Dexter Returns!

Hello All mv fans.

Yes, I am back from my little vacation in Califonia. I had a lovely time, and have returned bronzed, buff, and now the leg-end mad_vicar looks like a blue shivering thing stood next to me! The news that mv7 was finished whilst I was away was a surprise, but thanks to Skype, I managed to join in the celebrations, right across the other side of the world.

As regards mad_vicar news, plenty is going on. Firstly of course, there was the surprise completion of mv7. A big surprise, since when I left for my vacation I understood that 7 was on hiatus and shelved for the foreseeable future. In my absence it seems that mv had cracked on with this "shelved" album and in the midst of a mass redecoration of the mv house and Marsfeldenstrasse Studio, mainly undertaken by Mrs. mad_vicar who worked tirelessly to add some glitter and polish to an already lovely house and recording studio. As I say, in the midst of all this - usually overnight - mv worked on and developed ideas he had been toying with in his head whilst holding an emulsion brush and listening to "Journey Into Space"! 

The upshot of all this was to take an album that had been shelved, but containing somewhere around 1/3 to 1/2 CDs worth of musical content and create brand new material to completely fill up your average disc. 7 works out at around 70 minutes of music across nine tracks. As I think he mentioned in an earlier post, a couple of tracks had already been released by AEGRE as a CD single at the beginning of 2009 - AEGRE are always desperate for new mv material, and are almost hanging over him as he completes a new track or two! 

As regards the release of 7, I'm sorry to say I have no news yet. AEGRE, as I indicated above, are always eagre (is that an anagram?) to package up and release mv albums as soon as they are completed, but all is quiet at the record company. I get the feeling, and this is only a hunch, that they will be looking to launch it sometime in November to take advantage of the Chrimbo market. But this is only my supposition. mv himself, once an album is finished, is always keen to send the masters and any artwork he would like to see as the cover straight into the waiting arms of AEGRE, and this is what has happened with 7. So, mv fans, all I can say is keep checking the blog to see what's going on - any mv news is always posted here immediately. 

I have heard 7, in fact I have been playing a demo in the car ever since I returned from the US, and it is extremely good. It's quite obviously a more mature mv album, I think that after the fun of MV5, and then the deadly seriousness of the charity album "Participant in the Liquidation of the Accident Consequences" (or "Liquidators" or mv6), mad_vicar has matured a great deal over the last five years or so. 7 is a reflection of this budding maturity - that's not to say there's no humour, of which there is plenty! - but we have certainly entered a new phase since "Liquidators". When 7 finally hits the streets, there's no doubt it will be well received, of that I am very sure.

And so now that 7 is in the packing and wrapping stage, mv is devoting all recording time to what some have called his "ecological" album, mvVIII. Creating "Liquidators" was an emotional roller-coaster for him, and we all saw the change in his outlook. His "Liquidator" medal is one of his most prized posessions, and always maintains that he does not own it but is merely looking after it for a Liquidator who was not alive to receive it after the completion of the Saracophagus over the destroyed Chernobyl Reactor Number 4. mvVIII is a direct consequence of the "Liquidators" album, only this time, rather than focus on just one terrible disaster, he has broadened the scope and is going to look at some other terrible man-made "accidents" and their after-effects - utilising a format that he has called "music with a message". Thus mvVIII has already started - one track "The Winds of Karachai" has been released for free via MySpace and the SkyDrive, so any fans who haven't heard it can either play it on the MySpace player or download it from the SkyDrive. 

Well, that's enough from me for now. I think we are totally up to date. Do keep the comments coming in via MySpace to let us know what you think. You can friend mad_vicar if you are a MySpace member, and we would really appreciate you spreading the word about what mad_vicar is doing and the music he makes. I know he is going to write a post shortly about the hard and software he uses in creating the music, so watch out for that. Until the next time, this is Dex (now bronzed and healthy looking) signing off.

Keep the faith - keep it mv!

DEX