It's here

You can now listen to Ancient Greeks & Circus Freaks.

What a journey it's been getting here. Lots of excitement along the way, and for my money, some of the best music we've created yet. I can't say much more at the moment as I'm hurtling around the internet spraying copies of the album left right and centre. If you see me passing, squirt some water in my mouth. In fact, the running I'm doing now is part of a relay team, an incredible international relay team. The baton has been with Tim in America where, as always, he's had the I suspect scary task of finishing off all of your amazing work. I know he takes this job very seriously and I think you'll hear the care he's taken again with what you've all done.

New member Benjamin is already working on seeding the albums out to the Torrent sites, meaning we're in a real chance of getting 100,000 copies of our various albums downloaded by the end of 2009. What an insane way to end the decade (right at the last minute as well).

I can't say well done enough to you all.

I AM OVER EXCITED THIS ABSTAINING IS STARTING TO HURT A BIT.

Are you ready for this?

Just one day after I got an email in my in-box informing me that the IML had infected the hard drives of at least 40,000 people with it's music (a total of 55,000 albums downloaded in all meaning over 2 million songs) this artwork arrived from Tim for the new album. I think you'll agree it's absolutely incredible (as have the covers been for the previous 3 albums been). We've been making a conscious effort to reboot our albums by not going "superheroes of" amongst other things, and this new artwork really contributes towards that beautifully. We are a very lucky band indeed.

Enjoy this until the real thing come out.

I've run out of credits

I've decided to use the blog this time round to gather everyone's credits. The list below doesn't reflect the order of the tracks as they'll be on the final album. Could you adjust to suit please? If you can't edit this post to add your track could you just add your credits in as a comment or email me. Ta.

Song: The Story of Chang and Eng Bunker

Subject: Chang and Eng Bunker

Credits: Written and performed by Julian Peters and Sam Berry

Song: Medusa

Subject: Medusa

Credits: Written and performed by Barney Brown

Song: Captivated

Subject: Mabel Stark

Credits: Written and performed by Layla Vandenbergh

Song: The Freeekshow

Subject: Circus Freaks

Credits: Written by Greg Dean. Performed by Greg Dean, Barney Brown and Layla Vandenbergh

Song: La Salsa Des Immortelles

Subject: Gorgons

Credits: Music by Dan Waldkirch. Lyrics and vocals by Audrey Fisher. Guitar solo by Rob Fisher

Song: Really Tall People

Subject: Robert Wadlow

Credits: Written by B.T. Apricot. Performed by B.T. Apricot, Julian Peters and Sam Berry

Song: The Blacksmith

Subject: Hephaestus

Credits: Music by Joe Dean. Lyrics and vocals by Greg Dean.

Song: The Stretcher

Subject: Procrustes

Credits: Written and performed by Dan Waldkirch

Song: Prince Randian

Subject: Prince Randian

Credits: Written and performed by Tim Donderevo

Song: Ordinary Bones

Subject: Julia Pastrana

Credits: Music and vocals by Rob Fisher. Lyrics by Nick Osbourne

Song: If You Close Your Eyes

Subject: Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Man

Credits: Music by Dan Gresham/Greg Dean. Piano and Cymbal by Don Schwartz. Lyrics by Greg Dean. Vocals by Audrey Fisher and Greg Dean

Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without Marks and Spencers and an IML album.

I ended up having fingers in many pies this project and with the pies now on their way into the oven and my fingers still smelling of fruit I cannot wait to taste everyone else’s.

The most time recently has gone into a collaboration with Barney and Layla on a track called The Freeekshow. As ever I played the finished track to family. My 5 year old nodded his head but screwed up his face, my wife said ‘it sounds like the Beatles if you listen to it from another room’(!) and my seven year old said ‘you can definitely tell when its Barney singing’. As ever, the gentle ambiguity of their critiques has failed to clarify the success of the track, but what the hell, I like it and it rocks about as much as an old crooner like me can rock without feeling too ill.

