Now that's what I call Balustrade

After what seems like months of graft, The Rockhall Files is finally complete! (I say months, it's actually only been a few weeks and this ranks as being on of the easiest recording sessions we have had so far. It even sounds remarkably impressive, even if we do say so ourselves. )

As 10.00 came and went on this past Monday, we were able to export the finished versions to iTunes, upload them to my swanky new iPod Classic and plug it into the hi-fi. An eager silence filled the room as the first complete listen through of The Rockhall Files was initiated and the good news was... it wasn't awful!

In fact it was pretty darn good. A real genre defying, melting pot of musical influences and funky drumloops. There are pianos, kazoos, recorders, accordians, laser guns and even the odd guitar or two! All in all it is probably the best music we have recorded so far and we can't wait to hear what the fans think!

My current fave song is probably Snow In Mexico with it's Automatic For The People-era REM sound. Although I am also loving Mojave Streamline with it's Maximo Park meets Belle and Sebastian keyboard vibe. And then who can forget Pitchfoork Rebellion with it's strange medieval-ness and historically accurate lyrics or Fear of Falling which is the closest to being a 'proper' Balustrade song. There's also Rain Brigade (which we thought would be the best song on the EP, but has actually been usurped by the other songs) and El Cartino's Blues #7 - which is possibly the bleakest song we have ever recorded and will have Carter's friends and family adding the Samaritans to his speed dial as soon as they hear it!.

Now all we have to do is craft our album artwork and it will be well and truly ready for distribution. So fear not Strade fans, you will be getting your September dose of Balustrade action very soon and then we have to get started rehearsing for our gig in November!!

Beef up the bass with some overdrive you tart!

Some notes from the pen of Matt C

Just a quick little blog this evening to keep you all informed on how the recording process is going for the mighty-fine new Balustrade EP wot we av decided to call The Rockhall Files. Following a sweaty evening of mixing, remixing and mixing once more for luck, we have now completely finished, ticked off and generally put to bed three of the tracks for the EP. Rain Brigade, Fear Of Falling and The Snow In Mexico have all been beefed up and given the special Balustrade pixie dust treatment. And we like them. Work continues on the other three tracks - El Cartino's Blues #5, Mojave Streamline and The Pitchfork Rebellion, but I for one am confident that by this time next week it's just the artwork that we're squabbling over.

It had always been our intention to finish four tracks tonight, but when we got round to Mojave Streamline there was a nasty surprise waiting for us - we had totally forgotten to record a proper vocal track, instead making do with a very ropey demo track that had more noise disturbance than your average family from the sink estate. We'd recorded it on Lexington's venerable (by which I mean really really really old) eMac which has seen better days and is wheezier than Darth Vader in a particularly dusty antique shop. Hence, the vocal line is filled with all kinds of scratched, splutters and rasps emanating from the poor old machine. So that has to wait for next week.

Sorry that this particular installment wasn't as wryly amusing, witty or whimsical as usual, but I really can't be bothered tonight. I'd got better things to do with my time - like write a new song. I have decided to take a leaf out of The Klaxons - recent Mercury Music Prize winners (and rightly so, if you ask me) and name a song after a J.G.Ballard novel - their album Myths Of The Near Future is names after one, so if it's good enough for them it's good enough for me. Right now it's a toss up between Vermilion Sands (which is a bit too Mercury Rev), The Kindness of Women (which I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to write) and Rushing to Paradise - which I think would be yet another song about travelling to Twerton Park... So get yourself a Facebook account, fins The Official Balustrade Fanclub, join up, and tell us what you think. Nice things only, please!! Oh, and send us some weird stuff too. Random lines that we'll try to incorporate into the song...

Oh, one more thing... Balustrade will be playing a few live open-mic nights at a Porter near you in October... more details once we've planned it a bit better, but it'd be cool to get people along - and tell us what songs you want to hear live!

That'll do now. I'm rambling.