27/04/2008 by Andy C.

Well almost back in the land of the living, man been a while since I have been that ill. Tried to keep on going but by wed just had to chuck the towel in and rest up for a day or two, tell you what it did the trick too Got the bit pixel covers back from the printers yesterday and what a good job they have done on it, they look fantastic every head up arse arty concept me and Wayne worked into the design has really worked. Just got a minor reformat to do with the on body disk print and away we go. I have got a official release date set for July 1st but can see things being in place well before that. The car is not starting again so Maria has borrowed the works car this is a beast of a 4 by 4 Chelsea tractor affair went for a short spin in it today I was expecting to think cor this is nice was have been left undecidedly unimpressed by the whole thing. Felt a bit self conscious in it to tell the truth, not really me or what I am about. Been indulging in my most hated past time this weekend and finished off the decorating in Ferns room, now she is well made up which kinda makes it worth while but all in all not the way I expected to spend the weekend considering yesterday was bloody lovely as well, still it’s done now. Not even got round to playing much music just been crashing out at bedtime. back to work tomorrow and also back to getting up nice and early to get back on track with my course work, I think I might be a bit behind but am a bit scared to mail my tutor, should give myself a bit of a slap I know. Also I have got to make contact with another good friend who played a gig last week I really wanted to get to but felt so ill I doubt I would have made it to the end of the high street let alone London, must make contact this week. I am going to be stuffed on humble pie by Friday I can tell.

 music played:

Sickmoth - tecnosonicfusion

Sickmoth - lumine EP (later tonight)

Bit Pixel - the all clear ( nailed the mastering now)

Tycho - past is prologue

Tycho - the daydream

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20/04/2008 by Andy C.

Been a real poorly boy the past few days, can’t believe just how many colds, chills and flu’s I have scummed to this winter seems like every other week I am going down with something. So as you can imagine not much to write about. Fern had a sleep over last night and managed to stay awake all night so we are all suffering for that now, I have never seen her so exhausted. Been lounging giving the A-Frame stuff some serious thought I have got some nice plans for that for the rest of the year. But I have decided to keep quite until I am sure something is actually going to happen before gushing about it, just to keep things simple. Also gave me a chance to play loads of music today, does it get any better? Found out Tycho has released a single so have just downloaded that and cant wait to hear it properly, £1.03 for the mp3 cant be bad. I like Tycho I should be fit enough for work tomorrow if the children will go easy on me for once, probably the worst thing about working with children is that if you feel  a bit below par you cant just hide away in a corner. When your there your there 100% no matter what, which sometimes is a good thing if you can snap out of it but other times it can be like a slow death. Thank got for Paracetamol that’s all I can say.

 music played:

Sara ayers - a million stories

Carbon based lifeforms - world of sleepers

Mister Midi - i should have learned to play the guitar

Komputer - synthetik

Tycho - the daydream

Boards of Canada - geogaddi

The Glimmer Room - new album mix’s

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18/04/2008 by Andy C.

Nearly a week since I dropped in here what a slack man, nah just been trying to get back into the flow of things after the two week holiday and copped a full week at work as well. Had to do loads on the course this week as I might be getting behind got to make contact with my tutor and get the dates sent again, I put them somewhere safe the last time where ever that was. So it has been a week of work, work,work. Remember the Sickmoth music I have been playing the last week or so well I have made contact with Mr Moth  and we have decided to do a Sickmoth EP on A-Frame, how cool is that? I do feel quite responsible for it and rightly so, I really want it to work for us both. So later in the year be prepared for Sickmoth overload! We are doing something else but I need to get more sorted before I start to shout about that. But I am really excited about the whole thing. Maybe a bit to much as I have not got to the keyboards since Saturday, which is a bit of a poor show Me and the OJ did not get together to work on the live stuff last night we hot tailed it up to Claire for a pint with Mr Strellis, happy daze! Was quite funny when he mentioned that he looks in here every now and then (hi Chris!) it did made me feel a bit self conscious for a while, thinking woh this is not just for me it is kinda a real world thing too. Soon got over it though he showed us this old palmtop he had loaded with music software were talking sequencers and stuff he was telling us it would be possible to build a small midi interface for it so instead of the bleep -bleep internal sound card you could plug it into anything, if you have not got a clue what the hell I am going on about, it is a good thing a very good thing! next stop Ebay I think. For some reason I woke up really early as well this morning not what I was expecting at all did a nice big chunk of course work and got onto this, will be on my knees later no doubt. Fern is off school with a eye infection again, not a happy girl because her class is going swimming at the local pool today for the first time and she will miss it. Ash is off to he is having his wort frozen this morning, now I am not to sure how this will go but I am expecting to keep him off all day as I have been told it can be quite painful afterwords. Would be nice to keep him off school as he had a run in with some older boys and came off worse, looks like he got dragged along the grass and all his back was scratched. Hope it is just a one off case of kids just being complete bastards to each other and not the start of something a bit more nasty, got my eye on it what more can you do? Anywayzz time to get breakfast sorted and get myself off to work.

