going out any minuet now (or a waltz would do) the all new august meshmass subscription packet - 100% meshmass or your money back. this (last) month yielded a bumper crop of unstrumentals (and some strumentals as well) and we have after great effort whittled the supply down to 13 tracks at a total of 80 minutes or so, just short enough to fit on a cdr (after a bit of a panic). they include: 2 selections from a solemn crimsoballad called 'snoring ghosts' - with good reason as it reminds us of early progressive rock (it's not our fault it just happened like that). 2 pieces of 'fat reduced edda' entitled 'elfsdottir' - somewhere in there is a sinuous tune. 3 separate and individual improvised guitar and saxophone duets ranging from 5:30 to 8:05. 2 bits of 'any known carrot', one of which features the frightful spectre of mariachi trumpet (and one of which does not). another 'loungecrime' piece, called 'uncle smooch'. a short, loud metalfunk excursion called 'doppo' (not one of the marx brothers). and 2 other pieces quite impossible to describe..... most pieces are around 5 minutes long (amazingly enough) and only one exceeds 10 minutes, and that by only a smidgin. (a smidgin is a technical term, don't worry about it, we professionals like to display our esoteric knowledge by adopting an impenetrable vocabulary). 'snoring ghosts part 1' is the featured soundtrack to a splendidly atmospheric video by 'art conspiracy' which will soon be posted to their vimeo site. august. a good month after all.

it's time for the creatures of the meshmass archive to slither out from their holes and publish the junemass compilation - 66 and a half minutes of crunchy goodness from this month - which includes at the edge of the world - a desolate cry involving the sounding stones of pinuccio sciola, some car-horns and a little bit of soprano saxophone. ossuary - rather a delicate piece with alto saxophone. it starts with a sort of rippling and looped saxophone. the end is quite calm, by which time the sax is a soprano. relinquish - a lush duet with alto sax and fretless guitar. mentholated corpse - the cool alternative. more sounding stones and some strange twanging noises accompany richard's fretless. misreading rune 2 - a fairly driving piece utilising samples drawn from the work of rune martinsen a composer of drones and atmospheric pieces to be found on soundcloud. it starts with some zithery sort of sounds from richard's collection and even includes some actual singing. felafel proof - soprano sax and fretless guitar support themselves on a bed of snarls. it ends with surprising delicacy. swim - a fairly long duet with quite unexpected twists in its development. there's a lot of richard's extraordinary 11-string fretless guitar-thing on these recordings which cover a broad range of mesmass' field of expression.... we commend this package to the house.

even as (with palsied and trembling fingers) i type these words meshmass are sending out the MAYMASS package to lucky subscribers on various continents (some of whom have paid money for the privilege and some of whom seem to have forgotten.) this month the recipients will get 6 tracks totalling 64:34 including one violent duet (giving out) 3 pieces involving the 'sounding stones' of sardinian sculptor pinuccio sciola (the veiling earth 1&2 and hinterland), a driving pulsework with several drumkits (plumb) and a big long fat instrumental called hummer (which either does not know the words or is modelled on unreasonably large american military transport vehicles - possibly both.) the sessions involved richard's yamaha 12-string guitar and his godin fretless sort-of-guitar-thing which also has too many strings and both soprano and alto saxophones. . . between you and me may was rather interfered with from a meshmass perspective since peter went off and played the soprano saxophone in various peculiar locations (outdoors, underground and so-on) and there was a limited amount of time for meshing and massing. so it might not be a classic month, although i think 'giving out' is unusual and interesting and 'hummer' is a very strong piece. 'plumb' starts slowly with a fat, distorted pulse but after the piano entry more and more drummers join the party. it also features richard playing ghost organ. 'hinterland' is very pleasant and includes a sample of some very excited chickens doing soul-singer impersonations as well as typically incompetent piano playing and some rather charming alto saxophone. 'the veiling earth' is split into 2 contrasting sections, the first is more or less dominated by soprano saxophone and the second much darker and more full.

and while i remember.... which is to say before i forget again.... meshmass is (or possibly are) officially the sound of childhood obesity. documentary makers at rutgers university (which is in the united states of america, incidentally, not in rutger at all) have asked us for permission to use 'guias sonores' (a very long piece which covers several continents) in a film about efforts to combat childhood obesity (variously described as 'an epidemic' and 'your own fault, fatty'). we are naturally flattered to have made such a glamorous field our own and are printing hundreds of (imaginary) t-shirts with 'meshmass - the sound of fat kids' written on them.

meshmass is proud... or are proud.... anyway, proud or at least happy to announce.... or content to announce but happy that in fact.... (oh for heaven's sake get on with it!) there is new music up on soundcloud, a piece called 'the veiling earth'.... or about half of that piece, the second half in fact, thus 'the veiling earth (2)'. this piece is the first to feature samples of the 'sounding stones' of the sardinian sculptor pinuccio sciola, but is probably not the last. and not only that, there is a whole new place to find meshmass, at 'new official fm', complete with yummy photographs. now that may is over we are turning our thoughts to selecting the maymass package, and once again we will struggle to select anything less than 2 hours although we aim for 1 hour and although we only had 2 sessions in may as opposed to our more usual 4 or so. lots of stuff, people, and all yours for only £10 a year.

meshmass have returned from their scattered hauntings of peculiar places - it is alleged that peter was found playing the soprano saxophone in a disused mine on a mediterranean island (but this can scarcely be true, surely) and that richard has had a headache for a month. the long-delayed and no doubt anxiously awaited april edition of the monthly mass is now available to subscribers on the interweb. it contains approximately 74 minutes of music including a fairly abstract saxophone and guitar duet (delta), a noisy dance-rocker which utilises a megaphone (step away from the groove), the highly attractive 'sauerkraut', 'peace flapping loose' (a 'duet with pulse' - very gentle and pleasant) laptop-based instrumentals 'nosebleed' and 'culminator' and 'the futility foundation' with additional vocals. also the charming duet 'sanctivated'. all pieces are as usual improvised direct to stereo, edited and in this case most have been painstakingly remastered with eq, compression and limiting applied. so that's 8 pieces ranging from 5:45 to 15:27 in length and from the quietly charming to the rampantly noisy with all sorts of weirdness in between. not a bad month, all in all. work is now proceeding on may's harvest which so far includes a number of samples drawn from recordings of 'sounding stones' made by the sculptor pinnuchio sciola. art turned into art? anything is possible. (except what you just suggested of course, which is obscene.)

i notice and am not surprised to see that we have 1 follower and it is probably us. never mind, we have become used to the fact that we are of no interest and we carry on regardless. we're currently working on the marchmass - this month's compilation of last month's production at the nothing works - and so far we have whittled it down to just slightly more than twice as much as there ought to be. it would be sensible to hold some over for harder times to come, but since when were we sensible? honestly people, you literally do not know what you are missing - a peculiar but charming blend of pyschedelia, intelligent dance, ambient, jazz, electronica and improvised music delivered free with a picture every month for only £10 a year. there is no other way you will ever hear this music, only perhaps 10 - 20% of it reaches soundcloud - a sample of new work is always available there, however. 

we're looking for gigs. we have one on april 14th at the coach house, 22 walpole road kemp town, 8.30 and are in contact with unfortunate individuals in berlin and ghent, but we will come and play in your living room too. think of it as having a living stereo. (which only plays meshmass of course - a bit of a disadvantage i know but we promise to take all the soundwaves away with us when we leave.)

for bookings, subscription enquiries and etc. contact

auralwitness@gmail.com

wethankyou