A Man to Avoid

A Man to Avoid

This here dress,
I want you to put it on.

This here Foley,
I want you to make the sound

Of desire
and disgust

This is a man to avoid.
You fall in late,
you fall out with him.

This is a man to avoid.
He'll pour his name into your veins
and shame you in a crowd.


This is a man to avoid.
You fall in late,
you fall out with him.

This is a man to avoid.

Desire, disgust

Cheap Seats

"A Man to Avoid"
Ramon Galvan, Nick Da Silva

New Cheap Seats portrait: Ramon Galvan, A Man To Avoid. Performed and shot in Cape Town



Thanks to Dirk Hugo and Gareth "Danger" Jones for camera, audio recording mastering and film edit and inviting us to take part in this ongoing project.

For other Cheap Seats performances go here

EDIT:

A little bit of publicity and background from Rollingstone SA website here

Several years ago an avant-garde rock band named Blackmilk was making a name for itself on the circuit in Cape Town – there was a period where the weird and interesting was appealing in that city; outfits like Benguela and sound artist James Webb were finding regular gigs at otherwise "commercial" nightspots... and drawing fair audiences.

Blackmilk frontman Ramon Galvan took some time off in the mid 2000s it is said, and all but disappeared from the playing schedule. OFF THE RECORD was made aware this week by producer and debatist DjF Head, however, that the singer/guitarist has in fact continued to work, producing at least one full album (that we know of) entitled Outer Tumbolia(2009).

In the video below, Galvan and long-time The Galvan Trio collaborator Nick da Silva execute the track "A Man to Avoid" live in a room at their home in Cape Town. As the aforementioned DjF Head put it: "one of the most underacknowledged talents in the land. Hopefully this footage goes some way towards rectifying that."

Restore VI

I had not intended to do a further post on this, as I think the previous five posts summed up the past two years of toil quite well. Then it dawned on us that a small video demonstrating that the dulcitone not only looked good now but sounded pretty good too wouldn't be such a bad idea.

The last few percent of improvements were some of the toughest to achieve with meticulous note taking about what element or component was hindering performance. Multiple sweeps of each key was required and along the way certain concessions and resignations were required when margins of improvement were, for now, outside of our grasp.

So, there are still some forks who's tuning had drifted somewhat and some keys and hammers are a little "lazy" in returning to their default positions which can create the odd dead spot when playing. I would imagine some bespoke overhaul of some hammers or the sourcing of similar hammers from a grand piano supply might be an option in the future, but for now she has taken place of pride in the domicile-cum-studio and has already started contributing to some new recordings. So watch this space!

Also a final word of gratitude to Americo, my father for his tireless assistance, ingenuity  and camaraderie during this project.

EDIT: Parts 1,2,3,4 and 5 of this story