I play guitar, you know.
I have been making stuff on the web for thousands of years, and that is a cast-iron fact . TL;DR : I have a metric truckload of links to free-to-use fonts that you might like to be somewhat aware of very much actually. Font Hard Back in the dark ages of website building, you had literally [1] eight typefaces [2] to choose from that would work across all [3] OSes [4] and all [5] browsers [6] : five…
I am going to try not to make this another 3000+ word rant, I swear, but there has to be some preamble. If you just want the main takeaway, however… TL;DR : Eric Gill was a bastard and I will not use his typefaces any more. Several thousand years ago [1] I worked in a print shop in Eastbourne, which is where I am from. It was my first half-decent job, and I spent my days laying out people’s…
So, having successfully recorded a playthrough video for my short piece “Resurrection”, the next logical step was to try and do a full-length song. I had a bit of a think about which one to do and decided on “Kalahari” off of Love and Painkillers (2024), since I’ve been playing it for about 30 years and I can remember most of the notes. I even asked the internet (via Mastadon and Instagram) which…
It has been a while before I came before you with anything new, aside from belching thousands of words at you and calling it “Album of the Year”. And so, here I am with a fresh guitar performance (recorded yesterday in fact) of… a short tune I released 23 years ago. Back in April I was jumping around and getting all excited because a new guitar project had emerged. That went fine for a bit, but it…
2024 was a year. I expect some good things happened, but in the main it was not zesty. Many major armed conflicts continued in many places including Ukraine , Myanmar , Sudan , the Sahel region of West Africa and Syria , as well as the ongoing war in Gaza . Sweden joined NATO and Bulgaria and Romania joined Schengen . Northern America saw a total solar eclipse , and a G5-rated series of solar…
New thing alert! There’s this guy, you know? He and I have been playing guitar in bands together since we were 17, right up until the point in the late 2000s where he selfishly left the country and started a family or some such thing. Despite that, we’re still buddies and we still talk all the time. But, thanks to our old friend geography, we don’t get to jam any more. This made us sad. But a…
K is for… KXM Photo borrowed from unsungmelody.com, credit: Sebastien Paquet [1] . Yeah yeah, supergroups. It’s a mixed bag of hot weasels, really. You do get a few that fit the cliché, where they’re a big disappointment and nothing quite works like it should because of all the egos getting in the way, but I struggle to think of any at the moment. Then you get the “meh” ones where it all sort of…
2023 was one of the worst years of my life, and you can take that to the bank. I still don’t know if I will talk about that in public… probably not, as it involves idiocies and failings on my part, and is generally a period I wish to put firmly in my rear view. Suffice to say it was a dark chapter, and it is behind me now. On the positive side, I did play a lot of guitar, finish the writing and…
2022 was a while back now, I realise, but I’ve had other things on my mind in 2023 besides ranking my favourite albums of the previous year. 2023 did, in fact, suck. Maybe one day I’ll talk about that. But not now. In 2022 I finally got to go to two arena gigs that were postponed from 2020, Lady Gaga and My Chemical Romance . They were both amazing shows, and I went to both on my own, as the…
Friends, neighbours, ladies, gentlemen, literally anybody who will listen… I have finished my album. Let joy be unbounded, let all the peoples of the world finally unite as one, and marvel at the magnificence of one hour of guitar music that took around 20 years to make. It is called, as I have mentioned once or twice, “ Love and Painkillers ” and its release date is the 2nd of February 2024 , so…
I’m working on an album . I might have mentioned it before a couple of times. It’s still ongoing, and I’m quite some way through the mixing process now. Two of my guest contributors have sent in their parts and those have been mixed in, and I’m finalising the sounds for the synth parts before squaring up to the final phase of mixing, the main mix/automation for each track. Lead guitars mixed, and…
TL;DR I made a new thing! It is The Wheel of Things . You might like it. Longer version In my house, we like table-top games. I didn’t say “board games” because many of them employ cards but no board, so “table-top games” it is. Also, this reminds me of the splendid Wil Wheaton YouTube series called TableTop whence I learned of some of these games. It’s great fun, go watch some episodes. Anyway,…
Well, this is annoying. When I started this blog in 2013, the idea was to have a tinkering project and to run it and host it on a Raspberry Pi in my house, which it still is (for now). I didn’t want it to live on clivemurray.com, for reasons I forget now, so I had a play about with domain names and found to my delight that insince.re was available. The .re TLD (top level domain) is the official…
Hey there! My Kickstarter to get my album mastered is 61% funded! Here is an update video, including some teaser clips from the new material plus some info about the mysterious producer who will be doing the mastering if we make the target… If you can pledge, please do ! And if you can’t, or already have, please spread the word to anyone who might enjoy this sort of thing. Thanks!
