Week 11 of the grand mp3 download extravaganza.
Time to wind the clock back again… This track comes from our second single, ‘Banned Practice’, and is a solo keyboard piece performed by Montepaldé Pentel on the Farfisa organ. Some years later this piece would be digitally combined with samples from the ‘Banned Practice’ sessions to create an extended piece, but this is the original in its simple, lo-fi glory.
Click here to download.
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Being a bit of a skinflint, almost all of my musical gear is either second-hand or end-of-line stock, but I’ve got a deep hunger for the new Moog synth. It’s the last project from the legendary Dr Bob, and what a send-off it is. It definitely looks like a Minimoog for the neext century.
Not only does it have all the usual MIDI paraphenalia required of today’s digital synths, but it has several CV inputs that are just begging to have my Etherwave Pro plugged into them. I want one of these. Really very much. But I know it will be at least a year away before I can even consider thinking about it.
I haven’t forgotten about ‘Track of the Week’ either, just been incredibly busy this last week or so, and will make it up to you with 2 tracks for this week.
Week 6 of the grand mp3 download extravaganza.
Time for a little light relief. This one goes way back to 1985 and our first album. It features the whole band playing a minimalistic theme repeatedly on the range of instruments we were playing at the time. The tune should be recognisable to anyone over the age of about 10 from the UK. It is that lovely lilting melody which used to be played by fire engines (big surprise, there) as they sped to save the day – before they replaced the sound with that dreadful banshee wail that seems designed to replace your laxative of choice.
Anyway, the theme goes ‘Nee Naw Nee Naw Nee Naw’ and is repeated by the following instruments; piano, Farfisa organ, Slydee (see earlier post for details), Castrol Can (a large oil can fitted with a trumpet mouthpiece), VL Tone, Yobstick (see another earlier post for details), Yodeller (a large water tank fitted with a trumpet mouthpiece, voice and finally our friendly Bedford Fire Engine, George.
This was all recorded (apart from the fire engine) in our tiny Greenshed Studio on a wonderfully low tech mono cassette recorder, so don’t expect miracles with this little historical (hysterical) gem. All very silly and a lot of fun.
Click here to download.
Week 4 of the grand mp3 download extravaganza.
Both Lee and I have written ‘Mysterious Woman in Colour X’ songs for some reason. Mine was called ‘White Silk’, and may make its way here eventually. Lee’s song was called ‘The Woman In Red’ and is probably just about the slowest and most ballad-like song the Deserters recorded. It was recorded in a single shot with just Lee and myself featured, though I later went back and recorded some extra keyboard backing to fill out the sound a little more.
Click here to download.
Week 2 of the grand mp3 download extravaganza.
This mp3 is the first part of a three-part instrumental piece of music written in a semi-classical style for a small ‘chamber’ group, which would ideally have been the Deserters plus guests (on oboe and violin). However, it was never recorded in such a manner, and what we have here is a demo of the track with all instruments played by me, with electronic alternatives filling in where there should be flute, oboe and violin.
There is quite an interesting mix of electric and acoustic instruments – electric guitar and bass, mandolin, Nancarrow-like piano, e-bow (I think this was the first time I had used the e-bow on a recording). They don’t always blend entirely successfully, but I still quite like the overall result
Click here to download.
This weekend I had a good little jamming/writing session with a friend of similar musical sensibilities and abilities. He played bass and sang, whilst I was on the keyboard. We tried a few things, and got the start of a backing track together for one of his songs. My keyboard skills were never too hot, but by the end I was feeling quite comfortable in the chord structure we arrived at, and was starting to add some ornamentation to the part.
He has a contact who plays drums, and we talked about looking to put together a recording over a long term with a couple of other like-minded folk. I’m really keen, though it’s almost 2 hours to get to him in the centre of Glasgow which is a bit of a pain, though hopefully worth it in the end. I’d like to focus on keyboards and maybe backing or acoustic guitar parts, and even bring in the theremin once I’ve got a better handle on it.
In the meantime, I’ve still to get the Deserters’ tracks onto CD, which has turned into one of those jobs that gets covered in fits and starts and will hopefully come to an end soon….
My theremin has arrived.
It’s quite wonderful.
It’s incredibly difficult to play, but that was expected. It looks fantastic – well-finished wood with 2 big wooden knobs and lots of shiny chrome dials. It sounds out of this world – with plenty of scope for altering tone colour and a wide picth range. It’s just so good to to finally have the Moog sound at my fingertips after years of using digital keyboards
I’m starting off with simple tunes to get the swing of it, then aim to move on to use it a bass and backing for other music before graduating to using it as a front-line instrument.