I've been planning to do this album for a long time, and have finally got around to it. I started out making music in the 80's by writing songs, but since the mid nineties I have focused exclusively on instrumentals (or not been the vocalist). These songs were never recorded beyond 'live demos' to tape deck. Since I've had a studio I have always had in the back of my mind that I should record some of them. More recently I have wanted to explore writing some new songs, and it seemed that the best way to get back into it would be to start with some old ones. It worked out well and so 4 out of the 11 tracks are new.

The NEU World Order album was the first album I'd done for 3 years (outside of CPS), and took me in some interesting musical directions. I've been trying to simplify my recording technique for the last decade, by trying to limit myself to real instruments as much as possible, and trying to ignore most of the endless possibilities a PC based studio offers. NEU World Order was a true leap in this direction for me. I have now found a combination of instruments which I really like consisting of acoustic & electric guitar, violin, bass guitar, piano, drums, tabla, djembe and my JD800.

When I started out working on the album I expected it to end up fairly heavy, but that's not how it turned out for the most part. In fact its a pretty mellow album and I'm pleased with the result. The background art on the cover and this site were painted by my wife Ros.

Here is the track listing:

01 - Lost Amongst the Waves
02 - Duststorm
03 - Slightly Broken
04 - Fade
05 - 1%
06 - Sinking
07 - Jealousy
08 - Triangulum
09 - Everybody Seems
10 - Planet Death
11 - Still Shining

01 - Lost amongst the Waves

I wrote this song in 1987 whilst living in Hull for a short period. It's a song about reaching a point in life where you have no strength left to go on and suicide is a temptation, going somewhere you love to do the deed. But the your connection with nature kicks in and can re-energise you and give you the strength to continue the battle. The song isn't about death, it's about rediscovering life. Musically I've managed to maintain a great loose feel to the whole thing which is the direction I've been heading for the last decade, probably starting with Nazca Nine. When you listen to older music such as Velvet Underground or Bob Dillan there is a magic ingredient which stands out in contrast to most music produced today. A song is just a song and a recording is just an interpretation, and if the song is improvised the whole thing ends up sounding organic. I am not a fan of heavy production, something like the Kaiser Chiefs whilst I like it on some levels, you know that it has been heavily produced to achieve the sound. I prefer the opposite with bands like Sonic Youth, La! Neu?, Julian Cope etc...

02 - Duststorm

I wrote this in 1989 in Portsmouth and it is an important song to me, I won't go into it all now but basically these were bleak times and this song signified a turning point for me. Song writing has always been cathartic for me, its my own way of dealing with the dross. It's a song about escapism (so many of my songs are). Escapism is an interesting subject, everyone has their own way whether it's TV, reading, computers, drinking, drugs etc... we all spend so much time doing it. It's a place for our heads to get away from all our inescable problems/traumas. It is an important part of living in society, and Duststorm is the warm blanket. This has always been a popular song of mine and plenty of people have said it would make a good single, I can't argue with that. When I first started working on this album, the first version I did was pretty heavy sounding, but lacked the warmth I felt it needed, and so I started again ground up and I am very happy with the result, it has a very loose sound and creates an interesting journey. The children were recorded at Pembrey Country Park, which seems so far away now...

03 - Slightly Broken

this is the first new song I have written for over a decade and the music began as an improvised back-end to jealousy. Since my brother was murdered last year, life couldn't have changed more drastically. Slightly Broken is about this journey. We have moved back up North from South Wales to be near my family, and an aspect of it all is that other people cannot deal with it and you become isolated. As if things aren't bad enough they just seem to continue to get worse. People tell you that you need to move on and get on with your life.... oh ok I'll do that then.... As anyone who has suffered a loss will know these things take time. I have had a few losses to get past in my life but this is by far the hardest. I wrote the song after a lifelong friend abandoned me because I was no fun to be around, need I say more? So back to carthasism for me it's worked well before.

04 - Fade

This is another old song from 1989. I have a tendancy to isolate myself when things get too bad (yep this is all tied in with escapism:). This is a protest song to myself. Life is about interacting with the world, and this is a reminder of how important that is. Musically I am pleased with this song, its got a 'cheeky' drum beat and also a wild west sort of feeling. This is probably influenced by 'The Crossing' by Big Country which I have been playing a fair bit seeing as I've got back into buying records. I will be talking about this album at some point :) Theres a bit in the middle that also reminds me of New Model Army, so I guess theres a bit of a tribute thing going on here :)

05 - 1 Percent

Another new song which came together pretty quickly. As part of the grief I am going through the anger towards global inequality, ignorance and capitalism has grown (see NEU World Order). This song is about when I start ranting about it to people I care about. When I talk about 9/11, conditioning, economic slavery, emerging economies, the history of capitalism etc... 2 things happen. Firstly the other party will put up their defenses, in fear of feeling ignorant, and then surprisingly similar arguments start to come out such as:

"Well there's nothing we can do about it so theres no point in worrying."
"What are YOU Doing about it?"
"I like it the way things are."
"You can't believe what you read"
etc...etc...etc...

