let's check out EVERYBODY's new songs

[Luke de Spa]

Originally Posted by ChristHimself!

You can listen to about 16 tracks on the player on my newly updated site here; http://www.paulietheboss.com/music.htm

Some are just sketches, varying in recording and songwriting quality, and quite old now. A mix of stuff, acoustic, ambient, electronic, industrial. That tracklist is designed to flow as much as those tracks can, so if you're feeling it keep listening. Any feedback appreciated.

"wilt" is a solid song. "ebb and flow" sounds really pumpkiny (but tune your guitar or get the intonation seen to or something!) — have you fleshed this out into a song? wtf i was not prepared for "woobs". "dream sequins" doesn't load for me. really like the lead in "brian"; that one sounds like it wants vocals and a fuller arrangement to me. other stuff's not really my bag so i can't say much useful about those, sorry. i tried making electronic stuff a few times and it was universally shit

i think you could use a sound engineer. and maybe a band. yeah, get a band too (have you heard of "grunge tuning"?)

[Luke de Spa]

Originally Posted by RopeyLopey

deer canada's turn: http://www.sendspace.com/file/foyoc2
(one original and two embellished songs, originally by David Pajo)

songs ******* contributions from the following Netphorians:
pink_ribbon_scars, Oblivious, Obscured01, DeviousJ, sleeper, barden, cork_soaker, Ropes

jonathan whitehead: this is good stuff. love the dynamics. not so crazy about the ebow tone but otherwise, top notch
milk in my snot: this one feels looser / less focused. i'm not that big on spoken-word vocals in songs, but that's just personal preference. i like the outro
pacific coast: wtf/earbagger. music's nice, establishes a mood well, but wtf man, are you a sound earbaggeer

[Luke de Spa]

OKAY WHO'S NEXT

[Luke de Spa]

Originally Posted by ???

www.myspace.com/momerathsoxford

not bad, although the recording's obviously limited. the first three songs all seem a little overlong to me, but nonetheless you've got some clever/fun/quirky arrangements in there. i like "king queen jack" the best of the four you have up. it wants bass. (ideally you would find a bassist who is also a sound engineer)

not hearing mellon collie outside a few isolated guitar runs. what's your writing process like?

[Luke de Spa]

Originally Posted by Luke de Spa

okay, here are some songs

building boats in the basement
dog days
inside out
myth physics
peregrine
where the gods sleep

will listen to other stuff posted later today

pop rock shit, fuck off

[Luke de Spa]

Originally Posted by COG

http://www.myspace.com/justanothercog

sorry dude but these don't do much for me. there's either not enough going on ("coming back home", "my twilight" and "the end of our lives") or too much ("a new leaf")! what kind of effect were you going for with these?

[Luke de Spa]

Originally Posted by cork_soaker

here's a link to three songs of mine.
quiet, acoustic/piano stuff
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ka26l2

i think i've heard these three before. i like 'em

[Ol' Couch Ass]

As everyone else has said... very impressive LDS.

[Luke de Spa]

Originally Posted by brendo_91

I will come back to this thread, but I'm kinda busy at the moment.

http://www.myspace.com/stolenidentityband

i think there might be a sound engineer in this band. this is total buttrock though. what's with the hetfield impressions

[???]

Originally Posted by Luke de Spa

not bad, although the recording's obviously limited. the first three songs all seem a little overlong to me, but nonetheless you've got some clever/fun/quirky arrangements in there. i like "king queen jack" the best of the four you have up. it wants bass. (ideally you would find a bassist who is also a sound engineer)

not hearing mellon collie outside a few isolated guitar runs. what's your writing process like?

heh, thanks. i agree that the first two are bit overlong, but we hardly notice it when we play them. i suppose we could chop something out if we reworked them. generally, for 99% of our songs, my girlfriend comes up with the basic riff/melody/lyrics and i flesh it out by introducing lots of new chord progressions and "other bits" and fiddling with the overall structure.

[???]

Originally Posted by RopeyLopey

hah, that is actually quite sympathetic stuff, isle. You should focus on sing-along songs for children, your music sounds quite suitable for that. I am not sure if you take it as a compliment, but I really don't mean it in a bad way.

no, that's fine- i agree completely. i never imagined i'd be involved with music like this but it has alot to do with my girlfriend who comes up with the songs...she's got a very childlike personality and it really shows in the music. i could never write songs like this by myself.

[???]

