Ex-Wise Heads - "Everything is Hear"

The very first Ex-Wise Heads recordings are now available in download format from here.

Dating from early 1998, and, saving a single overdub, recorded completely live to a four track cassette machine. Subsequently the material was digitally mixed and mastered by Geoff Leigh, with the assistance of Paul Mex.
"Everything is Hear" was recorded sometime after Geoff Leigh and I first started improvising and composing together as a duo and features Julian Franks on an array of Middle Eastern and Indian percussion (tablas, djembe and darabuka.) who had joined us for our first few live gigs.
Although this line up performed live a few times, these are the only recordings featuring Julian, as he moved on soon after and was replaced by Vincent Salzfaas, who had a much more African oriented percussion approach. We went on to record two albums, ("No Grey Matter" and "Time and Emotion Study") with Vincent, before exploring more electronic elements and settling into a "duo with guests" format.
Some of the material here was reworked for the subsequent debut album "No Grey Matter" but it's certainly different enough from those later recordings.

"Everything is Hear" is certainly raw, eccentric perhaps and maybe even a bit primitive, and it was never meant as an album proper, but it has an energy, directness and character of it's own and listening from a distance of 18 years, I think it has aged well….



Follow this link to get the Burning Shed Edition of "Everything is Hear" on CDR

Hard World - Sale this Weekend

"Hard World" was started by myself and fellow Ex-Wise Head, Geoff Leigh, in order to re-release the first Ex-Wise Heads album "No Grey Matter" in 2002, it's been an on and off thing since then, but as time and budgets allow, we have put out most of the Ex-Wise Heads material, two albums by Mirage (Geoff Leigh and Cathy Williams), my two solo albums, guitarist Rajan Spolia's "More than Words", the Endless Tapes material and most recently the O.R.k. album "Inflamed Rides".

The story isn't over yet, and I am glad to say there are a few more things in the pipeline too…..

In the meantime, this weekend sees a "flash sale" with discounts across all the following Hard World releases at burning shed, please click on the titles below for more information:

Ex-Wise Heads - "No Grey Matter"

Ex-Wise Heads - "Holding up the Sky"

Ex-Wise Heads - "Liquid Assets"

Ex- Wise Heads - "Schemata"

Colin Edwin - "Third Vessel"

Endless Tapes - "Brilliant Waves"

O.R.k. - "Inflamed Rides"

Tools Part 5 - Stealth Bongo

See above, my Musicman Stealth Bongo.

When I had the chance to try them, I always liked playing Musicman basses, and whilst searching around for a replacement for my Wal, which (thanks to some negative airline experiences), I temporarily retired from  service, I briefly used a very nice natural wood Stingray for a tour or two. However, I much preferred the Bongo as soon as I tried one, it felt more comfortable to play, flexible, expressive and with a very pleasing even response.

I was surprised, in a good way, by the very clearly defined low end, a lot more of it than you might expect, given it's actually quite light.  The tonal possibilities make it a very good all round instrument, and I have experimented with different string types from time to time, switching back and forth between round and flatwounds, currently I'm back to using round wounds.

I was lucky enough to get this bass direct from Ernie Ball and along with the simple black "Stealth" colour finish, I opted for dual humbuckers.

Two tone split controls, giving a 4 band EQ, pick up balance and volume control pots.

Bridge close up.

Distinctive 3 + 1 Musicman Headstock

 I believe the design team from BMW were involved in designing the stylistic aspects such as the body and headstock shape, it's certainly a different take on the bass guitar, "marmite" perhaps…..but I like it.

You can see this particular bass getting a workout on the Porcupine Tree "Arriving" Live DVD:

As well as a few other tracks here:

 More recently, I have used a (borrowed) fretless Stealth Bongo live with Burnt Belief:

Basses Part 4 - Rob Allen Fretless

Shown above is my only five string, a fretless Rob Allen MB-2.
I first became aware of Rob Allen basses on a visit to the bass department of Rudy's in New York City some years ago.
I was extremely close to laying out for a very nice four string version, when a moment of realisation struck me that, at that point, I simply didn't have the money.
These basses are not mass produced so sometimes a little hard to find, and subsequent "cashed up" visits to Rudy's and also Bass Northwest,  in Seattle (the only other place that seemed to stock them) left me with the choice of either five strings, lined fretboards or fretted versions, and not the unlined 4 string fretless that I was really after.
Eventually, after some searching, I bought this five string second hand in the UK, and realising the rarity of them, I was happy to forego my usual preference for four strings.
I have no idea why it never occurred to me to simply get one direct from the source….but in any case it's proved useful for me to have the low B on occasion.

A 35" inch scale.

 I am using the recommended LaBella strings.

Piezo pick up is located under the bridge, the only control is the volume pot.

The sound is somewhere closer to an upright bass than most fretless basses, I guess because of the semi hollow body construction, and even with such a simplistic control, it's an extremely expressive instrument, responding sonically to changes in touch and plucking position.

It's also a fantastic piece of craftsmanship, and a real joy to play.

I have made a lot of use of this bass with Ex-Wise Heads, especially on the more recent material, and it can be heard on these tracks below:

More to follow,

Colin

My Basses Part 3 - Wal Fretless

When I started my hunt for a good fretless bass, I had already been playing a fretted Wal for a couple of years, a solid ash model, originally made for my bass playing friend Martin Elliott.

