Category Archives: Releases

Synth gets festive

Last year I was invited to record a Christmas carol for Corey Mwamba’s Freeness show on BBC Radio 3. I had just got the Lyra-8 synth about a week ago, and the result of those two things convenging was a fun session messing about with mashing samples of me singing a carol through the synth’s external input and seeing what happened. I remembered about the track today – so it’s now up on Bandcamp! Pay what you want, or not, for some pretty dark and mangled festive cheer….

November/December 2023: BRÅK returns, MoonMot touring, and more…

A relatively busy Autumn is underway for me, with a few different projects active between now and the end of the year.

MoonMot tours

MoonMot is touring in November (UK) and December (Switzerland) to mark the release of the band’s second album ‘350 Million Herring’ (named after a Brexit-themed Johnny Hunter composition…). We’ll be out and about in the North of England first, then doing a few nights in Switzerland to finish. I’m leaving the band at the end of the year, so these will be my last tours! You can check where to catch us over on my gigs page, and see more about the band on the MoonMot website. Herring artwork below…

BRÅK winter season

Tom, Colin and I are back at waterintobeer starting at the end of November, with lots of great guests joining us for duo improvs. Full list tba, but I’ll be joined by Kate Carr (25th November), Emily Shapiro (16th December) and Andrew Lisle (20th January)…save the dates!

Ripsaw Catfish in Manchester

Also at the end of November, Ripsaw Catfish will ride again, appearing at David Birchall’s excellent Curious Ear series in Manchester. The autumn season is packed full of brilliant artists, so it’s well worth checking out who’s playing over on the Curious Ear site. Anton and I will be doing a guitar and Lyra-8 set for this gig too – a first! Come and hear the results at the Peer Hat, 27th November.

As well as those, I’ll be playing a duo set with Dee at a gig organised by Phil Durrant next week (Friday 3rd November at Hundred Years Gallery – update: I’ve had to pull out of this due to illness) and am looking forward to playing for the first time at the Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses (!) as part of their Avant Garden series, in a trio with Tom Ward and Panos Ghikas (19th November).

And somewhere in there I’ll be working behind the scenes on volume 2 of the Setlist zine!

Carapace now up on Ripsaw Catfish Bandcamp site

We’ve just published the newest Ripsaw Catfish album, Carapace, on the band’s own BC site. The album came out last year on Raw Tonk, and you can now support the band by grabbing your copy from us direct! See embed below…

I’m also pretty pleased with the new site header I bashed out while uploading the album last night, featuring a very distorted and blown-up part of Colin’s album artwork for Carapace:

Summer duo gigs with Dee Byrne – and TAPE!

This summer Dee and I are playing a cluster of gigs as a duo, in London, Bristol and Antwerp! We’re working on acoustic saxophone improvisations as well as a new electronic version of the duo with me on Lyra-8 synthesiser and Dee processing her sax with effects pedals, which we’ll do at BRÅK for the first time and then record.

24th JuneBRÅK at waterintobeer, Brockley, London

26th JuneCafe Kino, Bristol with Clarkson/Grigg/Hill and Carnivorous Plants

28th JuneFlim Flam at Ryan’s Bar, Stoke Newington, London

25th AugustSummer Bummer Festival in Antwerp, Belgium

To mark the occasion, our 2020 duo album Disembark! is now available as a cassette….you can grab one from Luminous, or from the merch table at one of the gigs. I’m very happy with how these prints came out – most of them are the product of a very hot day in the studio, when my printing got slightly freeform and chaotic, and it’s led to some rad results. Every individual case is different and will be shipped randomly!

 

Colin Webster Large Ensemble – First Meeting

Out now on Raw Tonk is First Meeting, the debut release from Colin Webster’s new large ensemble. Featuring an array of great improvisers – it’s a pleasure to be a part of it. The recording is from our gig last year at Cafe Oto. Have a listen….

It’s out!

