Who Will Save Us When We Fall?

It is fascinating to watch men in suits panic while the house of cards that they built falls around them ...

I am by no means an economist. But I have a strong interest in politics, and am developing  an even deeper curiosity into the relationship between how our society governs itself and the economic systems we create.

And as a devout liberal social democrat, I should be overjoyed at seeing the events unfold over the past few weeks in the western world markets. Institutions exposed for their ineptitude and greed, resorting to calling for a lifeline from the very governments that habitually shun regulation. Administrations rushing to reach into the coffers to bail out the financial system that has fed them. Unfortunately, the governments in charge of fixing the problems are no better than the ones who caused them in the first place.

Have we not learned from these mistakes before?

Apparently not.

This is Revolutions - the perpetual cycle of history.

Image by Hobo

Time

This week is feeling a bit overwhelming - too much to do, and too little time to get things done. Thus I feel I have broken the subtle vows of blogging by slacking off the past week and not writing. What would Jerry say?

Just returned from a great trip to Stockholm - to visit with Sara and get a bit of headspace before the release of the album. This has been a bit of a crazy year for us - with not a lot of time to see each other.  So it was fantastic to be back in Sweden and enjoy the autumn.

Revolutions is out now on iTunes as a bit of a pre-release. We aren't shouting about it ... there are quite a few things in store over the next 2 months to promote the album.  Including the limited edition CD version (which can already be preordered at the Gaymonkey Shop).

The limited edition disc comes in a numbered double gatefold vinyl sleeve. Its our way of giving an acknowledgment to the ultimate album format, which sadly we have never been able to release. But also to make CD packaging more sustainable, by making a collectable format rather than a disposable plastic jewel case.

There are only 1000 copies - once they are gone, the CD format will be deleted.

Gong Show

Reasons to be frustrated by the Mercury Prize:

1. The most deserving band never wins. In fact looking at the victors list since the prize was launched, of the winners only Portishead - Dummy would have won my vote. 

2. Leftfield artists that don't stand a chance in hell get nominated, but of course never win. Kind of like poor Malta in Eurovision.

3. Could they just GIVE RADIOHEAD AN AWARD? It wouldn't kill them. The fact that OK Computer was trumped by anyone - never mind Roni Size - was bad enough. To be nominated four times, and then not win - even with the slightly-lesser brilliant (but still remarkable) In Rainbows, indicates that there is some sort of injustice.

4. Despite these indiscretions, it is the last UK award of musical merit that is vaguely noteworthy. That doesn't stop some nominees from taking this piss by leaving their £20k cheque in the toilets, or not bothering to show up.

5. It - like all these things - has to be sponsored by a bank.

and finally ...

6. They continue to allow Brit School luvvies into the hat - Adele?  Please ...

Italo-vogue

Vogue has released its list of what's hot this autumn.

And at number 5 - italodisco.

Fabulous.

"Revolutions EP" by Melnyk

Today is the official worldwide release date of the new single. Pleased to be able to finally release "Revolutions "to the world.

Having my first new material out in over a year is quite an interesting feeling. I've worked so hard for this album, just as I did for Silence - only this time I suppose we have so much more experience of the music industry and how all the pieces of the puzzle fit around a release. Still, I feel like we are moving yet again into new territory - the business has changed so much in the past 3 years, that anything could happen with this record. 

"Revolutions" was about the third track that I wrote when I started putting songs together for my second album.  I knew I wanted to do something with more of a traditional pop song form, which Silence had touched on but never fully explored. 

One night, shortly after I started working on the instrumental, I was out with Fonteyn, and he took me to a bizarre basement members club off Regent Street to see this new band he was in love with.  The group were Heartbreak, fronted by this charismatic moustachioed Argentinian. They delivered a dark set of original italo inspired electro, fitting for the odd surroundings. And his voice stood out to me to be something entirely special. I knew he would be the one to collaborate with on this new track.

Last summer Sebastian came to my studio to try out some vocals.  We actually started with "Want It Now" - which I invited him to write the lyrics for and used as a bit of a test to see how well we would work together.  He was brilliant - I knew straight away that he was the one for "Revolutions". 

I then went off traveling for a few weeks to India, and actually wrote the lyrics in the back of a car somewhere between Delhi and Agra. Its funny where inspiration takes you! The melody had been firmly planted in my head for weeks - I just didn't know what the song was really about. Perhaps it was all that rich colonial history ... or maybe Ghandi? 

On my return Sebastian came back to the studio and we finished the recording in the afternoon.

There are so many meanings to the song - I explored a bit of them in a previous post. Just as the word has many connotations, so does the track itself. But I guess I can leave it up to the listener to decipher for themselves.

"Revolutions EP" is out now via all the best download merchants.

Including, of course, iTunes.