Dr Rubberfunk Newsletter - November 2024
New music, old music and tape news too!
Hey folks, I knew that when I set up this Substack and used the word ‘Newsletter’ in the title that I wouldn’t be able to stick to any kind of ‘normal’ weekly, or even monthly newsletter schedule - so far it’s been more like an annual thing, but there we are. I work away on things in the studio, and until music is finished and available for people to hear I don’t really consider it news-worthy. But maybe the process is interesting too, and I should probably share more of that with you, along with some Rubberfunk history and tales of adventures past, as it’s easy for me to forget I’ve been doing this music making lark for well over two decades now.
So with that in mind, to new music, where the past is helping carry me into the future. I’m really happy to present my first new release since ‘My Life At 45’ in 2020 - ‘Ectopic Beats Volume 1’ is a collection of unreleased instrumentals & songs; some re-discovered, some re-arranged and some newly created since my studio move in 2021.
I’d done a lot of sorting & clearing after the move, both of studio gear*, and files on hard drives, and realised that the large number of tracks sitting in a folder marked TO BE FINISHED was actually beginning to get me down. Reminding me that in some way I’d failed by not completing them. I realise, of course, that like plenty of good ideas, sometimes there’s just a bit of an extended gestation period needed …
So, in 2022 I began working through them, reacquainting myself with what was there, and finding 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. With a bit of cutting and pasting I felt 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 again.
I used a lot of samples in my early productions, and that love of a good loop has never really left me, so the process of starting to finish a number of these tracks had me digging back through my records - a large proportion of which are littered with post-it notes like the one above - and a bunch of new songs quickly took shape. The idea slowly formed that a beat-tape style album might be a nice way to bring everything together, and having a physical cassette was the logical way to release it.
So, here it is - see if you can work out which tracks I started in 2024, and which ones I started in 2004. I wanna shout out Titeknots and Buddy Peace here too, they’re both terrific producers, musicians and DJs, and their production input and all round encouragement really helped me get this project across the finishing line. I’m a huge fan of their work and I’m proud to call them my friends.
Next, some old music. My second album - ‘My Life At 33’ - was released in late 2006, and to my eternal frustration, was never actually pressed as an LP, so the gag kinda fell flat (or maybe it didn’t, who can tell!). The cost of manufacturing vinyl at the time (considerably lower than it is now!) didn’t quite stack up against the falling trend in vinyl sales, so we didn’t do it. We also fell into that weird mid-’00s period between the physical & digital eras, and so whilst the album eventually made it to streaming services, a number of the 12” only singles didn’t get there - until now! The first of these to return is the wonderful Ashley Beedle extended remix of ‘Taking Over’ - click the photo below to start streaming on your favourite service.
It’s also available as a download from lots of places , including Junodownload and Bandcamp amongst others.
We’ll be releasing another raft of remixes from the MLA33 project later this month, so I’ll be sure to send info on that nearer the time.
Until then, enjoy the start of hibernation season and the fact that I haven’t mentioned Black Friday.
Peace!
Simon R’Funk x
*some of that surplus studio gear for sale HERE - message for mailing list deals! ;)