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Well I'm sorry to say that the new (and still untitled) Carter Tutti album will definitely not be released this year, (2006, for any time travelers reading this). As I've said previously we had been making good progress with the album and it's sounding wonderful but what with one TG thing and an other it's just not going to be possible to get it finished anytime soon. This is an important project for us and not something we're going to rush so it will be released when we're happy with it, but just not for a while yet.
So onto other things...
We bought a nice new Toyota VersoTR a couple of weeks ago. Its our first new car in 7 years (well strictly speaking Cosey bought it, but we both drive it) although we've been so busy lately we've hardly used it yet. I finally got my faulty Korg Kaoss Pad 2 returned (after 3 months!), well it's a brand new one as Korg's shippers lost my original 'repaired' KP2. The weird thing is that the replacement sounds completely different to my original KP2, I guess it was a lot more faulty than I thought. Just as I was writing this I heard about the new Korg KP3, I've got to get hold of one of those for gigs and improv! I've also just bought myself a Monome 40h unit, originally just to experiment with and for some interactive looping fun alongside the Kaoss Pad2 but we've already used it on two tracks for the new Carter Tutti album. The funny thing was that unbeknown to me Sleazy also bought one at the same time too, synchronicty or what? If you use max/msp and don't flinch at dabbling with some pretty arcane application interfacing you should definitely consider trying one, they're great. You'll need to be quick though, only a few left and they're not going to make any more.
Slow but productive... this would describe the current progress of our new (still untitled) Carter Tutti album. We were hoping to have it finished by September and in time for our upcoming performances, but this looks to be increasingly unlikely, in fact it would be a miracle!
And the reason? Well I put the blame squarely on TG shenanigans. This time last year we delayed starting the (long overdue) Carter Tutti album so myself, Cosey and Sleazy could complete the new TG 'Part Two' album. Which turned out to be an intense project and which the three of us put a lot of time and effort into. We were under pressure to deliver final production parts in time for a Decemeber 2005 release (in Berlin). And even when the three of us (and Mute) thought the album was finished, I had to spend another month rerecording parts and remastering the whole bloody thing a second time ('Part Two' couldn't be a more apt title!). And then to cap it all it didn't get released in 2005! In fact I doubt it will even get released in 2006, how ridiculous is that? So this whole sorry TG affair has whacked us with a double whammy... no new TG album and no new Carter Tutti album. That I might be feeling a little frustrated right now is an understatement!
And another thing...
I'm sick of wankers and nere-do-well's emailing me about the TG 24-track recorder. I've had time-wasters (many), fans using it as an excuse to find out where we live, cheapskates making laughable offers and lately Nigerian ("I'll pay you twice the asking price") scammers. To all of you: if you going to waste my time just FUCK OFF... because I won't be replying. If this carries on I'm going to donate it to a charity, seriously I am.
Update: the TG24-track is now OFF the market and no longer for sale.
Spent the weekend in London: I went with Cosey to the Tate Britain symposium. Her 'Confessions' film was very well received: as usual, Ken Russell was sweet, and very eccentric. Later we met up with friends and Portion Control & Neon Judgement at the monthly Cosey Club all nighter. It was funny really... on the dance floor were all these industrial/gothy 'twenty-somethings' getting it on to classic 80s' & 90s' EBM tracks originally played by these middle aged musos (us included) backstage. With conversations about "aches, pains and ailments", "did you know so and so was dead" and "I'm not usually up this late" it was like a (slightly scary) 1980s' twighlight zone. We all had a bloody good time though!
If you live in (or near) London I highly recommend a trip to Richard Clouston's Cosey Club, fantastic atmosphere, amazing DJ sets and some inspired choices of bands. I've posted a few photos from the evening in my Flikr pages.
The new (as yet untitled) Carter Tutti album is coming along slowly but sounding wonderfull. We're toying with the idea of posting some mp3 'teaser clips' on the C&C site when we have some finished mixes. We'll see...
TG are selling the Throbbing Gristle 24-track HD recorder. It's only been used a couple of times but for various reasons it's now "surplus to our requirements".
Just returned form our jolly jaunt to Italy during which we had a wonderful time in Venice and Pisa. Venice is an amazing city, plus we met up with some friends there which made our stay even more enjoyable... and the show completely sold out too! I have posted a few photos on my Flikr pages. The performances were very well received, even though we changed our Carter Tutti set slightly (from our previous LA 'quad' show) and decided to play it as an hour-long continuos set, without any breaks. Which was a bit of a gamble as it doesn't give the audience a chance to applaud between songs, but hey... we're not a rock n' roll band. Our 're-tweaked' video projections also got a very positive reaction and looked amazing. And yes... we will be releasing the visuals on DVD, hopefully this year.
