Free Download - “Ruined Morning” by Monday Machines
March 8th, 2010
My newest side project, along with co-conspirators Allan Coberly (guitar), Andy Budge (bass), and David Payne (drums), is called Monday Machines.
This is the first track from our forthcoming CD. You can preview the full song here, and if you like it, download it, free!
Entering your email address when you download the song will automatically add you to the Monday Machines mailing list.
Monday Machines website:
http://www.mondaymachines.com
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Review of Green Carrot Jam from Progarchives.com
November 10th, 2009
Have you ever seen green carrots in reality? I can’t remember - not to mention worked up to (a) jam! What the hell is this? Very rare - 100% organic usually … announced on the jar label at least. Made by mum with love and hope? … sorry, now I’m getting off the point. This is an EP holding one long 24 minute improvisation song - wrapped by a pun - an original excerpt left from the ‘Perpetual Motion’ sessions in April 2009 which I’ve already reviewed.
You can bet a jam jar that this track got on this production in its original state - live as such even including some slight drum problems which proves the original character. Well to be exact, except minimal overdubs nothing is polished and reworked. The song holds nearly the same spirit as ‘Helleborus’, only violin player Graham Clark is not aboard here. This means as for a jam as it is we have a grooving fundament with driving drums and Andy Budge’s playful bass. The guitar is soloing a lot with variations from psychedelic to jazz rock accompanied by Cary’s well-conveived squeaking, bubbling and swirling synthesizer adds.
This reminds me of Oresund Space Collective in parts. What makes it enjoyable all along are the changes to spacey floating excursions here and there. Probably I’m wrong but during this moments the guitar sounds MAN (Micky Jones) reminiscent to me - exciting! As usual you can enjoy a collective playing which technically deserves the name ‘Cary Grace Band’. Anyway - ‘The recipe is a secret, its rare ingredients are arcane and unobtainable’ Cary is revealing about the production. This jam is delicious by all means and can be ordered as a nice-looking black vinyl replica CD in mini record sleeve via her own label Door 13 Music.
I do! I like it, Sam-I-am!
—Rivertree (Read original review here)
Green Carrot Jam
October 31st, 2009
You do not like green carrot jam?
I do not like it, Sam-I-am.
Could you, would you, out of jars?
I would not, could not, out of jars!
Would you, could you, with guitars?
I could not, would not, with guitars.
I will not listen, not with drums
I will not, not with fingers, thumbs,
Not lowered, raised, before or next!
Not even phased! Not echoplexed!
I do not like it with a plate.
I do not like it early, late,
I do not like it with delay.
I do not like it any way.
I do not like it fast or slow.
I do not like it, no, no, no!
I do not like green carrot jam.
I do not like it, Sam-I-am.
You do not like it.
So you say.
Try it! Try it!
And you may.
Try it, and you may, I say.
Sam! If you will let me be, I will try it. You will see.
Say! I like green carrot jam!
I do! I like it, Sam-I-am!
And I would listen with no words!
A fuzzbox and some major thirds…
And I will listen all the time.
Even if it doesn’t rhyme.
Any tempo, any key!
It is so good, so good, you see!
Green Carrot Jam was preserved for future use during the Perpetual Motion sessions in April of this year. The recipe is a secret; its rare ingredients are arcane and unobtainable (perhaps even unpronounceable), but the rest is obvious:
The Green Carrot Jam EP goes on sale October 31st at midnight, GMT.
There are an extremely limited number of CD copies available. Each black vinyl replica CD is packaged in a mini record sleeve, and comes in a hand-made organza bag containing a small strip of photos. CDs are £3.75 plus postage [ click to order ], or if you prefer, get the download for £2.00.
Review of Perpetual Motion from Progressive Newsletter, Issue 66, September 2009.
October 5th, 2009
English translation (original German below):
Strong debut. With the first 3 tracks on her album “Perpetual Motion”, Cary Grace manages an almost perfect introduction. “The Scarab” is a wonderfully anthemic singer/songwriter piece with a catchy melody and charming vocals. “Between the Pages 1″ assimilates Floydian flair and inspiring analogue synth sounds, but lasts only two minutes. Fortunately, this piece has three other parts which function as musical bridges throughout the album. In contrast, the very next track, “Cassiopeia 1572″ is all of 13 minutes long. Atmospherically more relaxed and free, with psychedelic and expansive playful/dreamy keyboard sounds and shimmering guitar. On the other hand, the UK artist and her sidemen do indulge in “monster” psychedelic improvisations of up to 20 minutes. During these they lose some of the plot, the drama and song development suffer a little. But the peak moments of the (at times) almost Kraut-Rock monolithic songs with their minimalism and the voice of Cary Grace, often attain a fascinating density. “Perpetual Motion” is not only a double-album (i.e. two CDs), but also has two distinct sides to it. It takes time to listen to this impressive work, but it is worth it for the many analogue sounds, the hypnotic atmosphere and long psychedelic instrumental sections. Certainly worth going to Cary Grace’s website for a look/listen.
