Rollasoc's Top Ten albums 2015 - Part 1. The nearlys

I will try to make this an even shorter post than last years three part list.

I am going to keep this list to albums I have physically purchased and not to albums that I have streamed on Spotify.   If I don't like it enough to buy it, then I don't think it should be on the list.

I believe I have bought nineteen or twenty albums this year in physical form

Didn't make the list

1. Muse  - Drones - Nothing wrong with it, just not as good as their first two albums.
2. Idlewild - Everything ever written - I preordered this and it came with a acoustic live album,  I pla the acoustic album a lot.  This not so much.   I think the songs are fine, just don't like the production on it.

Honerable Mentions.

1. Loft - Empires - Cornish rock at its finest. Disqualified from the list by being download only.   Great 7 tracks though.

I really want to steal their raw files and have a go at mixing them.

2. Steven Wilson - Transience

Released on vinyl only and with my record player broken, I have yet to play this.  It did come with a download code, which I might download once I open the vinyl.  It does have a new version of Lazerus on it, which I have been known to play every now and again live.

3, Jessica Graae - Sea Dream.

https://jessicagraae.bandcamp.com/


A member of FAWM.   She released an album on bandcamp in the Autumn.  I decided to go for the physical copy, lush folk rock.

4. Bjork - Vulnicura -   Should be higher in the list, but some of the songs are quite long and I stupidly put this album in the car, which restarts the last song everytime you start the engine (and the forward button doesn't work).  So given I have a 3-6 minute trip to work. I can end up listening to the same song for a week.  So I'm a bit fed up of this.

Great use of electronics and orchestration.  Looking forward to the new mix without the electronics.

5 Iron Maiden - The book of Souls -   The first maiden album I have bought in more than a decade.
Quite long.

6. Hozier - Shock horror, something you might have heard of.  Occasionally, I listen to the chart music on Spotify.  I really liked this song.  Album is a bit hit and miss.

7. Dave Kerzer - New World (Deluxe version)

I'm sure he sent me the download in 2014, the officially the physical copies didn't ship until 2015.

Some old school prog, that doesn't hide its influences.   For a double album that is really long, I really don't struggle to listen to this in its entirity.  Plus Dave in his day job at Esoundz has been a top notch guy with good customer service since I started buying products from him, probably 15 years ago.  So good luck to him.

8. Passenger - Whispers 2

 Another beautiful album from Passenger, this time all proceeds going to charity.  Think I might have made a mistake not putting this into the top ten.


Tips for 2016.

1. The Anchoress - Confessions of a romance novelist.

Released in January, so looking forward to this collaboration between Catherine A.D and Mansun's Paul Draper.

2. Paul Draper - Spooky Distance

The companion album to The Anchoress, Catherine A.D. plays on this.  So far only one track has been leaked, at the Mansun Convention in 2014, plus some snippets by Paul.

So that is my two tips (other than my solo album, if I ever finish it. ha ha).

So tomorrow the top ten begins in ernest.

Love Is Overdrive Video

Well EP7 is almost amongst us.

It will be released on November 20th.

You can preorder it from our Bandcamp site.   It will be on Spotify, Amazon and all other streaming and download sites shortly thereafter.

We have made a video for the lead track.  "Love is Overdrive".  

We had such a laugh shooting the video.  Hopefully, that will come across in the video and everyone takes it in the silly way we intended.  It is made up of lots of the 800+ photos we took on Sunday afternoon.

We are rather pleased with how it turned out.

In other news.   December, I believe, is the official 15th Anniversary of The Hair Thieves.  So Chris might go out and play some very old Hair Thieves songs during the month at open mic nights in and around Shropshire.

We have four of five songs now in various states of finishing for EP8.   More news about that in the coming months, with holidays coming up and Christmas, it will be slow going until the new year.

Love is....

making a music video....

The big house move has occurred and we have reconvened working again on EP7 and beyond.

Last weekend, we shot 800+ still images for a music video for the song "Love is Overdrive".

We had such a laugh shooting the video.  Hopefully, that will come across in the video and everyone takes it in the silly way we intended.

Hopefully, the video will be ready to be shown to the world as soon as the EP has been mastered and approved.

Mastering of EP7 is taking place this week.  Artwork is yet to be decided.  I'd imagine we will release this either late October or early November.

We have started work on EP8.

We still have "The Distance" left over from the writing session in February.  Chris has resurrected a happy tune from 2010, which we have started working on and E has two ideas for new songs that he is toying with.   

Which just leaves the instrumental to write.  Which may or may not be Reverie Part 1 (given we have already released part 2).

Due to work commitements, E was unable to join Chris when he played a thirty minute set at Bridgnorth Music Festival last week (photo courtesy of Ashley John Roberts).  So yes last week was busy!

So now we both live in the same town, hopefully, we will get out an play a bit more often live.

Things are currently good in The Hair Thieves world. 

Noise Trade - Free Download

Hi,

We have released our first three EPs on the noisetrade website.

Noisetrade allows fans to download the albums (or in our case EPs) for free or donate a tip.  So it is all very simple.

Over the last couple of years, I discovered some good bands from the site and downloaded some free music (and later gone back and tipped some of the artists).

We are planning on putting the other three EPs on over the next month or so.

Elsewhere, mixing of EP7 has been going on behind the scenes, during our hiatus. 

Due to festivals coming up and a solo gig we we reconvene for final mix approval plus tea and cookies in early September and plan the release, EP cover and possible video ideas.

Writing sessions for EP8 will commence also.  (We have one song in the bag already).

So we will be back soon!

Later,

Rollasoc

Mid Summer Update

We have finished writing and recording EP7!

Due to house moves, holidays and festival season, we are unlikely to do much work on the mixing, until we reconvene in September.  So I think we will be looking at a late Autumn, early December release.

E has started mixing a few of the tunes. The final tune, I started mixing at the weekend.  So a couple more iterations of the mix to follow in the next week or so.

So over the coming months, I am going to work on the artwork and try and produce an animated video for one of the songs.

I am also going to work on some solo material.  Things left over from old Hair Thieves sessions that were abandoned or things in weird tunings or timings.

So we will be back in September with more news and a finished EP!!!

Have a good summer.

Shorewards - Live Video

Searching through my hard drive today, I came across this video.  It was taken a few years ago when we played Bridgnorth music festival.

Not too shabby a performance.  

Downing Tools

We are getting close to shutting down the recording progress for the summer, due to house moves.  Finally after almost ten years together, we will be living in the same town.

Hopefully, this might mean the return of us playing live, even if only at a few local open mics.  What this will mean is no more 36 mile round trips to recording sessions.  So less time driving, more time writing and recording.

EP7 is almost three quarters there.   Two songs ("Love is Overdrive" & "Epic Song") are ready for mixing, (other than possibility of adding additional backing vocals to one if we need it).

The third tune (as seen in the images) is making good progress and in a first for us, uses some royalty free samples. In addition, there isn't a guitar in sight either.

Hopefully this will be ready for mixing in the week. 

On every EP there is a difficult track.  This appears to be track 2.  This is currently called "Drowning in Air". 

It started as an electronic track.  Which wasn't working, it is currently turning more orchestral, which in turn doesn't work at the tempo of the electronic track, (at which the vocals were recorded).

So a complete re-recording will be in order during the band downtime by me(given he has to sing it).

So there we have it.  Close but no cigar.  We have possibly one more recording session, before we take a break.   Hopefully, we will reconvene in the Autumn and get EP7 out of the door, shortly there after or at least before the end of the year.

I'm off to start re-recording "Drowning in Air".



Later


Rollasoc