Xploration • Curation • Recommendation
My OBNE x Emily Hopkins x B's Music Purr-ting is finally purring on all cylinders!
I first featured the Old Blood Noise x Emily Hopkings Parting back on January 21st. All the demos were great, but I was massively put off by the overly cluttered nature of the artwork. Even in the early monochrome edition - that ultra busy design made it really hard to even look in the direction of the pedal - I imagine anyone on the spectrum would not have reacted well to that design. It kind of drowned out the functional ability of the pedal - and made it look far tricker to deploy than it ...
As per expectations Strymon has very predictably released an upgraded Timeline MX Stereo Dual Algorithm Multi Delay Workstation - to match the prowess of its recent BigSky MX Evolution
We pretty much know the score by now - the same exercise of innovations and improvements that was applied to the BigSky MX - has now been applied to its Delay sibling. We get all the goodness of the original - with vastly enhanced abilities - including 2 simultaneous Stereo Algorithms - much like the Empress EchoSystem has done for a quite some years now.
The number of core surface Models / Algorithms is still 12, and some of the older ones are concealed within options of those 12 updated ...
Highlights from Doug's Chase Bliss Big Time Tour at The Dodo Micropub, Hanwell
Pictured above are the early-bird arrivals for the event, of course main man Doug, American adventurer Nolen, Doug’s friend Yas (pub liaison), and the pub’s lawyer Jason - who’s early riffing was so impressive - that no one wanted to go after him! All of us were in there by around noon!
This was my first time in Hanwell - thank the powers above for the Elizabeth Line - otherwise it would have been tricky to get to! Hanwell is the western-most town in the borough of Ealing I believe. The ...
2026 May Pedal-Chain Update - Episode V - Giga-Hoard Modulated Fuzz'n'Drive Board
May has been a little bit of strange month - lots of delays really, and waiting for pedals to land.
As inevitably happens most months - much was delayed this month, and I was unable to complete some of the larger articles - they will need to wait until next month, there’s certainly lots of projects in progress. Where new and imminent arrivals kind of scuppered several intended projects - hopefully they can be completed in June.
The first event I’m attending this month is tomorrow - as a micropub ...
10 x Black & White Custom Montreal Assembly Count to 5's are now available at Pedal Jungle in the UK
Pedal Jungle brings you a unique colourway edition of the legendary Montreal Assembly Count to 5 : 3-Mode Digital Sampler Delay. I picked up a classic original blue edition of this pedal back in 2018. Its tiny size conceals a fairly substantial feature set, and this was one of the very original glitchy delays.
I’m not aware of these ever being for sale in the uk previously - where we get the further bonus here of a unique custom black enclosure with white knobs colourway.
The Count to 5...
End of Year Pedal Chain Update - Class of 2025
New Pedals in the Class of 2025 Pedal-Chain Snapshot = 41
[OCTOBER] = 9
[NOVEMBER] = 6
[MARCH] = 5
[SEPTEMBER] = 5
[AUGUST] = 4
[JANUARY] = 3
[FEBRUARY] = 3
[APRIL] = 2
[JUNE] = 2
[MAY] = 1
[JULY] = 1
[A-Z by Brand]
- Becos FX CompIQ Pro Yuna Soft Knee Blackmer VCA Studio Style Compressor [SEPTEMBER]
- Blue Colander Grimrobe Dual Cascaded Super Rat [OCTOBER]
- Blue FX Devices Fuzz Fields Ultimate Modulated Fuzz [SEPTEMBER]
- Boss RT-2 Rotary Ensemble Leslie / Rotary Speaker
2025 Best New Delay and Reverb Pedals of the Year
In many ways this is the most straightforward category with singular award nominees - GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE.
It’s the second smallest category after Distortions - and the one where I own the least number of pedals in proportion to the whole - just 10 out of these 26.
The order pretty much set itself - with the Cornerstone Nucleo being the clear winner from the start. I’m so impressed with every aspect of that pedal - it’s a perfect Trifecta of Design, Feaures and Playability - pretty ...
Walrus Audio releases Limited Edition Lüm Granular / Textural Reverb - based on elements of its Fable, Lore and Slötvå pedals
Enclosure / Topology-wise - this is essentially a rebooted and updated version of the 3-Presets Walrus Audio Slotvå pedal - just with slightly different parameters and algorithms onboard!
Controls - Decay, Filter, Mix, X (Variable), MODE : I. Grain Cloud / II. Grain Verb / III. Forward Reverse Verb, Ramp / Glide Time : I. 10ms / II. 1000ms / III. 5000ms, Stretch, Bypass Footswitch, Momentary Footswitch, Press Both Together to scroll through 3 onboard Presets.
It channels elements of its...
A deeper hands-on dive into the Butterfly Effects Dobbo Granular Playground - how best to make use of it, and where it shines!
I’m a little late with my in-depth review of the Dobbo for a variety of reasons. In part because of the heatwave we had in the UK - which limited playing time severely, in part because I was a little burnt out at the time, and in part because I was figuring out how to get the most use and utility out of this pedal.
"Dobbo takes small bits of sound and rearranges them. It can stretch, pitch and blur these bits, or transform them into rhythmic textures."
Most would likely file this under ...
Klowra's Everlast 9-Mode Stereo Delay beautifully mixes up classic and more unusual flavours which you can then ping-pong across the stereo spectrum
So, in a similar fashion to the Limbo I just recently reviewed - I have a default flavour that I fall back to most of the time - which is of course Tape - and handily the first on the dial. And then at the other end you have the more unusual and otherworldly flavours - including Granule, Crystal, Sweeper and Mod. It also has the great sounding Reverse and Swell Algorithms - a really well rounded set of algorithms for sure - with all the obvious ones in the mix really.
I’ve had to update ...
