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This is Tomorrow

by Band Of Cloud

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about

David Owen/1:
Band Of Cloud’s David Owen has previous. Hailing from Leeds, he knocked about with Soft Cell early doors, hoovered up 80s synthpop, got distracted by The Sisters Of Mercy, formed The Hollow Men, dropped out for a couple of decades and popped back up in 2011 with the utterly brilliant ‘We Know Where The Time Goes’ by The FLK – a folk version of The KLF’s ‘Chill Out’. Yes, it’s as great as that sounds.

Judging by all that, ‘This Is Tomorrow’ should be good. David reveals that the first album he bought, aged 16, was Tangerine Dream’s ‘Force Majeure’. On clear vinyl. With a sticker. It’s a record that has impact, this is his homage.

‘This Is Tomorrow’ is like a fever dream, all drifty and floaty and hypnotisey. It comes as four lengthy tracks that sound like they should build to some of release, but never quite do. It has a kind of ‘Twin Peaks’ what-the-fuckery about it. Odd samples, noises here, strange sounds there. ‘The Hidden Memory’ is proper flickering light bulbs stuff.

Opener ‘Band Of Cloud’ starts with the rumble of distant thunder and builds slowly, repeating its ravey, weather-themed vocal over and over. The whole thing feels not so much post-rave as post-ambient. On ‘Night Visiting Song’ rich, rhythmic chords appear and they just stay there, swirling in and out for over 15 minutes, drawing in sounds like a blackhole until a beat finally arrives. You feel like you’re in a perpetual breakdown where the whole time something is brewing. It’s quite a trick.

David reveals a couple of other key albums for him were The Orb’s ‘Ultraworld’ and Biosphere’s ‘Microgravity’, which makes perfect sense when you hear this. You will be pleased to know ‘This Is Tomorrow’ also comes on clear vinyl, with a sticker. Cracking stuff.

Neil Mason, Moonbuilding, Summer 2022.

David Owen/2:
The first album I ever bought - aged 16 - was Force Majeure by Tangerine Dream. On clear vinyl. I’d overheard some of the cool kids at school talking about it. I loved everything about it - the clear vinyl - the sleeve - the unknown mysterious German band… and the music! It spoke to me. I drifted away into it, hypnotised and enraptured - lost in space.

I had a bunch of punk singles, but this was something new, something different to me. I could ‘understand it’. And I knew it was the future.

Fast forward a couple of years and I’ve left home…out and about in Leeds…. clubbing, partying, going to gigs. I met a kid called Marc Almond at The Warehouse…he was a bit older than me… he was in a band called Soft Cell… they’d just released a 12” single… Memorabilia… I went to their early gigs…

I bought The Human League… I was obsessed with Being Boiled.

I bought The Normal. T.V.O.D.

I bought Kraftwerk.

I kept buying Tangerine Dream…

The synth pop 80’s were here and I’d seen it coming and I lived it and I loved every minute of it.

I got distracted by The Sisters of Mercy (I lived a few streets away from Marc Almond…he lived a few streets away from the Sisters….both bands did a cover version of Ghost Rider…).

I got distracted by The Jesus and Mary Chain.

I formed a band with a kid I met on the bus… The Hollow Men.

We did OK. A couple of indie singles…. Then a couple of indie albums…. Then we signed to a major label. BMG.

We supported The Lilac Time. The Wonder Stuff. The Stone Roses. Primal Scream.

Albums, singles, promo videos, big studios, tour buses…

THEN ecstasy and raves and house music happened and everything changed again…

I crashed and burned.

Then I chilled out for a few years.

The Orb’s first album and Microgravity by Biosphere were my chill out favourites… and Space by The KLF.

It took me a long time get around to making any music again. Nineteen years in fact.

The FLK was an electronic homage to my love of folk music and the KLF.

Storm Chorus was a guitar based homage to my love of folk music and The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Sisters…

And now - here I am with Band Of Cloud

The first album I’ve made solo.

With renowned Yorkshire singer Rebecca Denniff on vocals.

I had the name first. I figured that every weather reporter on the tv and radio will say my band name at least once every week…

And it’s vague enough. It’s fragile and fleeting and it comes and goes.

The music is inspired by Tangerine Dream’s Force Majeure. The Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld. Biosphere’s Microgravity.

The sleeve is a direct homage to Force Majeure (except for that font!).

It’s on clear vinyl. With a sticker.

I wrote the weather report for the track ‘Band of Cloud’. It covers a typical, generic, English day. The lyric is a line from a folk song. It’s optimistic. There’s a sample of Noel Coward.

The track ‘This Is Tomorrow’ uses the female computer voice off my old Apple Mac G4… it’s meant to be cold and heartless. The lyric is (Pop Artist) Richard Hamilton’s Pop Art Manifesto and a random list of his artwork titles. Cut up in a Dada style.

You might hear some echoes of SPACE:1999 (I love SPACE:1999 and UFO. I even own a mega rare white curved fibreglass desk from the set of SPACE:1999).

Or maybe you’ll spot something from the most freakish, fucked up, genius piece of TV ever made.

I don’t really care for all these “vintage synth” albums. I’m not trying to recreate the sound. And I don’t really care for all those wires and self oscillating albums.

It doesn’t matter if it’s recorded using a vintage Moog….or how many eurorack modulars you’ve got… If you can’t write something that moves someone, then why bother?

I sampled and looped and borrowed and imported and bought sound packs ‘off the shelf’. Nobody will know or care. It doesn’t matter how I put it together - or what equipment I used or didn’t use - or what synths I have or haven’t got - or what DAW I used.

All that matters is what’s coming out of the speakers and how it makes you feel…

credits

released September 23, 2022

All material composed and produced by David Owen.
Mixed by Peter Bingham/Sendelica.
Vocals by Rebecca Denniff.
Weather Forecast by Sam Dunkley.

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Band Of Cloud Whitby, UK

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