Ten Strings Attached

In a surprising break with form, viz. dithering over whether to do an evening class right up to the point when it is too late to matriculate, I have signed up and divvied out for a place on the local college’s Digital Audio course. I’ve been dabbling with making and recording music on my computers for at least a couple of years now, but to date I’ve been very much the dilettante rather than commit any great amount of mindshare to a tool that could help further my desire to write and record songs.

So here I am, three weeks in with a deadline of sorts to meet. The first half of the course relates to creating and recording music using the Logic recording studio on Apple Macs*, the looming second half relates to skills required to mix and master a song ready for publishing or distribution. Therein, as the Bard probably never said, lies the rub. I need to get a song created/looped/recorded so that I have something to mix. This is where you come in.

I’ve short-listed three musical “concepts” that I’d like to compose and record, but I can’t quite pick one. So, over to you dear reader:

1) “Long Shadow/Sundial” : This one will be made up of loops and grooves…heavily sample based. I may record some short parts with my guitars, but this will be a cut-and-paste effort. I’m pitching for something like Endtroducing… and Private Press -era DJ Shadow with jazzy beats, film dialogue samples and anonymised segments from other songs. On the face of it, an easy thing to try, but it will take a lot of time (or a lot of luck) to find the right samples to get the effect I want. This could end up as a mess.

2) “Wire Choir” : Number two will be largely guitar based…an ambient, almost orchestral piece recorded by creating multiple layered single guitar lines that will accumulate and build into a series of lush, multi-voice chords, far beyond the voicings that one person could play on one guitar. Think of a clash between Gorecki’s 3rd, Brian Eno’s ambient works and Brian May’s harmony guitar. The main downside will be that it will take a heck of a lot of time to lay down the individual tracks…realistically I’d be recording 8- or more guitar tracks to get the chord sounds I want…and that’s before any other elements like rhythm, basslines or keyboard parts

3) “Faceless Monkey” : Number three will be a bit more traditional: I want to try a funk-rock idea that hybridises the Bass wierdness of Les Claypool (from Primus) and the angular, spiky guitar of Buckethead. It’s a much more simple proposition as I could quite happily jam away over a drum or bass-n-drum track ’till the cows start complaining. The biggest challenge of this choice will be programming the drum tracks; I can’t rely on stock MIDI grooves to suffice…I’ll have to tweak the patterns to respond to and interact with the bass and guitar like a good drummer does.

So there you have it. Which tickles your fancy? Deadline is 11th February 2010 to give me a couple of weeks to get composing. Leave your comments here, on my Facebook page (this post will be automatically imported) or throw a tweet in my direction.

J

* Spit, spit. Oh all right, barring some bizarre mouse and keyboard design quirks my first real recent exposure to Apple product has been largely positive.

• Challenging sermon at church. As always, what I needed to hear. Now to focus on chairing the evening service… #
• Oh great another headache. Soldier on though.. #
• Looks like a standing in-joke about "single transferrable vote" is about to be made redundant: http://bit.ly/agglZq #
• One week to go until Bioshock 2…wherein I shall disappear from the face of earth while I re-acquaint myself with Rapture. #
• No, no, no, no NO! http://bit.ly/aJtb2T #
• **Generic tweet of dissatisfaction at state of things** #
• I must be entering one of my obsessive-compulsive phases. I seem to have the word "battlewank" running through my head #
• I've just realised; my dreams are little more than bad, prop-based improvisation. #
• Crikey…I have three weeks to write and record a tune for the evening class…I've never completed a tune as yet…arg… #
• Evening bipeds and ex-wives of Beatles. On balance a surprisingly positive, productive week…by the grace of God, obv. #
• Everything (sort of) is in order…so what do do? I really need to re-learn how to use weekends… #
• It's almost like I slip into some kind of idle mode unless someone has something for me to do…church, work etc. #
• Evening peeps. I'm going to be tapping into your collective wisdom, dear reader, for a project I'm working on. More soon. #
• Hm. How about illuminated manuscripts as a personal art project? Been "inspired" by the Book of Kells. #
• Ok; going offline for a bit to play scary CSI game on the Xbox. Will mull some ideas about illuminated scripts. #

