Good session on Saturday with Jude Merryweather (from Underground Zero) - 4 hours or so, with several digressions and tea breaks, but ripped through her lead vocal on one song, got down her additions to a "choir" section and recorded some spoken-word snippets - which gets one huge track to the "ready to finish" stage. Another would be there too, aside from the decision made at the weekend to use live flute on it - but I can get it as close to finished as possible, and add the flute at a later stage once I get the chance to go to Norfolk to record my "tame flautist".
Inspired by the recent burst of activity, and starting to feel the momentum a bit now, I've launched the Backroom Children page on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/BackroomChildren - please come and like!
Websites will be forthcoming this week, I hope. There will be pages on Soundawesome and Reverbnation for showcasing songs, but these are a little way away yet - need to finish some more final mixes first (always the time-consuming bit).
MB
Monday 16 July 2012
Tuesday 10 July 2012
Sky, mainly
A grey and miserable weekend, in the main. Rain stopped play, but not playing.
Mainly working on the bass part for "Earth and Sky". I do like *playing* bass, but recording bass is more frustrating, as you then hear all the mistakes. This song is in five sections, and the fourth one was definitely a challenge for a (relatively) novice bass-player such as myself - played it right through several times before getting a take that had some good bits, then went back and did (many) drop-ins to fix the fluffs, and came back to it on Monday evening to fix a few other things that I knew I'd wince at every time heard them..... but it is, at last, done.
I also added a (programmed) flute solo using the rather good Inox Flute VST plug-in (free!) - but this may get dumped - it's not brilliant, and lying in bed later, I was thinking about a vocal in the same place. What I'd *really* like there is a sax solo, but I don't have a tame sax player to call on - although we managed to get live sax on both the Osiris albums, it was always a bit uphill. Where is Didier Malherbe when you need him...... ?
Mainly working on the bass part for "Earth and Sky". I do like *playing* bass, but recording bass is more frustrating, as you then hear all the mistakes. This song is in five sections, and the fourth one was definitely a challenge for a (relatively) novice bass-player such as myself - played it right through several times before getting a take that had some good bits, then went back and did (many) drop-ins to fix the fluffs, and came back to it on Monday evening to fix a few other things that I knew I'd wince at every time heard them..... but it is, at last, done.
I also added a (programmed) flute solo using the rather good Inox Flute VST plug-in (free!) - but this may get dumped - it's not brilliant, and lying in bed later, I was thinking about a vocal in the same place. What I'd *really* like there is a sax solo, but I don't have a tame sax player to call on - although we managed to get live sax on both the Osiris albums, it was always a bit uphill. Where is Didier Malherbe when you need him...... ?
Friday 6 July 2012
Winners and Losers
Glancing back through this blog, I came across a prospective track-listing for the Osiris album I was working on at that point. So, I thought it might be interesting to confirm-or-deny which of those tracks still have life.
Crystal Starlight - this got finished, with a vocal by Jude, and is with Dave. Since he wrote some of it, and plays bass, it's as Osiris track, and it's therefore down to him.
Today is only Yesterday's Tomorrow - again, a Dave-written track of which he has a finished mix.
Intus Extra Caput Meum - has a new lyric, and is now called Earth and Sky.It still sounds very "70s Gong".
Break The Chain (working title) - became Chain of Thought in collaboration with Bridget, and has gone for inclusion on a Spirits Burning album, as and when.
More Light - See previous blog entry.
Child of the Sable Night - Dave's original spoken-word piece. Never got anything done with it.
Jabberwocky - still live and dangerous. Violin from Cyndee, piano from Howard Boder and a cast of thousands on vocals.
Nanobots - final vocals being recorded next weekend if all goes to plan. Definitely still in the mix.
I'm not under any illusions about anyone else keeping track of any of this - but if I have any internet stalkers - Hi there :)
MB
Crystal Starlight - this got finished, with a vocal by Jude, and is with Dave. Since he wrote some of it, and plays bass, it's as Osiris track, and it's therefore down to him.
Today is only Yesterday's Tomorrow - again, a Dave-written track of which he has a finished mix.
Intus Extra Caput Meum - has a new lyric, and is now called Earth and Sky.It still sounds very "70s Gong".
Break The Chain (working title) - became Chain of Thought in collaboration with Bridget, and has gone for inclusion on a Spirits Burning album, as and when.
More Light - See previous blog entry.
Child of the Sable Night - Dave's original spoken-word piece. Never got anything done with it.
Jabberwocky - still live and dangerous. Violin from Cyndee, piano from Howard Boder and a cast of thousands on vocals.
