Eight songs down now on my new Pyjama album and, for the first time, it seems to be coming together and sounding good, a definite step in the right direction. Despite the mix of strange and more pop-orientated songs, everything feels like it holds together. The older Norman Bates song is rather long, and perhaps owes more to Kate Bush, Hammer Horror perhaps. I've added strings to it today which certainly helps the lead.
The most surreal and experimental song, The Escape Angels, is sounding normal and beautiful to me now; this is the sort of direction I want to move towards, something completely new. One other purpose of album is to release a few older songs that deserve to get out there, to rework Fear Of The Thing Itself, for example, and Warm Comfy Sofa.
It's been a generally slow day. I've recorded new vocals Two Parents Of A Child, which I'll include here too. I wrote a song in the night which I might add to the collection called Beat Me Tender. The theme is dark enough.
It appears that my computer should support a 64-bit OS, so I'm considering the anxious and arduous task of reformatting the drive and installing a new operating system.
Next steps; to record new 'Fear' vocals. I've recorded some but they were ill prepared rushed and not good. I also need to record complete vocals for Except For The Hatred. That finishes off the planned songs so far. I will write more, and discard the weakest. I might work on a Christmas one too which was originally called What Have You Done To The F***ing Turkey Marjorie! but I'll not explete it! In style it's like a Splodgenessabounds song. How blessed I am to have such a wide range of bonkers influences!
I feel a manifesto for free music coming on, inspired by Lars von Trier's Dogme 95. Some of his manifesto was silly (films must be in colour! ridiculous - all of the best films I've seen have been in black and white - I'm increasingly thinking that all films should be in black and white). Music desperately needs an artistic revival though. Modern music feels like it is in crisis and even the experts and enthusiasts are divided and lost. Among the points:
1. No auto-tune, on vocals or anything else, and no auto-harmonies. Because this harms expression. Music is about human to human communication, and malforming it should never be done. Some audio effects are destructive, some not. It's important to know the difference and which.
2. No digital regularity in rhythm (no drum machines) or volume (no identical notes). This isn't a hard rule, but generally, all regularity will harm expression, so should be used with great care if at all. All of my recent music might sound digital and regular, but, when examined closely, nothing is, and the ear does pick this naturalism up.
3. No compression applied to a whole track - this has killed more emotion in music than anything, this quite for 'loudness'. Compression should be used very sparingly everywhere, I think.
4. No single effect of any sort, including EQ, applied to an entire track. Again, this will inevitably muddy dramatic contrast. Needing to apply EQ to a track is a sign of bad production or composition.
5. No digital-only releases. All music must be released on and designed for a physical medium of some sort.
That's all I can think of for now, but something on album/symphonic unity (the album or EP as an artform) would be nice. Do we need new definitions for 'album' and 'EP' now? Perhaps. New words... those words are historical.
