COMPETITION SUCCESS
TWO YEARS RUNNING!
If you have read any of the other pages on this site - and why wouldn't you? - you'll have noticed that I have been entering my work, for the first times ever, into the Hammond House International Literary Festival competition.
I have been shortlisted in both the Short Story AND the Poetry catergories, which is incredibly pleasing and the sort of validation any creative type seeks, maybe even craves.
But Keith and I have had real success in the 'Performed Song' category. In 2023 our song 'Prison Rain' was placed THIRD after making the Shortlist.
In 2024, our song 'Drifting' was placed SECOND in the same category!
To say that we were pleased at Third and delighted at Second is an understatement. The only issue I can see is that we would really like to keep to the trajectory established over these two years but there's only one place we are yet to achieve... fingers crossed for 2025!
NEW EP OUT NOW!
We are finally coming to the end of the saga that has become the ongoing jourmey of our double concept CD 'discoveryONE' (see post below but the final versions of all 24 songs have been recorded and they are now being refined with a hoped-for release sometime in late 2025). But ready to be sent to new owners is our 4th missive. This is an EP (oldies - remember Extended Play singles?). A 5 track collection of songs the first 3 of which make up the medley of the 4th (acoustic demo) and 5th (final recorded version).
We released our 'London Diary' album and finished reworking the artwork for a launch onto streaming platforms of our 2019 'In Session' CD but we had already been 'mucking about' ('Mucking' is a place in Essex) with a few songs that Keith had morphed into a pleasing medley.
This medley comprises three separate songs; 'Irresistible Attraction', 'Smoke' (instrumental) and 'Secrets of the Garden' that Keith had been working on to make into one longer pastoral piece. We recorded an acoustic demo many years ago that we rediscovered and then rerecorded the whole thing in 2023 specifically for this release.
We have a number of physical CD copies and the digital version is on all usual streaming platforms. To make it easier, as you may know, we have adjusted our 'brand' and adopted the 'Mitchell&Melhuish' tag as there are no others on Spotify, iTunes or the like whereas there are a number of bands called 'UnderTow'.
We are pleased with the result of (mostly Keith's) work and even though it's not that similar to any other release, believe it has some worth and would benefit from a listen or two...
Our new music will be reaching ears around the world very soon (hopefully!) ...
We released our 'London Diary' album and finished reworking the artwork for a launch onto streaming platforms of our 2019 'In Session' CD but we had already been 'mucking about' ('Mucking' is a place in Essex) with a few songs that Keith had morphed into a pleasing medley.
This medley comprises three separate songs; 'Irresistible Attraction', 'Smoke' (instrumental) and 'Secrets of the Garden' that Keith had been working on to make into one longer pastoral piece. We recorded an acoustic demo many years ago that we rediscovered and then rerecorded the whole thing in 2023 specifically for this release.
We have a number of physical CD copies and the digital version is on all usual streaming platforms. To make it easier, as you may know, we have adjusted our 'brand' and adopted the 'Mitchell&Melhuish' tag as there are no others on Spotify, iTunes or the like whereas there are a number of bands called 'UnderTow'.
We are pleased with the result of (mostly Keith's) work and even though it's not that similar to any other release, believe it has some worth and would benefit from a listen or two...
Our new music will be reaching ears around the world very soon (hopefully!) ...
NEWS ON MUSIC CURRENTLY BEING
WRITTEN AND RECORDED...
It's quite an interesting and entertaining time at the moment for what has recently become 'Mitchell&Melhuish'. With Keith (Melhuish), we have released the first in what we hope will be a series of CD's under the overarching moniker of 'Pieces of Eight', is called 'London Diary (Pieces of 8 #1)' and it is available to buy or stream online now. Each of these releases will have only 8 songs, all worked around a theme that binds them together. Hence, this first 8 are a song diary of Alan's travels around London for work around the 2010-2015 mark. It's full of characters and incidents, impressions and ideas, of that multi-faceted city and we think it has some worth and interest to it.
