Irregular gobbets of news and pointless trivia

10 April 2008
Tedious tech update: after a bit of tinkering, I think I've managed to jury-rig a solution for those toiling in the Microsoft salt pits. If all has gone as planned, IE users will now see a little Flash player with FAWM songs on the main page, like the rest of us. (It's an older version of the player, though, so I'm afraid you're stuck with grey for the time being. I'm working on a more elegant solution.) Firefox users, on the other hand, can enjoy their boutique, lemon-scented Flash player experience the way the gods intended. Mac users? Well, Mac users have probably evolved beyond needing computers to access the internet by now, and are currently viewing this webpage via some kind of cinnamon bun. Shine on you crazy diamonds.

9 April 2008
Well, February was, as usual, a blast. FAWM (February Album Writing Month) is a yearly kick in the pants for songwriters - participants aim to write 14 songs in 28 days, and generally spend February stumbling around in an ecstatic, sleep-deprived state. Over 5000 songs this year, many gems to be found, go fire up the jukebox.

If you're curious to hear what I coughed up, I've installed a little Flash-based song player on the main page which should play a handful of my FAWM demos when you click on it. Let me know if you have any problems. (If it works out, I'm considering using it to feature a 'Song of the Week' in the future. Perhaps a weekly cover version of requested songs.)

Note for those browsing the web with Microsoft Internet Explorer: due to conflict between IE and the psychotic magical elves running the internet, the music player can't be displayed in IE browsers. But don't fear. For the next month or so, you can still hear all the FAWM demos the old-fashioned way at my FAWM page. (Or consider upgrading to Firefox.)

March was a bit grim, so my apologies for the lack of updates. New music on the way. In the meantime, may I direct your attention to two recent covers of Barnadine songs: a lovely version of 'The Clearing' by Ronnie (a.k.a. core), and a lush interpretation of 'Leaves in the Wind' by Caleb Blake. Great stuff, guys. Many thanks for the honour. (You can find the originals in the archive.)

28 January 2008
Moved to new web address: barnadine.net

Waily waily. My previous hosting service died without advance warning last week, so any links to the old site now point into cold, hard space. Sorry about that. But the site's back online with a shiny new host, and a proper domain name, so welcome to Barnadine Music's permanent new home here at www.barnadine.net. (Or just plain barnadine.net, if that's more your style.) Exciting, eh? Come on, don't pretend you're not excited.

Anyway, congratulations on finding your way here, and consider updating your links and bookmarks, if you're in the mood. And if you notice any broken links, or see anyone wandering around the internet looking a little lost and confused, please give them a gentle shove in this direction.

I'll be reconstructing things over the next few days. I might use this as an opportunity to tinker a bit with the site design, so let me know if there's anything you'd like to see changed or improved.

15 January 2008
Merry new year, people of the internet. Let's turn up our amps and give this a spin: Never Alone, a shabby bit of fuzz-rock, with a hopeful or possibly ominous message. Hard to tell. Which seems an appropriate way to greet a new year. Thanks for listening in 2007, and cheers for all your fine feedback. (And a special thank-you to the voters of Australia for telling our 'beloved' ex-PM Howard to go shove a pineapple up his arse last November. I could kiss you.)

Songs I forgot to mention here: Old Man Internet (piano bar misanthropy); 13 Words for Snow (folk pop demo).

21 October 2007
Back from a hiatus with four new songs. The first, and most durable, is another collaboration with the ever talented respirator called You Will Rise. It started with respirator's fascinating rhythm track, which inspired some singing and guitar plucking on my part. Be sure to check out our earlier collaborations if you missed them: City Swing and Crows.

And a bit of catch-up: a small slice of ambient periodicity called Orrery, as well as two tribute pieces to musician friends: Ixox versus Knockman and Markleford Is Waiting.

19 June 2007
I've been neglecting the news. If you don't venture onto the main page, you might have missed a couple of songs from last month - a gentle bit of acoustic pop (Yellow and Green) and a horribly mauled version of a Schubert lied (Horrible Maulings). But enough history. Fresh from the grinder is a boppy little streak of gloom called Get On Board. It started as a homage to the Mills Brothers and the Ink Spots, but went off in its own direction, as these things do. Hope you're all well, in that vague generalised internet sort of way.

6 March 2007
Another collaboration sees light of day. It's called The Wind and the Tide, and it's a collaboration with the wonderful French musician Xavier Hosxe, also known as Ixox. Xavier was kind enough to sing and play flute, as well as correct my bad French. (You can read the lyrics here.) Hop on over to Xavier's website, where there's a whole cd's worth of melodic, imaginative music to listen to, as well as a VST flute plugin for those of us who don't have a flute lying around (or the talent to play it). I've always been a fan of Xavier's music - well worth a visit.

