May composition Challenge

[lurksalot]

Many congrats to young @Leonard Smalls (again) for his double and @upside downer for the joint win in April.

That now puts Lenny on a hat trick and as he chose the picture last month, upside downer has provided the inspiration for this one.

As he says .............."I've gone for daft again, I'm afraid I just can't help myself "               

 

 

I think this will provide the option for many stylistic approaches!

 

Usual rules apply. You know the drill:

✔️ Entries must be <5 minutes and written/recorded this month.

❌ No illegal samples, copyright infringements or other snide goings-on

❌ Bagpipes. please no bagpipes, Easter truce now Expired. Also on thin ice with panpipes, to be perfectly honest.

❌ No voting for your own entry. We'll know. And we'll shame you.

A line or two offering an insight to your inspiration will be good as well , it works nicely on the voting thread.

 

Deadline wise , following a Zulu theme last time, we will call midnight on African Liberation Day , and yes, yet again, you probably have till about 19.00 on the 26th, ( the clue given here is that African Liberation Day is the 25th) 

Go To It , no excuses , 2 bank holidays to spend recording as well 

 

[Nail Soup]

Great picture @upside downer , love it!

Has it translated to a song idea yet???.......... not yet but i'm sure it will come !

[Leonard Smalls]

After the unexpected success of grimey rap last month, I'm working on more rap... Possibly with a grunge edge, as genres are made to be mixed!

[Dad3353]

Just now, Leonard Smalls said:

... as genres are made to be mixed!

OK, but go easy on the yodelling. 

[Leonard Smalls]

I always go easy with the yodel.

But a wet Bank Holiday gave me plenty of time to get a bit greasy and modal. With a rap that's like Medici getting anecdotal, not Saint Francis of Assisi taking a photo, more like a pugilisti getting scrotal...

Er, er...

[xgsjx]

On 02/05/2021 at 21:51, Leonard Smalls said:

After the unexpected success of grimey rap last month, I'm working on more rap... Possibly with a grunge edge, as genres are made to be mixed!

Giving my singing abilities, I might try rap. Expect it with a capital C. 

[MoonBassAlpha]

I wonder if the picture was the casting call for this video? :

 

 

[upside downer]

4 hours ago, MoonBassAlpha said:

I wonder if the picture was the casting call for this video? :

 

 

 

Copycats. Or copybirds, I suppose.

[Dad3353]

Here is my contribution to the May 2021 Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by a picture chosen by the previous winner: Upside Downer.
Suspense, anguish, doubt, bordering on terror, à la Hitchcock, with these inexpressive 'birds' watching every approaching step. What gauntlet do we have to run..? What are they waiting for..? What do they want with us..? The heart beats apace as the tension mounts. WHAT DO THEY WANT..?
A rather piece-meal approach, this month, with some MIDI tracks triggering various elements from Spitfire LABS instruments (they really are excellent, and free, to boot..!); with a healthy dose of various samples I have. Quite (or even, very...) 'cheesy' on their own, they meld into a curiously hypnotic, and somewhat spooky, atmosphere when arranged and mixed with Reaper. No other Fx nor mastering; t'would serve no purpose here. 
Recommended to be listened to on decent headphones, in a darkened room, with eyes fixed on the picture. 
Thanks for listening, if you already have; if you're about to, enjoy.

 

[NickD]

10 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

Here is my contribution to the May 2021 Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by a picture chosen by the previous winner: Upside Downer.
Suspense, anguish, doubt, bordering on terror, à la Hitchcock, with these inexpressive 'birds' watching every approaching step. What gauntlet do we have to run..? What are they waiting for..? What do they want with us..? The heart beats apace as the tension mounts. WHAT DO THEY WANT..?
A rather piece-meal approach, this month, with some MIDI tracks triggering various elements from Spitfire LABS instruments (they really are excellent, and free, to boot..!); with a healthy dose of various samples I have. Quite (or even, very...) 'cheesy' on their own, they meld into a curiously hypnotic, and somewhat spooky, atmosphere when arranged and mixed with Reaper. No other Fx nor mastering; t'would serve no purpose here. 
Recommended to be listened to on decent headphones, in a darkened room, with eyes fixed on the picture. 
Thanks for listening, if you already have; if you're about to, enjoy.

 

That's awesome!

[xgsjx]

Well I remember the band "A flock of seaguls", so this must be "A band of pigeons", which means it's 80's.  So Synthwave it is!

