Category: Albums


Americana [2013]

Americana

[bandcamp album=2543667196 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=venti]

The album began with the idea to create music that elicited the imagination to conjure up the sweeping vistas of America. Then the word Americana got stuck in my head. Then as I started to create the music, I thought wouldn’t it be nice to tell a story of a man who is in love with the American dream who gets a chance to trade in his life for another.

And so something that was going to be instrumental became a modern-day concept album telling the story of Eddie Pilgrim: The Last of the Electric Horsemen. The music tells a story both thematically and narratively and puts the hero in a very Faustian conundrum, but where would the Devil reside? Why in Las Vegas, of course! And so the gamble is played out on the roulette table and a decision needs to be made.

The music is eclectic: being painted instrumental, guitar driven pop to out-and-out progressive rock featuring a splash of faux mellotron to whet your whistle.

The CD version of the album comes complete with a second disc, which is a DVD that contains a 5.1 surround sound mix in both DTS and Dolby Digital, plus the stereo mix and a commentary track from myself talking about the making of the album. There’s also a discography track that features 60 minutes of music from my back catalogue and two bonus extra videos that didn’t make the final edit. The DVD-ROM section of the disc contains a PDF of the book of the album and a free multimedia eBook that’s compatible with the iPad.

So for your money you get over three hours of original content and the electronic album sleeve that takes you through the story of Eddie Pilgrim and his fight against the things he desires.

Pressure Point [2012]

Ho hum…another 48 minutes of music no-one wants to listen to…

The Darren Lock Primer

I did this video before as part of the Google+ Hangouts and recorded the thing live, but I only had one viewer and the resultant upload quality didn’t really cut the mustard. So here it is again.

It is just a video of me talking about all the music I’ve recorded over the years and hopefully it will be of interest to some of you. Thanks for having the patience to watch it all!

So here are those all important links…

My Music:
Amazon
http://amzn.to/lockmusic

Apple iTunes
http://bit.ly/lockitunes

CDBaby
http://bit.ly/lockcdbaby

Rhapsody
http://bit.ly/lockrhapsody

My Website
http://music.darrenlock.com

My Books

iTunes
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/moofed/id513966067?mt=11
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/dead-rock-star/id514090211?mt=11
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/man-of-the-world/id516823353?mt=11

Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0057ZP08K
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dead-Rock-Star-ebook/dp/B0057H6XC0/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-of-the-World-ebook/dp/B007NUVA5O/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moofed-ebook/dp/B007NXIWPM/

Lulu.com
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/darrenlock

Or perhaps I can interest you in a T-shirt:
http://lock.spreadshirt.co.uk

Connect via social media:

http://www.facebook.com/thedarrenlock
http://www.twitter.com/darren_lock
http://gplus.to/vrooom

The Stinkhorn EP

I’ve had some viewers ask what the music is in my videos and I use my own music to add some extra atmosphere to my work. You can listen to the music I use via an EP I have created. It’s called the Stinkhorn EP and costs £2 (though you can pay more if you wish). You can access it here:

http://darrenlock.bandcamp.com/album/the-stinkhorn-ep

Or use this handy player to listen to it:

And if you want to download a whole FREE compilation album, you can get that from my webstore too at:

http://darrenlock.bandcamp.com/album/easy-listening

This is the cover to my album "Steady State of Flux"

Something delicate on the verge of change...

I have this folder on my desktop where I drop all the mixes of tracks that I produce. It’s a bit of a virtual slush pile and every so often I have a listen and see what I’ve got. Last night, I realised I had nearly enough for a new collection of tunes, but this time around the collection was a bit more mellower than my previous efforts. So I had a sort through some of my other unused tracks and found a couple that were never used (one track “Sketch of Satie” dates back to 2006) which seemed to fit with the current vibe.

The new album is called “Steady State of Flux” which is a contradiction in itself and I managed to take the picture of the dandelion the other day whilst in the garden. It seemed to illustrate my point, something that is delicate but in a state of immediate flux.

Well there you go. You can visit the album page which is here.

You can listen to the album using the player below and if you feel particularly supportive you might want to buy a digital copy. No? OK, it was worth a try…

To see, listen to and purchase my discography please visit: http://music.darrenlock.com

Fade In/Fade Out [Legacy Edition]

Fade In/Fade Out Cover

Look at the bendy guitar!!!

The interesting thing about this set of recordings is this is the moment I first adopted digital multitrack audio recording on my home PC. Thinking back, it was almost like alchemy to be able to record high-quality audio and multitrack it without any degradation.

Using a Guillemot high-end (for the time) sound card and the bundled Quartz Audiomaster software, I began to lay down these tracks. Before I was using four-track recording, if I was lucky bouncing down in stereo pairs and now I was able to mix from five or six stereo pairs, effectively turning me into a 12-track digital recorder. If I remember clearly, an eight-track cassette recorded would have cost over £1000 at the same time, so my investment of £200 for the computer equipment seemed like a saving to me.

The “concept” behind these recordings was that I was going to just record with guitar and no rhythm track. For years, I’d been jamming to a drum machine and I thought, “Hey, wouldn’t it be good fun if the guitar was the sole rhythm track?” And so the rhythm guitar on these pieces lead from the front. It was also a conscious decision to keep keyboards and percussion to a minimum, it was going to be my guitar album. No guitar synths were used in the making of these recordings!

In terms of equipment, I am using my newly-bought (at the time) Fender Fat Strat pumped into the Digitech RP12 FX pedal, the bass was my Yamaha and the original versions featured synth sounds from a Yamaha MU50 tone generator. However, this time around everything was done with software synths within Sonar X1.

The really interesting thing about this collection of recordings is that they are sequenced almost chronologically so you can hear my progression as a player and as a recordist as I go along. It’s a real organic album, which despite its various shortcomings, still makes me smile in places.