Sunflowers: The Script

By councilflat | Published: 20/01/2010

bees
Uncharted | Audio |, the London based record label responsible for the availability of our music, had a request from Sister Hairy at radiosatan666.com for the Sunflowers story script.
It was wonderful to hear that you and your listeners enjoyed it so, and it’s my pleasure to pass it on to you. Grab it here. Sorry it took so long.

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Dolcie, at night, goes running into the woods. But why?

By councilflat | Published: 20/01/2010

frient
The below track contains a field recording of a long neglected play area in Frient Country Park, around abouts here.
You never see anybody there, and it has an eeriness about it. Maybe this is where the likes of Dolcie plays.
On this particular night Dolcie had been detained and was under supervision, because the community was concerned of her disappearing until sunrise, and sleeping through the day.
Having returned from my field recording trip of Frient Park, I played back my results to the morose Dolcie. She slowly went into a trance, wandered over to the piano and began to play. She had never played before. The cat, as usual, was relaxing under the piano. The piano was recorded from the cat’s purrspective.

Dolcie, at night, goes running into the woods. But why? / Through a whirlwind of litter, Emerges Dolcie, With eyes of glitter

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A Drowsy Spell

By councilflat | Published: 20/01/2010

drowsy
Maybe it should have been ‘Sha la la’ instead of ‘La la la’? Ah well, moving on…
A Drowsy Spell

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Gene Chandler cover

By councilflat | Published: 20/01/2010

red-room
Here’s a cover of Gene Chandler’s ‘Nothing Can Stop Me’. There was no intention for this to be a dub reggae thing, but due to some bad vocal performances by a certain community member, and a seance that went all weird, it was best to go with that style.

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When relaxing at home, if the TV isn’t on, i like to listen to…

By councilflat | Published: 08/12/2009

When asked for an insight into the daily lives of our close knit community I usually tell people that they should mind their own business if they know what’s good for them. They wouldn’t understand our ways, they’d think us strange. Like, as if there’s something wrong with having a beer for breakfast, watching daytime TV, or our naked dance around a fire under the full moon in the communal garden. But when asked by the good folk at Uncharted|Audio| what we might listen to during a social gathering I was happy to oblige in compiling this selection of songs.

Here’s a direct download link. And here’s the playlist:
1. Lena Horne – It Had Better Be Tonight
2. Marisa Gata Mansa – Ceu e Mar
3. The Creation – Through My Eyes
4. Krzysztof Komeda – Cul-de-sac
5. Martin Denny – Exotica
6. Alain Goraguer – Strip Tease
7. Stelvio Cipriani – Mary’s Theme
8. Dick Hyman / Mary Mayo – I’m Glad There Is You
9. Goblin – Death Dies
10. Françoise Hardy – Chanson D’o
11. Roberto Menescal – Depois da Queda (Tema de Flor)
12. Luis Bonfa – A Felicidade
13. Nara Leao – Cancao da Primavera
14. Miles Davis – Willie Nelson (Insert 1)
15. The High Llamas – Bach Ze
16. Fred Neil – December’s Dream
17. Ennio Morricone – Metti, Una Sera A Cena
18. Georgie Fame – Parker’s Mood
19. Kitty Winter – Mato Pato
20. Neyde Fraga – So Deus e Eu
21. Nic Jones – Little Musgrave
22. Thuh Advo-Cats – Bad Classical Music
23. OMO – Live Show
24. Gregg Diamond’s Bionic Boogie – Hot Butterfly

And just to mention, you can stream the Council Flats of Kingsbury album for free here, and if you like it you can buy it on vinyl direct, from all good indie stores, or download it from just about any digital music provider.

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New Council Flats of Kingsbury mini album out now on Vinyl and download

By councilflat | Published: 28/10/2009

cfok_artOnly 250 vinyl copies pressed, each individually numbered and available direct from Uncharted|Audio|, and all good UK record stores. Also available for download from iTunes, et al.
Stream the whole album for free here.
<a href="http://music.councilflat.com/album/the-council-flats-of-kingsbury" >Fun in the Sun by The Council Flats of Kingsbury</a>

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The Voodoo Pins

By councilflat | Published: 24/09/2009

cockroach

The Voodoo Pins met at their local boozer, The Bald Faced Stag, which resides at the edge of the Willow Tree housing estate.
It’s a place where everybody knows your name, but not necessarily for the right reasons.  It’s here you will find brooding lead singer, Charlie Cockroach propping up a shadowy corner of the bar, staring through the optics on a memory that will haunt him ’til death .

Bassist, Chrissy Whiplash, has a quiet moment filing her nails over a gin and tonic, having driven another man off the rails.  Her indifference is for all to see.  Guitarist, Kal Kamikaze, wipes the blood from her knuckles having dealt with an outsider who looked at her man.  Colin Carnivor, the psychologically abused, idiot drummer, works at the pub collecting glasses, and is repeatedly told off for staring out the window, and eating all the pork scratchings.

