'The Mint Hotel' Nearing Completion

Dear friends, just an update on progress with the new album. This is the actual Rhodes MK8 that I will take delivery of in February, currently in production. It will feature on 'The Mint Hotel', a collection of 13 new tracks and one reworked old track.

I'm a big fan of the 'Beat Generation' of artist and writers from the 50s and 60s, and so the album has a kind of concept - a semi-fictional hotel in which you can meet a variety of (mainly sleazy) characters from the novels of Hunter S. Thompson and William Burroughs. Each song is inspired by a character.

The style of the album has changed a little during the recording and writing process. I originally recorded everything as 'live' as possible because I knew I wanted a small-band, Be-bop-influenced hard sound. However, over time, I've swapped out a lot of the original parts and replaced them with more Lo-Fi samples, which I will then re-record on the Rhodes to give I hope a stripped-down, moody funk feel, kind of the jazzy end of Gil Scott-Heron meets D'Angelo.

I hope to have the album out by the early Spring when the keyboard parts have been completed. You may have seen the original artwork in my last post, if not please check that out as it really gives you a flavor of the style I'm going for.

Tracklisting as it stands is:

A Stroke Of Cheap Genius

Doctor Benway

Executive Privilege

Goldwater

Head Culture

Heavy Young Girl

Jaded Ex-Beauty Queen

Leon's Right Hand

Nixon's Priest

No-One That You Know (original from When You Are What You Are)

Oscar's Fall From Grace

Rendezvous On E14th Street

The Lights In Fat City

Very Ruben Salazar

More to follow, including the story behind each song, as the album nears completion.