Patrick Blogs – January 2012

So it’s been a while since we last posted. In our defence, we haven’t been busy since the panto; a couple of Ruthless gigs (pun intended) before a well earned and somewhat lengthy hiatus over the festive season. Since the new year however, The Archive have been back with a vengeance and have already churned out two gigs with a vengeance; one at Nos Da on the Taff (a warm up gig for both us and Tylweth Teg[1]) and a birthday gig for an overworked and underpaid Pat (Full Moon Bar, warmed up by the ever brilliant Maddie Jones[2])

Aside from gigging, your favourite band (unfortunately not many other people’s – yet) has been hard at work behind the scenes. We’ve been working on songs for the new EP as well as rehearsing them to play live. The new songs reflect, as I’m sure you’ll hear a more band orientated ethos – as Richard’s prolific song writing brain begins to become more aware of his band members talents and limitations[3] – richer and more diverse harmonies (more songs with all three of us singing) combined more expansive instrumental sound, enabled in part by Ruth’s switch to alto sax and Pat’s recent purchase of a five string bass.

Anyway, since we got going again the gig offers have been beginning to trickle in. Following a few stupendously busy weeks last Christmas, we’ve decided to be a little more selective about our gigs – juggling musicianship and three full time jobs isn’t exactly easy on our collective mental wellbeing.

Don’t be put off by that above statement – we’ll still be appearing regularly at pretty much everywhere we can. You’re going to love it…

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[1] As in we were warming up for them but it was also a warm up gig to get us back into gigging. Did that need explaining..?

[2] In our dreams.

[3] Just so you know, Rich isn’t writing this and it isn’t some kind of ego trip.

LADS

We’ve moved 🙂

Essentially we’ve sorted it out so that the .wordpress.com site just copies over to the pure http://www.albatrossarchive.com thang, but we’re going to work on making this site more of a hub for all the various AA activities around the internet, usually on websites made up of two words.

So what’s been going on?

First of all, THINGS, our debut EP is now available to buy through Bandcamp – though you can find this by checking the MUSIC tab of this very website. A fine yule tide gift if ever there was one.

But now the main plug – Rich has been working with Act One, the Cardiff University Drama Society, and has written music to the words of deeply disturbed and epicly laddy Director George Robinson. The result: KING ARTHUR AND THE LADS OF THE ROUND TABLE:

 

It’s being performed December 1st-3rd, with Albatross Archive being the band for the show. It should be as incredible as it is utterly disturbing, but we’d love to see you there.

And don’t you worry, there are many new sounds being carved away…. new tunes soon, promises promises

XD

Whistlestop Escapades…

Apologies again for the length between posts… we’ve been pretty busy!

This is just a quick update really (we’ll fill you in properly soon). Firstly, we have to say a huge thank you to our djembophonist Mr Everett, who played his last show with us at the Swigen Festival in October, and what an awesome event it was too. It was quite the send off, and we’re very glad he liked his present:

Secondly, thank you to the Swigen Festival for having us and letting us play not once, but twice – it was a day full of good sounds, good cupcakes, and good people.

So what does the near future hold for us? We haven’t gigged as a 3 yet… and of course we’ll let you know when we do. But it seems like change is on the cards, and some new sounds too. Rich has been messing around with vocoders and synths, so you can bet there’ll be some electronic loveliness coming through your headphones pretty soon.

We are also in the process of simultaneously shooting FOUR videos, so no doubt there will be a glut of online viewing in a couple of month’s time!

In the mean time, you can catch us as the band for the Cardiff University Act One Society’s christmas panto ‘Arthur and the Lads of the Round Table’, which is promising to be RIDICULOUS in every sense of the word. Its running in Cardiff Uni’s Great Hall from 1st-3rd December, and you can get tickets from the CU box office.

Sorry this was such a whistle-stop tour of our latest escapades, but not doubt you’ll be sick of us by January!

Ruth xxx

Hugh Everett, Djembe, 2010-11

Thank you

x

Again, what a shockingly bad band we are at updating our blog! A month really is too long. Right, well, as per usual we’ve been up to a great deal and its probably about time to tell you about it.

We’ve had a number of really cool gigs this last month, one of them being for the Cardiff Uni’s Xpresstival, where we played to a room of vampire themed thespians (= surreal) before heading into the bowels of the student’s union to record a live session (= to be continued…). It was a glorious event – the first of its kind in fact – and it was a pleasure to be a part of it.