music played:

Sickmoth - seasons

Sickmoth - buff my pylon

Sickmoth - sticks and stoned

Sickmoth - technosonicfusion

LCD Soundsystem - Silver (something cant remember)

Paul Nagle - ephemeris

Squarepusher - hello everything

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12/04/2008 by Andy C.

Another few days have gone by without me getting to stick some stuff up here. The duplicator and printer came as promised on Thursday. Talk about pain in the arse the printer refused to install on the laptop was making all sorts of strange noises when I turned it on. Had to get it downstairs to install it on the main pc just to see if it was a dud. Well I got it going and sorted out what was wrong with the laptop, my printer spool was switched off in my services for what it is worth. Now I am printing but the quality is well below what I was expecting I am going to see if I can get some pointers from a few folks who have done a bit more photo printing than me, but it is costing a fortune just to get it set up so for now I am not that impressed Now the thing I was expecting to have problems with was the duplicator eventually got that switched on Friday, it worked like a dream and is quite idiot proof just how I like things. Mark came over Thursday night and we worked on some more live stuff, I know I say this every week but I think it is going great. Cant wait till we can start to play through some stuff though that is a while off. Spent today working on some course work and then getting some seq’s sorted in live and a few sounds programed up on the Ion, I have decided to keep my live rig as simple as possible and not take a whole lot of eye candy, it should be about the music after all not the tools. One more day till we can get back to normal I dont know what it is with school holidays but I make all these great plans and never seem to get any time to myself to put them into action. Finally got some Grey Mirrors to show up at cd baby well they have got 10 copies now, wouldn’t it be nice if they started to fly out. Finally got a date sorted for a ’synth beer’ with Mr Strellis should be a good eve I have not seen him since just after Xmas, we are going to him so a change of scene will be good as well. It was my dads birthday yesterday I made him a cake trouble was it smelt so good when it was cooking it very nearly didn’t make it round to him, so today I baked another for us and it was worth it! Hair cut day today for me as well, I decided to try the barber’s in the village. Now I have lived here for 10 years now and I have never been there before I knew it was behind another shop but I had not even seen the building. Well I wanders down this walkway between 2 shops and was greeted by what looked like a old garage inside where 5 chairs for waiting and one chair for cutting, no running water! This must have been here like this since the 60’s proper old school. So I jumps onto the chair and asked if he could do a flat top, then I started to worry he seemed a bit vague about it but happily hacked away at my hair for the best part of 15 mins and produced a flat top of sorts, now I am not moaning it only cost £5:50 how cheap is that? Maybe the next time when he has not got so much hair to get through it might be a bit flatter, but till then I have got to look a bit like Keith Flint

music played:

John Foxx & Harold Budd - drift music

Mooch - 1967 1/2

Sickmoth - seasons and buff my pylon

Xan Alexander - clang garten

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09/04/2008 by Andy C.

Well what have you all missed? Not a lot really been consumed in school holiday stuff, spent the afternoon with Jane (my sister) on Monday that was great as I have not seen her properly for an age. Rebeca then came home with us and stopped over with Fern that went great no stupid late night’s for once all nice and calm. I ordered the CD pressing stuff yesterday and should get it tomorrow Some how I found it hard to do as it is the most amount of money I have spent for ages, I know in a few months it could well have paid for itself and in the long run it will and be creating some money of it’s own. The best part of the whole deal is it is one less part of the industry I now have to deal with. I can produce the amount of CD’s I need at the quality I expect and will not have any nasty surprises, cant be bad but it was a lot of money. Took Fern and Ash out over the field for a walk today it was lovely warm and sunny. They have both been quiet and content today probably fall out from the late night when Bex stayed over. Well I am off out now to sort out this shop.

music played

JMJ - oxygen

Bit Pixel - the all clear

The Glimmer Room -  new album mixes

Sickmoth - website downloads

Sara Ayers - a million stories

OMD - architecture and morality

A Different Drum Compilation - digital singles

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05/04/2008 by Andy C.

