Graham

Propagandhi, they're more or less all I've listened to this week after one of ther tracks came up on a Spotify playlist. They're a name I knew, but I'd never listened to them before, but the bass playing and tone is awesome, so I've been listening to a lot of their records and really enjoying them - politically charged, metallic-punk with fantastic performances. Though lyrically they're quite political, it's not as in your face as someone like Antiflag for example, the lyrics read at times like a polemical essay and at others like an achingly honest diary entry.

I really like Voices seen them a couple of times, but then David Grey is one of my favourite drummers, I like Sam Lyons work too. I had a ticket to see Employed To Serve last night in Brighton, but the thought of driving over from Eastbourne and then standing in a small venue in this heat put me off going.

It's actually about the right price for a courier shipment from the States, but I'm currently implementing an improvement project for my company's spares management, and this is an appalling spares policy.

The Bass Gallery in Camden currently have a US ASAT and Bass Direct have some Tribute models, or If you're near the Sussex coast you can try my SB2

Above the puppets too 😁

It's been a good weekend, Friday was our annual performance for Young Epilepsy's summer ball, this is always a really fun gig, the young people at the charity are always so enthusiastic that it makes it very enjoyable. Saturday was a nice wedding in a converted barn - good sound, lots of space and an appreciative audience again made for a good gig, decent money both nights too. Before we played at the wedding, they had an Elvis tribute, who was great; it was a surprise that the bride arranged for her husband and he sang the first dance. He was a lot of fun and a great entertainer; I really liked that he stuck around to watch our set too, which I wasn't expecting to be honest.

There's a global shortage in PCB components, many manufacturers are discontinuing components or moving them to make to order with long (6-18 month) lead times and large batch sizes. It wouldn't surprise me if there is a part an outfit the size of Darkglass would struggle to get at an economic price.

Not having the sleeves to hand, I'd assume they're writing rather than performance cedits. I've not heard the live lounge version, if a downtuned bass works better than an extended range one for that part (which wouldn't surprise me if it's following other synths) then it definetly makes more sense to play a four as you did.

But then that's synth bass not electric

Jam Artis who plays for Bruno Mars is particularly guilty (is that the right word?) of this, listening to the recordings, he definitely regularly uses a five string when recording, but mostly uses a Fender style 4 in videos/live performance.

Here's a full set from Cynic with some brilliant fretless bass from Sean Malone

After loving Setter Of Unseen Snares by Caina, I was really looking forward to it's follow-up Christ Clad In White Phosphorus, just a year later. Unfortunately, that one just doesn't gel with me, gave it another listen this morning, but gave up halfway through. It's a shame as SOUS was my favourite album of 2015

All of Cynic's work (except the Portal Tapes and the demos where the bassist from Atheist played); Human and Spiritual Healing by Death

Just posted a link to this thread to the GK Facebook page, you never know might help.

Even if the UK distributor doesn't hold stock, it's a production part so GK should have have them available and be able to get one to the UK in a few days

Hearts Alive isn't a bad way for it it end either! I know, Joesph Merrick actually finishes it, but that is very much an outro

Mastodon - Leviathan Off the back of the albums you tried to love thread; it really is superb.

Yeah, with you on that, really wanted to like it and whilst an improvement on Once More... and possibly The Hunter too, it doesn't do it for me. I am a bit sad that the Mastodon who wrote Leviathan doesn't exist anymore, but I understand the need to sustain a career. Try the Call Of The Mastodon EP - I swear the drums on that are just a constant stream of fills!

A ten week wait for a spare is ridiculous when it's a current production item. Are you speaking to GK directly, or going through a dealer?

Two this weekend, 50th birthday at a Surrey golf club Friday night and a pub in Burgess Hill last night. Because of the heat and football, we pushed back the start times both nights, which was a good plan - got more people inside when it cooled down a bit. I traded my G&L 5 string for a Yamamha TRB a couple of weeks ago and this was the second weekend using it, it deffinetely needs a set-up and new set of strings, as I think the neck's been shimmed at some point and it has lighter strings than i'm used to; so I'm getting fret-buzz unless I really concentrate on playing with a light touch. Also, I need to change all my pedalboard cables as some of them have issues, and I had to loose my fuzz pedal last night. Apart from that though, good gigs, particularly the party on Friday.

Reading that article, it's telling that Lars argument is that "Justice has a crap mix, so it's okay for our new album to have a crap mix" 😐

Everything Rancid have done post-Indestructible, and even that was a bit hit and miss. It's a shame as the albums that preceeded it are spectacular, but it's been downhill from there. I don't know if it's age, wealth or the breakdown of Tim and Brody's marriage, but they just don't write albums like they used to.

I now have a gig that night, this is going to require careful negotiation with the wife A guest suggestion would be James Leach from SikTh who has uses some interesting tapping techniques and odd time signature playing, he's also from the south. He is a member on here under the cunningly disguised name @JamesLeach as he was selling a bass a couple of years ago, but I don't know if he's actually active

Leading on from the other thread, I'd say Death Magnetic by Metallica I think when it was released there was a sigh of relief that it wasn't St Anger mk 2, and had better songs and (nominally) better production The songwriting overall is probably better than St Anger which is good to start with, but goes downhill swiftly at the halfway mark but I much prefer the sound of St Anger. Death Magnetic is horribly compressed and whoever had the idea of overdriving the snare, presumably so it sounds like Lars hits it really hard, is a muppet. Also, the songs on this record are over-long and meandering; sure there's solos again, but Kirk seems to have decided that 32 bars of wah pedal noise constitutes a solo. Still, it's better than Hardwired; for what reason did they decide that the thing to do was release a double album? There's been flashes of brilliance in their post-Jason output, but they really need to get rid of the yes-men, find a producer that will kick their derrières and isn't afraid to tell them an idea/song/album sucks and help them re-find the creativity they had in the 80s/90s Things I'd like Metallica to loose: Kirk's wah pedal Snare rolls The mastering compressor James' Doctor Suess book of rhyming lyrics

Fleet Foxes too