Then, similar to that thing that buses do, we received the finished copies of our EP’s at the same time as playing a gig in The Full Moon, Cardiff in aid of Oxjam. Aside from being stupidly nervous and tired for this gig, it turned out to be one of those rare gems that only ever happen when you’re stupidly nervous and tired, and was maybe one of our best – or at least, we would like to think so, if it isn’t too presumptuous. Although we haven’t been given final figures, here’s hoping we raised an awesome amount of money for charity 🙂

That nicely leads me on to THINGS. If you want to know what THINGS is about, then you’d better ask one of us Albatross, because this debut EP isn’t available anywhere else as of yet. We have 100 hard copies (supplied with incredible artwork, courtesy of the wonderful Tom Kitchen: http://www.tom-kitchen.co.uk/), and so far they are selling pretty fast so we recommend you get one before they’re all gone, because it doesn’t look like there’ll be any more. We’ll put the tracks up for you to lovely people to get hold of  online in the near future, and at £4, it really is a snip.

Artwork from Albatross Archive's debut EP 'THINGS'

Ok, plugging over – apart from one last little thing…

Our next gig is at the SWIGEN Festival in aid of Oxjam Cardiff & Shelter Cymru) which is happening next Saturday 22nd October in Ebenezer Chapel, Charles Street, Cardiff and is promising to be a very incredible day of music. We would really love to see you there, not only to enjoy the day and buy a copy of THINGS, but to give one huge cheer of appreciation to our djembophonist Hugh Everett, who is very sadly leaving us. This will be his last gig and its important that its an absolutely cracking one for him, and we know that you guys will make it 🙂

So it kind of feels like SWIGEN will be an important end of an era in the Era of Albatross, and one that we’ll keep you posted on.

Ruth

For info on SWIGEN, its best to see http://gwylswigen.tumblr.com/

 

 

 

 

 

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Space to Breathe

Well hello everyone, you all look very beautiful today, have you done something to your hair? x

So we’ve been a busy bunch recently. The last update was just around the time of the Slow Down Molasses show… wow was that really just on Sept 1st? Wow… ok, it’s not as long ago as I expected, but boy oh boy have we had some ridiculous adventures since then.

September feels like it’s been fairly quiet. This month always feels like a transitional one, which can only be blamed on academic upbringings (September will always be the start of school… ) so everything just feels like it’s reset. I’ve personally changed job, Pat’s started an entirely new one, Ruth’s gradually phasing back into academia and Hugh’s other band is starting to get it together (the glorious Magpie Instinct), so there’s been a sense of taking things off the boil just a touch.

That being said, we made our  outside-of-Cardiff debut, we’ve played our first ‘boot-grabbingly muddy’ field gig, recorded our first radio session, and done our first busking slot (this is when you realise just how loud saxophones are!). Also, Richard Jackson’s ‘Calm’ got 100 listens on The Miniature Music Press’s September Playlist (which so far is the top hit for this month), so that’s been just lovely.

We played in Newport off an invite by Last Of The Union, a band who’d previously supported us at our show at Undertone a few weeks back. Meeting other bands is one of the real joys of playing live shows, since you can find ways of connecting with people you otherwise might never have said a word to. Anyway, the show itself was a classic cafe show, complete with sound desk propped up on the bar just infront of Pat, with the sound guy outside toking for the body of the set, only occasionally wandering in when the feedback had been going on for just a bit too long. We had fun anyway, and the audience was an appreciative bunch of coconuts. The only real negative feeling I had was that we had to leave straight after our set to catch the train home, so didn’t actually manage to stay to see Last Of The Union actually play again – there will be a reunion show sometime and all will be well.

We also played for two charity events, on consecutive Sundays, for the Alzheimer’s Society and for Oxjam. Having never done any charity events, it was hilarious trying to decide on what songs were even slightly appropriate, which ended up with learning lots of strange covers – our version of Layla has yet to see the light of the stage, but there may be a time…

The Alzheimer’s Society hosted a Memory Walk in Bute Park 18/07/11, and we were asked by our good friend Jon Mackrell to open for it. Jon’s been a mate of mine for a number of years and is just an all round ‘good egg’, so it was a pleasure to be asked. It also turned out to be about the most torrential morning possible, leading to panicked sound engineers having to cover the speakers in bin liners, extension leads being fished out of puddles, and water generally stage invading, which a host of walkers hid under shelter of a tent about 100m to our left. With any semblance of order being removed from our set list, we ended up pulling out some spontaneous versions of “Singing In The Rain”, “Wonderwall”, and the immortal classic of “Hit The Road Jack” segueing into “Milkshake”. So yeah, smiles all round, and apparently 430 people went in this walk. There are few greater causes, and it was so important to be involved.

This soggy event was compared by a Mr Jeremy Rees, DJ for Radio Cardiff’s Saturday Morning show. He was a great laugh and really nice to chat to amid the chaos of the affair, so it was completely out of the blue that we received a tweeted invitation (you know we’re @albatrossarc right??) to appear on his show the week after. This resulted in an incredible 3 mics 4 people situation in one of Cardiff’s smallest rooms, and somehow we got through 3 songs, a quasi interview (which was the first one I’ve ever done) about the band and it’s history, and a decent farewell in a 20 minute slot, finishing bang on the 9am mark. It was so great to be asked and we can only recommend his show to anyone who likes a smooth Saturday wake up call. A specific mention should go to DC from The Waiting Room (an internet podcast/radio show, who were the first to play our tunes and is a solid supporter of our endeavors), who I messaged in a panic the night before just asking what to do, and who’s advice was perfect.