Lovely few days we have had here nice and warm and sunny and tomorrow we have snow forecast again! Thursday was a cracking day we made the most of the sun and headed out for the zoo catching a nice pub meal first. Ash did his usual trick and hit the salad cart and filled his bowl up with garlic croutons, he will have the breath of death tomorrow!  Now we haven’t been for years Fern and Ash loved it so did I, me and Fern found this small monkey with a wonky tooth he was looking all sorry for himself and was sat right up close to the glass. Then all hell broke loose, now this monkey was not your most exciting monkey all brown and black till he opened his legs I tell you his podz where the brightest blue I have ever seen, it honestly looked like some one had done it with a spray can. Well the child in me took over and I was on the floor with laughter, quickly joined by Fern and then Ash who was completely beside himself. I looked up and saw Maria who was looking on in a mixture of disbelief and complete embarrassment this made it even funner for me at least. She really must love me to put up with that, I cant change but I do appreciate her for her tolerance sometimes. Oj came over in the eve and we started to pull things together for the live stuff we are doing later in the year, so far we have one date confirmed at the awakenings series of concerts this year it is in Burton On Trent in a school but it does look like a superb hall. We are playing with David Hughes who is a good mate who has helped me out no end in the 7 years I have been doing The Glimmer Room thing. We have only met once in the real world and missed each other by a day at last years HJ, but it will be nice to be able to thank him in person for the help and also endless enthusiasm, really one of the good blokes is David. What did I do yesterday waited in for Mr No Show plumber who called over a hour after he was due to put us off till Sat, then I took the kids to the play ground to let off some steam. They played for 2 hours longer than any other children that where there, so I just sat in the sun and watched the world go by for a few hours, bliss. At one point there was a girl who goes to pre-school there and she came over to see me, which was a bit weired as she was with her dad and I just hoped he knew who I was or else I see a situation brewing. I just kept is short and suggested she go play football with her dad. He must have known who I was because he said hi a few min’s later which came as a relief. Just as they where going she came over and gave me the stick she had been playing with because “I did’t have anything to play with”, priceless The plumber finally came today Pete was right and we will be getting a new pump and he did not notice or ask about the dents in it so I got away with that one. Hope we have a nice summer this years as Maria found us a bargain we have got ourselves a three seat swinging chair for the garden for £65 inc delivery, I can see those summer eve’s now chilling in out nice new swinging chair never had one of those before Well I am off to put my bread in the oven so it is ready to eat at 6:20 Dr Who is coming back on and Ash particualy is getting really excited about it, truth be told so am I.

music played:

Mooch - 1967 1/2

Vic Twenty - old web downloads

Mike Oldfield - songs of distant earth

Sigur Ros - 1st album

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02/04/2008 by Andy C.

Been looking into the possibility of buying a cd/r duplicator and printer today I reckon that for the price of the cd pressing for just the new glimmer room cd I could buy in all the stuff to do it myself. Would be great to be completely self sufficient still a long way to go and many sum’s to do. Ever tried buying a second hand laptop? I have been trying to find one suitable for Maria to do her course work on it’s a bloody minefield and I am not to sure who to trust part of me thinks it might be better waiting and trying to find the extra money to buy one new. Fern had a massive disappointment today after saving for a month to get enough money to buy the new build a bear ds game she gets it home to find out it is really basic she has completed most of it in the first hour. Now I am not saying this is a bad game would be great if you where say 5 or 6 but she is 10, think she has learnt a lesson though, it was one of those things she had to have and I believe she did not quite know what it was she was lusting after. I am going to try and sort something out for her tomorrow. As much as I want her to learn from it her money was not easy to come by and I feel bad she got something unsuitable just by being caught by the hype, I mean we have all done it and she has gone to bed a very sad little girl

Been nice and sunny today still a bit cold in the wind but sunny all the same, cold at home though the heating has well and truly given up the ghost got ‘the man’ coming round on Friday to look over it. i will make sure I hide my rolling pin!

music played:

mike Oldfield - TB3

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31/03/2008 by Andy C.

