at halloween our heroes meshmass played the last set at the last ever gig at the open house in brighton. the venue - an upstairs room in the popular pub near london road station - will be much missed and is (absurdly) being turned into offices. meshamass played a set entirely of improvised duets, very exposed and risky, but sustained no permanent damage. strangely enough the intended headline act of the night played first and then buggered off back to london and personally i feel that london is welcome to them.

newly edited and almost available, the octobermass subscriber package is so excessively long that it has caused a rupture in the space-time continuum and is thought to curve light into attractive spiral shapes due to its gravitational pull. estimates vary but i have transferred the tracks onto 2 cd's and one lasts almost 74 minutes (which is already too long) and the other 53 which is just ever so slightly too short. in any case, even allowing for the 2 second gaps my software imposes between tracks that is more than twice as much as we were meant to make this month- more than 2 hours - and we still left out loads of stuff we were quite happy with and would have released at other times without the slightest tinge of embarrassment. the list: sand dancer has fat bass chords and a burbling keyboard which ghostly distortions float over. richard's major contribution when it arrives is extraordinary, sounding as though it was being extracted from another continuum. it all plays out with a mildly heroic melody. stumble develops a slightly african flavour - possibly yam, or cocoa powder - but begins with a solemn procession of organ chords before the bouncy drum parts and the delightful little guitar flourish drag us off. the saxophone restrains itself from outright violence with surprising delicacy and then returns as all join in a cheerful exit. thrickle (as featured at the festival of brown), has an absurdly funky rhythm part which started life as synthetic french horns but in this incarnation it starts with cellos. it's got some jolly bass parts too and the very attentive will notice the saxophone passing through the guitar's effects at one point. when the written sections suddenly stop were left with gentle sax, cello and guitar. flying low over water has the appearance of being a minor meshmass classic and features an hallucinatory keyboard part which seems to have someone gasping in it (but does not). there's a chugging continuo under it and some fat organ chords. when richard brings in the chorussy guitar and the flute-bass tune is added everything floats along nicely, just skimming the white crests of the waves. half a chance begins like an updated beat group but then a section of guitar chords combines with a violently distorted keyboard ushering in a couple of fat and chirpy basslines. the return of the chords gives way to harmonium and sax with a rumbling chewed up drone at the back of it. sax and guitar then begin the final section trading sharp rhythmic structures across the beat. melting mowbray an orchestra of ghostly flutes introduces this which is then hung across some electric piano chords. the sax enters squeaking but soon reverts to its october default of smoky charm, where it is eventually joined by tiny metallic tones amid the extended chordal overlays richard also provides. schwenk has one of those echoed piano lines we used to use a lot complemented by a little nudging guitar line and loads of softly distorted drums. it develops a sort of film noir atmosphere when the sax enters around 5:00 and drops away to leave the piano fading. scrub starts with a sweet and clean guitar introduction with gentle plucked chords and quickly hits the brick wall of rhythm, fat chords from string/organ and there we are into the guitar and sax melody which is positively soppy. slow tide is a three part series of duets, very relaxed and even beautiful. into land plays sustained single notes from alto and guitar against each other, producing some actual harmonies. in the end richard plays chords and it all resoves into a soft tune that makes you suspect that they know what they are doing. and hanging out based on richard's playing of a tuned percussion simalucrum, this is a phone duet. it is truly an embarrassment of riches (only increased by the fact that rich thought we hadn't done much good work this month) and has brought forth a commitment that we should "do less and do it worse" in future. you have been told.

septembermass is now out and available to subscribers. this edition of the monthly release lasts some 79 minutes and features a range of musical delights in both mp3 and wav formats for your listening convenience. szabo 1 and 3 are fine examples of this little understood genre with spitting electronics and additions. szabo 3 in particular has the quality of constantly driving forward as further waves of musical energy pass over and beyond. wilderness appears to be lush and attractive until some ghastly monster is uncovered beneath the vegetation. all over sinks back into relaxation. abnormal has hints of balkan gipsy brass about it - kalashnikov, anyone? smoothing over is as sweet as we can manage, the bassline shadowed by alto sax. jazzbo slim is a quirk all of its own. i have seen it described as 'frankly jolly'. i have no idea starts with a piano figure and develops uncontrollably over an extended period. operational load is a soft duet. and finally strict elephants features an invasion of ghostly trombones and can be sampled at the moment on the meshmass soundcloud page as a demonstration of what is available to our lucky subscribers. i recommend the septembermass to you as a good example of our work - most of it was the product of one week's session and it was very hard indeed to reduce the production to the quite excessive length it stands at.

meshmass played the festival of brown on sunday 23rd at brighton's eminently brown coach house, the world's least visible venue. they were joined by guests tim green (tenor sax) annie kerr (violin) and nigel french (percussion) and played for 90 minutes. having guests is good and interesting but it was a relief to sink back into a duet towards the end. we had our usual recording session on tuesday and produced just over 50 minutes of new music some of which (strict elephants, i believe) is even now available to the discerning listener (and the other one too) on soundcloud. on friday peter played alto in a scratch quartet supporting a trio led by ken vandermark at the safe house in brighton. ken vandermark is a well-known improviser from chicago who has played with all sorts of famous people. it was quite startling how high he could make his clarinet go and he was impressive on the tenor sax too. the drummer mark sanders was extraordinary. not only that but peter has bought himself another alto, this one being a selmer mark Vl which has had some alterations made to it. this means he has 3 altos at the moment, so if anyone wants to buy a conn 6M 'ladyface' they know where to come. only the cruel would suggest he needs so many saxophones because he hopes to find one that he can play. meshmass will have a week off now but should reconvene for a recording on october 9th. some time before that we will have to select and distribute the september edition of the monthly mass. i can hardly wait.

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.