At last, we can tell you! Today we are happy to announce that my next RSD Drops release will be a vinyl copy of Noctorum’s Sparks Lane in a limited edition of 750 copies. It is the first time the record has appeared on vinyl and it will be in a gatefold cover where all the lyrics are printed and it is pressed on ‘moody grey vinyl’ in keeping with the album artwork. It just didn’t seem appropriate to make it fluorescent pink despite how dazzling and yummy it might have looked. It’s going to be an American RSD Drops release although I suppose some UK and European and Australian shops might be able to get it. I’m hoping to get one myself! As usual in the event of these limited runs not selling out in the crazed rush of RSD, it would be available through Schoolkids Records after the event. We don’t know how many shops will be ordering it as yet, we’ll see. The event itself is in two sessions this year, 12th June and 17th July, this record will be available on 12th June. I would suggest that you run down to your local record store this week and ask them to get it in case it’s off their radar.

On the subject of records available at Schoolkids Records, there are still some copies of Hanging Out In Heaven on double blue vinyl and Nightjar on red vinyl although the bottle green vinyl of Spirit Level has sold out and there are very few copies left of Noctorum’s The Afterlife on dark black vinyl. There are also copies of Atlantaeum Flood’s One Day that are sitting there waiting to be loved, please love them because those that bought that record, have told me that it is very much loved in their collections. This is the first time I made an instrumental record, I play all the lead guitars and it’s – moody! Whilst we’re on the subject, here in Porto we have a very limited number of the first MOAT record on vinyl (it comes with a CD inside). So get in touch with Schoolkids for all those other releases but get in touch with Olivia (olivia@martywillson-piper.com) for the final copies of the first MOAT album before it sells out.

Olivia was up and out of the house with the late lark today (that’s the lark that sleeps in and lives on our crazy time scale). The other night as the clock reached 4 AM I was thinking how we use the crowing of the cockerel as not a signal to wake up but as a signal to go to bed. Somewhere here in one of the gardens a cockerel lives and does its thing every morning like clockwork. The reason Olivia was up was because she was going to the tattooist here in Porto and was gone all day being tortured for art. It was hot and I was on solo psychedelic psupermarket duty. I met a Porto fan in there, he was behind me but had very few items so I let him go before me – didn’t go so well for them tonight, they lost 0-2 to Chelsea.

I was so domesticated today, shopping and cleaning up, brushing the floor, cleaning the bathroom after a shower, and getting everything done before my sesh with Brian in Indiana and Olivia coming home exhausted by the pain. I did the sesh, watched the football, did French and I’m now looking forward to tomorrow’s diary which has nothing in except for one thing. LOGIC PRO TUTORIAL!

Music today went Japanese with Strawberry Path, Flied Egg, Yuya Uchida & The Flowers and Flower Travellin’ Band. Strawberry Path morphed into Flied Egg and Yuya Uchida & The Flowers morphed into Flower Travellin’ Band. Interestingly the first two albums by Yuya Uchida & The Flowers and Flower Travellin’ Band were covers albums with great versions on the latter, Anywhere (1970). There’s 21st Century Schizoid Man and Black Sabbath (the song) for the heavy fans, also covers of Muddy Waters’ Louisiana Blues and the Animals’ House Of The Rising Sun with rather large differences to them all – that is lots of jamming. Although Yuya acted as producer rather than musician (credited with percussion). On Yuya Uchida & The Flowers album Challenge (1969) it was the same idea acting more as the guiding light rather than actually being in the band but the album is more sixties-sounding with an odd narrative. The album covers Cream, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix, it’s something to behold and also includes girl vocalist Remi Aso who you have to hear to believe. Kento Nakamura also sings. Drummer Joji George Wada was recruited for Flower Travellin’ Band as Yuya moved on, Joe Yamanaka came in on vocals with Hideki Ishima on guitar.

Strawberry Path (1971) is heavy and Flied Egg’s Dr. Siegel’s Fried Egg Shooting Machine (1972) is all over the place in a good way, it’s also something to behold, in fact any of these sixties and seventies Japanese bands influenced by sixties and seventies UK and US bands are something to behold. Check ‘em out really great if you like this kind of thing.

Music Of The Daze