Braindump

10th December 2009 - Weaponizer.com has declaired Shouting at the Wind their album of the year!!! Here are some of the nice words that they said:

Eaters new album Shouting At The Wind is nothing short of a masterpiece. I know that when I love a piece of music with a fierce passion, my comments can tend towards hyperbole and exaggeration – but please listen to me on this. Shouting... is the rawest, most honest, brutal, brilliant and beautiful album I have heard this year, and effortlessly places itself alongside the absolute best of Edinburgh’s hip-hop scene (not to mention joyously trouncing pretty much every other album released in 2009).

This is a collection that reaches the dizzy heights of perfection achieved by Penpushers on their first album Last Vestige of Holism, and the EP Void Engineers. It is an album that only the Eaters could have made, full of the piss and vinegar that inevitably comes with more than a decade of experiences both bitter and sweet in a scene that is consistently misrepresented, slept on and derided by all but the most faithful of listeners. It’s an album that makes you want to keep believing in the ability of regional hip-hop to transcend its isolationist position – and it is proof that Eaters are just getting better with age and experience. Here is a track by track guide.

Slap The Deluded
The album’s highlight for me – utterly exquisite finger-picked guitar oscillates behind a verse of searing honesty and intensity. Slap The Deluded succeeds not only out as a stand-alone track, with its beguiling melodies and sublimely eloquent writing; it also manages to do something that hip-hop as a whole has rarely (if ever) managed to do. It is genuinely moving. I’m not ashamed to say that I actually cried when I first heard this. That Laughing Gear had written something so brutally self-revealing (“This is me speaking very clearly...”) genuinely astonished me, and continues to astound with each listen. This track raises the bar of writing not just for Scottish hip-hop, but for song writing in general. His softly-inflected, gentle delivery of the lyric brings out the technically superlative character of his writing (“I’m a complicated and unique individual / Just like everybody else...”), and marks Laughing Gear as not only a great emcee, but also one of Scotland’s most important and talented writers. Incredible, mind-blowing stuff.

Go and support Scotland’s best independent band – for fucks sake, put down your (great, but much-hyped) Frightened Rabbit CDs and your Franz Ferdinand 7inches, leave your cheesy dubstep and boring minimal techno pish alone for a minute, and go and buy this instead. Eaters should be on The South Bank Show by now, and we as a community need to start recognising this and spending as much money as we can on their music. Got that? GOT THAT? Good.

Shouting At The Wind is without a doubt the best album I have heard all year, by a long chalk – better than Anti-Pop’s new effort, or the incredible Thavius Beck album (which would have topped my best-of list last month) because of its feral intensity and twisted, damaged beauty.

The honesty of Laughing Gear’s lyrics and the by turns delicate and brooding sonic architecture of Tuck Pendleton’s tracks make this an instant classic – Shouting At The Wind is an album which I will be listening to for years to come, and playing to my children.


