March 2006

Greetings,

Tis March, busy enough... the Merri Creek down the end of my road was flowing strong with autumn rain... the friends of the Merri Creek is run by this nutty woman but she is a legend she has transformed the creek into a native wonderland, there’s even an echidna living by the creek. When you’re down there you can be forgiven for thinking you are miles away from the city and not in the inner burbs of Melbourne at all. And after a rains, the smell is life affirming, fresh... near the Merri Creek is a good place to live...

NDW... I know we’ve said many times we’re winding up... We may be accused of doing a Dame Nellie Melba, but no one can accuse us of being in it for the money! We’ve done 5 shows in a year and two of those were in Vanuatu. At any rate the sporadic bunch of shows we’ve undertaken since WOMAD this time last year are drawing to a close. James, our percussionist has serious elbow injuries and can’t do it much more and we’re running a little out of steam.

The remix record which at this stage is either going to be called “Maps For Sonic Adventurers” or “Tamper” (as in meddled with, as opposed to the boat which is of course spelt Tampa, as in Florida) is taking us longer than we would have liked to get out into stores but we’re close to locking it off... We would have liked a double album but we’ve been snookered into a single CD by Liberation (for cost reasons, and we ain’t got a leg to stand on there.) The leftovers (ie the tracks we’ve had to leave off the single CD which would have been there on a double CD ), all have their merits and it has been a difficult culling operation. It will make good fodder for Rik’s rare audio section on the www.followthegeography.com site. Big gold stars and pineapple donuts to Mike Fisher for the Kiap mix, Secret Masters for a magnificent dub rendition of Blackwater, my old cohort Simon Polinski for his ambient reading of storm (the another pond version), Josh Abraham’s Palau, Martin and All India Radio’s Storm (AIR also did a great Same Heat which will be a rare audio offering) and Rik himself, and his friend David, have done a beautiful scratchy noise and cool beats job with Thomastown. All the remixes have been undertaken with great soul and effort and we all are most grateful to everyone... Some lateral ambient mixes, some different approaches, some beats mixes, some arty and some rocky...

Anyway, the end is nigh... We play the Alexander Gardens next Saturday as a freebie and then play the Northcote Social Club with the visuals and full set. Airi Ingram will be with us to assist James and to play the parts Ben Hakalitz normally plays. I’m very much looking forward to this NSC gig, tis the kind of gig that we always made our own... Great PA and a big enough room to work but not cavernous. After that NDW will be a part of Sing Sing 2 at the Concert hall in Melbourne (Hamer Hall, also free) and the Sydney Opera House on May 30th Tuesday. In these gigs, NDW will play a minor part because there are so many other great PNG, TI and Aboriginal artists on the bill... Jida Gulpili, Frank Yamma, the Moab stringband (Man, I’m looking forward to those guys finally making it out of Rabaul... Tis something George and I have dreamed of for a long while. Aaron Fa’osa, who played the prodigal son in RAN will dance alongside Albert David and Jeanette Fabila from the Torres Strait. Tony Subam from Sanguma makes his way down from Port Moresby... Lots of visuals, some that were in the Tabaran DVD but some more never seen before... Tis a wonderful project and its going to be quite brilliant the collaborative process.

Anyway that’s it for NDW from there at this stage... James has said the Alexander Games gig is his last (I’m sure we’ll entice him on to the stage at Northcote) so we wont plan anything more without him. We had our bit of fun proved to ourselves that we still had “it”, and it twas enjoyable and its now time to get back to MFTCC and a solo record at some stage

Woke up the other afternoon after a wee nap... Mark Worth radio doco on West Papua was on the air... I was half asleep, and hearing my ol mate’s voice on the airwaves was eerie... I miss Worthy... and every time I’m involved with Melanesian music projects (which has been a lot this year) I thank him for his influence... mind you every time I hear the velvets or drink bad cask wine (which in the latters case is not too often fortunately) I’m reminded of Mark too.