Originally Posted by RopeyLopey

deer canada's turn: http://www.sendspace.com/file/foyoc2
(one original and two embellished songs, originally by David Pajo)

songs ******* contributions from the following Netphorians:
pink_ribbon_scars, Oblivious, Obscured01, DeviousJ, sleeper, barden, cork_soaker, Ropes

some interesting stuff going on here, can you tell me more specifically what the writing/playing arrangement was? like did someone come up with the basic idea for the song and ask everyone else to contribute separately or something?

the first track is actually my least favourite, i think it sounds messy and just wanders without much direction...the other songs are far more cohesive i think. especially Pacific Coast, which is easily the catchiest and most driven of these songs...all these songs remind me alot of Slint actually. milk in my snot is an interesting track, i like the violin at the end, it seems out of place. i like the drumming on this track too, its relaxed but punchy. who's the girl talking over the song?

[aurel]

Yay great thread. Gonna start downloading like fuck in a minute. Here's my
home recorded album.


http://imgplace.com/directory/dir284...24322_2588.jpg

Maximum Homosapien presents:
‘After hours in the Idios Kosmos’
by Andrew Galvin

1 Intention
2 Tom waits for no man
3 Meditation on departure
4 Yaphet Kotto smile
5 + | -
6 Sigil
7 Bakers Dozen
8 Django goes to college
9 Undone
10 The language of whores and threes

[email protected]

I realized about a month ago I have about 40 plus solo songs recorded that I’m quite proud of and if further whittled down to 11 might hold some merit for others.

What’s it sound like?

Dunno. Classic Jazz songwriting could be the biggest influence but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Best I can do is say it’s got some guitar songs, some piano songs, some interesting production, a tribute to Gorecki, some clarimanet, a class jazz drum solo by my mate omar and some chilling examples of after hours in my Idios Kosmos.

Do you enjoy..

Tom waits, Django Reinhardt, Chet Baker, Nick Drake?

Download the entire album for free from here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/ds5tw4

For best results listen alone, hammered and maudlin.

[???]

Originally Posted by COG

http://www.myspace.com/justanothercog

cog, you've got some decent initial ideas on each track here (mainly for sounds and textures) but overall i was really unimpressed but the standard of the composition...the melodies themselves don't go anywhere and lack much imagination. A New Leaf, for example, has an interesting baroque electronica flavour, but the little piano line is totally uninspiring. the production of the tracks leaves something to be desired too, i didn't feel like they had any real atmosphere or feeling. sketchy and uncomfortable.

[brendo_91]

Originally Posted by Luke de Spa

i think there might be a sound engineer in this band. this is total buttrock though. what's with the hetfield impressions

we also have a rocket scientist, a lawyer and a journalist.

and a drummer.

where are the hetfield impressions?

[???]

Originally Posted by aurel

‘After hours in the Idios Kosmos’
by Andrew Galvin

well. what can we say here. first, may i ask what you were trying to achieve with this album? most of it is entirely solo, and i get the sense it would work better if rearranged for a full band. since most of it is solo, and recorded in a very minimal fashion, it bored me very quickly. thats not to say i didn't like the ideas present, though- you've got some decent guitar chops and your voice is lovely, if a little unfocused. this is sort of a concept album to you, isn't it? i can identify with this because a large portion of my own solo material is conceived in a similar way. so even though the ideas aren't fully realised yet, i can see the potential here, that you want to create a record with a very specific feel and set of themes. i think the album suffers from the minimal production and the lack of variation within each song. even though they're individually quite different from one another, they all feel very humdrum and are also emotionally very blunt- this has alot to do with your vocal delivery and the lack of implied emotional nuances in the music itself. indeed, the only remotely emotional thing this has going is the reverb on your vocals, which are strong and rather haunting. another point here is the lack of any hooks or strong melodies- your vocals might have a good tone and depth, but they're totally forgettable.

the closing track "evolution is evolving" reminds me of pumpkins' Spaced because of the talking over the white noise and feedback.

overall, not a bad attempt at devising a diverse yet cohesive set of songs, but this could use a lot of reworking.

[Luke de Spa]

Originally Posted by brendo_91

where are the hetfield impressions?

vocals in "excretion" and especially "fading away"

[deadaswarhol]

http://www.myspace.com/xheathergrey

no singer yet. i'll listen to everyone's stuff tonight

[brendo_91]

Originally Posted by Luke de Spa

vocals in "excretion" and especially "fading away"

we do fading totally differently now, and excretion is old too.

drum song and move aside are the two most recent recordings... drum song is a couple months old, move aside was done last year.

[Luke de Spa]

i can't believe you called a song "excretion"

[???]

excretional ¯\(º_o)/¯ identity

[???]

