Autoflag: Doggerel

That's right, the debut Autoflag album, Doggerel, is very nearly here. We've spent this evening setting up the Bandcamp page and dubbing the tapes after work every night. It'll be a free download and a grand total of 13 cassettes will be available, old tapes that we've found and recorded over with the album. There's a dramatic reading of a couple of chapters of the Bible, the first Spice Girls album, a Smurfs tape, a lot of Christian pop, all sorts. They will cost £3 each and will of course include a free download, which is useful because it turns out some of these cassettes aren't as long as the Autoflag album. Never mind, it's all about the principle of the thing. Here's the cover art and tracklisting:

1. Codex of Eshnunna

2. A College Noted For Knowledge (2014 edit)

3. thirty one ten yeh

4. Superman vs Freddie Mercury

5. Mirabella's Record Breaking Mast

6. /tw0th!rds

7. Glass Dust

8. Snowblind

9. Frankenstein Creates His Monster

10. Frankenstein's Monster Destroys Wigan Pier

11. Hi Fi Low Ebb

12. Police Academy Police Academy

Here's the first cassette (!!!):

We don't have a release date for it yet, it depends on when the cassettes are all done. We're cooking up something special for the artwork for them as well. I wrote an article for Cultured Vultures about the label and the release, which has some little clues of what we've got in mind.

In the meantime, my review of Spiderland by Slint has gone up on Echoes and Dust, and I'm going to be doung some more reviews for Silent Radio soon. Exciting! Also I've rejigged an old poster for From The Kites Of San Quentin who are touring at the moment, check it out:

Yeah, you missed the York date. You're a terrible fan. Apparently the London date needed its own poster.

Nuff stuff. See you later.

I did a sticker

I did. There's some other stuff as well but I can't really show you yet. Until then, here's the sticker I did for From The Kites Of San Quentin.

Here's a picture of the real thing on Phil's leg (I know, nice cords). More pink than I expected it to be but that's OK.

See you again. Same bat time, same bat place.

Alright mates, here's the latest

OK so first things first, this blog post has a soundtrack. Not an especially good one, I'll be the first to admit, but this is some old stuff I found on a hard drive which is quite different to the sort of thing I make now but doesn't deserve to be destined to be forgotten on a bookshelf somewhere in Chorlton. The first few tracks are from a brief period where I was really into the idea of making something using just samples that sounded like a live band, complete with tuning up and horrible feedback solos and stuff. After that I started experimenting a bit more, and the more Autoflag sound starts coming together, and then there's Police Academy Police Academy, which is arguably both the best and worst thing I've ever made. It was put together from some stolen audio that a couple of my housemates recorded at university. It's almost free jazz, but also completely not of course. Don't miss the dramatic ending, it's bloody heartbreaking.

I hope that worked, I can't tell as my browser is old and rubbish and unsupported by Soundcloud nowadays, oh dear. Anyway, back to more important matters.

Kites are releasing an EP of course, it's called 7.83 Hz: Earth Chorus and I've heard it and it's dead good. They're running a competition where you can win two copies of the EP/DVD, a hotel room and two guestlist spots for a Victoria Warehouse Records event, and, most excitingly, two tickets to see the band at Soundwave Festival in Croatia. OMG. All you have to do is like and share the thing I made on Facebook. This is it underneath, but you need to click on these words to see the thing properly OK.

Also, This City Is Ours and Mind On Fire are putting on another gig. This one's for Flako at Islington Mill on the 12th of July. The artwork is stolen from the new Flako EP, I think it's pretty great.

In other, slightly less immediate news, the poster and sticker things I've done for the aforementioned Kites EP have been done so I'll post them once the band have decided it's time for them to be shown off. Fair's fair. I've also been asked to design some greetings cards for a new company which is pretty cool and not really something that I've done before so that should be fun.

In a bit.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year x

How to make a kite

Last time I mentioned (albeit briefly) that I was making some kites for the launch of From The Kites Of San Quentin's debut EP Mitochondria (which is out now as a pay-what-you-like download from their very own This City Is Ours Records). I sold one on the night and Kites are yet to decide which one they want but I still have two left as well, so if you want one drop me an email at andyandyandy_vine@hotmail.com. To say I was expecting not to sell any I consider that quite a result! Credit where it's due, I mostly used the directions on the website on the other end of this link, but some of their instructions were a bit ambiguous. So without further ado, here is the definitive guide to making your very own Dead Pheasant Kites kites.

You will need a plain shower curtain from Ikea, a packet of bamboo skewers, a ball of string, some sellotape, some parcel tape, some hazard tape, a permanent marker pen, a pencil, a pair of scissors, some all purpose or wood glue, a craft knife, a ruler and a cutting mat. And a cup of tea, naturally.

Excuse the slightly crappy photos here, the flash from my phone reflected off the steel ruler and my phone FREAKED OUT. What they are trying to illustrate is that you will need one skewer at 14.5cm, three skewers at 29cm and four at 4.4cm.

Glue the skewers together like so, with the shorter skewers either side of the longer ones for strength. Rip up a bit of a packet of blue tack so you don't get shouted at for getting glue all over the window sill.

