"I spend a lot of time wandering around London, I always have. Sometimes it's because I've got somewhere to go, sometimes it's because I haven't got anywhere to go. Being on your own listening to headphones is not a million miles away from being in a club surrounded by people... sometimes you get that feeling like a ghost touched your heart, like someone walks with you. In London there's a kind of atmosphere that everyone knows about, but if you talk about it it just sort of disappears."

"You look different."

Kind words from Raamb Recordings, who had the following to say about the Nobody EP:

'The Nobody EP could easily be the soundtrack to a perfect summer day or a trip to unexplored places around the world. Quite similar to the likes of Rounds by Four Tet, only a little more diverse and colourful – each track having its own unique taste hailing from a different region of the world. It's this blend of electronic fusion and real-life samples from around the globe that's so appealing and warm within Hiatus' music.'

Read the full review on their blog by clicking here.

Who is this on the back sleeve of the Nobody EP? Email me the correct answer and I'll send you an unreleased Hiatus instrumental.

Check out this 1970s newspaper ad for Pakistan International Airlines.

Plane wrong.

Tuesday saw the unveiling of Spencer Murphy’s masterful portrait of Smoke Feathers at the National Portrait Gallery. This and other lesser winners of the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Award are on display until February 14th 2010, and admission is free. Go before January 24th and you can also take in the awesome Beatles to Bowie exhibition, a collection of classic photographs of famous 60s musicians.

A portrait of the artist as a young(ish) man.

"You talkin' to me?"

A shot of Smoke Feathers huddling on the frozen surface of Bewl Water has won the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Award, and will be on display at the National Portrait Gallery from the 5th November to the 14th February 2010 (admission free).

The picture was taken by my close friend Spencer Murphy, a professional photographer who has snapped subjects as far flung as Gordon Brown and the Beastie Boys. To check more examples of Spencer’s work, click here. For an allegedly amusing insight into the shoot itself, click here.

Where there's smoke, there's ice.

To celebrate the possibility that a 25ft great white is prowling the Australian coastline my brother calls home, I'd like to draw attention to this majestic exercise in psychological suspense. Seldom has a movie captured the confusion of blind terror; the sense that the great white shark is, ultimately, the monster that lurks inside us all. Click here to witness the unthinkable.

Those who agree that Endtroducing… by DJ Shadow is the most important record ever made will enjoy this simple experiment in Youtube DJing:

1) Click here to bring up the final scene in John Carpenter’s masterful Prince Of Darkness. Pause the video.

2) Click here to access the giant’s warning in the second season of Twin Peaks. Pause the video.

3) Start the first video.

4) Just before it finishes, start the second video.

It is happening again.

Spent yesterday celebrating my birthday in the Chiltern Hills with Pabs and Stu, drummer and bassist in Smoke Feathers respectively and two of the soundest people anyone could hope to meet. After enjoying our music selection from afar, a pack of wild ponies converged on our campsite and began pestering Stu with requests for free jazz. Stu, never one to complicate things, had only Free by Free and The Doors by The Doors. The attached picture says more about the relationship between man and horse than any Hollywood movie ever could.

Two legs good. Four legs also good.

I feel compelled at this point to mention the almost unbearable talent of my good friend Spencer Murphy, who has been taking pictures for as long as I’ve known him and is finally getting the recognition he deserves – snapping celebrities for national papers, jetting around the world for magazines and having his work exhibited in major galleries. There isn’t a record I put out that won’t have one of Lence’s images on the cover, as long as he doesn't mind me using them. Check out his stuff for yourself by clicking here, and you’ll soon see why.

A picture sells a thousand words.

Snapped the following on my way back from a visit to the Dungeness sound mirrors with my boy Lence. Please click here and vote for this picture to make my dreams of being featured on Failblog come true, and spread the word.

Hard News Fail.

Hiatus aged six: Burial-like anonymity.

I am now on Twitter. Not sure what this means, but apparently I can stay in touch with Ellen DeGeneres, who is a friend of Neve Campbell, so that can only be a good thing. Stay abreast of musical and romantic developments here.

