P&M

And here are Phil & Mal in action:

Grid-Of-Synth Wrangler Album3

Its been a really busy couple of months here at Meme-central. I've had a constant flow of amazing friends and colleagues down here working on new albums, all of which are very different but equally exciting for me to be a part of. Needless to say, they are all fully electronic, being synth and drum machine based with layers of analog and digital effects, modular synths and exploratory vocal manipulations. For example, here is the Grid-Of-Synth for the newly completed Wrangler album (our third, as yet untitled):

3 Memes

AT LAST! The new Wrangler 12 inch on Memetune Recordings is out, available from all good record stores, or to order from our shop HERE. Thanks so much to the awesome remixers (Crooked Man, Lone Lady and Daniel Miller)

Word of the Week #76

Modcan Jam

Lump Bump

The new collaboration between my friend Mike Lindsay (he of Tunng) and Laura Marling, entitled Lump is out and getting some love from everyone. Not surprising as its a great (mini) album! Mike actually came here AGES ago when the project was in its early stages, and we fired up the Moog Modular which seemed to get the juices flowing. Heres Mikey booming out some low-throbs of sound (doesn't really come across in a picture, I know..)

Grid-Of-Synth: Wanderlust

Phew! Just finished the new Blancmange album Wanderlust here with Neil Arthur. He took the picture above of me on the Moog through the giant crystal. Below is a collection of synths and things that we mainly used on this album. I am going to try and show you what stuff is used on what from now on here. It will be labelled the GRID-OF-SYNTH. Click on the pics for a large version. WOOOO!

Strong Karplus

Tomita-Benge

LOOK! When John Grant and Paul Alexander were down here a few weeks ago, John had a copy of the reissue of Tomita's Daphnis Et Chloe album on CD. And inside is a picture of him in his studio in the 1970s. Its just like my studio is now!!

Modcanned

So heres more Modcan explorations - a bunch of sketches on my new (old) Modcan A modular system. I damn well love this thing! Its such a beautifully designed system - offering utter uniqueness and flexibility

It seems to fall between West-coast and East-coast design philosophies - combining all the good things about modular synthesis in one giant bundle of fun. The system here is made up of original Modcan A modules and also Cyndustries (Cynthia) A-format ones. These were made a bit later once the A-series format had become established around the mid 2000's

What is cool is that Cyndustries used to commission / licence designs from well known figures in the synth design world - and put the names of the designers on the front of the modules. It reads like a who's who of the geeky electronic scene, with names like Nyle Steiner, Chris Huggett, Jurgen Haible, Don Buchla, Ken Stone, Bernie Hutchins, Peter Granader, Serge Tcherepnin

It all adds up to an amazing modular experience, like playing with a giant synth museum in a box. Sadly it seems that both Modcan and Cyndustries are now lying dormant, which is a shame, but from my point of view it makes these systems now seem more 'vintage' and precious somehow, and that fits in with most of the stuff I end up buying. In fact I have been looking for a Modcan A system for a few years without any joy, but like London busses, they all seem to turn up at once

Here is the current system I have put together, and there are quite a lot of modules I still have in another cabinet that I haven't decided what to do with yet. Watch this space!