Voted in the Australian Music Prize... I think its a good idea to have a non record company voted award system (ARIAs).. bit like the mercury awards... besides I got a bunch of free CDs from all the finalists... mind you there was a lot of rubbish I got sent earlier to vote on. Over 300 entries... a lot of record being made out there... Home Studios are a great liberating force but they also allow too many people to put records out (too harsh roy... not harsh enough HG because you’d have thought the same if you listened to the endless drivel of these delta goodremesque power ballads) anyway for those interested I voted for the Devastations... a brooding tindersticks sounding act from Melbourne... The Go-Betweens was probably the best album... I put them 2nd probably cos I thought they didn’t need the award, but in hindsight it was the best record. The Drones won the prize. They’re record is pretty good... The others of note were the Tex Don and Charlie and Mess Hall CDs.

I kinda went off writing songs for a while there... Am now quite keen and have been relatively active in that department of late. Consequently, the Cake recorded a day of songs with Tim Cole behind the controls the other day as pre-production for the album after working them into shape with the series of live shows before Christmas...

We have two more gigs the 9th at the POW in St. Kilda and the 13th Easter Thursday a West Papua benefit that it’d be great if all Melbournites could not only get along to but endeavour to tell friends to come along to also and help raise some much needed money for the 43 West Papuan refugees in Australia. The Dili All-Stars, and the Black Brothers Stringband and Phil, Russel and I will play a couple of songs like West Papua and Blackwater... Add on films and WP students dancing traditional items... It should be a great night at what was the Central Club but is now called Grand Central on Swan St in Richmond... 8pm. We’ll record the album properly in April and have it out in August and tour in November and December and into next year.

If you're at all interested in West Papua have a gwak at the www.freewestpapua.com website.

Cake stuff is on Andrew McCrae’s great cake website.

Soundtrack to Middle of Nowhere is in full throttle now... have been candle burning at both ends of the day. am working once more with Chris Scallen which is a treat and David Abiuso is collaborating on the orchestral arrangements. Chris is the most artistic pro tools operator I’ve ever come across... add to that his sense of humour and it makes for a creative and enjoyable period of time. Lots of weird harmonic wind and metal sounds and recordings of graham leaks music fence that he made in Winton, QLD... Twas in London a week ago for spotting sessions with the director... Was snowing and in the midst of the coldest snap they’d had all winter... Was staying and working in Soho...

Caught up with Ian Caple and his amazing collection of microphones in Crowborough near Tunbridge Wells and downed a few fine Sussex Ales then promptly fell asleep on his couch! Ian’s Maroon Rust remix for NDW with son Joe on drums brings to mind the Shriekback album “Care” which Ian worked on. Ian is also doing a lot of work in France plus different projects with the Tindersticks guys. Also caught up with a mate Trevor Jones who plays in a band called The Miracle Mile who have a new record out... Very Elvis Costello-ish and a great wordsmith is Trevor. But mainly I was in an editing suite in Dean St. working with the director Ringan Ledwidge and Chris Dickens the editor. Ringan is a film maker who will go far. (tho a Liverpool supporter!)... Speaking of which my team, WestHam have made it through to the last 8 of the FA cup... which pleases me no end.

Watched the movie CRASH which I thoroughly recommend... if you like Short Cuts, it’s not too dissimilar..

GOODNIGHT and GOODLUCK was great too, the b&w senator McCarthy film

And the WEATHERMAN I think that’s what it was called was a good film too, tho it was on an airplane and your standards drop as long as the film makes time pass... no I think it probably would have stood up to it anywhere.. and I don’t normally like Nick Cage that much

Been listening to:
CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH
JOSE GONZALES
SEAHORSE stringband
COME ON FEEL THE ILLINOISE by Sufjan Stevens
VELURE a Melbourne band that remind me of Halou
I quite like The Shins record, saw them at the Falls Festival in Lorne and they were very engaging

The Black Paradise CD has been released publicly finally

Til next time...

Cheers,
D