post 37                

Questions and Answers  Sunday 8th Feb

 

 

 

 

A few people have asked me how to put a picture of themselves on their ‘comment’. It’s a bit fiddly but I hope you try it because I much prefer to see a picture or an image.

If you register your email address at http://en.gravatar.com/, you can get yourself an avatar image that follows you from blog to blog. You only have to do it once.

Here is more information:
http://www.zath.co.uk/wordpress-gravatars-for-comments/

otherwise it’s that snowman picture (and we’ve had quite enough snow lately)

 

 

 

Timothy Strelchun
Submitted on 2009/01/29 at 7:41am

I just lucked out and found the Strange Cargo Hinterland album on CD used at a local shop and have been chilling out to it this evening. It really reminds me that I need to reconnect me old record player and rip my first exposure to William Orbit and Laurie Mayer that I have on LP – Torch Song Wish Thing. I just wish I had the tracks from Ecstacy and Exhibit A (a

friend of mine I’m no longer in touch with used to have a copy).

Any chance the tracks from these albums can be reissued as singles or albums/sets for download in some for (MP3s/etc.)? I have Toward the Unknown Region but am itching for the older material.

Cheers,
Timothy

WO
There are lots of tracks on the first Torch Song albums that I’m not so keen on. And the demos. well I just cannot listen to them. There are a few early Torch Song numbers from those early days (circa 1982 to 1984) that stand up reasonably well and I will put them up in the near future.  Why not set a date? I’ve written in my diary: Tuesday 17th Feb. I know that I have been late with the A to Z of Production sometimes but this will be done on that very date.

My preferred  Torch Song album is ‘Towards the Unknown Region’ and apart from the drums I think that it sounds better with time. IMHO.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

happy
Submitted on 2009/01/29 at 6:11pm

. . . Anyhow, I have to add my voice to others here who are asking about certain other recent audio projects of yours that the vast majority of us never got to hear, namely “Orchestral Suite” and “Cellcloud.” 

WO
Cellcloud will be a forthcoming album by Torch Song. Orchestral Suite, eventually, but not till after I’ve released ‘My Oracle Lives Uptown’ on April 6th. The Orchestral Suite was an experiment and people mustn’t expect too much from it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adam Hunt
Submitted on 2009/01/30 at 3:32am

Okay, so I finally found a program this week to decode flac into mp3 which enabled me to listen to Stereo Odyssey and OH MY GOD!!!! it’s like Strange Cargo 3 but a bazillion times greater!! It’s so refreshing (said in 2009) to hear all those familiar samples and sounds of yours presented in a different way – it’s amazing how some bits and pieces stay with you for years too – like Radioharp which I heard in there lol..!

I think Odyssey is you at your purest form free from constraints and conformity : hypnotic ethereal electronica with that Eastern ambience (SC3), infusing ethnic percussion and sampling whatever pleases your ear without being constrained by copyright or licensing.

Kudos – I only wish I had listened to this 13 years ago aaaarrrghh!

WO
I love the medium of radio more than anything. And KCRW is a fantastic station.  I was just talking with last week about doing something like that again. 

 

  89.9 FM

 

They’ve been having their winter subscriptions drive all week, I think that tomorrow is the last day. Any money pledged to KCRW in money very well spent in my opinion!  That’s how they keep going.
 

Gavin Kendall
Submitted on 2009/02/03 at 1:50pm

Hi William,
The answer to your quiz is E,N & T

WO
Correct indeed Gavin!
‘Eight Nine Ten’
The prize (which I forgot to say last week) is a promo copy of ‘My Oracle Lives Uptown’. You’ll need to send me your address (I won’t print it of course.)
 

 

 

 

I will think up a new competition for this Tuesday, Same prize. Let me know if you would like it signed or not. 

Fraenky
Submitted on 2009/02/03 at 5:57pm

William,
when can i have this new CD in my hands?Hey William, I am so envious of the fames which may hold the new CD album in her hands. When do I get the CD? I can hardly wait for it, until one can acquire here in Germany. Many lots of love from Berlin Fränky
WO

Monday April 6th. I will try to keep you entertained till then on this blog Fränky.

