Archives for the month of: August, 2023

Memory #9

29/08/2023 //
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Enki were a huge part of the Northampton music scene throughout the 2000’s and early 2010’s.

I joined the band playing bass in around 2008 after spotting a poster tacked up in The Labour Club that said something along the lines of – must like playing 7 minute songs with only one chord. I was intrigued, looked them up online and was hooked on the their debut EP.

We played many, many gigs. Mostly around Northamptonshire itself, popping up at The Umbrella Fair, Bardic Picnic, White Ark festivals and many others. Our live performances took us further afield with Liverpool and London being particular highlights.

There were numerous live and studio recordings made during our time together that we distributed randomly on CD. We were all into DIY music production and made a good number of songs. The one that got some good attention towards the end of our run was a song called ‘Beta Moon’, that saw airtime on BBC Northamptons Weekender Introducing programme and is featured on the soundcloud link below. The band saw a few lineup shifts throughout the 8 years we gigged. This song features Mike Goff on vocals, Thomas Nightingale on guitar and backing vocals, me on bass and backing vocal, and Owen Copps on drums. This recording also features the viola playing of Roz Webber.

The band never officially split up. We’re more on hiatus due to geographic problems and real life happening. There have been efforts to reunite and jam as recently as 2022 with a planned festival appearance, but unfortunately that return event was cancelled completely, leaving us without a venue. Maybe next time. The various members meet up and talk online about projects, so who knows maybe some recordings in the near future, either as Enki or something else.

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Categories Archive, Chris Fordham, Enki

Memory #8

22/08/2023 //
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Here, we are going right back! Way, way back! Around 2005/2006 time was where it all began. A young Chris dressed head-to-toe in black singing sad, mostly acoustic songs into the microphones at Beck Studio in Wellingborough. The Beck Studio sessions never got released to the world because I felt my inexperience shone through a little too much. The first songs that made it onto the internet were 4-track cassette demos and then from these demos I returned to a studio. Hot Rock in Northampton was recommended to me by Stevie Jones of the Wildfires so I sought them out to complete a demo CD of ten songs playing acoustic guitar, bass, lap-steel and vocals. I’m still proud of it as a whole but for similar reasons to the Beck sessions they’re not out there in the world anymore; I was young and not fully developed as a songwriter and definitely not as a singer. It was still the days when MySpace reigned supreme that these songs got any air.

I’m contemplating putting together a compilation of earlier songs via Bandcamp in the near future and may well include a song or two from these sessions if I feel they can still work and survive in the real world.

Below is a song that was written for the Beck recording sessions – although the version shared was recorded around 6 years later at home, with a more focus approach on production.

CF

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Categories Archive, Chris Fordham, In The Studio

‘The Missing’, now on streaming services

18/08/2023 //
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As the title would suggest; the debut album from The Silent Committee, ‘The Missing’ is now available on a multitude of streaming services and storefronts!

Spotify. Apple. Youtube.

If you feel like setting a TikTok or Instagram reel to these strange electronic/ambient tunes then they should be available on there too! (I’d love to see what they end up soundtracking)

This will be the remastered audio and extremely expanded version (more than twice the length of the original release).

A reminder that the Bandcamp page is still THE place to buy it from as it is the most affordable and is formatted in the way CF intended it to be seen. The bandcamp pages for each song also include write ups about the inspiration and instrumentation.

Hope you’re enjoy the recent run of [4D]Recordings releases and rereleases.

As a spoiler of sorts, there is at least one more definite NEW release coming later this year. Keep yer eyes peeled and hit the subscribe button for the newsletter or follow the Instagram.

CFx

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Categories Release, Silent Committees Music, The Silent Committee

Memory #7

15/08/2023 //
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Today I’m casting my mind back to 2011.

To Bury A Ghost was the music project of Jonathan Stolber. It’s best described as an alternative rock or art rock outfit.

I got to know Jon through a shared interest in effects pedals and home recording. We kept appearing on the same review blogs and local music broadcasts and eventually caught up to perform together. His band had just released their debut EP The Hurt Kingdom and he was looking to take the songs on the road. I performed guitar, keyboard, glockenspiel and backing vocals in the live lineup. The poster above was for our short tour as a four piece band. The gigs were loud and fierce! It would be good to do this again sometime.

After the tour had finished we set to recording some alternate versions of the EP songs and demoing some new stuff. The demo we set loose into the world was called Dancing With Epileptic and can be heard/downloaded still at bandcamp.

We still hang out and tinker with writing and recording sounds. Jons latest solo project is called The Holy Road and is well worth your time to give a listen too.

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Categories Archive, Chris Fordham, Live, To Bury A Ghost

Memory #6

08/08/2023 //
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The Divine Undone.

This is a hard one to share. I had such high hopes for a future with this band, but it wasn’t to be. We had an albums worth of songs rehearsed and tight…but it lasted two gigs and one home recording demo session. We were all busy with other projects and real life stuff that it sadly never took off.

