tiger & panda & ox & otter live at cafe kino: press release

Polite Records are proud to present Tiger & Panda & Ox & Otter Live at Cafe Kino

cat no.: pcd016 
format: CDR/download
artwork: CDR with photographic print, lino printed title and 12 page mini-zine
price: £5 (CDR) £2 (download)

The night this record was made was something special. One of those times that you get so rarely in life when you can't think of anywhere you'd rather be or anything you'd rather be doing. The atmosphere in the basement of Cafe Kino was cosy and warm (thanks to the large crowd mostly -it had been freezing during setup), and it felt like the whole room was willing the performers to do well. 

Henry Ireland and Olly Watson have been my friends for a long time and I am extremely lucky that this is the case. From the outset of this record, you get a taste of what their music is about -at once intensely personally revealing and incredibly shy. The way Henry introduces the concept of the evening and then instantly rubbishes it reflects their style of serious ideas and high concepts refracted through a prism of “let's not take this too seriously, eh?”. Their music is always both serious, but in its own way, not some poe-faced reallyfuckingartisticactually way that often comes out of the independent music scene. 

I recorded the performance in a pretty simple way: 2 large diaphragm condensers in a mid-side stereo pattern. This works by combining the signal of one mic in cardioid pattern facing the front and another in figure of 8 pattern facing both sides. You double up the figure of 8 signal and invert the phase of one of those. Through magic I don't understand, this creates a nice, wide stereo field with a strong centre. I also had a boundary microphone on the back room of the wall to add extra detail (this comes into its own in the noisier parts of the show, when it really picks up the delay repeated keyboard bass notes), and took a direct out from the mixing desk to give me a clean vocal signal. The direct out is what means we can actually hear the boys' lyrics, and is the reason I had a tear in my eye at the end of the show, having been one of the only people in the room who heard exactly what Henry was saying in the midst of the music. 

I am immensely proud to have been a part of this and I hope that I am allowed to record many more Tiger and Panda records in the future. 

-Phil Dodd

polite podcast no.2

oliver watson: loosestrife: press release

Polite Records are proud to present Loosestrife by Oliver Watson...

cat no.: pcd015
format: CDR/download
artwork: recycled brown envelope, handwriting and water colour
price: £5 (CDR) £2 (download)
 
How many songs has Olly Watson written in the last ten years? I doubt that he knows. When I knew him in school he was recording one song a day, onto a minidisc player, after school and his job washing dishes at the bakery down the road. We recently rescued over 100 of his recordings from a laptop that crashed in 2007. 

He's made a shit-tonne of recordings. 

And he has made every one of them in the same punk-rock-as-hell way. His philosophy hasn't changed and even from the earliest, roughest recordings he made, his music has remained free of affectations.

He once wrote a set of rules for recording music, the first of which being 'That microphone is fine where it is'...

His songs are his songs. His recordings are his recordings. That is why it was imporatant that Olly had the freedom to make every aspect of this album himself.

A couple of Summers ago, Olly and Steph walked the Thames path from where they live in London to some rural place similar to where Olly grew up. Loosestrife is full of the experiences of that Summer. The sometimes uncomfortable butting together of urban and rural existance. Memories of a past life picked out of the dog-shitted rubble of crumbling city walls.

How the hell do I describe what it sounds like? Olly's voice is soft as Autumn but he's a powerful singer when he chooses to be. His use of a bit of reverb on this new eight-track gives his quieter moments a spaciousness, like an orange campfire light back in the recesses of a deep, dark cave. He's used omnichord and drum machine sparingly, adding occasional vivid bursts to the pastel shades of his music. The guitar, his main deal, is percussive, ranging from soft woody chord sequences and riffs to grating metalic shangalangs.

Olly is never alone now in his songs. Steph is heard in the background in the flat where they live together, where Olly recorded Loosestrife. She is his companion in all of his stories. His art is a reflection of his life and it is a life that he has built artfully. It is clearly the most important thing to him and his songs simply offer glimpses, friezes of that life.

You can listen to songs from Olly's recovered back catalogue, here.

sent i november: press release

Polite Records are proud to present Sent I November by Tiger & Panda...

cat no.: pcd014 format: CDR/download
artwork: recycled brown card gatefold with lino-printed/hand tinted cover and A3 pastel green liner notes/poster/thing
price: £5 (CDR) £2 (download)

We wrote these songs at the end of 2012 and recorded them early 2013. Sent i November is the original Swedish title of Tove Jansson's Moomin Valley In November. In Swedish 'sent i November' means 'late in November' but in English it could also be a funny way of saying 'I sent November' like as if you are the seasons or like as the author she has subjected her characters to November to see what will happen to them.

We recorded the songs on thin cassette tape.

The music is about the fuzzy frostiness and out-of-tune blackness of late autumn when life hides beneath the surface until spring. The static on the radio at night blows also through the trees and tinny telephone voices speak orange-yellow comfort among acres of dark wilderness. Acoustic guitar plays sweet 'n' muffled 'n' keeps a rock-steady rhythm while electric guitar slips and slides like tectonic plates, accidentally jazzing the fretboard here and there. Further shadows are cast on the walls by the sizzling of a ride cymbal and the freight-train honking of a distant toot-box player.

Tiger & Panda are Olly Watson & Henry Ireland. The other singer on these songs wished to remain anonymous...

encyclopedia: a kind of press release

So it's finished. I'm pretty happy with it. It's more than a year's work.

