The Hair Thieves are a duo from Shropshire UK, creating an eclectic mix of indie pop rock with a smattering of soundtracks, punk, rost rock and any other genre we think of on any given day.
2020 is the 20th anniversary and we still don't take this very serious at all.
Right, here is my top ten albums for the year. Think I should have swapped Duran Duran and Passenger around. Maybe not?
10 Duran Duran - Paper Gods
Not exactly a return to form, but probably their most enjoyable album since Astronaut. Still think Andy should rejoin and force them to release Reportage.
Still listen to the re-issue of Rio more than I do this. Which is probably not a good sign.
9 - I am the Morning - From the House of arts
The only live album in the top ten. Russian classical prog rockers I am the morning, released a live album to finance their next album. Looking forward to that in 2016.
8. Sexwitch
Another album I have on vinyl only. But have been listening to it alot on Spotify.
A collaboration between Natasha Khan (Bat for lashes), Toy and Dan Carey.
Very hypnotic, good to listen to at work.
7.- Steven Wilson - Hand Cannot Erase
Probably should be higher in the list, but by this stage in the list, it is mostly sorted by how often I listen to the album. Conceptually, not sure I get the album entirely. The deluxe box is something very special though, as is the surround mix.
6 - Jean Michel Jarre - Electronica 1 - The Time machine.
Been an appreciative fan of JMM since the '80s. My brother Paul was the bigger fan and we were lucky enough to see him when he did Destination Docklands.
Really haven't kept up with his music for the last decade (Aero was the last thing I bough) or so, but heard he was doing two albums collaborating with artists old (Tangerine Dream, Vince Clarke, Laurie Anderson, Pete Townsend etc) and new (Little boots, Moby, fuck buttons etc), so was intregued.
I've been pleasently surprised how good this album is, obviously with the collaborations it is quite diverse in styles. Looking forward to part 2 in 2016.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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).
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!!!
