Slow And Sad

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5 minutes

I’ve posted some photos previously but I’ve had band practice almost every other week for my slow sad country band since late September.

It has become one of the highlights of the week. I don’t think of it so much a social event though. Of course we chat and catch up in the 10mins we’re setting up and packing down at the end, most of the communication that happens is about ‘the project’. Most of it is also non verbal.

We started practicing together just before the first lockdown and then didn’t again for 18 months. It’s only just in the last few weeks that I think we’re getting into the groove playing together. Listening to each other, picking up on subtleties of whats going on musically, rhythmically etc. It is in many ways a more-than social experience. I dunno, I just really like doing / creating something together with people in an environment where we’re all super comfortable with each other and bonus – doesn’t involve alcohol.

Anyways, I’m really enjoying myself. Been playing my bass and SMC150 though this 4×10 orange cab thats in the practice room. Playing slow and sad means there is no a lot of room to hide when you play a wrong note, and there’s sometimes a lot of time to wait until the next note comes along!

Its ficking awesome. It adds a really warm tone my bass which can be quite bright at times. I wonder if the warmness from the cab has something to do with the BEAST of a Peavey amp its normally plugged into. Most of the folks that use the practice room are noise/metal bands.

I have my 4×10 Laney cab under my desk right now. I haven’t actually used in about a decade 🙁 Been lugging it from flat to flat, in move after move and its just been taking up space. Giving off ‘I used to be in a band’ vibes. I can’t wait to play a gig with it soon.

I’ve been trying and failing to get old mate who runs the practice space to let me keep my cab there but so far he hasn’t caved.

I’m thinking about modding my Trace Elliot head too. I want to change the pre-amp from 10K ohms down to 4.7k ohms to improve the pre-amp responsiveness – if anyone knows a good amp – tech in London let me know!


For the second year in a row, Ignota books asked me to list my books of the year. Head over to the site, in addition to my suggestions, there are picks from Jaya Klara Brekke, Federico Campagna, Hannah Gregory, Pam Grossman and more.


Permanently Moved

In The Edit

Lack of copy editing is extremely transparent to a reader. Editing on the other hand is invisible to the reader, but transparent to the writer

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

  • FINISHED NaNoWriMo!!! Every year I say never again, and then promptly forget.
  • Finished essay for Solarpunk magazine
  • Looked over some really interesting materials I got sent proposing mechanisms for ‘swam consensus’ in chat channels.
  • Sekret project

Dipping the Stacks

Alisha Bhagat unpacks what history can teach us about the future, in conversation with Dr. Nandini Pandey and Nour Batyne – The Futures Centre

We have a moral imperative to stop passively experiencing the future, and to deeply understand it so that we can better act.

This webcomic made it okay to be sad online. Then its artist vanished.

The nerdy obsessions — video games, digital devices, perhaps even webcomics — are all about focusing on something, Paul rants, “that isn’t the crushing vacuousness of their lives.”
Setting an air-thin laptop on fire, Paul the Ghost looks at his silent debate partner: “nerds do not redefine adulthood they waste it.”
A pause.
“i am not telling a joke. you are terrible.”

Yesterday Once More — Real Life

Breaking down both the products and consumers of culture into data has not only revealed an apparent underlying formula for virality; it has also contributed to new kinds of formulaic content and a canalizing of taste in the age of streaming.

Conspiracy and Social Struggle • Ill Will

Wu Ming on conspiracism, the Green Pass, and the shape of social rupture to come.

“Invasive species” has a harmful nativist bias – Vox

From California to Chile, scientists are rethinking a paradigm of environmental policy as animals move to survive climate change.

Reading

I started reading ‘For the Love of Soil: Strategies to Regenerate Our Food Production Systems’
by agroecologist and systems thinker Nicole Masters. It’s a really introduction to the topic. I reckon if you googled every single person she interviews or quotes though-out the book, you’d get a fantastic self education.

Music

thejaymo.net Spotify Playlist

Astra King – Silver

PC Music adjacent Astra King has a single out . It’s catchy, spacey, weird. Love the way the track develops from its casio drums and vocal hook opening. Demenstrating one of hyperpops most important rules – got a good hook? Just do that! over and over!

Tor Lundvall – Drowning

My mate sent me this and thought I might like it. And.. yes yes I do.

I honestly don’t know anything about Tor Lundvall, but i’m going to find out and probably buy the album. The is a wonderful soundscapey track with vocals that drift over the top. Watery.

Remember Kids:

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