Album Notes

A decade has passed since the time I made my first recording. Back then it was all electric guitar (running through an effects processor) fed into a 4 track recorder. Imagine lots of slow, moody minor chords and riffs drowned in reverb and you\'ll be on the right lines.

Over the next few years my desk began to fill up with more and more musical gear in an attempt to elaborate and diversify the sorts music I was trying to achieve. There came a sampler, a sequencer, a synthesiser, a mixer, the turntables, another sampler, a 16 track recorder, more guitar effects, plus various computer hardware and software thrown in along the way. I genre-hopped through dance, ambient, instrumental, chill out and indie styles, depending on whatever I was most attracted to at the time. After several years of building up and experimenting with all manner of musical paraphernalia, I realised I had finally assembled my ideal setup.

At this point it should have been easy. I could re-record and add finesse to previous recordings. I could complete countless half finished tracks I had floating around. Or I could make a fresh start, taking the music in a new direction.

Whatever I tried, it didn\'t seem to work. The music became a mishmash of styles lacking character or distinction. The array of digital music equipment chained together around me made the process of creating and recording tracks laborious and uninviting. Output slowed and was dying away.

In the following months my radar started picking up a few new signals of interest. Things like controlling feedback loops and circuit bending. Introducing noise artefacts and randomisation to sounds. Using and pushing instruments in ways they aren\'t supposed to. Forcing these sorts of oddities into my music went against everything I had done and learnt previously. It blasted away the restrictions I placed upon myself in the past, and enabled me to create music in a manner that is exciting and rewarding.

VersusConduct is the conscious decision to disregard the musical rulebook my brain had manufactured in the past. Most of the sounds originate from a few dinky keyboards and toys I had as a child, which served as a neat and focused basis for exploration. Tracks are kept short and decisive without needless repetitions. Melodies and beats are often sidelined in favour of processing timbres and frequencies. Randomly triggered glitches and noises bubble away in the background. Sounds with uncomfortably high frequency content ring out, motifs play over inharmonic intervals, and rhythmic loops stutter through their sequences. Enjoy.