"Little Boy Jake" b/w "What? More?!" (Home-Recordings)

The wind outside is blowing so much, I thought you all might need a new virtual Y-single?!

The A-side is the make-up-as-you-record 'Little Boy Jake'! Yes, you might be used to me reproducing every single instrument with canned Roland sounds ... but so far the guitars had been left real, genuine and untouched.
Until last month, when I thought it was time to give the synth-guitar a try ...

So this song started as a random riff played over and over again on the keys. (I was suprised to hear how much this sound is reminiscent of Prince's Batman era songs. He must have been using the same tools back then ...)

Then I added bass, synth-drums and percussion, a 'real' guitar solo, and to end with, a vocal. I didn't have an existing song, but turned the whole thing into some social criticism rant. One day I might re-record this one, and give the contents a bit more thought. But as it is now, I think it already makes a pretty convincing demo.

Little Boy Jake

  Little Boy Jake by Ymaginatif

The B-side is the aptly titled "What? More?!" This was an improvisation, in seventies style, when I had only just bought me electronic drum-kit. The one where you use sticks and pedals instead of keys. It was nothing more than just flexing a bit of musical muscle, with drums, guitars, bass, organ, but it turned out quite nicely, and it's perfect for a B-side.

  What? More?! by Ymaginatif 

(btw, my conclusion, after having drummed for a year now. I can't drum a beat, but I can do fill ins. As long as it's just fill ins I'll be fine! :) )

"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!

"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?

'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

"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.

'Child Of Nature' / 'Here Comes The Sun' (Home-Recordings)

This month I've been going back and forth between angry protest rock and sweet Beatles-covers. Tossing a coin on which ones to 'entertain' you with (first), the choice fell on the Beatles-covers. Lucky you! Maybe because there has been a lot of sunshine over the weekend? ...

Anyway - time for a thematic 'virtual single', I thought. Or afterthought, it was. But is somehow seemed to fit ...

A. Child of Nature (Lennon)

Or 'Jealous Guy', as most of you might know it. I started to record this song as 'Jealous Guy', but these 'great classic' compositions are always a bit daunting to pull off. I found that once I decided to re-instate John Lennon's original 1968 lyrics, suddenly things were a whole lot easier: now it made sense to have a sitar in the arrangement and to replace the whistle-solo with a vintage synth sound. At least, that's what I thought.

The vocal is way too high for me, but as usual, I did't let that stop me ...

B. Here Comes The Sun (Harrison)

Finding that I was able to play the acoustic guitar riff of this one (after 15 years of looking for it, haha), I gave it a quick recording. The sound turned out quite nicely (despite the barking dogs outside and the crying daughter in the background), so taking my cue from the original Beatles arrangement (not trying to copying it, but thinking of this as a quiet acoustic song with some surprisingly robust band-backing), I added drums, bass, percussion and synth.

Let's see whether you can spot the dogs and the daughter! 

 

'I Want You' (Home Recording)

After a long wait, here's a new song - recorded last Friday!

'I Want You' has always been one of my favorite Elvis Costello songs, and I even managed to include it in the early setlists of The Absence. Its moody, bombastic, pathetic protagonist sort of fits my singing style :)

Despite its repetitive chord-sequence and length (at more than 6 and a half minutes this is one of my longest recordings ever!), I believe that it holds some wonderful musical tension, that carries the listener all the way through. At least, *I* don't tire of it. Let's see what you think. (For those who don't know the song: don't worry, the acoustic, cheesy-folky introduction is TOTALLY different from the main body of the song)

What have we got? Acoustic guitar (in the intro only), electric guitar (through 2 effect pedals at the same time), real bass, two quiet organs, a crazy 6-second solo-guitar (expressing utter desperation) and drums. I meant to do this with live-drumming, but the sounds kept triggering badly, so I had to revert to finger-drumming on the keyboard. Nevertheless, the initial kit-drumming had given me a few idea, which I then imitated on the keyboard, and which I would not normally have doned had a started straight from the keyboard (for one thing: the bass-tom fill-ins).

Here it is:

"KISS (Club Mix)" (Studio+Home-Recording)

Two band-reunions in one song? Everything is possible these days!

Last week I saw Tim B. again - as some of you might now, he is the co-founder and erstwhile bassist of The Absence. The band that rocked Leeds between 1999 and 2003.
Despite one or two attempts, Tim and I never got round to recording anything new after 2003.

But this changed, when last week he handed me a copy of the demo-CD his new band had just finished recording in a proper studio. This new South-English band goes by the name 'Imaginary4', and consists of him on bass and two old friends of his on guitar and vocals.
Old friends yes, because together they used to be called 'The Honey Street': Tim's acoustic folk band from the early 1990s.

One listen was enough to find that they have changed completely! They are now playing their own tight, electric pop-songs with a hint of 1980s Goth and Siouxsie and The Banshees. Cool!
They have one problem though: they are looking for a drummer. And they can't find one. So the four-song demo-CD ended up drumless ...
Until I laid my hands on it ...

In true EMF All-Stars fashion, I overdubbed the existing recording, adding drums and a few more things here and there. Just for the fun of it.
Here's the first song I tried: 'KISS'. With all its talking about iphones and texting, I thought I'd give it a modern backing. Perhaps more modern than Tim would have liked?
It's got drums played on keyboard (I tried on the kit, but that was just too hard ...).

There you have it: Imaginary4 featuring Ymaginatif - in a reunion of The Honeystreet and The Absence! Exlcusive to Plug Me Inc.



