Nightmares and Dreamscapes

I have uploaded a series of tracks for the Nightmares and Dreamscapes EP. This isn't music in the traditional sense of the word. They are a collection of ambient soundscapes and textures. So I guess I am saying they are ambient sound effects. Some interesting sounds in there which seem to have gone down quite well in some online ambient music communities I hang out in.

Whilst clearing out the loft the other weekend I found a load of old backup discs whith electronic tracks on dating back to 1996. I have put these tracks online so that I have a permanent archive of them. The sound quality isn't brilliant but it brings back a load of memories. I especially like the collection from 2001. The tracks can be found here:

Back in the Day Volume 1 (2001)
Back in the Day Volume 2 (1996)

The Sims Pets on Nintendo DS

You might think it odd me writing about a computer game on this blog. But the reason I am mentioning this game is because it is one of the games I worked on whilst working in my last job at Full Fat Productions. And now the release date is iminent I can talk about it without breach of contract.


My role on this game was as the tools programmer so I did things like image converters etc. The game should be in the shops very soon and I can guarentee you that it's good fun to play. It is insanely cute and is likely to get even the most hardened criminal giggling like a school girl.


In the game you take on the role of vet in sim land and you have to look after other peoples animals. I really like all the sub games where you have to wash the pets or play ball with the dogs. The Nintendo DS stylus is put to great use in this game and the DS almost feels like it was designed for this game.


So, there you have it. Go out and buy it. If you don't have a Nintendo DS, then go buy one of them first :-) It is nearly christmas afterall.

Builders Skips and Wedding Albums

On friday we had a large skip delivered to our house. This is so we could have a thorough tidy up. You know how it is, 2 people live together and then hoard loads of junk. Well, we are fed up with the junk, so are binning it all. Yesterday we sorted the cupboard under the stairs, kitchen and my office and today we binned most of the crap in the loft. You can actually get up into the loft now, its amazing how much shit you accumulate over the years.


After all the junk disposing I did some work on Angela and Johns wedding album. I got all the photos printed the other week after a long selection process, and lots of photoshop processing too improve the colours and removing red eye. We have finally picked an album to put the photos in, which was a hard job as most places sell those horrible scrap books with plastic films over the pages, which we didn't want as they look shit. But we have a really nice album with a leather cover and the photos are looking great in them, as seen in the pics on this article.


I was hoping to get most of the photos in this evening, but I ran out of double sided tape, so will have to finish it off tomorrow.

Country Walk Near Whatstandwell

We've had this week off work, and it has been a good break to use up some holiday before things get crazy at work for the projects that have to be completed before christmas. Most of the week I have either been working on some of my music project, or revising for a .NET programming certification exam I am taking through work. But on friday I didn't work on either and went for a country walk with Neil instead. We did a walk that starts near Whatstandwell on the A6 and goes up to near Cromford.


Neil picked us up at 2pm and we drove to the start of the walk. Once we had got set up for the walk we set off around 2.30. The walk was about 6 miles and we started off by walking down the canal. The weather was quite warm at that point. Although it got very warm when we started the accent up a hill. The hills were fairly steep on this walk, especially as I'm not that fit.


The weather for most of the walk was good, although about half way through it did start to rain. It's a good job we had boots, waterproofs, gators and walking poles for this walk as it got quite slippery. I always feel that I look like a bit of a plonker when I wear gators but they are bloody good when the weather gets nasty and you have to walk through brambles etc.


The whole walk didn't take us that long. We were pretty much complete within 3 hours which is damn good considering we stopped to take phots quite often.


Because it was a Friday we didn't see that many people whilst on the walk. This was pretty good as you can take in the scenary a lot better when there arn't that many people walking around. I prefer doing walks at this time of year when it is a bit cooler as it is easier to wrap up warm than it is to do a walk on a hot day.


I was home by 5.30 and my legs didn't feel too bad. I was tired, but not as tired as I have been on some walks. Especially that 10mile walk we did at Yosemite in America, that was a killer on the legs.


As a reward for doing the walk I treated myself to a few cans of beer and some wine along with a home made curry in the evening. It was bloody nice. I also watched a film in the evening, 'United 93'. It was about one of the planes that got hi-jacked on September 11 2001. The film was very good. This was one of the planes were the passengers fought back against the terrorists. A very emotionally charged film as you know its based on truth. I highly recommend seeing it.

Mini Album Complete

In an earlier post I stated that I had started a new music project, my first for quite a long time. Well I have now completed it and put all the tracks online for free. You can download the tracks from the Twisted Creature website.

If you like dark / industrial ambient music then you should like what I have uploaded. If commercial pop music is more your thing, then you may find these tracks a little odd :-) The vocals on the track called Nox were written and recorded by Mat, and the twisted rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was recorded by Mats 3 year old son Max.

Please leave comments on the Creature website and let me know what you think. Also please do pass the link onto other people if you enjoy the tracks. Another collection of tracks entitles 'Nightmares and Dreamscapes' is also in production and should be available soon. I also have a myspace page set up to help get the album link passed around.

Mat, Clare and Max's For The Weekend

This weekend I went up to Hull to visit Mat, Clare and Max. I got the train up there after work on Friday and got to Hull about 7.30. Mat and Clare were waiting for me at the station so we drove back to the house, ordered a curry and watched an old Monster Club DVD. On Saturday Me and Mat fiddled around with some recording for a few hours whilst Clare took max out to visit some friends. On Saturday evening we went to Mat's neices birthday party as she is 18 this week. The party was good fun. Everyone made something for the buffet, Mat and Clare made a load of onion bahgis for the party. I helped chop 2 bags on onion in the afternoon which was quite a painful thing to do. My eyes were streaming loads, I looked quite emotional.

Max certainly enjoyed the party, he was the first one on the dance floor and was boogying for hours. He even made a lady friend, lucky sod :-) We left the party about 9.30 as Max was totally knackered. Wooing the ladies certainly takes it out of you.

On Sunday we all chilled out in the morning playing games with Max whilst Clare had to go to work, and we had a nice roast chicken dinner in the evening. Was a nice relaxing weekend. Must go up again soon and listen to Max, the little chatter box :-)

Twisted Creature

Been a while since I did any music properly, 6 years to be precise. Started again recently, and mat is helping me out with a few bits this weekend. Watch this space, coming soon :-).