Stuff-In-The-Pipeline

There’s always a lot of half finished (or hardly started) stuff lying around at Planet Zyz, sometimes for years, that haven’t quite found a home, or aren’t really quite settled enough to be released to General Public just yet, but there’s no reason why you can’t have a sneak preview, is there? And anyway, if you listen to the stuff in its early state you might have some ideas yourself you’d like to suggest! The Links here take you to various places, but in particular to the Planet Zyz Soundcloud site.

(Just click the images to hear the tracks.)

Fatigue-Steven McDaniel

Throughout March 22, when covid infections in the UK reached their all-time peak at that point, Ukraine was under appalling attack, and nuclear annihilation seemed imminent, I was suffering deep fatigue. All I could do was hide away and create music. I started exploring some dark Spitfire Audio Originals and this track evolved that embodied the ubiquitous sense of unease. I've got this project gradually taking shape that I’m calling Funk, which experiments with groove and bass, and melodic and moody jazziness, and this sits right there.

Hot Chocolate-Silent Monkey

Nitemynks was working with Andrew Florides, and wrote some descriptions of his astonishing artwork as only Nitemynks can. MkInyel made a backing track for this one that he reckons sounds like the image looks.

Iced Chocolate-Silent Monkey

Nitemynks liked the backing-track but was feeling laid back. “Slow it down, so it’s 3 times as long”, he said. So MkInyel did.

Lady of Spain-Silent Monkey

Leo Nitemynks phoned up Stone MkInyel and read his new work about Delores Ibarruri, that left wing-firebrand of the Spanish Civil War. Always prepared, MkInyel had his tape machine wired up and pressed 'record' then wove music around Nitemynks rendition "so it sounds like a bunch of Spanish communists entertaining the locals in that Bistro where you got the darkest coffee back between the wars".

Pretty Spicey Jam-Clan McDan and the Man

Me and my Sons get together with Phoenix (you know, the photographer) when we can, and just make shit up. That's Ken on Guitar, Tom on Bass, Mr P on Cajon Drum Kit, and myself on keys. This one happened right when we started on this particular occasion (15/3/19); there's no prep, we just set up the gear, make sure the 'tape recorder' is working then just start playing whatever comes into our heads. These tracks are warts an' all, they've just been mixed nicely, not carefully edited. Sometimes you can hear the cogs in our heads working.......

Plenty Spicey Jam-Clan McDan and the Man

Sometimes we just keep going and stuff keeps developing. This one's 19 mins long. (26/4/19)

Copy of Clan McDan and the Man Square_edited_edited.jpg

Large Ensemble Pieces

Anchor 1

Tree Cathedral-Steven McDaniel

There's a well kept secret in Milton Keynes known as the 'Cathedral of Trees'. It's a plantation of trees designed to mirror the layout of Norwich Cathedral. This resonated with me because although I live in Milton Keynes, a long term and long distance relationship at the time of writing this piece (2013) meant that I spent a good deal of my time in Norwich and knew that city like a second home. I saw the Cathedral of Trees as a symbol of the power and beauty of the natural world and Norwich Cathedral as a symbol of the power and beauty of human civilisation. This piece is about the juxtaposition of the two. Any moment now this will be released as a finished production............

Christmas 14-Steven McDaniel

I spent Christmas 2014 with my girlfriend in Norwich. I may have been under the influence (of all the carols), but I found myself composing a chorale at her piano. Then that 16th note/triplet figure immediately followed. However, the piece formed slowly and took the whole year to complete. It seems to fall into two 'movements'. The first begins with natural instruments and then the electronics gradually emerge. You might be interested to know that the second movement is constructed using the haiku numbers 5,7,17; it's got 5 beats to the bar, in 7 bar patterns, with 17 repeats. On the other hand you might not. The music is my impression of Christmas in Norwich. Any day now I'll get the final production released, promise!

Eleven Eleven - Silent Monkey

Leo Nitemynks reads through his first piece of 2020 - we were able to make this video just before lockdown. With music from Stone MkInyel and Sleenky Itomn.