PS. For more information on Imaginary4, go to http://www.myspace.com/imaginary4band

"Hope!" (Home-Recording)

I can already play my own 'oldies' :)
"Hope!" was written back in 1990 – more than 20 years ago! Shock horror.

It was one of the first real songs I was able to put together, and featured heavily in Meander's early repertoire. We've busked it on the streets, practised it in basement rehearsal rooms, and recorded it in radio-studios (though not on air). It's a song with a past ...
Dozens of versions of it were recorded, and this is the most recent one – done on the digital eight-track in February this year (2011).

It had a little touch of Muse in the original idea I had for this arrangement, but that quickly disappeared. That aside, it combined a neatly rising chord-sequence for the chorus with a chunky guitar-riff for the verses (based on Bruno vanden Broecke's (who was the band's co-founder) bass-riff for that song).
Ah yes, I'm afraid I had forgotten the chords of the middle bit, which here morphs into a semi-improvised new-wave coda. ... And it ends with big drum-fest on the toms.

 

"Go!"(Home-Recording)

Now here's a little joke song!
When the electronic drumkitlet (it's only a small one) first arrived (December 2010), the second thing I recorded was this: 'Go!'

Its basis was a simple drumloop, with multiple layers of live-drumming and percussion overdubbed. I added some random piano-playing, as well and a few further instruments. The main ingredients though were the vocal samples that came the kit, and that were triggered by hitting the pads. That explains the earnest and insistent 'go!' chorus, the wry laughter in the contrasting bits, and – best of all – the Maceo 'huh' in the middle! Yes, I now have my own Maceo at home! :)

"You Won't See Me" (Home-Recording)

Every now and again I have to return to The Beatles.
Yes, it is something that started 24 (!) years ago, and which I still haven't got over. I first started to sing to The Beatles (in the attic, where I thought nobody could hear me) and a few years later I first started to play the guitar from the 'Beatles Book'. It was The Beatles that started me off collecting music. And it was The Beatles that made me form my first band. All that is bound to leave an imprint.

This particular song, 'You Won't See Me', is from 1965 and a rare occasion of McCartney in a negative mood. Things were not going to well with Jane ...
When they came to record it, The Beatles gave it a light, countrified arrangement, and added rather silly ooh-lalala backing vocals. The result was a pleasant mid-sixties pop-song, but detracted, obviously, from the song's black mood.

So, when it was my turn to have a go at this one, some time earlier this year, I thought I'd give it an edgier treatment. No more backing vocals, but a garage-band guitar/bass/drums approach, which adorned the song with squashed chords (nothing fancy), a much faster tempo, plenty of distortion on guitar and bass, and some frantic kit-drumming.
It turned out to be rather hard to keep up the vocal. Especially since the key doesn't suit my voice very well. In the end, I went for the low snarl rather than the high shriek ...

"Offence" (Home-Recording)

'Offence' – perhaps one of my favorite obscure compositions. It was originally written around 2001 during The Absence days (but never intended for the band) and fully re-written in 2007, with a little help from Mrs Y on the lyrics.

In 2007, I was recording some songs with a female folk singer, and wanting to drag her a bit more into the pop-world, I revisited 'Offence'. I gave it a higher melody line and a truly Elviscostellian sarcastic and biting lyric.
In the end, I never really suggested it to her, fearing it didn't suit her voice after all (and that the 'I' didn't sound too womanly after all), but recorded my own version soon after that (May 2007).

The result was a rather carefully crafted acoustic song, with gritty electric guitar and some very expressive drumwork (still drummed on the keys of a keyboard in those days).



Who does the song address? Whoever choses to take offence :)

"Nu Geen Liefde Meer" (Home-Recording)

This is a re-make of an older song of mine (written 2003 or 2004) I did last month, mainly to have a go at making a funk-song with live-drumming.
I ended up playing about 3 minutes of constant fill-ins, which was way easier than keeping a strict rhythm going. That pedal-work is killing me!
I'm not sure whether it's holding together, but it's got some nice bits - so let's see what you think.




Since it was a sort of anti-ode to my old band, it was only suitable for it to be in Dutch: 'Nu Geen Liefde Meer' ('No More Love Now').

"Chevrolet" (Home-Recording)

Time for a serious flashback? How about one of the old Meander songs then?

In 1989 I started my first band together with Bruno Vanden Broecke. After a few name-changes (one of them being The Knockles --- if the Bangles could rip off the Beatles by changing the first half of their name into a synonym, why couldn't we?), we decided to call ourselves Meander. This is where I learned to play the guitar, write songs, do gigs and everything. The band eventually fell apart in 1997 when I moved to the UK.

The recording I'm serving you today, is not played by Meander, but it was one of the songs we used to do – before we had the native-language-only rule. It's a funny bluesy song written by Bruno Vanden Broecke as a teenager together with his neighbour.
I recorded this off the cuff version some time in 1994 or 95, with a 1960s microphone plugged into the 1970s stereo-system in the living room. That produced a rich ever-so slightly distorted sound, which I've always liked.

I play acoustic guitar and sing, while my brother provides percussion (hitting a tambourine with two pens) and backing vocals. It's a nicely exuberant version.




PS This track is dedicated to scoop and his love for formerly Eastern-European cars :)

"Gett Off (Mace2theO Mix)"

Over the weekend, this splendid 5+ minutes remix of my version of "Gett Off" (posted here last week) reached me!
It was done by the famous Maceo2theO, captain of EMF Radio station (http://emfradio.blogspot.com/) and one of the original EMF All Stars members.

Not only did he use the original multi-tracks to create a whole new mix, he also doubled the song in length and added his own vocals (introducing Violet The Organ Grinder)!