Shinbones Man - Triumph of the Twiceborn
This album is a compilation of live tracks recorded after I moved my “studio” out of the cupboard onto a synth rack.
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1 Triumph of the Twiceborn
The emotion behind the track
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection. I am life. Everyone who believes in me will have life, even if they die. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never really die. Martha, do you believe this?”
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” - from the first letter to the Thessalonians in the New Testament.
How can anyone live without this comfort? I know I need it. We all die; we all lose those we love.
Yet Jesus, in unfathomable mercy, bled for helpless sinners; His very enemies.
I can’t possibly write a track that does that justice, but the words “The Triumph of the Twiceborn” ring true to me - those born again are imperishable.
From John 11: “Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you anything you ask.” Jesus said, “Your brother will rise and be alive again.” Martha answered, “I know that he will rise to live again at the time of the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection. I am life. Everyone who believes in me will have life, even if they die. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never really die. Martha, do you believe this?” Martha answered, “Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God. You are the one who was coming to the world.”
The Gear Behind the Track
My usual smorgasbord of drum machines, synths and modular gear. The 0-coast carries the bass, the DM6 the chords, and leads on modular and the TD-3-MO.
Drum machines in play are an RD-8 with fills on an SR-16 and some echoey claps on an RD-6.
Download Triumph-of-the-Twiceborn.mp3
2 Bulging Caps
The emotion behind the track
In between rushing up and down the stairs for Children’s Various Bedtime Demands (teddies, drinks, a fan, “I want to make a tent in my bed”), I was hooking up all the gear to my MIDI sequencer… I recorded a few ideas on the RD-6 drum machine. I tried a little top line on the TD-3 and a track emerged!
I recorded some vocals today for my forthcoming single “Shining Swordsman” with Ryan Griffiths of Lead By Lies, who got some takes out of me that actually sound like a singer and not the bewildered Black Country halfwit that I usually am on the stick! So I was kind of buzzin’ musically.
I spent all evening rebuilding my.. .”studio” I guess you’d call it! Really a corner of my office, for which I’m immensely grateful… after taking delivery of some more rack arms so the sequencer isn’t now sat on the RD8 like a mad leopard.
In between rushing up and down the stairs for Children’s Various Bedtime Demands (teddies, drinks, a fan, “I want to make a tent in my bed”), I was hooking up all the gear to my MIDI sequencer…
Then I recorded a few ideas on the RD-6 drum machine. I tried a little top line on the TD-3 and a little song emerged!
The gear behind the track
Sequenced on a Squarp Pyramid. RD6 (606 clone) on the beats with a few little bits on my Alesis SR-16.
Chords are on the Deepmind 6; the only really polyphonic working synth I have! I think there’s an old Yammer in the loft but it’s not a synth, just a Keyboring.
I should have laid off a bit on that insistent TD-3 line and I got some nasty clipping on the TD-3-MO when I pushed up the resonance during the recording. Didn’t spot it in my cans, and because I’m recording into iMovie on my iPad, there wasn’t any visual indication either. Thankfully it’s only about 25 seconds of intermittent horror. Ah well.
3 Petrichor
“Petrichor” is the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil. We’ve had a really unpleasant heatwave here, and it’s finally starting to break!
Let it rain!
Produced in about 90 minutes or so.
The gear behind the track
Sequenced on a Squarp Pyramid, this track is using an RD9 kick and hats with a snare from an RD8. I love the toms and random percussion on the SR16 so I grabbed that too!
Chords are on the Deepmind 6.
The top line is played on a TD-3-MO. I did record a lead line, but it was more fun to play it in live. No, I’m not a good keyboard player! I’m not getting worse, though. I think! Might have to get on the simplypiano grind?!
The bassline is played on an 0-coast, which is going through a filter bank. I just attenuated a few random frequencies until it felt right. I think it might be peaking, presumably in the little desk I have in the cupboard behind me. That’s a shame.
I’m recording on a different audio interface - still a little 2 channel Behringer, but one with peak meters on it!
I played everything in from the Deepmind 6 acting as a MIDI controller. Voice 1 glitched out occasionally until I fiddled with settings, not sure what that’s all about.
4 Danger Money
Live analog dirty bass
5 Thinking In Pyramids
Having a little groove with a new sequencer. It’s a hot, hot day, so some polymetric and even polyrhythmic beats were called for…
I should have done more of those chord stabs, they really put more life into the tune!
Gear data:
- Lead melody on Make Noise 0coast (out of shot)
- Most of the beat on RD8
- Sequenced on Squarp Pyramid - I made a lot of use of the humanise effect on the beats so hopefully my stuff will sound less stuff in future!
- Bassline, countermelody and improvisations on Deepmind 6
- Percussion on Alesis SR-16
I tried to use the RD9 too, but I find that drum machine hard to fit into a mix!
Download Thinking-In-Pyramids.mp3
5 Clearhead Cranberry
My family has gone out for the day, leaving me at home to set up my 3d printer, sort out my MIDI setup, and do about 50 other life-laundry tasks!
The emotion behind the track
My family has gone out for the day, leaving me at home to set up my 3d printer, sort out my MIDI setup, and do about 50 other life-laundry tasks!
This song is from a day home alone, doing job after job, and being fed up of the heatwave!
The sound behind the track
One task was to see if I can use the Deepmind 6 as a controller keyboard. It works wonderfully! I lose aftertouch, although there’s likely a way around that.
Some nice chords and an acid line on top.
Toms that I played live were WAY too loud! Oh well, probably clipping on them.
The gear behind the track
RD8, RD9 and SR16 sequenced all of them using my Squarp Pyramid. I performed the piece by simply switching tracks on and off live on the Pyramid. I recorded all the synth lines by hand on the keyboard and quantise came to my rescue!
I used the MIDI delay on the Pyramid for the nice rattling click sounds.
Download Clearhead-Cranberry.mp3
7 Until I Can’t
I set up my studio with a synth rack, so now I can play my larger gear!
Bass comes from 0-coast, pad and lead line from DeepMind 6, beats from RD-8. I played the lead line live ‘cos I was out of sequencer tracks on the Beatstep Pro!
I borged two tiny Behringer desks together using the 2 track connection and managed to share the reverb by using both inputs from a HoF pedal. Nice!
8 - Edgelords
I took delivery of a Behringer Edge yesterday and took it for a proper test drive today!
The only problem with this contraption is it’s so much fun it’s hard to make a tune because it’s endlessly tweakable!
9 Debotched
I’m tired ALL THE TIME at the moment. I am cross about this.
However, I managed to get a bit of aggressive, distorted techno in. The sound behind the track
I’m running an RD-9 drum machine through an EBS compressor on the channel insert on my desk, and overdriving it to pieces. It’s super compressed on a multiband compressor.
10 Over The Shoulder
Live analog dirty bass. Reprise of Danger Money.
Download Over-The-Shoulder.mp3
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