As well as doing some vocal work on Joe’s dramatic and very fly 12/8 groove on Hephaestus I have also had the pleasure of working on a 3 way collaboration with Dan G and Audrey. A very different track to previous IML outings it can best be described as a chance encounter between Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber and Lionel Ritchie writing a bar song for a freak and a French girl while sentimentally sozzled on Marks and Spencers lager. From that foreboding description the song is saved by some exquisitely delivered vocals from Audrey and some emotive piano playing from Durham University’s greatly missed organ scholar.

Definitely abstaining now till release day. I have heard the odd snatch of other tracks along the way and am sure the album will be a Bobby Dazzler.

Taking an audio tour down scenic Quality Street

Barney & I suspected that 'Freaks & Greeks' would be a subject to fuel our collective IMLagination - but I (for one) was NOT prepared for the veritable 'Quality Street' of songs created for this album! And there's not a single Toffee Coin to be seen.

I urge you all to follow Rob's lead and abstain from listening until the album is 'released' - rest assured, it's going to be measurably better than any of its predecessors. I'm astonished as always by all of y'all's diversity, taste and quite honestly, by your balls! What a brilliant collection of artists we've assembled! Welcome - incidentally - to BT Apricot, whose debut is a first-class top-deck wonder to the ear-ports.

Silly me - I thought that maybe y'all weren't that into these projects anymore - but the proof is in the pudding - and the pudding is almost cooked/set (depending on if its a British-style pudding, or American-style, which is essentially custard - though custard by the British definition, not the American, which is like Egg Ice Cream.)

It seems that a number of us have been forced to abandon tracks and/or pull out of the project this time around (I scrapped 2 tracks myself!) and that's OKAY! Don't feel bad! The IML is about having fun making music, and if Deadlines and commitments are dragging you down, there's no shame in cutting off this particular potential source of stress. In fact - we'd rather you were happy and healthy, than good at writing music in short periods of time. Also, by abstaining when necessary, we hope this will allow you to remain excited about re-joining the group for the next album. And by golly we've got some great ideas for the next 2!

Right - I'm off to get intimate with your gorgeous tracks now. In case you weren't aware of it - you've all managed to produce better sounding tracks than ever before! Congratulations IML - you astonishing bunch of cats.

Tim
xxx

Almost done

Well, for once I turn up the later to the party than JP! The last two days have seen a whirlwind of IML activity in The Aquarium.

First off I managed to record and produce Dre's vocals for Dan's infectious and vibrant samba track. She's done an excellent job, and for someone with no experience of songwriting and little experience singing, she's done annoyingly well considering she nailed takes straightway, hitting all her notes and harmonies bang on. Given how long it takes me to lay a down a vocal I was despairing at what a walk in the park it was for Dre which I could only temper by constructing the theory that, like that beloved Disney girl, she leads a double life as a professional pop star, probably as Vanessa Paradis. I now feel immensely comforted. I had a lot of fun producing it, adding some classic pop tempo-synced delay and a totally irresponsible dirty latin-jazz guitar solo that somewhat harks back to The Universals days though not quite as frenetic and squealing (apologies Dan, I hope it doesn't offend too much!).

I had grand plans for my submission - an acapella masterpiece meditating on the life of Archimedes. It was to shake the foundations of the acapella movement, besting the likes of McFerrin and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. I was to make millions from a lucrative advertising deal with a sanitaryware company. But when, all of a sudden, the deadline was only two weeks away, I attempted a spectacularly half-assed prototype and promptly canned the idea. McFerrin's on top for now.