The next bit is quite fiddly so the easiest way to go about it is by making a template first. This should be half the size of your kite's sail, in this case the vertical edge is 43.5 cm, the width is 29cm and the distance from the bottom to the point is 29 cm as well. That wasn't especially well explained, I'd draw a diagram but there's one right here which is great.

Lay it down on the shower curtain, which is of course folded in half along the vertical line, and draw around it. Might as well trim the shower curtain down as well, it's pretty unmanagable otherwise.

Once you've done that, cut it out with the craft knife and ruler. Looking good.

You'll probably need another cup of tea at this point.

Draw whatever you want on both sides of the kite now with permanent marker.

Go all the way around the edge of the kite with sellotape and fold it over to strengthen the edges.

Lay the horizontal spar onto the kites first and attach to the corners of the kite with parcel tape. Lay the vertical spar on top (short end at the top, obviously) and attach in the same way. Then glue the two spars together where they overlap.

Cut a length of string 175cm. Tie a loop knot in one end. Poke a couple of holes in the parcel taped corner either side of the spar and thread the knotted end of the string through. Then feed the other end of the string through the loop and pull it tight.

Do the same for the other end of the horizontal spar and tie it off. I used a slip knot for this end. This is now the bridle line.

This is probably the fiddliest part. To make the flying line you need a length of string 15cm long. Tie a small loop knot in one end. Then find the middle of the bridle line and tie the flying line with a prusik knot. If you want. It was so fiddly that I did this for the first couple and then sacked it off for a normal granny knot so you know, do what you want. As long as it's in the middle I don't think it matters that much. Then tie some hazard tape to the bottom of the vertical spar for a tail and about 20ft of string to the loop knot on the flying line. You're a winner. Here are the finished articles, all numbered one to four on the back.

One of four, mixing desk. This one now belongs to one of the guys from Capac, who were supporting on the night.

Two of four, pedal board.

Three of four, Ableton.

Four of four, Moog.

It was an excellent night anyway. I believe there's some video footage knocking about, if I see any online I'll link to it here because the projections they had going on were incredible. Phil mentioned to me that they had some plans for the Sounds From The Other City festival next summer as well so keep your ear to the ground. Go and download the EP and if you want one of these things, let me know.

OH, almost forgot. The Vaporous Light album is out now on Akoustik Anarkhy. Go and get it, it's great.

Be safe x

Vaporous Light update from Andy V

Now then now then.

Since last time, Vaporous Light have released their second single,  Charming News / Lansdowne House. You can get for a mere pound (A POUND!) from their Bandcamp page which you can get to by clicking on that link up there ^. I've done the sleeve for this using a detail from the same artwork as the sleeve for The Eyes Of A Fool (and, incidentally, the CD for the album, but more on that in a second). Anyway, it's out on Akoustik Anarkhy as ever and it looks like this.

OK, so, the main news is this. I've also done the sleeve design for the eponymous album. Oh yeah. The band already had the artwork ready, it's by the same artist (Anna Garton) as the singles, so I had the job of putting it all together. It was a lot of hard work but I reckon it's paid off and I hope you'll agree. The band were a great help with plenty of input and we've just had it back from the printer! Hooray. Here it is.

Aaaaand here's a picture of it on Lego's turntable.

Ace in yer face. I'll take some more pics soon enough, it's a beautiful gatefold digipack CD that needs showing off. More importantly, I've just listened to it and it's a great album. Not sure when it comes out yet but as soon as I find out I'll update here.

In the meantime I've uploaded another couple of tracks to Soundcloud. First off is a new one. If you like the sound of drums and the moon, this is for you.


A College Noted For Knowledge by Autoflag

I've also re-uploaded an older track, Frankenstein's Monster Destroys Wigan Pier. This had looooads of plays, but for some reason it sounded like one second of glitch, so obviously it had been people playing it and then playing it again coz it didn't work. Anyway, it's best listened to immediately after Frankenstein Creates His Monster. Like this, yeah:


Frankenstein Creates His Monster by Autoflag


Frankenstein's Monster Destroys Wigan Pier by Autoflag

I'm off to This City Is Ours' second birthday party tonight at Centro dressed as a ghost (Hallowe'en innit) so see you there. After that I need to crack on with making some kites for the From The Kites Of San Quentin EP launch next month. You'd better be at that one, it's going to blow your tiny minds.

In a bit yo.

Up the blog date. Blog the date up.

From The Kites Of San Quentin: Stoopid! (Autoflag remix) by Autoflag

Read the full update over at Andy V's blog right here.

This City Is Ours

So, yes, right. Check me out with an update within a reasonable time of the last one. Got Photoshop back again, haven't I? (I have.)

I've done a flyer for my mate Phil's clubnight, This City Is Ours. As you can see, it's from 7-12 at An Outlet in Manchester on the 14th of May, next Saturday. See you there? Yes. I've also been trying to remix his band From The Kites Of San Quentin's tune Stoopid!. It's sounding pretty OK so far, I'll post it here when I'm done. I don't expect it to be a winner, but it's alright. Incidentally we (Dead Pheasant that is) may be doing something a bit exciting with Kites but I don't want to go into too much detail in case I jinx it. Stay tuned.