meshmass played at the fourth FESTIVAL OF BROWN. they were AUGMENTED by GUESTS. they played for an hour and a half. the guests were: ANNIE KERR : violin TIM WOOD : tenor saxophone NIGEL FRENCH : percussives they all did remarkably well considering they hadn't the faintest clue what was going on..... but then again nor did we, of course. there is a recording of the performance.... in fact i think there are 2 recordings. if we post one to the 'meshmass live' page on soundcloud we will let you know. we remain available for living-room performances at domestic volumes. get in touch at auralwitness@gmail.com

meshmass are playing at the festival of brown on sunday 23rd. we reprint here a text about the event: one and all you are cordially invited to attend the fourth FESTIVAL OF BROWN, an art event celebrating that most downtrodden of colours. From 4pm until 10 on Sunday 23rd of September 2012 at the coach house, 22 walpole road, kemp town, brighton there will be performances and events including music: Annie Kerr (violin) re-interprets bach, the choir of rolls, meshmass, and also various improvisers. dance and performance from Carolina Diaz and (independently) VV. A slideshow of international photographers. films and projections by Sabine Portela (and others.) spoken word performances by Dr. Peter Pick, E.L.Wisty, Annie Kerr (recently runner-up in a BBC poetry competition), and Tim Wood. Various examples of brown art including feltwork, pottery, painting, sculpture and hangings. (no public hangings of people or animals are scheduled.) The coach house is a most secluded and special little venue which you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO FIND. There will be cake and other delicious things to eat. Those attending can be assured of a most unusual and interesting exposition of the range of brown and of a warm and friendly atmosphere.

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.