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.
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!
The Silent Committee’s 2014 album ‘zero.’ has undergone the remaster and expanded reissue treatment.
All 10 of the original tracks have been edited to boost volume, improve dynamics and just sound better than they have ever sounded before. The reissue also compiles all 3 songs recorded for the BFW Recordings series ‘Album In A Day’ and improves their audio. There are then 2 more compilation project recordings, possibly unheard of before due to their obscurity.
As always: for purchasing the album Bandcampis your best bet – cheapest, comes with high quality artwork and liner notes, and your purchase supports the artist directly! The Bandcamp page itself features a write up on each track individually about inspiration, instrumentation and background on all the songs makings.
If you’re more the streaming kind then please support The Silent Committee over on Spotify, Apple, Tidal, YouTube etc. Any plays and shares help us out.
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)
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.
Chris Fordham Music 