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Messages - gjhardwick

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Next Monday marks the official release date of not one, but two new amazing albums on Low Point.

LP051 - The Horse Loom - 'The Horse Loom' LP/digital download




“Where to start to describe The Horse Loom? The best acoustic guitar player in the country? Maybe. The most unique marriage between British folk music, avant garde guitar playing and punk rock spirit? Certainly. Wonderful? Definitely. Under-rated? You’ll have to ask him about that.

Northumbrian guitarist and singer Steve Malley would doubtless be extremely embarrassed to read any of these things. That says a lot. Steve played guitar in Crane in the early 90s, whose post-Husker Du take on The Byrds-meets-DC hardcore earned them a deserving reputation as one of the UK's finest live bands. He would go on to play in Kodiak, Four Frame and then most notably The Unit Ama. The Unit Ama existed in direct contrast to their (musical) peers from America. Whereas a cold and cool approach was favoured by the bands from across the pond, The Ama dropped any of this façade and opened themselves and their music to possibilities of accident and misfortune creating a live experience that was truly inspiring. I say with total sincerity that they changed a lot of people’s musical outlook forever.

The Horse Loom sees Steve take this approach and apply it to his love of folk music. Combining folk structures and melodies with his incredible guitar playing has made The Horse Loom something truly unique.” - Chris Summerlin

Low Point is proud to present the debut album by The Horse Loom, the name attributed to the solo project of guitarist Steve Malley. Following several years of writing and re-working material in front of audiences up and down the country, the eight songs presented on the album were captured in a single day at First Love Studio, Nottingham by friend and colleague Nick Jonah Davis.

Switching between instrumentals that sound as if they have been shaped by the elements, and more ‘straightforward’ songs, that are in the lineage of classic modern folk artists such as Bert Jansch, Davey Graham and Martin Carthy, the album perfectly captures the immediacy and innovation seen in Steve's compositions.

Limited edition vinyl LP, packaged in a full colour, matt printed sleeve.  On sale for £11 plus shipping to your part of the world. Ltd edition of 300 copies.  To listen to sound samples and to purchase a copy, please head to http://www.low-point.com/LP051.html

LP048 - Ex-Easter Island Head - 'Mallet Guitars Two/Music For Moai Hava' LP/digital download




'Mallet Guitars Two' is the second release by Ex-Easter Island Head. Expanding from the duo of their debut, 'Mallet Guitars One' to a quartet, the piece is four movements for mallet guitars, percussion and trumpet.

Originally commissioned for Liverpool Light Night (2010) and honed over a ten-month period of notable live performances alongside Rhys Chatham and Philip Jeck, 'Mallet Guitars Two' broadens the groups’ pulsing percussive minimalism into a full spectrum shimmer of electrified strings, chattering percussion and meditative brass.

Incorporating prepared third-bridge guitars to create a chorusing attack of alternating chords and a bamboo-struck field of flaring harmonics, 'Mallet Guitars Two' explores the melodic potential of overtones and drones generated through multiple electric guitars. Anchored by the mesmeric repetition of three fixed chords and incorporating tuned singing bowls alongside gong-like washes of cymbal, this composition exhibits a further refinement of Ex-Easter Island Head’s unique guitar minimalism.

Translated as “One who is lost”, Moai Hava is a ritually significant relic of the now lost Tangata Manu (Bird-Man) religion of Easter Island.

Taken from a burial ground on the island in 1868 by the crew of the British ship HMS Topaze, it is unknown whether this name refers to a deceased ancestor or the act of removal from the island, but his relocation coincides with the cataclysmic end of a culture which had existed on the island for around one-thousand years.

Recorded live before an audience of several hundred people, 'Music for Moai Hava' was commissioned for performance around the statue itself in the cavernous atrium of the World Museum, Liverpool. The piece sees Ex-Easter Island Head collaborating with members of the a.P.A.t.T Orchestra, an inclusive ensemble of no fixed size or instrumentation, bringing together players of all ages, abilities and backgrounds.

