The Spiral Dance

The Spiral Dance

The Spiral Dance is project that came about after taking a look at the world as it stands in 2025 and realising that most of my musical projects of late focus on pointing at what's wrong with the world.  I decided to get back to my hippie roots from the glorious 1990's and write some songs about love, psychedelics, new age and Wiccan philosophies, Alfred Watkins' ley-lines, and the beauty of nature in general.

For inspiration I embarked on some long walks along beaches, through forests and round some of the extensive public parks we have in Ayrshire.  The beauty of nature combined with clear, blue summer's days during an uncharacteristic Scottish heatwave allowed me to do some uninterrupted thinking and feeling.  This took me beyond the grasp of mentally ill and permanently livid political pundits on social media, which I came off a few years ago and felt so much better that I now studiously ignore as much as is possible.

Musically speaking, I came up with a way of simulating old school tape flanging quite accurately with no bespoke plugins being used.  This involved making an identical copy of the segment of tape to be flanged (sound engineers still talk about levels to tape and playback even in the digital era), just like in the old days, and then cutting the "tape" into small segments and using tiny amounts of variable time-stretching to simulate the supply reel's flange being pressed with the finger and then speeding up again.  I also found an old pedal in the loft that accurately simulates the sound of a Leslie rotary speaker, allowing me to create 1960's psychedelic guitar sounds on jangly arpeggios.  The drum sounds were provided by samples from the old st-xx library, recorded with the Amiga's PAULA chip way back in the late eighties / early nineties.  The bass guitar lines employed a newly acquired Gojira Octave Generator to change up the sound a bit and add an unusual edge.  

I, for one, am not spending my remaining years being driven into fear and anger by froth flecked demagogues.  It is still a beautiful world, and in spite of the ravings of bitter and twisted lunatics, there are still plenty of kind, loving and decent people in it.

Peace and Love to all.

C0_WAV --2025.