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• Has to be said; Fulci zombies are the scariest, despite their slow shuffle and fondness for vintage synth soundtracks. #
• I now have a triangle shaped weal on my hand from ironing. What a way to celebrate Burns night #groaner #
• migraine. couldn't sleep. arse #
• I call my migraines 'Mr Thumpy' And a right noisy bugger he is too. #
• If you get the chance, watch James Cameron's "The Abyss". Definite foreshadowings of "Avatar" not least the alien colour palette. #
• Mr Thumpy didn't leave yesterday, and he's stomping around now with stompy boots. The git. #
• Hopeful I'll get some restful sleep tonight…migraine or no migraine, I need to be in work tomorrow. #
• Another crappy nite of fractured sleep. I think I shall be taking a "nightcap" or five this evening. #
• 'It's not about your looks, it's about your awesome' #deadpoolwisdom #
• 'Eat blazing doorknobs of death, banana face!' #deadpoolwisdom #
• 'Once, my TV didn't work, so I kicked it. And it started working again' #deadpoolwisdom #
• Productivity in 11 words: 'One thing at a time. Most important thing first. Start now' (H/T @lifehacker blog) #
• Going to bed. Happy pills have got me agreeably wobbly. 12 hours' kip ahoy. #
• Slept reasonably well at last, but had the wierdest, most lucid dreams. Absolutely drained this morning. No energy. #
• *LOW BATTERY ALERT* *10% REMAINING* *RETURN CARBON BASED UNIT TO RECHARGING MATTRESS FOR CONTINUED OPERATION* #
• Another 12 hours in bed. Feeling vaguely human again. What to do with the rest of Saturday… #
• Enjoyed "Edge of Darkness" at the cinema, so much so I've picked up the original BBC series, which I don't remember seeing back in t'day. #

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• Cinema time: Book of Eli. It's being pitched as an American samurai movie. #
• "Book of Eli" was good, more "Zatoichi" than "Mad Max". Very dreamlike in parts. Bravo Denzel, the Hughes Bros and the team. #
• Finished "Bayonetta" on XBOX. It's a bit like ODing on a speedball of J-Pop culture. Too many cut scenes. Too easy to button mash to end. #
• Arg. An 0530 rise is on the cards tomorrow. Will take solace in the day off I'll get from all the extra hours' work. #
• Time to cull my follow list. Won't miss the inane Big Brother commentary, anti-Christian bigotry and gaudy sex life details. Buh-bye! #
• Bleurgh. I am never getting up before 0600 again without going to bed at least two days in advance. #
• Mustn't…fall…asleep…ZzZzZz #
• St. MLK. #
• PLANET EARTH! Ricky Gervais is *not* funny! OK, funny peculiar mebbe but as funny "ha-ha" as watching the Leslie Nielsen film, "Repossessed" #
• To kip, perchance to have a weird dream that would put the willies up a seasoned psychotherapist. #
• If I believed in eugenics, I'd use the Big Brother audition lists. #
• Here's an insight into the dubiety of Wikipedia: according to them, part of my theology makes me a Christian Anarchist #wikifail #
• Looks like I'll be in Glasgow next week. Blagged a VMWare training course when a colleague had to drop out. #
• Dentist tomorrow. BzzBzzOwScrapeFillFill #
• Splendid first sesh at the recording course. Have to admit that Logic on Apple is bloody easy. Knocked up a Roni Size pastiche in minutes #
• Training course next week kyboshed. Still, it does mean I don't need to bring work home over the weekend. Silver lining etc. #
• 'Evening carbon-based units! I shall be tapping into your collective wisdom with a question this weekend. Crowdsourcing ahoy! #
• Threat condition russet! #
• Good afternoon mortals! #
• Right: Haircut, change my mobile broadband plan, then off to Ocean Terminal for a pre-rehearsal amble. #
• That one session faffing around with samples in Logic on Thursday has converted me. Conducting a raiding party on @musicradar's vaults. #

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My initial plan for my last post of 2009 — technically now the first post of 2010 according to the clock on my tool-bar — was to craft a witty pastiche of the annual Christmas Letter beloved of many, but I’ve decided not. There wasn’t going to be much mileage in a parody that hung on the conceit that I was looking for a job as an erotic milliner* as a result of facing redundancy. I’ll go with something more genuine, I hope.