Performed with a twenty-seven piece ensemble, scored for mallet and third-bridge guitars, drums, hand percussion and voices, 'Music For Moai Hava' sees Ex-Easter Island Head’s guitar-struck minimalism at the centre of a ritualistic rattle of bamboo, handclaps, cymbals, bells, gongs and shakers before a horizon-line drone of prepared guitars ushers in a swelling chorus of wordless vocals, amplified by the five-storey space of the museum’s vast atrium.

Limited edition vinyl LP, packaged in a full colour, matt printed sleeve.  On sale for £11 plus shipping to your part of the world. Ltd edition of 250 copies.  To listen to sound samples and to purchase a copy, please head to http://www.low-point.com/LP048.html

Coming soon;
Gareth Hardwick/P Jørgensen - Split LP/digital download
Nickolas Mohanna - 'Parallax View' LP/digital download

Cheers

Gareth, Low Point
www.low-point.com

2
ACOUSTIC ELECTRIC / Re: Strymon Flint
« on: July 08, 2012, 05:28:17 pm »
I've got one - it sounds great!


3
Hey Peter,

There is space on the front side of the pedal to add a 2nd 1/4" jack.  It's actually the output side where space is really tight (you've only got +/- a couple millimeters in any direction to play with as you need to drill a 10mm hole for the jack), so theoretically, it should be possible to use two external latching switches.

Personally speaking, I wouldn't bother to modify the pedal for effect on/off though as the blend control can be turned right down to bypass the delay line...

4
Completely agree with you Peter, it's a great pedal!

I carried out two mods on mine.  I replaced the tap/record switch with a soft-touch one, but instead of adding the toggle, I wired in a 1/4" jack on the top side of the pedal (quite tricky to do as there's isn't much spare space in the enclosure) so that I can use an external latching footswitch to control the looper

I use a Bespeco (a cheap copy of the Boss FS-5L) for my latch switch.  The switch has an on/off LED so there's also the bonus of knowing when the looper is in overdub mode.  

Here's a crappy phone pic of the finished article;




5
I had forgotten just how good the SMMwH pedal was until I carried out the footswitch mod on a friends pedal!

I was wondering if an alternative to the toggle mod would be to wire in a 1/4" mono jack and then use a latching version of one of these;

http://www.maplin.co.uk/footswitch-with-6.35-mono-jack-plug-10004

To control the loop on/off silently?

6
In relation to the status led for overdub mod, I found these gutshots after some Googling;


7
Mods carried out without a hitch.

Whilst I had the soldering iron out, I also swapped out the switch on my EHX Freeze for a soft-touch one.  The Freeze works a lot better now because of it!

8
Another question for you David!  8)
When wiring up the toggle switch, it appears that on your photo both leads from the footswitch go to just one lug on the toggle - is that right?

all you are doing is completing that connection (or not), so you only need one side of the toggle (one wire to the center lug, one wire to an accompanying lug). one way connects, the other breaks the connection.

in terms of adding an led, that would take a bit more research. i am not sure where people are pulling the power from in the circuit (maybe just directly from the 9v in). if you find some more info on this, please pass it along. it would be helpful to have a recording indicator.

Lovely, the two way toggle (with three solder lugs) should do the trick nicely then!

9
ACOUSTIC ELECTRIC / Re: Strymon Flint
« on: April 17, 2012, 02:48:10 pm »
the demos do sound quite sublime.

They do indeed! 

Apparently they are aiming to release it by the end of May....

10
In addition to the above post, anyone know how to add a LED to the circuit to show when in overdub mode like this;

http://www.shortscale.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23721&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20

That would be very useful!

11
ACOUSTIC ELECTRIC / Re: Strymon Flint
« on: April 13, 2012, 11:48:50 am »
Hyperbole aside, I think I might buy the Flint when it is released - should team up pretty flawlessly with my El Capistan

12
Another question for you David!  8)

I'm about to carry out the footswitch replacement/toggle switch mod on a friend's SMMH.

