TQ 50 - Balon Balon

Last year I was asked to create a new track for the double CD compilation celebrating TQ zine's landmark 50th issue. As it turns out, my track 'Balon Balon' ended up being right at the start. It's a slightly nonsense song about feeling hollow and inadequate. The title refers to the balloon sounds I sampled to create the squelchy undercurrent. I also sampled marbles travelling down a specially designed track and used the website https://sites.research.google/tonetransfer to create some apathetic sounding fake trumpets. I then added in some real flute and saxophone and somehow did something quite effective with the reverb to bed it all in together. Wish I knew how I'd done that bit.

My desire to record a track with balloon sounds has been with me a long time. Some folk will remember I performed a song with a balloon at my album launch gig, but that song has since been scrapped and used for spare parts. 

 I made a slightly uninspired video by filming the journey of the Southend open top bus going in both directions and overlaying them. I think it gives people a good sense of where I live and of life speeding past in all directions during this crappy period of British history. 

The 'Half a Century, All heart' compilation remains a breathtakingly diverse and stimulating document of brave experimental music in 2022.