If it is possible to sum up the year based on one’s mindset at its close it is wholly positive. This is an incredibly unusual position to be given the ups and downs (well, probably downs, more downs and the occasional plateau) of the latter half of the decade, I am more than a little surprise to find myself typing that word. Positive. It feels a little strange, but wonderful, to steal a Kings X lyric.

It could be the fact that I’ve kicked the depression into touch** with the help of a most excellent and understanding GP, it could be another step in my personal maturity that comes in tandem with aging, or it could be that I’ve had a heady draught of perspective that has encouraged me to see myself placed in the biggest of pictures. I dunno. Trying to divine the reason is a lesser concern than enjoying its fruits.

So, to you and yours, may 2010 be the year of  blessing, wonder, discovery, joy, growth and hope.

One last thing: if I may be so bold as to offer a reader a word of wisdom for the year ahead, please heed this: never lick a plasma ball.

Oh, and support your local erotic milliner.

J

* I’m quite sure that there is such a vocation. Probably somewhere on the continent.

** I’ll be weaning myself off the happy pills in the new year. No more drug-induced hangovers in the morning!

My subscription magazines have arrived in their usual clump this week. Front and center is the latest copy of Empire magazine, adorned with a holographic image of Iron Man as part of the build up to the 2010 film sequel. The first Iron Man film was a triumph, marking the latest in a line of commercially successful geek-friendly films that (arguably) began with Stephen Norrington’s “Blade” in the late ’90s.

While Iron Man’s success was grounded in the ever-watchable Robert Downey Jr’s note-perfect take on the flawed billionaire industrialist Tony Stark, it was the film’s overall fidelity to the source material that made it a pleasure. Take the Iron Man suit for example: The character has been through dozens of iterations of the armour, but the producers of the film chose wisely to model (thanks to the late lamented Stan Winston) the final red and gold suit after the design by artist Adi Granov from his Iron Man : Extremis run with writer Warren Ellis. Even the origin story was brought up to date from it’s original Vietnam setting was largely a lift and shift of the underlying template. The whole thing worked because of fidelity to the source material.

The underlying idea for this post was prompted by my watching the maligned Sylvester Stallone Judge Dredd movie from ‘95. It was a case of oh so nearly, but like another first-time director’s outing – I’m thinking of David Fincher’s Alien 3 – it suffered from too much interference in its realisation. The Dredd movie, like Iron Man, got so much of it right: The epic Mega Cityscape that is right up there with Blade Runner in terms of futuristic urban vistas, the realisation of the Judges’ garb of office (tangent: they hired Gianni Versace to realise the Judge’s look; I can’t for the life of me see where any value was added. The look is completely the same as the comic!), the Angel Gang in the Cursed earth were note perfect, The ABC Warrior realised the Simon Bisley Hammerstein robot from my teens…I could go on. Unfortunately there’s no credit for getting things right when some things are wrong.

The interference alluded to earlier realised itself in the character of Stallone’s Dredd: Dredd never takes his helmet off. The filmmakers – Stallone in particular reportedly – hadn’t grasped the iconic nature of the lawman, and that his anonymity (sans epic jawline) was deliberate and necessary. Dredd is the personification of justice for the third millennium, replacing the blindfolded figure bearing a sword in one hand and scales in the other, with a Lawgiver pistol and a genetic incorruptability. Dredd is a cypher, something that every writer has maintained in the thirty odd years he’s been in print…a force of nature, not a hero in the conventional sense. Judges are part of the city, like an immune system. Certainly not a character to be used as a star vehicle.

