The Saddest Flower In The Vase

This version was recorded on May 9th, 2012. We’ve been kicking this tune around, on and off, for a few months – trying different tempos and approaches. It wasn’t until the arrival of a middle section dragged in from an improvised groove we stumbled upon, that it started to settle into something we could put into a live set – or, include on a record.

A New Improvised Piece

More Music

In addition to the regular Soundcloud site, from where many of these embedded links are generated, we also have a secret stash:-

This is probably where we’ll continue to keep our more experimental and freeform improvisations. Like we say ‘probably’. Who knows though, our next session might finally throw up a sing-a-long folk ditty. Be afraid…

April 11th, 2012

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Some lovely new shots, taken by my son Dan. I’m really rather proud of the lad’s handiwork.

How We Do It

Our tracks, as you’ve probably noticed, are a bit… well, lofi. This is because they’re usually recorded in a single consecutive live take. We are intending, one day to do a proper studio recording. But, for now, all of the music that we keep uploading every week or so has been done as we jam and improvise. Live.

If you’re interested in how we’ve arrived at our final recorded pieces, read on. We have two Samson G-Track USB mics that plug directly into an old Apple G4 iBook. On this is running the freeware application Audacity. Each mic has an additional separate input for a direct feed from another source. Effectively that gives us an ambient room recording of everything and a clean D.I. (direct injection) signal that we take from a line-out socket on the back of an amplifier.

The two mics give us a total of four tracks to mix from: Mic A – picks up mainly one side of our little room, with a bias on Mark’s guitar speaker cab and perhaps more of the right side of Nick’s drum kit. It also takes a clean separate bass guitar track, D.I. from Robot’s bass amplifier. Mic B gives us another ambient room recording – maybe with a greater bias on the drum kit and usually more spill from surrounding amps. Also passing through that mic is a separate clean input track of Chris Cordwell’s keyboards- D.I.ed from his amplifier.

The four tracks are then usually mixed in Audacity the next morning by our fuzzy headed drummer, Nick. Or, at least that’s how we used to do it, until recently. For the last couple of months recordings of Chris Hill’s trumpet have started turning up by email the following day from Chris Cordwell, who has stumbled on a way of getting a recording  of it from Chris’s effects pedal by feeding it to his own computer, whilst also using that laptop for synthesizer samples and voices! So, we’re now able to record live in five track! These tracks are all then mixed and edited using Audacity software!

With You Without

A track from the forthcoming CD. It’ll be a collection of pieces recorded at the rehearsal studios in Telford, over the last few months. The images were filmed during various visits to seaside destinations and a bit of wateriness from the sides of boats in the Lake District.

Chilled Juice

Well, if it’s our more easy on the ears tunes you’re after – all the downtempo tracks of the Glowpeople Soundcloud site are now in a convenient and resealable pack of their own. Just launch the link, click the play button for the top tune – and go about your ironing in blissed out abandon: