Wednesday, 22 October 2014

SW19


"SW19" was a split EP from Fragile X and Haptic. It includes a re-worked old Fragile X track, two original Haptic tracks, three cover versions, a 'collaboration' and a remix. It's more of a compilation than anything else.

TRACKLISTING AND ABOUT:

1. The Gentle Art Of Giving Up
2. SW19
3. Tonight, Tonight (Smashing Pumpkins reprise cover)
4. Moment Ruiner
5. Pinky Promise/Yamagata
6. The Gentle Art Of Giving Up (Haptic version)
7. Chapel Doors (Endor reprise cover)


As I mentioned in my previous introduction post I've recorded under various different names in the past. "Haptic" was one of them, there'll be a bit more on that name and it's meaning to me in future posts. But for now a bit about this EP. SW19 acts almost as my debut release. Although I'd written a lot of music previous to releasing this, SW19 was the first time I'd ever felt inclined to share anything online. All the 7 tracks were recorded at various times from 2002-2011. The quality of the tracks is really lo-fi. So much so that I decided on describing the music I made at the time as No-Fi! Everything you hear on this EP was recorded on an old, broken Tascam cassette 4 track, which has now been fully restored and fixed nonetheless.  Album artwork is something I always like to keep personal, so I always create my own using photographs that are either mine or friends. This one is just a simple shot of my trainers. Creative, huh???? An interesting thing to note about the SW19 cover is that it's the only release of mine which doesn't feature my bar-coded Fragile X logo. That idea only came to me for the release that followed this one. There's a wee bit more about each track and a download link below the album artwork.






THE GENTLE ART OF GIVING UP
This was recorded on my flatmates harmonium in my flat in Maryhill around early 2010. It's just a simple melody that came to me whilst mucking around on it one day. The 'remix' which appears later in the EP was just me mucking around with filters, tones etc.

SW19
The title track of the EP.  A lot of people always ask if SW19 is named after the Wimbledon postcode or the tennis tournament.....the answer to that is no. I've never revealed it until now but SW19 is the initials and age of my girlfriend at the time that i wrote this song, which would have been around 2010 again. I'd be lying if I said I knew what the sample at the beginning is from. I found it on some old VHS that my mum was throwing out.

TONIGHT, TONIGHT
One of the very first times I ever recorded myself singing was in 2002 when I did a very short cover of this Smashing Pumpkins classic.

MOMENT RUINER AND PINKY PROMISE/YAMAGATA
These are two very, very lo-fi instrumental shoegaze efforts. I got my first ever effects pedal in 2002 when I was 16. At the time I was using Fragile X as a name for any potential acoustic and vocal material so these tracks were recorded under the Haptic pseudonym.

CHAPEL DOORS
Another cover version, this time of Endor and again very, very lo-fi. I'm a big fan of David McGinty and his playing style. I love the simple note progression through Chapel Doors so tried to do the ending justice in a cover and failed miserably!

You can stream and download the EP for free @ Fragile X and Haptic - SW19

FX

Back to the blogosphere

A quick introduction.

I've been making music under the Fragile X moniker since my teens, which is over a decade ago now. I also make mixes/mixtapes and sometimes make videos for my own tracks and for friends. I'll go into a bit more detail below.




I've made music under many guises and in a few different bands but as, Fragile X, my recording output has varied greatly over the years. I've written and recorded a lot of material from lo-fi acoustics, shoegaze, ambient, drone, electronic, experimental and other various styles. This blog will be a base from which I can archive all those releases into the one space and provide links for them all, old and new.

I've always listened to a hugely diverse range of music and I sometimes like to incorporate them into mixtapes and mixes. With the prevalence of sites such as mixcloud and soundcloud, it's now much easier to share these mixes with the online world. I am by no means a DJ and would never consider myself supremely skilled in the field of electronic music. I basically just enjoy mucking around with sounds. So I'll also be archiving any and all mixes on this blog too.

As for the videos I've stitched together, they'll also find a home on here.

Lastly, once I have everything up to date with regards to archiving I'll probably end up using the blog for various other music posts and other general nonsense. I used to run a blog over on wordpress, where I had a lot of fun doing weekly and monthly articles and mixes.

You can check it out here.....Someone's In The Wolf

That's all for the time being. You can expect a bit of power posting over the next fortnight as I get my back catalogue of releases up to date then the fun posting can begin :)

FX