See above cover image for the "Mesh" EP, which is my first release of any solo material since "PVZ" in 2012.
I guess it's not strictly solo, since I am joined by my former Random Noise Generator partner Robert Peck (A.K.A. RJ) on vocals and guitar. Although initially Rob encouraged me to sing, he does a much better job of vocals than I can, and his guitar textures add a pleasing dimension I hadn't foreseen.
I have described the music as being an ideal soundtrack to moments of indecision and transition, and both states seem to occur fairly regularly in my life.
Five tracks and just shy of 20 minutes of music, "Mesh" is a digital only release and out now in the usual places: iTunes, CD Baby, and Burning Shed, and Bandcamp, where hi-res FLAC audio files are also an available option.
A full length album featuring further solo material in conjunction with RJ will be forthcoming later this year.
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.
It's been 10 years since the Random Noise Generator album, and it's something I still regularly get asked about.
We had a really good time making the album, although in retrospect perhaps the fun element of our hanging out and just enjoying ourselves together is the reason why, despite recording a (so far unreleased) follow up album, hours of playing together and developing the music didn't get much further.
It often seems to me that "messing about", without any thought of a goal or an end result, can sometimes be a really beneficial process, the journey being more important than the destination and all that.
Whilst working with RNG, I certainly refined a few ideas in my approach to the bass, and looked to do things that were outside of my regular playing style at the time, such as extreme down tuning, blending different distortion effects, use of a pick etc, all things that I've now assimilated into my normal approach if the situation calls for it.
Moreover, simply jamming for hours at high volumes in our small studio space on a regular basis was something I really looked forward to.
The low budget, self produced recording process was a great learning curve involving a lot of limitations that we needed to work around, and we also experimented with a lot of remix ideas too, although there's only one which made it to release as a bonus track on the CD:
I am not really one for the rearview mirror, but recently, listening to the album again after a long time without even thinking about it, led me to reconnect with RJ (RNG vocalist) and we've been working together on some of my instrumental pieces, in a completely different (ie. less metal) context to create some new, more song based material.
Very soon, I'll be uploading a few of these new tracks to my download page here:
http://music.thirdvessel.com
…..hopefully a full album will appear at some point…
For now, if you are in the mood for it, Demeath still stands up pretty well 10 years later I think.
