New Christmas Single and page

Well, I've finally got a track done this year! I began work on this in November, but time has been tight, lately. Anyway - it's a cheerful one - and familiar! I hope you dig it. If you do - here is a direct download link (right-click etc). 

In addition - there is a Christmas page for 2012 which contains free downloads for all the Christmas tracks I've done since 2007! It's an interactive thingy but I'm sure you'll figure it out. Thanks for hanging in there with me! One New Year's resolution I have is to make more SO music. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! - SO

random pic from 2007

As a record collector - the skipping vinyl lp is disheartening, and not very good for your stylus. As a musician, however, I am instantly intrigued by the new rhythmic groove and surprising tonality that occurs when a seemingly inert passage is stressed or repeated. Over the course of a few years I collected any skips I came across while converting vinyl to digital, and saved them. The ultimate goal was this collage; although I had no idea what the outcome would be. I was pleasantly surprised at the cohesive harmony these clips made together. - SO

Allosonic

 

Once in a while on Soundcloud - you get "lucky" and find someone who isn't just twiddling with beats and sounds, but is actually making music. You'll like this if you enjoy the "Prisms" album by Jeffrey Lams and John Andrew Schreiner that I mention from time to time. Free downloads that are worth something. - SO

While adding tags it looks like I've posted about this already - but it warrants reposting :)

Mishmash a Go Go

Oscar Records OS-117

There are other blogs who will tell you all the pertinent facts about this album. So I'll stick to what I do best - the weird stuff. Like how the girl in the background is staring down the camera. Or the ghoulish font - more appropriate for "Blood Suckers" than "Block Busters". Note they are all dancing around an electronic organ - certainly the "young sound" of 1968. (?) The whole album is a hodge-podge of unlikely bedfellows: drugstore soul singers, obscure fake rock groups by cult-figure studio musicians, easy-listening orchestras...

The track below (the famous Cuban ditty "Guantanamera") is by far the choicest, with a pretty good arrangement, a la space age pop, just without all that pesky concern about sound quality. All the orchestra instruments playing at fortissimo crammed onto one track makes for interesting, unearthly timbres. It's also sort of a sonic fun page - count all the different guitar & reverb sounds! - SO

Stereo Spectacular!

 

Three cheers for the Mayfair label (subsidiary of Tops records) for pressing this "on pure golden vinyl". It's dazzling! The music & dialogue are not, but oh well. I found this last minute after wading through boxes upon boxes of unpalatable junk at a thrift store in Holly Hill, FL. The sparkly gem's cover was not around - not surprising since it had a big triangle cutout in the design for shoppers to view the colored disc. Couple that with it's 1961 release date (the original 1958 release had a different cover) and you have a cardboard mess. Anywayz, in the audio player is an inside peek at a (ridiculous) recording session, 2 trains (of course!) one steam, one diesel, and the liveliest track on the disc, "Helena Polka" from George Poole and the Polka Dots. - SO

War Horse

Czerny edited by E.R. Kroeger

My crumbling copy of "The Art of Finger Development" by Czerny. While the music teacher boss was away one day, some very cool underlings - Mr. Haber & Mr. Toronto, let me loose in a collection of sheet music in the junior high school music office. I didn't really get with this book til my late 20's, but it's been my regular companion since. I rotate with Chopin etudes and Bach preludes & fugues, but there's nothing like it for developing/maintaining speed & power, and for nimbling up. The cover is long gone, and one by one pages disappear or render themselves trash-worthy; but the decay is from age & use, not neglect! :) - SO

What's In My Irulu...

That's right - for $14 on Amazon I've reached new lows in audio reproduction. Actually it sounds good, there's just no shuffle mode, and depending on the file name tag, a little hard to get the full name of the piece playing. There also seems to be no rhyme, reason or control over what order it plays the music in. But, in marvelous Chinese fashion, it says "Bye-Bye" to me while flashing red, green, blue & yellow on it's tiny screen; and it runs on 1 AA battery. I prefer this, since in FL one never knows when a storm is going to knock power out and for how long.

So what's in my Irulu? Debussy! Nocturnes, Images, Preludes, Estampes, La Mer. Can't get enough of it, lately. So much so that I'm eying box sets of his complete piano music, just to fill in the gaps...

Also on board is an album by a Floridian band called Green Hit, who label themselves on myspace as "Ambient, Experimental & Religious". It can be difficult to describe yourself, sometimes; but perhaps more accurate would be electronic, jam & fusion. Either way - it's very listenable; keyboard & groove centered with trumpet synth and regular synth featured. Good stuff, and free in exchange for your email address. There are a number of excellent songs on the release, especially "Poppy Rockwell". Scroll down on their site/blog to see the link to download the album "Purpose". - SO

Green Hit live circa 2010