podcast

The Darkroom podcast returns

After what turned out to be almost exactly three years, our podcast is back in action.

And even more unexpectedly, we made a little ambient video to go with the new track:

rose bengal on Vimeo.


Os, February 2013

Random updates

It's been quiet here on the blog for a while, but stuff is going on behind the scenes.

A couple of podcast updates have gone out, largely based on the ever-growing Darkroom modular synth. Check them out if you've not already - they offer some clues as to where you can expect the next album to be going.

Also, on November 4th & 25th we indulged in a substantial amount of recording. Largely bass on the 4th, and all guitar on the 25th. For the gearheads - Mike used a Harley Benton GA5 head & some nameless old cab, mic'd up with an SM57 and the previously blogged T.Bone ribbon. Pedals included the Space Echo, a tremolo, a phaser and any number of random fuzzes (often two at once).

There's a good feeling in the Darkroom about this new album right now. To me it somehow feels more 'grown up' than anything we've done before. Definitely a progression from the last one, & we're still pretty chuffed with that.

Os, November 2009

icescapes.tv

Check out this episode of icescapes.tv, a video podcast dedicated to footage of the Arctic and Antarctic. Music by Darkroom - the podcast episode 'Calling Card 2'. Who'd'a thunk it?


Camp Raven from icescapes on Vimeo.

Os, Feb 2009

Podcast & Improvizone

As you may have noticed our podcast is back in action, after a longer-than-normal hiatus late last year. (Links to the podcast are in the sidebar to the left.)

There's been a lot of tie-in with the Improvizone podcast recently. The latest podcast track, the snappily named 'iz20080528_0033', is a version of a previous Improvizone download (this one) with the bass removed to make it a more ambient affair. Similarly, the previous Darkroom podcast track 'iz20080730endwashes' recently resurfaced on Improvizone, with bass and drums intact, here.

Os, Jan 2009

Darkroom interviewed on WeHeartMusic Radio

Mike and I were interviewed on Sunday for the WeHeartMusic Radio podcast. A big thanks to Vu for making it happen.

You can listen to it here. If you download the whole show, or use the embedded player on the page, our bit starts at about 18:15 in. Or you can download just our section (lower down on the page).

Possibly my favourite quote from the interview: "songs... with lyrics and everything".

Sometimes I forget just how far outside the conventional boundaries of pop we operate.

os, Nov 2008

Darkroom on the BBC

A while back I alluded to us being commissioned to do some music for TV - I can finally reveal what that was all about.

We were asked by our good friend (and fan!) Richard Smith to do some music for a special report on the Securitas robbery at Tonbridge, Kent. Yesterday the trial ended and the pieces were shown on the BBC's South East Today show. Some seven minutes of original Darkroom material was used over three sections.

You can currently stream those pieces from the BBC website - go to www.bbc.co.uk/southeasttoday/latest_stories and look for the sections entitled "The story of a £53m heist", "Heist family's ordeal" and "The robbery that went wrong". It's not clear that these are going to be available long term, so go watch them now before it's too late.

This was a fascinating experience for us, not least because of the complete turnaround in track length from what we're used to - we usually improvise for half an hour at a time, and these pieces needed to be 10-30 seconds long!

Watch out for some versions of these tracks appearing very soon on our podcast.

os, Jan 2008

Update: The first podcast piece is up - 3 more to follow. Also there's a permanent home for the videos now on the BBC website here - the direct video links are here and here.

Darkroom getting lots of play on SomaFM

I stumbled across this link the other day: http://www.buzztter.com/en/k/darkroom

It's some baffling twitter-alike Japanese site, but it does give a nice indication of recent Darkroom activity on SomaFM.

I knew we were getting a fair amount of play on their DroneZone channel, but it would seem that Fallout 3 has become a favourite on their (relatively recently added) Doomed channel.

Which is nice.

os, Jan 2008

Darkroom showcased on the Ambientia podcast

Arms Full Of Sound's incredible keyboard setup

Slightly old news, but I'm posting it now for completeness, since we never mentioned it at the time.

Back in March 2008 Darkroom were featured on Ambientia, an ambient music podcast hosted by the charismatic Paul Needler (aka Ned). Ned's own musical project is Arms Full Of Sound, which was the content of his podcast for its first season, but recently he's been featuring the music of other ambient artists.

The podcast is at armsfullofsound.blogspot.com.

os, Jan 2008