Wounded Ant - News

Amongst various other goings-on (to be covered in a later post), FOE recorded a transatlantic effort recently, Photogene 1. This is the first record we have made with Andrew recording in England and Paul recording and mixing in Texas.

Another FOE album or two will be on the way soon, as Andrew is visiting Houston for a recording session later in 2016.

In 2014 and 2015, there have been quite a few new Paul Thompson albums released:

2014

Left
Think Happy Thoughts!
What's with the Antibiotics (As If I Couldn't Guess)?
Falling into the Red Sky
Ascent at Last

2015

Delicious Irony
Memorial Day
Storm Travels

There was also a new project, Ladder, which goes by the tenet of using one source recording for each album. For example, the first volume, I, which is composed entirely from the sounds created by destroying an already damaged aluminum stepladder. That was also released in 2015, a somewhat busy year for Paul.

There is a new way of previewing and obtaining the solo material. Paul recently set up a Bandcamp site. At the moment, only a few releases are available, but more will be added as time allows.

Three new FOE albums came about while Andrew was visiting Texas in July, Thertoscnepia Vol 3.4, Imagine Being Brought Up By Ageing Fucking Hipsters, and Seven Covens Road.
These are the first FOE recordings since Andrew's previous visit to Houston in February/March 2014.

First up, in January, a new Paul Thompson album, Left, was released. This was followed in March by two new FOE albums, A Concept Record About Public Transit and Morning German. Both these records were completed during some intensive writing sessions in Texas in late February and early March.

Since then, there have been two more Paul Thompson solo records: Think Happy Thoughts and What's with the Antibiotics (As If I Couldn't Guess)?.

Despite a quiet time on here (no surprise there), progress has been slow but steady on the latest Paul Thompson album.  Details when it's ready.  I was really hoping to get it done in 2013, but it's possible that it won't be out until January.

One of the items which has delayed the writing of the album is that I moved from Canada to the US.  Hopefully this will be the final international move.

Two new Paul Thompson albums this time around, plus some general news.  Apologies for the recent lack of updates.  Just because the site hasn't been busy doesn't mean that the creation of music has ground to a halt!

First of all, in 2010, as well as Small Victories, Paul released a fourth album under his own name, All We Have Are the Wrong Answers.  Tracks: Hive 1, Witch-Doctor Tory, None of the Above, Fast Living, Tir Na Nog, Cog in the Machine, All We Have Are the Wrong Answers, Green and Denver Insomnia.

The FOE project was also revived.  As well as remixing the lost album With a Grim and Ghastly Stare, no fewer than four  new albums have been finished since the revival in May 2010: Rescued by Two Hermits (incorporating previously unreleased FOE tracks from 2002 and 2003); Tuned to Radio Nought; The Madness of Vladmir Peach and Yet a Misnomer. Nomer.

Paul moved to Canada in August 2011, which has considerably slowed progress on new FOE work, although there is no intention to abandon it.

Paul's latest solo record, Alone in the Bitter Watches of the Night was released on November 13th,, comprising the tracks Distant Morning, 21b, Badger's Arse II, Canada Day, Dawn Cemetery Dewdrops, Tyne Cot, Half of Bitter, Night Visit, Not Going to Swindon, Fellow Travellers and Wipers.

A new Paul Thompson album has finally surfaced.  I've called this one Small Victories, and the tracklist is: Meredith (comprising (i) Poor Girl, (ii) She's Been Having a Tough Time of it Lately and (iii) If I'd Known), Gumtree Blues, The Librarian's Wife, Looking Forwards, Glass, Standing By, Snowman, I Was Only Trying to Help, Bartlett, Lullaby.

As usual, I've performed everything on the album.  Only The Librarian's Wife has been carried over from the writing sessions from 2008's Pacific Highway.  All other tracks have been written since then.

The working title for the next album is All We Have Are the Wrong Answers.

The first track to be completed for the new album Pacific Highway has been written and mixed today.  I finished it this afternoon, and Brendan came over and mixed it with me immediately afterwards.  In the absence of a downloads page here, feel free to have a look at my Myspace page to have a listen.  The song is called The Rest of the World Can Go Hang.

In other news, Rob Johnson and I got together earlier this week to discuss getting a project off the ground.  First signs are good, and hopefully there will be more to report on as time goes by.

Some of the new material got a live outlet tonight during a short instrumental acoustic set at an open mic night at Dean's, Kellett Street, Kings Cross, Sydney, Australia.

Set:

Rainhouse (an old Manichae song that kind of got dropped over time)
Pacific Highway (from the work in progress album)
For Suey (from 2001's Signs and Omens)
(untitled) (from the work in progress album, with more improvisation than planned)

Tomorrow (from Signs and Omens) was on the post-it note I was working from, but I didn't play it, as it requires me to be semi-dextrous, and I wasn't very!

Band:

Paul Thompson (acoustic guitar)

Nice little crowd, good fun chatting to them, and the set was reasonably well received.  It would have been a shame to leave the country without playing something.

Since the beginning of May, I've been based in Sydney, Australia, for work purposes.  In the early weeks of being here, I got myself a guitar with which to keep in practice and to continue writing, with the result that the bulk of the new solo album will come from jottings and demos here.  I have over 45 minutes of recorded ideas on my laptop, and I'm hoping to shape these into the fifth Paul Thompson album starting on my return to England in September.

Brendan Rieley, who did such a great job of helping mix and produce the last effort, Disc, will likely be asked on board to officiate again.

Also on my return, I'm hoping to go into the rehearsal rooms with friend Rob Johnson (of Bikini Island Glee Farm fame, and Manichae sleeve artist extraordinaire) to kick some ideas around, with a view to founding a new band.  He's in America when I get back, so that'll give me chance to get some work in on the solo album first.  It's unclear whether ideas from the various eras of solo material will surface in the project with Rob, or indeed that the project will get off the ground, but in any case, the intention is to get a live music project going.

In other news, I had a very brief trip back to the UK in June, and managed to catch a Manichae show at the Old Angel in Nottingham, and the boys were on fine form.  It was a good gig, and I hope to catch some more when I'm back.  Friendships were reaffirmed, and, although I thought it would be odd seeing the band from the floor, it all felt perfectly natural.

Well, late March came and went without an update.  I've been very busy at work, and socially.  I'm also going to be out of the country for four to five months, so updates will be (even more) sporadic.  When I get back, more time will be found for this website.

Mango, the singer in Manichae, has noticed that I'd missed a song out of my summary.  I've corrected this.  I took the opportunity to write another paragraph of the history, but I haven't had time for any more.  I'll have something more up in late March, probably.

Finally some content on the site!  There will be more to come, never fear.