The Shift

Nightshift's review of Determinance follows:

"Paul Taylor, aka nervous_testpilot, has been one of the most consistently compelling live dance acts in Oxford over the last couple of years, notably his near-legendary sets at Truck Festival. His full-on electro assault, coupled with a mischievous smash'n'grab approach to sampling makes for an irresistible spectacle even in the middle of the afternoon.

This debut release is a forty-minute E.P. featuring five tracks from the sci-fi swordplay video game 'Determinance'. Such soundtracking suits nervous_testpilot perfectly: his busy, uncluttered brand of techno - not far off Eat Static or Banco De Gaia's uplifting brand of trance - compliments the adrenaline rush of slice-em-up action, but works equally well as a dancefloor filler.

There's a cool metallic sheen to the synthetics and a relentlessly bubbling rhythmic pulse; Goan trance by any other name, a winner whatever you call it."

Consider it launched

The E.P. is actually out officially now, and you'll be able to purchase it from Massive Records and Polar Bear in Oxford, as well as Oxford Music, in addition to Freedom Road's online shop. Nightshift's opinion is forthcoming and I await it with interest, but it could hardly top the lovely review I've just received from Jill over at NuNuworld.

In terms of gigs it's been mooted that I do something for the Vacuous Pop guys in the short term, which is always a pleasure, and we're looking for stuff in London and Bristol.

Truckdate

Just a quick post-Truck post (I'll do something fuller at a later date) to say thanks to everyone who came to the set, bought the CD, talked to me, or any combination of the above. Much appreciated! I'm in a recovery state at the moment but you will hear from me again.

Lots of people dancing and being thrown offstage by a farmer and the lead singer of Goldrush was a literal joy. No, it really was.

Things I enjoyed which weren't myself were The Black Madonnas, Whalebone Polly, Patrick Wolfe (woolf...woolfe...that man...), Zea (mental), DJ Mindlobster (incomprehensible) and Captive State (politico-rap-tastic). No Youthmovies, Thomas Truax or...some other things from last year which were good, but despite that some very enjoyable moments.

I'd also like to add that the comedic placement of the underscore in my name (nervous test_pilot) employed by the festival organisers may have prevented some people from locating this wonderous locus of information and edutainment. This should correct any misGoogling...nervous test_pilot....nervous test_pilot. There.

Why you should stay in front of the scenes

This is a video of Trademark in the studio, and as such illustrates the powerful work ethic of one of the UK's most exciting post-Pet Shop Boys-nu-disco outfits. Paul's response to Oli's assertion that he has strange sleeping patterns ("crunch...crunch") is also particularly illuminating.

Rehearsal

Truck set is going well; I'm pleased with the "mix" format, and there's a couple of unusual combinations of tracks which sit really nicely together.
There's a lot of people playing at Truck who I've never heard of, so I expect to be wandering around the place quite a bit to up my indie-cool quotient. Drum and bass is always necessary - I hope the ubiquitous sound problems will bless us with their absence this year!

Devblog update

My Determinance blog has received further information. I expect I will post about the Truck set tomorrow.

I have arrived

Oxford Bands are totally hitting me up bigstyle, which is always an enjoyable experience.

In other news, I write to you from a small hot room where we are busily clawing our way up the craggy overhang that is the implementation of Determinance's sound content. My experiences in this somewhat tangential area of my existence will be recounted here to keep them safely concealed from those who just hang around this site in case I post funny music.

A hit on geek radio

Huge thanks to the exotically-monikered Rayza and Aurora over at the VGDJ podcast, which is apparently the broadcasting wing of the almighty Overclocked Remix. Despite having names which evoke the heroines of a mid-80's made-for-tv sci-fi mini-series (quiet, I'm going for the Hyphen Prize), their show delivers a sublime payload of synthetic waveforms bookended with a homely Canadian twang, and if you are here then you will enjoy it. On a more serious note, they (and OCR in general) provide the invaluable service of giving Internet-wide exposure to the zany homebrew projects of musicians everywhere - keep it up. They mentioned Spacetime, said some nice things, then got back to me with an enthusiastic and friendly email...and that's all I ask! Here's a link to the last show.

Nice things

People are being nice about Spacetime over at Gabba.cc I seriously recommend you check out that site; it's a really good way of getting hold of some pretty unusual music, and the people there are pretty much always civil to each other, which is just so unusual these days.

Brand new MP3 and pre-order!

After a minor struggle with logistics the Determinance E.P. is now available to pre-order from Freedom Road, which is pretty darn exciting. Official release will be at Truck on the 23rd, but you can leap in there right now with your £7 if you feel like charging onto the bandwagon. I'm just listening to the fat and sassy new master of Spacetime, which is available for free download. Get it, distribute it, put it in your small grey fashion-accessory MP3 player and then swagger around the Tube dressed in an ill-fitting suit.

Just like to reiterate my thanks to Rich, Martin, Oli, Ian, Russ and Helen for all their hard work on putting everything together.

I should probably point out to people buying the E.P. that there will be more tracks which are exclusive to the game - we don't want to give the whole thing away at this stage.

I did the first work on the Truck set today - I think it will mostly be some kind of enormous megamix, a bit of a combination of the DJing stuff I've done more recently and earlier sets.

Updates

Recently returned to Oxford to find both the phenomenal artwork for the Determinance E.P. completed, and a brand new gameplay video for the game itself all prepared.

The CD will be in production shortly - stay tuned for the inevitable tsunami of publicity.

I graduated from university yesterday so my time will now be exclusively devoted to completing the work on Determinance, preparing for Truck, and then on into the mysterious future.