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A blend of found sounds and rhythmic patterns from the Jubilee line all recorded in binaural, then sampled and manipulated and complemented with changing melodies and loops that seemed to match the idea of travelling without moving.
(long version)
Like most artist creations, the inspiration for this came about from a series of unrelated events….
The first was buying a lovely set of binaural microphones that look exactly like ear buds, and that plug straight into my phone and are ideal for recording lovely natural soundscapes without drawing attention. Amongst other adventures, this lead me to recording whilst wandering around the jubilee line. Purely for the joy of it - probably early 2020. Then (months or even years before) there was the drunken conversation that was based about travelling without moving: ending up in a different place even though you have sat still (ie being on a tube / plane). And how there is no easy map (to a drunk non-Londoner) that links the tube map to a real map of London: The next station could literally be down the same road or several miles away; but from just a tube map, you’d never know. And for the uninitiated, the stations all feel similar when you get off - even though they are completely different. Or worse still, falling asleep on the tube (possibly after a beer... who could say), and hearing "this train terminates here " as your alarm.
Then I hear about Chris' wonderful idea for the TFL project and started going through my tube recordings more carefully, to find sounds but more importantly, find a story (at least in my head) that can form the spine of a soundscape. After many hours in the usual creative cycle (— Oh! This is brilliant! Oh! It’ll never work. Oh. Where was that bit? Oh! I like that. No! There's nothing here. Oh hang-on that IS brilliant etc. —), I found that there was a definite rhythm / pattern from Neasden to
Wembley on the Jubilee line - almost a 6/4 groove - and the brakes sang beautifully on a B4 ; making them ideal for samples, lead lines, pads. Some random tube doors were a lovely kick drum, which
could be driven/ triggered by the thumps on the track; the snare reverb a late night bin being knocked over; strange alarms / phones going off; squeals and squeaks that inspired strange synth parts that
remind me of Kraftwerk and the recycling / resampling of William Orbit. Etc. etc. The journey had started, and all that led to a guitar rift that I never used in the end (because I couldn’t play it well enough to record)!...
But I then needed to travel "without moving", and so looked for a way to take the groove and melodies to somewhere else; But without changing “anything or indeed everything”; and much like every daft drunken conversation, each small step seems completely reasonable at the time....especially when mis-hearing the accent in the click when recording the drums.
I hope you don't mind me sharing this thought process, it's amused me as I've created this soundscape; looking and thinking about where ideas came from. I'm very much a hobby musician /
sound designer and I don't get the time to write and record as often as I'd like - all the normal (i.e rubbish) middle aged reasons, and then when I do it takes me an age… “How does that work again?!" - So this has been a real joy for me to do.
DAW: Logic Pro
Binaural mics: Sennheiser Ambeo
Sampler : Yamaha A4000 + Logic Pro
Synths: Roland Jupiter 4, Nord Micro Modular
Ibanez guitars & bass, Fender Strat American II, Line 6 Processing, Marshall Amps
My son’s Mapex Tornado drum kit.
supported by 36 fans who also own “The Next Station Is”
This is as good as the officially released WRNTDP titles on CIS. Very pleased to pick it up, where the pieces here are longer than most on the records they benefit from the slow unwinding they are afforded. The 18 minute live set excerpt is particularly immersive. Wouldn't be the worst idea in the world to release this on vinyl as a companion to the inevitable repressing of This Nation's Most Central Location. Great stuff. Oh and you get a cool magazine to read as well. Awesome. shaun rogan
supported by 35 fans who also own “The Next Station Is”
A mixture of sequenced (maybe?) bloops, blips and blops and gorgeous ambient pieces. The former could double as library music for short animated films and the latter could make for a near perfect single album. Anthony Childs
Made over the course of four dark months, Reece Thomas’s new record features synth compositions that are both beautiful & unsettling. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 30, 2022
A stellar compilation featuring shoegaze and indie favorites like Drowse, Midwife, and Mount Eerie benefitting Project Onward in Chicago. Bandcamp New & Notable May 11, 2023
supported by 35 fans who also own “The Next Station Is”
Great album, love the dreamy nostalgic spacey-ness. The old educational samples transport me back to early school days in the TV room and when all we had to worry about was if we were wearing the right trainers or swapping Panini football stickers. vsep13