FORWARDIREKTION:

The Northwestern

Keirdre — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:06:57 +0000

The new band has been named The Northwestern, and they now have a MySpace with two tracks available to hear. There is also a banner on their MySpace page that links to a free downloadable track.

What do you think? Discussion on the forum: http://discussion.forwardirektion.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13472

Wolf

admin — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:28:52 +0000

Wolf is out now.

Wolf preorder

admin — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:57:31 +0000

The second Troubles album, Wolf, is now available to preorder from Pure Groove for only eight quid.

The release date is listed as the 14th of April and they have this to say about it:

“Ex- Hope Of The States members crash together like waves on the shore. Last Night of The Proms meets slow-motion WW2 film music with a Mexican twist. SUPER LIMITED EXCLUSIVE TO PURE GROOVE. Features free poster.”Tracklist: 2. Furnace (Redux)
3. Wolf
4. Feverland
5. The Farwest Leader
6. St Paul
7. Glanton Falls
8. I Absence, Am Abraham
9. Attica In Twos
10. My Yeshiva

That’s right; a free poster, and still only eight quid. Will these wonders never cease? And if you buy it from them in person, you can probably get Simon to sign it for you while you’re there.Or not.

Whatever.

Domain names

admin — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:56:52 +0000

thehalfwayhome.com has now expired, and there seems no point in keeping both that and hopeofthestates.com going to the same site. I’m going to move The Home over to forwardirektion.com somehow, and keep hopeofthestates.com forwarding to that section. I’m not entirely sure how I do this, so I’m going to catch Zack about it soon.

Cheers,
Keir

Character:Notes On

winter_fires — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 22:34:50 +0000

Last night was a night of failed attempts. I think maybe at the end of recording you (the royal we=me) gets so nervous about letting stuff go that you just want to pull the threads out of every single thing that made your head spin before, in case you’re wrong about it all. We worked out that stuff is sounding great. That song doesn’t need a squeeze box solo, a junkyard guitar solo, or to be honest any sort of damn solo.
I was waiting for James to leave last night so I could record a new song for the record on the sly. I wrote it a couple of days ago walking over the Thames to the studio. I was gutted at the time that the engineer had to leave for his bus so I couldn’t sneak it on the record but now, I think it’s better saved. The second verse is my favourite words ever….digs the mud, to find lost things, sunken clocks, and baby cribs and the bones of horses….
“thenumber/horses/directionofgod” all mixed today. Currently working on “telegraphs’. The brass makes it all work properly…it don’t yet….
s
x

Yesterday was final day of invention.
assessment and trial of many things, mainly to keep our own interest going as we have heard these tracks many a time. i think maybe its best we walk away before we begin to make similar moves from the past.
Me and Paul added down backing vox on “Sparrows” and then me and Sam added more to “Winternight” and then “StMary”. both of which ye of the choir added yr sonic beauty to, only now we added even more harmony. sheer drunken beauty.
i am probably the most proud of this out of everything that i ever done. that sentence is too wordy. (idiot)
off now

Jonnyx

RELL-IDGE-US REE-VYE-VALL

winter_fires — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 12:13:46 +0000

Last day of recording today before we start the rough mixes tomorrow.
Thanks again to those who made it down on Thursday to sing on a couple of songs. It was/is much appreciated.
Spent yesterday singing far too much. Managed to get vocals done on “theworldsaghost” verses on “fire” (still have to write a chorus….) and just about wrecked my voice through “thenumber”. Just worked out that in a studio full of comically expensive microphones we have recorded the vast majority of vocals through a twenty dollar sixties ribbon mic. Sears catalogue wonder microphones all the way. Listen through to “sparrows” and a couple of others with my sister who seems to be into them. High praise indeed it is if she likes stuff. Not sure if my vocal has enough waitsian growl to it yet but it’s getting closer.
Also found out yesterday that Daniel Lanois studio in New Orleans is still in existence. I think he mainly works in pick up and go studios in houses and suchlike but I read an article years ago about his studio in an old cinema. The desk is just in the middle of this huge old cinema room and you just set up and play around it. I thought it had got demolished but he sold it to Trent Reznor. Going to see if I can track him down and borrow the studio for the next record…unlikely perhaps but worth a punt.
I m sure every band in the world at some stage in the recording of an album turns into the beta band. So yesterday out came the percussion on a couple of songs. We also loaned some antique Harry Partch esque rattling junk instruments and put them on some stuff. Listen out for The Spoils Of War, Crychord, Cloud Bowls, etc. One of them sounds like a train whistle in a Goofy cartoon.
Organ, guitars, squeeze box, backing vocals, humming choir to do today.
Take care