So instead I settled for something simple. I came up with a chord sequence and then sat down in front of a microphone with my guitar and wailed something over the top of it, half words, half drivel - the musical equivalent of automatic writing I suppose. I was pretty pleased with what came out and set about finding a suitable theme. I knew it would have to be freak because what I'd recorded had a personal, intimate feel and was emotoinally charged; an ancient Greek would have been have been too distant. So I browsed the human marvels site and found a few contenders (like Grady Stiles the Murderous Lobster Man) but when I happened upon Julia Pastrana the non-descript I figured she would be the best fit. An apparently well known story, she was a hairy lady with monkey like swollen gums. She married her handler and was reputedly madly in love with him whilst he reputedly only married her to protect and exploit his investment. She died days after giving birth (the child died within hours) and he sold the corpses whereupon they were embalmed and and ended up being exhibited around the world. Apparently Julia has still not been laid to rest.

I was uninspired lyrically and with the deadline looming, I turned to Nick 'Give Us a Kiss then Mister' Osbourne, a master of words for whom an appearance in dictionary corner is long overdue. He kindly agreed so I sent him my wailing prototype and in but a few days he produced a beautiful set of lyrics. He incorporated a few of the words and phrases that came out in my automatic singing which was a nice touch. I recorded the vocals yesterday and ended up contorting myself in Thom Yorke fashion and wailing like a hound into the microphone. I had to wrestle with myself not to go over the top in the delivery, I think I just about won. Hopefully it will come out pretty well balanced. Just need to mix it now before submitting (yes, I've been a naughty boy and missed the deadline again).

This IML album has totally crept up on me so I'm enjoying the fact that I won't have to wait long to hear it. This time I'm definitely abstaining from listening to any of the other tracks before it's all finished and released though. No really I am.

My voice hurts

So I've just uploaded my 2nd track for AG&CF. Barney asked me to do a solo track since there were a few dropouts. He also suggested I do something fast and loud, with electric guitars...I may have taken that advice a bit too far. I made a cheesy 80s metal song!

Anyways, I may have completely lost it at some point making this track, but I kinda really love it. My track is about Procrustes, the last robber Theseus killed on the way to Athens. Procrustes was a bit of a strange guy; he would invite people to his inn and tell them he had a perfect-sized bed for them. If they were too short for the bed, he would stretch them out, and if they were too tall, he would cut off part of their legs so that they fit nicely.

Apparently, Procrustes' nickname is "The Stretcher (Who Hammers Out The Metal)". This is also the title of my song, because I certainly hammer out the metal here.

Not only did this turn out pretty awesome, I actually went outside my box a bit on it...at least vocally! I honestly had no idea I could make some of these sounds. And I got to record my first evil laugh! It sort of hurts to speak now, but it was worth it.

Just hope it isn't too out of place! Hope the IML enjoys it. Play it loud! It sounds better.

Herculean effort

As our ancient (and some not so ancient) olympians hurtle towards the final curve of the virtual stadium of big top, I sit here in Cambridge and think, crikey. Here and there messages come in of people busting their tiny guts to squeeze some creative juice out for what will be, the obvious contender for the UK Christmas number 1. Having just updated the list of who's doing what it's looking like the end of game boss battle will see the following teams facing off against each other:

6 Greeks
6 Freaks (if you count the twins as 2)

and a few floaters yet to be defined.

I think we're in for a sonic battle. But how to sequence it? 6 tracks of Greek, 6 tracks of Freak? Mix them together? I haven't sequenced any of our albums yet so this is the part that I'm really looking forward to. Creatively I think it could be the hardest thing I've done for the Intercontinental Music Lab so far. I think to inspire me, I will listen to some Now That's What I Call Music albums (in the UK these are traditional compilations of various genres of music, typically marketed with artwork involving pigs, well they were last time I bought them).