I had fun making this & might go back to add things...

I went back & made improvements.

Edited May 14, 2021 by xgsjx

[Leonard Smalls]

I've been busy too...

The picture reminded me of going into the local butchers shop a few weeks ago... The butcher was expertly dismembering a pigeon for a customer who was going to do a fancy confit of leg with seared breast in hoojahcapivvy sauce. Hence a rap, in the form of a confessional, detailing with a total lack of empathy how being ignored, mistreated and abused as a child led him to a life of murder...

So can I just apologise now?

 

For those who are interested, 2 basses used - Wal and ACG. Keys are Ableton's own piano, plus baby Kontakt funky organ. Guitar is a strat (both) and drums are by Mr EZ, with a few programmed fills. Mixed in Ableton, with the help of Ozone, Neutron and Bassroom.

[Nicko]

Here is my entry for this month

Inspiration?  Seeing pigeons go round and round in circles reminded me of the discussions on certain, ahem, internet forums and the feeling that they aren't fully in control of their thoughts. So I took a synth and let the synth take over to an extent using the auto arpeggio function.  Like @xgsjx I ended up with 80s synth pop. Bits of it remind me of the Pet Shop Boys which would be a good tie in but that's incidental and I didn't set out to recreate that sound. 

 

For those interested its actually not that many tracks - but most are multi layered parts in Xpand 2, including the drum The only exception is the Prophet 5 sound which is Dexed. No real instruments were harmed in the making of this track. All in Cubase although if I'd set out to create this I'd probably have used Live10.

Edited May 13, 2021 by Nicko

[lurksalot]

I loved the picture but really struggled to find a way in on this, but after a bit of riffage it kind of came into view

 I took the picture as being a guard of honour by birds , and that opened up a few options for a story with some wordplay , of course the downside is that my dulcet tones are all of the vocal on this 

the guitar is an Ibby played through waves Gtr3 , the bass a Gordon Smith , drums EZ and loads of FX to try and offer some help to my voice , while hopefully keeping it on top of the mix.

A splash of ozone polishes the turd a touch 

 

cheep cheep 

 

[lurksalot]

I've done a bit to it, by taking out half of the guitar , it leaves more space to appreciate the singing .....   

 

 

 

[lurksalot]

A quick heads up due to a calendar pink torpedo up 

On 01/05/2021 at 13:25, lurksalot said:

 

Go To It , no excuses , 2 bank holidays to spend recording as well 

 

Er....you only had the one bank holiday , so if you are hanging in to the next one , the bird will have flown, the boat will have sailed and you will have missed it ! 
humble apologies for any misunderstanding , I would say normal service will be resumed , but this , is, actually it 🤦‍♂️
 

 

 

 

As you were 😃

[upside downer]

Here's my go for the merry month of May.

Inspired by the sheer lunacy of people wearing pigeon heads I've gone oddly peculiar with the lyrics which speculate on other remarkably strange pastimes that could fill your day. The tune is a bouncy little thing that bobs along happily with a spring in its step. Mrs UD helps out on backing vocals by putting to good use her experience of going "woo woo" on stage with my old band when we used to play 'Sympathy For the Devil'.

For those that like to know, I used the Hydrogen drums software, an Epiphone guitar, a Roland Cube amp, a Westfield violin bass, a Daphon Wah Wah pedal, an Apogee Mic+ and an M-Audio Fast Track Pro interface. Recorded as usual with Audacity and Wavepad.

 

Lyrics -

 

Spoiler

My friends and I try pastimes that sit outside of the norm,

Some of these activities are tricky to perform,

Now don't try drinking cooking fat or munch on pencil lead,

Just quote Hamlet's soliloquy whilst demolishing a shed.

 

Playing Black Sabbath's Iron Man on a plastic sousaphone,

Marrying Miriam Margoyles on a barge in Sierra Leone,

The ways and means of entertainment are varied an widespread,

Our hapless group will spend the weekends wearing our pigeon heads.

 

Paint your left leg a vivid shade of lucious Lincoln Green,

Bide one's time and play charades with a malevolent wolverine,

Slap the cheeks of anyone who wears a polo shirt,

Now play your bass guitar upside down and change your name to Bert.

 

Get your kicks from spelling rude words using Alphabetti Spaghetti,

Or building a shrine to World Cup calamity keeper Peter Bonetti,

I hear that beneath the Planet of the Apes they worship a warhead,

We pay homage to the rats of the skies with our pigeon heads instead.