1 March 2007
My second year at FAWM (February Album Writing Month) has yielded another small boatload of new material. If you're curious, feel free to browse through 14 demos of varying quality and let me know what you think. I'll leave them up till the end of March. Great fun, FAWM. I recommend it highly if you're a lazy musician like me.

16 January 2007
A tiny, semi-improvised instrumental called Pedlar & Son. Nothing much to say. It is what it is.

8 January 2007
Welcome to another year. I'm still giving 2007 a wary eye, but let's kick things off with a prozac pop song. It's called Little Machines, and it's a collaboration with the talented George Fox, whom you may know as utm or You(tm). He did the good bits. George has been creating some amazing podcasts under the rubric Desperate Measures, which people with ears and a broadband connection should investigate. Hour-long safaris for the brain.

Many thanks to those who took the time to send me comments and feedback last year, and also to those mysterious people who just wandered in and listened. Hope to give you more to chew on in 2007.

18 December 2006
The 'Man of Grace' saga continues! Now you can hear Wopelka's translation (see the news entry below) sung by French singer Daniel Pompougnac. A new dimension added to an old favourite.

Listen to more of Daniel's music (and investigate his VST plugins) at his website.

18 October 2006
After close to a year's gestation, the seed breaks through the soil. It's a collaboration with strange and soulful Anglo-Tokyo troubadour knockman (a.k.a. wildchurch), who did the lion's share of the work. Knockman suggested a theme and sent me a musical seed to work from. I wrote some lyrics and mauled the song into a verse-chorus structure. Knockman then watered and cultivated the thing to maturity, mulching it with layers of musical detail. And lawks, we both sing.

If you haven't yet encountered knockman in your internet travels, visit his world and leave enriched.

12 October 2006
The new song's based (very, very loosely) on an old Renaissance dance form, the Canary or Canario. The story goes:

The Canario is thought to have originated from Spain, where it was purportedly derived from a dance done by the natives of the Canary Islands. The Spanish explorers thought that the native dance looked like a canary hopping on its perch, hence they named the dance the "Canary", and subsequently named the islands the "Canary Islands".

Which is utter rot, sadly. I came across the dance via 'La Canarie' from Praetorius' famous Terpsichore collection of 1612. If you want to dance along, you can find thorough instructions here, complete with baffling diagrams.

21 September 2006
Once again, I've been lazy about putting up new songs, so here are two at once. Leaves in the Wind is a melancholy piano ballad I forgot to post last month. The new one is a folky guitar song ruminating on Australia's past. It's called The Clearing. The current government is keen to whitewash our nation's history lest we learn any lessons from it. Let's celebrate 'Aussie values' while locking up refugees and tearing away workers' rights and fanning xenophobia. Sigh. Sorry. Black hole ironies down here at the moment. Well overdue for a cheerful song, you say? Hmm. You may be right.

28 July 2006
Luigi Felici (aka 'liqih'), Italian musician and the creative mind behind a whole range of unique virtual instruments, has created a snazzy remix of 'Mohandas!'. You can find it on his music page, along with his own compositions. Thanks, liqih!

13 July 2006
Two new songs. Well, one new song and one song from last month that I forgot to put up on the site. Refrain began as a ham-fisted fusion of Chopin and the boogie woogie. Then later on it turns sort of French. Mohandas! is a stirring and rather stupid tribute to Gandhi, heavyweight champion of the world.

6 June 2006
At last, Crows! It's a new collaboration with talented multi-instrumentalist and renaissance man respirator. We co-wrote the chords, then respirator played all the instruments and I did the singing-type stuff. Lots of wonderful sounds going on in here. It repays repeated listening. Send us an email if it tickles your fancy, and keep a lazy eye open for further Aussie-Danish collaborations.

23 April 2006
Heroic internet radio station EMC radio has been going through some renovations, most importantly increasing the broadcast quality to 128kbps (='pretty darn decent'). They've also created a reviews section, where three kind and possibly Irish reviewers have written articles on my songs. Pop over and have a look/listen sometime.

18 April 2006
A small new song in 5/4 by the name of Ward. Just voice and nylon-string guitar. I'm feeling a persistent pull towards the acoustic these days, so my apologies to electronica fans. If you're here for the bleeps and bloops, I'm sure they'll be back at some point.