Freak C'est Greek

So this project is being run in a slightly different fashion to our previous ones so there's only one date on people's lips:

Monday 30 November

That's when the contributors need to get their finished tracks over to IML HQ in Cambridge for sequencing, and then onto mastering in the U S of A. I've drawn together the following known facts about who's getting involved, and where possible, what they're writing about:

Barney - Medusa (Greek/Freak)

Joe (with Greg) - Hephaestus (Greek)

Tim Donderevo - Prince Randian (Freak)

Jules and Sam - Chang and Eng Bunker (Freaks)

Layla - Mabel Stark (Freak)

Dan Waldkirch / Audrey - Stheno and Euryale (Greeks/Freaks)

Greg (with Barney and Layla) - Circus Freaks (Freaks)

Rob Fisher and Nick Osbourne - Julia Pastrana (tbc) (Freak)

Dan Gresham and Greg - tbc (tbc)

Dan Waldkirch - Procrustes (Greek)

B.T.Apricot - Robert Wadlow (Freak)

I think that's all I know about so far, holler if I've got the wrong subject anywhere. For those that are interested, based on the core genus of our subjects the match scores so far are:

Ancient Greeks 5 - Circus Freaks 4

With 4 subjects yet to be declared there's everything to play for.

Why Can't I Post?

Can't seem to publish comments on posts? Anyone else having this problem? What am I doing wrong?

The final confession of Mabel Stark

My 'freak' song is going to be about Mabel Stark, entirely based on a fantastic fictitious reimagining of her life by Robert Hough (which I heartily recommend - am currently reading it for the second time). She was a real and very famous tiger trainer and performer in her day - peak of fame in the 1920s, though she continued working with tigers til the 60s. What makes her freakish (and I guess this is entirely the supposition of Hough) is that she got a little too 'friendly' with her tigers - well one in particular that she raised from a tiny cub. And that she almost died numerous times from maulings of various grumpy tigers during her act - literally ripped to shreds on occasions. The cub she raised also became jealous of one of her husbands (she had 4 or 5 in all) and in all likelihood killed him. So my challenge is writing something that conjures up the themes of maternal/sexual love, violence and jealousy... It's all sounding a little Ancient Greek to me.

Spicy!

Just finished my backing track...not a whole lot to say about it. I was originally planning to do a slow tango, but it turned into a very fast salsa tune (I'm not 100% sure "salsa" is the correct term, but after a little bit of research I found out I was in fact playing the correct clave beat...just happened to be on a saucepan instead).

I'm really excited to hear what Audrey comes up with for vocals...It has a really fun groove, but I sure wouldn't want to try singing over it! Hopefully I left her with enough time...I decided to leave the topic open, as I did with my last 2 tracks. Ancient Freak or Circus Greek: the choice is yours, Audrey!

May I con-join you?

Puff...pant...wheeze...sorry Im late everyone. Stopped off for sweets. Getting excited by the new album. Sam and I are doing a track together and have been researching conjoined twins, with the aim of singing a duet. We have settled for the classic Chang and Eng Bunker. Not only are they perhaps the most well known, but also they have quite a beautiful story behind them too. Two very different characters. It will most likely be a "Jimmy Binks " sounding affair. Stripped and accoustic. Will gentle harmonies.

Le Greek. C'EST FREAK!!

Getting really stuck into a couple of collaborations for this project now. A big freaks workout with Brainy Brown and his travelling circus of technology and a bit of work on Joe’s track about Hephaestus.

Hephaestus was the blacksmith to the gods and was a decent enough guy despite being thrown from a cliff as a baby and suffering subsequent lameness (He is often portrayed as having 2 backwards feet – I doubt he looked forward to his P.E lessons). Sadly his wife left him for the God of War. Typical.

It struck me that the bizarrely deformed Hephaestus and the snake-headed Medusa were basically ‘freaks’ of a sort (apologies to any snake-headed women reading this blog) and that our fantastic album title is now beginning to work with more coherence than we may have anticipated.

I wonder if anyone else has picked a freaky Greek (or a Greeky freak?).