 

Coo coo, coo coo, coo coo, coo coo, coo coo

 

Pigeon heads, pigeon heads.

 

Fly on a frying pan to South Sudan and walk home using stilts,

Live inside a baseball glove that was owned by Virgil Hilts,

Sellotape your kneecaps onto the top of a rickety fence,

Take on board everything I've said even though it makes no sense.

 

All hail our feathered overlords with their horrible, beady eyes,

Our deliverers of guano from those dark, Satanic skies,

We're resigning from humanity 'cus we're constantly misled,

We're gonna freak out everyone by standing stock-still when donning our pigeon heads.

 

Coo coo, coo coo, coo coo, coo coo, coo coo, coo coo

 

 

Edited May 26, 2021 by upside downer
clarity

[Nail Soup]

Here goes!

There are lots of phrases involving pigeons -  like pigeon toed and pigeon chest, stool pigeon etc.... and my first notion was a Booker-T style instrumental called "Pigeon Peas".

However the riffage went in a different (Crampy) direction so I ended up using all the phrases into a full set of lyrics.

Same gear as usual: Studio one DAW, Studio One drum set, Vantage bass, Squier Tele guitar, SM38 mic.

 

Lyrics:

Spoiler

Well I’m no Vermin I’m no Pest
I’m not a flying rat – I only mix with the best
Into the groove let’s have some fun
Pigeon English is my native tongue

I Wanna Tumble I wanna Fly
I Wanna roll backwards in the sky
Come on now I don’t suppose
That you would touch your pigeon toes

I’m no stool pigeon – I keep it shut
I hold on to what I’ve got
But momma always told me that it’s best
to get things off your pigeon chest

I’m coming home – for my next meal
I follow the earth’s magnetic field 
Now I’m down on bended knees
I’m gonna eat your pigeon peas

 

Edited May 22, 2021 by Nail Soup
Removal of grocer's apostrophe

[Nail Soup]

14 hours ago, lurksalot said:

A quick heads up due to a calendar pink torpedo up 

Er....you only had the one bank holiday , so if you are hanging in to the next one , the bird will have flown, the boat will have sailed and you will have missed it ! 
humble apologies for any misunderstanding , I would say normal service will be resumed , but this , is, actually it 🤦‍♂️
 

 

 

 

As you were 😃

This got me confused at work too. I work in a European team and we discussing who would be out on the 24th for the public holiday which is happening in some countries. I remembered your post and (without checking any further, such is the trust I have 😃) started to plan cover etc.

Luckily I didn’t get very far before I realised!

[zbd1960]

My first time looking through and listening to submissions. I'm impressed by what you guys get up to! I've dabbled with more traditional composition - nothing serious. I need to give some thought to having a go over the coming months.

[Nail Soup]

4 hours ago, zbd1960 said:

My first time looking through and listening to submissions. I'm impressed by what you guys get up to! I've dabbled with more traditional composition - nothing serious. I need to give some thought to having a go over the coming months.

Cheers....good to have you listening, and do jump in with an entry when you're ready 👍.

Meanwhile you can participate as a voter...... IM me if you need any voting recommendations  !

[upside downer]

Happy African Liberation Day, composition chums! 

[adamg67]

Well, I hope we really are okay til the 26th, cos I managed to get that date in my head! I had it done last night as well. A bit of a rush again, but TBH they seem to come out better if I don't think about them too much.

For the voting thread:

Pigeons.... I always think the name for a wild pigeon is way cooler than for a domestic one: Rock Dove! So I wrote something that I though deserved the title "Rock Dove". It feels like it worked to me, it was what I was aiming for anyway, with the bonus that I managed to use all 3 of my basses on it, and the bass feels like the main instrument even with the guitar on there.

The gory details: Studio Drummer playing adapted Groove Monkee parts, bass line on a Sandberg 48, melody bass double tracked with a Maruszczyk Jake on one side and a Hellwood on the other. Guitar is a PRS through Amplitube. Apart from the drums, all played live though I can't honestly claim everything was done in one take - it always takes me a few goes to get the guitar bits, especially when they're mainly improvised. Hardly any processing at all, just EQ and a touch of final glue, tried to keep the dynamics and not squash it all.

[lurksalot]

just sneaked another under the radar I see !

 

have a look here