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Hi,

First track that’s been late so far – The Colonel and his Birds will be up on Monday.

x

Rhydian

Number Eight: Pastiche

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August’s track is a collaboration called ‘Pastiche’ with our friend Graeme Cummack, who co-wrote the track and played guitar. I played guitars and sang, Ana sang, Tim played bass, and Callum drums. And guess what? This was mixed and mastered about half an hour ago before being delivered now to The Internet for consumption. D–I–Y yeah? Again it was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Tim Shann.

A few people have asked about lyrics – we’re not going to put the lyrics for Escape Songs online, but they’ll be available in the final book/cd release with visual/written accompaniments. But I have uploaded the booklet PDF file for December Marches to the download on Bandcamp, so if you download the album then you get the cover art and lyrics as well.

We’re currently getting the last few tracks ready for the record and starting to plan the live shows for the album release at the end of the year… the book is coming along ok and we have some interesting accompaniments for the music.

For any inquiries or anything please email rhydianwthomas@gmail.com.

Rhydian

Number Seven: O! Robinson

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Welcome back. July’s track is called O! Robinson, and is my ode to one of the most intriguing characters ever written into a fictional world. You’ll hear my vocals/guitars/trumpets/percussion and Ana on cello. This one’s fresh from the grinder, recorded last week with Tim Shann (who also mixed and mastered and designed the track’s accompanying drink, the Robinson.

Anyway, Escape Songs is now seven songs done with five to go, and there’ll be more information on the release and touring etc coming as the year draws to a close. We have some interesting stuff coming up.

Also, Pig (April’s track) was included on the Music Alliance Pact mixtape – a collective of 33 blogs worldwide contribute a song from their home nation every month and the mixtape of all 33 songs is available for free download from the various blogs. July’s mixtape can be found HERE.

x

Rhydian

Number Six: Leaves of Grass

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Hey man, we’re halfway there! Keeping up to a track a month is a lot harder than I had planned, but we’re six down and six to go til Escape Songs is finished.

June’s track is Leaves of Grass. I played guitar, sang and percussed; Ana sang and played cello, and Callum played drums and synth. Recorded as per usual with Tim Shann at his studio in Seaview. Download link is above.

In other news:

MOLE MUSIC: The Burrow pt. 1 – a downloadable comp of new tracks from Mole bands RIFLES, SHARPIE CROWS, NEVERNUDES, DEER PARK, MILD AMERICA, and yours truly THE BODY LYRE (“pig”). There really are some great tracks on here and it’s a free download so you have no excuse but to bask in a mulch of bands that all sound rather different. Click the image above for the link.

So I know I’d been posting about the CDep versions of Escape Songs and then four book accompaniments, but realistically it’s just too tricky a task to assemble until the album is finished in some way… so we’ll likely hold off on the book at least until the end of the year for release with the LP. We’ll be playing again later in the year and we’ll have something to sell though, maybe some shirts and a halfway-Escape Songs CDep.

Swell.

Rhydian

Number Five: The Shelter

The Body Lyre – The Shelter (May)

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While John & Bill were buttfucking Our Great Nation just five kilometers from my house, I hid in a wardrobe and ironed the various creases from my skin with a cheesegrater. Later, I opened the door and fell onto an amplifier. And so The Shelter was birthed, screaming with feedback and confusion. For this unsightly, unsoundly, unspoken month of May, there are no words; so it’s an instrumental. I guitar’d, percuss’d, and such… Tim bass’d, Callum drum’d and synth’d. And it might be my favourite thus far – it’s definitely the heaviest, and as clichéd as it may seem to say again, it sounds best at high volumes or on headphones. It’s either the mix or the flood that causes it… no one’s sure which. Maybe June will be a month of tiny actions; gestures made forward… but May is for bathing in the flood, for floating in it.

The Shelter’s music is intended to be accompanied by a piece of prose that will be found in the first of two books released this year – I know we’ve been slow on the first one, but things will get moving soon.

x

Rhydian.

Number Four: Pig

The Body Lyre – Pig (April)

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April showers, fools, pigs. April the reporter from Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles*, whose figurine I used to bury in the dirt as a kid. This is Pig, which has quite a different dynamic to the previous three tracks. The core of it was recorded live last weekend in Seaview with Tim Shann on bass and Callum Gay on drums. We finished vocals and guitar overdubs on Sunday, so this one hasn’t had long to breathe yet. Anyway, the link above will take you to Bandcamp for the download/stream.

We have a show coming up on Saturday May 8th… it’s a fundraising gig for the Wellington Womens Refuge. Poster below:

Hope to see you there. I’ll post some pictures of recording etc at my blog later on (link on the right), and news on the book release (end of June) when it takes shape.

x

Rhydian

*In Britain, the mutated teenage turtles were known as ‘Hero’ turtles due to controversy over the use of the word ‘Ninja’ at the time.

Number Three: Daughter

The Body Lyre – Daughter (March)

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Well now… it’s the 31^st again, so here comes Daughter. March has been a strange month… I feel like this track gets it all nicely. Here, Ana sang and played cello, I played guitar and did some sampling, and Tim Shann played bass again (as well as recording, mixing, mastering etc). What else is there to say? Oh… you’ll find some delightful ambiences courtesy of a brick and a storm. That’s it. You’ll find the link above to our Bandcamp page, where you can download this and the first two tracks for free in any sensible file format you like.

Shows! :

April 3^rd (Saturday) at Borderline fest in Auckland. We’ll be playing at Whammy Bar at about 9:30 (really!). So please come early and enjoy the many good bands playing this thing. Tickets and info HERE.

We’re also doing two Wellington shows with our friends/labelmates Deer Park. They are: 14^th April (Wednesday) at San Francisco Bath House for the VBC night, and 15^th April (Thursday) at Mighty Mighty, which also features the wonderful Seth Frightening and Alphabethead. Be there!

We had a delay with the first book, so instead we’ll be releasing it at the end of this month. It’ll feature photo collections by us for Escape Song and Daughter, and ten drawings by Zachary Jordan Penney for Chainsmoker. There’ll also be another section for April’s song (which is currently untitled).

I trust you are well, and I hope that Daughter invigorates you for the beginning of April.

x

Rhydian