Clouds: beautiful but irrelevant.

Those of you not already aware should check out Smoke Feathers, a band in which I play keys, cook curries and fill in the occasional crossword. We’re currently in the studio putting the finishing touches to our debut LP, Liberation, which I’ll be mixing in my swish new Brixton studio – assuming the squirrels nesting in the roof don’t mind the noise. The album will be released in January 2010; in the meantime you can check out our stuff here.

Smoke Feathers: upstaging even ourselves.

The Hiatus LP is finished, and due for release in early 2010. The tracklisting (in no particular order) is as follows:

Nobody
Nightingale Force Winds
Sightless
Save Yourself
Turbine
Gentle Flame (featuring Smoke Feathers)
Tombs
Love Story
A Silver Exit
This Means Something
Insurrection
Black Dogs

I’ll also be releasing a few odds and sods around the same time, either as free downloads or – if I end up putting out an EP or two – b sides. These will include older tunes like Dusky, Meshki and Childish Things, and unreleased numbers like Fold Space, Star Trails and Stockwell Sunrise. There may even be a long-awaited (by me) Hiatus remix of Smoke Feathers’ Liberation Theology in the wings.

Last night a DJ ruined my life.

I've posted an early version of a new tune to the Hiatus Myspace site. It's called Turbine, and is an ode to that most tranquil of towers, the kinetic wind energy converter. Few things stand in such stark contrast to the frantic horrors of modern city living as a slowly rotating wind turbine, yet many people consider them a blot on the landscape. To such people I strongly recommend driving past the Four Burrows Wind Farm near Truro in Cornwall, preferably at sunset and if at all possible with Boards Of Canada's Dayvan Cowboy on the stereo. Works for me.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever. My man John Keats said that.

It may be the heat getting to me, but I've posted another unfinished tune off the forthcoming EP on the Hiatus Myspace site. Some of you will remember a more upbeat version of Sightless opening the long-deleted Twilight Kingdom LP, but it's a track I was never quite able to let go of thanks to the feeling that I didn't do justice to what must be my favourite sample of all time. It's from a song called Adamha by the legendary Iranian singer Googoosh, and it's a tune I must have heard a million times growing up. The lyrics are some of the saddest ever written:

• Adamha az adamha zud sir mishand
• Adamha ru-ye esgheshun pa mizarand
• Adamha adam-o tanha mizarand

Which means (and this is my own rather crap translation):

Ironic, since I first sampled it at a time when I couldn't speak a word of Farsi and gave it to my then girlfriend as a Valentine's present. Needless to say we're no longer together.

Anyway, it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, especially with it still sounding so rough around the edges, but hopefully some of you will get a kick out of it. It's getting mastered at the beginning of August along with Let's Never Fight Again (thanks so much for all the positive feedback on that one, by the way), so expect to hear finished versions of both tunes in the very near future.

Googoosh: kheili gashangeh.

It's not finished, but I figured there was no harm in posting an early version of a track from the forthcoming Sightless EP, due for release later this summer, on the Hiatus Myspace site. It's called Let's Never Fight Again, and it's upbeat as hell despite being written at a time last year when I was anything but. Hope you like it, and apologies for the less than spectacular sound quality.

I'll be posting another track from the EP in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned.

Photography by Spencer Murphy © 2007.

It's eaten up the better part of a year and sapped the majority of my will to live, but the Nobody EP is finally available to buy from the iTunes Store.

For £3.95 (or foreign equivalent) you too can own the finest five tracks I’ve ever put together – from the soaring instrumental hip hop of opener Nobody and the hallucinogenic jazz of Tombs to the sprawling, strings-driven drum 'n' bass of Black Dogs.

I’ll set up a link soon enough; for now, simply go to the iTunes Store and type in 'Hiatus Nobody'. If you like it, feel free to review it on the same page. And thanks for your patience.

Photography by Spencer Murphy © 2007.

Design by Joe Kyriakoudis.