This then leads us onto this morning’s Oxjam session, which saw us generally be loud on the streets of Cardiff for 30 mins on another soggy Sunday morning. Fun times had by all, and we were had the pleasure of being supervised by Neessha (sp??), the most beautiful white husky I’ve seen for many a day. Glorious white husky eyes. Melt.

SO what’s happening next…. well October is looking ridiculous so far, with shows generally every week. We’re playing for Cardiff University’s Xpresstival (a festival being run by the SU Radio Station), there’s another Oxjam session (this time indoors, at Cardiff Arts Institute), an appearance at the first ever Swigen Festival, and then a slot at The Full Moon.

Xpresstival, Cardiff SU – 6th Oct

Oxjam, Cardiff Arts Institute – 13th Oct

Swigen, Ebenzer Chapel – 22nd Oct

No Sweat, The Full Moon (tbc) – 26th Oct

Hope to see your beautiful faces soon, and there are great THINGS ahoy….

x

30DSC- Day 1- Your Favourite Song

So this is it, Day 1. It felt weird that in the normal ordering this was meant to be the first thing you declare, since surely all the other songs chosen are just precursors to your true love. Anyway, this is mine-

Nina Simone – If I Should Lose You

Everything about this song is wonderful, right down to the fact that she messes up the very last arpeggio. Written by Ralph Ranger, words by Leo Robin, it’s ‘just another standard’, but it’s just so perfect. Nina’s version is of course decorated in that trill infested, harmonically dexterous way in which she worked (this is true Baroque Jazz), and has this amazing vocal habit of holding notes over chord changes (yes, it’s just a suspension, but WHAT a suspension).

Even down to the structure of it, just literally A-A, no chorus, no bridge, just a declaration, repeated. Again, this is another typical jazz thang, but in Nina’s hands the two halves sparkle and reflect, what was desolation is now hope, once dark now light. This is something you find so much in, say, performances of Romantic piano music (i.e. Chopin) where exactly the same notes are bestowed a completely separate set of emotions and intentions, what was once fragile is now strong, where the meaning changes utterly within the context.

I just personally think this is very good.

rich

30 DSC – Your Least Favourite Song

Jessie J – It’s All Not About The Money

Everything about this song is horrific. How this can even be sung with a straight face is beyond me. She won the BBC Sound of 2011 award. At the time my friend Tom just posted ‘This is the winner. I think she’s terrible.’, and the simplicity of this just shines right through.

Not a fan.

x

Molasses, Calm, and 30DSC

Well hello there beautiful internet people 🙂

First off, thank you for last night. It was amazing. Just incredible. Between the sweat, the sound and the smiles, it was tremendous. Unforgettable. And hopefully, we’ll do it again some time.

x

So yesterday we returned to 10ft Tall to play with the wonderful Slow Down, Molasses (who are, despite the local press reporting otherwise, one band.) 10ft Tall has become a really special venue for us. We played our first show as a quartet there back in March, our show in July supporting Secret Cities was really a benchmark for us as a group, and having played a really fun show as a trio in Undertone (the basement of 10ft Tall, should really be 10ft Under) a few weeks back, it’s become a spiritual home for us. Yesterday’s show was a nice little quiet event, just us and the headliners, so the room was just filled with friends and other friendly folk. It was also the maiden voyage of Ruth’s new Sax mic, and what a voyage it was. Playing through all the tracks of the almost completed EP “THINGS”, a cheeky cover and a few ‘classics’ (ha…) the set just flowed and everything just worked. SD,M were also lovely and you should check out their tunes 🙂

Also, we found out that Richard Jackson’s ‘Calm’ is being featured in the Miniature Music Press’s playlist for September – http://themmp.tv/ – There’s a bit of a smudged line between ‘Richard Jackson’ and ‘Albatross Archive’, since I (this is Richard Jackson typing^^) decided to leave the artist for ‘Calm’ as ‘Richard Jackson’, but have changed the YouTube Video for ‘Mr Mistake’ to be by ‘Albatross Archive’ It’s all a bit messy, but with the more recordings we do as Albatross Archive, this issue of identity should just die out naturally. Point being, if you like Richard Jackson, you should like Albatross Archive, and if you like Albatross Archive, good.

So most importantly, list to Calm here:

Miniature Music Press\’s Songs of September

 

And finally, my song choices for the good ol’ 30 Day Song Challenge:

Day 4: A Song That Makes You Sad:

The Mars Volta – Televators

 

Day 3: A Song That Makes You Happy:

The Maccabees – Lego

x

30DSC: 5- A Song That Reminds You Of Someone

Ryan Adams – Idiots Rule The World

x