Watching Update(s)

OK, back again, for more hits. Finished recording vocals for "Watching 2", "Listening" and "Watching", of course, now waiting on Servant #3 to finish their guitar tracks. Then mastering, and off to the plant for pressing. Interesting developments will follow I'm sure.

Servant #1 and #2 have been hard at work with Skull Servant NE/SE - of course those tracks need constant tweaking and reconsideration. One ten minute track "Satellites" is finished (or as finished as we ever get). Will upload it to Soundcloud when ready for public consumption.

Got the delightful Trogotronics 101 box, really really fun box - hope to implement it into the stuff we're doing really soon.

Hope to collaborate with some excellent local bands before the year is out. Might crash a show or two, who knows what's going to happen.

Check out the favourites in the YouTube channel (click the video below and click the user name there) found some really interesting stuff from pranksters and Einsturzende Neubauten.

Also pick up the song "Ideas" on the appropriately named "Destroy Music" compilation put out by Schizophrenic Records.

Fucking go.

Media Conglomerate - Fucking Go!

The video arm of the Skull Servant Media conglomerate has undertaken it's first project. Skewering the (blood) thirsty Stephen Harper and his ridiculous double-speak with talking/not talking with the media. Enjoy our YouTube glory:

In other news, new gear acquisitions, Tascam 414 cassette multitrack to create and run multitrack noise loops. Using these as a bed to simulate percussion when the Skull Servant NE/SE (Noise Ensemble/Sonic Experiments) part takes better effect. I suspect we'll be doing some live performances this summer as NE/SE and hopefully as a full band towards the winter - in preparation for the release of the Watching 7" EP.

Speaking of the Watching 7" EP, need to re-record vocals, and add a guitar track or four. Should be finished in the next little while. I plan on having it mastered by the end of summer, and hopefully out by the end of October. Timeline looks good -cover art may take more time than we're currently able to devote.

Also, heard the Skull Servant track on the Destroy Music compilation.Thudding creepy music by luddites (us). All Hail and respect for project Inspiration: Krumins.

Upcoming Skull Servant Bits

1. The fourth Skull Servant song "Ideas" will appear on the forthcoming Destroy Music compilation on Schizophrenic Records. Typically, Skull Servant isn't interested as a group in appearing on comps - there's too little control over the end product, which is something that I'm interested in, and other participants are keen on too. So to say that we would appear on a comp, well, that's a big deal to us. Hope you like the song, it will only be available on the comp.

2. Related to the end bit, we're done recording for our first release - Watching. This 7" EP (A Side: Watching 2 / Listening, B Side: Watching) will be out on vinyl towards the end of 2012 (timeframe is looking like October, but we'll see). First pressing will be on red vinyl, out of 200. Subsequent pressings will occur, dependent on demand. I don't have any intention of letting it become a collector commodity, so if there's demand, there's demand. It will be the first release on Servant Music.

Here's the unmastered version of Watching:


3. Additionally, there may be a cassette version of Watching.

4. Skull Servant (Noise Ensemble/Sonic Experiments) will release a tape after the Watching 7" EP is out, look for it around early November. Also Skull Servant (NE/SE) will be performing over the summer and hope to capture those performances and release those via DVD or just post them on YouTube. I like the idea of a complete product that provides additional context.

More Fun For The New Times

Projects Underway

Skull Servant progress:

2 full songs, drums recorded. Working on basslines, additional percussion.
Working on video piece to accompany band performance, or perhaps act as a standalone project on surveillance.

Skull Servant (Noise Ensemble Sonic Experiments) progress:

Second noise collage about Reagan (Paired with Hinckley Was Right below) underway.
More projects built, need to paint boxes to house said projects.

Also this:

Skull Servant - Reagan Songs Pt. 1

So this may seem a bit jumbled, but that's my thought process in this. Skull Servant will definitely follow the Man Is The Bastard/Bastard Noise path - being both a band that is influenced by power-violence approach to punk rock, wielding an Einsturzende Neubauten (who had members of punk band Abwarts) approach to industrial music as well as engaging in newer forms of noise. I'm currently crafting two or three songs that take direct influence from punk songs, but are essentially noise and adding my own spin to them while the full Skull Servant Orchestra is arranged, finalized and fleshed out.

Considering that I have considered myself a punk and listen to a lot of punk music, one of the early targets of punk was Ronald Reagan (whether as governor or addle-minded president). Here's my take on the day he was shot courtesy of the tapes the Secret Service just released:

Hinckley Was Right by Skull Servant

Weird Sound Generator Part 2

So I've been plodding along at glacier speed. I wrote a couple more song bits, and have been lounging around. Here's a picture to show I'm not entirely at rest.

As you can see, the soldering is wildly inconsistent. We'll see when it gets to the testing phase how bad the joints are (hopefully I am consistent enough to get a signal). Should be finished this week. Amen.

Weird Sound Generator

First project I'm working with is the Weird Sound Generator - which seems perfectly suited to adding a layer of noise, albeit tuneful noise, to the sort of dire, dirge-like stuff that I want to do. Basically, I won't be making too many adjustments to the WSG - there's an experimentation section to the board that I want to use eventually, but I'm going to have to play with it for a while before I see what it can do before I decide what needs to change.