Hobbies Other Than Caving

[PeteHall]

Anybody else play a Jews Harp?

I've got a couple that I enjoy playing (not very well) after a beer or two, or while waiting about underground. The range of strange sounds you can create is similar in many ways to a synth, but from the simplest of objects that you can keep in a pocket 

 

[Duck ditch]

Sounds great.  I think we have the start of something big. 
Instead of folk or ceilidh night down at the pub we can have.

A rebuilt 1980 shadow guitar
A Jews harp
Some baked beans
A monstrous synth

All played through some souped up amps. 
We just need the pubs to re open.

 

[Martin Laverty]

It reminds me of a film Sid Perou did years ago, can?t remember it?s name.

Speleogenesis, music by Lindsay Dodd - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGKxouNnq8k

 

[SamT]

There is some impressive equipment here.  Can we hear some farts and bleeps.  Any compositions put together? 
It reminded me of a school friend who got a Rosedale Organ for Christmas so we learnt to play ?memory of a friend? by David Bowie which had just come out.  Low tech I?m assuming for what Bowie could have got his hands on.  It made me realise how little musical talent I had.

All this eventually led to techno.  Bit of a techno head myself and am a big fan of Mark Childs aka 'Surgeon'

He's been doing 'live' techno sets of late with a big modular synth set up, which is pretty cool.  Essentially making it up as you go along as opposed to playing pre-recorded records, though I conceed that some of the 'noises' will be pre programmed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxuGukuDRgk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCzWiamrAQU


And in case that leaves you wondering what the hell he's actually doing pressing all those buttons, then this little demo show's what some some of those types of buttons do, its a funky bit of kit..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylWiuqC9YsU

 

[prahja]

Thanks all !

For modular synth artists - I quite like Floating Points; Daniel Avery is pretty awesome and James Holden is pretty cool. Obviously Aphex Twin as well - goes without saying!!!

(But generally, I?m more into Ambient-ish but with a side bit of Techno - but I guess really I?m very into minimalism and love the classical minimalism movement..... so BoC, Nils Frahm and John Hopkins are pretty high on my playlists as well....)

 

[Duck ditch]

Well that?s my play list for tomorrow.  Only listened to aphex twin out of that lot. 

 

[pwhole]

I'm also a fan of early synth music, the earlier the better really, though I tend not to buy many albums these days. Luckily much of that period coincided with psychedelia.

I've already highlighted Silver Apples, who turned oscillators and drums alone into something magnificent elsewhere, but there's also Cork Marcheschi of the 'Fifty Foot Hose', who built all his own instruments:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5BGsgngp1o&list=OLAK5uy_nBhk_ZEGYxtzMHM9dOme6-EgO0HJDo32w

Also The United States of America, whose leader Joe Byrd was also something of a maverick with valves and oscillators:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb8Q4EHozjU&list=PL94gOvpr5yt0W0l2zPt7QFjxbdpBUI4bH

He also did a second album as 'Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies' which is interesting too, but not as electronic.

One of my favourites, also slightly bonkers, which helps, is the first album by Bruce Haack, a Canadian composer and electronic pioneer - listen and believe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Haack

The Electric Lucifer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7BCyF3xiY0&list=PLI87x69w0N7EG4Ing9rnwoT6W5Nywuabh

 

[tamarmole]

Psychedelia and early synths is a match made in heaven.  The only thing to be wary about is venturing too far into the 1970s when it morphs into prog which is not a good thing (I'm a Piper at the Gates of Dawn sort of a chap rather than Dark Side of the Moon).

 

[pwhole]

Exactly! 'Scream Thy Last Scream' is still their masterpiece IMO. No synths yet in 67, but pretty much everything else is thrown in there, all turned up to eleven. Lead vocals by Nick Mason with Syd Barrett on Varispeed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rQb81z7ciI

 

[owd git]

Why not go foraging Phil'? Dryads saddles in endcliff park. on stump near bridge towards oakbrook; 20m rope & harness would be handy. could be done at night to feel a bit like caving. and aid social distancing. they are delicious. see utube. keep safe out there. O.G.

 

[pwhole]

I think I know where you mean - I'll take a look tomorrow when I'm out there. Sounds fun

 

[Duck ditch]

I?m not John Peel but overall I think I need my music to go somewhere quicker. Although I did get hypnotised during James Holborn.  I got sucked into prog and I didn?t mind as long as you don?t get stuck.  I like listening to a wide range of music so I?ve enjoyed my day.  LCD Soundsystem today is Probably my go to electronics but I?ve probably slipped over to another genre. 
Thanks though. 

 

[tamarmole]

Exactly! 'Scream Thy Last Scream' is still their masterpiece IMO. No synths yet in 67, but pretty much everything else is thrown in there, all turned up to eleven. Lead vocals by Nick Mason with Syd Barrett on Varispeed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rQb81z7ciI

Interesting call, it would have made a fantastic single paired with Vegetable man.  If you twisted my arm as to Floyd's masterpiece for me it would be a toss up between Astronomie Domine and Interstellar Overdrive.  That said Syd's Gigolo Aunt is one of my favorite Floydy tracks.  Syd is really on good form as a song writer, his guitar work is also pretty blistering; doesn't really tie up with the burnt out acid casualty story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cIgt5CUZMI

 

[pwhole]

Yeah, I think he'd figured that being thought of an acid casualty gave him a certain amount of protection from those he considered uninteresting.  I've read several accounts that in the right company he was perfectly affable, if very private. And definitely not a 'regular guy'.

This one's interesting - Kevin Ayers' 'Singing a Song in the Morning' that was on Joy of A Toy, recorded around the same time as The Madcap Laughs. As they were old mates, Ayers managed to persuade Syd to put down a guitar track, but it was erased from the eventual album and single mix. Can't think why. It's a pretty nondescript singalong tune but Barrett's 'idiosyncratic' guitar style certainly helps and the short 'solo' is unmistakable. It's got half of Caravan playing on it too. It was eventually released on the extended CD of the album, but even then they got the track listing wrong and the one that claims to have Syd on doesn't, and vice versa. It's even mislabelled on YouTube.

This is the one that does

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_aUzFTVKRk

 

[Roger W]

The music people seem to have taken over this thread!

I like to watch the birdies.

 

[Laurie]

For the first time I hung up a feeder full of Nijer seed yesterday afternoon.
There were two Goldfinches happily chomping away at them when I got up this morning. 

 

[shotlighter]

For the first time I hung up a feeder full of Nijer seed yesterday afternoon.
There were two Goldfinches happily chomping away at them when I got up this morning. 

They're the one seed that gets left in our feeder, to the point that I've stopped buying it.
Did have a pair of Goldfinches in the garden last week though. First I've seen this year but they seemed intent on a patch of newly dug & raked ground.

 

[Fulk]

I've just been watching a bunch of 4 goldfinch fledglings on our feeders; beautiful little birds.

 

[darren]

Sometimes I like to ride the green roads on my motorcycle.

 

[tony from suffolk]

We've lots of greater spotted woodpeckers round here. The little swines are costing me a fortune in peanuts - there were three of them on the feeder the other day. I'm also feeding a bloody great big heron with the goldfish in our pond.