s
x

round up the horses

winter_fires — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:47:46 +0000

Brass was in on Monday. The mighty Trumpet Dave Hopkin marshalled his troops along. Seeing the scrawled out music they had to play to, it was pretty much a miracle it sounded as good as it does. They played on “sparrows/5/thenumber/telegraphs/horses” and three of them hung around til late to improvise a little fadeout part on “pidginengland”. It’s a little oompah Beatles bit which staggers out of the end of the song and makes me laugh. Despite my mental block on the first note of the vocals, “sparrows” is now sounding as it should, like a brass band wheezing through a hundred year war. “5″ is the biggest sounding thing on the record. The end morricone fest is maybe getting a bit over the top, yelling in tongues, free jazz trumpets etc. Some of it might well get chucked, fo fear of people missing the point of it all.
Jon is playing glockenspiel on a little bit of “telegraphs”. The brass makes the song what it is so it’s grand to finally have it on there.
We are so indebted to the players for helping us out. The budget is scarily tight so we could only pay them in booze for a good six hours work. Kindly souls one and all.
After they went James and I were here til late rattling through a few vocals which are getting somewhere I think. We’re just trying to mess up the sound of them as much as possible. I spent all last night and this morning on “pidginengland”. The lyrics got gutted and remade over the last week but now are probably my favorite on the record. Yelled it through an amp like a tramp today which cracked it up a bit more. The whole song has to decay and break as it goes along which is fun to do but is a nightmare to get right.
String quartet down later, Winters is playing more glock on “theworld’saghost”, I am trying to get a calliope from somewhere and convince Fred to make more coffee.
Try and send out another message later.
Hope yr all well.

S
x

sixstringsonsixthday

winter_fires — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 23:05:08 +0000

A day full of far far too many guitars today.
“stmary” got a fixed guitar part from Winters, a new uke version from me and finally the end piano part is on and sounding amazing. The song is pretty much entirely acoustic and was a bit undone until the vocal went on last night. It strung the whole thing together for the first time.
We threw some harmonium on it today as well which was a welcome break from guitars, wooden or otherwise. Today I ran the whole thing myself which meant Jon didn’t have to lie on the floor again. The harmonium is a victorian piece of junk I got of ebay for eighty quid. I played one years ago on a song with my first band. We were recording a couple of songs at Sam William’s house in Jericho and the noise of the thing just rocks my proverbial world. I think they are pretty underused in general especially as they sound so much nicer to me than accordians or their ilk. When I bought it I got another one at the same time which thankfully never showed up to Rocktowers. The things are massive and a pain to shift about, one was enough for everyone else to help me move.
Winters is wailing guitars all over “telegraphs” as I type. We threw him in the live room to adopt the rawk god stance, we shall see if it’s worth it…
LATER
It was, sounds like a wonder.
Also built a drunk choir of one (me) screaming in tongues over the end of “5″ which sounds like ghost sailors complaining through loudhailers.
I then fell through bits of “horses”, “5s”, “thenumber” and “theworld’saghost”. It was a sweet surprise to find that at least one of the three spaceechos is working and the copicat held up for at least a take or two of Jon’s. We are refusing to use any digital delays or reverbs on the whole record. Firstly to make a rod for our backs and secondly because the whole thing sounds sort of antique and old old old.
It’s really nice to finally start hearing stuff actually sound like that as opposed to the demo stuff which had to be much more A to B quickly in it’s sound and general manner. It’s odd that so many sounds and general processes you used to really enjoy or get excited about sound so boring as time goes by. I don’t know how bands can make the same record overandover again I really don’t. A good example to illustrate my somewhat tedious point (bear with me, ah beg ye!) is the “war” guitar sound I always used to love. BlackDollarBills/angelsoverkilburn et al….. It just bores me silly these days. However, I am in no way giving that whole thing a kicking. At the time it was wondrous as anything…just now it just don’t do it anymore….
Well on that “BDB/Angels are the best goddamn songs this idiot ever wrote, the new stuff is gonna suck hugely” note, ah bid ye goodnight.
Day off morrow, brass band in on monday.
Hope yr well

