The last single from ‘Fight My Battles For Me’ is out today in digital form only from iTunes, Amazon etc, and yr friendly local download shoppe.

It includes the last two outtakes from the FMBFM sessions, as well as the two songs recorded at Dreamtrak with Oli Horton from A Scholar & A Physician, Laura and Chris of Internet Forever, Will “Stairs To Korea” Vaughan, and John Brainlove for the ‘15 Films’ thing.

Last but not least there’s a frankly awesome R&B club friendly remix by Chris Alcxxk from Internet Forever complete with auto-tune.

It’s already had a nice review here.

So to recap:

1. Pockets In Shrouds
2. The ending makes what came before a story
3. Brighton Pier
4. The Gentlemen’s Game (Dreamtrak Session)
5. England Expects (Dreamtrak Session)
6. 2.0///The Bridge of Sighs (Internet Forever remix)

And why not revisit this delightful video of myself and the Volunteers performing the song at a 4,000 year old burial chamber?

FREE SONG

For a christmas treat I have donated an exclusive cover version of ‘I Am A Scientist’ by Guided by Voices to the Maps Magazine Advent calendar. I’ve re-done the scrappy lo-fi original as an electro pop number. Hope you like.

In other news I am 10,000 days old today. Thanks.

This will be the tracklist of my next album, ‘European Monsoon’.

1. Banish Negative Thoughts
2. Chemicals Like You
3. Crustaceans As Castanets
4. The GBP Becomes Self-Aware
5. The Universe is the Wider Context
6. European Monsoon
7. Self-Doubt Gun
8. A Girl Named Aeroplane
9. Westminster Quarters
10. Version 5
11. The Island etc.

Release details tbc.

So for the first time in about three years I find myself with no gigs booked* and about to go on a very short ‘hiatus’, as they call it, for a few months. (I’m not quitting doing gigs, just having a break from booking them for ‘personal reasons’ – nice ones mind – so if yr interested in me playing then please do still get in touch).

So here’s one of my regular ‘taking stock’ kind of posts…

There are a few new releases planned. First will be a download only single of ‘Pockets in Shrouds’. The b-sides will be the other two tracks from the ‘Omega Point’ EP which collected the ‘outtakes’ from the album sessions.

Next up is an EP called ‘Pervert Oven’. This will be 5 tracks dating from 2007 to now, all of which fall into a broadly ‘garage rock’ vein. Probably going to be self-released. Possibly on cassette.

In the last few days I’ve also been offered a chance to be on a split EP with a band I like, my half of which will be a cleaned up version of the track ‘judddr’ that I posted on here a few weeks back. Probably limited cd-r’s from the people who brought you ‘Two of the Beatles Have Died’. So that’ll be nice.

THEN… the new album. Probably. I’m currently tying myself in knots over this.

I had a chat recently with John ‘Brainlove’ Brainlove about what should go on it. An album’s worth of stuff was basically finished by the time ‘Fight My Battles For Me’ came out, but I’ve since started to start writing in a different direction. A few songs I’ve cooled off on. Some contain sentiments I’m not sure I’ll want to get up and sing for another 12 months or so.

The stuff I’m currently writing is quite different, both lyrically and musically, from what I’ve become known for, and whilst I don’t think it’s million miles away it does seem suitably distant from the old-new record as previously conceived as to be a little jarring. So I had some vague concerns about combining the brand new and older-but-new-to-the-listeners stuff into an album which would have been a little contradictory and schizophrenic.

John, pragmatist that he is, suggested that the new album should just be ‘all the best songs you have’. I can’t really fault the logic of that, can I?

So I’m currently trying to decide which are the ‘best songs’. Some have been road-tested and had good responses, some only I’ve heard so far – not a good position to make a decision from. I have a bad track record of knowing which songs are going to go down well. For example I thought ‘Our New Hospital Sucks’, ‘Perfection or a Simple Life’ and ‘The Tree of Knowledge’ were all a bit slight but they’re clearly amongst my most popular songs. I was actually not planning to put any of them on the album, although in the case of ToKN that would’ve been madness (I kind of regret not including the other two now).

So what’s the new stuff like? Hmmm… The intention is that it’s a bit more ‘lush’. Not as consciously lo-fi as before. Less of the convoluted structures. More drums, fewer beats. Moving closer to songs you could get a band to play. However I can think of numerous examples that would contradict every one of those descriptions. So there’ll be a noticeable difference, but not a seismic shift. People have commented that it’s ‘dark’.

Lyrically there’s a crop of what I was starting to feel were by-the-book Pagan Wanderer Lu songs. I continue to care about politics, social issues, and the role personal apathy plays in making things worse. But I’ve started to feel I should just draw a line under writing about that stuff. So all my new-new songs are more personal, more abstract, hopefully with a bit more human warmth. More along the lines of ‘Repetition 1′ and ‘Knight -> King 4′ than ‘The Gentlemen’s Game’.