Nanobots - final vocals being recorded next weekend if all goes to plan. Definitely still in the mix.
I'm not under any illusions about anyone else keeping track of any of this - but if I have any internet stalkers - Hi there :)
MB
More of the same
Quite a productive week.
Last weekend, after many abortive attempts, I managed to finish off the bass part for a revamp of "More Light" - the Osiris The Rebirth cut of this track is on the "Allies & Clansmen II" free CD available from Omenopus,.com . However - this was an edited version, and I always planned to do a better one. Having finally nailed the bass part, I got in touch with Nigel Potter , who very kindly played some rather good lead guitar, as the icing on the cake. As a result, I managed to get this track finished on Wednesday. Yes!!! A finished track!!!! As an aside - Lee Potts (of Omenopus) is also cooking an "Omenopus remix" of this track. Goody, goody.....
In other news, also last weekend, I put the finishing touches to a track for the Raspberry Silk project with my friend Kim Novak - Kim has guested on both Osiris albums, but we've been working together over 10 years, on and off on different things. Raspberry Silk is a more mainstream project, and is very much a duo. This song - "Tell Him No" was written by Kim, and recorded for her 2007 solo album "Pilot Light". We've now nabbed it, rocked it up some and merged it with a spoken-word track from her 2009 album "One Way". Sounds pretty good, and will emerge in the fullness of time.
Progress this week also on a new song, title TBC, which should be a fourth collaboration with Bridget Wishart. Previously, the Osiris The Rebirth tracks "Starlight Scorpio" and "Planetscape" featured Bridget's unique talents, and there is also a collaboration between she and I that's heading for an album under Don Falcone's "Spirits Burning" project.
This evening (Friday), I've recorded the vocals for the song "Earth and Sky", with lyrics by my old mate Duane Tate. Also, bass guitar and vocals now in from Vince Negri for his self-penned song "Exult", so this is now good to go for the final fix & mix.
Mark my words, Marcel, sinister forces are at work......
MB
Last weekend, after many abortive attempts, I managed to finish off the bass part for a revamp of "More Light" - the Osiris The Rebirth cut of this track is on the "Allies & Clansmen II" free CD available from Omenopus,.com . However - this was an edited version, and I always planned to do a better one. Having finally nailed the bass part, I got in touch with Nigel Potter , who very kindly played some rather good lead guitar, as the icing on the cake. As a result, I managed to get this track finished on Wednesday. Yes!!! A finished track!!!! As an aside - Lee Potts (of Omenopus) is also cooking an "Omenopus remix" of this track. Goody, goody.....
In other news, also last weekend, I put the finishing touches to a track for the Raspberry Silk project with my friend Kim Novak - Kim has guested on both Osiris albums, but we've been working together over 10 years, on and off on different things. Raspberry Silk is a more mainstream project, and is very much a duo. This song - "Tell Him No" was written by Kim, and recorded for her 2007 solo album "Pilot Light". We've now nabbed it, rocked it up some and merged it with a spoken-word track from her 2009 album "One Way". Sounds pretty good, and will emerge in the fullness of time.
Progress this week also on a new song, title TBC, which should be a fourth collaboration with Bridget Wishart. Previously, the Osiris The Rebirth tracks "Starlight Scorpio" and "Planetscape" featured Bridget's unique talents, and there is also a collaboration between she and I that's heading for an album under Don Falcone's "Spirits Burning" project.
This evening (Friday), I've recorded the vocals for the song "Earth and Sky", with lyrics by my old mate Duane Tate. Also, bass guitar and vocals now in from Vince Negri for his self-penned song "Exult", so this is now good to go for the final fix & mix.
Mark my words, Marcel, sinister forces are at work......
MB
Wednesday 27 June 2012
Reports of my death.....
...have been greatly exaggerated.
Good old Mr Twain, always good for a pithy quote.
Right. So. No more Osiris.... but I got to thinking......
There was an album of material written and demoed. On the majority, my erstwhile music partner had (as yet) made no contribution to writing or recording. Several other people had, and had taken time and trouble to record guest parts......I hate wasting things, especially other people's time and talent.
One song has found a home with Spirits Burning, and will appear on an album as and when. But the rest.....
I was a bit stumped for a short while, didn't really have the enthusiasm to pick up the headphones again.....but old habits die hard. As usual (with me), until it had a name and a shape, it wasn't real.
It now has a name and a shape. Existing music is moving towards being finished, and some new music is appearing. There should be finished tracks soon, and an album in the Autumn.
It sounds a lot like Osiris, as you might expect. Most of the people are the same, the approach is the same, the ideals are the same. Space-prog lives on.
Watch this space.
