Thanks dude. Yeah, Echus worked an absolute treat. It just so happened that it was playing as I was carrying my youngest into the living room, he'd have been no more than 2 or 3 years old at the time and the usual routine was to have him sat in the crook of an elbow, top of his head under my chin. Our living room and sitting room are knocked through, into one near enough thirty foor long space, and I would walk up and down, end to end for hours sometime, humming to him which seemed to help diffuse his stress. Anyway, Echus hadn't long started and as it was really beginning to bui!d and swell, my son started to relax and I could feel the tension slowly dissipating from his back and shoulders. I had/have a fairly decent hifi and the bass end of the chords were filling but not overpowering the room. When it stopped, he looked up at me (really) and pointed at one of the speakers. Even more really. By the third or fourth playing of it, he was asleep on my left shoulder. The healing power of music? I would normally call "Bollocks" to getting dewy eyed and, like, totally Laurel Canyon wellness retreat about the effects of music in such settings, but I saw it, it happened and it was wonderful. He still listens to it now.
For the Lighthouse Party I was fairly shitfaced but the reports of Björk cbucking herself about the place are true as she knocked my girlfriend's drink flying. Amo Bishop Roden and that early cut of Julie & Candy blew my tiny mind. ATP was another level. I had my camera taken off me by a Welsh "bouncer" who told me I could have it back at the end of the gig. He was twice my size, so I didn't argue and he was true to his word. There was a real sense, amongst the dozen or so of our group, that this might be a bit special. And it was. i missed the first few minutes of Echus as I was having a slash, but everything about the it - from the slightly tawdry location, the tired, manky old chalets, knackered bingo hall-like venue in tandem with Boards' "nostalgia ethic" seemed to coalesce into some bizarre time slip. The backdrop/projections were perfect. Patterns. Faces. Out of focus. Washed out, lens flared images. Did they really play Noatak? Whatever it was, it laid me out. The "bass drum" or whatever sound they had manipulated to be the bass drum did a real number on my ribs.
Thank ypu for the welcome. Peace.