Assistant: demo progress

OK - an experiment that failed. I've just removed the comments boxes; ever since I added them I've had problems with a slow-loading page, which is really irritating, so I've removed them. Hopefully the site should be back to its zippy best now.

some bits and bobs;
1. Maybe I should try and lay off the politics for a bit. One last link though; Andrew picked up the education baton on his bedsit bomber blog.
2. Oh, and read this: the introduction to Vic and Andrew's dad's new book. It looks excellent.
3. OK - that's it. Next up: a quick band update....

Recording the new demo is going along, albeit slowly - so far we've done all our drum tracks and a few guitar and bass parts, and had a fair bit of (familiar) trouble with the 303, which is crackling, hissing, delaying and generally behaving very immaturely. What we thought would be a simple recording of Engines turned out to be rather more complicated, and we had to call a temporary halt. For obvious reasons, we didn't get anywhere near the electronic version of Easy to Leave. So I've been programming it on Reason this week, again without much success. The limitation of a big software package like Reason is obvious when you try to get something specific going. It's hard to keep it simple. So my simple synth line is now crammed with compressors, flangers and distortion modules, all without it sounding the way I want it to. I need to spend a bit more time on it, or better, go back and start again!

In the meantime, trying to get new songs finalised for once we've got the demo done; you can download an early version of one of them here. The track in question is 'Don't You'.

3 things to seek out and listen to:
1. Graham Coxon - Freakin Out' (new single; not bad, but not exactly 'Think Tank').
2. Electrelane - The Valleys (absolutely amazing)
3. Dave Clarke - Disgraceland (featuring Chicks on Speed - ace)