Organising Space is out today. ‘A superbly conceived and executed release,’ said Andy Hamilton in the WIre magazine!

Organising Space by Sloth Racket available to pre-order today!

You can pre-order Organising Space starting today! Help me to know how many CD copies I need to make up by ordering yours right now, ready for the release day on 7th October. You can also listen to the first track from the album, ‘Not This Time’, in advance of the release day:

The sleeves were risograph-printed by Footprint Workers Co-op in Leeds, who also did our zines for the Dismantle Yourself album in 2019. I love the way they turned out!

New Sloth Racket album! Live dates in October!

The fifth studio album by Sloth Racket is out next month on Luminous! Recorded in April at Lightship 95 in London, then mixed and mastered by Alex Bonney, Organising Space will be available to pre-order from 23rd September as a digital album and CD. The physical format features a risograph-printed sleeve designed by me and printed up by Footprint Workers Co-op in Leeds. We’re all really happy with how the album has turned out, and I can’t wait to send it out into the world.

The band are out and about to celebrate the album with three live dates, including an album launch at Cafe Oto on 10th October. Tickets are on sale for all three dates: links can be found on the Sloths website. Join us…

September 2022 gigs

After some time off in August, I’ve got a relatively busy Autumn coming up – starting with a cluster of gigs this month.

Saturday 3rd September: solo electronics set at Mercury Over Maps
I’ve been invited by Bill Thompson to play at his series Mercury Over Maps at Hundred Years Gallery. I haven’t played a solo set for a few months, so it will be nice to get back into that headspace – especially with electronics which are very new to me. I’m hoping to bring the whole set of mini synths, sampler and possibly a new addition, and I’m joining some great artists on the bill too – it should be a very nice evening.

Thursday 8th September: Spinningwork album launch at Listen! Cambridge
The quartet of Johnny Hunter, Olie Brice, Tom Ward and me has an album coming out on the Newcastle label New Jazz And Improvised Music Recordings on Friday 9th, so we’re celebrating the release with an album launch in Cambridge the night before! Graham and Carol at Listen! are big supporters of all of us, so it’s the perfect place to do it. You can buy tickets for the gig over on their website.

Friday 9th September: duo with Sam Andreae at Hundred Years Gallery
To end the week I’m back in London for a duo set with Sam – our first in a few months! This is part of a double bill concert organised by Phil Durrant, with the other set by Phil and John Bissett. Sam and I will be bringing – and potentially expanding – our tabletop objects/electronics setup from the ‘Miaow Argument’ tape.

Saturday 10th/Sunday 11th September: Lancaster Jazz Festival
Over the weekend I’m up in Lancaster, playing duo sets at 2pm on both days! Saturday is with Dee Byrne, adding electronics to our two saxophone duo project, and then on Sunday Anton Hunter and I will play a Ripsaw Catfish set. Both gigs at at The Storey, and you can find more info on the festival website.

Tuesday 13th September: Olie Brice Octet album launch at Cafe Oto
Last year I was very happy to be invited to play on Olie’s large ensemble session, and this Cafe Oto date is the launch of that recording, part of a double album ‘Fire Hills’. You can grab tickets for the gig over on the Cafe Oto website. The band is packed full of really great players!

Saturday 24th September: duo with Blanca Regina at BRÅK
My last gig of the month is back in my local haunt waterintobeer for another BRÅK, playing with Blanca Regina for the first time. Also on the bill are guests Caroline Kraabel (playing with Tom Ward) and Sarah Gail Brand (playing with Colin Webster).

Looking forward to getting stuck into this playing after some time away from the instrument(s). See you out there…

Spinningwork album available to pre-order

Available to pre-order now is the Spinningwork album on New Jazz And Improvised Music Recordings! Recorded live in Newcastle last September, this is a collection of compositions by all the band members. We’re really happy that this music is out there! You can listen to a preview track and order your copy from the label’s Bandcamp site, and the album is properly out in September.