Tesco Radio Hack

2 Tesco Radios enlisted to the cause.

36 Inches Of River

4 cassette loops, each carries 9 inches of tape bearing the sound  of the River Rother, No idea what to do with them now, but Im glad I've made them.

Autoautoharp

Doing a Drawing and Sound session in Liverpool with Glenn Boulter and Ryoko Akama in November, at which this might come in handy. Been generally looking at Strings after a jam with Ryoko at Octopus House over the summer. This is an autoharp provided by Andrew Deakin, and thanks to Nikky Pugh for the Hacklab session that got me looking at vibemotors.

TEXAS IS THE NEW MAPLINS

 The Octopus Collective Electric Chequebook. This kit arrived today from PAIA CORP, in Austin , Texas. Its a bit like a stylophone, runs off a battery, took no time at all to build, involves no soldering unless you want and you can add an audio out so as to run its tinny mewl loud though a tinny amp. I am delighted.

Piracy,Derbyshire,1965.

The latest piece from my old school's super 8 archive, re-edited and soundtracked . This originally silent film showed the rehearsals for a production of Pirates of Penzance  in the school Hall. The sound is me on pitch shifted violin and piezo/bow-on- neck percussion, the sax solo was lifted from a Youtube rip of wobbly VHS'd telly commercials.

Two days of sound and music workshops alongside  Glenn Boulter as part of the South Cumbria Girlguiding weekend at John Ruskin School, Coniston. Sound sources included a variety of kitchen implement/piezo combinations, some conventional instruments, and some root vegetables. A great couple of days.

One Minute's Noise, Barrow In Furness

Barrow Town Hall, and the One Minutes Noise in protest against the Public Service Cuts.  

Cracking atmosphere outside the Hall, congratulations to Alec Proffit and Unison for getting it together. 

Amongst the vuvuzelas, noise toys and whistles you may hear the Octopus Collective 

Plastic Megaphones of Destiny, and Motion Sensitive Frogs. 

It all turned into a bit of jam as these Free Improv things oftendo. One for FON 2013 Ireckon.

"FIELD TRIP THEME"

The likely main theme for " Field Trip", 

recorded on an Olympus dictaphone in the dressing rooms at RH2 Covent Garden. 

Other piano parts to be recorded on school uprights at PVH and at 

Barrow Island Over 60's club. 

"DR KETTLE AND MISTER CHIPS"

Made by staff and students at Tupton Hall Grammar in 1966, " Dr Kettle.." is an  excellent retelling of the Dr Jeckyl story. Its funny and dynamic, the camerawork and  the editing are first rate and it looks like half the school are involved.  The soundtrack is a combination of some of Cardboard Lung material alongside some new pieces.

"HAY VIEW MORNING"

Another excerpt from from the Tupton Hall cross country film. This piece was made by editing spurts of controlled feedback  from a speaker / piezzo combination built into  a metal dustbin lid. The sound comes from tapping the lid , while the piezzo is taped down close to the speaker. The percussive clicks are caused by the cable hitting the rim of the bid lin.

"STAFFROOM TEA KITTY"

Diarycam footage of the recording of  an unused section of the " Mr Kettle " Soundtrack.

Two doctored turntables, pitch shifter, locked grooves made with soupbowls.

"CROSS COUNTRY 1957"

Work in slow progress. I'm currently composing and recording  new soundtracks for an archive of films from my old school in  Derbyshire. This is a fragment of a film of a cross-country run in 1957, I'm picking out faces from the crowd of spectators, and this is the one that I've kept returning to.

"TURN TURN TURN"

More diarycam. Turntables in bondage at Piel View in 2010 in preparation for Focal Gaol gig at the Nines in Barrow, under the benign gaze of Kurt Schwitters.

PVA "NEGATIVE" RECORD.

2010. Low-fi diarycam footage from Piel Viw House of a negative  Sugarcubes 12" that I made with PVA glue.  Might do Metallica next, if anyone's got a spare copy of thier Black Album.

"THE BLACK PATCH" a film by Montserrat Rubio.

A beautiful short film by Montserrat Rubio with my piece "Black Patch" as soundtrack. There's more of Montserrat's work on vimeo.com/user4158850 and you can find the rest of the "Black Patch" album at http://www.archive.org/details/emp058  along with a link to the rest of the Earth Monkey archive.

" THAT'S AWFUL"

Mildly unsettling advice for visitors from the BBC World Service on how to break bad news.

THE AL MOBILITY STORY with Ian McMillan and the girls of Year 9 2008 ,St Bernards RC school, Barrow

In 2008 I devised and managed an arts residency at Barrow AFC. This was how I came to meet fellow Octopod and Focal Gaolor Glenn Boulter, who we appointed as Lead Artist. This piece came from an earlier stage of the project and was devised and written by the girls of St Bernard's RC school with Barrow writer Kate Davis and broadcaster Ian McMillan. It tells the story of legendary Barrow soccer hero Al Mobility and his mysterious disappearance. Audio only, apart from a still. There's more about this project and Glenn's work at Barrow AFC www.bifocals1999.co.uk

"THREE SPIRITS" with Glenn Boulter and Jim Tetlow, the Roxy, Ulverston 2009

2009, and a live interpretation of the visitation episodes from Dickens' A Christmas Carol, performed live at the Roxy Social Club in Ulverston on the weekend of the town's Dickensian Christmas event. Also appearing were Arficeden and headliners Volcano The Bear. Stills from Jim. Supported by PRSF and Rennaisance Theatre Trust, and our first link-up with Lee Hetherington from No-Fi and Tusk.