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!