Still, there’s hope for the 60-year-old yet. Rebellion, the owner of the parent 2000AD comic are lining up a cinematic reboot which should address the faults of its predecessor. If they don’t get it no-one will.

J

I’d like to think I’m a utilitarian when it comes to technology, with lots of modest single function applications in my home and shoulder bag arsenal. To date I’ve been content to use one of the generic corporate Nokias that my employer has been kind enough to give me. I’m not sure how much value it’s giving my employer as I haven’t been on call for over two years, but no-one seems in a hurry to ask for it back.

Veering back on track from the brink of a tangent, I have succumbed to the siren call of the smartphone. It’s been on the books for a while when I realised that my PDA was getting long in the tooth and the romance of my recently-acquired netbook faded away. With the plan to relegate my netbook to the role of bedside Internet radio, a space opened up for a mobile Internet device. Now, being immune to the glamour of Apple, an iPhone was not on the cards. Something with the Google Android platform, or the latest iteration of Windows Mobile where shortlisted before the whole onerous trudge through the various vendors, options and tariffs put me off. Enter the Palm Pre.

I have a soft spot for Palm; I had a Palm V in all it’s glorious slimline metalness…a perfect little PDA that, well, just worked! That positive experience (and a quick round of due diligence by polling some published reviews, I took the jump.

I’ve only had the device a couple of days but it has done nothing but impress me so far. The hardware is compact yet powerful, the screen is crisp and clear and its touchscreen accurate and responsive. The built in sliding keyboard is surprisingly usable despite its very small keys – the individual convex keys stand proud of the base and have a solid response evoking the membrane touch of the ZX-81*. At the software level, the OS offers true multi-tasking with gesture-based switching and applications that respond to the touch screen and the built in accelerometer making the switch to and from landscape and portrait. If you’re a Facebook and Google apps user, the handset integrates seamlessly with these sources populating contacts and calendar.

There are a few niggles; there’s no built in way of syncing with your desktop directly – you need a third party tool*, the otherwise excellent web browser doesn’t have Flash support, accessing some of the extended characters on the keyboard can be a pain and there’s no native way to browse the 8GB of built-in storage other than connect it to a PC via USB. The biggest area of concern is the relative poverty of applications. At the time of writing, the app store is less than 1% of the size of Apple’s equivalent. It is early days for the store and it can only go up. Of course, some of these are just niggles and shouldn’t put you off considering the Pre. It hasn’t for me.

Comparing iPhone and Pre is definitely a case of apples and oranges; it seems the Pre is looking to take on the Blackberry-dominated corporate/business smartphone user-base, but it has enough nous to serve the consumer user as well.

I’ll post more in a month or so of sustained use, but colour me impressed so far.

J

* VERY early Sinclair home computer. For the mature reader.

* Not a problem for me – I can keep things in sync indirectly through the Google apps

School Sports Days. What a source of conflicting emotions even when viewed from over two decades away. While the prospect of not being in class during the 90 minutes of sun that constituted a Scottish summer, the spectre of Not Very Good At Sports cast a long shadow over events. Benefits of physical education aside, unless one was blessed with a prodigious capacity to run, throw or jump, there was always the prospect of looking a bit of an arse coming over the finishing line so late and so far behind the winning group that the “achievement” wouldn’t draw out a token staccato round of applause from the thinning crowd of spectators.

Of course, crawling across the finish line or impaling one’s foot with a Junior Javelin ™ would still earn me a ribbon. A participants ribbon. The most unwittingly sarcastic piece of fraying fabric I have come across in my life. I’m pretty sure Mum still has those blasted tokens still squirrelled away in some ceramic dish or vase back home.

I don’t mind when people earn prizes — I should, because I’m a meritocrat — but the converse applies too. That’s why I’ve been angered by the supposedly esteemed Nobel committee awarding President Obama the Peace Prize. For what? He’s done nothing to merit it. Set aside the reported anomaly that the nominations for the prize closed two weeks after he took office (I’ve not been able to verify this), Obama has done nothing of substance, being mired down by opposition in Congress and Senate, and still presides over two wars and a war prison of dubious legality.

