Merry new year!

Dusk is now done and dusted. We completed the final mixes on Boxing Day. MP3s will be available through the usual sources very soon. In the meantime, email us if you desperately need a copy.

The first single will be unleashed early next year, and will contain a number (between zero and three) of new non-album tracks.

In the meantime, we'd like to wish everybody a very happy new year.

Perfect Geometry

As the album's release grows ever closer, I'd like to share some thoughts about some of the tracks that made it on - maybe some that didn't. First, Perfect Geometry.

It seems it was started in early 2004, and took around a year and a half to reach completion. I'm particularly pleased with the lyrics, although they're a little bit abstract. There were a number of influences, probably including some science fiction somewhere along the way, but the most obscure is in the second verse, which references the Human League's "A Doorway (?)" (from 1990's dubious Romantic). There's no particularly good reason for this, other than that the title gave me some pointers for where the verse should go.

So why is it called Perfect Geometry? Honestly, I don't know - it was probably one of those cases where the title came first. Over recent years we've found it harder and harder to come up with titles anyway... But I think it fits really well, particularly with the first verse. In some notes I made when I wrote it, I said that since we wrote so many miserable songs, it would be nice to write something about perfection. And so what do we end up with? A miserable song about perfection.

I think the music - entirely Simon's work - is outstanding. It fits really well with the lyrics, and with an unusually half-decent vocal performance, this is definitely a stand-out track for me. According to him, it was originally based on a Kylie Minogue riff, from a track called I Believe in You. Since I've never heard it, I can't comment.

So all told, a noisy electro track of which I'm especially proud...

More next time.

Announcing Dusk

Here is a picture of our new album Dusk. It will be finished very soon (we hope).


This time, there will be twelve tracks, namely...

1. Not Even Close
2. I Have Never
3. Beneath the Silent Skies
4. Calmwaters
5. In the Moonlight
6. Consequences
7. Signs of Life
8. Hidden Context
9. Perfect Geometry
10. Bulletproof
11. The End
12. Red Shadows

We intend to follow this with a single some time in the new year, but we haven't decided what it should be yet.

More commentary and audio samples will follow very shortly, and the album will be done when it is done... (hopefully before Christmas).

By the way, it isn't a Best Of. Well, not intentionally.

Meanwhile, somewhere in outer space

I came up with a track listing/sequence for the album, this weekend. I'm quite pleased with it, and Simon has now approved it, so we'll probably stick with that. Stand by for a full announcement in the next week or so.

This week, I've been listening to obscure German elektro, and would like to recommend the following:

• "Wo Versteckt Sich Gott?" by Witt - it sounds a bit like an elektronik version of Rammstein, which is never a bad thing.
• "Barfuß im Weltall" by Peter-Thomas-Sound-Orchester feat. Giorgio Vocoder - the end theme for a very silly film called Raumpatrouille Orion. If you imagine the music from Austin Powers with a vocoder and beatbox, you'll have the general idea.

That is all.

Tunes

In place of the now traditional weather news, here are a couple of tunes that I quite like at the moment:

• Faithless - Bombs : I think it's a good song with a good video.
• All Saints - Rock Steady : A surprisingly good comeback single.

I did some more mixing at the weekend and half-wrote (or wrote half of) some new songs, but nothing is finished yet.