Originally Posted by deadaswarhol

http://www.myspace.com/xheathergrey

no singer yet. i'll listen to everyone's stuff tonight

hmm, this is alright...nice sweet overdriven tone. there isn't a great deal going on in any of these tunes, but i can tell you've got your own sound formulating...down has the most potential of these, could work out being a neat sort of dancy utopian pop song...love is ok too, gets a bit bjorky towards the end. if you have any ideas for vocal melodies you should record them over the top just so we can hear. or if you really can't sing just play the melody on your guitar or something.

[monkeyfritters]

¯\(º_o)/¯

[???]

hey fritz. are you taking part in this or what.

[aurel]

Originally Posted by ???

well. what can we say here. first, may i ask what you were trying to achieve with this album? most of it is entirely solo, and i get the sense it would work better if rearranged for a full band. since most of it is solo, and recorded in a very minimal fashion, it bored me very quickly. thats not to say i didn't like the ideas present, though- you've got some decent guitar chops and your voice is lovely, if a little unfocused. this is sort of a concept album to you, isn't it? i can identify with this because a large portion of my own solo material is conceived in a similar way. so even though the ideas aren't fully realised yet, i can see the potential here, that you want to create a record with a very specific feel and set of themes. i think the album suffers from the minimal production and the lack of variation within each song. even though they're individually quite different from one another, they all feel very humdrum and are also emotionally very blunt- this has alot to do with your vocal delivery and the lack of implied emotional nuances in the music itself. indeed, the only remotely emotional thing this has going is the reverb on your vocals, which are strong and rather haunting. another point here is the lack of any hooks or strong melodies- your vocals might have a good tone and depth, but they're totally forgettable.

the closing track "evolution is evolving" reminds me of pumpkins' Spaced because of the talking over the white noise and feedback.

overall, not a bad attempt at devising a diverse yet cohesive set of songs, but this could use a lot of reworking.

Thanks alot man for giving it a real listen and taking the time to give some proper constructive criticism.

What I was trying to achieve with this is a really low key, smokey, after hours, downbeat, sorta minimalist album. Like I said in the post, for best results listen alone, hammered and maudlin. I love low key mood pieces that stand on the songwriting, lyrics and vocal performance, so that was the aim.

I appreciate the comment that some ideas could be more fully realised perhaps in the production.

Just wondering what you mean by the vocals being unfocused?

About the lack of hooks or strong melodies: To me they are there but I do consciously attempt to avoid extremely immediate hooks and dig a bit deeper for something that reveals a bit more slowly. I do accept that I could be deluding myself and that objectively to most they're simply dull.

Thanks again man, can't access your stuff cos myspace is blocked but if you whack it up somewhere else I'd love to hear it.

[aurel]

Originally Posted by Luke de Spa

okay, here are some songs

building boats in the basement
dog days
inside out
myth physics
peregrine
where the gods sleep

will listen to other stuff posted later today

Really cool, nice clear and airy recordings. Some of the cymbal sounds seemed a little off to me was the only thing.

The word that keeps coming to mind when listening is effortless. I love when songwriting and performance are this assured and fully formed that you can completely relax into the experience.

I'd have to disagree with ??? I don't think this lacks power at all, The feeling I get is that it's well considered and you're putting across everything you want to.

Oh yeah and love the unusual vocal note choices and harmonies in certain parts of the first song. Mostly on the word doubt I think.

Love this thread. Cork soaker's up next.

[TheMilstead]

http://www.myspace.com/michaelmilstead

Not sure if I posted it before or not. I should have some new songs ready in the next month or so. Mixing issues at the moment.

[aurel]

Originally Posted by cork_soaker

here's a link to three songs of mine.
quiet, acoustic/piano stuff
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ka26l2

Spitfire ships is the song. Fantastic mood and space. Wonderfully subdued. The sparse twinkly piano in the background is perfect. The best lyrics of the three plus it doesn't outstay it's welcome.

I like how the third song is completely linear with only very subtle embellishments. Nicely understated.

The piano on the chorus of revolve is very affecting. Wonderful idea the way it sweeps in. Plus the vocal effects/harmony on the verse sound good if a little too noticable for me. Could be just me but I dont think the single strum acoustic on each piano chord works. The sound is too percussive and for me doesn't fit with how smooth everything else sounds. I'd either leave it out or try a reverby chord with some tremelo pedal on it.

Really enjoyed listening to this. Seems quite tonally similar to what I'm at.

[brendo_91]

Originally Posted by Luke de Spa

i can't believe you called a song "excretion"

it WAS called "repeat till bored" when we only had one riff and we'd been playing it for 2 hours, trying different tempos and stuff, and without the proper bassline, etc.

it then became "vaginal excretion", and then censored to just "excretion".

name is due to an interpretation of this lyric:
i look to the sky to heal my pain
my face got soaked, i screamed your name

[???]

hey brendo are you chipping in on this review deal or what.