Also people talk to you as though it is a hobby which is ludicrous, I would be ecstatic if the world was in harmony and all the opression was gone. A hobby is collecting stamps, this concerns all of us, we are all partly responsible for the problems because we let them happen, plus we supposedly live in a democracy.

Now one thing I know for sure is that I don't want to do this ever, that is why I did the NEU World order album. I do not want to alienate anyone else, but at the same time I am very passionate about all of this stuff. On top of that I seem to have inherited my Grandad's lecturing gene :) (See I am starting to go off on one now!).

Ever since I first heard the fact that: "1 percent of the worlds population owns 95% of the wealth" I have thought that this is the most important fact that people need to know. It says it all when you really think about it. So that was my starting point for the song, and the chorus is the truth of the situation described above. Like the way everyone feels that politicians are corrupt, that the media lies and hides/distorts the truth, everyone knows that things are wrong, yet refuse to think about it. I tried to get a light hearted humour to the whole thing, it is just observation from my point of view. Enough for now :) I'd just like to add a New Model Army quote from 20 years ago which I think sums it up quite well:

"Turn around as if to catch us cheat, but all you'll find is shining presents at your feet."

06 - Sinking

I wrote this song in 1988, and was the first track I recorded for this album. This is a song for victims of the system. Survival of the fittest is almost the new new testament, Strength is the most important quality and weaknesses are to be exploited. I wrote this song nearly 20 years ago but I think the situation is dramatically worse. This is for all the people who don't fit into this hard nosed community opposed system.

Musically I really like the starting sequence which is NEU World Order territory, I love that sound, it has such an earthy feel to it (I am an earth sign in case you haven't guessed by now).

07 - Jealousy

I wrote this one in 1989, and yep you probably guessed it, its all about Jealousy. Around this time I was privately in the hooks of several negative emotions which consumed me. The strange thing about jealousy is how addictive and comfortable it can be, it's like a warm blanket (again I know). You know it isn't doing you any good but the temptation is too hard to resist. Writing this song actually released me from it's grip. Sopngwriting can be amazing in that way, it's like your sub-conscious mind telling your conscious mind the way it is. I can quite happily report that jealousy is completely absent from my negative emotion list these days :) This track is more how I imagined the album would sound when I started out with short guitar driven songs. This is more in line with how the song would have sounded at the time if it had been recorded.

08 - Triangulum

Another new song which has an unintentional slight Pink Floyd feel to it. It's about feeling like an outsider to the point where you realise that you must belong somewhere else. I feel like its a borg invasion, whereas Steve think it's the Body Snatchers, maybe we're just delusional :) Triangulum and Whirlpool are galaxies. Last year I got a telescope (which I'm not too good at using) and spent lots of hours trying to find Triangulum without success. I did find the Whirlpool however which was awesome. Seeing a galaxy with your own eyes, even if it is a faint blurry patch is a life changer (along wiith Saturn, Jupiter, star clusters and the moon. The sky is not too good up here so my search for Triangulum will have to wait.

09 - Everybody Seems

This was written in 1987 around the same time as Lost Amongst the Waves, and is light hearted look at relationships. It's pretty straightforward :) First of all I thought of recording this track because it was one of the favourites back in the 80's, but once I'd recorded it I sort of rediscovered it and realise it is a light hewarted break in the album, and it was also a significant stage in my song-writing journey, as it was probably the first decent song I wrote. The cheering etc is from a party played at Allens Rd in Pompey in 1988.

10 - Planet Death

I wrote this in 1990 living in Manchester. This was a bleak era in many ways, but I borrowed a 4-track tape deck off someone and I spent every waking hour writing & recording. I felt like it would be taken away at any moment :) This is one of those songs and it's about the way we destroy the planet with sheer arrogance. Schools breed capitalists and eject them into the world as fully fledged Ferengi to make maximum profit regardless of the consequences. I think things have changed a bit in that sense as kids seem to be more aware these days, but the fundematal attitude of capitalism just keeps growing. Bush is the supreme example, where's the profit in saving the planet? I remember at school been told about the ozone layer and global warming (which is incredible because it was pretty new theory back then). That was 25ish years ago, and what has changed? We are more concerned with hijacking as many oil reserves as possible for the last great battle to keep the cashflow going through our failing economies. The Earth will survive and it won't miss us.

11 - Still Shining

This is a new song written for my brother, he was an incredible person, he had a zen attitude to the world and did lot's of good selfless things. He was killed walking home from the pub by 2 bored 19 year olds who wanted to impress their girlfriends, and they have shown no remorse. He had just celebrated his 21st birthday the week before. The album is dedicated to Joe, and we all miss him a lot, it is difficult to think about anything else.