Out There in Here

[Maharg]

I have a new release of dark ambient out on band camp. If you wish, please have a listen and if you do, then I hope you like it.
It does drift into those silent patches that I am so fond of and it is sometimes quiet and soft. None the less it is quite dark in many places as well.

[synkrotron]

I have finally managed to sit down and listen to this offering Graham. Hopefully I will be able to get through it in one sitting without being disturbed...

[synkrotron]

I rarely do reviews of stuff, I'm just not that talented a writer, but a couple of minutes into this and I feel compelled to say something.

Okay, I am twelve minutes into the title track and Graham is taking no prisoners here. The bass is bone shaking, even though headphones. And there is still space for some finer incidental sounds. Totally dark though, and relentless...

Wow! Just reached 16:40 and I feel like I am under attack here... Totally scary! "A wee bit darker" is an understatement... I am not too familiar with Graham's work but I have listened to a few pieces over the last couple of months. This is so much more dark and dynamic.

Twenty five minutes in an things have settled a bit. Still on a very dark theme. Your my attention is gripped as there is so much going on. But not in an overcrowded way. Everything has a place here and is well balanced.

Nearly thirty minutes in now and a more tonal element is trying to break through. Yes, and the bass element is lessening slightly... Despite that, darkness is still omnipresent and I get the feeling that it could all kick off again at any moment.

The growling bass is back and is battling to take over proceedings. Some of the sounds used here are excellent. I will be asking what has been used to create this piece.

Towards the end things are trying to calm down now... The breathy pad is winning over the bass. Very slowly the pad totally takes over and ushers me to quiet safety.......

That was one hell of an experience. I'm going to post what I have written so far and then move onto the next piece

[synkrotron]

More or Less

There is an almost percussive start to this piece. Not in terms of a drum beat as such, more of a feel of rhythm. A breathy pad starts to make itself felt and becomes the centre of attention. I like how it sits to a definite left and right in the stereo image suggesting that it is in fact two separate entities.

This is a more relatively relaxed piece so far.

The beat I mentioned becomes a bit more reinforced as the piece comes to a close.

[synkrotron]

Internal Struggle

Almost straight away there is a sign that things are going to get rough again. But after a huge crescendo of noise a level is reached whereby I feel almost comfortable. There is darkness here still and I still get that feeling of foreboding.

I almost feel like I am walking through a chemical plant or something where stuff is going on all around.


Ah well... I didn't think I'd manage to get through all two hours of this album. I will have to come back later to finish this off...

Cheers for now

andy

[havdis]

Listening now on BC. Really special great work!!

[Maharg]

Wow, thanks for the reviews and the kind comments!! I certainly wasn't expecting such a reaction. Didn't expect a reply at all really.
Thanks synchrotron and havdis, much appreciated.

p.s. I had thought it wasn't dark enough

[ablaut]

I only listened to 'More or Less' for now, but this is great stuff! I'm looking forward to listening to the longer compositions when I have more time.

[synkrotron]

Wow, thanks for the reviews and the kind comments!! I certainly wasn't expecting such a reaction. Didn't expect a reply at all really.
Thanks synchrotron and havdis, much appreciated.

p.s. I had thought it wasn't dark enough

Hi Graham,

I can only apologise for not listening to more of your creations earlier. There is so much to listen too that I sometimes miss some great stuff.

You say that you didn't expect a reply, and I understand what you are saying. For a bunch of peeps that are all creating very similar styles of music, some tend to only post their own stuff and not bother to listen to anything else. I always try to work on the principle that if someone has taken time to listen to my "stuff" then I will always return the favour... That's not to say that I only listen to music by people that have listened to mine though... That can be a self defeating ethos in that you can miss out on some inspirational works.

I have still yet to listen to "Internal Struggle" and "Awareness." I need to put an undisturbed hour aside for that task which may not be until this evening now, but once I have, I will report back.

kind regards,

andy

[Maharg]

Wow, thanks for the reviews and the kind comments!! I certainly wasn't expecting such a reaction. Didn't expect a reply at all really.
Thanks synchrotron and havdis, much appreciated.

p.s. I had thought it wasn't dark enough

Hi Graham,

I can only apologise for not listening to more of your creations earlier. There is so much to listen too that I sometimes miss some great stuff.

