Rumour has it I sold some work, though.

The opening of the Final Product show was the other night (good god it was last thursday night a week ago already) and it was a pretty good night. The worst thing was the trio of midget David Gray impersonators I caught the clap off of in the parking lot. (well i don't mind the gonorrhea so much that can be put paid to with a short course of antibiotics it's more that the music is so abominably dire eh) (oh alright i'm lying jus' tryin' to make it sound more inneresting than it was it was just another gallery opening orright) (Rumour has it I sold some work, though.)

CJA's Ironclad

CJA (Clayton No-one, of Armpit, The Futurians, The Ideal Gus and so on) has released an utterly wonderful CD, gorgeous, possibly his finest and most realised solo work to date - Ironclad - on US label Digitalis.

I'm not going to try to better the great liner notes, written by Campbell Kneale; I'm going to let them say it all for me by reproducing them here, without permission.

"A blather of fuzz and strum, tapedeck meltdown, edits seemingly performed by snapping the tape in his teeth... I defy you to find anybody that gives less of a flying fuck than CJA. Or more for that matter. These sounds don't demand attention so much as they demand to be lived through. This is real. I'm talking REAL in all its mundane, apoplectic, divinity. The pain, the love, the wonder, the near-religious might. Sometimes wrathful, sometimes somnambulent, sometimes talkative, other times saturated in a well of its own disinterest.

These songs have a life of their own and they plead to be allowed to live it. These little magnetic mountains and polycarbonate stylus-files retain their totemic status round here and, over the years, have contaminated the cassettes next to it [sic] in my drawer with a spreading bile that seems to lessen anything placed in its presence. They are CJA's black-eyed offspring: hungry, runny-nosed, and whining for attention. Just love them."

CJA - 2:50 (right-click and Save As to download)

Available all over the place, including Surefire Distribution.

Final product show

There's a new exhibition opening in Upper Hutt at Expressions (the main public art gallery there). It's called Final Product: Drawing as the final product and it's got work (drawings) from a bunch of groovy cats ("Aus" denotes the exhibitor is from Australia):

John Abbate (Aus), Katie Breckon (Aus), Dan Campion, Matt Couper, Jenny Gilliam, Richard Lewer (Aus), Pat Macan, Angela Meyer, Karin van Roosmalen, Vin Ryan (Aus), Stewart Shephard

.. and me. My contribution features work executed on a Hewlett-Packard iPAQ pocket "palm" computer and printed using a high-quality laser-printing process onto heavy water-colour stock.

The show opens on Thursday night, the 23rd of June, at 6.30 pm, and runs until the 7th of August.

It's an easy (and scenic) train ride from Wellington to Upper Hutt. The Gallery is very close to Upper Hutt train station. - Ross P. Kettle

Here's a sample of my drawings - this one's called fleet.

Reviews

Ahhh... reviews. The pathetic agony of scouring the known universe for reviews of one's work (read: googling the various titles of your albums), time and time again. It's all rather sad, really.

Found some today, though. Foxy digitalis has some great reviews of Application antarctica download form and the V/A The tone of the universe.. compilation, as well as one of an older 3" CD called Communion, that I released a couple of years ago on PseudoArcana. And a Polish e-zine called Gaz-eta has one of The Voice of the Taniwha.

Stone the crowes, thass bin e mrud-ah

So speaking, as we were, about murder (well, we weren't really, I'm far too 'fraid of being made to jump off the pier wearing a pair of concrete slippers to write about the reasons behind Murder Shed being known as it is), here's the theme song from the Scottish television series Taggart (and here).

Mike Moran (feat. Maggie Bell) -- No Mean City (Taggart theme) (right-click and Save As to download; play using the handy little embedded player below)

Mike Moran -- No Mean City instrumental (Taggart theme)

There's two versions - the incidental instrumental version, and the title music with lyric sung by Maggie Bell, formerly of rock band Stone the Crows. The theme is called No Mean City and was composed by Mike Moran.

'Mrud-ah' is how the Glaswegian Taggart pronounces "murder". My Scots roots are also in the fair city o' Glasgow, and he reminds me of my grandmother.

UPDATE

Leave a note if you find this; there's so many people coming here for the Taggart theme music tracks it's becoming legendary, and it'd be cool to know who y'all are.

Out now: At Murder Shed

The new The Stumps vs. Ohm CDR At Murder Shed is now out, released on the French label Paha Porvari. If you want a copy, try emailing them, or check at your local folk / noise / electronics / psyche / free / minimalism / concrete / drone / improv record emporium. You might be able to get one from PseudoArcana, or even from me.

I've never been able to figure out the link between Paha Porvari and Naninani, but there is one; either way, however, their website seems a little on the side of underdone.

Back

Yeah, the site went down for a few days there. Sorry about that.

did 'e 'eck[a]

Here's another Heka track. Damn this is a good album...

Heka - Cachet (5.04 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)

Meanwhile, fans of either can head on over to KittenWar.com to check out the progress of and latest stats on The Sneak (an old friend) and Charlie Brown. WARNING: it's addictive!