Ash Mandrake

Number plate recognition, revenue collection and modern day feudalism

Ash mandrake — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:57:34 +0000

Gone are the days when one could call on “Ifty Kanifty” (the god of double back somersaults) to get yourself out of bother. Have just been knobbled by a local council for stopping in a red zone. Did I stall in a traffic jam? Was I looking at my map at 4am when the road was empty? (everyone knows – it won’t make a blind bit of difference) Pop the details in “the trouble pocket” , make a note in the diary to look in there when I can afford it; and get on with the positive stuff. Legally right; morally shite. Too many of us probably accept crap like this to avoid feeding the dark wolf. Number plate recognition trumps Ifty Kanifty, every time … What a pity

New Reviews of my album: “Footprints from A Tribal Id”

Ash mandrake — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:07:54 +0000

The first review out of the hat is by Dave Franklin of Green man Music.
I’d say it’s mostly descriptive and is favourable.

Here are the first two paragraphs:

Having seen Ash Mandrake play as a solo act a couple of times, I was already familiar with his strange blend of story-telling meets dark age musical experimentations, but even forewarned, I still wasn’t fully prepared for what this album was all about. To start with it’s difficult to know the context of the album, is it a soundtrack, a musical play, a Cecil Sharp House type collection of the ancient roots of music – it hops easily into any of those beds but doesn’t rest peacefully in any. Actually not knowing what it is makes it all the more intriguing.

There are no straight-forward song forms on here, the idea of verses and chorus type structures have been exchanged for spoken word narratives and long stripped down musical work outs, often made up of the most basic percussion, minimal guitars or banks of choral sounds. The overall affect is an odyssey through the ancient traditions and birth places of the music of this planet, the expected Celtic and Germanic threads running alongside rhythmic tribal explorations from Africa and India and evocative banks of vocals that link the earliest religious music of western Europe with campfire chants and the dramatic renditions of the Icelandic saga.

Review by Dave Franklin

The full review is here

I’ll put more up here as and when they come through.

Photoshoot for the new hat collection

Ash mandrake — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 22:31:16 +0000

Couple of days ago, I had my new collection of hats photographed in Blackburn by Matt Ainsworth. It was a massive job. We didn’t manage to work with all the new ones. There are some that I haven’t used on stage yet. So there should be some surprises for those who are familiar with my live act. And it makes such a difference to get the light, the lenses and positioning right. There’s a bit of post processing that needs to be done, so they should be ready by mid March 2013.

Experimentation in 2013

Ash mandrake — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 05:44:08 +0000

Work on the double neck guitar
In a couple of days, I’m going to be installing a single coil pickup along side the humbucking Dimarzios on my top guitar for some harsher edge, but also for a split signal and all the exciting experimental possibilities of treating the signals from the two sets of pickups differently. Will be working on blends of amp sounds but also physical separation of effects in the live context.

Sound Spacialisation
During my album launch in November last year, I made my first attempt at sound spacialisation, sending looped voices to different parts of a large room. It went well – people enjoyed it. Going to be pushing that further this year, with a gig booked at in a theatre in Stafford in May (plenty of time to plan something really special!!!) The split signal from the top guitar will also play a part in this.
2013 feels like it’s going to be a stonker of a year, now that I’ve got space to work in, and the bookings are starting to come in.

25/02/2013 – The guitar has gone into the workshop – Couple of days and it’ll be ready.

A camper van for 2013

Ash mandrake — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 05:24:54 +0000

January is a cliff face for gigs. Really relieved not to have to live in my Citroen Berlingo this winter. It would have been a really tough first winter out of bricks and mortar. Think the Berlingo would have been too small to put a heater in. The camper has got a heater in it and I’ve got electricity in exchange for digging from this wonderful pub up in West Yorkshire (lots of thanks going to be due). Will be able to work on projects this winter with friends close by.

NFA OR CMA

Ash mandrake — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:47:55 +0000

CMA = Constant Movable Abode

A mate recently commented that I am now with “No Fixed Abode”. That term has many negative associations for me, especially because I have on quite a few occasions (sometimes planned, sometimes unplanned) been with “No fixed Abode”. But living in a vehicle in order to run a business more efficiently and viably doesn’t fit with any of those previous experiences. I live in a CONSTANT MOVABLE ABODE and that feels good.

There’s Nothing New under The Sun ! (!)

Ash mandrake — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:20:17 +0000

There is an original spark in the world that sometimes flashes in the ether of emptiness (and you don’t need sunlight to see it).

If everything were just a reformulation of what has gone before, we’d still be extracting painful teeth using rocks.

Album to be released by the end of February 2012

Ash mandrake — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:13:17 +0000

I’ve been working on this album for more than three years (it’s been transferred between computers a few times) I’m working on rich vocal textures – Massive choral arrangements, tightly worked and different to what I do live; but still with a feral element kicking about.

There are plenty of surprises in there for both those who know my work, and those who don’t; but what’s most exciting about this, is that I’ll be able to present people with something that has taken so many man hours to craft.

I’ve already released “Shade and Flake” (the centrepiece of the album) as an E.P. In the final album, some parts of this will be re-arranged and many parts re-mixed.

Contributors include:

Mendhi Singh: Tabla
Breda Horgan: Bodhrn

Alan Burton (The Reed Shaman): Euillian Pipes
Matt Nolan (The Gong Dwarf Under The Mountain): Gong and cymbal samples

Getting Better At Being A Gypsy ?

Ash mandrake — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:04:44 +0000

I grew up in houses, imagining gypsies around fire places singing and dancing. I read a book recently about gypsies in England during the 50s. It was nothing like the image I had. Life was extremely tough for them, with constant hassle from the police, and general hostility from the public. When I’m touring on the road, I have many things in common with roamers, but I can’t find any good reasons to want to mimic the lifestyle they had in the 50s. I’m a business man who needs to roam – By integrating today’s technology with the lifestyle, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be a healthy and fulfilling existence. It’s just a matter of managing the raggle-taggle entropy.

I’m going to be out on the road permanently very soon ! It’s part of committing to being a touring musician.