Hello, my name is Looptron.

Under consideration.

Lightly processed public domain photograph of Baikonur Cosmodrome sourced off Wikimedia.

Testing 1...2...3

Testing to see if the mobile photo upload doohickey still works. Nothing to see here. This isn't the shitty Casio watch you're looking for. Move along.

It's all the rage to write to the BBC Trust these days...

...and I'm such a sheep. Here's what I sent 'em yesterday (although the spelling/grammar has been corrected to protect the innocent).

--

Dear sir or madam,

It has been widely reported today there is a proposal to shut down the BBC Asian Network and 6music radio stations and, as I understand it, this will be going through a period of consultation with the BBC Trust. I'd like to point out that this proposal is targeting two of a handful of radio stations (including Radio 3) that really only an organisation like the BBC can provide. I can comment mainly regarding 6music - my radio station of choice. It provides a welcome alternative to the current content found on Radio 1 & 2 (content that is also generally available elsewhere on commercial radio, both national and local), and rarely do either of those stations promote shows that allow listeners to discover new (and old!) music organically, across a diverse range of styles. It also seems recently that Radio 1 & 2 now have very few shows that will take editorial and artistic risks with their programming, unless you count what happened with Messrs. Brand & Ross. (And look how that turned out.)

The BBC has a duty to "inform, educate and entertain" and 6music does all three not only proficiently and cheaply but with the nicest bunch of DJs you could ever hope to find. The whole station has a fantastic vibe, the presenters are knowledgeable and excited about the music they play or the material they present - it's an utter joy. Honestly, instead of shutdown it deserves an FM license so that everyone can listen! Radio 1 & 2 are broadcasting behemoths that stifle a commercial sector more than capable of providing exactly the same content. By comparison 6music fulfills the BBC mandate and operates in a way that no station surviving on targeted advertising ever could. It is unique. And brilliant. I urge you, in fact, I beg you to reconsider this shutdown.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Kind regards,

Neil Sharkey

--

There's a petition, and this page also has details about how to complain to Auntie: http://www.petition.fm/petitions/6musicasiannet/1000/

To-do list.

Signal

• turn down s.b. delay on main vocal a tad. maybe.
• swell arp at "inside". maybe.

Chaika

• boost overall level 1-2dB
• sort dist drums on second verse key in
• sort out guitar/stylo clash before "with me"
• ensure beat repeat on correct variant at "with me"

Demolisher

• vox echo on second "today", 1st verse
• drums up a bit.
• soften vcdr gate

Falldown

• sort out alt snare hits a smidge
• drums up a smidge
• guitar up a smidge

Goddess

• tweak bass guitar up a bit, bit more midrange

Kedr

• slow down tremolo on e. piano (first part)
• crank up FX vox on first+last parts
• fix sync on key stabs in second part
• chorus drums. nuff said.
• dupe augustus loop line
• sort out random beat slice fills
• low cut/mid range boost on all vox

MP3: Burn (a Slide Pheromone "classic" from 2003)

Oli has chucked a tune from the archives online, a small indication of what at least two of Cassette Electrik were up to earlier in the decade, and by chance I was nostalgia-surfing through the old demos on my iPod this morning. And something's gone clickety. In my brain.

So here's a demo from me and Sarah-the-Singer (you'll be hearing more from me'n'her soon when she's finally sorted out what she's singing on the bloody chorus) threw together in an hour or so early one winter's evening in 2003. (Then we went out drinking.) It's only ever been performed live a couple of times (by none other than the legendary Slide Pheromone), and when that happened it probably had (slightly) less rubbish guitar on it and more, you know, instruments. If memory serves it's an ode to crushing despair and loss. And chili sauce.

Have a satisfactory wintertime capitalist gift season and a happy new decade. (Which will contain Looptron releases aplenty.)

Collection: N/A
Download: http://www.futuresoundofdisco.com/mp3/Burn.mp3

This track is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License. Share and enjoy. Too impatient to wait for the next track? Sign up to the mailing list to get instant access to all the currently available material. Click here to sign up.

The test is over... NOW.

So there you have it... the plan is underway. How was it for you?

COLLECTION: Obsolete Before You Start

Originally written for (and performed in it's entirety at) a gig at The Marquee in November 2007 - which was the second ever Looptron gig, and the first of many with Cassette Electrik. The material was subsequently recorded and released in January of 2008, and it's recreated here to beta test the new release plan, and for the listening pleasure of any newbies...

Tracks:

1. Hello, My Name Is Looptron
2. Obsolete Before You Start
3. Whore
4. Play My Guitar
5. Smile / Obsolete [Slight Return]

Click here to download.

MP3: Smile / Obsolete [Slight Return]

A song about distance, longing and occasional nudity.

Collection: Obsolete Before You Start (5 of 5)
Download: http://www.futuresoundofdisco.com/mp3/Smile.mp3

This track is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License. Share and enjoy. Too impatient to wait for the next track? Sign up to the mailing list to get instant access to all the currently available material. Click here to sign up.

