Seek/Found You.

The whole show is now available for free download here.

Happy listening!
J

Setlist:
Lazarus
Missing
Puzzle
Lilies & Sparrows
Icarus >
Loop Jam
Part Trust
Hide & Seek >
Found You

New stuff!

2008-02-28T16:16:00.002Z

Hey people, new online happenings:

• DLDown has a new Facebook fan page with a proper music player and video capabilities. I'll be using the new one more over the next wee while, and phasing out the old DLDown group. The new page is here - come and be a fan :o)
• New versions of 4 tracks are up now on Myspace and the afore-mentioned new Facebook page. They are Romans 7, Missing, Icarus and new song Lilies & Sparrows. Lyrics can be found, as always, on our lyrics page.

Let me know what you think!
J

For your alternative listening pleasure...

2008-01-28T15:25:00.000Z

Here's a couple of great Edinburgh bands I've had the joy of sharing the line-up with over the last wee while. Both have tracks up on their sites which are well worth checking out, or better still go, and catch one of their gigs. Excellent stuff.

The Vacant Tourists
Cancel The Astronauts

J

Falling with style

2008-01-10T19:41:00.000Z

The brand-spanking-new studio version of Icarus is now up at myspace for your delectation and delight. Feedback please!
J

New myspace tracks

2008-01-07T15:59:00.000Z

A couple of new tracks are up on myspace: a work-in-progress version of Missing, along with a live It's All in Your Mind from the Merlin gig with Tim. Hopefully will have another up soon. Happy listening, and feedback welcome.
J

Are you still alive?!

2007-11-23T11:19:00.000Z

Well, you may be wondering what's been going on with DLDown in the last wee while... well, here's some idea of what I've been up to anyway...

• A spot of recording! - studio versions of Romans 7, Icarus and Missing are all at various stages near completion, so look out for one or two of those on myspace soon.

• A wee bit o' songwriting. I'm sure everyone has different ways of going about this. My method (for want of a better, less precise word) usually involves lots of scribbled ideas on lots of random bits of paper lying around in my room.

Sometimes, the whole song grows and expands out of a sentence or phrase that I've heard in another song, or have subconsciously picked up somewhere else, the obvious examples being Farther Up and Farther In (from a line in C.S. Lewis' The Last Battle) and Icarus (which began as an extrapolation of a line I heard in a Phish song, The Squirming Coil). Others are an attempt at a different angle on a Bible story or passage, and still others are more closely related to emotions or circumstances I'm going through at the time.

Occasionally, some of these make it to the consolidation-into-something-coherent-and-singable stage, from which point the best ones pretty much write themselves, usually in the middle of the night when I really ought to be sleeping. Lilies & Sparrows is coming along nicely, and I'm hopeful that a couple more will be on their way shortly!

• Looking forward to tonight's gig - the first in a wee while. Should be grand!
J

Going solo

2007-10-11T17:12:00.000+01:00

Tim's moved to London (everybody say 'aaww'). Jo will be playing solo for the time being, while on the look out for some new people to jam with. Hopefully Tim will be able to join in again now and then...

If you're a competent musician or singer who happens to like our music and fancies joining in, then get in touch with Jo at band@dldown.co.uk and we can have a jam!

2007-06-18T20:51:00.000+01:00

We've had quite a nice wee review on Cross Rhythms - check it out here.

Alright, who unleashed the frog?

2007-06-04T20:01:00.000+01:00

Hi folks, we're delighted to announce the latest addition to our ever-expanding catalogue of live show downloads: Last week's gig at the Merlin, Edinburgh.

Thanks so much to everyone who came along for making it such an enjoyable experience for us - definitely our favourite gig so far! We loved playing for you. Download the show for free here.
J

Setlist
Icarus
Romans 7 ->
My Mind's Got a Mind of Its Own (Butch Hancock)
Loop Jam (as yet untitled)
Part Trust+
Frustration
Fly (Moxy Früvous) ->
Baker Street (Gerry Rafferty)
It's All In Your Mind

----set break----

Hitchhiker's Guide Theme* ->
Infinite/Intimate ->
Lazarus
Missing+
Puzzle~ ->
Ghostbusters Theme (Ray Parker Jr.) ->
The Final Countdown (Europe) ->
Puzzle
Farther Up and Farther In ->
Amazing Grace
Puzzled?

*first time played
+Jo solo
~contains section from Phish's "Twist"

Download available

2007-03-31T00:52:00.000+01:00

Update: Tuesday's gig is now available here.

Drunk dancing woman, you made our day.

2007-03-30T12:25:00.000+01:00

Great fun gig at the Tunnels on Tuesday night, despite their usual utter confusion over the arrangements... Thanks so much to all of you who made it along, and stayed around until we finally made it onstage! We got a good recording, so working on adding it as a download now - will keep you posted - setlist available on our gigs page.

Another Aberdeen Gig

2007-03-14T11:36:00.000Z

We're pleased to announce we have another wee gig lined up at the Tunnels in Aberdeen on Tues 27th March. Doors open at 8pm, and we expect to be on at about 10pm. Costs £3 on the door. Hope to see you all there!
J

New batch of Puzzle CDs is here!

2007-02-15T22:08:00.000Z

Yup, we're pleased to announce that Puzzle is now back in stock, in its full technicolour 7-cardboard-boxes high glory! Head over to our orders page to get yourself a copy!

dldown.co.uk update

2007-02-15T21:59:00.000Z

Hi folks, I'm sure you'll have noticed the new look of the website. I haven't had a chance yet to test it all as thoroughly as I'd like, so bear with me (or better still tell me at band@dldown.co.uk) if bits don't work properly...

This is the new news/blog section, but all the older stories are still to be found here.

Jo