Steampunk Horror – Pictures from The Dark Power

Posted on 16th January 2010 by TomSlatter

The Dark Power (AKA Joe Slatter, my brother) makes models. His love of, and quite remarkable talent for special effects and models has finally lead him into an interest in photographing things properly.

His latest film project is currently called ‘Oldroid’ and will involve a very steampunky little automaton.

I’ve used one of the early pics of this as a draft cover for Spinning the Compass. Once there are some proper photos of the whole thing, I shall steal one of these for the final cover as quite by coincidence Oldroid fits in with the theme of steam engine related body horror that runs through some of the songs on Spinning the Compass.

Here’s Joe’s site. Go Look!

Steampunk Music – Moth

Posted on 13th January 2010 by TomSlatter

My new favourite Steampunk music discovery is Moth, a band from the UK.

Here’s a video for the song Tree Snow. The music is vaguely gothy minor key pop rock with a lovely chorus hook and even a proper pop song key change at one point. The video is all quirky steam-powered robot fun.

They have a (rather confusing flash driven) website, and can be found on CDbaby. Definitely worth a listen to.

Spinning the Compass – Almost a whole album

Posted on 8th January 2010 by TomSlatter

Barring a few tweaks and one more song, Spinning the Compass is complete.

Here it is:

The front cover is still probably a draft. It’s stolen from my brother’s new puppet/model/thing which can be seen here.

New Song – Lines overheard at a Séance

Posted on 2nd January 2010 by TomSlatter

I’ve actually recorded most of Spinning the Compass now, but haven’t got round to uploading it yet.

Here’s a recent song that I like:

Steampunk Music by Other People

Posted on 13th December 2009 by TomSlatter

Thanks to Brass Goggles and the Clock Workers Guild Journal, I have discovered two lovely Steampunk musical ensembles:

Sunday Driver ‘make music with a harp, a sitar, some guitars, some clarinets, tablas and whatever we can get our grubby mitts on.’

Their latest album ‘In the City of Dreadful Night’ is a pure delight. Rats is probably my favourite track, but possible not, as the two tracks after it are also fantastic. As is every other track that I’ve listened to.

RPM Orchestra is less accesible – electroacoustic found recordings and soundscapes rather than the vocal-centric Sunday Driver. That doesn’t make it any less worthwhile though.

RPM Orchestra – (Excerpt from) Symphony No. 7

RPM Orchestra | MySpace Music Videos