Orchestral manouvers in the spring

Lately I have been mixing heaps of music. This doesn't make a very interesting blog so here are some photos of the things I did in between.

Australia does not have a long fascinating history or a rich complex culture. One thing Australia has ample amount of is beautiful natural surroundings. It's spring and the wild flowers are out. These shots were taken within a space of about 200 meters. Such variety and colour in a country with so much desert.

Click for an enlargement.


I recently got a new Nokia E71 mobile. I had been waiting for the iPhone to see if it was any good and frankly it's not. I was not impressed so I bought the new sexy messaging smart phone from Nokia. The iPhone's battery life is abysmal and I found the on screen keyboard to be terrible. There is also heaps missing from it and it doesn't let you just chuck files on it (no expandable memory). There were just too many problems in my book. I can bluetooth or USB my E71 to any computer and put video, PDF, word, iTunes audio files on it and it plays and read them. Simple.
Also the advanced messaging and push email is great. I get my Gmail to my phone as it comes in. It's also crazy thin.


Sig and I went to the Menage' concert a week ago. It was a stylish event. An orchestra played the score to an old B&W Hitchcock film. After mixing so much music it is always great to hear it acoustic, live in front of you. It gives you perspective.

Invisible Pants

Let the show begin.

Tomorrow we perform with the contemporary dance company Visible Dance. The show is called 'Reaction' and the music has been written by David Scharpf and myself. It was an intense writing/mixing session. I haven't had much sleep, but I'm happy with my work. This has also been in sync with the WAMI's Song Of The Year competition that I have been mixing heaps of bands for. It has been nearly too much, but I am really happy with the soundtracks and mixes I have done. Go to cloudkollektiv.com to hear some of the mixes (on the Music page).

Ok, back to work.

Big gigs for the Cloud

There hasn't been a lot of time to blog as I'm currently mixing eight tracks for the WAMi's and writing a collection of pieces for the Visible Dance company's first show on the 20th. Both these gig are pretty damn sweet. Thousands of asians/indian people going off to our tracks and a stunning group of dancers dancing to every pulse of my soundtrack. it's all good stuff.

HERE is a little MP3 taste of the kind of tracks the Cloud Kollektiv are recording at the moment.

Photos and craziness next post.

t

detuned

I love this shit. It's where my brains at with all these mixes I'm doing for the WAMi's and stuff. I just counted, I am doing 9 mixes including writing a 15 min soundtracks for Visible Dance. Taking it all on.


A great indulgent synth interview with Adrian Utley from Portishead.
The discussion about tuning (or more to the point, not tuning). Also the point about layering, I'm moving against it. Pure sounds that say what they mean. Spending more time on the source and the original idea and less time fucking around with it afterwards. Sounds funny me saying that, if you know my production.

part two

There are four episode all up. just select them at the end of the vid.

respect

New! baby Hunter and cloudkollektiv.com

The Cloud's new site is up and looking good, thanks to Jeremy Phillips of Visible Dance. I'm slowly getting content up there. We will have downloads for live gig recordings and the latest tracks streaming as well as photos and news. Check it out and tell me what you think:


Meanwhile, my brother and his gal Abeni had a little boy named Hunter. Very cute. Photos soon.

Cheers, TT

Moody shots & misses

The Cloud Sessions have been a very creative trip for the Cloud Kollektiv. It's more like a writing session. We jam a heap of grooves and jus follow them. So many great musicians.

HERE is an MP4/AAC (iTunes) file of one of the tracks with Cle, Joe Black and Jeremy Balius on vocals.

It was recorded on a little Zoom H2 handheld recorder that was sitting in front of the band. This was an improvised jam that creates enough hooks for several tracks.

There is also a new Cloud Kollektiv website that will be online soon. You can hear the live track and the new Simon Kelly Cloud remix on the Cloud MySpace

My gal Sig is off in Austria seeing her friends and family. Miss her heaps. It's a pity she is missing the Cloud Sesh. Oh, well I will have to organise some more later in the year. There will be a big night at Luxe with the Visible Dance company in August and the Cloud will be playing a Masala Mix dance party with heaps of crazy dancing Indians. Should be awesome.

OMG! I'm so busy

I have taken on a role as a soundtracks producer for a new dance company as well as starting a new club night for the Cloud Kollektiv. Of course people have detected my industriousness and are now asking for other things like CD covers, remixes, mastering and studio work.

She Selexx had a little gig that was quite stylish and will be having another with the dance company on Wednesday at their premier. My gal Sig is heading off to Vienna once again but has held off her flight and will be able to get some shots of the gig. All those great bodies, who could miss it. Click the poster top poster to check it out in fill. it printed really nicely. It's good when you have time to let a design idea evolve. The Cloud Kollektiv logo and colour scheme has evolved nicely.

Here is the first vid from Visible Dance with a rough track from She Selexx. The next ones are really exciting. It's great having your music so thoroughly expressed and being able to write to such rhythmic expression. The communication is very good.

Aciiieeed !

As an acid junkie and synthesis officianado this extremely geeky video of extreme TB303 tweakage does it for me. Yep that's it, I'm spent.

Portishead in Portishead in portis hea d i n po r t i s....

I have been hanging out for this album. Geoff Barrows has been living in Sydney. I remember seeing a photo of Geoff and Beth Gibbons in sunny Sydney and the line below the photo was 'this is really going to fuck with their music, how are they supposed to get moody'. Well, they found a way, because this stuff is dark. Here is the free webcast of them playing live in a studio:
My group the Cloud Kollekitv play the Velvet Lounge in Mt.Lawley, Western Australia on Thursday the 1st of May. It's also a bit of a birthday bash for Paul Hines and I. Cle is singing too, she's great.

Sing and Dance