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The new Nature of Wires ft Luka album “Digital Silence” was released on Bandcamp and Soundcloud on August 2nd 2024, on a pay what you want basis. Topics covered in the new album include global internet outages, the state of the NHS in the UK, migrant boats, cyber-attacks, corporate greed, tax-dodgers, the rise of AI, the apocalypse (yes, Gary is a fan of the Terminator movie franchise) and renaissance. Selected tracks from the album will be released on streaming platforms over the coming months, starting with the title track on August 30th, followed by Dark Waters on September 27th. Click on the images to the left to get the album and singles from your favourite platform.
Gary says: "In a recent post I said that I was taking a different approach to the next NoW release. In this regard I’ve used AI to give me starting points for songs and to assist with lyrics (I’ve never been a good songwriter). Although the approach to gathering ideas was different to what I’ve done in the past, the actual process of rearranging and recreating the instrumentation of the initial ideas, adjusting vocals, etc, etc, was pretty much the same as remixing and on average took a bit longer. I’ve been using drum machines, sequencers and samplers for nearly 40 years and I’m seeing AI as a next technological step. Technology is my instrument (along with my brain of course)."
Over 60% of independent artists are already using AI to make music and some major players are also using or supporting the technology, e.g. Brian Eno, Paul McCartney, Timbaland, Rage Against the Machine, Charli XCX, Sia, John Legend and many more.
Early days, but rightly or wrongly AI is here to stay. Interesting times ahead.
We are delighted to announce that the new single “Static Icons” by Nature of Wires + Machina X was released on Bandcamp on May 24th and on streaming platforms etc on May 31st.
It’s the first original Nature of Wires collaboration to be released since July 2023 and is the milestone 250th track involving NoW to appear on Spotify.
It’s deep, dark and heavy and has an electrifying buzz to it. Once again Annie from Machina X has demonstrated what an amazing writer/producer she is, with an especially keen ear for detail.
We’ve pushed a few boundaries with this one and we hope you’ll love it!
Click the image for links.
Gary and Annie have teamed up yet again, this time to fuse synths with swing, for a moody, meaty re-working of the Nina Simone classic 'Feeling Good' - notably covered by Rat Packer Sammy Davis Jnr and more recently catching mainstream attention, with renditions by the likes of Muse and Michael Bublé.
Annie says "We were invited to submit a track for a Specialized Project box set, in support of the Teenage Cancer Trust. We knew it was something we wanted to do, but had no idea how challenging it would be to find the sweet spot between our Electro world and the world of Swing; we wanted to create a defiant, darker vibe, which still captured the essence of the Rat Pack Swing days. Numerous false starts had us tearing our hair out and wondering if the track we had chosen was really going to deliver in the way we wanted it to. We were both outside our comfort zones, but we're really happy with the result (which may or may not be influenced by early 90's Depeche Mode). We've made a few tracks together now and if we can write a few more it will give us enough material to look at putting a live set together."
The Nature of Wires + Machina X cover of Feeling Good was released on all major platforms on September 1st 2023. Click the image for links.
Trees is a collection of 14 short, dark ambient pieces written towards the end of 2022. 12 of the tracks are purely instrumental but two feature fantastic contributions from Madil Hardis (see below) and Annie from Machina X. Release date was 28th April 2023.
Click on the image to the left, to go to the Nature of Wires Bandcamp page, where you'll be able to buy the album in digital or limited edition CD format. There's a special offer on, which gets you Trees and the 2022 album Building Reflections together on CD at a discounted price.
All profits from Trees will be donated to sands.org.uk, a charity set up to save babies' lives and support bereaved families.
Semper in Animis Nostris is the second single to be released from the album 'Trees' and was written with Gary's friend Kath and her baby Otis in mind. Kath tragically lost her battle against insurmountable grief in Oct ‘22, as a result of Otis passing away at just 1 day old 7 months earlier. Kath was beautiful inside and out, as reflected in the tone of this track, which is also tinged with sadness. All profits from the album Trees, from which this is taken, will be donated to sands.org.uk, a charity set up to save babies’ lives and support bereaved families.
Release date was March 24th 2023. Click on the image for streaming and purchase links. Please give generously to this most worthy of causes.
Rising talent Jay Taylor (j:dead) and seasoned producer Gary Watts (Nature of Wires) first 'met' when Gary was a SubmitHub reviewer. Gary became an instant fan of j:dead's ebm/industrial style and was delighted when Jay invited him to contribute a remix of ‘Afraid’ for the physical release of the EP ‘Vision of Time’ in 2022. Fast forward several months and the pair agreed to collaborate on a new song, after they met in person at a j:dead gig in Manchester. Gary created a framework of a track, Jay added his trademark distinctive vocals and Gary built it up to a finished version.
Jay Taylor is no stranger to a collaboration, having teamed up with FabrikC, TeknoVore, Menschdefekt, Against I and Tyske Ludder. Gary also has an impressive back catalogue of collaborations and remixes (over 100), including Leaether Strip, Massive Ego, Fuzzbox, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Freakangel, Sea of Sin, Spankthenun, Projekt Ich & Madil Hardis
This new collaboration has seen the pair create a dark, bass-heavy and aggressive track, filled with vocal and instrumental hooks. Thrive deals with the drudgery of day to day life and the desperation which this creates is reflected superbly in the raw emotion of j:dead's vocals.
Thrive was released on Bandcamp on December 8th 2022 and on all other platforms on Infacted Recordings on December 9th.
Gary says: Because I can’t sing I’ve never been able to create a solo album, so if I was to do this it would have to be instrumental. I’d been playing around with some synths with really atmospheric, evolving pads and then one dreary Saturday in November I found myself in just the right frame of mind to do something creative. I set myself a challenge, literally made things up as I went along and within a few hours I’d come up with 10 short, ambient and VERY simplistic instrumentals. The whole thing is only about 24 minutes long and it just sort of works. A few days later it occurred to me that my lovely and super-talented friend Madil Hardis could add an extra layer of etherealness (if that’s a word) with her trademark gorgeous soprano voice and so I asked her to choose a couple on which to sing. Borealis and Network were chosen and within a day Madil had sent vocal tracks back. Network contains actual words (inspired by Bjork apparently) whereas Borealis is vocal sounds (I’m sure there must be an official term for this).
So, the whole thing took less than 2 days to create from start to finish and I’ve been bowled over by the response it has had. It’s a bit of a departure from the norm, but is in line with the sort of thing I listen to a lot, especially when driving, or generally trying to relax. It’s probably a one-off, but if it flies I would consider doing another one like this. The album artwork is a photo I took from the 13th floor of the Radisson Hotel in Cardiff and when I posted it, suggesting that it would make good album artwork, a guy called Dave (@wafbinthedark on Twitter) suggested that it could be called Building Reflections. The full album was released on March 25th; click on the image for streaming & buying links.
Modus is a collection of 8 songs originally written by Gary and Andrew between 1986 and 1993, plus 11 remixes by artists from around the world.
Released in August 2019 on the AnalogueTrash label, Modus is available as a double CD, in digital format and as an ultra-limited USB flash drive containing all of the originals and remixes plus photos and videos (update: USBs have now sold out).
Modus was voted Album of the Year by The Electricity Club in 2019.