'the big wheel of heaven came down over the little wheel of daily life'

there is a late photo of robbie basho (1985) from a newspaper article a year or so before his death - it is the anniversary of his birth today - horsemouth will be listening to some of his music, he recommends you do the same. the sun is up and peeking through the trees. horsemouth has had his (instant) coffee. robbie basho was mightily cosmic (horsemouth less so).

howard always laughs a bit when horsemouth claims to be influenced by these finger-pickers (basho, fahey etc.), as he did to howard’s next door neighbour yesterday, simply because horsemouth doesn’t put enough work in to be able to play those complicated fingerpicking patterns. frankly he tends to play carter-style (tune in the bass and a chord to keep time) and keep it simple (the better to facilitate singing and recording).

yesterday horsemouth, howard and pete recorded a good solid version of the devil song - horsemouth thanks howard for working through despite having been to the dentist in the morning and pete for adding some double bass at short notice. horsemouth recorded a guitar pass, a vocal, a vocal of him saying the devil at various opportune moments and a ukulele part (broadly a bolero). they recorded two tracks of pete’s bass. he’s pleased (at last he has it in the can).

that’s the end of the recording for this year - now they will import the recordings into cubase and start fiddling about with it whenever they have a spare moment.

to celebrate the end of recording horsemouth and howard adjourned at the sign of the owltopus for a thai curry and a couple of pints. sadly the girl with the owltopus tattoo and the large dude with the beard were gone and the music has gone terrible. still the food and beer was good.