Ahoy for The Lansdowne; New friends.

Tomorrow night we're playing a relatively low key show at the Lansdowne. The band are probably treating it more like a recording session as the tapes for this show, should they be good enough, will be mixed into a live album and put out for release.... eeek!

I know that we're more than capable of performing, although last night's rehearsal was tired and frustrating as we all made far more errors than our perfectionist natures allow. I think a certain amount of frustration at performing the same songs over and over has begun to take it's creative toll and Anubis is ready to begin writing for Chapter Two....

Thankfully, the culmination of the 230503 project; erm... marathon... is relatively close at hand. The album is in for mastering on June 20th. This is at Sydney's Benchmark Studios, which used to be Sydney's EMI studios on Castlereagh Street, and latterly Studio 301, before they themselves relocated to Alexandria; Incidentally, these guys did Department's 'Eponymous' LP in November 2002.

The plans after the next show are to begin rehearsing the whole 230503 album as a piece, with all the segues and changes in situ. Which is going to be an ambitious undertaking to say the least. I am anticipating and dreading it in equal measure.

This will give the arrangers in the band a real treat as there will be the need for plenty of Jamming/Extemplorisation in order to fill the gaps. Meanwhile, I am trying to get to grips with the idea of having to perform both 'Breaking Water' live and the Collapse as one song. Not easy at all. One piece to already have benefitted from 'the arrangement brains' in the band is Flying/Falling which has metamorpisied from being a quirky little electronica thing into a Yes-like epic. A weird transition. But it does sound very good.

Having Nick for this process is handy. He's not satisfied until we've tried absolutely every single way of playing a song that is physically possible. And Steve's inclination to back up his rhythm section buddy and hi-five at every concievable opportunity is unsettling!!! I fear letting them loose on the live arrangement of 230503.

The next exciting event is the tentative creative steps towards writing fresh material. We want to release 230503 and follow it up within 12 months with a brand new, fully rehearsed concept album that matches and possibly exceeds the one we've just taken six years to make. Am I an idiot?

Some new ideas have been filtering out of Rob and I gradually over the course of the last 6 months, and it's now falling into place. Steve came and added his own distinctlive approach to two songs, one that began with rob and I, and then one which began with Doug, and then Rob and I re-arranged it, and Nick decided the original bass line wasn't interesting enough, so he pinched the guitar line instead... Thats my boy!!!! Steve added drums to both, plus one other short instrumental section we had.

I finished them off to give the boys an idea of how they sound. And now it's the 'adapt and improve' process (In our band, read: change completely). One thing about Anubis is that we are totally not precious about written parts. If one member comes up with a better idea, we go with the better idea. And if not, it's down to who has the hardest punch. The rhythm section always win that one.

Rob has written tentative vocal lines for one piece; and the end of it is just amazing! With lyrics and direction I think we have 'big' moment in our hands, and a launch pad for another of 'those' solos from El Gingeoid.

Then we will probably start the process of conceptualising; naval gazing and putting all the bits together like a giant polyrhythmic jigsaw puzzle.