Sam
x

a few day message

winter_fires — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 11:37:27 +0000

Paul did bass on “Telegraphs” thursday morning. Little Jack was more interested in chewing the bass headstock than watching his Dad “lay it down” although he did have a little dance to the song so we’re taking that as a good sign.
Jon was away in Liverpool so unfortunately for me that meant I had to play a load of stuff. I keep thinking I should enjoy the process of playing a bit more. I love playing songs, writing songs, recording etc but the little steps always feel just like that. Until everything is on a track I find it hard to get a huge amount of pleasure in the basic physical act of playing an instrument, it’s not just joining the dots that I’m doing but I need the whole thing to be happening around me or it just feels a bit unbelievable to me…ah dunno. I’m not in anyway complaining about it, just trying to explain it.
Simon was playing “Horses” again. The middle section is like a chase scene in a sixties Morricone scored Italian movie and is pretty tough to play. It’s coming along though. It’s probably one of my favourites on the record I think. The lyrics are all kind of dark and the strings sound like drunken disney stuff. It’s sort of funny, especially when the humming choir comes in.
Did vocals on “directionofgod” and “thenumber” late on Thursday which sounded like they’re getting somewhere. Also spent a fair few hours doing piano and vocal takes of “Telegraphs” which is really hard to do as good as it needs to be but the sound of them both at the same time is sounding so much better than doing them apart so will keep going with it. Mike is probably going to be pretty annoyed at me because the middle section he has painstakingly scored for the quartet now pings around between 3/4 and 4/4 a couple more times. Not because we are clever and Battles like, just because I can’t play it properly
Pulled the kit apart yesterday and Jones played some amazing parade drums on “St Mary” and “Sparrows”. Proper ragged mountain songs, with the uke and the punctured lung harmonium they are. Recording the harmonium was a nightmare for poor Winters. He had to lie on the floor and push the pedals with his hands while I played the damn thing. Wish we had photos of the scene to show you but alas no.
Had some piano disasters on the end of “stmary” but we finally worked out that the reason it didn’t fit was Winter’s guitar part was totally different from the original. He shall redo it today and save the song.
Have a total mental block on one note on “sparrows” which is driving me insane but did a few other vocals last night which are sounding really good which for me to say myself is high praise indeed!
Guitar day today will throw out another spiel later concerning today, the sixth of fourteen.
Take care
sam
x

IIIrd of a trilogy

winter_fires — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 22:11:32 +0000

So in a morning haze we awake to check emails in the hope all codes and links have been a smuggled our way. Could it be that we will really hear the new Radiohead album today? And yes we did, and many an hour was spent listening to it by various members. All in all better than we were to expect, yet puzzlings at why House Of Cards was to be included on this album. Not their finest moment in any sense.
We move on to tha days events wich seemed to take many a turn. Drum trks for “No5″? complete with much a thump and snap as usual. Piano done on “Winternight” and ” myson”. things moving steadily on as well as many a gewtar bein layed down with raunchy results.
We finish off the night as Paul lays down some Phat bass lines and groove the night away.
that’s me fer te day

jonnyx

One of them see saw days.
Started with drums on “Horses” as a continuation of yesterday’s snare drum nightmares. Fixed the aforementioned scumbag drum only to hit a brick wall with kick drum patterns and general fraying moods.
However the arrival of the piano, close to twenty microphones placed around it and a wonder of a piano take or two by Winters on “myson” raised spirits a fair amount. I worked out the piano again on “Winternight” which now fits Paul’s lazy ass bass playing (which he shall redo tonight!) and also started guitars on “myson”. Winter’s ancient guitar sounds amazing but takes great issue with staying in tune. This led me to spit a few feathers and retire to more red wine to avoid having to take any responsibility.
Paul is here tonight, is convinced they are shooting a “adult” film on a balcony by the studio, eat a giant pickle and is bringing the little man Jack in tomorrow. So in between the rows and stress of a record I imagine there will be a fair bit of Bob the Builder and general honorary uncle action going on.
Ed H might be coming down to punch a bit of Johanna over a couple of tracks but the piano goes walkies at the end of the week so who knows. It’s really nice to be back in a studio with a hundred stupid ideas, a million annoying problems and a little inkling that this record is going to be exactly what we want it to be.
Simon is currently playing a bin on the end of “5″ so god only knows what is going on with the song.
Hope yr all well.

s
x
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