Colin Masson New Album
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Topic: Colin Masson New Album
Posted By: Colin Masson
Subject: Colin Masson New Album
Date Posted: June 04 2011 at 12:34
|
About six months ago I posted on this forum hoping to raise some interest in an album that I had released some time before, which nobody had taken any notice of. Namely "The Mad Monk And the Mountain. " I asked if anybody would be interested in reviewing it, and sure enough a lot of people responded. Now, I had built up a fair degree of cynicism over the years as my relationship with one or two record companies had not always been completely satisfactory, so I wasn't sure how this would all pan out. I have to say that the kindness and the support I have received on this site has hugely exceeded my expectations, and the returns I made on "The Mad Monk And the Mountain. " were more than anything that I have managed in the last 20 years. I truly owe this forum and its members an enormous vote of thanks. When I finished Mad Monk I was on the verge of giving up music altogether, but now, I may not be giving up the day job but it has totally revitalised my enthusiasm. So I am able to say that with great pleasure that I'm about to release a new album. With luck it should be out around about the end of June, but knowing how things don't always go according to plan it may be a little later. The album is called "The Southern Cross" and you can find further information about it here. http://www.myspace.com/563115514/blog/543158719" rel="nofollow - http://www.myspace.com/563115514/blog/543158719 If anybody would like to review it please let me know and I'll try to get a whole lot out in one big job lot. To all of you, and you know who you are, many thanks again! Colin  |
Replies:
Posted By: TheGazzardian
Date Posted: June 04 2011 at 13:20
| Colin - I am definitely willing to review the album! |
Posted By: lazland
Date Posted: June 04 2011 at 13:59
|
Same here, Colin. I would be more than happy to give an honest review. ------------- Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org Now also broadcasting on www.progzilla.com Every Saturday, 4.00 p.m. UK time! |
Posted By: toroddfuglesteg
Date Posted: June 04 2011 at 14:04
| I am more than happy to review the album too, up here among the giant haggises in Scotland. |
Posted By: Easy Livin
Date Posted: June 04 2011 at 14:53
|
Many thanks for the great feedback Colin, it's great to hear what you have to say there.
I'll leave the volunteers above (and below!) to do the reviews, good luck with the new album.
 Do you have an official website, or would you like the myspace one above added to your Progarchives page?
|
Posted By: Epignosis
Date Posted: June 04 2011 at 15:23
I still owe a review of the first album. 
------------- https://epignosis.bandcamp.com/album/a-month-of-sundays" rel="nofollow - https://epignosis.bandcamp.com/album/a-month-of-sundays |
Posted By: Colin Masson
Date Posted: June 04 2011 at 17:59
|
"Do you have an official website, or would you like the myspace one above added to your Progarchives page?" I do have my own site, here is the link http://www.colinmasson.co.uk" rel="nofollow - http://www.colinmasson.co.uk Please link here as I will be updating very soon (One or two technical issues connected to getting a new computer) this is my preferred site, but you can use the myspace link as well. |
Posted By: Easy Livin
Date Posted: June 05 2011 at 06:08
|
done
|
Posted By: J-Man
Date Posted: June 05 2011 at 10:51
I'd definitely be interested in hearing this one! I really loved your previous album. 
------------- 
Check out my YouTube channel! http://www.youtube.com/user/demiseoftime" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/user/demiseoftime |
Posted By: Conor Fynes
Date Posted: June 05 2011 at 12:15
| Sending you a private message. |
Posted By: Colin Masson
Date Posted: June 05 2011 at 17:44
In which case I must be working too hard  |
Epignosis wrote:Posted By: Colin Masson
Date Posted: June 05 2011 at 17:46
I will be very pleased to send you one. |
Posted By: Colin Masson
Date Posted: June 05 2011 at 17:53
I will send you one as soon as it is finished |
Posted By: Colin Masson
Date Posted: June 05 2011 at 17:56
My Grandmother from my fathers side came from Glasgow, but I have only very rarely been north of Watford myself. I will send you a CD though.  |
Posted By: Colin Masson
Date Posted: June 05 2011 at 17:58
I will be happy to send you a CD. |
Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: June 17 2011 at 04:12
I'm listening to "Ends of the Earth" from your blog page and it's a great song. The good reviews that I've read on PA don't lie. If all your music is of this level you have found a fan  ------------- I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution |
Posted By: SouthSideoftheSky
Date Posted: June 17 2011 at 09:14
|
I too would love to review your new album, Colin. |
Posted By: Negoba
Date Posted: June 17 2011 at 09:30
|
I'll review the album as well.
