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So there is something new coming from Mr Sylvian

Playing the Schoolhouse by David Sylvian
Playing the Schoolhouse by David Sylvian

Well this is great news from Confrontrecordings …

“Scheduled for a mid-September release on Confront Recordings; Playing The Schoolhouse, a new CD EP length composition by David Sylvian recorded in March of this year in Norway. Based on an improvisation by Jan Bang and Sylvian it also features contributions from Otomo Yoshihide and Toshimaru Nakamura. More news to follow soon. www.confrontrecordings.com

I was really pleased to hear this. His last work with Jan Bang was amazing, although it required some very close and concentrated listening. However, it was immensely worthwhile. I’m hopeful that this will be the same.

When will David Sylvian do something new?

It has been a long time now, since he produced anything new. I wonder if anything new is going to come along from him, or if his work really is going to vanish away. That would be a real shame of course. I’d like to see a new album. Maybe not as difficult as Manafon, but something a little closer to what he did with Nine Horses, or indeed Rain Tree Crow.

To be honest I’d be happy with anything really. I’d just like to think that he hadn’t run out of ideas, or wasn’t going to produce anything new again. That would be the real shame in my opinion.

Seeing Melle Mel at the Jazz Cafe

Melle Mel at the Jazz Cafe
Melle Mel at the Jazz Cafe

I love going to the Jazz Cafe, it’s a great venue and very convenient too, except when there’s a tube strike and I have to walk there from Borough Market, which took a lot longer than normal simply due to the crowds in London. Anyway, that’s my rant over with for now anyway.

Melle Mel and the Furious Five at the Jazz Cafe
Melle Mel and the Furious Five at the Jazz Cafe

I went to this gig with a couple of mates who were, to be fair, more interested in it than I was. However, I do tend to go along because it’s always good to see friends, and you never know if you’ll see something amazing or not. Luckily for me, this was the later.

It was a great gig. Lots of tracks I remember in the set, and a huge amount of energy in the performance. The audience loved it and it was a great evening. So I’m really glad I went.

Melle Mel at the Jazz Cafe August 2015
Melle Mel at the Jazz Cafe August 2015

New things coming from Big Finish

There’s some great new stories coming from Big Finish in the not too distant future, and I’m really looking forward to them coming out. I think it’s interesting the directions that Big Finish have decided to take with some of their new ideas. It’s an interesting way to blend together the original (or as I think of it, best) Doctor Who, with some of the better elements (or more like the elements that I think are actually worth watching at all) of the new Doctor Who.

Big Finish are going to produce, or rather have produced two new box sets. The first is the story of River Song. I thought she was a good character in the new Doctor Who, and in some ways overshadowed the Doctor himself. It’ll be good to hear a whole box set of stories around her character.

The second box set is about Winston Churchill and is voiced by Ian McNeice. I thought that he was great as Winston in Doctor Who, so again it’ll be good to hear these stories.

There’s a bit of a wait for both of these, they’re not available until January next year.

WOMAD memories 3: The Portico Quartet

The first time I saw The Portico Quartet was at WOMAD a few years ago. They were amazing and made a really big impression. Of course, now they’re no longer the Portico Quartet, and they’re just Portico, which is fine. Their music is quite different now, but I still like it. However, for me I think it lacks the impact of the first time I saw them live at WOMAD. That was amazing.

One Pebble, two devices, that’s not going to work

What I really wanted to do was to be able to use my Pebble Time with two devices simultaneously. However, it appears that this is just not possible at all. The reason? Simple really, but the smart watch uses bluetooth LE in slave mode and not in host mode. Host mode would allow you to connect to up to 7 other devices. However, it doesn’t look like you can do that easily with an iPhone, and, the Pebble doesn’t have that enabled as yet, and it appears that there is little or no demand for it. Trust me to be looking for something that no one else wants.

So, why did I want it? Well, I thought it would be useful to be able to get it to have notifications from both my iPhone and my Nexus tablet at the same time. Android has a few things that iOS doesn’t, and whilst the same is true in the other direction, from my perspective that’s quite minimal.

However, it isn’t the end of the world at all. I can live without it, but perhaps I may have to think of a different way of doing things in order to achieve what I wanted.

I’ll give that some thought.