A Standalone Mash-Up and a Six-Track Concept Album
Just uploaded this month’s session. The first track is a collaborative effort between myself and Brother Sewing Machine, made possible via the magic of the World Wide Web. See if you can spot which bits are BSM and which are mine.
The rest of the session is a concept album. I’ve been very much inspired by some of the concept sessions that Brother Typewriter has produced in the past (particularly last month’s, BL27, and the credit crunch based session, BL14) so I set my sights on a themed session. Took me a while to come up with the theme, but then a conversation at work about various theories on thinking and the brain gave me the inspiration. Lyrical ideas are drawn particularly from some of the work of Edward de Bono and the guys behind ‘Brain Gym’.
As far as instruments go, the only thing that was different to my normal set-up was the use of an upright piano that I acquired along with the new house. Its tuning is somewhat interesting, giving rise to some quirky moments.
Hope you enjoy,
Brother Buffalo. x
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:59 am
Looking forward to listening to these and the 19-song session from Brother Turville on the train today - they’re loaded into the MP3 player. Review arriving very soon! Well done everybody who got time to do a session this month. I didn’t sadly, but next month is a certainty.
best
BT x
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:56 am
Just had a quick listen to ‘travel light’ before leaving the house - Wow! BB your vocal is cracking. I’m glad that the recorder made a reappearance.
We should go pro!
I’m looking forward to the listening to the others
BSM
November 24th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Bravo! - A great session and a real shame that it had to be a virtual one. I downloaded it onto CD and played it in the living room on Sunday morning when my boys (11,10 & 7) were around – you have some young fans! Have also been listening to it in the car last couple of days.
Travel light – excellent track – the boys loved it. I particularly like the rhythm guitar. The vocal style and the the added recorder work really well.
Braintro – definitely got the best out of that old piano of yours! The spooky sound you get makes a real virtue out of the lack of tuning
Time to tell the truth – the arpeggio synth laid over the raw guitar works really well
Perception is real – Love the synth sounds in this.
Put on your action shoes – My personal favourite - another one which got my boys bopping around the living room! A great honest rock & roll track – Lou Reed would have been proud of it!
Massaging the brain buttons – Another classic – A good demonstration of where repetition can be a real virtue. Made me think of Eno.
Don’t over think it – in spite of the words of the song “don’t overrate it” “don’t over play it” another great track
My favourites…… if it had been a face-to-face session my 3 choices for replay would have been Put on your Action Shoes, Massaging the Brain Buttons and Brainto
BTU
November 24th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Really liked “Travel Light” - great bass and drum backing. Also great rhythm gtr. Nice double tracked vocal - sounding a bit like the guy from Pet Shop Boys at times.
“Braintro” - who needs the “fluid piano” when you’ve got this? This piano should never be retuned.
“Time to tell the truth” - the juxtaposition of arpeggio synth with guitar reminded me of “On the Air” from the second Peter Gabriel LP. Which is a good place to be.
“Perception is Real” - good stuff from Ableton Live. A bit like “the Write Kind of Ambient” from the Megalodge session - good vibe. This Edward de Bono sounds like a very strange guy. He makes Alfie Kohn look like someone with his s*** together.
“Put On Your Action Shoes” - these lyrics sounded great although I hadn’t a clue what you were on about. Excellent Thin Lizzy style double tracked guitar. Phil Lynott would have been very happy.
“Brain Buttons” - sounds like the old MarY speech synthesiser in the left-hand channel (if I have the speakers wired the right way round…!) Great tune.
“Don’t Over Think It” - good intelligent techno start. A mellow closer. A nicely handled dense production here.
All in all a fantastic effort.
By the way if you want to know the truth about “Brain Gym” check out this from my old Oxford contemporary Ben Goldacre:
http://www.badscience.net/category/brain-gym/
My initial impressions of the Brother Turville session are that it’s superb but it’s gonna take a little while longer to listen to 19 tracks properly! I’ve also downloaded the Oak mini-session and will listen soon.
BTy x
November 24th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Cheers for the great feedback everyone. I was really pleased with this session and I’m glad others have enjoyed it too.
Yes I’d looked at the Bad Science item myself - I also took lots of audio samples from the Newsnight interview Paxman did with Paul Dennison, the co-creator of Brain Gym (available on YouTube) - but then couldn’t be arsed to use them - opting instead to run some quotes through the Mary speech synthesiser.
Personally I’m not exactly sure what to make of the Brain Gym debate. I’ve known a lot of teachers and other professionals who believe it to have brought benefits to pupils, though it’s quite probably just the general notion of doing some physical movement and getting some oxygen to the brain that is helping the kids to concentrate. Whilst some of the things that the Dennisons have said are undoubtedly bollocks (”processed food contains no water”), I also feel that some of the arguments made by the science community about the brain gym theory would rule out most forms of alternative therapy - and again, a lot of people believe to have benefitted from remedies where there is, at present, no clear scientific explantion for what is happening. So I think I shall remain on the sceptical side of agnosticism on this one.
November 24th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Edward de Bono, on the other hand, is clearly a sound guy. No question. Just put on those action shoes.
November 26th, 2009 at 7:42 am
I think ‘Brain Gym’ probably does have some benefits in terms of mental agility etc - I think there’s research showing that mental faculties are to a certain extent “use it or lose it” - i.e. if you don’t do mental arithmetic regularly your IQ actually goes down, or something. My uncle certainly claims that he thinks a lot more clearly since he stole his granddaughter’s Nintendo DS to play “Brain Training” every day! I think what Goldacre is mainly attacking - rightly - is this crap about processed food and water.
I don’t want to criticise alternative therapies across the board as there do seem to be clear benefits in some cases. But when you’ve got someone like Dr Patrick Holford, who believes that the cure for HIV is high-dose multivitamins… that’s worrying!
November 28th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Indeed. In fact you might say, to quote the 4th track from my session last April, ‘Quack’.
BTW, Brother Turville, glad to hear I have some young fans in your household. I think the 7-11 year old market is my target demographic.
I’ve also been really enjoying your mammoth session - listened to it several times now - and will say a bit more about it in a separate post.
Cheers.