Tom Smith
Submitted on 2009/02/05 at 4:27am

I’ll take a stab at your riddle too … I’m gonna’ guess OTTFFSSBWM? Stands for: Other Than The Frozen Foods Section Snow Balls Will Melt?

WO
Very good Tom. You didn’t win the prize but I like where you’re coming from.
 

Tom Smith
Submitted on 2009/02/05 at 4:32am

PS – If that’s not it, it would make for a great future album title…

I look forward to your album, Tom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris
Submitted on 2009/02/05 at 6:08am

Hi William
I have been a massive fan of yours for a while now and I’m also a massive fan of your work with Madonna on the Ray Of Light album. In particular my all time favorite track to this day is still Skin, I adore the harmonies at the very end where you think there is nothing left but when you crank the volume in a sound program you hear them.
 

WO
To be honest Chris, I hadn’t listened to it for a long time. So I played it on my home system and was enjoying all of it’s moods. I wish that I did have an instrumental and an acappella of it. 

 

Erwin
Submitted on 2009/02/05 at 6:39am

Hi William!

First Question : Did you photoshop the pictures of the celebs holding your new CD? If you did, its awesome! I am a designer, absolutely love Photoshop!!

Second Question : Did you know that Depeche Mode’s new album is coming out in April?! Its called “Sounds of the Universe”.

I cant believe that they and you are bringing out a new album in the same month! Awesomeness!

WO
I admit it! I did it in Photoshop. It must be obvious because I am only a beginner at this fantastic tool. I’ve not met any of the people in pictures except Oprah. I met her when I was in Madonna’s ‘backing band’ and we performed ‘Ray of Light’ on her TV show (I’m probably on screen for .5 of a second! Oh yes, and Brad Pitt stayed at that hotel that I lived at five years ago.

Will Ferrell is the greatest! “If the moon was made of ribs would you eat it”?

And your second question: I didn’t know about the Mode’s new album but I do now and I’ll order it today.

 

Stissiork
Submitted on 2009/02/06 at 1:10am

Your site displays incorrectly in Opera, but content excellent! Thanks for your wise words =)

 

 

 

WO

Thanks for bringing it to my attention, I’ll get web guru Richard Shea onto it. But we did test       on Internet Explorer, Firefox & Safari which work well.

 

Erik
Submitted on 2009/02/06 at 5:08pm

Hi William
I’ve been a fan of you for years now, and to date not one of your productions has let me down (my favourites being your remix of Pierre Henry’s Psyche rock and Blur’s Bugman). I can’t wait for the new realease :O

And I was wondering, is the new version of “Where to you go” that was on your page earlier going to be realeased? Or could you post the whole song like you did with guitar-sitar? Which by the way is such a beatiful song 

And how bout starting to sell unrealeased material right here on your website? There were so many beautiful tracks in your audio section, whould be nice to hear them in full versions.

And lastly, as many others are wondering to, will your orchestral suite ever be realeased or at least aired on BBC? (I mailed BBC about 3 months after the concert, and they said they had no plans as of then to air it:( WHY?)

Thank you for an amazing blog, looking forward to every new thing you do 

Erik
Norway

WO
That’s TWO tracks I’ve dug out of the archives to refresh my memory. ‘Skin’ (see above) and now ‘Bugman’. I listened to it with headphones and it warped my brain. It was pure anarchy when I recorded that album (“13”) with Blur. A great experience with a great band. I will do a feature on that production some time. I like that album more and more as time passes but hadn’t listened to all of it for a while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I might put up ‘Where do you Go’ some time soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[See above for the answer to your question about ‘orchestra suite’]

Paul
Submitted on 2009/02/06 at 11:14pm

That is a one bizzare looking fish/mammal do you know what it is?

 

 

 

WO
I was rather hoping that somebody would tell me that. It was twenty or thirty yards out from the shore, just beneath the surface, on the west coast of Barbados.

They were about 18 inches long and had kind of flipper ‘wings’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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