But that's not all, we came 3rd in an International Literary Awards Competition with our 2008 song 'Prison Rain' (available on our CD 'One Day')! I can't convey to you the joy and amazement we both had when the news came through. I'd entered the song on a whim really as I was entering a couple of other categories and thought 'Why not?'
We have also released a new EP CD called 'Passing Moods' and a reworking of our 2019 CD 'In Session' (at Rogue Studios London). Both are on their way to all streaming platforms and if you search for 'Mitchell&Melhuish' (all one word), you should find us easily.
We are also still writing and recording our very first 'Prog' influenced 'concept' album 'discoveryONE'. It is shaping up to be a 24 track double CD release around the 90-120 minute mark, which provides lots of time to develop and explore a story 'arc'.
For this project, there is a specific methodology different from the 'usual' method; all the music is written and recorded by Keith and then sent to Alan. Alan then writes the story and the lyrics and records both as a solo and returns it to Keith. This 'tick-tock' approach means that Keith is completely free to create the music he wants too and let it take him wherever he wishes to journey, whilst Alan's job is to react to the music as supplied and write accordingly. The written lyrics and (to a certain extent) the written story are like aural 'thumbnail' sketches created to keep the story evolving but to also keep the music and lyrics moving ever forwards.
The overall story, themes, music and lyrics have now been completed and it is now time to return to the beginning and start to polish and enhance them all from first opening bar to the last fading words...
All 24 tracks are written and recorded, all have been mixed and we have a fully completed 2 CD 'Demo' version. But as is often the case (with Alan anyway), in the writing and recording, new ideas and techniques have influenced later songs in a way as to require earlier songs to be rerecorded to match later work.
The fact that both Alan and Keith are always doing other things means that what was meant to have been completed by the end of 2023 by the latest, is now drifting towards the end of 2024! Such is life!
More news about it as it develops, but here's a new working version of the front cover of the CD Booklet, just to whet your appetite (I hope)!
But that's not all, we came 3rd in an International Literary Awards Competition with our 2008 song 'Prison Rain' (available on our CD 'One Day')! I can't convey to you the joy and amazement we both had when the news came through. I'd entered the song on a whim really as I was entering a couple of other categories and thought 'Why not?'
We have also released a new EP CD called 'Passing Moods' and a reworking of our 2019 CD 'In Session' (at Rogue Studios London). Both are on their way to all streaming platforms and if you search for 'Mitchell&Melhuish' (all one word), you should find us easily.
We are also still writing and recording our very first 'Prog' influenced 'concept' album 'discoveryONE'. It is shaping up to be a 24 track double CD release around the 90-120 minute mark, which provides lots of time to develop and explore a story 'arc'.
For this project, there is a specific methodology different from the 'usual' method; all the music is written and recorded by Keith and then sent to Alan. Alan then writes the story and the lyrics and records both as a solo and returns it to Keith. This 'tick-tock' approach means that Keith is completely free to create the music he wants too and let it take him wherever he wishes to journey, whilst Alan's job is to react to the music as supplied and write accordingly. The written lyrics and (to a certain extent) the written story are like aural 'thumbnail' sketches created to keep the story evolving but to also keep the music and lyrics moving ever forwards.
The overall story, themes, music and lyrics have now been completed and it is now time to return to the beginning and start to polish and enhance them all from first opening bar to the last fading words...
All 24 tracks are written and recorded, all have been mixed and we have a fully completed 2 CD 'Demo' version. But as is often the case (with Alan anyway), in the writing and recording, new ideas and techniques have influenced later songs in a way as to require earlier songs to be rerecorded to match later work.
The fact that both Alan and Keith are always doing other things means that what was meant to have been completed by the end of 2023 by the latest, is now drifting towards the end of 2024! Such is life!
More news about it as it develops, but here's a new working version of the front cover of the CD Booklet, just to whet your appetite (I hope)!
