"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!

"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)!

 

"Gett Off" (Home-Recording)

"So what is an Ymaginatif to do with an army of 'Hip-Hop' sounds," I hear you ask ...

Do I listen to hip-hop ... not particularly

Can I rap ... not at all!

So what do I do with it then? Ever since the beginnings of my music-playing in 1989, I have been looking for ways to sound more 'modern'. With my firm groundings in Beatles music and just an acoustic guitar available (not to mention a recorder, a harmonica, and a banjo), all of my songs tended to have a sixties vibe.

With the arrival of the synths and keyboards in the Y-household, I slowly moved up into the seventies, sometimes even managing to hit that eighties feeling by accident. But that seemed to be the limit for a long time, in spite of all the odd drum-tracks I threw together or weird effects I added.

Finally, with the introduction of this ‘new’ sound-card (with its phat loops and beefy basses), I am able to jump a decade, and make it all the way to the 1990s! Even though that’s still 10-20 years off of being actually up to date, it opens the doors for me to a sound I quite like. Yes – the days of wild of Prince! Grinding funk and pounding beats. Sweet!

To prove that point, I plucked up the courage to embark on a bold cover version of ‘Gett Off’ – a pretty raunchy one-chord vamp in the original. Why not ...

After recording the multi-dimensional drumloop (together with a loose guide-vocal), I overdubbed a real bass, two electric guitars, an array of sound-effects, flute (synth), and a distorted vocal (to ensure at least some anonymity). The result was ... relentless.

 
Can you dig it?

'Fury (27 XII 09)' (Home-Recording)

Maybe we don't need the videos at all? Here's a more direct listen-experience perhaps?
'Fury' is a Prince cover, recorded over a year ago (and posted on Entropy then). It combines a drum machine beat with some manual keyboard drumming, resulting in much more relentless version than the original !
At the request of Jfrost, the guitars were turned UP in this mix!


Fury (27 XII 09) by Ymaginatif

"Cinnamon Girl (Acoustic Version)" (Home-Recording)

In a first attempt to kickstart this music page (which may or may not be home-made, depending on which mood you find me in), I'll draw your attention to a laidback Prince cover I did a few years go, when Entropy was still in its infancy (April 2008). So was I, then. Still, you might expect me to post some much infancier tracks in the future!

This song was already recorded on the digital Tascam multitracker (more about this later), and uses a semi-improvised acoustic guitar + vocal track as its basis.

For those of you who have already heard it: ohnonothimagen!!
For all the others: here's your chance to pick it up
http://www.mediafire.com/?im24mk5dofi