(42:31 + 40:59, Door 13 Music, 2009)
Starker Beginn. Mit den ersten drei Tracks ihres Albums „Perpetual motion“ gelingt Cary Grace ein nahezu perfekter Einstieg. „The scarab“ ist eine wunderbar getragene Singer/Songwriter Nummer, die mit toller Melodie und der charmanten Stimme von Cary Grace sofort im Ohr hängen bleibt. „Between the pages I” nimmt floydiges Flair auf, begeistert zudem durch analoge Synthiesounds, ist nach knapp 2 Minuten leider schon wieder vorbei. Doch von diesem Stück gibt es noch drei weitere Parts, die als Überleitungen quer über das Doppelalbum verteilt sind. Das auf der ersten CD nach „Between the pages I“ folgende Instrumental „Cassiopeia, 1572“
bringt es dafür auf über 13 Minuten. Von der Stimmung her locker und freier, dafür mit stimmiger Psychedelic Atmosphäre versehen und von ausladenden verspielt-verträumten Tastenklängen, sowie flirren Gitarrenlinien geprägt.
Auf der anderen Seite tobt sich die in England lebende Künstlerin mit ihren Mitmusikern in ausgedehnten, ebenfalls psychedelisch geprägten, oftmals improvisierten Monster Jams aus, die es zuweilen auf über 20 Minuten bringen. Hier geht dann zwar leider mitunter etwas der rote Faden verloren, da man nicht immer eine spannende Linie und Songentwicklung findet. Doch die zuweilen fast schon krautig-monoton anmutenden Song Monolithen erreichen in ihren stimmigen Momenten eine überaus faszinierende Dichte, die gerade durch ihren inhaltlichen Minimalismus und die Stimme von Cary Grace überzeugen kann.
„Perpetual motion“ ist somit nicht nur ein Doppelalbum mit zwei CDs, sondern ebenso zwei musikalischen Seiten. Dabei muss man sich Zeit für dies vor allem sehr stimmungsvolle Werk nehmen, wird dafür mit recht viel analogen Tastenklänge und einer geradezu hypnotischen Atmosphäre und langen Psychedelic Instrumentalparts belohnt. Ein Vorbeischauen bzw. -hören auf der Website von Cary Grace lohnt sich allemal.
—Kristian Selm (Originally published in Progressive Newsletter, Issue 66)
A review of Perpetual Motion from Progarchives.com
September 29th, 2009
(Progarchives.com review, reprinted by permission. Read the original review here.)
The most recent double album of CARY GRACE wanders in the realms of pleasant vintange psychedelic rock music. The album is built from three types of songs; Longer jam- oriented songs varying leght from eleven to twenty four minutes, shorter compositions emphasizing melody and songwriting approach, and the some shorter middle sections, resembling little “Promenades” of Moussorgy’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” for these tracks.
Beautiful “Scarab” opens the album with pretty acoustic minor-key melodies and vocals, giving fine first impression for anybody open to acid folk, pleasant lady singer’s voice and an analogue synthesizer sounds. First “Between Pages” shifts in as calm and melancholic progression lead by keyboards. The next song is then a first longer track here, “Cassiopeia 1572″ running over thirteen minutes. Oriental resembling chords starts the song, and it’s feeling is more playful and peculiar. Tender instruments are weaved around a bass guitar playing nice high pitch patterns. Like the name suggests, the synthesizers deliver spacey cosmic tones to the pleasant, free and relaxed comsic jamming built from two modal themes between a more stagnant galactic aural space. Second mellow “Between Pages” introduces the longest track of the album, “Queen of Pentacles” running over twenty four minutes. The song forms a kind of circle, borne from quiet pulsings, distant sounds and growing bass guitar presence, then chord change leading to a theme for singing and marching rhythm which swithes with a harder guitar riff. Later the song ends to same theme and ambience from where it started, and between lies a fine, long, hypnotic jam lead by both synthesizers and guitar solos. This spontaneous song really flows pleasantly and logically, feeling much shorter than the time it really lasts. Great!
Second disc starts with the third “Between Pages”, which delivers more playful feeling after the long trip, and leads to “Dream Catcher”, an euphoric and beautiful song with some slighlty oriental chords. Fourth “Between Pages” is a bluesy shorite, referring the melody of the first song in a nice way. It prepares well for the following “Helleborus”, written and performed in the way of bluesy 60’s American psychedelic sound (JEFFERSON AIRPLANE is an association here for me). In the jam section a violin mingles neatly with the guitar, creating a relaxed hazy summer feeling in line with the mellow melancholy of the other tracks of the album. Vocal sections visit and fade away from the theme variations, and the song ends to an electronic ambience leading to the final title track, “Perpetual Motion”. This song excluding 20 minutes of lenght starts pleasantly, fading in directly to an active improvistation process, pleasantly wandering keyboards presenting the theme for group’s support. A bluesy meldoy theme circles lingering around one note, tension gaining height calmly. The bass progression varies the note progressions for calmly voyaging synthesizers and guitars in a dreamy echo-treated realms, flowing towards a quiet cosmic direction, where the song and album at the end fades.
So, the dominant overall impression for me here was a calm, pleasant, mellow and pretty psychedelic musical trip. Often this kind of music is also aggressive, neurotic and chaotic, but here we get quite accessible, but still vintage, personal and pleasant experience without psychosis. Thus I find the album and artist recommendable to the vintage psych prog portfolio for the fans of the music genre concerned. If desccribing with comparisons, some kind of idea of the music style could be blending cosmic synth sounds of 70’s HAWKWIND to the tender “Meddle”-era PINK FLOYD tones with touch of psych folk, strong synthesizer presence and female voice in front!
