Ian Boddy

There's no rhyme or reason to this but some compositions just arrive in your head fully formed and are easy to record whilst others have to be built up brick by brick, torn down, fiddled with and rearranged several times. Yet the end results can be just as good as each other.

On a wild & windy Sunday I'm deep in my studio working on my new studio album. The modular wall has, literally, wires everywhere as I work as though it's one big system constantly connecting various modules from one section to another.

Possibly the greatest invention of all time - the Cheese Belt (think of a Sushi Belt but with cheese & charcuterie) alongside a nice red wine flight selection down at Blacks Corner at Culture House Sunderland . A lovely way to spend a Thursday afternoon.

Latest read has been 'The Ringing Stones' by my good friend John Palmer. Lovely to see this published as a physical book. It centres around a fantasy tale mining the myths & legends of Exmoor with some big cat action thrown in for good measure. jonpalmer1.bandcamp.com/merch/the-ri...

Setting up my venerable Roland System 100-M with 4 x VCO voices to be arpeggiated by the 184 polyphonic keyboard. The tuning is tricky so using 4 x AJH V-Scales to help. Each of the 4 voices can be tweaked independently for some interesting rhythmic effects.

Upgrading my studio with the SSL Big Six. This is a fabulous piece of hardware that seamlessly combines the functions of an analogue mixer with a high quality audio interface for my MAC & the ability to play tracks back from the DAW (Ableton Live) into the mixer. Sounding great to my ears.

The next release (20th Nov) on the DiN label will be 'Capstone' (DiN98), a 2CD album from the concert I performed alongside @flcartographer.bsky.social & @sulkrooms.bsky.social in Liverpool on 25th April at the Capstone Theatre in Liverpool including our epic 3-way jam session at the end of the gig.

Next up is simply sequencing the Prophet 10 via CV/Gate from the OXI One. Using the Poly Mod section at the top left to introduce extra filter & oscillator modulations. Nice & easy to set up and sonically sounding great.

Literal first steps with the Prophet 10 using just a couple of their pre-sets. However the signal is going through a Moogerfooger Phaser followed by Analog Delay and finally the BBD delay in the Wellspring. Such a rich, beautiful, warm analogue tone. This is my kind of sound.

Sitting pretty in the DiN studio is the Sequential Circuits Prophet 10. Essentially a remake of the classic Prophet 5 but with double the polyphony, hence the 10 moniker, I am really looking forward to getting into this beautiful instrument.

Latest read has been this collection of short stories, 'The Pale Ape & Other Pulses' by M.P.Shiel. A British author known for his decadent writing and at times Poesque explorations of morbid decay. This handsome volume is by Tartarus Press and the stories were first published as a collection in 1911

Whilst at Sonority Designs in Birmingham playing a live set those lovely folk from the Chord Company presented me with a bunch of extremely high quality mini-jack cables to use with my Eurorack systems. To paraphrase a very famous beer advert - "Probably the best Eurorack patch cables in the world".

Magnificent performance last evening, on the 90th birthday of Steve Reich, of Music For 18 Musicians played by by the Colin Currie Group & Royal Northern Sinfonia. This is one of the most incredible concerts I've ever seen/heard & the overhead projection showed the choreography involved to play it.

After my gig at the Awakenings I went down to Birmingham to play a private session at Sonority Design. What an incredible place, simply the best speaker/room system I've ever heard - if only PA could sound this good. ATC 150 speakers powered by Chord Electronics Ultima3 amps & Chord Company cables.

Last weekend was a real blast with two concerts & a round trip to Rugeley & Birmingham. Here are some photos from my Awakenings set at Rugeley taken by Phil Booth. I've recorded this all onto multi-track HD so will be going through that in the next few weeks. A very enjoyable event to play.

Conundrum (DiN27) by Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock & Bernhard Wöstheinrich is free to download / name your price till the end of October @ dinrecords.bandcamp.com/album/conund... DiN has always fostered an environment where unusual musical alliances can flourish and Conundrum is certainly such an album.

Thanks to @electronicsound.bsky.social .social for their review of 'Juxtapositions' (DiN97) my latest collaboration with @scannerdot.com (Scanner). "Juxtapositions finds a perfect balance between their approaches, rather like sands shifting through cycling patterns and nebulous soundscapes".

Well it's goodbye to Kidlandlee high up in the Cheviots where we've spent a blissfully peaceful week. Lot's of beautiful walking with our dog Lola far from the white noise of the world at large.

@ianboddy.bsky.social Boddy/Scanner - Juxtapositions (Awesome album)

Lots of mycological action in our wanderings around Kidlandlee in Northumberland.

Buchlaing in the Cheviots.

Latest read has been ‘The Memory Police’ by Yoko Ogawa. This dystopian sci-fi novel was published in 1994, rather Kafkaesque in tone with Orwellian themes it is beautifully written & has a haunting quality about it. Thoroughly recommended.

Our view for the next week. Far from the madding crowd.

Only a couple of weeks to go now till my gig at the Awakenings on 26th September. Ably supported by Swansither & Jon Palmer this should be a great evening of electronic music & if you can't make it personally there are virtual tickets available. Link in the poster.

Bit of a cry for help here - is there anyone out there who can read crash logs from a MAC - have a Mini Pro that has started restarting itself and the crash logs mention a "kernel panic" - whatever that is. Need to sort this out somehow. Cheers.

A little reminder for our Listening Party tomorrow night, Thursday 10 September at 19.30 GMT. A chance to listen to the album with @ianboddy.bsky.social and myself and eat cake, have a drink and chat with us 😁 dinrecords.bandcamp.com/merch/juxtap...

