So, time for another bandcamp tidy up, a full 3 years since we put out the first b-roads compilation. The cut off point between the two marks a big change in the history of the band, as it was around this time that Mark started to get more involved - eventually becoming a permanent member after the release of ‘Everything is Spinning…’, having contributed two-and-a-half tracks (‘Sway’, ‘Distance’ and the original template for ‘Everything is Spinning’) to that record as a collaborator.
The original, longer version of ‘Distance’ appeared on the EP we released just before the album, along with two nicely contrasting pieces – the abstract-ish, loop-based ‘Shit Tape Economy’, and a fairly ridiculous electro-pop sort of tune called ‘O’ (after our long-time friend and recordist Owen Turner). The latter really isn’t very good, but this is a thing for completists, so in it goes. Feel free to skip.
We only played ‘Distance’ live once, opening a set at Norwich Arts Centre with it back in 2016. It was an absolute nightmare to get right, but we really nailed it and it was one of my favourite ever on-stage moments. We would have had a second go at it, but it felt like we’d pushed our luck already.
Going through some old Reaper projects I stumbled across 'Free Chalk' and 'Competition Minnow', a song that was recorded for Everything is Spinning..., but never felt quite *done*... I actually quite like the sloppiness of it all now.
Once Mark had muscled his way into the official Broads line-up, we set to work writing for what was to become the ‘Field Theory’ LP. Between completing the album and releasing it we played a pair of live soundtrack shows with Milly Hirst for the BFI (one in Sheringham lifeboat station, which was weird and cool). We put together a free download EP for folks who came to the gigs, comprising a trio of Field Theory out-takes (Mark’s ‘Plain Text Credits’, and my ‘Tight Margin’ and ‘Mobility’). These were tracks that never really got too far past the demo stage, but we were kind of fond of them so it was nice to get them out in nascent form.
The closing track on that EP was an 11-minute rehearsal tape of a new song that we wrote with Milly especially for the BFI project. It was actually 2 songs loosely joined together to fit a particular bit of film, and at the stage that the recording here was made, was still semi-improvised (especially Mark’s synths). Definitely one of my favourite things we’ve ever done. Also from that session was Mark's 'The Sea Is Near', which he got to play on the big old grand piano at The Octagon.
After those shows we went into full Field Theory mode – ‘Climbs’ came out backed with a mark solo piece ‘Late Devonian’, and then ‘Tiamat’ followed, along with a fun little banger called ‘Silver Bullet’ that I wrote whilst watching the winter Olympics. The Tiamat single originally came with a demo version of ‘*OK’, but we pretty quickly realised we wanted to save that for the next album so deleted it from the digital release almost immediately.
‘K-Pg’ came from the same rehearsal/improve session where we recorded ‘Our Holiday, 1934’ – a completely improvised *thing* that has a strange atmosphere all of its own. We named it as the second part of our long-planned ‘extinction event’ series (the first being ‘Late Devonian’), which has moved forward not a jot since.
By the time we put ‘K-Pg’ out as a standalone digital release, we’d just about completed ‘A Small Box Over a Global Goal’ album (despite having vowed to take our time with it). ‘Roadside Family’ was one of Mark’s favourites from the sessions, but it just didn’t seem to fit anywhere on the record, so it got left off and came out as the b-side to ‘A Safe Space In Us’. Later we released ‘Jugemu’ as the second single from the LP, and that came with two new creations, ‘Pibloktoq’ (which everyone said was a Stranger Things rip off – a slur which I strongly deny), and a wobbly, whiny sort of drone thing (with added science) called ‘Beloved Wife of Golden Hope’.
All of which brings us up to the now. As I type, we’ve just completed album number six (again with Milly), and are looking forward to sharing that with you all in February 2020 (or thereabouts).

Thanks for listening - so far.

JF, September 2019 x