Stupidly I forgot to link to this when I did it a few weeks ago. The full text from the sleevenotes for ‘Sirens…’ is now on a dedicated page here, principally for those who download the mp3 or flac of the release but also for curious observers.
Some nice reviews of ‘Sirens…’ coming in now. Click the links for the full whack.
The Milk Factory:
“With this beautiful work, Ruaridh Law has developed the lush and rich textures of Et In Arcadia Ego into a wonderful sonic tale, with diverse elements woven together into a hypnotic soundtrack. I Can Hear The Sirrens Singing Again is a truly accomplished piece of work which confirms, if necessary, Law as one of the most interesting ambient artists to have emerged from Scotland in recent years.”
Drowned In Sound:
“I Can Hear the Sirens Singing Again is a one-track, hour-long ambient production from prolific Glaswegian Ruaridh Law, who also records as Accrual, Village Unit and TVO. Moving through passages of granular fizz, drone, running water, turntablist spinbacks, backwards vocals and some vast, echoing reverberations, it’s a fascinating piece of work even when experienced separately from weird Japanese telly”
Norman Records:
“‘I Can Hear The Sirens Singing Again’ is a limited to 100 CDr release (packaged lovingly in a slimline dvd cover with awesome manga inspired cover art and snippet of a manga comic book inside) by Glaswegian all-rounder Ruaridh Law under the guise of The Village Orchestra. The project is inspired by a Japanese television show called ‘MPD Psycho’ produced by Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi The Killer) at the end of the nineties. It sounds like a nutty show that combines tragedy and comedy in equal measures and follows the exploits of a detective who suffers from multiple personality disorder, hence the name ‘MPD Psycho’ (Multiple Personality Detective Psycho). Ruaridh is the first to admit that this is a vanity project based on his love for the show and i assume thats why it’s such a small run of copies. I still think this is totally awesome. It was meant as a live soundtrack to the first episode of the series so it probably works loads better with the accompanying film but as a stand alone release it still holds up. The bulk of the one hour of music is both minimal and industrial with hints of melody occasionally coming to the fore-front, this is all achieved by processing and manipulation of odd and found sounds. A real beast of record thats well worth a peek if your into the ambient end of Nadja’s material or you just enjoy excellent soundtrack music. Now I gotsta track down a box set of the series…….”
Slackness has led me to neglect publicising the Kelburn Garden Partynext weekend, which Im djing at alongside Production Unit. We’re warming up for headliner Martyn on the ‘Viewpoint’ stage . Should be amazing. lineup and a picture of the (incredible) site below.
So…I have a new album out. My life is nothing but working at the day job and taking care of the new arrival just now, so much so that the album has almost slipped by me too.
[hpll037] The Village Orchestra - I Can Hear The Sirens Singing Again
purchase it here, on mp3 download or highly limited cd in a special case with inserts
Theres a full description of the release at the HPLL site which explains the concept. The release also comes with copious sleevenotes by me about the whole thing, which hopefully I’ll be putting up here on a special page as well for those who buy the download.
From April 2007 comes this mix released as a podcast by Glasgow club Numbers, which I’m a resident at. This also came out as a limited run cd with artwork, to coincide if i remember correctly with Chain Reaction/Hardwax’s DJ Pete playing the club.