You might want to burn to 320 and then just send us reviewers a download link. Save you some shipping.... ------------- You are quite a fine person, and I am very fond of you. But you are only quite a little fellow, in a wide world, after all. |
Posted By: Colin Masson
Date Posted: June 28 2011 at 16:37
|
Hello everybody I'm sorry to come to you at this late stage, (he says with the shamefaced expression), unfortunately I'm not going to meet my deadline. I haven't posted earlier because I been trying very hard to get everything done, but it's become apparent to me that I am not going to be able to do it. As things stand, all of the tracks are recorded. One track still requires a small piece of acoustic guitar to be replaced as I over-compressed the previous version. Other than that the instruments are done. There is still one set of vocals that Cathy will be doing on one of the tracks, which I intend to do with her next weekend. So hopefully by the end of this next week it really will be finished as far as the recording is concerned. Thereafter however I still have to do the artwork (which for me is almost as important as the music). And I need to master it, and listen to the master for long enough to know that it is all right before I let it loose.Which will probably take a week or so. Now on the 26th of July and I'm due to go over a fortnight to Switzerland (hooray). So my current hope is that it will be finished before I go. However as I won't be around I think that it would be best if I said that it would be officially released upon my return which will be in the second week of August. Then I can deal with any enquiries or queries come up as a result. I'm ever so sorry to hope you're not too disappointed. As a consolation prize here is one of the tracks of the album it is the shortest but it's also my favourite please enjoy!  |
Posted By: toroddfuglesteg
Date Posted: June 28 2011 at 23:22
|
Take your time, Colin. All of us are of the patient sort and can be compared to koala bears (which btw is the reasons we are here). Take your time and don't rush things. ........And I also support a download link. |
Posted By: Colin Masson
Date Posted: June 29 2011 at 17:59
This would not be a problem. It is simply on previous occassions people seemed to prefer a CD  |
Posted By: TheGazzardian
Date Posted: June 29 2011 at 22:16
| Take your time Colin, we're looking forward to hearing, but when you think it's ready :) |
Posted By: Conor Fynes
Date Posted: September 27 2011 at 02:03
| How's the record coming? |
Posted By: Colin Masson
Date Posted: September 27 2011 at 15:50
|
The album is completely finished, including the artwork, I am sorting
out getting it up on i-tunes, and updating my website plus I would like
to send some explanatory material as this album has an interesting
history. I hope that all of this will be sorted within the next week. If
so I will be making an official announcement then. The only fly in the
ointment is that I am visiting my mother over the weekend, so that time
will not be available to me. (I have to work in the evenings for now). Anyway here as a taster is the new album cover.
 |
Posted By: J-Man
Date Posted: September 27 2011 at 17:52
|
Looks awesome! I really look forward to hearing it! -------------
Check out my YouTube channel! http://www.youtube.com/user/demiseoftime" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/user/demiseoftime |
Posted By: Andy Webb
Date Posted: September 27 2011 at 18:02
|
^Same here! ------------- http://ow.ly/8ymqg" rel="nofollow">  
|
Posted By: Conor Fynes
Date Posted: September 27 2011 at 21:29
| Wow, looks incredible. Send me a copy when it's rready to be reviewed. ;) |
Posted By: lazland
Date Posted: September 28 2011 at 11:13
|
Looking forward to reviewing this one! ------------- Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org Now also broadcasting on www.progzilla.com Every Saturday, 4.00 p.m. UK time! |
Posted By: Colin Masson
Date Posted: October 04 2011 at 17:00
I am really sorry about the delay on this (I should have kept my mouth shut in the first place. )Anyway the eta will be next Saturday, I'm having trouble getting the website up on the server and have decided to wait until then so that I can have a whole day to get it sorted. I am not releasing until everything is in place, there is a lot of info on the new website, and I want it there from the word go, so that it can be referenced. I've been jumping up and down with frustration as all the simple things seem to have got complicated, but I will not let the b*****ds get me down!  |
Posted By: ExittheLemming
Date Posted: October 05 2011 at 03:41
|
Dinna fas yersel laddie translates as: (Don't get your pants in a knot over this, they can wait happily)  ------------- 
|
Posted By: Colin Masson
Date Posted: October 08 2011 at 06:20
|
Ok, I think that I’ve thought of everything. Finally, thanks for your patience, and I really hope that
