News

At the end of the first week of Dark Company’s Nine Week Plan there has been some good progress. Perhaps not as much as would have been liked, but of quality rather than quantity.

Pete’s vocals for Clear Day and Cover Up from the Can of Worms collection were recorded. Cover Up has a changed feel as a result of the recording process, producing a darker, more sombre sound, conjuring images of a damp drizzly dusk by a river in the centre of some large central European city. Sven did a fantastic job with the percussives at short notice. Some of the lyrics were changed and the chorus was dispensed with altogether.

The first song of the Noir collection has had the vocals fixed too. During a moment of serendipity a vocal part from the chorus became intertwined with a verse and thus a whole new realm of weirdity became manifest.  It was a special moment, the beginning of the final recordings of the newest works. Pete has not stopped writing, or talking, so who knows…

They finally did it! The second debut performance of the Bastard Sons of Dennis took place a few hours ago at The Angel, Exeter, and was something of a triumph. Their set was Dominance and Submission, Wings Wetted Down, Before The Kiss A Redcap and Last Days of May to finish.

Andy and George had to share a vocal mic which was most amusing as they synchronised their ins and outs. They could have been louder but were very well received and even managed a rendition of Happy Birthday for someone called Becky. Today The Angel, tomorrow, The Universe. And on Monday, The Amber Rooms. See you there! :)

We’ve added a new page of songs to Laughing Sun’s collections. These songs are from a cassette which at the time we named Indeed. They were mined from deep in our archives by request of Professor Dinboffin and are considered a crucial piece of Laughing Sun memorabilia.

Today Pete managed to record the vocal parts for The Winds of Heaven, which was the last song of the Alien Heat collection by Dark Company that needed them. We were surprised at how good the results were, with Pete sounding like the bizarre lovechild of Geddy Lee and Johnny Lydon!

The alpha mixes have been uploaded to Dark Company’s Alien Heat page. More work will be done to these songs in due course.

Pete lost a tooth last week, but as he has more worrying health issues at hand we have agreed a new plan of action with Dark Company. Our intention is to speed up the re-recording of their lost back catalogue and to begin work on their new album, Noir. Pete’s health means that he has weeks rather than months to finish everything in, so we hope to achieve this before his medical conditions and their treatment dominate his schedule. Once his medications are stabilised we will reassess the situation with Dark Company, although at present it looks very much as if Noir will be their final album.

Meanwhile, work on More or Less, the next song from the Bad Habits collection, is progressing. The vocals have been re-recorded and the bass and drums are all fixed. We are hoping that George will be able to redo the guitar tracks that need touching up next week.

The Bastard Sons of Dennis wish to announce their forthcoming second debut performance at the Amber Rooms, Sidwell Street, Exeter on Monday 16th November 2009. It’s their second debut as they have not appeared live on stage since 1994.

We hope that some of you lovely people will be able to attend and we shall let you know how it all went. The boys are planning to perform at several open mic venues in the area, so keep an eye on our news updates for more information.

What a day. Received an email from Rob at emulatorarchive.com and he had kindly sent some patches for the old Procussion which we have been after for about 18 months. During the upgrade to the Studio 1 computer, the software to upload the patches to the Procussion had gone astray so downloaded it again. It didn’t send a thing.

Wondered if it was the newer Beta software rather than the old software that was the problem. Downloaded the old software. Uploaded the files. Nothing.

Went on an extensive search for more software, all of which proved useless. Uttered bad words and poked around with torch at the back of the Procussion.

Discovered the MIDI lead was plugged into the ‘out’ not the ‘in’. Cursed a little more at own foolishness and plugged lead in correctly. Uploaded files and bingo! Just what we’ve been after all this time!

So we are chuffed to bits here and enjoying a celebratory cup of tea. Many, many thanks and major kudos to Rob at emulatorarchive.com for helping us out with this problem which has been the curse of Studio 2 for ages! There is a very happy Wud posse in the universe today. :)

Also, much love to our friends in Germany celebrating 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down. It’s a day I remember well, staring at the TV with Ruth (Dark Company Pete’s elderly mother) and the Alien Heat boys, with my jaw down by my knees and a great feeling of hope burning in my heart. We’ll be raising a glass to you all tonight.