All Change: The Lives and Times of The Mekano Set

I'm currently in the process of relocating instruments, equipment, studio and life to Liverpool. 

Why Milk Why?!

Brighton is a great place to hide. It's a great place to do nothing. But not a great place if you want to get stuff done.

 

So... what we're planning to do next is to try to make something a bit more special than another batch of bandcamp / iTunes / Spotify releases. Once the songs are mixed and mastered, we want to put out a high quality digipak CD package of songs that won't just be available online.

Something with a seriously lush inlay / sleeve / booklet / gate-fold digipak etc.

I've always said I don't want to do another 'album'. But after putting Behind The Sins together I feel that there's something that we can do with a full-length CD that can still be experimental and fun. I'm thinking of segments of 3 / 4 songs that work well together, then a pure location / drone track then another 3 songs...

As well as the noise-scapes we've put out and about via Viinyl.com, leaving USB Juju sticks on trains and park benches etc. we do have some new songs that are pretty much completed. I just need to finish the mixes - I mean, I just have to STOP mixing them.

Photography c/o Dark Waters Festival, Mel Butler Photography, David McKnight @ Davefish Photography.

The Mekano Set

Second Hand VHS Video Cassette Tapes

So, what have you been up to lately? We've been keeping busy assembling noises for our next adventure in sounds and spaces. Also:

A video we made while recording up in Southport / Liverpool:

A silly video we made while recuperating in Southport / Liverpool:

A video we keep watching: Over the Sea by Jesse Rae

And a song I'm hoping to persuade my fellow Mekanics to try a cover of: Getting Away With It by Electronic. 

And a collage of recent images for our song Glass Keys:

And of course, no day at Mekano Towers would be complete without a bit of Mark Hollis (Talk Talk):

The Mekano Set

Stewart Lee + Beyond Brighton

We were lucky enough to see Stewart Lee testing out new material in London on Friday night. As always he was very entertaining and particularly snarky towards mainstream comedy, and closet Fascists (a particular favourite target of ours).

Because of our love for Mr. Stew we felt it our duty to pen him his very own Mekano Theme Tune. On the off chance that we might actually get the chance to gift him a copy, we assembled a one-off physical package:

Loitering in the bar before the performance, we happened to spot Mr. Stew heading towards the bar for a pre-gig pint. While Milk stood wide-eyed, jaw to the ground, Chucky (fuelled by two sips of Guinness) quickly tapped him on the shoulder and gave him our lovingly crafted package (a gatefold CD inscribed with the message "Dear Mr. Stew, we wrote a song. It is for you" combined with a copy of Behind The Sins.

Mr. Stew was on top form. We laughed so much our faces hurt.

 http://stewartleetheme.viinyl.com/


In otherness, we will be relocating Mekano HQ to Liverpool at the end of the week. How do we feel about this?

Amongst other things, this will hopefully make it much easier for us to gig, both up north and down south.

OK, time for salsa cheese-fries and a pint at the Philharmonic Dining Rooms! x



The Mekano Set

The Mekano Set Dark Waters Festival June 2013

So having agreed to play at Dark Waters Festival in Nottingham, it slowly became apparent that things were going to be more complicated than usual.

 

Hello

 Lee and Justine weren't going to be able to perform at the gig, we'd all been unwell and obligated more than usual, and our last rehearsal (the night before the gig) was cancelled when the studio owners forgot to turn up to let us in. 

In Imercia, you have no need of a face

Lucky for me that Chucky (having helped record and edit Behind The Sins) was free and already knew her way around our weird way of DJing location sounds / feedback loops / found sounds etc. Plus, we'd arranged to have Ade (Mutate / Stray Dog City) join us - because you can never have too much improvized noise - and so we took the stage, having not rehearsed at all with this lineup, and it was the most fun and effortless gig I've done in ages!

It was great to do a different set again. We explored Eat the Sweets a bit and added a chilled-out epilogue, a fun version of Something Good and played Keepin It BN2 live for the first time.

The sound produced by the new line-up was interesting - sometimes we weren't sure whether the sounds we could hear lingering in the air were vocal delay or Ade's out-there guitar drones, which we later decided surely must have been a good thing.

 

Oh, and did we mention that the venue looks like the Bat-Cave's Goth cousin? Imagine the funs we had.

 

Thank you so much to promoter Dan Glitterhawk and his team of helpers for feeding and watering us, making us feel thoroughly welcome and providing us with suitable accommodation after a very long (but thoroughly enjoyable) day. Thank you to everyone who came and listened, and especially to those who came and said hello afterwards! We ran out of CDs quite quickly - should really have prepared more before we left for Notts.

 

The festival line-up was certainly an eclectic one. On the night we played there was everything from swaggering, foot-on-monitor Glam-Rock to swaggering, foot-on-monitor Eurobeat. Certainly I think it reminded us just how un-Rock we are, operating under a strict 'No Rock Cliché' policy. But the crowd seemed to get it, and even enjoyed our sarcastic asides, and lack of feet-on-monitors.

 

 Thanks also to DJ Martin Oldgoth and Brigitte for the photos and plugs!

The Meks xx




The Mekano Set