Post · Fedizen

Robert Dallas Gray

@rdg_music@musicians.today 2 hr. ago

quick roundup of stuff I’ve been up to recently, in the run up to #BandcampFriday … busy busy! first up Skallagrigg, a collab with Joseph Quimby (Rhins). brain-scouring elegiac noise https://shadowworldarchive.bandcamp.com/album/skallagrigg

Skallagrigg

I’m privileged to share new music from friends Robert Dallas Gray (Life Without Buildings, Whin, Even Sisters) and Joseph Quimby ( Dragon’s Eye Recordings). This project is named after William Horwood's 1987 novel of the same name. The plot, the fictional mythology built around the Skallagrigg character, describes a shared hope for a protector for disabled children in a hardened society—a non-verbal bond forged through active folklore, weaving in Horwood’s prophetic thoughts on the future of disabled discourse, politics, community and technology. This literary reference, although playfully ephemeral and deeply implicit, is somehow folded delicately into Robert and Joe’s new and shared sonic world. A Harsh Noise Wall dances with synth drone and delay/reverb-soaked guitar, Joe teases out ghostly harmonics, burying and revealing new layers of distortion over time that provide blizzard-like conditions for Robert’s ethereal character to wander and play. Of Skalagrigg, Robert says: “I’d enjoyed Joe’s work as Rhins – I went to see him play locally and was ultimately too shy to say hello, but I messaged him afterwards to see if he was up for doing something collaborative. As it happened a few weeks later, after Eliane Radigue died, I was thinking about her and had some pieces that were a bit more abstract than my usual solo stuff. I thought they’d be good to send to Joe, and he responded very quickly, with treatments to my original tracks and then with three more of his own. During the recording of those initial tracks a family member went into end-of-life care. I don’t think Joe knew this at the time, and I didn’t know about his loss, but I think the project took on a sense of elegy.” Joseph responds: “I’d been a fan of Robert’s work since Life without buildings, but even more so of his recent solo work, so when he messaged about a collaboration I was super excited to hear where it could go. The day after he sent the tracks, without any thought or intention or even hearing it properly, I recorded a response to each of them in one take. Something about it flowed really well and naturally, like he was in the room with me playing live together. When I was sending the tracks back I got some devastating news about someone close to me, which in turn got poured back into the three new tracks. Somewhat of a sonic grieving. I can be quite destructive with sounds so I was pleased that Robert was free and open to anything I felt in regards to processing what he had sent. It felt like we had been making music for years together, happening so quickly without any discussion of an end goal.”

#bandcampfriday

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@alisynthesis@io.waxandleather.com 1 hr. ago

@rdg_music oh my, look at all the things! Enjoyed listening to you on the @lorenzosmusic podcast recently, by the way. Cool interview, it was fun to hear you talk and get to know a bit more about you!

Robert Dallas Gray

@rdg_music@musicians.today 56 min. ago

@alisynthesis @lorenzosmusic thanks!

Robert Dallas Gray

@rdg_music@musicians.today 2 hr. ago

new Whin out this friday! contemplative improv, trad guitars, big hot pop ballads, we got it all https://whin.bandcamp.com/album/summer-visitor

Robert Dallas Gray

@rdg_music@musicians.today 2 hr. ago

unreleased Buildings! our XFM sessions released on record for the first time. all acoustic! very nice vinyl edition https://errolshotwax.bandcamp.com/album/life-without-buildings-xfm-sessions

Errol's Hot Wax

Life Without Buildings - XFM Sessions

VINYL ORDERS SHIP AROUND DEC 4TH , 2026 Life Without Buildings were Robert, Chris and Will — a group of mostly Glasgow School of Art students who joined forces in the summer of 1999, with vocalist Sue Tompkins joining a little later in the year. They weren’t active for too long, eventually disbanding in 2002 after the release of their first and final record, Any Other City. Embarking on a tour with Belle and Sebastian and playing countless shows across the country, the band are surprisingly pretty undocumented; a few fuzzy live videos recorded at the now closed Beat Room in Glasgow resurfaced on YouTube a few years ago, but give or take a handful of interviews and a live recording from a show in Sydney (which was finally pressed to vinyl by Rough Trade for Record Store Day 2025), there’s not much out there. This release coincides with a short run of reunion shows in November to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Rough Trade and features two acoustic radio sessions recorded in 2000 and 2001 for John Kennedy’s show on XFM. These stripped back versions of the songs retain all of their energy and intricacy while providing the perfect platform for Sue’s iconic delivery. Speaking on the sessions, guitarist Robert Dallas Gray says: “I honestly can’t remember the specifics of them! I’m probably a bit thrown by there being video of us (by John Cheves)... We were in London quite a lot around that time, often staying with John and his partner Manami. The only thing I can definitely remember is the engineer’s hat pretty much lifting off his head when Sue sang the first ‘Whiter!’ in Envoys. One of his dials slammed into a position it’d never been in before and he said ‘blimey’... and that the acoustic guitar I played or both those sessions belonged to Colin Hardie. We did play a few acoustic things (prior to these sessions), including a full show at the 13th Note, which I have a recording of somewhere... we might have done an acoustic session for Radio Scotland before the XFM ones - they were just easier for the stations to do, they could have you in and chat to you and then you could play something quite informally. I think Will hated it, having to use brushes and tippy-tap away, ha ha. (John Kennedy’s support of the band) was early and consistent, really. He organised the Twitter Listening Party for the reissue Any Other City n 2022 so he’s remained a supporter of the band all that time. It’s nice to have the document, and I’m really pleased we managed to make something lasting out of John’s video, with the sleeve. I do slightly share Sue’s bemusement that people are still interested in these things, but yes, it’s nice.”