What can I write about yesterday, not a lot really one of those mundane days. Went food shopping in the morning really exciting that was driving for 20 Min’s to shout at the kids in public for half a hour, why do they do it? As soon as you on a bit of a mission to get something done they start to kick up big time, I was tempted to ask if they (the shop)would give us some coco pop’s and a tin of beans as part exchanged for them both. In the afternoon I cant quite remember it was that eventful, did the shop, wrote a few emails checked in a few forums that was it tea time! We all went to bed early as well I was in bed by 9 I was on my knees considering the clocks went forward as well that is really early but I needed it. Today has been a nice day sunny and a definite feeling of spring in the air, spent the morning catching up on some course work. I had a visit from my bird friend again this time the window was open I could hear his little cheep’s. If I have not said before the other day while I was working on some music stuff about 4 times this little great tit flew up to the window perched on the window frame and looked in at me for like 30-40 seconds at a time, how cool is that? Spent the afternoon trying to get the kids out to enjoy the sunshine while I stayed in the cupboard under the stairs sorting out the bit pixel myspace page, some thing not quite right with that. well I had to open up another account as I cant get into the old one, so I now have a official myspace page (get me!) at www.myspace.com/bitpixelofficial not quite got round to uploading any music yet give a chance. I have found out what has been wrong with our heating all winter it’s the pump in the boiler it is burning out and sticking it did this again this afternoon so i decided to fix it. A quick whack with a rolling pin later we had heat. Must get onto the plumber the inside of those things look like rocket science and I don’t think a quick whack with a rolling pin is quite what I should be doing. Still that’s about it for today I am of to lounge in the bath for a hour, that’s a image to haunt you all night

music played:

Labradford - website streams

Bit pixel - the all clear

Mike Oldfield - tres lunas

John Foxx - the golden section

Matmos - the civil war

Macondo - myspace streams

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29/03/2008 by Andy C.

Had a great day yesterday got the kids to school dropped off a birthday card at work and then spent the rest of the day well till 3pm working on the new live set. I am trying to do some music that maybe would not be considered improvisation but has a looser structure about it. Knowing me it will end up all multi layers and solid structure but for the time being i am enjoying the challenge, don’t sound to bad either :). Did a load of planing for the live stuff with OJ on Thursday eve down the castle maybe a bit to long judging by the beer head I had Friday morning. The show last night was a triumph! Fern played really well you could see she was very nervous she made me well proud. You could tell she was not to keen on being a cat, i thought she looked quite cute but could never tell her. This morning I wandered to the high street to get some more Cd’s off to CD Baby, I am nicely surprised just how many they are managing to sell I have not done much by way of promoting them yet, still waiting on I tunes to start sales reporting that will be interesting. Had Ros and Pete up for tea today always great to see them nice quiet time as well watched the boat race for the first time in years, Oxford won I backed Cambridge ain’t it always the way? Both Fern and Ash have some how managed to pull out a tooth today going to cost me a fortune, Fern did it on purpose as well because she needed just £2 to have enough money for the build a bear ds game, hope she never finds out you can sell your kidneys! I am going to have myself a early night clocks go forward today (spring forward and fall back just for you Jane)

music played:

Mooch - 1967 1/2

Mister Midi - i should have learned to play the guitar

pink Floyd - dark side of the moon

Mick Oldfield - light and dark

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27/03/2008 by Andy C.

been a funny few days after what was a great weekend. Midge started to get distressed every time he was left alone on Tuesday so we bit the bullet so to speak and took him to the vet to be put down. even though I was ready for it i was completely gutted he has been my shadow for 13 years always there. Now it’s Thursday and I am feeling a whole lot better, not sad, angry or guilty just a bit empty and noticing all those things i took for granted that are not there any more, little things but things all the same. last afternoon at work today then off for two weeks :). going to sort out a whole load of stuff with the a-frame site and the glimmer room site. I have got to organise a proper mailing list out as well as a download shop. also i have got the bit pixel album release to organise. Fern has got here school production today and I am really looking forward to that she is playing her clarinet on stage as well as being a cat (bad timing on that one!). been a bit flat last few days not doing anything out of the ordinary and working through stuff so there is not much else to write. tomorrow will be a happier post i am sure, until then.

Midge/Lion edd 1995-2008

 music played:

Ulrich Schnauss - far away trains passing

Tim Blake - crystal machine

Mooch - radio special

The Glimmer Room - new album mixes

Nick Robinson - my-space streams (must get more of this)

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