Good old Mr Twain, always good for a pithy quote.
Right. So. No more Osiris.... but I got to thinking......
There was an album of material written and demoed. On the majority, my erstwhile music partner had (as yet) made no contribution to writing or recording. Several other people had, and had taken time and trouble to record guest parts......I hate wasting things, especially other people's time and talent.
One song has found a home with Spirits Burning, and will appear on an album as and when. But the rest.....
I was a bit stumped for a short while, didn't really have the enthusiasm to pick up the headphones again.....but old habits die hard. As usual (with me), until it had a name and a shape, it wasn't real.
It now has a name and a shape. Existing music is moving towards being finished, and some new music is appearing. There should be finished tracks soon, and an album in the Autumn.
It sounds a lot like Osiris, as you might expect. Most of the people are the same, the approach is the same, the ideals are the same. Space-prog lives on.
Watch this space.
Monday 14 May 2012
So farewell, then
After four years and two albums, we've finally decided to call it a day. Dave deciding to leave the band was a huge blow, obviously, but Milo, Jude and Dom were set to carry on with a new bass-player, and maybe even finally locate a keyboard-player to make Osiris more of a "band" and less of a "project".
However, we'd been working for months towards our first appearance of the year at the SoundFoursome festival - when this event was cancelled, it was another big step backwards. That left a small local support slot in June, and Onboard The Craft in September. Not much to look forward to, not much of a draw for new band members. Replacement or even stand-in bass-players were turning us down on a daily basis. Practical issues and personal negativity started to pile up.
There comes a point when it becomes clear that fate, God, karma, life, quantum physics or whatever agency you choose to believe in does not seem to want you to do something. All the doors were closing, none were opening. None of us are professional musicians - we do music because we love it. When you're no longer looking forward to plugging the guitar in - it's time to stop.
If you're reading this, it's because you were interested in the music. Thank you for that. We thought it was pretty good, and some people agreed with us. Very few of them actually bought the albums, so a very special "thank you" if you were one of them.
Very special thanks to everyone who guested on the recordings, and very special thanks to Jude and Dom, who worked damned hard to put together a live show.
Over and out.
However, we'd been working for months towards our first appearance of the year at the SoundFoursome festival - when this event was cancelled, it was another big step backwards. That left a small local support slot in June, and Onboard The Craft in September. Not much to look forward to, not much of a draw for new band members. Replacement or even stand-in bass-players were turning us down on a daily basis. Practical issues and personal negativity started to pile up.
There comes a point when it becomes clear that fate, God, karma, life, quantum physics or whatever agency you choose to believe in does not seem to want you to do something. All the doors were closing, none were opening. None of us are professional musicians - we do music because we love it. When you're no longer looking forward to plugging the guitar in - it's time to stop.
If you're reading this, it's because you were interested in the music. Thank you for that. We thought it was pretty good, and some people agreed with us. Very few of them actually bought the albums, so a very special "thank you" if you were one of them.
Very special thanks to everyone who guested on the recordings, and very special thanks to Jude and Dom, who worked damned hard to put together a live show.
Over and out.
Monday 5 March 2012
Starting to pop......
Good progress over the weekend...... some more vocal recording done (there are *lots* of voices on this next album), and finished a track called Today is only Yesterday's Tomorrow.
This is an old Osiris 87 song, dusted-off and remade (we've done this with a couple of songs on each album so far). This one seemed to be an excuse to indulge the Kraftwerk influence, so it's turned out as a 70s/80s electropop - and we've snuck in eight (count them) references to classic electronic tracks from that period. We *may* have a small competition (aimed at fellow music nerds) when we put this out. Not sure yet whether this will be an album track or a bonus track of some sort - we already know that we have too much material to fit it all on the album, so we shall see.
On the live front, we're auditioning someone to join the live band this week - we'll let you know how that turns out. We also have a local gig confirmed in Bicester on Thursday 14th June - more details nearer the time.
Onwards and inwards
MB
This is an old Osiris 87 song, dusted-off and remade (we've done this with a couple of songs on each album so far). This one seemed to be an excuse to indulge the Kraftwerk influence, so it's turned out as a 70s/80s electropop - and we've snuck in eight (count them) references to classic electronic tracks from that period. We *may* have a small competition (aimed at fellow music nerds) when we put this out. Not sure yet whether this will be an album track or a bonus track of some sort - we already know that we have too much material to fit it all on the album, so we shall see.
On the live front, we're auditioning someone to join the live band this week - we'll let you know how that turns out. We also have a local gig confirmed in Bicester on Thursday 14th June - more details nearer the time.
Onwards and inwards
MB
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