		Eaters mp3s - Click on title to listen Digest - The Last Christmas Digest - Transparency Digest - Backwards Evolution Digest - Rappaz R Stil Dizleczic Optimum - Airlock Optimum - Electrify Optimum - Captian Moonshooter v Death Scorpion Watchmaker - Workings Watchmaker - Moonphase Watchmaker - Openface Five Knives EP Leftovers LP Wives - Brainhoover Wives - Deformaties Wives - Puzzlebox B-Boy FM Part One The Pesky Varmints - Bravelung Temper Bite Marks ep (black lantern records) Shouting At the Wind - Out Now! Buy it - it'll make you a better person. Wives LP - Buy now and.... be happy. Lauging Gear Reviews Stuff!
15th May 2010 - It's been a bad month at work but a good week for tunes. Listened to B Dolans - Sunken House Fallen City. Ace. Production from Alias is as good as I'd hoped for and B Dolan has stuck to the raps and less the spoken word which ensures the momentum maintained. Best album since Them's last offering. Next up Sage Francis's album. In addition to being a fan I've been writing and rehersing and generally getting into a good groove. Finally - here's the flier for the next gig.
7th May 2010 - I started to put together a reviews page a while ago. The inital links are there but I've been busy (work, child with chicken pox, funeral, etc) so I've never got round to finishing it yet. But in the meantime here's one to start with. A Tribe Called Quest - The Love Movement. I bought this when it first came out. I am still a huge Quest fan, but I was so upset at the commercial and flat feel of the album I sold it. Several years later (ie last week) I thought I'd give it a second shot and bought the CD for a fiver. First off, I still remember most of the tunes but this time I got it. There was a real continuation in the style from Mr Incognito which I had never picked up on originally - a sparceness of beats and bass notes with a hint of a sample hook. And quite a few of them are real head nodders. The verses still felt a little lacking in substance compaired to the previous albums but they are still a cut above the majority of rappers in the last 30 years of the music. There are low points, Give Me being dragged down by an awful chorus where Q Tip sings, and some instrumental that you need to be blinded by love for the group tp accept. If someone else made these I'd disregard - but somehow with Tribe it works. I think that there are about 5 excellent tunes on the album and the rest are very easy on the ear (I got this and B Dolan's new album at the same time and still haven't listened to that becuase Quest is on repeat). To sum up. This is the worst Quest album but it may have been ahead of it's time as right now - it stands up against a lot of new release. That includes the solo Q Tip albums which are painful.
30th March 2010 - I'm stuck on a bus as the trains are flooded. It's raining and windy outside. I have a headache and there is a man whistling in a flat tone. I suspect that it's an old man who is making a point regarding head phone leakage. I wish violence upon him. Anyway. Every cloud etc and so I thought I'd write an entry. Bite Marks is out and some folk have said nice things about it and it's getting some airplay. This time round Black Lantern are doing the promotion which has really made me realise how much I don't miss that side of things. Never ones for resting on our laurels, we have started writing the next LP. We're also putting together and practicing a couple of sets as we have some gigs coming up! Both at the Roxy Arthouse in Edinburgh and one in June (10th) and one in August (9th). The August gig is part of the Edinburgh Festival on a show being put on by Black Lantern. Being gainfully employed and (mostly) with family, we don't gig very often. But these are shaping up nicely so come along, enjoy the tunes and maybe say hello. Finally, I have decided to write a script to finish Twin Peaks. It'll be my first ever script and I'm not suffering from delusions of grandure, but if I finish it I'll have ticked of one of my life ambitions. If Lynch responds even better. If it gets made I'll probably explode. I've got ideas and I'm not scared to use them. That man is still fucking whistelling. There will be trouble...
13th March - As I mentioned in previous blog entries, we have been working on a remix ep for Black Lantern Music. Well, we finished it and now it's up and ready for you all to download from here www.blacklanternmusic.com It's a bit early to say how well it's gone down, but we like it and we feel it's a worth addition to our list of releases. Take a listen and let us know what you think if you want. Contact details at the bottom of each page.
21st February 2010 - Don't know how many folk picked up on my Shenmue 3 reference in Slap the Deluded, but I do keep an eye out for any news on this. Bit like hoping that I'll find out what happens to Cooper stuck in the Lodge (he was supposed to be 25 years older in the intial dream sequence so maybe it getting close to time) or that Carnivale will have a third series made (but in the same style as the first one). Anyhow, oddly enough Sega's new racer has come out on and Ryo's one of the playable characters. It's got me thinking and spending too long reading forums analysing two line responses from sega and trying to devine some indication that it's going to happen. Logically, I'm not sure we will ever get it - but I hope and dream. I only have a Wii at the moment, but I would buy another consol to play it. Best. Game. Ever.
18th February 2010 - Over the last few weeks we have been remixing a handfull of older tracks to be released as an ep on BlackLanternmusic.com which is an offspring of Weaponizer. They are almost done now and the track list runs as follows - Lab Man, Last Christmas, Backwards Evolution, Puzzle Box, Moonshooter v Death Scorpion & Rappaz R Dislexzik (already on this site for download). We took the time to rerecord some of the tracks and left some. Whatever was required. I'm really happy with them all and we should be done in a week or so. I've also finished writing a new track for KAL Recordings. Not sure what it's called, but I'm happy with it (after two complete rewrites). And I've been writing for Harliquinade's next LP, which is as close to spoken work as I've ever been. Finally, Control has been bubbling in the background of my head and I'm getting to a point where vague outlines become solid and gets transferred to paper and ink. I'm going to try and write more often on this page and I'm going to try to do what I inteneded to do which is write this more as a blog and less like a news page. Maybe even get the other band members to write something too. I'll be honest, I don't think that anyone actually reads these things, but you never know...
2nd January 2010 - A new year and some new plans of attack. This year we're adding some of our tracks to the Black Lantern website, home of some quality music and run by some good people. The first release will be a collection of remixes of older tracks. The second is an ep of tunes featuring verses from some of our friends. We're also writing our next two albums - Control and Diablo.The instrumental for both are done, but no doubt we'll be making some changes before they are done. I don't think that either will be out this year becuase we like to take our time getting things right. Also, while we have had a lot of nice things said about Shouting we are not making a Shouting part 2. These albums were started before Shouting was finished so they both have their own style. Add in B Boy FM 2 and it should be another busy year.
