"This is an album of ambition and great bravery. I think it is one of the greatest musical
achievements of any Welsh band, ever." - Adam Walton, BBC Wales
"They create a hypnotic, heart melting sound that's simultaneously life affirming and
post apocalyptic, the glow on your child's face after a screaming fit" - God Is In The TV
Hi everyone
For personal reasons, we have decided to stop work on the album for the time being. We have also cancelled the next few gigs.
Sorry to disappoint if you were looking forward to a show and thanks for being patient with
us.
Cheers for now,
Ben x
unfortunately we didn’t get any proper photos of the brass recording (or even get a photo of everyone who played!)……t’was a bit too hectic for photography ….. sorry about that.
is the weirdest music we’ve ever heard! We reckon you’ll probably agree.
Yesterday, we travelled to Cwmbran Brass Band Hall in South Wales to record our eight-piece brass ensemble parts.
It was like a mini re-union, as we got together people from school and uni, and boy did it sound good!
Everyone was a complete star; very accomodating and helpful, which was nice 
We really enjoyed the day, although we were exhausted by the end of it.
Jim played trumpet, I played Flugel and Ben conducted! It was*very* warm in the band hall, as the sun was beating down and (obviously) we couldn’t have any windows open. Still, it helped me keep the Flugel in tune; the cold really plays havoc with brass instrument tuning.
I haven’t played any horn for quite a while, so I had to spend the couple of weeks before practising to ensure my lips were up to the job. It was a good experience playing in an ensemble like that again. Reminded me a little of my old brass-banding years – only this time with pro musicians and music written by us!
Poor Ben had to conduct us with a click track in his ears. It started off that he was conducting along to the actual track on headphones, but he soon realised that brass groups play just behind the conductor. This meant that we were always behind the track – very distracting for Ben…
After we figured that out, it all worked ok and we got some amazing parts down. A quick listen back confirmed that the mics we’d borrowed from a friend (thanks, Thom!) were perfect for the job. Superb clarity and a real sense of space.
Now we’ve just got to find a space in the mix for the extra sounds. He he!
Rob.
Well, they say ‘postponed until 2008′, but we read that as cancelled!!
Here’s the press release we received:
It is with deepest regret that Rainbow Spirit Enlightenment Fayre will not take place during 2007 at Chepstow Racecourse. The festival has been postponed for 12 months and will now take place on the second week of August 2008, details will be posted on the website by the end of August 2007.
Serious health and safety issues have been highlighted at a site health and safety inspection conducted on the 29th July 2007. The timescale for amending these issues is insufficient as the site build was due to commence 30th July 2007, therefore due to the serious risks present at the venue, the decision has been taken at a Directors meeting to postpone the event until 2008. The Directors wish to express deep disappointment with the decision taken to inform festival goers of the postponement of the event.
The management team request all ticket purchasers seek a refund from their respective ticket outlets forthwith. Furthermore ticket purchasers that used Ticketweb services are recommended to contact the team regarding the event in 2008 as a special offer awaits in the form of a significant reduction in purchase prices for tickets next year and free passes to the event. All purchasers must forward proof of purchase to the event team at info@rainbowspiritenlightenmentfayre.org.uk to take advantage of the special offers available in 2008.
The management request all artistes, agents and infrastructure personnel contact at the earliest opportunity to rearrange performances for August 2008 as we wish to retain as many of the present line-up and festival build for 2008.
Nominated charities shall continue to be supported throughout the year at various events that the management team promote, we look forward to their involvement at the festival in 2008. £2.0m of donations have been lost in 2007,the management team will endeavour to work towards donating a similar amount in 2008.
We thank everyone for their support in 2007 and seek your continued assistance in 2008.
Nevermind!
…here, eat some pie charts! They show what’s gone into our album so far.
(Thanks to Jim Moray for the inspiration behind this one.)
A question put to Mike from Boards of Canada:
Somebody somewhere once said that the best electronic music is music that you could never quite imagine on your own; yours seems to fall distinctly in that territory. Are you aware as to how strangely your music seems to co-exist with the subconscious?
Mike: I don’t know if we hear it quite the way the listener does. For us the whole point of writing music is to get something infectious into the back of the listener’s mind, something that feels so personal to you that you couldn’t even possibly convey it in words to a close friend. I find personally that I only really enjoy music if it has that effect on me, so it’s a challenge for me to write tunes that do that for other people. If you listen to a tune by some musician and it really gets to you emotionally, it’s as though for a few minutes you’ve tuned into the feelings that were in the musician’s head. There’s a sort of knowing connection there between the listener and the musician that ordinary language would never be able to achieve. In a way it’s like the closest you’ll ever get to being psychic.
Welcome to our new blog!
“What’s it all about?” we hear you cry. Well, watch this video for an explanation:
Welcome!
You’ve managed to point your browser to either our new website or our new album blog.
“Album?” we hear you cry…
That’s right, we’re in the middle of recording our first full-length album. It’s shaping up to be very special: we’ve got about 7 or 8 tracks so far, with more on the way.
If you want to find out more about what it will be like and what crazy collection of noises we’re using, subscribe to our album blog via RSS. We’ll be posting updates, little snippets of audio and lots of videos and photos of our time in the studio.
To start you off, there’s an explanatory video, called ‘Introducing’ right at the top of the blog.
Glow x x x