You say that you didn't expect a reply, and I understand what you are saying. For a bunch of peeps that are all creating very similar styles of music, some tend to only post their own stuff and not bother to listen to anything else. I always try to work on the principle that if someone has taken time to listen to my "stuff" then I will always return the favour... That's not to say that I only listen to music by people that have listened to mine though... That can be a self defeating ethos in that you can miss out on some inspirational works.

I have still yet to listen to "Internal Struggle" and "Awareness." I need to put an undisturbed hour aside for that task which may not be until this evening now, but once I have, I will report back.

kind regards,

andy

Hi Andy,

Please, no need to apologise for not listening to my music - I don't listen to it myself.
I understand about not finding the time for listening. I try to set aside a few hours each night to listen to new stuff. There is so much of it being released every day that it is impossible to keep up. I do make a special effort to listen to fellow AO members releases as much as possible and even this can be a challenge. Scott Lawlor for example is releasing a new album about every 10 hours (only a slight exaggeration - I was chatting with him earlier today about it).

[Guest]

I only listened to 'More or Less' for now, but this is great stuff! I'm looking forward to listening to the longer compositions when I have more time.

me too - very subtle introduction of water sounds here and there (well they sound like water sounds to me)

[Maharg]

I only listened to 'More or Less' for now, but this is great stuff! I'm looking forward to listening to the longer compositions when I have more time.

me too - very subtle introduction of water sounds here and there (well they sound like water sounds to me)

Your right, they are water sounds. We have had a lot of rain in the last few months and as one does, I have recorded quite a bit of rain and water running/dripping off the roof. Got plenty of bird and wind sounds as well. I always use a lot of field recordings in my mixes. Sometimes heavily processed and other times used as recorded.

[synkrotron]

Hi Graham,

I'm currently glued to my laptop doing some paid work, so I managed to listen to Internal Struggle and Awareness.

Still not ideal, because I am not wholly concentrating on the music.

I liked a lot of the vocal type sounds in Internal Struggle.

Awareness kind of passed by without anything to comment on really. A lot more relaxed, this one, compared to Out There In Here. I need to listen again when that is all I am doing.

By the way, and I find this kind of funny in a way. I realised after first listening to Out There In here, that I had my device volume a lot higher than usual. I think I had been listening to one of my own unmastered mixes just to check something. So that accounts for some of the comments I made in my review of this particular track. I know, from some of our previous chats, that you like to listen on low volume, but I am finding on this one that the dark and foreboding atmosphere is so much more enjoyable when listened to at high volume... Like 11! haha!


Great piece of work this Graham, and I will be adding it to my collection as soon as. In the meantime I've added it to my "wishlist" along with some other stuff on Bandcamp.


cheers

andy

[Maharg]

Thank you Andy for your kind words, perhaps too kind. Very much appreciated.
I do prefer to listen at low volumes. My gain control is permanently set on 1 :o
Having said that, I do give it a crank up now and again to clear away the ear wax and rattle the windows.

I really think it is up to the individual listener to decide despite any recommendations made by the author.

[synkrotron]

I really think it is up to the individual listener to decide despite any recommendations made by the author.

haha! yeah... I'm also a bit of a metal head so my volume control is usually on 11 :D

As a result, I'm not exactly hard of hearing, but it has suffered over the years, as a recent hearing test proved...

By the way, I've just noticed on your main website, as I was browsing some of your art work (paintings) and then your blog (https://grahammcarthur.com/blog/1097...end-of-the-day) that you are doing some ambient guitar stuff. I can't see it on your Bandcamp page so I am assuming that you are still working on it.

I jumped over to your SoundCloud page and spotted this:-



Most interesting... I have got just the one all guitar piece on my SoundCloud page (Corona) but I intend to try some more. I tend to create a drone and then improvise over the top. After a while that can get a bit boring as I end up playing the same phrases. Your guitar piece is something I should be aiming at... very lush


cheers

andy