I printed the inners at Hanway Print and silk-screen printed and bound the rest at home. The foil blocking on the cover was done at the Wyvern Bindery. I was looking into doing it myself but in the end the cost to set up would have been the same and I definitely wouldn't have done such a good job. I was also keen to give Wyvern Bindery some custom after all the friendly help I've had there in the past. They charge a setting fee of £25 for the first line of text and £5 for each additional line. Then it's about £5 per unit for every copy made after that. I think this is justifiable for an artist book.

Right now, I'm still figuring out how to present it. Doing readings is kind of limiting as this book kind of needs to be handled and leafed through to work as an artwork. My current plan is to hold some kind of event at Cafe Kino some time later this year.

I'm also thinking about offering a bespoke binding service for those who want their own personal copies. This makes more sense than mass producing and I don't want to charge for the content. Just the binding.

Speaking of which, I'm providing .PDF copies of this document free of charge to those who would like to read it (there will be some kind of 'this belongs to hrjireland' watermark on the pages) so if you'd like a copy, contact me somehow...

encyclopedia: book belt

A  non-letterpress version of the blurb/book belt. I will be trying to set a letterpress version in the future but I've spent enough money for one day...

copper spires repeat

 Have been experimenting with a repeat print today. The final element was a quotation from a diary entry from Frances' and my trip to Copenhagen last year. This composition really reminds me of Bob Notley.

This will hopefully be the cover material for some sketch books I have bound to sell in my shop(s) so if you want, you can own a piece of this print for not too much money some time soon!

brussels

photo by Frances Dixon

We arrived sleepy and happy into Brussels and perhaps we were caught off guard by the complicated (was it complicated) layout of the station. We got stressed out. In the end, a friendly man helped us back to Brussels Midi. We got a taxi to the hostel instead and things picked up from there.

We changed out of our two night old clothes, had showers and went to the bar for a beer. We walked around the block and had chips with mayonnaise next to the church. I can see the church out of the window now. I can't believe we've made it this far. I know it's not far really but it's the farthest I have traveled on my own planning and I'm pleased it has worked out.

It was a long day but we are on the train home and I am thinking about what a good time we had. It was so good to be with Frances on this big adventure. I have had some of the best experiences of my whole life and that's not even an exaggeration and I'm so happy I could share them with Frances.

lindau

photo by Frances Dixon

maybe this photo was by Frances?

photo by Frances Dixon

It is raining like the last time we left Berlin. We give Ana a text as she had recently moved to the city. It is nice to see all of Berlin one last time on our train ride to the station.

We are on the bottom bunks of a couchette to Munich. We tuck ourselves onto little shelves and lie on our backs in the dark compartment as lights all manner of colours and shapes flicker on the ceiling from the night through the crack in the curtains. It is like a zoetrope. It is a beautiful riot of noise and light but its frequency is hypnotic and I sleep well, though lightly.

We have a tea and a coffee in Munich and head straight back out in the direction of Lindau. Spindly legged conifers gather densely around a river, mist still collecting on its surface. The train crosses a little bridge and there is water all around.

When we get out the town is very quiet and the air is slightly bitter like it gets when winter is coming. Out at the edge of the harbour is a gate guarded by a lion and a lighthouse. Beyond them are the Alps. 

The alps are pitch black and mist hangs about them, the only thing defining them in three dimensions.

berlin

We go back to the train station and reserve couchettes for the train to Munich on Sunday. Then we have enormous  pastries for breakfast. We should have just shared one. There is a quick train to Unter Den Linden and we wander past old buildings and museums. We have lunch from a stand under the U-bahn. It has been a good morning after a strange start.

There are lots of dogs around town, which Frances especially enjoys. She would like an ice cream and in the morning we visit the Stasi Mueum. The atmosphere is bleak and overbearing around the complex that was the Secret Police headquarters

We head to Samaritestrasse to visit the record store from last time. They have so many good things but I won't buy anything this time. 

Frances noticed the sky was grey in three separate layers. We watched the opening of Oktoberfest on television. It looks crazy. I enjoyed walking through Alexanderplatz this evening with the TV tower all lit up.

hamburg

Things are far apart and dark in between. We start to worry about money and the fact that we were spending two nights here but I think it was because we are tired and have had a bad first impression of the city. Our room is actually nice and large and quiet and I am beginning to like the city I see out of the window.


The newspapers are clipped in wooden frames. I noticed this in Copenhagen as well. We both have croissants with butter and jam and unexpectedly large cups of coffee. We take our time with breakfast.

There are many bakeries around and we meet a kind man in a dog supplies shop who gives us lollies.


I am nervous about renting a rowing boat but know that I would regret missing it.The lake is very beautiful but there is no time to appreciate it while rowing. Frances rows first and is the better of the two of us. It occurs to me afterwards that it was strange that no one else was using these boats. The swell on the water is greater than we had expected. Frances laughs nervously as I struggle and Struggle against it. We eventually find that a team rowing effort is the best.

copenhagen & ferry

 photo by France Dixon

 photo by Frances Dixon

Bicycles are lent in every available space and copper spires turning brown to turquoise are all around. I had a pastry for breakfast and Frances had a boiled egg. She had a nice little loaf of bread with it. We wander about and there are many cobbles and ruddy brick buildings and green streaked copper roofs that billow at the bottom.


We are sitting in the quiet carriage and people around us a speaking softly in German and a mixture of Scandinavian languages. I will miss the softness and the understatement and the rest. We can see the sea on either side of the train and rain water is running across the windows. It is all grey and blue. 

We are unexpectedly on a ferry between Denmark and Germany! We go outside and are blown about. I can feel the salt in my hair. Everything is blue plastic and wet. We hold onto each other to approach the rail. The ferry churns the water and huge white plumes burst on the black surface. In the distance, the sky blurs into the sea.