Hello. I’ve been working on my second solo album of guitar instrumentals on-and-off for well over a decade now. I am very happy to report that I am nearly there. All my guitar parts are recorded, drums bass and keyboards are done, and I am just waiting for a few guest collaborators to send me their parts and then I can finish mixing it. The last step will be to get it mastered, and sadly due to…
This blog may disappear for a while. Why’s that? Well don’t worry, it’s not another ~4000 word ramble, it’s very simple. This is hosted on a Raspberry Pi in my house. I have other websites, including the one for my band , hosted somewhere else, with a commercial web hosting company. This company has always been good, reliable and trustworthy, until recently when they were acquired by Some…
So, the time has come at last to tell the full story of my most recently acquired guitar. It is a long story with many trials and tribulations, meandering anecdotes, more guitar nerdery than even Pete Thorn could stand, and even a smattering of crime. Firstly, you must gaze upon its awesomeness. MARVEL! YOU MARVELLED, DIDN'T YOU? I SAW YOU MARVELLING! (If you find that it is simply too awesome to…
Are you still out there? Hello? What’s going on? … Is it… Is it just me now? Hello? … Just as verbing weirds language , pandemics weird time, and times have gotten plenty weird of late. You remember all those years you used to get, which were about a year long? Roughly a yearsworth of stuff happened? Then everyone got drunk, watched some fireworks, and started the next one? Well now we’re in for…
J is for… Al Joseph I first became aware of Al Joseph through a couple of YouTube videos and Instagram clips, and then a friend playing me one of his solo albums. Turns out he’s a very active guitar teacher over there in the good old U.S. of States, both privately and through the splendid JamTrackCentral , and I also just learned that he was born in 1987, which means I have a guitar which is as…
Most electric guitar players (and many acoustic players also, I suppose) use a pick, or plectrum, when playing. And while a percentage of these players are equally happy with any old pick in their hand, many—myself included—are part of an eternal quest, a never-ending search that occupies a tiny part of our brains 24/7… The Quest For The One True Pick. There are many who seek the One True Pick,…
I is for… It Bites Images used with absolutely no permission. It’s a game of two halves, when it comes to UK-prog-rock-pop luminaries It Bites . There’s the original band from the 80s, fronted by mercurial guitar wizard Francis Dunnery, and there’s the 2000s comeback lineup led by friend of the show and genuine UK prog royalty, His Holiness John Mitchell . I was a fan of Dunnery-era It Bites ,…
Well, that was definitely a year. Or so I’m told. It felt like at least seven years, possibly more. But no, it was just one year, though I think it’s fair to say it was a year like no other. There have been global pandemics before, but not in an online interconnected world that should allow for unprecedented collaboration and information sharing, yet somehow has instead led to a global atmosphere…
A long time ago I released an album. (I play guitar, you know.) It was recorded with the limited equipment I had at the time, and with the limited skill and patience I had at the time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of Earthman . I’m proud that it got made at all, and thankful to the backers who chipped in to get the CDs pressed and who I never did manage to pay back. I’m proud that I can hold up a…
It’s been a while, I’m aware. Let’s get right to it, shall we? We – and by we I mean my band, Indigo Down – finished the video, we released the EP, we did a photoshoot, and you are cordially invited to: Watch the lockdown video for the song “Alive” that took me eight months to make. It will only take you less than four minutes to watch. Please? Go on. Buy or stream (preferably buy, to be honest)…
Observant listeners could be forgiven for wondering where the hell the Indigo Down lockdown video is that I promised you all last year. You may also be forgiven for wondering why no blog posts for almost a year, though some of that is probably self-explanatory. First, the video: it is finished . It has been finished since December, in fact, dear Antonia. So why have you not seen it, my dear…