Our CTI (Conspiracy International) back-catalogue has finally started to appear on iTunes and a few albums are now available to buy: click this C&C iTunes link. It's a vast catalogue of albums and we have no control in what order they appear but one of the first is a new Chris & Cosey compilation: COLLECTED WORKS 1981-2000, it features rare & hard to find C&C tracks from the last 19 years: full details are on the CarterTutti.com site. My own solo albums will also be available soon too. Click this link for what's currently available.
Started the month with flu and 'winter vomiting virus'... ugh!
But preps for our Italian shows are progressing well now. We've decided to go back to our 80s' gigging method of traveling very, very light. Which in this case means I'll be performing with just Ableton Live on a PowerBook, a small MIDI keyboard (Edirol PCR-M1) and a MIDI fader controller (Faderfox). While Cosey will be playing her cornet, harmonica, Baby Kay guitar (thru a Boss GT6) and vocalising through a processor (a Boss VF1).
For anyone who saw our shows in 2004/5 we are reworking/remixing those video projections (yet) again and they are looking incredible. The graphics are a mixture of real images and manipulated video and have an organic/fluid feel and complement the tracks really well (one five minute section alone took 30 hours to render!).
TG album release update:
OK... the release of the new TG album 'Part Two - Endless Not' is still delayed. But it seems the reasons why are not as clear cut as I thought. It's a long, boring story which basically boils down to a certain amount of confusion and miscommunication between TG members, TG management and Mute. No 'one' person or organisation is to blame and we are now all working towards getting a definitive 'official release date' that will be kept to. Don't shoot the messenger... and you can stop bombarding TG and Mute with emails now.
The new Carter Tutti album is coming along nicely and not really like nothing we've done before.
I've also just heard that the first part of our CTI download catalogue should be going online shortly.
After a lot of (TG) distractions last year our much delayed second Carter Tutti album is finally under way and sounding great. Cosey and I will also be performing two Carter Tutti concerts in Italy - on 31st March in Pisa and on 5th April in Venice. Cosey is also exhibiting at Tate Britain in London from March 2006.
As there are still some TG projects to be completed there won't be as many performances and new releases from Carter Tutti in 2006 as we would like. We just don't have the time this year. But we're thrilled that the majority of our extensive Chris & Cosey catalogue will finally be made available as online downloads throughout 2006.
TG in Berlin was amazing, but also exhausting, frustrating and bloody cold. The film premier, exhibition, rehearsals, performances and recording all went well, despite some sound gremlins at the first gig. The improvised second-nighter was a completely different affair and vibe. We played to a new 35mm print of Derek Jarman's 'In The Shadow of The Sun' and it looked wonderful projected behind us. We spent the second week recording new TG material at an old East Berlin radio studio. The studio was an incredible place and the staff and technicians were really helpful. So big thanks' to all those at Planet Roc who made our time there so relaxed and productive. The whole TG Berlin trip was extensively documented (on a daily basis, which was a slightly odd experience) so I expect we'll see a lot of photos from it later this year.
Just got a new Quad G5, very happy (an early Xmas pressie to myself but paid for by Sony Columbia work, and thanks' to Apple for such a generous discount). Very busy prepping new & old material for the TG Berlin shows and post-recording sessions. We're playing one show in four channel/quad so trying out lots of interesting placement ideas. Cosey's up to her eyes collating, cataloguing and packing our TG archive material for the Berlin Art exhibition, it's gonna be amazing. The C&C+CTI catalogue (ALL of it!) has now been sent off to be magically transformed into downloadable files for iTunes and such sites... hurrah! We've had to close our on-line web store due to 'technical difficulties'... Booo!. But it will be back in the New Year, just bigger and better! In the meantime most of our current catalogue can be found on Amazon and in all good records stores.
And if I don't see you in Berlin Happy Xmas and New Year!
OK, it's official: TG are playing two concerts, staging a major TG Art exhibition, releasing our first brand new studio album in 25 years and premiering the long awaited 'Live at The Astoria' DVD... and it all starts happening in Berlin in December! Many more details soon.
My 1980 'THE SPACE BETWEEN' album is now available to buy via Apple iTunes.
The new TG album is completed, delivered, ready to got into production and is titled: 'Part two, The Endless Not'. It sounds (and looks) effing fantastic, even if I say so myself.
Official worldwide release is January 2006 on Mute Records. The initial pressing will be an extra-special edition. Now maybe we can get on with recording the new Carter Tutti album...
A Podacst of the live set Carter Tutti performed on ResonanceFM in Nov 2004 is now available by clicking THIS LINK.
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