A nice run through all the various things you might hear me playing out, techno dubstep electro etc etc etc and a bit of nostalgia for me today
Numbers Podcast 3 - TVO - Get Off The Pipe Get On The Floor
tracklist:
Tracklisting:
Oren Ambarchi - Corkscrew
The Village Orchestra - The King Of All Tears Part 2
Autechre - Eutow
Japanese Synchro System - Check It, Spread It (Carl Craig’s Beat mix)
Dj Orgasmic - Haninin’
T++ - Space Break
Loefah - Twisup (Youngsta and Task VIP mix)
France Copland - Assault On Versailles 78 (Let’s Burn Neuilly Too Edit)
Search and Destroy - Secret Weapon
Aphex Twin - On (u-ziq remix)
Vex’d - Lion
The Micronauts - The Jag (Speedy J remix)
Special Forces - Propaganda
Sleeparchive - Bleep 1
Monolake - Alaska (Substance mix 2)
DJ C - Nuttin’ Atall
Xtrak - Fakk
DJ Boobie - Let Me Work Dat (Acapella)
Marcel Dettmann - Let’s Do It
DJ Funk - Work That Body
Sarantis - Beef Starts
Gescom - Keynell (Autechre remix)
Keimola - Imola
LFO - Tied Up (Sweep Mix)
Dave Clarke - Xeno Zero
Surgeon - Untitled
DJ Funk - Da Booty Perc-U-Later (Part 2)
The Gasman - Acidophilus
Autechre - Sublimit
The Village Orchestra - Dwyer (Bonus Beats)
Galaxy 2 Galaxy - Journey of the Dragons
In a last minute turn up for the books of epic, epic proportions, I have been drafted onto thte bill of tonight’s Threshold House Boys Choir gig at Stereo in Glasgow, warming up with some epic drones and noise no doubt (aka all the records i never get to play). For the uninitiated THBC is the current project of Peter Chrisopheron, of Coil and Throbbing Gristle, and an absolute living legend hero icon etc etc etc for me. I am so excited i may pee.
“Shake what yo mama gave ya, this Friday at My Grannie’s Sound Machine! To get your juices flowin’ for Chicago’s dirtiest dawg, the insatiable DJ Funk at Numbers (Sub Club), Nasterlie is joined by special guest TVO.
TVO’s spunk is potent enough for the job-he just became a daddy the other week. He also has the capacity to go fully dark, or fully gay, depending on his mood, and yours. You’ll find it nigh impossible not to cum in your pants, I tell ya.
Dress 2 $weat, peeps!”
Also: to continue the weekend, after this, and Numbers, check The Ivy in Glasgow on Sunday from 3pm for a Numbers all dayer. I’ll be dropping in with a bag of tunes before the Threshold House Boys Choir gig that night…
some digging recently through the previously blogged huge pile of old minidiscs led to be discovering the first ‘proper’ mixes i ever put together.
http://ruaridh.marciablaine.com/audio/mixes/TVO%20green%20page.mp3
http://ruaridh.marciablaine.com/audio/mixes/The%20Village%20Orchestra%20-%20Red%20Letter%20Mix.mp3
funny thing about them is that if you merged the spirit of each together they would be where i am now. individually theyre quite purist in their way but still a nice listen. Attempts to date them has led me to think theyre about ten years old.
Green Page is purist heavy-ish techno of a mid to late 90s persuasion, artists like Surgeon, James Ruskin, Maurizio, Jay Denham etc. Barely a recognisable ‘big track’ in there excepting the Basic Channel and Mills tracks on there (both practically pre-requisites for mixes of this era) which is what i love about it really - its just 70 minutes of ever changing drums drums drums. I have shitloads of these records still and i sadly came to the realisation about 5 years ago that no, i will never be steve bicknell and theyve lain dusty ever since.
Red Letter is the opposite, practically a straight ‘IDM’ mix with stuff like Tortoise, Two Lone Swordsmen, Photek and lots and lots and lots of Autechre. Heavily dated in its own way I still have a fondness for this one too.
Enjoy and let me know your feedback.
To coincide with the below-mentioned album free-re-release, FACT have also reprinted the interview with me from the Sonic Router blog, now at the same link as below. Since that isn’t new news, really, I’ve also put a page up for the album by way of credits and background for those who downloaded it - it’s here.
Bit late with this, as usual. Basically Highpoint Lowlife and Fact magazine have teamed up to provide my debut album from 2005 for free download. Why? Here’s the chat direct from Thorsten, Mr HPLL
“There’s been loads of great and deserved press attention around Ruaridh/TVO’s most recent releases on Stuff Records, and on the back of that we’ve been chatting with FACT magazine, and came up with a wee plan..
2005’s ‘Et In Arcadia Ego’ did pretty well at the time receiving some nice very reviews and coverage, however, after a couple of years, sales drop off and the album stops reaching new ears. With an album like ‘Arcadia’, which is a totally timeless epic, we figured it would be good to get out it out there to a bunch of new listeners, and so we’ve teamed up with FACT magazine to offer it as a free download - all in glorious 320kbps too!”
link to FACT mag here