The Silent Committee EP, ‘Imperfect Machines’, makes it’s debut on streaming sites from today!
If you like it enough it is still available to download from Bandcamp for a very affordable price.
If you’re the streaming kind then Spotify, Apple, Tidal, YouTube etc. will see you right.
Also as with the other releases lately, you can dance to them on TikTok or soundtrack bizarre reels on Instagram.
Imperfect Machines was the last lengthy and fully conceived/planned release from the project back in 2019. It sought to be the acoustic album, utilising no synthesis or electronic instruments – heavily relying on upright piano, viola, voice and various string instruments. The acoustic were ultimately toyed with by effects pedals and laptop maniupation, but the acoustic sounds do still shine through.
Since the release of this EP the project has lay kind of dormant, releasing tunes for piano day and odd songs here and there.
It was the result of a challenge set by WeeklyEP presenter Cody Swanson/Noisycrane to produce a complete EP within 7 days. The podcast project he was doing started in the coronavirus lockdown in Spring 2020. Some friends of mine from the days of MySpace, Aubben Reneé and Jose Delhart were a featured artist one of the weeks and having heard their songs and some of the other artists featured on other weeks episodes, I needed to get involved. The other motivation was that Violet’s Gone II had reached a stand still in production, so being forced to drop that, write a bunch of new stuff and record it with little to no time to edit – may have just been the kick up the arse I needed.
It worked! I like to think.
Me and Cody had a great chat at length about where inspiration comes from, about alternate tuning, colour perception, LSD and P.T. Anderson movies.
The songs of the EP I think came out pretty well given the limitations, and two of the songs at least still make for regular performance at my gigs to this day.
The podcast is still available on Spotify. If you like the songs enough, they are available on Bandcamp.
Violet’s Gone is currently not present on streaming platforms, and may not be for the forseable future.
This song was a real slog to make. It’s lyrics are a little cliche, for sure. The tune is simple. The repetitive refrain of ‘time to save’ was sung in four part harmony without looping or pitch correcting – I sang every single one!
It wasn’t a happy time but the song, I think, kind of pulled me through.
The EP still exists on BFW Recordings website as a free download, and the music video still resides on YouTube and below. I do intend to soon either remaster or completely re-record the song with my improved recording abilities and will probably put it online sometime on or around October 10th.
For now though, ‘enjoy’ the original in all it’s awkward and difficult glory!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It has now, at long last, been delivered to streaming platforms (Spotify/Youtube/Apple/Tidal) and digital storefronts to hopefully reach a new and wider audience. As always, the Bandcamp website provides the most affordable option of purchase (FREE! in this case, although if you feel like donating £1 I’d be extremely grateful, it helps me keep making music.)
This album is still one I’m very proud of over a decade later. I poured my heart into its making and tried to create a story in the changing mood of the record. The title and opening track is a slow, full, meditative thing that then leads into a more stark and harsh rushing beat and descent over the next few tracks. Towards the close it all becomes a bit more hopeful and alive. I talk about it a little more in this interview clip from ‘BBC Radio Northampton’s: Weekender Introducing’ programme from the time.
A few details about the album recording and promotion
A bit like the debut album, I was still very much learning the craft of home recording and as such, some of the sounds are a little strangely mixed by todays standards. Again, like 2008’s ‘The Missing’, the album is comprised of 4-track cassette tape recordings, dictaphone microphones, mic’d laptop speakers and digital manipulation. The netlabel community I became involved with and the musicians I met and worked with as a result of this release, are something very important to my musical development.
The album didn’t have any artwork until the day before release. I was a uni student and lived opposite an arts and crafts shop, so I crossed the road, bought a canvas and a bunch of watercolour and oil paints. I am not a painter. The version of the artwork that appears on the original releases cover is a macro photograph of the canvas taken whilst the paint was still wet…the canvas still hangs above the piano in our kitchen to this day.
‘Staring At The Sea’ as a title was simultaneously a reference to ‘The Great Below’ by Nine Inch Nails, and was also a nod to the greatest hits album by The Cure, ‘Standing On The Beach,’ an LP I had on constant repeat. The seas themselves are also amazing, if a little overused, metaphor/similie/allegory that you can get lost in. Visits to the coast also inspire me greatly as I look out across the water and often photograph the waves.
‘Staring At The Sea’ the song, was also the 1st song performed live as The Silent Committee. It was the only album track played at all three shows to date and would almost certainly feature in the future if I’m ever invited to play this music live again.
Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy revisiting the record with me.
Things were different back in 2010. Whilst there were no synthesisers in the studio, there was an enormous harmonium purchased for £12 from a junk shop around the corner.
Here is a rough and ready performance of the song ‘The Last High’ performed in the attic. This song was the closing track from the 2010 album ‘Staring At The Sea’ by The Silent Committee. That album is available in full on bandcamp now, and is also due to arrive on streaming platforms mid-July. The video below was filmed and assembled by Nigel Fordham.
This vimeo channel is no longer active but I’m leaving the content there.
Chris Fordham Music 