You are allowed to enjoy this…

Tonight, I received an email from Andreas Hoffmann, the second Hoffmann the Internet has introduced to me. Andreas heard some of my stuff on the YouTube and decided to offer me the chance to spray my guitar all over one of his musical tracks like a feral dog on heat.

I don’t know if I’ve done a good enough job, but this is 60-minute’s worth of effort from me. And I’m suffering from a man-cold at the moment and haven’t played in about a month. Excuses, excuses, excuses… I must stop trying to impress the Hoffmanns… 🙂

Mind you, I was only thinking the other day about somehow being part of a band or something. Here is my effort for you to enjoy.

 

Direct download: CLICK HERE
If you want to hear the unexpurgated version, truck along to this Soundcloud page.

Huzzah! ‘Tis my fortieth year on this lump of rock spinning through the void of space and time. To celebrate (or as punishment depending on your perspective) here’s a little sampler I created over on my Soundcloud account. It’s only 51 songs covering four hours of stuff I’ve recorded. As they say, there’s plenty more where that came from…

Enjoy!

A long time ago now, Pat Mastelotto of King Crimson posted some drum loops on the internet with the intention that us fans could make some music with them. Being an over-eager kind-of-chap, the sort who gets overly excited about such audio dynamite, I proceeded to record an album’s worth of material using those loops. Going through the archive and remixing/remastering that album has allowed me to make a few tweaks – though the masters for two of the tracks are missing thanks to the great CD-R Disaster of 2001.
I present the new edition of this collection here for free download. You can either download and sample the individual MP3 files or if you are feeling brave download the whole thing in delicious high-quality FLAC format thanks to the wonders of torrents and file-sharing.

Money for Old Rope [Legacy Edition]
01 Chinese Whispers
02 Money for Old Rope
03 DreamOut
04 CooHop
05 Ethnic Friction
06 Discipline is a Vehicle for Joy
07 Tone Me Tony
08 I’m Not Your Enemy
09 The Winter Twos
10 Manhole Slop
11 Inferno
The torrent can be downloaded from here.
The FLAC direct download is here.
To download the CD artwork, click here.
If you have enjoyed this music – or any of the free music on this site – please feel free to make a cash donation to keep me in guitar strings.

I knocked this track up tonight. The first piece is a pithy little instrumental based around some silly drum stuff I come up with courtesy of Superior Drummer software, which is pretty nifty stuff. I just did a little knockabout bit on the virtual kit and then added the bass and guitars afterwards.
This seques into “Change of Life” a little song about striking out and doing brave new things – escaping the rut. The idea is that these two songs are the preface to a song cycle (can’t believe I just wrote that) about my experiences of the past three years. Yes, half of “The Luckiest Man in the World” collection is going to be a concept album. Ye gods, is nothing sacred!?!?!?!?
Here are the words so you can sing along:

Change of Life
You’ve got to change
Evolve
Don’t sit still
Find another way to go
It’s easy to stay
The same
In the old rut
Playing the same old game
Change your life
Take on new challenges
Change your life
And grow exponentially
Change your life
against the grain
Change your life
You’re not coming this way again
Go find something new
A way of life
To get your teeth into
Forget what you’ve
Been
Put that behind you
And start clean
Change your life
Take on new challenges
Change your life
And grow exponentially
Change your life
against the grain
Change your life
You’re not coming this way again

I wrote this lyric a little while ago and had an idea for the hook being a synthesised robot type of voice, but I wasn’t sure how to pull this off using my sonic arsenal. I was looking for a sort of auto-tune effect, but I don’t have the cash for that kind of software. So when Native Instruments released “The Mouth” plugin for Reaktor 5, I knew I would be able to pull off the effect I was looking for.
So here is this song. It a little swipe at the Twitter generation and the Internet in general. Oh, bite the hand, etc. No – I just think there’s an awful lot of tripe out there, mainly coming from Twitter, which has undermined the artform that was blogging. Why write artful prose when you can say that you had corn flakes for breakfast and still stay within your character limit.
Enjoy!

You Are Allowed to Enjoy This…
21st century
New morality
No time to worry
About the consequences
Do what you want
Do what you feel
It’s OK
Because none of this is real
You are allowed to enjoy this
You are allowed to enjoy this
You are allowed to enjoy this
You are allowed to enjoy this
Steal what’s not real
Live a yourself lie
Share your secrets
In a virtual world
Say what you want
Say how you feel
Shout into the void
‘Cos none of this is real
You are allowed to enjoy this
You are allowed to enjoy this
You are allowed to enjoy this
You are allowed to enjoy this
Report every thought
Like you are important
I know you
Better than you know yourself
Don’t sit on the fence
Have an opinion
Who cares what you think
‘Cos none of this is real
You are allowed to enjoy this
You are allowed to enjoy this
You are allowed to enjoy this
You are allowed to enjoy this
21st century
New morality
Nobody knows
What is right anymore
Indulge yourself
Expose yourself
Destroy yourself
‘Cos none of this is real

So I am working on this collection of singy-songs, you see. The idea is that it will be entitled “The Luckiest Man in the World” and I am working hard to capture my essence in song form. Again, the idea is that when I am dead and gone, The MIssus can hand the songs on and say: “This is what he was really like”…or something.
This song is one for the kids. This is me being daddy. This is for all the dads, because we all want to be the big alpha dog and take care. We have this story that we tell, about Verity and Herbie walking through the deep dark woods looking at the animals and the fish in the lake and the birds in the trees and getting lost – and this lyric is an extension of that. The idea is that we shouldn’t be afraid of the deep dark woods because we can all lead each other out and if we distract ourselves with jokes and talking and playing, the darkness and the fear soon disappears.

In Starry Trees
We walk quickly
Hold my hand
Tightly as the moon
Waxes in the nightly
Sky high above us
Shining brightly
Hold on
Walking
Breathing
Talking
Wishing
Playing
Laughing
Praying
For this night
Will never end
Through the deep
Dark forest friends
Down to the river
Bank were walking
The river flows
As we’re still talking
In Starry Trees
We are walking
Hold my hand
And keep on talking
Cold night air
Upon our faces
Heading through
Unfamiliar places
Hold on
Walking
Breathing
Talking
Wishing
Playing
Laughing
Praying
Keep you both
So close to me
I’ll always be
Your daddy
To lead you through
The dark forest deep
Home to safety
To dream to sleep
Safely
To mum
And home

This came out as “In Starry Trees”.