Discussing the new project, Simon elaborated on the thought processes behind Volume 1. “After moving studio in 2021, I was doing a lot of sorting & clearing, both of gear and files on hard drives, and I realised that the large number of tracks had been sat in a folder marked TO BE FINISHED was really starting to get me down. Sitting there reminding me that in some way I’d failed by not completing them. So, in 2022 I began sorting them out, rediscovering what was there, and I found that plenty were far more complete than I remembered. A handful were already full instrumental ‘songs’, others still existed as simpler beats with nothing more than a hypnotic 2 bar loop, they’d just never found a home. I felt that with a bit of cutting and pasting they could form a cohesive album, built around the idea that the songs didn’t have to be anything other than they already were - music that I was enjoying listening to over and over.”
Pulling in a pair of features from long time friends and associates Titeknots & Buddy Peace - both heavyweight producers with a very strong pedigree in racking and stacking a sample or two - also aided the creative process, and it was at this point that the idea of a beat tape style release began to crystallise. Simon admits that the process of ‘starting to finish’ these older beats had him “falling back in love with sampling”, quickly leading to the creation of brand new tracks as he settled on a sound and direction for the album.
“I went marauding back through my record collection, pulling out LPs that I’d tagged with post-it notes at some point decades ago, nothing rare or extraordinary or never-heard-before, just interesting stuff in all styles & that I’d always wanted to do something with, but not gotten round to. Lots of these dusty and wobbly samples were useful glue as I started cutting different demos together, also treating my own recordings as samples, using ideas previously recorded on drums, guitar, keyboards or bass and put to one side ‘for later’.”
Later, for once, is finally now!
Tracklist:
1. Time To Relax (feat. Titeknots)
2. Memories Down
3. Glad About It
4. Well I Might (Interlude)
5. Slowly, Surely
6. I Know Ya
7. Now (Interlude)
8. Swing King
9. Holla
10. Cymbal Socking (feat. Buddy Peace)
11. Shadows Lengthen Into Darkness
12. Heavy Over Easy
13. Au Contraire
14. Hot Hits (Interlude)
15. Montmarte 1540
16. Half Nelson
17. Woodland Break
18. Night On The Dials