MP3: Play My Guitar

A collection of things heard during a brief stint as guitar player for Cassette Electrik. (Hi guys!)

Collection: Obsolete Before You Start (4 of 5)
Download: http://www.futuresoundofdisco.com/mp3/Guitar.mp3

This track is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License. Share and enjoy. Too impatient to wait for the next track? Sign up to the mailing list to get instant access to all the currently available material. Click here to sign up.

ART: A Machine (Without A Heart)

December 2007. Digital art processed from and iPhone photograph of a biro-on-photocopier paper original. Yes, really. Used as the cover for Obsolete Before You Start EP.

MP3: Whore

This song took approximately three minutes and nineteen seconds to write - it was a jam over a teeny electric piano loop that somehow became a song. Lyrics are a bit random too. So it goes.

Collection: Obsolete Before You Start (3 of 5)
Download: http://www.futuresoundofdisco.com/mp3/Whore.mp3

This track is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License. Share and enjoy. Too impatient to wait for the next track? Sign up to the mailing list to get instant access to all the currently available material. Click here to sign up.

MP3: Obsolete Before You Start

The second, titular track from Obsolete Before You Start that employs a call-and-response vocoder technique that's become a recurring motif in the Looptron catalogue (i.e. massively overused, but it's waaay cheaper than hiring backing vocalists.)

Collection: Obsolete Before You Start (2 of 5)
Download: http://www.futuresoundofdisco.com/mp3/Obsolete.mp3

This track is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License. Share and enjoy. Too impatient to wait for the next track? Sign up to the mailing list to get instant access to all the currently available material. Click here to sign up.

MP3: Hello, My Name Is Looptron

The first ever proper Looptron track, like, ever... originally hacked together as a stupid proof of concept it has somehow become the traditional set opener. Probably on account of it saying "Hello, my name is Looptron" a lot.

Collection: Obsolete Before You Start (1 of 5)
Download: http://www.futuresoundofdisco.com/mp3/Hello.mp3

This track is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License. Share and enjoy. Too impatient to wait for the next track? Sign up to the mailing list to get instant access to all the currently available material. Click here to sign up.

The game is afoot.

Hallo, pop kids. Long time, no wossname, eh?

You may notice that things are a bit sparse around here. Positively fucking barren, in fact! The decks have been well and truly cleared to make way for some new and shiny content that'll be getting finished during the last couple of months of this year.

The "plan" (ha ha ha) is to release this stuff free to air on some sort of regular basis in the early part of next year. Rather than just upload everything in one chunk it'll probably be a track appearing every so often (one a week? every 10 days? dunno...) on the Sounds page. After all the tracks are up for a "collection"* you'll be able to download the zipped-up-with-artwork-and-other-goodies file from the Collections page. Regular listeners and impatient newbies - fear not! People on the mailing list will get emailed links to any and all material as it becomes available (or when they sign up) rather than having to wait. Incentive, see? :-)

So what new material exactly? Currently littering the hard drive of my Macbook are a new Looptron "EP" (which may or may not have the word "cosmodrome" in the title), a collection of songs written with Sarah-the-singer and a shedload of tracks that were gigged a lot but never got recorded. Plus there's some remixes and alt versions of stuff, too. Maybe, if you're really unlucky, I'll post some of the weird instrumental shit I've been working on. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Before that, however, I need to get Obsolete (the original record) back up on the site so I'm gonna use that to beta test the release mechanism over the weekend when no one is looking. Just pretend it's new content, ok? And let me know it you see anything borked, etc. I should probably do something about the awful old MySpace (which I looked at earlier and it's still bloody awful, ick) and the shiny new Facebook page (which is currently completely empty and has no friends). If anyone has any idea how to make those things useful the please drop me a line... also on twitter, for my sins.

And...... BEGIN.

* I'm using "collection" over "EP", "album", etc, because those terms just don't really make sense with digital releases.

A Looptron remix in the wild!

As I alluded to before I've been working on a remix and it got finished (sort of) last night, attached to a carrier pigeon and sent to Yankland. And it's already escaped into the wild so with no advance warning and zero fanfare may I point you:

Take Me (Looptron Remix) by The Sleep

Hope you like it. And be sure and check out their fine album and other mixes that have been cropping up in recent weeks!

More later.

Cassette Electrik are shameless self-promoting bastards.

Cassette Electrik, the renowned producers of electro-flavoured music product, are trying to get to play the Big Chill festival and in order to do so they need to flog their track No Knowing more than anyone else flogs anything. Or something. I'm not sure and I don't care! We all know what crass self-promotion and capitalism do to your karma and I'm taking no part in it.

EXCEPT, because they're actually shiny lovely people (rather than anything I may have implied in the title to this piece) they're actually donating all that karma-denting profit from this little venture to charity, and specifically the fundraising I've been doing for the British Heart Foundation! See, I told you they were lovely. (Also shiny.)

So go and follow these instructions right now, pay a couple of quid, gain two fantastic tracks and make the world a better place at the same time. They're currently at number one (with a bullet!) and need to stay there til August 5th.

This way you can be shiny and lovely too.