At the time,  I was looking to replace a cheap and cheerful Westone Thunder 1A fretless with something a bit more serious. 

I opted for another Wal for two main reasons, one being that I was already comfortable with the string spacing and fretboard feel, so making the leap to playing fretless was, I reasoned, sure to be less problematic, and secondly, I was confident that in choosing another Wal I could be sure the craftsmanship and materials would mean I was going to find another really great instrument.

Wal basses have become very sought after in recent years, but at the time, a secondhand Wal could be found fairly regularly in the pages of Loot (…now replaced by Ebay and the like) for somewhere around the £400 - £500 mark, which seems amazing today given the prices they go for.

Made in 1984 at Electric Wood in the UK, my Wal fretless has a Brazillian Mahogany Core with American Cherry wood facings and an Indian Ebony fretboard.

Wal's own design active pick-ups, extremely flexible in terms of tone. Note worn varnish above the pick-ups, I  had the bass revarnished by Electric Wood some years ago.

XLR output socket next to the main output visible below the controls. This only works when there is a jack in the main output, it's very useful when recording for taking a signal direct from the bass.

Currently strung with D'Addario Flatwounds.

View of the Bridge.

Headstock, Hipshot D- Tuner not visible.

Serial number on the backplate.

This is probably my most played bass, I used it almost exclusively for a number of years, below a selection of tracks, old and newer:

I am lucky enough to own three Wals, my most recent acquisition being another 80's era fretted which was previously owned by Jack Monck and given a thorough working out on The Incident tour and album with Porcupine Tree.

Bye for now,

Colin

My Basses Part 2

Next up in my bass collection is my Spector Euro 435LX.

I was unfamiliar with Spector basses until a US tour in the mid 2000's, when the Spector artist representative kindly lent me a Czech made Spector Euro, for some US gigs.
Being incredibly solid, well made and reliable instruments they have become a mainstay for me, standing up extremely well to the demands of travel and regular use, and sounding great too.

For some time previously I had been experimenting with playing lower than a Drop D, even with RNG going as far down as an A below the usual E, so my initial interest in this particular model was due to the extra scale length, which is advantageous for down tuning. (Note: the numbers in the model 435 refer to 4 string with a 35" scale, rather than a more usual 34")

I had this particular bass set-up at the Bass Gallery in Camden to play a semitone lower than the bottom 4 strings of a standard 5 string, (i.e. Bflat, Eflat, Aflat, Dflat) and I felt it a good fit for some of the Porcupine Tree material which invited lower notes, such as "Way Out of Here":


….and also more dub infused moments, here on the Ex-Wise Heads track "Gene Pool":


More recently, tuned a semitone higher, it's seen at lot of action with Obake, fitting in really well underneath Eraldo Bernocchi's furious baritone guitars, click here to listen to "Seven Rotten Globes".

Some detailed shots:

 Bridge and Pick-ups.

Neck detail, it's a neck through, rather than bolt-on design.

Headstock and brass nut.  Truss rod is visible, as I removed the truss rod cover to make some adjustments, and promptly lost it.

The bridge, note the tapered Spector strings.

Here's a recent live action close up :

I generally prefer 4 strings to 5, so downtuning is a solution that suits me better when I want to access a lower register.

The clearly defined lower notes make up for the extra hand stretches required, and the sustain is as satisfying as playing some of the lowest notes on a piano.

Best,

Colin

New YouTube Channel.

Anyone interested can now subscribe to my YouTube channel, where I'll be uploading some new videos of collaborative and solo work in due course:

Some new videos are on the way, but for now, here is a video for the  Ex-Wise Heads track "Ascendance" from the 2011 album "Schemata".

This video was made by Richard Coldman with photography by Maciej Bury.



Best,

Colin

Ex-Wise Heads Live in Holland on November 4th

Just another post to mention that I'll be playing with Ex-Wise Heads at the Paradox in Tilburg, Holland on November 4th.

Tickets and Info can be found here

Alternatively, paste the link below:

http://www.paradoxtilburg.nl/events/tonefloat-records-labelday/

Best,

Colin

Ex-Wise Heads Live in Tallinn

Just to mention that Ex-Wise Heads, (also featuring yours truly on bass of course), will be replacing Slow Electric for the previously mentioned live show at the Rock Cafe, in Tallinn, Estonia in October 7th, next weekend in fact.

Ticket and venue info can be found by clicking here

Also, I'm happy to say, I am contributing to the next Slow Electric album, which is currently a work in progress, so all being well, there will be future performances and new material too....in the meantime Geoff Leigh and I are very much looking forward to our first show in Estonia.

On the subject of Ex-Wise Heads live, we will also be playing at the Tonefloat Records evening at the Paradox in Tilburg, Holland on Sunday November 4th, you can get tickets direct from the Tonefloat store, or from the venue here

For anyone unfamiliar, the Ex-Wise Heads album Celestial Disclosure came out on vinyl through Tonefloat a little while back, and was subsequently re-issued on CD in a very nicely packaged Japanese style vinyl CD sleeve, and with a bonus track too. The album is currently available from burning shed.

You can read a couple of reviews of "Celestial Disclosure" here and here.

Best,

Colin