The project had the psychedelia of Enki and the rough edges of Snakeman. We were a four piece built around the songwriting and guitar/saxophone playing of Kirsty Wilkins (The Lunar Trixies). Featuring members of Presley Johnson (Alex George on drums) , Enki (me on bass), and Jontys Jam Night regular, Mario on guitar it was a bit of a Northampton supergroup back in 2014.

We at times sounded like The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix…anything with that late 60’s psych edge. I played a home made fretless bass for this band that was named Ragwitch.

Some of the songs would go on to be performed by new band The Ginhouse Gypsies, Muddy Boots and The Lunar Trixies. All that remains of our short time as a band are a bunch of photographs, one of the coolest gig posters I’ve ever been attached to, and a live recording that I shall share snippets of in due time.

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Categories Archive, Chris Fordham, Enki, Snakeman 3, The Divine Undone

The Missing (MMXXIII)

04/08/2023 //
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The debut album from The Silent Committee has now been fully remastered for better audio quality.

The reissue also boasts an additional SIXTEEN songs on top of the original release.

It is available to buy/stream on Bandcamp (best price! hint, hint. It’s also Friday!)

It will also soon be available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube etc. and to purchase from the usual digital storefronts. (Expected 18/08/2023)

Chris Fordham writes of the reissue:

The debut album by The Silent Committee was first released in 2008.
I had only just begun to make recorded music at home and the mixes and quality of sound in these songs demonstrates some of that youthful naivety and creative fun. I didn’t own a music interface of any kind, just a cheap four channel mixer and the microphone socket leading into a £5 primitive DAW software.
It certainly started a fair run of producing instrumental music and meeting lots of like-minded musicians online. I think as I set about the original recording I was listening to so much ambient and minimalist music that I sought to emulate it as best I could. Inspiration from the likes of Brian Eno, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Sigur Ros and Nine Inch Nails are obviously all here and I could only hope to have distantly reached at brushing the quality of those performers.

The original files for the songs are LONG gone so a full remix of the album is sadly not possible, but what I could do was revise the final mastering. More access to mastering software and hardware has resulted in this! The speakers no longer pop and hiss, hi-hats don’t pierce your eardrums and things generally sound a little more rounded.

The rolig. ep that preceded the album launch was merely a collection of live guitar loops and soundscapes; I’ve bundled them into the re-release, again with similar remastering touches to the main album. There are a few unheard things and other polished up sound experiments from the time included here to complete a document of what was happening with me musically in ’08. This is how a ten track album, becomes twenty-six on the remaster!

It was fun to revisit and I believe it’s certainly wise to retrace your steps to where you come from and think about where it’s led.

*If you visit each songs link separately on the bandcamp album page, I offer a little insight into instruments, techniques, influences and background to each song in turn.

CF 24/06/2023 

1.Theme for The Missing 01:31
2.Finale 02:26
3.Reminisce 02:45
4.Vio 03:04
5.Low 04:20
6.Portrait Of A Girl In Glass 02:53
7.Melancholy March 04:27
8.Outside 02:41
9.Fainter 02:40
10.The Last High 02:43
11.hæglátur (rolig ep) 03:00
12.vielä (rolig ep) 02:00
13.kyrrð (rolig ep) 03:00
14.linişte (rolig ep) 03:00
15.安生 (rolig ep) 01:00
16.A Vespers Lullaby 02:43
17.Elegy 04:52
18.Heroes Lament 04:08
19.Morning Haze/Breaking Hearts and Shattered Dreams (4-track demo) 05:40
20.March of the Toy Soldiers (4-track demo) 01:30
21.Elusive Air 01:35
22.Sweet Misery #1 05:04
23.Sweet Misery #2 03:09
24.Lament (4-track demo) 02:55
25.Löra’s Theme 02:48
26.Shapes/Descent/Awakening (4-track demo compilation) 03:37

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Categories Chris Fordham, Release, The Silent Committee

Memory #5

01/08/2023 //
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The Silent Committee released the debut album ‘The Missing’ on August 3rd 2008. Back then it was available using a PayPal link to MySpace that afforded either the purchase of a home made CD-R package or the mp3 and image files sent over mediafire…Things have definitely improved.

The debut album was removed from Bandcamp at the end of June as it has now been completely remastered and MASSIVELY expanded. More news on that on Friday (when it is re-released, improved and better than ever.)

Whilst digging around for content I stumbled across my old vimeo account and was delighted to find the viral video clip I’d made to promote the album. It’s mysterious to the extent that if you hadn’t stumbled across the project already…you’d have no idea what it was about. Ambition was high back in 2008.

Check back on Friday for details of the reissue. If you are wanting to keep up with newer video work then please follow the vimeo account, or subscribe to the mailing list on here as I’ll always share the content to both sites.

CF x

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Categories Archive, Chris Fordham, Release, The Silent Committee