It’s definitely time I posted something here. Many things have been happening.
“You will be… upgraded”
Windows 1803 forced its way on to my audio workstation, like a door-to-door Cyberman, despite my best efforts to avoid it. The only side-effect I’ve noticed has been that my computer can no longer come out of “sleep mode”. This is very annoying, and I’m not the only one to have the problem.
It is possible that the update is not 100% compatible with the BIOS on my now 8-year old unsupported Dell Studio XPS 9000 tower. That seems to be the consensus.
I can live with a computer with insomnia. It boots in 30 seconds, and I usually ensured that all apps are closed before putting it to sleep anyway, so it’s hard to get too annoyed about this.
Speaking of upgrades
I’ve been working on the next album. In this age of Pandora and Spotify, the idea of releasing an “album of songs” might be considered passé , with the caveat that, if it is released on vinyl, then you get a pass for being a neo-hipster, or something.
I’m not sure if I’m working towards a physical CD or not, but as a firm believer in pretentious “concept albums”, I am planning a collection of songs, some of which have a common theme.
That theme is “upgrades will fuck you up”. My experience described above is just another data point in a very busy scatter plot.
For several years the working title for this new album has been “Other Points of View” but I think that will change. I have something in mind but I will let it percolate before committing.
This month (actually last month but I’m running late) I came up with an idea for a short song to open the album. It’s a five-voice chorale that, I admit, is somewhat inspired by the opening track on Rick Wakeman’s No Earthly Connection but I think it is its own thing. Call it an homage at most.
I had a couple of weeks away from work this month, and furiously worked out the harmonies and sang the parts and I’m currently finalizing the production.
The idea is for the 30 second track to start out like an old-timey wax recording and gradually progress to pristine digital stereo, thus manifesting the “upgrade” concept. However If I don’t like the results, I’ll just go for a clean 44.1/24 production straight through.
Tik Tok, Tik Tok… The cycle renews
“Kill your darlings”. Who said this? It’s not just good advice for aspiring writers, whomever said it first.
The other track I’ve been working on this month has had a more tortuous history than most. I’ve tried to produce it “for reals” at least four times prior to this, but for whatever reason, I’ve never succeeded in completing it. I’m not sure why. It dates back to 2002 which actually makes it one of my recent projects. Yeah, laugh.
When I took stock of where this project was at, I found numerous project folders, in numerous locations, all in various degrees of completeness. Each of them substantially different in content and each contained some really nice ideas and arrangements. Some had vocals; others did not, but had good instrumentation or solos or other things.
In 2012 my brother visited from New Zealand and I had optimistic thoughts of having him laying down some keyboard tracks – it’d be just like old times!
Alas, that’s a Big Ask, and although we had some fun for an afternoon, it ended up stalling that version of the project because I wanted to keep as much of Walter’s contributions as possible, and it didn’t really work out.
I collated the various project files under a common parent and took stock:
Then I worked through each project, taking notes on what was working in each one. There is no way everything could be included in a final project. I began to appreciate again why it has been so hard to work on this project and how I got to this point.
Too many good ideas. Some of them have to be jettisoned. I have to “kill my darlings”, even though they are special.
And perhaps this can only be done after we’ve gained some perspective. At this point I have confidence that pruning down a composition can actually produce a better final result; and also I’m confident that deleting a “really cool section with great instrumentation and performances” doesn’t mean that I won’t come up with something just as good or better in the future.
So I took the version of the project from 2015 and viciously pruned it back, keeping the drums and some guitar. Then, after listening to the very earliest versions from 2003, I identified what made them sound good – it was a really crunchy bass sound.
So I re-recorded the bass, this time foregoing pride of finger picking, and used a pick and the neck pickup to get a kind of John Wetton-y thing. (Rabbit hole alert. This is good too. Arghh.)
Then I went back to 2012 and salvaged the “hammond” and rhodes… figured out what they were playing and re-recorded them.
OK now we’re cooking. The awesome synth solo on the 2010 project is worth keeping but let’s see if we can use the Novation PEAK for it instead because the Roland Fantom is packed away in the garage and, oh, using a different instrument means that we need to perform it differently… it’s still good. Better.
Seeing as I had the microphone out I’ve been working out harmony vocals and re-recording them as well.
At this point, I have to transfer the new vocal tracks from my temporary tracking project into the 2018 version, then finish up lead guitar… and we may have a winner.
After years of threatening to invade, and then backing off…. the Toks may have actually Invaded.
The invention of a new piece, enabled their construction
A genetic constitution was figured out
Tools could be mounted: diversity of function
Advantage evolution: opposable snout– The Toks Invade Bogland
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