The trend of late seems to be to list all the things we liked/disliked during the year just gone and give shout outs and what have you…to moan about Trump, May and perhaps say that underground music is great and that it is the saviour in these troubled times. Increasingly I’m of the opinion just to bloody well get on with creating music and that no-one really cares about our opinions on anything. Since most of the stuff we do barely gets a mention outside our little bubble (an increasingly frustrating state of affairs) it’s hard to know whether anyone is enjoying what we do or not. Even in the days of social media I haven’t really any clue of whether the music gets out there at all. It *seems* to sell which is fantastic and as long as there are people out there still interested and inspiration still comes (an intermittent thing these days) I guess I’ll only stop when I’m dead.
In 2017 we released the Memory Drawings ‘The Nearest Exit’ record. I couldn’t be more proud of it actually. One of the lessons for collaboration is to sometimes learn that you are wrong.. and on this album I had to leave my massive ego at the door. But now I love it and hope you do too. We also did a low key release of Northern Exchange ‘The Loveliest Lanes We Knew’. That band has now split, I have two more unfinished songs that I don’t know what to do with but really like. Perhaps they’ll end up on some kind of outtakes thing such as the Declining Winter ‘Hurled to the Curb’ compilation which was released during Bandcamp’s fundraising for ACLU. I worked for fucking ages on some of these tracks then tossed them aside. But they are what they are – there to be discovered if anyone wants to.
Which brings us to what happens next. I’m told there will be a new the Declining Winter album in 2018. It’s finished – just needs mastering and releasing. Again, an obsessive almost borderline psychotic process has gone into it and I’m trying to tell myself to publish and be damned. There’s also going to be a curio from a thing called Western Edges which is made up of electronic experiments done to soundtrack the Aire Valley in West Yorkshire. And hopefully a further Memory Drawings EP because we can’t let ‘The Nearest Exit’ just fade away.
STOP PRESS! As I type I’m listening to Downpour ‘Shadows of the Short Days’ another stellar collection of drum ‘n’ bass and electronica from my brother.
Useful links to listen to/buy stuff….
The Declining Winter
Memory Drawings
Northern Exchange
Thanks to everyone who still listens and buys stuff. Have a great Christmas and we’ll all look forward to a productive 2018.
Richard/The Declining Winter