My new album 'Here's To The Good Life' is now available for £7 here. Tracks can be heard on myspace and there are some reviews here.
Tuesday 15 March 2011
New Album - 'Here's To The Good Life'
My new album 'Here's To The Good Life' is now available for £7 here. Tracks can be heard on myspace and there are some reviews here.
Thursday 26 November 2009
Sunday 20 September 2009
Friday 18 September 2009
Big Issue
Some of my art featured on the front cover of the current Big Issue magazine - there's also an article on outsider art in the magazine... :-)
Wednesday 5 August 2009
Outside In
A couple of pieces of my art are featured in 'Outside In' - an exhibition of outsider and marginalised art at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester....It runs from 4th August to 8th November 2009...
Wednesday 25 June 2008
'She Burns' video and 'Melancholia' review
Here's an animated video for my song 'She Burns' from my album 'Melancholia'...
The video was made by Norwegian film-maker Ulf Kristiansen
'Melancholia' is available to buy here
Ashley Reaks...'Melancholia'
A delightful surprise, as a former also ran of indie makes a damn-near perfect chillout album
Now here’s a fellow I don’t think any of us expected to hear from again? Ashley Reaks, former Younger Younger 28s member, returns with a solo album and it’s a rather charming surprise. A work of glorious bedsit pop - with delicious, at times tribal rhythms, Massive Attack etherialism and basslines that would make Jah Wobble drool.
A wealth of blissful rhythms, marked by Reaks’ artful insights and growling Northern accent make for an album of textures and colours, the perfect soundtrack to any late night vibe from toking to screwing. Absolutely splendid stuff.
More please!
Chris Merriman
www. myspace.com/subbacultcharawks
Ashley Reaks - Melancholia
Artist, musician, and comedian Ashley Reaks is a man of many interests, and this comes across on his album Melancholia - an interesting blend of ominous musical backdrops over African and Indian influenced beats, with a bit of punk thrown in for good measure. Imagine Nine Inch Nails if a mellow Trent Reznor took interest in world rhythms.
To keep things from becoming dull, Reaks has included a few tracks that go in unexpected directions. There are three instrumental tracks on the album that all sound as if they are drawing from different genres respectively, but are still excellent nonetheless. There are also the songs which would have to be likened to spoken word. On these tracks, Reaks recites prose eloquently, if somewhat perplexingly, over mesmerizing grooves. Amongst these She Burns stands out with its Indian-style trills erupting between Reaks' stanzas.
Melancholia is perfect for a person suffering from just that. Ashley Reaks has crafted an album of mellow, calming sounds, excluding I've Got Everything (That Nobody Wants), which blares during the middle as the most obvious example of his punk influences yet. If this album doesn't spur some sort of positive emotion, then it probably wasn't heard properly and deserves another listen.
Coren J. Cogdell
www.aloud.com
The video was made by Norwegian film-maker Ulf Kristiansen
'Melancholia' is available to buy here
Ashley Reaks...'Melancholia'
A delightful surprise, as a former also ran of indie makes a damn-near perfect chillout album
Now here’s a fellow I don’t think any of us expected to hear from again? Ashley Reaks, former Younger Younger 28s member, returns with a solo album and it’s a rather charming surprise. A work of glorious bedsit pop - with delicious, at times tribal rhythms, Massive Attack etherialism and basslines that would make Jah Wobble drool.
A wealth of blissful rhythms, marked by Reaks’ artful insights and growling Northern accent make for an album of textures and colours, the perfect soundtrack to any late night vibe from toking to screwing. Absolutely splendid stuff.
More please!
Chris Merriman
www. myspace.com/subbacultcharawks
Ashley Reaks - Melancholia
Artist, musician, and comedian Ashley Reaks is a man of many interests, and this comes across on his album Melancholia - an interesting blend of ominous musical backdrops over African and Indian influenced beats, with a bit of punk thrown in for good measure. Imagine Nine Inch Nails if a mellow Trent Reznor took interest in world rhythms.
To keep things from becoming dull, Reaks has included a few tracks that go in unexpected directions. There are three instrumental tracks on the album that all sound as if they are drawing from different genres respectively, but are still excellent nonetheless. There are also the songs which would have to be likened to spoken word. On these tracks, Reaks recites prose eloquently, if somewhat perplexingly, over mesmerizing grooves. Amongst these She Burns stands out with its Indian-style trills erupting between Reaks' stanzas.
Melancholia is perfect for a person suffering from just that. Ashley Reaks has crafted an album of mellow, calming sounds, excluding I've Got Everything (That Nobody Wants), which blares during the middle as the most obvious example of his punk influences yet. If this album doesn't spur some sort of positive emotion, then it probably wasn't heard properly and deserves another listen.
Coren J. Cogdell
www.aloud.com
Thursday 10 April 2008
Latest News...
My new CD 'Melancholia' is now available to buy here.
'Melancholia' combines many of my musical inspirations, African rhythms, post-punk guitars and vocals, cut-up poetry, the heavy bass of dub reggae, Indian drones, repetition and sound collage.
There's loads of new art here which has recently been published in a few magazines including the wonderful Platforms Magazine and the equally wonderful Mungbeing.
Copies of my execrable comedy CD 'A Conglomeration Of Jockstraps' are also available now. There's only just over 18,000 copies left so you'd better hurry up. There's a review of 'Jockstraps' here
The 12 Bar Club in London describes me as 'one of the funniest men at loose in his own clothes, his is a Northern English nightmare of puppets, explosions, mental illness, wigs, music and sausage fat. He is unlike any other performer you have ever seen. If you enjoy masochistic laughter: weeping, aching ribs, stomach cramps and peeing yourself, hey, come on down!'...
My monthly band gig at the Blues Bar in Harrogate (1st Sun afternoon of every month) is going great. It's a rare chance for me to play with a full band (brass section an' all) and to play a wide variety of some of my favourite covers...Specials, Clash, Jam, Iggy Pop, Velvet Underground to name but a few...Come down and join in the fun!
Keep Well!
Ashley
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