18th December 2009 - It's Christmas soon and Tuck's made a pressie for you all - Eaters Xmas Dinner enjoy!
10th December 2009 - Weaponizer.com has declaired Shouting at the Wind their album of the year!!! Here are some of the nice words that they said: Eaters new album Shouting At The Wind is nothing short of a masterpiece. I know that when I love a piece of music with a fierce passion, my comments can tend towards hyperbole and exaggeration – but please listen to me on this. Shouting... is the rawest, most honest, brutal, brilliant and beautiful album I have heard this year, and effortlessly places itself alongside the absolute best of Edinburgh’s hip-hop scene (not to mention joyously trouncing pretty much every other album released in 2009). This is a collection that reaches the dizzy heights of perfection achieved by Penpushers on their first album Last Vestige of Holism, and the EP Void Engineers. It is an album that only the Eaters could have made, full of the piss and vinegar that inevitably comes with more than a decade of experiences both bitter and sweet in a scene that is consistently misrepresented, slept on and derided by all but the most faithful of listeners. It’s an album that makes you want to keep believing in the ability of regional hip-hop to transcend its isolationist position – and it is proof that Eaters are just getting better with age and experience. Here is a track by track guide. Slap The Deluded The album’s highlight for me – utterly exquisite finger-picked guitar oscillates behind a verse of searing honesty and intensity. Slap The Deluded succeeds not only out as a stand-alone track, with its beguiling melodies and sublimely eloquent writing; it also manages to do something that hip-hop as a whole has rarely (if ever) managed to do. It is genuinely moving. I’m not ashamed to say that I actually cried when I first heard this. That Laughing Gear had written something so brutally self-revealing (“This is me speaking very clearly...”) genuinely astonished me, and continues to astound with each listen. This track raises the bar of writing not just for Scottish hip-hop, but for song writing in general. His softly-inflected, gentle delivery of the lyric brings out the technically superlative character of his writing (“I’m a complicated and unique individual / Just like everybody else...”), and marks Laughing Gear as not only a great emcee, but also one of Scotland’s most important and talented writers. Incredible, mind-blowing stuff. Go and support Scotland’s best independent band – for fucks sake, put down your (great, but much-hyped) Frightened Rabbit CDs and your Franz Ferdinand 7inches, leave your cheesy dubstep and boring minimal techno pish alone for a minute, and go and buy this instead. Eaters should be on The South Bank Show by now, and we as a community need to start recognising this and spending as much money as we can on their music. Got that? GOT THAT? Good. Shouting At The Wind is without a doubt the best album I have heard all year, by a long chalk – better than Anti-Pop’s new effort, or the incredible Thavius Beck album (which would have topped my best-of list last month) because of its feral intensity and twisted, damaged beauty. The honesty of Laughing Gear’s lyrics and the by turns delicate and brooding sonic architecture of Tuck Pendleton’s tracks make this an instant classic – Shouting At The Wind is an album which I will be listening to for years to come, and playing to my children.
19th October 2009 - I got the final master from Chris last night. Made the CDs up with my own fair hand. Today the CD went on sale via the shop. For a change, and to keep the pennies in our pockets, we are not releasing this via CD Baby or providing the album through digital distribution. It's only available from us on the shop or at a gig. A bit about the album. It's a bit of an experiment - though we have never really been to safe with our releases - and it started after I was lamenting that you couldn't get decent emotional content in rap. Not like singing. I got listening to a Buddy Wakefield CD which showed me how wrong I was. Even so I never set out to write an emotional record as its not something I would listen to. The world doesn't need another I Need Love. I just set out to write something true and it happen that Tuck had been working no something appropriate which I half inched into this project. I wrote it at the start of 2008 (before the credit crunch - Shouting just happened to be more predicive that I expected). We then had to finish Wives and then make sure we were happy with it. Lastly, it was back to Tuck to montage it together into the coherent whole that I always planned. So it's out now and some folk think it's the best thing I've written to date. I know I'm happy with it and it'd be chuffed if others got into it to. Has to be listened to as a whole thought. Loud. LG
13th October 2009 - Seeing that Shouting is almost out we've decided to stick a new track up. This was originally from Watchmaker but was earmarked for vocals which never happened. Still a great tune but with no home so it can stit here for a while. Click to listen to Temper
11th October 2009 - Shouting is all done bar the creation of the final master. Very happy with it and it'll be out very very soon. Also, just found out that a track I did vocals for with Dumb Hero records got a play on BBC Radio Scotland. Which is nice. Finally, I've just been watching Ghostbusters 2 tonight and confirmed my opinion that it's no way as good as the first. Pink slime is not scary.
29th September 2009 - Actually this is the launch of the new site. Shouting will be finished by the end of the week and then all we have to do is ponder how best to get it to your ears. Gonna have to get some more gigs organised and I've started writting for the next LP while I've been sitting on the train. Going good and messy.
28th September 2009 - This is the start of Braindump and the launch of the restyled website. This page is here to act as a means to communicate news, but will also act as a blog / soapbox / ramble. It'll probably end up like John Doe's diaries in Seven. The story so far is that we have put out Wives earlier this year to critical success (from the small group who heard it) and really bad sales. This is an ongoing theme so it's pretty much business as usual. We are about to put out Shouting at the Wind which will probably get some nice things said about it (and some bad as is always the way) and we'll sell fuck all. However, we have had a few thoughts about that and an interesting opportunity which may break the pattern. Anyway, hope you like the site. We've put the mp3's on the left of this page so you ca listen and read. And maybe, just maybe you'll buy something. Either way, I hope you enjoy. - Laughing Gear