When wiring up the toggle switch, it appears that on your photo both leads from the footswitch go to just one lug on the toggle - is that right?

13
I'm about to carry out a switch transfer on my Line 6 M9. 

Hopefully I will not kill my pedal in the process...

14
Two new releases from Low Point that are OUT NOW!

LP046 -Celer - Tightrope - CD/digital download



"Tightrope was created in 2010. That November I visited Tokyo to tour with Yui Onodera to promote our Generic City album. On the last Saturday of the tour, I took part in a collaboration performance at a temple in Tokyo with Opitope and Corey Fuller, where I played some of the source pieces used in Tightrope. It was unfinished, but when I returned to my home it was completed in a short time. One month later, on December 31st 2010, I moved to Tokyo.

Though presented as one continuous track without breaks, Tightrope is a collage of 24 separately titled pieces. Layer upon layer, they were mixed on top of each other, and given a single place.

It has many different instruments and sound sources. Piano, television, synthesizers, fire crackling in the fireplace, whistling, pipe organ, eating ice, acoustic guitar, laptop, an afternoon conversation, a medicine drip buzzer, car noise, my ringtone, contact mic and many others I can't remember. At the time, it never occurred to me to keep track of these things. In the end, they're all collected, unplanned memories." - Will Long, Tokyo, January 2012

Limited edition cd, packaged in a full colour digipak.  On sale for £8 plus shipping to your part of the world.  Limited edition of 300 copies.  To listen to sound samples and to purchase a copy, please head to http://www.low-point.com/LP046.html


LP047 - Kleefstra/Bakker/Kleefstra - Griis - Vinyl LP/digital download


'Griis' is the second collaborative release by the Netherlands based trio of brothers Jan & Romke Kleefstra together with Anne-Chris Bakker.

The Kleefstra’s musical partnership began when Romke was asked to accompany Jan’s poetry recitals by creating soundscapes on the guitar. Since then, the brothers have collaborated with a range of artists including Machinefabriek, Peter Broderick, Gareth Davis, Nils Frahm, Greg Haines and Danny Saul.

Upon listening to ‘Griis’, the listener will hear that the album is uniquely characterised by the Frisian (a dialect spoken in the northern stretches of the Netherlands) poetry recited by Jan over an ever-morphing musical backdrop, created by nothing more than the inventive use of bowed, looped and processed electric guitars.

Jan’s poetry melts seamlessly into the soundscapes created by the two guitarists. One senses an icy coolness thanks to the humming, wind-like drones that fill the album. Bowed strings provide weight and an almost subliminal percussive element, joined by echoed, sorrowful guitar.

When the spoken voice returns, there is an eerie sense of loneliness that transcends the music; the trio’s intense processing resulting in a series of stark contemplative moments which, beyond their natural bleak aspect reveal some truly evocative settings.

Limited edition vinyl LP, packaged in a full colour matt printed sleeve.  On sale for £11 plus shipping to your part of the world.  Limited edition of 200 copies.  To listen to sound samples and to purchase a copy, please head to http://www.low-point.com/LP047.html


Coming soon on Low Point;
Kyle Bobby Dunn - 'Bring Me The Head Of Kyle Bobby Dunn' 2x cd
Ex-Easter Island Head - 'Mallet Guitars Two/Music For Moai Hava' LP/download
Nickolas Mohanna - 'Parallax View' LP/download

15


1. (this is what i did, there is a picture below) replace a the tap-tempo/record switch with a quiet softswitch + add a toggle switch in line (for when you don't want to hold the footswitch down). the upside of this is you retain the momentary switch and tap tempo functionality, while adding the ability to stay in record mode hands-free without having to have a separate remote foot-switch. to downside is you have to use your hand to go in and out of held record mode.



 

Just to clarify, when you do the above option, the toggle switch gives you two operating modes for the foot switch;
1. Tap Tempo/Hold to Record (i.e. how the pedal works pre-mod)
2. Click to engage record/overdub, click to disengage record/overdub (though in this mode you cannot tap tempo)

Is that right?


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