NEW VIDEO - JUST POSTED ON YOUTUBE!
Yes it is true, I have just uploaded a 2017 Live Studio recording of Song 65, written in 2008 but recorded just a couple of years ago in Keith's (then) Home Studio. If you fancy watching me sit and sing my little heart out about scenes I saw when travelling across London for work, then head to YouTube Here.
If you do head over there, I do hope you enjoy it!
If you do head over there, I do hope you enjoy it!
NEW MUSIC OUT NOW!
As has been referenced elsewhere on this site, we have a NEW CD which was released on 1st December 2019! It's called 'UnderTow Live in Session' and is the result of an 8-hour recording studio session at Rogue Studios in Wembley, London.
The CD has been created, the artwork created, checked, reviewed by Keith and finally completed. Once all CD's have been copied, printed and the CD Jewel Cases also completed, they'll be ready to sell.
If you like acoustic music with great lyrics and great musicality then one of our CD's is a worthwhile purchase. Both CD's are going to be available but obviously this 2019 CD is representative of where we 'are' now musically.
We are very excited about this new release and it has put back another of our projects; but that project is next on the list and there'll be news of it in the New Year (all being well!).
The CD has been created, the artwork created, checked, reviewed by Keith and finally completed. Once all CD's have been copied, printed and the CD Jewel Cases also completed, they'll be ready to sell.
If you like acoustic music with great lyrics and great musicality then one of our CD's is a worthwhile purchase. Both CD's are going to be available but obviously this 2019 CD is representative of where we 'are' now musically.
We are very excited about this new release and it has put back another of our projects; but that project is next on the list and there'll be news of it in the New Year (all being well!).
The Music of Mitchell&Melhuish / UnderTow
UnderTow were formed late 2006 when two (not so) young and impressionable men, Alan Mitchell (Lyrics and most Vocals) and Keith Melhuish (Music, some Vocals and Everything Else) were properly introduced to each other and their particular musical interests by a work colleague (thanks RW!). Initially they swapped some ideas, some music and words, thought about things for a while, chatted, prevaricated for longer and then decided to give collaborating a go.
Alan has always loved 'Progressive Rock', plus some pop and rock and some folk; Keith loves all sorts of music (including Opera) and has been active in various musical groups and combo's for some time (decades in fact) across Essex. Music seems to come easily to him but the words to fit it were (sometimes) a little more reticent in coming forward. To Alan, who cannot play any musical instrument properly, words come far too easily. Together, they seemed a great fit.
The team write music in a variety of forms; in different rooms (indeed different houses), together with something prepared and arriving together with no clue as to what is going to be the musical result. For a time, they were very prolific. They released a set of songs under the title 'One Day' in 2009, telling the story of a man who experiences a host of different phases of his life in a 'day' (OK, OK! Yes, it is a 'concept album'!). The album, still available here in the Store, and was also on iTunes for a while. It never made the top 10, or 100, or 1000 (I could go on).
The project went into hiatus as Alan had become quite unwell and had to concentrate on solo work such as his poetry and prose endeavours. Meanwhile Keith continued making music, most notably with 'Junkbox' and then 'The Highwaymen'. In mid 2016, the duo met up again to see if they still 'had it' (whatever 'it' is), and whether they could start writing material once more.
Pleasingly, they have started almost where they left off. New songs, re-working of old songs and a new project ('London Diary' which will be under the 'Pieces of Eight' theme) has been recorded and is almost ready to be delivered into the ears of those who might listen.
Work to bring undertow-music.co.uk online is finished and the site is now available. If you'd like to follow the link you can visit the new site (for a more comprehensive breakdown of our music, outlook and dietary requirements) as it is now available for your enjoyment.
So, UnderTow were away and even though Keith has now moved to the delightful market town of Market Harborough, music is still being planned, made and completed.
YES - Mitchell&Melhuish are working on new material; so why not visit
undertow-music.co.uk
to check us out?
undertow-music.co.uk
to check us out?