Well, yes. I know. I only call you when I need something or when I feel bad. Which is it today? I don’t know. But you’re my blog, and that’s why I have one. Sometimes I need to just say the stuff out loud, or in any event, type it. I used to do this over 20 years ago. I’d format it manually and upload it via FTP, having updated the index page and suchlike. Such ancient, so journal, wow. Anyway.…
I’m having a bad day today. I guess we all are. In the immortal words of Marcus Aurelius, “Stuff be messed up, yo”. It certainly is. And nearly everyone is having a worse time of it than I am. I’m a middle-class white guy who can work from home and who has a contract running for a further four months before I even have to think about looking for work. My immediate family are safe and healthy (if…
So, some time about 2010 I joined a band. They are excellent, and they are Indigo Down . We played a load of gigs, opening for the likes of [L.A. Guns](L.A. Guns), Love/Hate and [Enuff Z’Nuff](Enuff Z’Nuff) all at the splendid [Underworld in Camden](Underworld in Camden). Oh how I miss that place. Anyway, we got older and some of us had kids, and things slowed down, and one day I noticed that the…
😳 Remember 2016 ? Good times, man. Good times. 😭 Anyway, we’re here to talk about 2019, not 2020 just yet. So… Chinese probe Chang’e 4 landed on the far side of the moon, science achieved the first ever actual image of a black hole , Assange was booted out of his cupboard and arrested , the Emperor of Japan abdicated (the first one to do so since 1817), Johnson, Thomas Cook , Greta Thunberg ,…
Hi gang, I’m still here. It’s self-isolation, day 38 for me. It’s going fine, as I’m lucky enough to be able to work entirely from home and we booked a load of grocery delivery slots well in advance when lockdown started. The four walls are beginning to get a bit samey, I’ll admit, but we’re also very lucky in that we have a large garden and the weather has been good, so it could be so so much…
A good pal of mine is blogging their way through COVID-19. You too may enjoy A New Journal of the Plague Year .
H is for… Daniel Hope Image from Daniel’s website, © Nicolas Zonvi Once again, it’s not all rock and metal round here at Murray Mansions. One of my favourite modern composers is the splendid Max Richter , and it was at one of his concerts I discovered this rather good violinist, viz Daniel Hope. He played up a storm on Max’s stuff, and later on I discovered a couple of rather good albums of his.…
The band I was in in 2005 played The Marquee. Here’s a song from that gig. Little Monkeys – Best of Your Life (Live at the Marquee, December 2005) Shouts to Jon Ewen (vocals), Ian Farrer (bass) and Dan Roth (drums). Love you guys. That was fun. 😄🤘
Maybe you heard something about a virus…? The delight that is COVID-19 is making its merry way around the globe. Thousands have died, hundreds of thousands have caught it (how the hell have 47 people in the Faroe Islands caught it ? I didn’t think there were that many people there…), and many many more will catch it. At time of writing, schools in England remain open and BogJob has advised people…
…your call is important to us. But we are going through a number of things at the moment, and honestly haven’t felt capable of blogging for a while. It’s OK to not be OK, and frankly, I’m not. But, I have people around me who love me and help me and support me, and I’m slowly putting the broken pieces back together, bit by bit. We’ll be back, we’re sure. We’ve been doing this since before the word…
Those year things just keep on coming, don’t they? Jesus. I swear they’re getting more frequent, too… In 2018 there was a super blue blood moon total lunar eclipse (no that isn’t an album title), a former Russian double agent and his daughter were poisoned in Salisbury , the last male northern white rhino died, ETA was officially dissolved, GDPR came into force, Saudi Arabia decided to let women…
Solving my mirror cube in 4:06. Not exactly lightning, but a new personal best for me. The solve part of the video is sped up to 500% to keep the video short. Cube: ShengShou Mirror 3x3 . Music: more of my noodlings in Korg Gadget .