you enjoy the album, (though I hope for honest reviews, and promise not to
injure anyone who doesn’t like it). I think it is quite different from the last album, hopefully not too much but enough to make it interesting. Lastly I’d like to thank Cathy, who has worked on this almost as hard as me, as well as having to listen to it for the last six months. Here is the link to the website. |
Posted By: Andy Webb
Date Posted: October 08 2011 at 10:18
|
PM sent ------------- http://ow.ly/8ymqg" rel="nofollow">
|
Posted By: lazland
Date Posted: October 08 2011 at 15:02
Ditto  ------------- Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org Now also broadcasting on www.progzilla.com Every Saturday, 4.00 p.m. UK time! |
Posted By: TheGazzardian
Date Posted: October 08 2011 at 20:07
| Exciting exciting news. ...I have already signed up, right? =D |
Posted By: Phideaux
Date Posted: October 09 2011 at 14:21
| I like the youtube song. Great stuff! |
Posted By: Colin Masson
Date Posted: October 10 2011 at 11:43
|
Back again, sorry about the silent sunday, after several sleep deprived days fixing up the website, I had this sundden and uncontrollable urge to do something else, somewhere else, preferably involving beer and peanuts, but I am back and hopefully everyone will be contacted this evening.
|
Posted By: Colin Masson
Date Posted: October 10 2011 at 17:49
Thanks! I did that mostly in the bedroom |
Posted By: AtomicCrimsonRush
Date Posted: October 15 2011 at 08:36
|
PM sent Colin All the best with the album - Artwork looks fantastic! ------------- 
|
Posted By: lazland
Date Posted: October 17 2011 at 14:25
|
First review posted tonight. A really good album, I have thoroughly enjoyed this one. ------------- Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org Now also broadcasting on www.progzilla.com Every Saturday, 4.00 p.m. UK time! |
Posted By: AtomicCrimsonRush
Date Posted: October 19 2011 at 09:05
|
Colin, I am overwhelmed by all the references to Australia on your new release! What is the concept on the album? Love your music! -------------
|
Posted By: Colin Masson
Date Posted: October 19 2011 at 12:25
|
The words of South Australia are from a traditional sea shanty, probably from the late 18th/early 19th century, I sent a leaflet with info about the concept to those that asked for CD's, and it's also on the website, but for those that are interested I'll put a copy of it here too! About the Southern Cross This album requires some explanation. It is at the same time brand new, and yet
the material is mostly from 20 years ago. Famous rock musicians, especially of
advancing years, very often get accused of recycling and rehashing their old
material. I however am in the fortunate position of being relatively unknown, and
so is my back catalogue. When I originally recorded this, it was on to a four track
cassette portastudio, which in the mid 1980s was the best that an amateur
musician could aspire to. Recording studios were by and large beyond what I
could afford. Therefore I made do with what I had. It was a great way of getting
down ideas very quickly, but unfortunately the quality of the recordings generally
did not live up to what was required for a professional release.
These days, everybody can have a multi track in their bedroom courtesy of the
humble computer, and as I have a back catalogue going back many years, some
of which I think still stands the test of time material wise, I am now in a position
to release some of this old stuff.
So here for your delectation and enlightenment is a rundown of what this album
is about.
The Morrigan (which is the band that I play in), was formed in the second half of
1984. I was not the original guitarist, being a replacement for Tom Foad. This was
the time when I
first met Cathy Alexander (the singer and multi instrumentalist) who
became my long-term partner. At the time we
were both living in
Basingstoke and I had never been further west than Burton Bradstock in
Dorset. Cathy suggested on one of our
early holidays,
that we should go and visit the North coast of Cornwall. I was
completely blown away by the rugged Cornish coast
and having recently
joined the Morrigan, was having my first real encounter with folk music
at the same time as finding my feet as a
guitarist. I was
also very keen to incorporate all the things that were happening around
me into my music. This is the background to
the songs on this album.
The Concept
I think the Southern Cross is guilty of being a concept album, the concept
quite typical of someone in the first flush of youth. I had the rather
melancholy idea of two ships separated by a thousand years in time, both of
which came to a sticky end. Side one would be taken up with the
adventures of the original Southern Cross, some time in the 18th century
(Perhaps a little like the journeys of Captain Cook, but in a strange
alternative universe). The second ship was a starship that had an
unfortunate encounter with a black hole.
