Nothing Inbetween (Oct 2011; London)

This is one of those songs I don't really ever think about, they just sort of ripen in the background, occasionally when I'm messing around I'll sing what I've got of them, and slowly they become full songs. "I'd like a songwriter who writes songs like a pumpkin vine makes pumpkins" - to totally misquote Calvino. Because no real effort gets put into them, I tend to undervalue them a bit, there are quite a few of them I've never even played live or recorded, but I'm starting to think that's a little wrong of me.
Anyway, Ed's in Scotland at the moment, writing books and tending moors, so I went to his house and nicked his ebow, I've put up two versions of the song, one is kind of an early ebow experiment (I'm sort of considering buying one, but they're way expensive), and one is a pretty standard version... so see what you think, I guess.

EBOW


NO EBOW


I see an animal
he's in your backyard
sometimes he fights with other animals
'cause life's so hard
he needs to eat, he needs to sleep, he's got to fuck, he needs somewhere to lay his head
he's just an animal,
he's alive or he is dead.
But nothing in between.

I heard you had an accident
I heard you fell out
now something's changed within your bones
these days you don't get out the house
you never talk you are a stranger unto me
you are a stranger to the world
you refuse to choose a life below the life you lived
this is what I've heard
We're nothing in between.

Thanks for this,
the sweet and dour(!)
your crippled legs
should mark the hours
should hang from a bell
and kick like hell at the sides
and tell us when it's time to wake up
tell us when it's time to go to work again
to church again
and hear about how no one really...

we're nothing in between.

Die Tortenschlacht - My Cut, and a letter to Wim Wenders (August 2011; Dorset)

So, most people who know me well enough to know what I like will know that my absolute favourite film of all time is Wim Wender's Der Himmel Über Berlin (Trailer below), Wenders also being my favourite director.

I re-watch the film a few times a year just because every time I see something new, and it never fails to do something for me, it's life affirming in this amazingly sad, real but fantastic way - it's a testament to Berlin and to the beauty of human experience, and in my experience, these two things often go hand in hand. It's also largely inspired by Rilke, who happens to be one of my favourite poets.
A few days ago, I was idly looking through some of the deleted scenes included on the DVD I have of the film - I was curious to see what the director thought worth leaving out, how he thought about his work and what belonged in it. And I found out what has to be the best bit of movie trivia ever, in the original raw footage for Der Himmel Über Berlin, there was a pie fight! Wenders actually used all four cameras and shot two takes of the three lead characters fighting...with pies! If you've seen the film, you'll know how brilliantly weird this is, and admittedly, it is a really good thing the scene was left out. I guess it was so obvious that it should be left out that the raw footage was never even cut. So, on the DVD where the raw takes are, Wenders, in his commentary, says jokingly that if someone wanted to edit the scene themselves and send it to him he would be really happy to see it finished, he even goes so far as to say that the best one he receives might get some pie.

So! I decided to have a go, I've always been fascinated by film-making, I love movies, and actually have a dream that I keep very quiet to some day make movies myself, unpopular, self-funded, bankrupting movies that I'll love forever. As well as making the cut, I've tracked down a middleman address for Herr Wenders in Berlin, and have written a letter (in my not so good German) to go with the DVD, I'm going to send it in the morning.

What's really cool about it is that I basically did it because I wanted to, it was a great opportunity to cut a raw bit of film from my favourite movie, and the process was great fun. I also got to, in a very small way, show someone whose work I've enjoyed and admired for a long time that I appreciate what they do, and that's cool. If Wim Wenders ever does reply to my letter, which is unlikely, it'll probably happen months or years from now on some terrible day and suddenly all will be awesome. If not, that's fine, getting a reply isn't the reason I did it. I used to do this kind of stuff a lot, just throwing myself at things, sometimes it really pays off, and it can't really go wrong, so I'd really like to start doing it again (on that note, I need to write to Joanna Newsom's press agent, I have a press pass for End of the Road and getting an interview would be amazing). If nothing comes of these things, it's still really fun and exiting to try.

So, here's the cut, obviously the audio wasn't intact or prepared so it's basically a silent with music, bar one moment at the end. The film was pretty damaged and there were various chunks cut out of it that I had to edit around, but there were some really nice shots I think I managed to include. Solveig Dommartin (the most beautiful woman that has ever been) and Bruno Ganz have some great moments, and Otto Sander pulls off some great facial expressions/slapstick moves. -It's all really weird that this was ever a part of this movie!

Here's the cut, the quality should be high enough to watch in full screen:

And here's my letter to Wenders:

I am really happy I did this. First post to Berlin tomorrow! I hope Wim Wenders checks his mail.

You had me at DESTROY (August 2011; Dorset)

Pete & Sandy dropped round a piano - I spent an hour or so this afternoon getting acquainted with it and ways of fucking it up to for ambiance, and made this improv. It's way minimal, but there are a few nice moments, I think. Weirdly enough, my voice in the last minute isn't in any way effected... apparently it goes really, madly low... I mixed it on a super cheap pair of in-ear headphones, so I really have no idea how it'll sound for anybody else- mixing really isn't something I'm good at anyway, barely even playing, I'm just about the writing, really.

You had me at DESTROY by NCMiles

There are lyrics, auto-lyrics... I think. Try and work them out for a fun activity.

I had a go...
"oh wont you climb up on top of my love?/Cause I have so much, but rage falls in trench fulls,/ it's strange how I want a stranger, I know.../I fell out, I felt a lot older, I'm fed up with trying./What you don't know, you don't how it started, you're tired of trying./ This stranger is wasting./ There's a man that I know I am,/ I know I will feel them forever, I wasted it all./Stare up the mountain, there is no shame in loving this nothing, I don't know, I don't know./ But I've been wasting."

DrumFun!

So, a while ago I found a kids' drum kit in a charity shop, I bought it for £10, cannibalized it (The bass was dead, so I just palm a tom, etc...) and dragged it back to the attic... For various reasons I didn't have a chance to play it for a while, but when I started, quickly realised that DRUMMING IS THE MOST FUN EVER! (I gave my 1 year old nephew one of the little toms to play with, he agrees... see...
...)

Here's one of my first mess-arounds on the drums from a while ago... It's pretty raw, but at some point once I work it out I wouldn't mind getting a project up where I play drums and not much else... it's way fun...

Drumfun! by NCMiles

MathFolk!

Sooooo.... I still don't have much of a voice to sing and put anything up, but I have been working on a little something... I've always been into 'mathy' music, and wanted to see if some folk patterns/rhythms could be mixed with some of that kind of style... in the end I'm going to say no, no they cannot, or at least not by me, right now... because I don't think it sounds to great... but here's the experiment...