Unfortunately unless this knotty problem can be unpicked, the Nobel committee will have devalued their coin further, for looking at the historic recipients of the prize, this award is part of a continuing trend of bad choices like climate scaremonger Al Gore, former head of the effectively impotent UN, Kofi Annan,  as well as terrorists Yasser Arafat and Nelson Mandela. But then again, one man’s terrorist is another’s Nobel Laureate.

I fear this is just another marker on the road towards mediocrity…where instead of allowing individuals to grow and find their own level and celebrating true diversity, the implementation of equality constrains upward development as much as it brings the level of the floor up to a minimum standard.

Rant over.

J

While I enjoy the contrarian life in my tastes, the inevitable circuitous path of fashion means that my tastes inevitably become in vogue before, like child with an attention deficit, it discards its old toys and bounds over to the next shiny object.

Hideously over-engineered metaphors aside, I was pleased to find out, courtesy of the BBC, that Prog Rock was making itself noticed in the charts. To that end, being a shameless aficionado of the genre, I’d offer a few recommendations for those with a high tolerance for epic keyboard solos.

Porcupine Tree/Fear of a Blank Planet

I remember listening to this for the first time en route to a weekend retreat in Alnwick a friend invited me to. Despite being in the deepest phase of my depression (no I’m not going to blog about that again…well for the moment) the astonishing quality of this album punched through my fog-bound brain leaving me in no doubt I had found something, some band who were very special. Plundering their back (and subsequent release, The Incident) has shown that PT are something else. Take care to really follow the lyrics. Ivor Novello quality IMO.

Spock’s Beard/Snow

A very recent acquisition that has demanded a lot of my listening time of late, Snow is an unashamedly bombastic concept album centered around the tale of a messianic albino psychic(!) and his tale of redemption.  This description may make it sound like pretentious tosh, but to ignore it would be to deprive you of 2 CDs of some of the coolest melodic rock songs delivered with brio by a talented band who were obviously enjoying themselves. The album marked the final recording headed up by multi-instrumentalist /songwriter Neal Morse, of whom more down this list!

Dream Theater/Scenes from a Memory

Yup, another concept album, but this time with more of a metal edge. Ostensibly a recollection of a murder told through hypnotic regression (please don’t roll your eyes) musically you’ll witness one of the tightest bands with more prodigious talent per kilogram of any band this side of eternity. If you have any doubts about the ability of odd time signatures to rock, please start here.

Neal Morse/?

From the former Spock’s Beard frontman ? is a theological treatise on the Jerusalem temple from a messainic/Christological perspective. Yes, I’m serious…but even if you don’t have the first grounding in the subject area, you’ll have to be pretty heard-hearted (and inattentive!) to miss the central theme of promise and redemption, and if you are of a Christian persuasion it’s a joy.

King Crimson/Larks Tongues in Aspic

I’m not 100% sure why I’ve included KC in this list as I have a slightly ambivalent feeling towards the band…yes they are good, yes they are influential but sometimes they are a bit too cerebral for my tastes. Of course, when I am in an equally cerebral mood something clicks. File under “prog history”

Easy Star All Stars/Dub Side of the Moon

Offered slightly tongue-in-cheek as this disc is a reggae cover of Pink Floyd’s seminal album. But this is no sub Dread Zeppelin pastiche, this is serious, top ranking reggae offered by musicians who have a genuine fondness for the source material. Apparently this synchs up with Wizard of Oz as well*.

If you’re signed up to Spotify you should be able to get access to these albums if not other slices of the artists catalogue.

Go on. Fill your head with prog.

J

* You don’t know about that one? Oh you must google it…!

‘Only in the Gospel is the full truth of our humanity told; only in the Gospel, which is Christ, does our humanity come to its true source and fulfillment, the mystery of God and God’s unequivocal love.’

- Archbishop Vincent Nichols

(h/t to Ruth Gledhill’s blog)