03//12//10

Ok, so we're not very good at keeping deadlines. we're big enough to admit it. the album was supposed to have been released in August. When it is released early next year it'll be 4 years between albums for us. Not exactly prolific. Although 3 Eps count for something, right?

Playing our first gig tonight since the supposed Album Launch in August, and very excited about it. Late shows are always fun. New songs to play and better versions of old ones than ever before. Can't wait!

DC

 

16//05//10

As you may or may not know we have 2 new albums finished and soon to be ready for aural consumption. Just a quick note on each of them:

Let's Not Say Things We Can't Take Back Release Date: 1st June 2010

Myself, Jack and Mark, as well as Noel Duplaa from CFIT, went into a factory one day and recorded two and a half hours of improvised ambient electronic music.

This was an enjoyable experiment for us, something we just wanted to try out. It was a far cry from the eight months of painstaking meticulosity (should be a word if it ain't) applied to Glimmerers. There are shambolic moments and mistakes aplenty, all part of the fun, but there are a lot of moments which we feel are pretty interesting and so we wanted to release it as a free download album.

The whole thing was filmed by Terry Madigan and Emilie Atkinson and photographed by Ian Jackson, each of whom we are very grateful to. There will be video and photos coming soon...

Might not be to everyone's taste but when is anything ever. You can hear a sample track by clicking on the bandpage tab at the top of our facebook page. It's called "Reward Me With Hailstones and Rocks" and there will be more to come before the album is released for download on the 1st Of June.


Glimmerers Release Date: Friday 13th August 2010

Our 2nd "proper" album...

We are all really ecstatic with how this is sounding. It has taken longer than expected but at this stage that's to be expected. 8 months of blood, sweat and nervous breakdowns later and it's ready to go.

I have very little idea how to describe it. In comparison to our debut, I guess it's a bit sparser, a bit more controlled and considered, but hopefully with the joy of experimentation still very apparent in how things sound and a few moments of bombast for good measure. Aside from our usual influences, Kate Bush (particularly Hounds of Love) has been a major inspiration for the production style.

We will be releasing tracks over the course of the Summer building up to the album's release on i-tunes in August, and shall be back gigging very soon with the exciting addition of Charlie Keegan on drums.

22//04//10

Busy weeks ahead for us...

Jack is off to Limerick this Friday for a performance of "Vowels and Consonants", a piece of music he wrote for the MMT course in Trinity. Then Saturday a few of us are going to record a number of ambient, atmospheric songs in a massive big factory which we will be putting together as a free download EP and releasing on our site in the near future.

Next week I am going to Hill Cottage to spend 14 days finishing up the mixing of our new album. It will be finished and sent for mastering by the 10th of May! Release date is looking like late July, but there will be previews of songs on our page between now and then.

After that we start practising like crazy on playing the new songs live and will soon have news on upcoming gigs to look forward to.

Fun times ahead,

DC

 

 

 

08//03//10

The new album is very close to finished now, no news on a title just yet, current status is that 3 of us like the word 'glimmerers', one of us doesn't, and the other remains undecided. This could take a while. Here's a rundown of the tracks most likely to be on the album...

Ceramic:

Quite a fast tempo song we've played live a couple of times recently. started off as an instrumental in our laptop set. Vocal loops and general eeeriness have changed the mood dramatically. Builds into a bit of a monster (or four).

"I see shapes, in dark space, the shadows make my heart race"

Competitive learning:

Started out as a poppy dancey thing, then Jack got his hands on our new organ. Don't know quite how to describe it now, melancholy ambient gospel, possibly? Whatever it is it's pretty. Vocal harmonies galore.

"We made our mistakes, and we made good our escape"

Greenhorns:

My personal favourite. Piano- led ballad. Strange for us but I think it really works. Epic ending; they're hard to resist.

"We'll go visit all the museums, of those long drawn-out afternoons,
Where we broke down our lives into themes, as we sat cross-legged on our beds in our bedrooms"

House Empty:

Naomi's lead vocal debut!!! Very dancey, a hint of how much we love Plaid and Orbital in there for sure, and some rich arpeggiated moogs for good measure.

"7 figure sums, all fingers and thumbs,
but we get things done, and we win-win won."

Lavender:

A drifty electronic whirlpool, swallowed up by an earthquake. More big vocal harmonies. Probably the closer for the album. All about taking chances.

