Whilst not exactly racing up the billboard top 100, our little record has done wonders again, with reviews starting to filter in here there and everywhere, and most have been remarkably positive.
Sales have been gratifyingly robust too as reviews are pointing more and more potential audients toward the group and our music, and people from far-flung corners of the planet are seemingly turning up to join the family, so to speak.
As a boy, this is all I dreamed of doing. Making a record that people would appreciate that involved no concession to commercialism. In many ways, it is a dream that can only be realised through the power of the internet - circa 2010, and its fair to say that forced to use the previous method of musical distribution and audience building, Anubis would probably not have survived, in much the same way that Department did not survive and Altered State did not survive.
Thankfully living in that age, we are gladly and proudly cultivating a fan-base that takes in Europe, Japan, America (Nth and Sth) and Asia. We took an order yesterday from the Ukraine and the very idea still makes me gasp. Especially seeing as how this guy paid for a CD- in the Ukraine, you can download a pirate copy from soundike for $1.99, and we won't see a cent. So good on him for supporting Australian music!!!
So, essentially, the word of mouth is continuing to build. Progarchives is beginning to build reviews, as we are sitting on a very healthy 4.13/5 in total. iTunes has 10 5-star reviews attached to our album, so thanks to all the family for that. I suspect a few of those would be friends though, so it's perhaps a little less exciting. An Italian webzine wrote a very favourable article and gave us essentially a 7/10, which is really good - given the rest of the stuff they reviewed!
The biggest news on that front is a review from a French magazine. I can't post the translation, as Nick has asked me to refrain for now, at least until his grandfather gives us a decent one. One that doesn't refer to me as a 'tablecloth'(?) would be nice. The gist was that 230503 had become the reviewers second 'pick of 2010', and that he absolutely loved it. A 9/10 score, followed by two other reviewers posting 8/10 scores. Wow. I always loved France.
So while the toddler is going through pre-scool, figuratively speaking, we have been busy fertilising eggs in the studio. The new album, musically, is pretty much formed, and we are now down to working out the finer details of the arrangements. A couple are about ready to do full-band demos of, and that process is something I have been anticipating for some time. I have been itching to get back to the nitty-gritty headbutting of the creative process. Whilst, naturally, it's lovely to sit back and watch cash roll in, its still far nicer to actually be engaged in making music.
The new album, when it's finished, will go by the name of 'A Tower Of Silence'. It is a 9-part song cycle, based around the story of the life and death of an 11 year old girl who died in a poor asylum in 19th century England. As communicated by her Earthbound apparition. It's a very cool concept, and one track, 'Archway of Tears', will likely be debuted very very soon on stage.
The process was different to last time in as much as all 6 of us sat around a table and discussed the concept, and developed a rough storyboard based around the songs that Rob, myself and Doug had already amassed. Taking the rough storyboard, Rob and I then went and developed the framework and put it back to the guys for their input, and hopefully approval. It was unanimously accepted and we had our second album. The songs are then, one-by-one being developed in the rehearsal studio, playing with sounds, arrangements, chord voicings and segues. Ah... that nitty-gritty.
I heard back the recording of last night earlier this evening and was genuinely astonished by the rate at which the songs are moving forward. I shall not elaborate as some of the working titles are not at all pleasant or intelligent or funny, and thus it's easier to not even mention them. However, the songs themselves will be stellar. Whilst there's no 'Disinfected' on it, there is a longer average track length, and we've not discounted the idea of making the whole thing a continuous piece and indexing the tracks as 'A Tower of Silence' parts 1 - 9 with the subtitle being the track name. I personally like the idea, as the tracks are more like movements of a single continuous piece. However, that may indict squeals of 'pretentious', and of course, we can't have that now, can we?
Our deadline to be ready for the recording proper is November, when Nick goes on (unpaid) maternity leave.
Dean mixing the live tapes
Whilst on the subject of studios, we have began the unenviable task of mixing the live tapes from 'The Wall' in April. Given the technical hitches on the night, there were a few things I needed to repair, but that was nowhere near the task I expected and it's sounding very good. I must confess we haven't been terrifically proactive about getting these out there, and we're looking a Christmas for a digital release. We're not expecting a huge sale, but it's nice to at least give people the option of hearing the live arrangement of the album, as I have a sneaking suspicion I will enjoy it more than it's studio counterpart.
What Dean needs in order to sit through the sessions
It was a toss up between both of the 230503 shows, 'The Wall' and 'The Annandale', and although The Annandale was a practically flawless performance (one dropped drumstick and one guitar in the wrong key, both fixed without losing a beat), the drums were not recorded with an overhead microphone so we are cymbal-less. A crying shame, actually. The good point was that the Wall was the bigger crowd and the better vibe, and Steve was in extremely good form that night. Keyboard glitches aside, it was a great gig. So thats the one we have to mix.
Robert's evident interest in the whole mixing process
Anyway, thats my head clear of thought for this evening. I feel very excited for our musical adventures to come.
"grumble...It's just not fair I have to sit through this f**king record again, so soon, after
spending two years of my life trying to make the last version of it sound good. Why has
Karma taken a big dump on me, yet again. I really rue the day I phoned Eaton and invited him to join my Pink Floyd cover show.... grumble"
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