There’s Tentacles Between Our Worlds

21 Jul 2014 Leave a comment

by Adam in Releases Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I was planning a rarities & unreleased songs release, but when I looked through what I had I realised there was quite a lot of stuff floating around on tapes, CDs and MP3s that have never seen the light of day. So what I’m going to do instead is release 8 tracks every month for 8 months which (frantically pressing calculator buttons) gives you, dear listener, 64 tracks. And what’s more, it’s all gonna be free – initially anyway.

So, ‘Octopus’ – for that is the name I have decided upon – will be an audio retrospective of my recorded work over the last decade, under my own name, pseudonyms, side-projects and collaborations, bringing together music from sold-out limited edition releases, album outtakes, demos, live versions, soundtrack work, BBC sessions and cover versions. All eight releases feature previously unreleased material. Stylistically impossible to pin down ‘Octopus’ issues forth Ivor Cutler-style harmonium dirges, acoustic guitar/vocal visions, pulsing analogue electronics, laptop prog, spooky instrumentals, glassy-eyed drones, piano torch songs and more.

The Octopus Project will commence on the 8th day of the 8th month this year.

The infrastructure curves like a system of nerves

09 Feb 2013 Leave a comment

by Adam in Releases Tags: , ,

*** SOLD OUT ***

Being 11 in 1980, the first records I bought were by artists like The Human League, Depeche Mode, Jean Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk, Ultravox, Gary Numan and John Foxx. Electronic music was my first love. I like to think I was the only 11 year old who owned Fad Gadget records, and by the time I was a teenager I owned the entire Kraftwerk back catalogue, and even a few D.A.F. imports. My son is 13 now and owns no records at all. He doesn’t know what he’s missing.

Anyway, an album which made a deep impression on me at the time was John Foxx’s ‘Metamatic’. Recorded in 1979 after he left Ultravox and released in the spring of 1980, it stood and still stands alone as a monochrome electronic masterpiece. I’ve long wanted to make music in that vein, but never had the gear or the ability to do it. And then a man called David Ansara approached me to say he’d done a cover of one of my songs he’d heard online. It transpired he was a vintage analogue synthesizer geek, so I asked him “Could we do something which sounds like Metamatic … ?” and the answer was “Yes”. And here are some of the results. We’ve got an album’s worth of material written and recorded, but for now, here’s a 3-track EP.

Echoes In Rows:  ‘Click Click Drone’

01  Zone Zone
02  Shoot Me Like A Scene
03  Brian Aldiss

It should be out on 25th Feb on limited numbered CD (80 copies), the first 19 of which come with a download code for a bonus track. I’m thinking of putting it on Bandcamp too, but I still have a bit of a mental block when it comes to downloads. Cost is £4, plus postage to your location (UK £1, Europe £1.50,Rest of world £2.00).

PayPal to adamleonard@hotmail.com please, or email if you don’t have PayPal and we’ll sort something out.

Here’s a little preview video wot I dun (sorry, I’ve been listening to too much Slade recently).

Echoes In Rows

22 May 2010 1 Comment

by Adam in Releases Tags: , , , , , ,

This is a new project I’m involved in with analogue synth genius David Ansara. We’ve called ourselves ‘Echoes In Rows’ after a line from the John Foxx song ‘Underpass’, because Foxx is the primary influence on what we are doing. Hopefully an album will come of this, but the first fruits of the project is the song ‘Brian Aldiss’.

Music critic Everett True (NME, Melody Maker, Plan B) had this to say:

“It’s pure, fully rounded-out, delightfully and un-regretfully, late 70s retro electronica (OMD, Gary Numan). Or, as Adam himself puts it, “2 males, one with a moustache and one with eyeliner. The Sparks template”. The song is called ‘Brian Aldiss’, after the sci-fi writer – and it’s very of its times. The late 70s. I hope I made that clear already. Most excellent stuff if totally retro.”

It can be heard here: Brian Aliss