I've posted a few photos of the video shoot for Nobody to the Hiatus Facebook group. A huge thanks to Barry Cox at Spring Studios and all those who showed up on the day to take part, especially Will Aspinall, whose performance as the eponymous lead was an inspiration to all.

The footage is currently in the hands of director Paul Stevenson, who has promised me a cross between Beyonce's Crazy In Love and David Hasselhoff's Jump In My Car. I'll keep you posted.

"He who talks loud, say nothing."

Document Snowboard #49, p32

Behold a mighty fine write-up on wondrous music website New-Noise.net. Any article that manages to namecheck Phil Spector, Bruce Forsyth AND the BFG in less than 400 words is alright by me. Plus I'm henceforth answering all queries as to what sort of music I make with the sentence: 'sleepy, downbeat mushroom-picking expeditions through verdant gardens of electronica.'

February's free Hiatus download is Meshki, a moody vocal interlude that originally featured on 2005's long-deleted Dusky EP. Hit the link to the right of this page to download it or click here.

Dusky EP, 2005

In anticipation of the Nobody EP's release on February 14th, I've uploaded a Hiatus track as a free download exclusive to this site. Dusky (Reprise) is the first of a series of tracks that I'll be posting over the course of the coming months – follow the link on the right of this page to download it, or simply click here.

Twilight Kingdom LP, 2006

Listeners can now meet, date and possibly marry likeminded individuals on the official Hiatus Facebook group –  join either via the link on my Myspace site or by clicking here. As an added incentive, I'll be alerting members of free Hiatus downloads as more and more people come on board – I'm currently waiting for membership to crack the 200 mark before posting the first, an exclusive remix of Dusky, with following tracks to include a rare Hiatus vs Metermill remix of Great Whites and various unreleased numbers including Weight In Gold (featuring Smoke Feathers). Get involved and be sure to bring your friends. Those wanting to drop me a line directly can also do a Facebook search for Cyrus Shahrad – there's only one.

Neck aching from too much time spent ogling pictures of people you don't know on Facebook? Fear not! Simply download the free 30-minute Adidas podcast, mixed by Tunng and comprised of tracks by A Future Without artists including an unreleased tune of my own, Let's Never Fight Again. Best of all, the podcast features comprehensive stretching instructions from the slightly-too-manly Russian athlete Yelena Isinbayeva. Is nice!

Download the podcast in iTunes by typing 'Adidas Women' into the Music Store search bar, or simply click here.

The Hiatus tracks come in at the following times:

9.30: The Wheel (Dub)

12.15: Let's Never Fight Again

It's been a long time since I've updated this website – a result of my failure to pay the hosting company and their subsequent replacement of said website with a holding page featuring news on Britney Spears (still mental) and Jessica Alba (still hot). Probably would have got more hits than the Hiatus website, but that's not the point.

Typing this while optimistically re-uploading the entire site, so hopefully everything should be up and running again this afternoon following a prolonged absence of online updates. And it's been a busy few months: I've signed a deal with an independent electronic label called A Future Without – home of cinematic jazztronica outfit Head and Neck Sessions, among others – and secured an online release (currently looking to be early February 2008) for the forthcoming Nobody EP, all five tracks from which can be previewed on my Myspace site.

___

"Hiatus is a master at producing subtle, jazz-tinged downbeat." The Stool Pigeon

"An unbroken wave of haunting electronica that allows you to forget – albeit briefly – that people like James Blunt actually walk the earth." Knowledge magazine

"Cinematic hypnotica that gives you prickles on your neck and shivers down your spine." Method magazine

I'll be performing a Hiatus laptop set, including several tunes from the new album, in the upstairs bar of the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton on Thursday 31st May – that's either today, tomorrow or three weeks ago, depending on when you read this message. Do try and make it down; support will come in the form of acoustic sets from the heart-breaking Charlene Soraia Jones and the mighty Smoke Feathers himself. It all kicks off at 8pm – be there or be somewhere else entirely.

Directions can be found here.