Further adventures in cubing! Here we see our hero solving the Supernova WuQue 4x4 M in a pretty poor time of 5:00. I’ve sped the solve up by 500% so you don’t have to sit watching me fumble about for five minutes. One day I’ll learn a method that’s quicker than the beginner method, but I haven’t yet.
I’ve had a brand new hobby for over 6 months now, and I haven’t written a word about it on here, which is rather remiss of me. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you’ll have seen photos and such, so it won’t come as a complete surprise, mind you. It is Cubing. Before I left my previous contract I became aware that one of my colleagues was part of The Silent Cow and I became intrigued. He very…
G is for… Jon Gomm Image from Jon’s website, taken by Marc Mennigmann, used with permission I became aware of Jon Gomm some time in the early 2000s, as he was on a Usenet (remember that?) group I also frequented, uk.music.guitar . It was a by definition a localised (to the UK) community of guitar players who were also geek enough to use Usenet, so there was plenty of common ground. I began to hear…
Small point of order – I have retroactively changed Clive’s Album of the Year 2011 . The more time went by, the less Steel Panther felt like a good fit, so they’re out. I still like them, but the joke has worn thin now, and it just doesn’t feel very… woke, as I believe people say these days. So sorry to Steel Panther , and congrats to You Me At Six on the upgrade. If you cared.
Me aged 22.
Sometimes I post stuff on here that doesn’t sound very happy, or not like I’m in a very good place. And sometimes that is because I am not. I have ups and downs like everyone, I’m sure. I struggle with reliance on self-medication, I often can’t sleep without some kind of chemical help, and I paper over the cracks in my personality with abrasiveness and gregariousness. On the whole I’m mostly OK.…
Keith Flint (2019) Stephanie Adams (2018) Kate Spade (2018) Anthony Bourdain (2018) Verne Troyer (2018) Margot Kidder (2018) Chester Benington (2017) Chris Cornell (2017) Keith Emerson (2016) Lil’ Chris (2015) Robin Williams (2014) Phillip Seymour Hoffman (2014, accidental) Whitney Houston (2012, accidental) Smiley Culture (2011) Gary Speed (2011) Amy Winehouse (2011, accidental) Alexander McQueen…
F is for… Frost* Image borrowed from the Frost* website with absolutely no permission Frost* are a funny one to be honest (and tricky to italicise in Markdown, but that’s my problem). In great prog tradition, they have released just three albums across a span of a decade, been on hiatus for a number of years, released a double live album, split up for a period because of creative burnout, and…
Half & half Sweet & Low Crisco Bear claws Varsity Ivy League Valedictorian 401k Carrot Top Spanx The GOP The Hamptons Cabo Churros Bangs
E is for… Elbow ( Image by Evita wiki via Wikimedia ) OK so first let’s get this out of the way, I absolutely hate that Manchester scene crap from the 90s. The Madchester (spit) bloody tosh from such luminary bellends as Happy Mondays , Inspiral Carpets , James , The Charlatans , The Stone sodding Roses and that swaggering Gallagher penis can all do one, alright? (And no this isn’t the embittered…
A: I mean gestures for f***’s sake B: …but more specifically A: generally, though B: overall, you mean? A: specifically overall, yes B: so we can drill down to ‘overall’. it helps to pinpoint these things. A: in general B: So in summary, for f***’s sake in general A: you got it. B: OK. Let’s run with that. A: all of that B: Tell the boys in the print room to get on it A: Oh those guys. Don’t get…
D is for… The Dead Daisies ( Image sourced from Wikipedia ) Meh, rock supergroups. Amirite? Aside from Flying Colors and Velvet Revolver , what have supergroups ever given us? Oh, and Sons of Apollo , obviously. They’re amazing. Well, OK, The Damned Things were pretty awesome but seems like it was just a one-shot project. Oh I suppose Them Crooked Vultures count too. And Chickenfoot . Oh, and KXM…
C is for… Cloudkicker (Image on loan from Cloudkicker’s Bandcamp) In around 2011 I discovered a number of heavy instrumental acts who rocked my bell, among them Scale the Summit , Chimp Spanner , Sithu Aye , the mighty Plini and Cloudkicker . This last is in fact a one-man act, and that man is Ben Sharp. Like a few of the others I discovered around this time, Ben writes, produces, programs and…