So Long, 2024

Well that was a weird year, huh? Thank you to all of you who signed up to The K.N.R.U. via email or RSS over the course 2024! Very happy you are here, cheers for being interested.

These dispatches began back in February. The first few months followed a weekly publishing schedule, planned out ahead of time, which had been aimed at clearing out a backlog of various almost-finished projects I had wanted to draw a line under and share.

Then spring arrived and a big chunk of my time was taken up with a large project I am still not able to talk about. It was and continues to be a big creative challenge that I am very much relishing, but when added to the ongoing plight of 65daysofstatic, it meant I didn't have much time or energy left in any given week for either standard Polinski projects or the more experimental side of noise-making that I so enjoy. And that meant quite a drop-off in terms of the kind of things I had planned to write about here.

Still, I am pleased that I have just about managed to cling on to posting at least monthly, and in the meantime new signups have grown slowly but steadily, which is nice.

It does mean it is entirely possible that the majority of people reading now missed some of the earlier, more substantial posts. There aren't really any analytics here so I don't know if any post in particular 'did numbers', whatever that would mean at this tiny scale, but I have chosen ten posts/projects from 2024 that I enjoyed putting together. If you missed them first time round, you might enjoy checking them out now.

► 01 // Telex From MIDI City (VHS version):

Back in 2023 when this record came out, there was also an extremely limited VHS edition. On the tape, each song had its own video that had been inspired by various 90s Amiga crack screen/warez aesthetics. Nobody saw it, obvs. So at the start of this year I finally put the whole thing on YouTube, where still mostly nobody saw it. Classic.

► 02 // CORAL GAMES REDUX:

I made an endless version of the song Coral Games, to see what would happen. It's moreish! Comes as downloadable software via itch.io. Or there's an old-fashioned mp3 version too.

► 03 // NOTES FROM A COFFEE SHOP :

Something I didn’t get very far with this year was finding a way to post here more less formally, more casually. This piece tries to do the latter, and laments the difficulty I have in letting my guard down when trying to post literally anything publicly. It is also me thinking about how my creative practice involves writing in notebooks, often in coffee shops, and features a killer quote from Raven Leilani.

► 04 // RELEASING (MYSELF FROM) MUSIC:

Music as ballast?? A bit of writing that wonders why it took me ten years to release my soundtrack to a dance performance called BLOOD, how freeing it was when I finally did, and how maybe all music is a kind of communism? (I remember figuring this one out while sitting on a bench in London on a sunny day with my notebook, eating an excellent sandwich.)

► 05 // MEET ME BY THE PANAMAX BARRICADES:

Another Polinski release on Data Airlines Records. It is still available on vinyl with a cool floppy disk sleeve. No time for subtlety here, just some weird spring-time hyper bangers. (Also suitable for winter). This release was a companion piece to the Telex From MIDI City album, and a couple of associated projects — the video for The Matte Flex as well as this breakdown of the many Zeens of MIDI City — are tied into that too. Also related to this is a deep dive on how one song in particular came together. (You can stream the EP on Sp***fy, Tim Apple Music, and so on.) I'd love to return to some of the ideas kicking around in that collection of zeens one day...

► 06 // MUSIC ABOLITIONIST PROVOCATION:

I SAY WE TAKE OFF AND NUKE THE ENTIRE SITE FROM ORBIT. IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO BE SURE! /// This piece is basically that quote except instead of an abandoned colony on an alien planet it's the concept of music, and instead of deadly aliens it's AI tech bros.

► 07 // THE URGENCY LOOP & ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT:

'The Urgency Loop' is a term I made up for that thing you can do by repeating phrases of music in such a way it can make your heart jump out of your mouth and Rocket From the Crypt are really good at making them.

► 08 // LIVE FROM PATTERN CLUB:

My one live show of the year! Better than zero shows I suppose... A happy exchange with Alex McLean over on Mastodon led to an invite to play Pattern Club in Sheffield on a balmy June evening. I recorded it, thought it sounded good, so here it is.

► 09 // THE FUNDAMENTAL INTEGER:

Short essay about reading books on tour and also trying to get at that liminal, dialectical space inhabited I find myself in when trying to write words and/or music, which exists in conflict somewhere between intention and feeling.

► 10 // BOOM BOOM SATELLITES:

Thinking about the time I met Boom Boom Satellites — a band of huge importance to me — in Tokyo a long time ago, and how we clumsily traded opinions on sampling techniques via a confused translator.

Cheers for reading! I had hoped to have more of a fleshed out plan for The K.N.R.U. headed into the new year but, well, life just keeps on happening doesn't it? I do like it here though, so will be sticking around. I shall see you in 2025 for more noise and confusion with occasional glitches.

Paul.