"I'm over-stimulated, a black exclamation on a plain white background."

Mora Minn:

Dark... night, actually.

"They dragged us out as the rafters burn down,
Everything is illuminated and finalised,"

Rubbernecks:

Big and warm, but slightly spooky at the same time. Beautiful violins by Grainne. More big harmonies... I couldn't get enough of them on this album. Orchestral and folky, not an electronically generated tone to be heard.

"Laughter, echoes throughout this disaster,
fuck knows who's finding this funny, but they've hit it right on the money,"

Tox:

Lemon Sorbet... I'm sticking with it.

 

26//02//10

Ok, so it looks like we're not gonna make our end of February deadline for finishing up the recording of the new album. We'll be off down to Wexford next week for another studio session or two, and hopefully that'll wrap most things up.

Really beyond excited about how things are turning out though and can't wait for you all to hear it. Definitely the best thing we've done by a country mile. Don't even have a personal favourite song at the moment, love them all!

New website will be launching on the 15th of March, at which point we'll be giving away our last EP, Some Grand Romantic Gesture, for free download through the site.

 

18//01//10

Had a cold since Christmas Eve that finally went away last Friday... Month long colds aren't really normal are they? Possibly should've gone to the Doctor and gotten antibiotics but couldn't really afford it. So that has set the whole recording process back by a good bit; haven't been able to find a note let alone hold one, and until i finish my vocals Naomi can't get her's done...

Unforeseen delays as usual, but still pretty optimistic of finishing the album before the end of February.

Been working on a new song we only started writing a few weeks ago. At the moment it's called X= but I'm pretty sure that will change. Kind of a piano ballad really, I guess. It's my personal favourite at the moment. maybe just cos' it's so fresh but I love the melodies and I'm pretty sure it's gonna end up being a standout track on the new album.

Thinking of the title "I Make Shapes In The Dark" for the album, but that'll probably change a dozen or so times before it's finished too.

Going to record in a massive disused factory this week. Big drums and lots of natural reverb for some vocals. Might try banging on some heavy machinery too while we're at it.

 

20//11//09

Two more songs nearly finished in the last week, Lavender and Rubbernecks.

Lavender, a drifty little thing we've had lying around as an instrumental for a few months now with no idea where to take it, has come together really nicely in the last couple of weeks... tried to replicate an earthquake for the ending; hopefully it doesn't sound like 3 of us in a room shaking stuff.

Rubbernecks is a 4 or 5 year old song, which really surprised me how differently it has turned out this time. Very sparse, so far just guitar and vocals which is extremely unusual for us. Not sure it needs anything else but we'll see how it sits over the next few weeks and maybe come back to it.

So pretty much 3 down out of the 12 we want to record, not bad progress so far... we've set ourselves the deadline of the end of January to be finished and sometime in May for release so this might be the first one we actually make. Considering our last EP was released nearly a year later than planned it'd be nice to speed things up a little.

Off down to Hill Cottage next week to try and get all my vocals finished for all twelve tracks with any luck.

 

13//10//09

We finished recording the first of the songs for the new album this week. It's very different from anything we've done before, for starters we stopped adding instruments before reaching the cpu limit of our laptops.

We are trying something a little more sparse this time out, spending a lot of time getting the arrangements perfect without so many layers of things going on.

The big natural reverb in the hall of Hill Cottage got a lot of use in the last week as I'm sure it will over the next few months.

I'm sure we'll get tempted and there will be some moments of bombast to come, but we're only human.

Next up is Lavender, which is my personal favourite of the ones we've demoed for the album. It's a delicate little thing with a big warm chorus. Will report back when it's finished...

09//11//09

We've just about finished up the writing process for the new album, spent the last few months working on new songs and we're pretty excited to get down to recording them now. We're hoping to record them all over the next 2/3 months but have long since given up setting deadlines for these things. All I can say with confidence is that there will be a new Dying Seconds album in 2010, hopefully before the Summer.

Over the past few months I've also been working on producing a new EP for Tidal District which is turning out pretty nicely if I do say so myself. That should be out very early next year. If you want to check out some of their older stuff go to: www.myspace.com/tidaldistr ictmusic

Off down to Wexford to work on the new album this week, starting with Mora Minn and Lavender. Personally I think they're by far the best things we've done and can't wait to get cracking on them in Hill Cottage. Will post an update next weekend.