musicians of bremen volume four - finished mastering the tracks

yay the master of the album musicians of bremen volume four is here. in the old days this would have been a literal metal plate for stamping out the record in vinyl (well two of them actually). these days it’s a series of 1s and 0s an a server somewhere.

the guy doing the mastering has done an amazing job. on several tracks instruments seem to have been turned up in the mix when it has been mixed already - how do they do that? and all without sacrificing any quality. guitar parts have emerged from out of the murk. the whole thing sounds well meaty (and other un-PC, rockist metaphors).

the idea (after the howardfest of volume two and the horsemouthfest of volume three) to do something that was the both of them. horsemouth has no idea how they will perform this (nor if they’ll perform it, nor when, nor indeed what spaces actually exist for performance anymore). what is ‘live’ anymore? will deep purple and the blue oyster cult really play the O2 in october? all they can do is release it (and see what happens).

now all that remains is for horsemouth to learn back from the record what he played once a year ago for five minutes. and work out how himself and howard are going to fake those arrangements live.

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a friend has achieved french citizenship (woo-hoo). another has achieved portuguese residency (woo-hoo). others have moved to the republic of ireland. another teaches in bucharest. sadly horsemouth (one welsh granny, one scottish granny who was in fact from yorkshire really) has no way out (really it’s that he did not jump soon enough). for all his talk horsemouth is basically indecisive.

fortunately even in the midst of universal tuberculosis humanity still does wonderful things to cheer horsemouth up - like deposing the statue of the slave-trader colston, rolling it through the streets of bristol and dropping it in the harbour.

horsemouth admires the sheer art happening genius of this - respect due. he worries about them in the midst of the infection (but hey they’re young and they’re masked up - which is now a social virtue strange to relate).

a friend has returned to music (welcome back homegirl). others are getting on with their art. another advocates for more food growing in hackney. some take long bicycle rides. some rise like lions from slumber to struggle once again for social justice. others stay home and care for relatives. some care for children. some make music.

you can see what horsemouth is doing here. he’s giving you a heart warming season ending montage. he’s showing you the social machine and humanity (clever little monkeys) busy beavering away (if that isn’t a mechanical and animal metaphor too far).