This is where the schism came between old-new and new-new. The old-new/political songs are among my most cutting, people who like my ‘political’ songs will like them. People who wish I’d cheer up will find them amongst my most disagreeably angry songs. The new-new songs, well… I’ve been playing ‘A Girl Named Aeroplane’ for over a year now. It’s an imagining of the feelings around bringing a child into the world (which I have no experience of), which mixes warmth and anxiety. The new stuff is more on those lines. Some of it anyway.

In my head I’ve been working on two albums with slight overlap, and neither of them are really finished. So I’d been thinking I could do one last ‘angry political’ EP before moving on to the more pastoral, humane new album. But I’m not sure if people actually give a rats ass about conceptual coherence across an album. And I do, ulitmately, want to make a record which people like. So ‘just put all the best stuff on it’ seems like fine advice.

So, given that I have a ‘comment’ function, what do you think? Can you think of any albums where you find the lyrical themes jar so much that it spoils the effect? Or is it night to temper full on ranting with other themes? Any of the new songs you’ve particularly liked?

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*This post is essentially based on a lie – I’m down to play the Brainlove Xmas party.

PS – Reading back over this for typos. It occurs to me that ‘KK4′ and Rep1 both shared an EP with ONHS and Rep2 – two of my most overtly ranty songs. No one ever commented on this at the time. Am I worrying about nothing?

Here’s a track I made today. It’s another long experimental improv using loops/synth/guitar. It’s on the noisy/busy side of ambient.

Recorded in long two takes – I basically did all the synth and guitar in one go then went back and added some drums. Other than in capturing the audio, a computer wasn’t used, there are no pre-recorded parts and no post editing.

I think bits of it are good. Other bits less good. I’d like to get onstage and do something like this some time.

“judddr” download mp3 (24 min/33MB)

comments welcome.x

Those of you who enjoyed last year’s ‘Two Thousand And Ace’ will doubtless do a bit of excitement wee to hear that this year’s Brainlove compilation ‘Fear Of A Wack Planet’ is now on its way. It’ll be out on 18th October.

It features all your usual Brainlove faves as well as some new faces including Mat Riviere who is, frankly, incredible.

It also includes a new track from me called ‘Nintendo Folk’ which is exclusive to the compilation – as it should be.

It’s quite different from my other stuff. I wanted to make something which fits the description in that old DiS review quote which described me as ‘Nintendo Folk’. So it’s an instrumental which uses a gameboy and an acoustic guitar for most of the sounds.

This is the rest of the tracklist:

1. Mat Riviere – ‘FYH’
2. Napoleon IIIrd – ‘Your God’
3. Stairs To Korea – ‘Boy Bear It In Mind’
4. Internet Forever – ‘Break Bones’
5. A Scholar & A Physician – ‘Stand Tall’
6. Penny Broadhurst & The Maffickers – ‘Comenzo’ (live)
7. Curly Hair – ‘Hully Gully’
8. We Aeronauts – ‘The House On Ash Tree Lane’
9. Christopher Alcxxk – ‘Halo’
10. The Bear Driver – ‘No Time To Speak’
11. Kippi Kaninus – ‘Sygyt With Me’
12. Thee Oracle – ‘A/I/M/Y’
13. Pagan Wanderer Lu – ‘Nintendo Folk’
14. Ratface – ‘Fruit An Veg’
15. Trademark – ‘At Loch Shiel’
16. Fidel Villeneuve – ‘Two Of The Beatles Have Died’
17. Ace Bushy Striptease – ‘Post Hummus’
18. Planet Earth – ‘4 23′
19. Sparky Deathcap – ‘Winter City’
20. Keyboard Choir – ‘Tachikoma’
21. Kid Carpet – ‘Go Get Yourself A Hammer’
22. Laura Wolf – ‘Love Was Dead’
23. gwEm – ‘Ancient Art Of Chiptune’
24. Braindead Collective – ‘Untitled #1′
25. Heartbeeps – ‘Glacial Valleys’
26. MRBLKRSHRRRR – ‘Jackie Collins’
27. Jam On Bread – ‘Wikipedia Says I’m Dying’

Finally got round to blogging about Green Man. It’s the fourth time I’ve been and the first time I’ve played.

I was on first on the Pub Stage, narrowly pipped at the post of being able to claim I opened the festival by We Aeronauts, the massive folk ensemble featuring James from Keyboard Choir who won the competition to play the main stage.

My set went well, the usual stuff… you’ve all seen it. Got soaked during soundcheck and the omnichord wasn’t working but it managed to sort itself by the time I came on.

You can hear a live track from my set and a brief interview with me on this week’s Bethan Elfyn show (on the listen again thing).

The rest of the festival was great. Animal Collective ruled but didn’t exactly play to the festival crowd. Bon Iver was good as I hoped. Wilco and Dirty Three were a nice surprise and I also enjoyed 9Bach and Right Hand Left Hand.