This idea rattled around in my head about a year and during this time most
of the material here was written. It has to be said that I do have an
unfortunate habit of straying off the original subject and so by the end of it
the concept is only fairly loosely adhered to. But this is how it all began.
The Tracks
Here is a list of the tracks and some interesting information about each.
Never Come Back
This began life as
an attempt at a traditional song. I was in very much into the guitar
playing of Martin Carthy at this time, and so you
find detuned acoustic guitars and a somewhat Humpty Dumpty style of playing, along with a call and response vocal style
reminiscent of sea
shanties. The four track version is a bit cringeworthy these days, but
the track had a considerable re-work when I
recorded it this time, including a much more sinister chorus, which seems to have brought it back from the brink.
Sails of Silver
This remains
largely unchanged from the four track version. The two electric guitar
breaks were originally played on a keyboard, with
the tape turned down to half speed which enabled me to do a fair imitation of Rick Wakeman (which of course was cheating
horrendously). In the intervening years my playing on the keyboard has improved somewhat (though I am not a good keyboard
player). However
for the new version I thought it would be interesting to see if I could
reproduce the keyboard lines on the guitar note
for note, and that
is what I have managed to achieve. The bulk of the track is an
acoustic instrumental, in which I am happy to admit I
was considerably influenced by the playing of Gordon Giltrap. I still perform this as a party piece at folk clubs on occasion.
South Australia
This track is
named after a sea shanty which was later recorded by the Morrigan on the
Hidden Agenda album. It is not however the
same song, it uses
a fraction of the traditional lyrics but unlike the Morrigan version is
entirely original in the composition of the tune
and the
arrangement (In fact it predates the Morrigan version by some years).
It was one of my earliest attempts at an orchestral
arrangement. At
the time the only keyboard to which I had access was Cathy's Juno 6
synthesiser, which I believe was one of the
earliest
polyphonic synthesisers on the market. There were no sequencers in
those days, other than the primitive step sequencers used
by the likes of
Tangerine Dream, so it all had to be laboriously multitracked. By the
time I used the Juno it had been through the wars
a bit, but
although some of the woodwork was missing it worked perfectly. As there
was no multitimbrality in those days, I had to lay
up the tracks on
the four track, three tracks at a time, then bounce them onto the fourth
track, then start again with two tracks at a
time, bouncing
them onto the third track, and so on. Musically the track came out
really well but from a technical point of view it
sounded like it
was recorded in porridge. On the current version It got up to 46 tracks
in Cubase, also these days the keyboard I use is
a Triton Extreme (things have moved on a bit).
The Wreckers
Those of you who
know the Morrigan's back catalogue will recognize this track, as it
first appeared on the Wreckers album. In fact it
was originally
written for the Southern Cross. So please forgive me for doing it
again. The Morrigan version was done in a recording
studio but the
whole episode was really rushed and the end result did not see the song
at it's best (it was a long time favourite in the
Morrigan's live
set). As a result I do'nt feel too bad about doing it again, and this
version finally does the track some justice. I must
say a heartfelt
thank you to Cathy for singing it again after all these years.
Initially she was quite reluctant but in the end I persuaded
her;
she completely rearranged the vocals and I think she is also happy with
the final result. We won't be doing this one again!
Compass Rose
A short guitar
instrumental. The original inspiration to this was a combination of
listening to Jeff Beck and getting a Boss distortion
pedal and
feedbacker as a birthday present. In the original version, the feedback
came out of a little box. Now I have a Roland GT5
multi effects
unit, which I couldn't have dreamt of affording in those days but which
I picked up three years ago on eBay for £150 and
which I adore. It
also has a feedbacker, but this time I went into a padded room and
turned the guitar up, which was much more fun.
(Many thanks to my employers at the school where I work).
Interlude with Moon Cycles
This is simply a
reminder to those people too young to remember glorious vinyl, that this
is in fact the start of side 2 of the record, and
the story of the second ship. Moon cycles is the name of the patch on the Triton.
Cathy played that while I grumbled. It is mercifully short.
The Heart of the Machine
The idea behind
the lyrics of the song come from the fact that a lot of exploration was
carried out by people escaping from oppressive
regimes. At the
time of the recording we were living not very far from Stonehenge, and
the year before had seen the 'Battle of the
Beanfield'. It is
generally considered that the police used excessive force on this
occasion. And it did indeed feel very strange and
intimidating to be walking through the countryside and finding policemen everywhere.
