News

The latest edition of Reflections includes three pieces of Pete’s artwork from his special gallery here among Dark Company’s pages. His works can be seen on the inside front and back covers and the back cover itself of Issue Nine of Reflections.

We have also uploaded the 20 or so newest creations from Pete’s deranged mind’s eye to the gallery, which you can see by clicking here.

We are pleased to let you all know that The Bastard Sons of Dennis will be playing two shows towards the end of May 2011.

The first will be at The Oddfellows, New North Road, Exeter on Thursday May 26th and the second will be at the North Bridge Inn (NBI), St Davids Hill, Exeter on Sunday May 28th. Both shows will begin at around 9pm.

It is possible that they might perform the topical song Last Days of May at these shows.

You are advised to arrive early as both venues are fairly small.

After a considerable amount of messing around with difficult digital conundrums that have caused our technical boffins to tear out their hair, cry out unprintable words in rage and frustration and generally behave in a rather irritable and disgruntled fashion for several weeks, we have finally repaired Studio One to the extent that the things that are still broken now mostly seem to have work-arounds. Hooray!

As a result, we have been experimenting with our mastering tools and the result was a cleaner, less hissy, less boomy, sweeter, clearer, louder version of Mark Drower and the Everyones’ Blaze Tape.

This was recorded tape-to-tape onto a particularly cheap and nasty cassette way back in 1982 as it was the only cassette available for this recording at that time, unfortunately. All in all it is remarkable how well it has cleaned up.

There is a little distortion here and there, especially in This Time Tomorrow, and some cassette drop-out can be heard near the start of The Mirror. You can also hear a couple of bassy booms during the songs when some hapless backing singer comes into contact with a mic stand and when Mark has the odd particularly pronounced labial moment.

Removing all the horrible yuckiness from the recording has also resulted in a faint sonic residue in places that is reminiscent of somebody pouring a sack full of boiled sparkly magic beans through an obsidian funnel into a cotton-lined tin pit containing a medusa with a bad case of influenza. Other than that, this is not too bad and we’ve added it to our default playlist as well.

These recordings have generated some interest across the internet so we are considering putting them together as a saleable product. If any members of the cast of the Everyone play would like a copy, we will be happy to send you the mp3s if you contact us via the email.

To listen to this wonder of ancient technology meeting modern technology, you can visit the Mark Drower and the Everyones Blaze Tape page by clicking here.

We have been busy trying to fix the broken main computer in Wud Records Studio One for some time now and it has proved to be something of a challenge. However, some progress has been made and we are now into new territory so perhaps we will be able to make some beautiful things for you to listen to and enjoy soon.

We have added some social media links to our ‘links’ page. Flicker, Dark Company and The Bastard Sons of Dennis all have their own pages at Facebook which we have linked to, and Dark Company and The Bastard Sons of Dennis are both on Twitter. Again, we have included the links there in our ‘links’ page.

Some old friends and members of the Everyones have recently emerged from out of the vastness of the universe and may be able to give us some extra information on who the Everyones actually were.

There will be some more radio play coming up for our bands including a couple of special radio sessions. More news on this and some Bastard Sons of Dennis shows will follow soon.

Following their recent successful lunchtime performance at Exeter’s Fuel Cafe, The Bastard Sons of Dennis will be performing live at The Old Firehouse on Sunday 24th April, which is Easter Sunday. There will be many other splendid acts playing there that night and the evening will be finished off with some DJ action. Entry is free. More details will follow soon in our news section.

Dark Company’s first single from 1991 Killer has been included in a popular monthly compilation podcast and blog known as the Kaleidophonic Stroboscope. The playlist includes Aphex Twin, Thin Lizzy, Ozric Tentacles, Pulp and various other acts.

We have a link to the Kaleidophonic Stroboscope in our links page already and if you would like to listen to the whole compilation you can do so by clicking here.