The sun is out here and I’ve got 10 minutes to spare, so I’ve tidied up the Deserters front page, removing all the old ‘Track of the Week’ entries and replacing them with a single list of links to the files and links to each blog entry so you can read all about them.
So, if you’ve enjoyed a track or two, they’re now all handy for downloading in a thrice for the full Deserters experience. What are you waiting for?
Week 17 of the grand mp3 download extravaganza.
For the last ‘Track of the Week’ (at least for the next few months), here’s another original track from the Bordet / Leigh spin-off album ‘Mux-Ip’. You may have guessed from the name that it is inspired by the music of Philip Glass, in which case you’d be correct. However, the track started life quite differently as a study in using bird song in music. I transcribed the songs of a number of birds in the local area, with the plan of building up a whole piece of music, but on listening closely found that the repetition occuring naturally, when put in a musical context, ended up coming out like a minimalist piece, so I went the whole hog and filled out the birdsong themes with those repetitive-sounding arpeggios beloved of the minimalist movement.
This was one of the last pieces I wrote using the music computer I bought some years earlier (a Yamaha CX5M) and which required every note to be manually entered one at a time.
That’s it from the Deserters archives for the time being. I hope you’ve enjoyed the music as much as I’ve enjoyed re-visiting the past. Normal service will now be resumed, so don’t forget to check back for news of current activities (or use the RSS feed if you know about such things).
Click here to download.
Week 16 of the grand mp3 download extravaganza.
In one of the periods between Deserters activity in the late 80′s, Jennifer Leigh & I recorded a limited run album called ‘Mux-Ip’, which was a collection of cover versions and originals performed as a duo. This week’s track, ‘Soundtrack of a B-Movie’, comes from that album (as does next week’s track).
This was one of my earliest uses of multi-track recording, and was recorded using a mini keyboard (a Yamaha SHS-10) and a dodgy Strat copy guitar. The low-budget nature of this track is emphasised by the lack of the original recordings to take this from, so this is a 3rd generation cassette copy. It does, however, have a certain charm, despite its failings.
The piece is effectively a 6 minute guitar solo with cheesy auto-keyboard percussion, some synth pads and the occasional effect (tubular bells, radio clips, etc.)
Click here to download.
Week 15 of the grand mp3 download extravaganza.
We’re coming towards the end of this run of free downloadable goodies. Whilst there is more Deserters music in the archives, it’s not yet in a form suitable for the web. I’ve probably got enough for another two weeks, so enjoy it while it lasts.
This week we have a song which has a title which is a bit of a misnomer – ‘Heavy Metal Ballad’ – as it is neither heavy metal, nor a ballad. It has a similar feel to ‘One Night in the Back of a Fire Engine’, but deals with the teen angst of spots, dental hygiene and body odour. Simple and upbeat, with a bit of a nasty streak. Lyrics by Lee Newe, once again, with music by yours truly.
Click here to download.
Week 14 of the grand mp3 download extravaganza.
This song has a similar feel to ‘The Woman In Red’, however this is certainly no love story, but a very sparsely arranged murder ballad, inspired by the story of Lizzie Borden. Music and Lyrics are by Lee Newe on this one, which has a bit of a strange history.
It started life as a heavy metal celebration of biker life; “Motorbike, Motorbike, Do what you like. I’m gonna pull a chick on Saturday Night.” The original lyrics by Lee were put to music by yours truly, but never recorded. Probably just as well. I do still have a backing track for it somewhere, but the final song was a definite improvement on the original.
Click here to download.
Week 13 of the grand mp3 download extravaganza.
If you liked the ‘Yet Another Granfalloon’ pieces, then this short instrumental ditty should be of interest. It’s an earlier attempt at a similar style, in this case purely electronic, owing much to Zappa’s ‘Jazz From Hell’ album.
It takes its name from a series of books by Robert Rankin which feature (amongst many other things) a time-travelling sprout called Barry who takes up residence in Elvis Presley’s brain and uses him to re-write history. Yep, it sounds pretty daft, and it, in fact, is. But it’s a bit of fun, and if you like Douglas Adams and / or Frank Zappa then why not give it a try. Rankin’s a bit of a Zappa / Beefheart fan, and loads of references appear all through most of his books, not least of which is the brilliantly titled “Sprout Mask Replica”.
Click here to download.
Week 12 of the grand mp3 download extravaganza.
Another track featuring the Newe/Bordet – lyrics/music writing combination, this track deals with urban alienation and the suppression of the man in the street. Guest stars Andy on guitar – a pretty nice solo – and features yours truly on vocals for a change.
That’s us caught back up with schedule, so back to normal next week, hopefully.
Click here to download.
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.
Week 10 of the grand mp3 download extravaganza.
The final part of the Granfalloon piece exists in two versions. This one is a computer generated version used to write the score; the other is a recorded version with four guitar parts: electric, acoustic, bass and ebow. The live version is unfortunately dreadful, so this version is the closest the suite gets to completion. Without the real instruments the piece lacks the variety of parts 1 and 2, so hopefully I’ll get round to re-recording it some day. Don’t hold your breath, though.
Click here to download.
Week 9 of the grand mp3 download extravaganza.
OK, I missed a couple of weeks. Here’s a concerted effort to fill the gap…
This song was written by Lee, and deals with the general user-unfriendliness of computers. This was written in a time before Windows, when the Sinclair empire was still king (in the UK, at least), hard disks cost about the same as a small car and held less data than a mobile phone does today. Things have improved since then. Or have they?
The song is written as a kind of cheesy rap, totally programmed into the computer with only a short acoustic (mandolin) part at the end, and represents an ongoing battle against the computerised world. The part of the computer is played by a ZX Spectrum speech synthesiser – cutting edge stuff in its day!
Click here to download.
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