Ancient Greg

I've finally found the sound I was after for my Prince Randian song. After struggling with Oompah and ragas, I've ended up going completely the other direction and give the Human Caterpillar some punk bollocks. Going to try playing some drums this time, as I was so impressed with The Incredible Flight Of Birdman's last 2 IML efforts. Its going to be a challenge, but that's what the IML's for, right? The big problem now is how to write a song about a limbless circus freak who's passtimes are (solely) building tabacco cases with his mouth, and lying dormant for hours in tiny crevices waiting for people to come into the room, then screaming to terrify them. That's about all I've got. Aw well. That's rock and role.

Everything's got to be ... just right

Well I set about starting my writing for AGACF which as well as a chord sequence is also the abbreviation for our latest album, Ancient Greeks and Circus Freaks. Incredible, just incredible. You see what happened there? More procrastination. I actually lifted the lid on the piano next to me to test that chord sequence before continuing to blog. What does it mean? Well, working on these projects has got me comfy, too comfy perhaps.

As I was saying, I sat down to start writing at the weekend and decided that because I didn't have all my bits and pieces plugged in (midi synths, guitar port) it was just going to be too difficult to start recording in a fit of inspiration. So I built a shelf to put my speakers on. Typical, rather than picking up an acoustic guitar to do some noodling and writing, I built a shelf. The theory being that to be set up for a life of continual creativity, the tools that you use to create should always be as easily accessible as possible. Well I've now got there. EVERYTHING is plugged in whenever I switch on the computer. There are little LEDS all over the shop screaming, make me twinkle, make me twinkle. And what did I do? Pick up the acoustic guitar and sit on the sofa for two hours with a pen and paper. Instant song.

Now that everything is plugged in I can relax, finally I can pick up my acoustic guitar, and turn the computer off.

Oh and the song I've written is a love song about Medusa. I think it's going to need the cliche police to go to town on it before I record it. Perhaps even, whilst only looking at the lyrics with a mirror in case the nature of them turns people into stones. That's what she did right? Turn people into stones?

Freak out or Greek out?

I'm very excited about this concept. Both the title and the change of process sound fab. Could be an amazing album.

Here's what happened to me this week. I filled my head with some of the remastered Beatles albums on Wednesday and Thursday then, on Friday night - very late -I went into the attic with 2 cans of Marks and Spencers lager (Yes thats's right - 2 cans!). When I woke up I had written sketches for 2 songs. One, a bar song delivered by Jo Jo the dog faced man, and the second a large ensemble piece with a cast of circus announcers and a chorus of singing freaks which sounds suspiciously like Sgt Pepper for some reason. hmmmm.

Might try the same thing tonight but with Tesco's lager and see what happens.

G

Bags on Prince Randian

I do not like freaks, let me tell you. No sir. I feel terribly sorry for them, but I'm definitely not one to thrill at their weirdness. Anyway - I'm opting for a 'freak' for the new album because I think it'll be more conducive a subject for the music I want to write. So I did a bit of research and decided on 'Prince Randian' the human caterpillar. Feel free to write about him too if you want - but I thought I'd put it out there.


This site has a pretty short list of some of the most famous (genuine circus) freaks - plus some fictional ones (?)

Brief is the word

Just emailed the brief out. Hoping that lots of people will rise to the challenge. Am then off on holiday for a bit, a perfect time to dream of ancient greeks and circus freaks. I think I better take my uke with me in case any songs drift out of the ether.

Trying a new direction

I'm just putting together the brief for our next album and have decided after chats with regular IML contributors that we'll play this album differently. No that doesn't mean we're going to take the CD out of the CD player and put it in the Sandwich Toaster. It means that instead of ENFORCING COLLABORATION like a bunch of nartsties we're going to ENCOURAGE COLLABORATION. This means those that won't to write a song, record the whole thing, can do so. Personally speaking, I think I'm going to write a song, record bits of it and then put a general call out for someone to do a Freak out solo over the top of it. Imagine the possibilities?

Oh did I mention that the theme for the next album, which we're going to get out at the tail end of 2009, is going to be Ancient Greeks and Circus Freaks? I was surprised to see that nobody else had already used that address in blogspot. What a relief!