thewashingmachinepost




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whistle while you work

bespoken

though my performances in provence last april would testify otherwise, i have often maintained that i climb hills at a faster pace than my fellow pelotonese due to riding to a different, and apparently quicker rhythm. you'll find that word regularly used when describing the relative abilities of those riding up hills; the laughing group at the rear are probably struggling big time to discover anything that might resemble a rhythm, while those up front are riding to speed metal.

bespoken

the same can be actively said for a speeding peloton, knowing just when to indulge in a bout of frantic grooving in order to catch a breakaway before it has sight of the finish line. allegedly, we are all in possession of an internal clock, few of which count to the same tempo. it's an aspect of which drummers are acutely aware; the trick is not to play every song to the beat of your own drum. otherwise, pretty much everything boogies at the same pace.

i currently have, on review, a bicycle with a particularly fine example of the sturmey archer three-speed gear, a factor that doubtless plays no small part in my currently sedate pace. after a couple of days riding in this manner, i'm fairly sure that neither the members of motorhead or slipknot spend much of their spare time riding three-speed bicycles. however, it is a well-known fact regarding this hub gearing system that first offers a 33% reduction and third a similar percentage increase over the direct drive of second gear.

bespoken

when riding in the latter, particularly on days when the loch is like a mill pond and there's barely a breath of wind (a little hebridean humour there), it's possible to detect a regular click, click, click as the gear propels its grinning pilot at considerably less than warp factor one (mr sulu). if audible in this manner, it provides a comforting click track to one's perambulations, punctuated every now and again by the bell affixed to the left handlebar and necessary to point out my approach to itinerant sheep along uiskentuie strand.

i have no doubt that cycling encapsulates a form of rhythmic endeavour that will be pertinent to some, and completely lost on others, but even to me, the bicycle has been rarely considered as a musical instrument. at least, not before now.

bespoken

on the run up to christmas each passing year i have reminded you all of the web page still living in a small cupboard at specialized bicycles that plays a rather idiosyncratic version of dance of the sugar plum fairy accompanying a set of ten rear sprockets all of which seem rhtymically independent of each other. though i believe the music was composed by tchaikovsky, this particular version was played and recorded by an american fellow by the name of flip baber. in the approved manner of experimental musicians when it comes to foisting their experiments upon an unsuspecting public, flip has, for a brief moment in time, adopted the nom de plume of johnny random and released a self composed and recorded piece of music entitled 'bespoken'.

similar to his reworking of tchaikovsky, mr random has employed a bicycle to provide all the sounds for this latest sonic exploration, from spokes to cassettes, to gear wires to valve stems (and the pfffft they make when releasing air). of course, in the true style of an experimentalist, one or two of the sounds have endured a modicum of electronic processing to augment the sonic textures they emit when left to their own devices. the result is a far cry from thunderous roar favoured by joey jordison; so positively melodic in fact, that i downloaded a copy of bespoken from itunes and popped it on my ipod.

irrespective of how fast or slow you ride up hills, you might be keen to do likewise.

bespoken on itunes uk | bespoken on itunes usa
for those more persuaded by knobbly rhythms, there's also an inverted mtb mix.

saturday 18 january 2014

twmp ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................