mxv

And so here we are. Synthtember's here again, as David Sylvian might well put it. It's been a very rough year, I've sadly spend little time in the studio, little time in creative pursuits. Most of my time has been spent struggling with both physical and mental health problems. It's been a bit of a shocker.

Synthtember 2026 begins not so auspiciously with a planned power outage, so, unable to switch on any gear, most of the day is spent cleaning synths, cleaning the studio, organising and hypothesising. Still, the studio feels much better than it did this time yesterday.

I didn't get the chance to even switch on a synth, let alone patch anything, or start experimenting until after eating dinner, by which time I was feeling a bit discombobulated.

The first attempt at recording, generally a failure, an experiment with several fast delays on several synths, was really sounding nice while I was working it up, but on restarting it to record, I couldn't quite get the sounds, the timing and the feel right.

“One for the Road, Part 1” by jlmxv.

The second attempt, again, was sounding quite nice when first improvised, but when I reset everything and started to record, things just flibbed and flobbed in a generally unsatisfactory manner.

“One for the Road, Part 2” by jlmxv.

It's all very dispiriting. But! I know from experience that the only way out of creative malaise is to keep moving forward, keep doing it, and something will happen given enough effort, time, luck and fortune.

So, to bed, and to relax with The Mad God's Amulet, a Moorcock I haven't read since... probably the early 90s.