Juxtapositions (DiN97) Listening Party Thursday September 10th @ 7:30 PM BST = GMT + 1 dinrecords.bandcamp.com/merch/juxtapositions-din97-listening-party Join Ian Boddy & @scannerdot.com (Scanner) to listen to & chat about their new collaborative album, 'Juxtapositions' (DiN97).

Fantastic review of 'Juxtapositions' (DiN97), my new collaborative album with @scannerdot.com over at @igloomag.bsky.social. igloomag.com/reviews/bodd... "Juxtapositions offers the pleasure of hearing two distinctive musical voices discover new possibilities through their interaction".

First review in for 'Juxtapositions' my new collaborative album with @scannerdot.com from @moonbuilding.bsky.social. moonbuilding.substack.com/p/issue-120-... "A collaboration between Ian & Scanner was always going to be good, but this really hits the spot and should be embraced by fans of both".

Join myself & @scannerdot.com (Scanner) to listen to & chat about our new collaborative album, 'Juxtapositions' (DiN97) on Thursday 10th September @ 7:30PM BST. dinrecords.bandcamp.com/merch/juxtap...

Out now on limited edition Digipak CD, 'Juxtapositions' (DiN97), a new collaboration between myself and @scannerdot.com (Scanner). dinrecords.bandcamp.com/album/juxtap...

My A. E. van Vogt marathon has ended (for now) in reading the 'The Book of Ptath' published in 1947. So that is 23 out of 35 or 36 (depending on the source) books. I'll try, over time, to fill in the gaps, as it would be interesting to read the full oeuvre of a particular author.

Obsessive Surrealism (DiN26) by Parallel Worlds is free to download / name your price until the end of September. dinrecords.bandcamp.com/album/obsess... Steady, organic rhythmic structures are overlaid with deceptively simple melodies that remind one of some lost John Carpenter soundtrack.

Remembering Mark.

It’s been an Orvaltastic kind of day.

Further work preparing for my gig at the Awakenings. This case is doing all the drums via the Endorphines Blck_Noir triggered by the Varigate 8+. Further percussion via Braids into an AJH Matrix Filter triggered by a Doepfer Mini Sequencer and FX from Rings through a Cwejman Frequency Shifter.

Latest read has been the novella 'Carmilla' by Sheidan Le Fanu. Published in 1872 it predated Bram Stoker's Dracula by 25 years. It really was ahead of it's time and set up the whole vampire / gothic horror genre. He uses an interesting old name for a vampire, Oupire derived from the Polish Upiór.

Further work for my upcoming gig at the Awakenings on 26th September. Here is a close up of me improvising on the Analogue Systems French Connection keyboard (that mimics the playing style of an Ondes Martenot) using the Make Noise O-Coast as the synth voice with FX from a Boss DD20 & Microcosm.

Lovely little jaunt to Crook Hall Gardens in Durham. Can’t believe we’ve never been here before but they really are beautiful. A relaxing way to spend a little time meandering about.

One of the beauties about going into an independent bookshop is discovering a new author or novel. Such was the case with this, 'German Fantasia' , by French author Philippe Claudel. Fantasia here is inferring the musical form, not fantasy, and the prose is beautifully written & evocative.

It’s time to visit.

Amazing evening last night in the company of the Whitburn Ringing Group who are a dedicated team who track migratory bird populations. Last night was the first time I've ever seen a Storm Petrel - a beautiful little bird that spends most of it's life at sea and is also nocturnal.

A gentle reminder that the DiN summer sale continues with 25% off everything on the DiN Bandcamp store until the end of the month. Use the following discount code at checkout on CD, vinyl, digital, t-shirts, Eurorack modules, prints and even the total discography dinsum26 dinrecords.bandcamp.com

Latest read in my A. E. van Vogt marathon has been 'Null-A Three'. Published in 1985 this was the second last novel he ever published and is the third in the series of the adventures of the multiple versions of Gilbert Gosseyn, with many references to General Semantics.

AOTD #12: Bluetech - Petit Constellations (DiN) Solo synth subtly inspired by Plantasia, but with a scale that spans from the microscopic to the cosmic. The concept is one thing, but the intricate, ever-winding melodies are what make it so captivating. An absolutely stellar piece of work.

Becomes more endearing with each and every encounter. 'Petite Constellations' (2026) from Bluetech (2026). Some beautifully lyrical electronica here, and very pleasing on the ear dinrecords.bandcamp.com/album/petite...

Just over 90% coverage here in Sunderland. Celestial mechanics doing its thing & a privilege to see. I’m sure there’ll be loads of far better photos than we managed on our iPhones so instead I’m posting a picture of Wendy & I looking all Outer Limits like.

Next one in my A. E. van Vogt reading marathon is 'The Silkie' published in 1969. I really liked this one with the whole concept of the Silkie able to exist in 3 forms; water, human & space being very cool. This edition also has one of my favourite sci-fi book art covers by Bruce Pennington.

Releasing on 4th September on limited edition Digipak CD, 'Juxtapositions' (DiN97) is a new collaboration between myself & @scannerdot.com. Demo Mix available here for your listening pleasure: tinyurl.com/2n57s76w

Now playing ‘Chopin Etudes’ performed by Maurizio Pollini. Do yourself a favour and listen to the opening piece Etude No.1 in C Major often called the Waterfall. Apart from the incredible technique on display to play this there’s something incredibly beautiful about the harmonies within this piece.