archives

a place for older stuff, some ‘shelved’, some thought lost, some forgotten etc.

we will also place newer rehearsals + sessions here along with abandoned ideas, alternative takes + experimentation.

the meluddites

first off, up from the dark, forgotten depths of youtube here are 4 solo guitar pieces taken from ‘surf, skiffle + synaesthesia’ by ‘the meluddites’.

this project was a combination of solo guitar* going straight through a fender showman amp with the amp, the guitar and the space itself all miced up. this was then recorded (very loud) through a small analogue mixing desk into a 2 track recorder in a barn somewhere in the middle of france. subsequent 2-track processing/mastering was integral to the process but overdubbing was never employed at any stage; it is solo guitar + so it is what it is.

the accompanying minimalist ‘videos’ were added later. the diverse images + video clips include the barn in france, devastation from hurricane katrina + uphill (n. somerset).

(*) a lawsuit 70’s era ibanez ‘byrdland’ thinline jazz guitar was used on all tracks for its acoustic + electric sound. while this model fell short of having the gibson ‘byrdland’ refinements + appointments it ended up as being a replica of the famous ’50s gibson ‘350T’ (chuck berry, keith richards et al) from which the byrdland was subsequently developed as a dlx short-scale version with the help of mr billy byrd + mr hank garland (hence the name). These apparent shortcomings btw were no bad thing, in fact quite the inverse!

Fadtasia (batusi)

Estuary

Caloric Engine II

Blues for Katrina

Mo John (HDA)

‘The Blind Dog Sessions’

The Blind Dog sessions are in 3 parts, all of which are available on the @twangCORP archive channel on youtube.

Please note, the timing of the somewhat critical comments provided by the offscreen dog (not ours btw) at the end of part 1 were completely fortuitous. This bit of canine heckling had nothing to do with the title of the session!

All music (c) 2010 Mo John (twangCORP).

Barking (c) the dog.

(el.bee: video + sound recording)

Blind Dog Sessions (part 1) 2010

Blind Dog Sessions (part 2) 2010

Blind Dog Sessions (part 3) 2010