The FAWM 2006 website will be closing its doors at the end of the month, I believe, beyond which point I doubt I'll be keeping my demos freely available. Until then, go wild.

6 March 2006
A belated welcome to 2006. Not much action on the Barnadine front, though I haven't been completely idle. I recently wrote an album-load of new material for FAWM (February Album Writing Month), so pop on over if you want to hear 15 new demos in the rough. Some talented folk at FAWM, have a browse around while you're there.

Also posted 'Umma Eyrt', a short a cappella song I wrote in January. The required theme was 'Martian Folk'. The lyrics are a kind of degenerated English.

N.B. For reasons of space, I have had to take down some of the older, shabbier Barnadine tunes from the archives. They are still available on request, if a mad nostalgic urge should seize you.

5 November 2005
I grew up in the age of the fearsome Commodore 64. Mostly I recovered, but occasionally symptoms recur, as in this new song. It bleeps. It bloops. It contains, I'm afraid, singing chipmunks. And what's that? A cryptic yet groovy denunciation of Western imperialism? Yippee. And man, wasn't Impossible Mission a great game? Destroy him, my robots!

2 November 2005
Hello. How are you? Here's something I forgot to post. It's a short thing I made for a Halloween contest, a mash-up stitched together from the rotting flesh of other songs. Full title: 'I don't think these are my legs, it's very hard to walk, and eventually I'm going to have to sit down and think about what it all means...' (Take that, Fiona Apple.) Thanks to the folks at KVR for the corpses. I also wrote an objective analysis of the other entries, since it is human to become bored.

More tunes in the works, including a follow-up collaboration with the mighty respirator. Intriguing. I recommend a blend of patience and excited anticipation.

2 October 2005
New music. It's a collaboration with innovative Danish musician respirator. It's called City Swing. I came up with a tune and sang. Pretty much everything else is respirator's. To the surprise of both of us, it turned out quite gentle and poppy. If you enjoy it, why not nip over to respirator's site and let him know. It might give him a break from moping around castles, talking to skulls and avenging his father's death. There, I've run out of Danish stereotypes. Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to wrestle a crocodile while surfing and eating vegemite.

19 September 2005
The site's almost fully CSS now. I face the future smiling. But that's not important. All it really means is that the page might look a bit wonky if you're still running some crusty old web browser from the dark ages. But all the songs should still be accessible. Consider switching to Firefox, the best of the current browsers.

8 September 2005
The kind folk at EMC radio have invited me to be a featured artist next week, Mon 12th - Fri 16th September. I believe this will take the form of 15-minute sets, 3 times a day, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. (In the UK, at least. Possibly a different day where you live.) If you're interested, wander over and take a look at their programme schedule to deduce what time the specials will be broadcast in your time zone, or just drop in and listen. I've sent them an unreleased mystery track to whet your appetite. Many thanks to Rob and the others at EMC. Cheers, guys!

(Here's a time zone converter to avoid confusion and mental distress.)

3 September 2005
Posted a new song, Flown. It's a simple piece, just voice and synthesiser, with lyrics inspired by Bede, the medieval historian. The free MiniMogueVA was used for all the synthesiser parts.

29 August 2005
Remember that tango I did last month? I know what you're thinking - "When the hell is someone going to sing that in French?" Well, wait no longer! The talented Wopelka has translated the lyrics and sung 'A Man of Grace' in French. And so have I. Click here for all the lurid details.

18 August 2005
Added some new music - A (Not) Very Cellular Song. It's a cover of an old tune by the Incredible String Band. The original runs for nearly quarter of an hour and has about 8 sections. I took a section about amoebae and threw in a drunken pirate singalong.

17 August 2005
While I remember - if you listen to internet radio and have eclectic tastes, you may be interested in EMC radio. If you're unlucky, you may hit one of my tunes, but it's more likely you'll hear something good. The founders are actively soliciting new music, so if you're a musician yourself, let them know.

16 August 2005
Also, a facelift to the website. Bright and papery this time. Which no doubt has Deep Significance. Perhaps you prefer the previous version, dark and wet and kind of green. (Or for that matter, the very first incarnation, carved out of primeval internet rock.) If you have time to burn, tell me what you think of the new design. Hate it? Supremely indifferent?

16 August 2005
Just added this page, where the keen can quickly see what's new in these parts. And knowing me I'll probably forget about it completely and never post here again. Or will I? It's the uncertainty that makes it so exciting. Okay, look, at a bare minimum I will post a quick update here whenever I upload a new song. Probably.