I’d forgotten how good it was actually. It’s much more relaxed than some other festivals I’ve been to, a generally friendly atmosphere and stunning surroundings. Ace.

Last weekend my friends Harri & Nicola from Little My organised the second annual ‘Woodstick’ mini-festival. This takes place in a park in Cardiff and is a small unamplified festival. This year it was sunny, last year it rained. This year more people just happened to wander past and sit down to watch which is a nice thing to have happen.

Anyway I played, here’s a video (which I’m designating #14 of the 15 films thing):

Vimeo link

Also here’s a video of me playing in Silence at Sea:

And here’s a link to a YouTube playlist with a song from every band that day, including the Gentle Good, Picture Books in Winter, Zissou, Lucky Delucci, and an exclusive never-to-be-repeated Gindrinker song.

[If any of the bands stumble upon this post and want to let me know what the songs are called please do so.]

I did an interview with ace new music website For Folk’s Sake last week. They asked a lot about reviews and the marketing of music, giving me plenty of opportunity to rant. You can read it here.

I also talked more about Jandek (see previous post). I received a box of 20 of his albums last week, working my way through them now. Only 36 to go to complete my collection!

In other news I’m playing at the Firebug bar in Leicester on 6th August for Sweeping the Nation – details are here.

Glad this moment in PWL live history got on film. I recently played at the frankly quite terrifying art space/venue hidden away inside London Bridge station that is ‘Shunt’.

Owing to the recent decision by the Qchord to stop working I decided to run out of the room I was playing in and do the first half of ‘Memorial Hall’ on the piano which was standing outside. Before running back inside to do the second half in the usual style.

As most of Shunt is in almost total darkness the first part of the video basically looks like a candle singing a song, given occasional flashes of context by people taking pictures. If you’re wondering how the piano keeps playing as I run back into the room, I handed such duties to my associate Christopher Alcxxk – who I’m pretty sure you can also hear singing along.

Enjoy.

Here’s a quick roundup of reviews so far for ‘Fight My Battles For Me’. Most people seem to like it, which is good.

The main criticism seems to be of how long it is, which is kind of fair. The rationale behind the length was that it was partly a compilation, partly something that could stand up as an overview if it turned out to be the only PWL record ever given a wide release. So I just erred on the side of ‘yes, include this song’.

I think the length of an album is probably more noticeable to reviewers who, ideally, will sit and listen to the thing all the way through several times to get a feel for it. At an hour long, a record by a band you’ve never heard before is a bit of a demand on your time. Assuming they listen more than once. Which they probably don’t.

Most people these days, I suspect, listen to albums in chunks en route to wherever they’re going. This is how I got into ‘Blueberry Boat’ - it’s far too long to take in one go. But in 15-20 minute bursts you can digest it more easily.

That said, short albums are better. Long before this record got any reviews I’d already decided the followup was going to be shorter, but I think I’ve said this before…

Other news is that the single of ‘Bridge of Sighs’ is out now on download sites with two b-sides taken from the album sessions. No physical release.

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Anyway here are the reviews with choice quotes duly filched. If you find any more let me know.

“what Regan’s music lacks in sophistication it makes up with a slightly unhinged, puerile charm.”
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/pagan-wanderer-lu_0609.htm

“a motorway pile-up of musical styles and ideas, brilliantly inventive, daring and at times thrilling”
http://www.forfolkssake.com/articles/329

“In other hands such a political bent would be a bit cloying but here, enswathed in seething electronica and fundamentally catchy hooks, it works surprisingly well”
http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2009/06/pagan-wanderer-lu-%E2%80%93-fight-my-battles-for-me/

“an intriguing mix of styles that keeps you hooked on the strength of its sheer invention… deserves more attention than it will probably get.”
http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/entertainment/music/who-s-next-/pagan-wanderer-lu-fight-my-battles-me-$1308276.htm

“witty and often ascerbic lyrical goodness with increasingly pop sensibilities”
http://virtualdebris.co.uk/weblog/?id=251

“His music seems to inhabit a World where the Casio keyboard is God and lo-fi folk comes a close second. I’m absolutely charmed by it.”
http://www.thebeatsurrender.co.uk/daily/recordbox/fight-my-battles-for-me-pagan-wanderer-lu/

“Honest and poignant lyrics add a meaningful socio-political backbone to the catchy tunes”
http://theheadsupblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/subject-pagan-wanderer-lu.html

“Were you to try and create a musician for me to admire, I’d think it hard for anyone to come up with anything more suitable than Pagan Wanderer Lu.”
http://nuttyxander.com/2009/03/pagan-wanderer-lu-fight-my-battles-for-me/

“a particularly tasty slice of DIY/folktronica/funtime”
http://robotsmademedoit.blogspot.com/2009/06/pagan-wanderer-lu-fight-my-battles-for.html

“His lounge based alt.tronica combines a series of bedroom mumbling croons with more than the occasional clatter of programmed squeaks and rough pulses.”
http://www.music-dash.co.uk/releases/release.asp?item=6278