After months of procrastinating, I've finally uploaded a few samples of my writing to this website. These break down into articles about music – most of them from the Stool Pigeon – features written during my travels to Iran, short stories, and fiction written for snowboard, skate and surf magazines (I figure I've got the market pretty much cornered in this last category). It's a fairly broad spectrum, so hopefully you'll find something to tickle the brain buds and while away a tedious lunch hour or two. Click on 'writing' in the grey bar above to have a gander, and feel free to email and let me know what you think.

It meant spending the sunniest weekend of the year locked in the studio chewing off my own arm, but the result was worth it: 75 minutes (25 tracks) of the most innovative and upfront dnb on the planet. Those used to my Twilight Kingdom-style cinematic widdling may be shocked, but DJing dnb is something I was doing long before I was producing music of my own, and I figured it was time to put together a mix showing the many sides of this awe-inspiring musical form. As such, you'll find cerebral liquid rollers (Trippin') snuggling up against bowel-bothering bass monsters (The Shining), and stone cold classics (Night Flight) alongside more modern masterpieces (Sounds Of Life). It's a pretty varied mix of tunes, but every one of them reduces dancefloors to atoms. If you're in doubt, to quote the guy off the old cigarette ads: "Try it. You might like it."

Download the mix by clicking here.

Full tracklisting as follows:

1) Ben Sage – All About You (VIP)

2) Matrix and Danny J – Vertigo

3) Logistics – Together

4) Baron – At The Drive In

5) High Contrast – Racing Green

6) Matrix – Skyscraper

7) Artificial Intelligence – Uprising

8) Goldtrix – Trippin' (Matrix remix)

9) Ram Trilogy – Titan

10) Matrix and Futurebound – American Beauty

11) Calibre – Fire And Water

12) Pendulum – Sounds Of Life

13) Matrix and Danny J – Telepathy

14) Sub Focus and Danny Wheeler – Ghost

15) Matrix and Fierce – Tearaway

16) Bad Company – True Romance

17) Ed Rush and Optical – Watermelon

18) Ram Trilogy – Milky Way

19) Ed Rush and Optical – Medicine (Matrix remix)

20) D Bridge – Pipe Dreams

21) Kemal and Rob Data – Konspiracy

22) Cause 4 Concern – Soul (Matrix and Fierce remix)

23) Accidental Heroes – Precinct 13

24) Optical – The Shining

25) Andy C and Shimon – Night Flight

Writing this more to check I can still use Dreamweaver than to post any particularly pressing news. That said, there are a couple of new tunes on the Hiatus Myspace site (www.myspace.com/luckythunder); the first is a remix of Bonobo's Days To Come, the second a rather uplifting little ditty called Let's Never Fight Again. I'm also looking to expand this site so that I can post fiction and features from my day job as a writer and journalist, including interviews with many of my musical idols (DJ Shadow, Amon Tobin, Kool Keith, Ed Rush and Optical) that I've penned for the mighty Stool Pigeon. Watch this space.

Okay, so it's tomorrow, and it's been sold out for weeks, but I thought I'd better mention this rather exciting development. The venue is the 850-capacity Carling Islington Academy (not been there, but I gather from the name that it's warm, flat and tastes like piss), where I'll be putting on a half-hour laptop set at 8pm. That said, if you already have tickets, make sure you get there by 7.30pm to witness the acoustic fury of Smoke Feathers, long-faced rootsman extraordinaire and vocal collaborator on various Hiatus projects over the years. Needless to say, Bonobo is also the bomb.

...alright, not Hell exactly, but the official Hiatus website – which is close enough at this point. In the prolonged absence of a recording deal, this is the only place to get the latest Hiatus-related news and live info, as well as order copies of the hour-long, 16-track Twilight Kingdom LP. CDs are just £6 each and numbers are limited, so email cyrus@metermill.com this very instant to ensure you don't miss out. Labels looking to sign me, venues wanting to book me and artists hoping for a shimmering slice of Hiatus remix action should also get in touch, as should filmmakers looking for an atmospheric soundtrack – provided they aren't making promotional videos for the BNP or anything. If all you're after is a little low-grade electronic love, however, you're better off visiting www.myspace.com/luckythunder. Thanks for listening.