songs

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the economic benefits of individual contraction

So far there haven’t been too many elongated track titles on this collaborative jaunt, so the time is right; the time is now.

Delay Trees are a ‘dream-pop’ foursome from Helsinki, Finland. They have all the delicate nature and sing-songy delight of the rather good Iain Archer, and they provide the ambient background to the latest track. There’s an interesting mix of Gameboys, mandolin and other effects to be found. Drums come courtesy of Keith Grantham, who’s already been introduced.

You can find more of Delay Trees at their Soundcloud.

the economic benefits of individual contraction by unexpectedbowtie

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Collaboration Preview – Track 3 – ‘marks for effort’

with Burning Buildings

This track is a much softer, less grizzly track than the last one that involved Pulco. It comes with a piano melody courtesy of Manchester’s Burning Buildings. They’re awfully nice chaps, and probably slightly unhinged… but the end product is one that I’m really personally pleased with. Sometimes there are melodies that just fit your vocal-style to a tee, and for me this is one of them. Hopefully you might like it too.

You can find some of their tracks for free over at Bandcamp, tweets on Twitter, and a review over at Artrocker.

marks for effort by unexpectedbowtie

~ Clicky Steve ~ Leave a comment

It was only a week or two ago that we posted introducing Ash Cooke aka Pulco, with the news that he’d be contributing some specially recorded samples to be mashed up (i.e. destroyed) in the name of art… and contribute he did, with a whole stash of bizarre loops and rumblings. In true Pulco style, the ‘misery poet’ utilised everyday objects like a wheelbarrow, and chucked rocks at it till it became aurally pleasing.

You can preview the product below; it’s a dark, grungey affair.

For more info on Pulco, check out the interview from Artrocker that went online today.

pre-medication by unexpectedbowtie

~ Clicky Steve ~ Leave a comment

For many years I’ve listened in to SongFight! where people write and record a song to a pre-given title within the space of one week.

It caused much anguish since a) I had no recording gear to speak of b) Writing a song in that space of time that I didn’t hate would have been like parting the red sea.

So with much pomp and ceremony, this week I submitted my first ever songfight song – ‘Crashing Cars, Awarding Stars’, and would like to call upon you fine people to go and vote for it.

I don’t win the chance to go on a world tour, or to ‘shadow an NME photographer for a night’; there’s no sexy women in g-strings waiting, and definitely no champagne. All there is is the sweet sweet taste of success.

So, instead of clicking refresh on Facebook, why not head over and vote for unexpected bowtie?

~ Clicky Steve ~ Leave a comment

It’s pretty late. I’ve had about 3 hours sleep in the last 24 and I’ve spent the best part of the past 6 of those adjusting guitars; trying to keep my lips wet enough to manage a tuneful whistle; singing and re-singing melodies; scribbling words in my battered notebook.. and almost crying in disbelief that Cubase had autosaved all of the work after crashing unexpectedly.

It feels pretty good.