Today is exactly one month before the debut Noctorum album Sparks Lane (2003) is released for the first time on vinyl for RSD Drops on June 12th. I’m not quite sure why Record Store Day is called RSD Drops this year but apparently, it’s something to do with the pandemic and the fact that it’s not all happening on one day (another RSD Drops will occur a month later). If you’d like to hear the album so you can decide whether or not to get it on limited and exclusive moody grey vinyl then you can simply go to Spotify and listen to it there:

Some people might wonder, why buy the vinyl when I can just go and listen to it on Spotify? Well, one reason is that the owner of Spotify, Daniel Ek, is using his current financial position, money made from his streaming business, to put in an offer to buy the Arsenal football team, whereas I am trying to raise enough money to move the In Deep Music Archive to Porto as a worthy physical musical presence. I’d ask Mr Ek to contribute but I don’t think he likes the look of my business model. The other reason to get this exclusive release is that it’s beautiful and this limited-run may be the only time it ever sees the light of day or rather the dark of your warm and cosy, comfy atmospheric record room with its soft pillows on the couch, mood lighting and quality speakers, quality turntable and amp, sinking in for an evening of audio bliss.

Today was the day that I met Carlos for the interview for one of the independent Portuguese TV stations (SIC TV, channel 3). We met in the café where we buy our bread and had a chat about the world over a nice cup of decaf. We ventured out into the Marquês park area where we sat at the concrete table where someone has graffitied a large red Jesus fish. It was slightly chilly out of the sun but we sat and had a good conversation about moving to Porto, different projects from MOAT and Noctorum to my collaboration with ex-Tangerine Dreamer Jerome Froese, and the sessioneer projects. We talked about moving the In Deep Music Archive to Porto and what a huge tourist town this is, we have only experienced it over the last five months, most of which has been winter and lockdown, but apparently, even in the offseason, there’s a lot of tourists here.

It’s all going to go mad here very soon because England opens up for travel next Monday, May 17th and Portugal is the only short-haul European country on the “Green List”. This is the only place where the humans can come where they don’t have to return to quarantine. But that’s not all, it seems like they have relocated the Champions League final between Man City and Chelsea to Porto because Istanbul is on the red list – the stadium is walking distance from our place, not far past the Psychedelic Psupermarket. It’s happening on May 29th, my vaccination is May 26th, sounds like good timing. On other football news, Arsenal beat Chelsea 1-0 and that is great for Liverpool who play Man U tomorrow in a must-win match.

Mega swim today, 82 lengths, one hour and ten minutes but I have to swim hard to fit it in, it isn’t a smooth, casual float between the ends of the pool with small rests, it’s non-stop. But I’m trained and I leave there invigorated, not crippled (haha). I still can’t swim like some of the younger people that career past me at great speeds but I am always first in the pool and always last out. I’ve discovered that I have to swill the chlorine out of my nose after the swim otherwise I’m sneezing and getting headaches – I still do have some sneezing and blowing my nose but nothing like the other day when I came back home with a poisoned head. I just have to remember when I take that shower that chlorine is a chemical and possibly not good to leave circulating through your body and seeping into your skin.

Music today was just one album after all that happened in the day. It was The Beatles‘ Let It Be, the reason being that I was singing a silly version of The Long And Winding Road to Olivia and she wasn’t recognising it, of course you could think it might be me doing a terrible version (surely not…The Beatles are in my blood).

Music Of The Daze