The remix I did for Iain Morrison (from Crash My Model Car) of his track ‘Folklore & Distant Creed’ is now available on itunes. You can buy it here….

…or, of course, you could just buy the whole album, as it’s great.

While soundchecking for the Rapal TV show a few weeks ago I noticed Niall-Iain, the show’s producer, sitting on the floor watching a few feet away. It seems he had his digital camera on him at the time as well and he’s just uploaded this to his YouTube page:

It’s a beautiful sunny day and I’ve just spent the morning with the boyo. Popped into a charity shop and found ‘Everything is Wrong’ by Moby….

…and suddenly it’s 1995 again. I’d forgotten what a great album this is, and didn’t realise how much it’s influenced me. Not that I sound anything like Moby, but his eclectic approach to music and his single-mindedness have definitely rubbed off on me…..for better or worse.

Last week I went to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis to record 4 songs for the BBC Alba music TV show, Rapal. It was an amazing experience, helped by the fact that I had Mark & Garry with me to keep me company and make me sound better. The Rapal crew were total pro’s and nice people as well.

Here are some pics from our travels:

Doing the tourist thing….

Scaling the heights…

The island’s Calamateur fan…

The studio…

In our dressing room, wondering why our request for a covering of white rose petals hasn’t been granted…

Recording the show…

Going home…

Thanks to Mark, Garry and the Rapal crew for a fantastic few days.

I’m recording a set for BBC2’s Rapal show next Thursday 29th May. Filming is in Stornoway and tickets are free - there are more details here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/alba/radio/rapal/english.shtml

And I’m also playing a couple of songs at a fundraising concert just around the corner from where I live…

Kirkhill Community Centre, Saturday 31st May. Tickets £10

I’ve just been pointed in the direction of an amazing lecture by Nick Cave on Love Songs. You can see it here:

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=800055

Thanks to Richard for letting me know about it.

My friend Don MacLennan is playing tonight at The Bothy, upstairs in Hootanannys in Inverness. He’s asked me to play a couple of songs to break up his set, so look out for me sometime between 11pm and midnight.

Man, I wish gigs were in the morning rather than last thing at night. I’m normally in bed by 10pm - it’s a miracle I’ve never fallen asleep on stage.

I’ve just discovered, by way of Pitchfork, a cool site with loads of free and exclusive tracks by some great bands, including - David Bazan, Low, Emma Pollock, Nina Nastasia, Elf Power and John Vanderslice. It’s called Daytrotter.com. No doubt I’m seriously behind the times in finding out about it.

Fantastic stuff. And speaking of free mp3’s, the new Nine Inch Nails album (first 9 tracks are free, you pay for the rest) and the AmpLive Radiohead remix album are both great.

You can hear my own free music here.

DOWNLOAD NOW AS ZIP FILE with artwork (19MB)

This is a collection of 4 songs I wrote and recorded in one day in 2005. These tracks were originally put on the website one at a time over a few months in 2006 but they’ve been off the radar for a while. Here they are now, remastered and available to download for free, with artwork, as a collection. Enjoy!

…is The Books. Amazing stuff. I’ve been listening to their album ‘Thought for Food‘ tons lately - and hey, it only took me 6 years to hear about it. If anyone ever asked me to compile an end-of-year best albums list, it would probably contain no albums at all from that year. Most stuff I get is either from a charity shop or the bargain bin in Borders when everything goes down to £1.

How did I hear about The Books? My friend David gave me a DVD with loads of mp3s on it and the prospect of listening to them all to find stuff that I like was too overwhelming, so I just ignored it for a while. That’s the problem I find with too much free music - I haven’t invested anything in it and so I feel no connection with it and it holds no value for me. So anyway…then I read about The Books in TapeOp and loved the look of their shack-like studio in the middle of nowhere, had an inkling some of their stuff was on the DVD I’d been given and so it was. Hopefully I’ll actually buy some of their stuff soon so as to support them properly and stop myself feeling too guilty.