‘You’re like the Peter Saville of column writing….’
Always late but always showing up with something proper. It’s been a mad few weeks since the last missive but here it is nonetheless.
One of the many things that has made these ‘Lockdown’ sagas tolerable has been the enforced space afforded to create and share the results, albeit online and not in a sweaty space drenched with your sweaty mates, but shared nonetheless. The various depositaries across Social Media have proven invaluable for a wide range of passions, the music, the art, the photos and the prose and all the rest across the spectrum. Online gigs/exhibitions/galleries; even just simple pages.
Take music. I’ve been remotely producing Spoken Word pieces with a few extremely talented friends, ping ponging ideas and fleshing out the spindly bones of creativity. I formed a collective I’ve named GuST and the Manifesto is to take music and words and add bits of magic from various friends and acquaintances and release the results as soon as possible, initially on Social Media as quickly as possible.
GuST will be an ongoing fluid project, musically and poetically, with a side order of Art, both still and moving, to keep us sane and entertain. It was initially going to be a live project but that has been put on hold. It will be loud though. I’ve got a few names lined up to sprinkle their magic on GuST track. The ethos will be a 50/50 split on whatever is provided.
First up is a piece i wrote on the weekend of the Socialist Sunday gig at The Ritz in Manchester in December 2019 (ably put together by Kallum Nolan & Ben Taylor) after reading so many negatives stories about someone who is trying to elicit change in our mindsets plus the fact 16 to 18 year olds should be given the right to vote, ‘Greta’ came along. The track was dubbed up first at Studio Floyd in Manchester and through a mutual friend, I sent the track and the Spoken word over to Lord Zonka, Dj, artist, all round geezer. He sprinkled the samples and cut up the words and voila!!! Guest appearances from various people, including John Lennon.
Myself and Zonka will be collaborating on more tracks in the future. The idea with the GuST project is to release limited edition 12inch white label singles as well, with each collaboration. A unique collectors item for the vinyl heads out there. Ill post the link details soon.
My first remote collaboration was earlier last year with the genius that is Bobo. I sent the words and he provided an ambient soundtrack to them. This is ‘Ness (track 2) from an 8 track Ep.
Bobo is a Swedish producer based in Manchester who creates tunes at a rate of knots that is scary. We’ve worked together for a few years but Lockdown has put paid to face to face studio time. We released one track on Mr Lewis records, a label created by Mark Whiteside (One Sided Horse/Evil Blizzard) that releases one of singles as collectors items. Check the label out.
Bobo has a few singles/eps out. All available to stream and there is some vinyl as well. Check his work out
Last in the collaboration stakes are San Pedro Collective. Brain child of Commander in Chief Rikki Turner, and alongside a few notable Mancunian faces, it’s another shining beacon of Mancunian creativity that is going from strength to strength. There’s stuff in the archive from my brief time on board but the quality of the new stuff is amazing. Check the new single ‘Time’. Like Barry White was mugged for his string arrangements behind Afflecks. There’s a remix on the way as well which sounds huge.
That’s the music and the Spoken Word stuff covered from me. As i have always and will always say, we have our voices to be heard, so why whisper? Stick those words to a funky fucking beat and let the world hear it. Kitchen discos abound now cos we cant go out and get spangled with our mates so choose one of the above, if not all) and dance like no one’s watching.
Stay safe and stay you. Until next time. Proper.x
???? Profile Pic credit – Trust A fox