On a technical
note, I cordially dislike the kind of drum sounds used during the 80's
but I remember that we had recently bought our
first digital
reverb around about this time and of course, with any new piece of kit
you end up mucking about with it. On the opening
section there is
the typical 80's snare drum sound. But this time it was produced by
climbing up a chimney (quite large) and hitting a
TDK cassette box
(empty) with a spoon. Afterwards putting the whole thing through said
reverb. Now the original four track tape is
still with me, and
I was able to isolate one of those drum hits and so it appears here 20
years later sounding as horrible as ever, but I
had to put it in
for old time's sake. The original version of this track made much more
use of the original funk line, but somehow this
time it ended up sounding like ZZ Top, (such is life).
Ocean of storms
This is the only
track that is completely new, largely because the original version was
utter rubbish. The only similarities between the
two is the title,
and that they both attempt a Berlin school type of electronic sound (I'm
a big fan of Tangerine Dream's early work). I
also have Cathy to
thank for some excellent vocals on this track. They were done on the
same day as we finished the Wreckers vocals,
but where on the
previous track we had spent many hours honing everything to perfection,
this time we went down the pub and then
when we came back
she sat and did the whole thing in a single take. I then did a bit of
editing, and it was finished in about two hours.
(Mind you I did
spend a while doing the sequences in the first place). Another note of
interest is that the Triton has a vast library of
sounds (over 4000)
and when I recorded this track I was able to stick to using patches of
instruments exclusively from the 70's,
including electric
piano, mellotron, Solina string machine, clavinet, and some sawtooth
waveforms that would have not been out of
place on a Moog synthesiser. In fact pretty much the same as German bands of that era would have used.
The Southern Cross
This is the most
interesting track from a technical standpoint. The original echoplex
guitar part that opens the piece is something I
wrote as far back
as my days in the Gestalt, a band I played in many many years ago. The
four track recording that I did of this has
remained in good
condition and I used it as a technical exercise in learning how to clean
up material from tape on a computer. As a
result large parts
of the original recording still remain here. This includes almost all
the bass, the first keyboard solo (once more done
at half speed on
the four track tape machine), the short piece of vocal, and several of
the guitar solos. By a combination of careful
editing and
timestretch, I was able to fit the old parts to new accompaniments. It
was an interesting technical exercise. I rerecorded
this track originally about two years ago, so it was already done at the time that I did the rest of this album.
So
there it is, the story of the Southern Cross. If anybody mentions
Pirates of the Caribbean I would like to point out that I did it first!
|
Posted By: Andy Webb
Date Posted: October 19 2011 at 15:41
|
The Liner notes were really cool to read - such a cool story behind the album! ------------- http://ow.ly/8ymqg" rel="nofollow">
|
Posted By: Colin Masson
Date Posted: October 19 2011 at 18:04
It was a roller coaster of a time, when I wrote the stuff. it had to go on the back burner because everything was focused on the Morrigan, which at the time was the right thing to do. But it is fantastic that it is now possible for people of relatively modest means to produce professional albums. For the record "The Southern Cross" and the "Mad Monk and the Mountain" were both recorded in a (small) bedroom, whereas "Isle of Eight", and all the Morrigan albums after "Wreckers", were done in a garage high up on the Wiltshire downs. |
Posted By: toroddfuglesteg
Date Posted: October 20 2011 at 10:27
|
Been listening to your album today and would humbly suggest you surprises your wife with a nice breakfast in bed. Add a nice card and write "For The Wreckers". Review to follow when I feel ready. |
Posted By: Colin Masson
Date Posted: October 20 2011 at 11:49
I always bring her breakfast in bed! (or at least a cup of coffee).
|
Posted By: TheGazzardian
Date Posted: December 23 2011 at 12:19
| Hey Colin, finally got around to Putting up the review for the album. I included some history based on things I've read here, in liner notes and your interview. Let me know if I got any of it wrong and I shall correct it. |
Posted By: J-Man
Date Posted: January 09 2012 at 19:58
|
....and my review is live! http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=606407" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=606407 More good stuff Colin, keep up the awesome work! -------------
Check out my YouTube channel! http://www.youtube.com/user/demiseoftime" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/user/demiseoftime |