All members of the Voodoo Pins have an intertwined past that sounds like a post watershed Eastenders style soap opera set in the most neglected suburbs of London.  The sordid squaller in which they live is at the foundation of their sound, as is the ever present animosity amongst the group, even when performing on stage there’s the feeling that an argument may erupt at any moment.

The lyrics are engrossing, and express mundane occurrences and emotions in the form of simple, yet unique metaphorical angles.  Reoccurring themes include depraved living, domineering sex, drugs, and the frustration, or romanticism, of being a loser.  The musical arrangement is basic and to the point, but totally effective. Evil riffs play on point with primitive drums, and Charlie Cockroach screams poetic gripes about his everyday challenges from the perspective of a survivor still striving to get his kicks, with feeling and frustration.

The Voodoo Pins – Favorite Nasty Habit

Or download it direct from here

kal_chrissy

The Voodoo Pins play tonight at Tommy Flynn’s  in Camden.  Or catch them soon by checking their myspace

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Suburban Mysticism: What happened?

By councilflat | Published: 13/09/2009

Well, my intentions were good, I just misunderstood.  Meetup.com looks great, it definitely has it’s uses.  After signing up, you can create a group (costs about £17 a month) you pledge to get people together, beyond the computer, in the physical world.  There’s Meetup groups for everything imaginable, and i should use it to get out more, meet people, get involved in different activities, find new friends, find a partner, that sort of thing.

Or i could start a group that would be popular, would get lots of members, and make some money out of it.  Nothing wrong with that, if your providing a good service, why not?  That’s what people do here.  I attended a live drawing burlesque themed group.  It cost £10 to participate, lasted about 3 hours, in the back end of a pub in Soho.  It’s the only meetup i’ve been to, i went because a mate who’s an illustrator was going, not to lust over the model.  I  enjoyed it, drew lots of rubbish, but I really tried and one came out ok.

pretty exotic, eh?

There’s also more local community orientated groups and, well, this is not an advert but they probably explain its potential better than i could:

http://meetupblog.meetup.com

My knee jerk reaction when i came across it was to create a group, get like minded losers together and create a cool band – making money was not the motivation.  What happened was the people who joined the group tended to be outgoing, intelligent, mature types probably expecting a group leader with years of experience in theater and music, who would lead them to musical nirvana each week through impeccably organised 3 hour sessions, at the end of which everyone would agree that it was lovely, and would definitely attend the following week.

Nowt wrong with that sort of thing. I just misunderstood the meetup concept.  I couldn’t lead these people . I don’t have the experience, people managing skills, if anything the only experience that comes near to being relevant for the role is maybe contributing towards a good jam between, at most , 4 people,  providing some coherent  musical direction whilst being stoned on class A weed.

So I never fulfilled my pledge.  What was i thinking?  The group is now closed.

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meetup group: suburban mysticism

By councilflat | Published: 28/06/2009

I’ve started a meetup group at meetup.com. Meetup.com is a website where you can find groups of like minded people in your local area, or create your own group, with the intention of meeting up.
It may be the start of something amazing, or maybe it won’t get off the ground at all. We’ll see.

Here’s the brief:

“Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained”
William Blake

I’ve started this group with the goal of getting people together to enjoy playing and singing as a collective, to learn, and to create music with a mystical feel. Simple and natural, yet mysterious and magical. Ultimately to be recorded, and for a one off performance.

The concept of the music: Suburban Mysticism

Spiritual, mystical and otherworldly, praising esoteric heavenly entities, performing rituals, casting magic spells, fulfilling ones own desires.

Whether you have any spiritual beliefs, or not, is beside the point, it’s a search for a mystical experience within the music. If you do have any interest in the metaphysical, perhaps you would like to contribute?

If you have a passion to play or sing, but have no formal training, then you are welcome.

Some musical intuition would be required from group members, and more advanced musicians are required to take turns in conducting sections of the ensemble, or themes and ideas (your ideas / arrangements are welcome), as well as performing.

To read on, and if your in the London area and are interested in joining, go to the group homepage:
London-Exotica-and-Mystical-Music-Workshop

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Sunflowers: A five part story

By councilflat | Published: 14/05/2009

A spoken word story, with a noisy, distorted soundtrack is available for free from here. The first episode can be downloaded this week, followed by an episode each week from here on. It’s a sort of a lovely fantasy kind of thing, to start with at least…I do hope you’ll grab it and enjoy it.

Here’s part 0:

If you want to be notified of the next episodes via twitter, click here…. Or just check back, put a note in your diary…etc. Thanks to P and R at unchartedaudio for sorting this out.

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