Saturday 26 November 2011

"Kiss" (Home-Recording)

Day 4 of the ever so glorious month of celebration:

Time for something brand new:

Kiss (26 XI 2011) [- removed, because Prince didn't like it.]

FUNK!

New? well, not entirely ... Every three or four years I end up recording  a version of  "Kiss" ... It was a song I already played before I was into Prince, then became a regular setlist member during the Absence days (when I *was* into Prince), and ended up being a track I record when I'm not very inspired but want to have a shot at something funky. It's an easy so many-bars blues, so it doesn't take much memory to call it up.


For this version, I first heard a 2006 8-track recording of mine. That one was trying to sound as 1980s as possible so it was adorned with marimbas, goofy synth-bass and fake brass all over it. I thought it was a good version (you might not agree ...), only let down by a somewhat limping drum track. So I decided to load the multitracks abck onto the machine, and re-do those drums.
I ended up adding three drum- and percussion-tracks (all finger-drums on the keyboard), and they came out quite well. One problem: they didn't fit the song at all - they were too fiery and funky!
There was only one solution and that was to throw away all the other instrumental tracks and to record new bass, electric guitar and keyboard.

So, all that was left was my 2006 vocals, now dressed up in a totally new 2011-backing. Sort of a reverse karaoke version of myself!

Friday 18 November 2011

"Out Of Place" (Home-Recording)


Day 3 of this month's ‘Ymaginatif: A Celebration’

After the astounding success of last night’s acoustic set, we’re gathered here today to get through this thing called ‘the next song’. I hope you’re still with me? :)

Let me take you back to 2008, December 2008 to be precise. This is a recording of a very old song of mine, called ‘Out Of Place’, which goes back to the mid 1990s. It’s a classic blues pattern tune with weird and somewhat Halloweeny lyrics. I used to play this one a lot with erstwhile band-member Bruno – a favourite in impromptu live jams (on trains and in bedrooms) which sort of got requested again and again. It was an exuberant up-beat little thing with a lot of humour in it, which was a welcome change from the sometimes ponderous Dutch-language ‘art-songs’ we were wont to play in those days.


Many very different versions were made of this song (although no recording of the original arrangement with Bruno seems to have survived ...), noticeably one with brother Jeroen on tambourine and back-vocals, and another one using a toy synthesizer. But the one I’m presenting you today is the smoky, late night version – seriously slowed down in tempo, with acoustic guitar, piano and brush-drums (on keyboard) as well as a low, rough vocal. It takes away most of the humor, but creates something which, I fancy, Purpleblues might appreciate?

Tuesday 8 November 2011

'Handle With Care' (Home-Recording)


Day 2 of the November Celebration:

Back in 2008 I was recording very quietly. My oldest daughter was two then, so when she was finally tucked into bed I was able to switch on the multi-tracker and do some recording in the evening again. Still, I couldn't do anything really loud, because she was asleep in the room next door ...



This is the main explanation why I decided to turn this rather exuberant Traveling Wilburys hit into a slow and ponderous acoustic grumble.
That being said, I was quite pleased with the result, as it got rid of the many-cooks novelty-mood of the original (which happily veers from George Harrison's sweet-voiced but biting sarcasm, to Roy Orbison's operatic pathos, to Dylan and Petty's sand-papery lustfulness), and replaced it with an all-encompassing gravitas. Yeah yeah ...

  Handle With Care by Ymaginatif

Tuesday 1 November 2011

"4 Those About 2 Funk (Mrs. Microphone)" (Home-recording)

A special feature for CKJ-funkyfive on Plug Me Inc.!
(day 1 of November's 'Ymaginatif: A Celebration' ...)

In the early days of Entropy, young Maceo was easily convinced by a moustachioed Maxim and a more hairy Ymaginatif to join their brand new (and still nameless) virtual band.
Taking the once-in-a-lifetime oppportunity with both hands, he borrowed Mrs Maceo's skype-microphone, and recorded a few rather random sentences. Then he sent the wav-file to Y, who cut it into pieces, and then slowed them down, speeded them up, and sprinkled them all over a 'music' track Maxim and he had just finished.




This track, '4 Those About 2 Funk', was a very Batman-like eletronica adventure couresty of Maxim, to which Y had added a dubious bouquet of extra synth-sounds. But it was only after the addition of Maceo's vocals, and Y's new multivoiced chorus prompted by one of his comments, that the song was really finished.

So there we have it - something to reminisce from spring 2009.