Archives for posts with tag: northampton

The Missing (MMXXIII)

04/08/2023 //

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

Tags 4drecordings, ambient, chrisfordham, minimalist, music, northampton, northamptonshire, thesilentcommittee, uk

Categories Chris Fordham, Release, The Silent Committee

Memory #5

01/08/2023 //

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

Tags 4drecordings, ambient, chrisfordham, minimalist, music, northampton, northamptonshire, thesilentcommittee, uk

Categories Archive, Chris Fordham, Release, The Silent Committee

Memory #4

25/07/2023 //

In August of 2012 The Snakeman 3 set up in a warehouse with a bunch of microphones and a desktop PC to demo a bunch of songs. The EP was set to be called ‘Fry Your Mind’ and featured some very psychedelic artwork. Four of the songs have survived the session as multi-tracks but were ultimately never released. Studio engineers we were not back then, so the recordings were very much demos. They sounded good enough for us to share our sound of the time though. I reckon with a bit more time and focus we could have completed this EP quite effectively. For all the years of being in The Snakeman 3, and in all the guises that band took on, the period of time where we were recording and performing this EP were my personal highlights.

Line up changes in the band occurred after the summer and we set about recording the songs in a different way. The sound became more raucous and rough, DIY and punk after months of gigs in the new lineup. Everything was committed live to a 4-track reel-to-reel recorder in the same warehouse space as ‘Fry Your Mind’. Those later recordings would later be released as the album ‘We’re Better Than You’.

Aside from these photos and other rehearsal shots from the time, the only evidence of the EP ever existing is this video featuring the song ‘Memphis’. This was a popular song in the live set right up until the end of my time with the band – how long can you hold that E chord in the post chorus Kenny?! Strangely this song never made the album. I might mix the multitracks properly at some point.

Tags music, northampton, northamptonshire, Snakeman 3, Snakeman3, The Snakeman 3, uk

Categories Chris Fordham, Cravat Records, In The Studio, Snakeman 3

Memory #3

18/07/2023 //

The 2nd album by The Silent Committee was originally released via BFW Recordings back in 2010.

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.

CFx