[Album] Sock Puppets In My Head (MP3/WMA)

[bvanoudtshoorn]

 

This CD is one that I will be selling soon to raise money for the building fund at my church. I will also be putting together an orchestral and 'easy-listening' CD, which I'll put up here later.

Most (all) of the tracks are already up here on MPC, but I thought that I'd present them as an album as well. The tracks are linked below; those marked as new haven't, as far as I can recall, been heard here. Sorry for the mixture of formats -- I'm running out of local bandwidth, so I'm using what was already on my webserver.

01 Intro (NEW)
02 Rebellion
03 The call
04 Docking manoeuvres
05 Carry me <Jars of Clay remix>
06 Plus que juste un rêve (NEW)
07 Falling
08 Raining in the east
09 It's quiet at home
10 Intermission (NEW)
11 Contemplating dessert (NEW)
12 Standing on the brink of forever
13 Odyssey
14 Alone
15 Welcome back
16 Heart and soul

[Sam_Zen]

I know a few of the tracks, so this will take some time.
The intro is quite funny with the odd 'stumblings' in it.
Btw : the two WMA's were not accessible (5 and 15).
Nice cover-art. Do you know the coverart-plugin of the XMPlayer ?

[bvanoudtshoorn]

Thanks, S_Z -- I had fun putting the intro together.

I fixed the URL for the first WMA (Carry me), but the other one seems right... Do you mean that you can't play them? I am planning on uploading MP3 versions in the not-too-distant future.

I don't use XMPlayer myself, but as far as I know, if you download the first image, and rename it to cover.png, it should be picked up as coverart, although you might have to also convert it to jpeg...

[Sam_Zen]

The 404 of 5 was fixed and this time I used 'save as' with the WMA and got them right.
What you say about the cover.png, I don't know, this may be valid for streaming purposes.
On HD, with all tracks in the same dir, XMPlay searches for any first bitmap in the list, and shows it as a cover.
Also when using a playlist like .m3u or .pls. (which should be in same map.)

[Sam_Zen]

6 - On the surface quite mainstream techno, but the use of the sounds is well-thought and subtle.
7 - Didn't know that one. Nice industrial sounds. A bit of a pity of the cliché portamento of the synth.
8 - Nice start with an atmosphere like in Twin Peaks by David Lynch. But then the 'neat' notes take over again. But still ok.

[Sam_Zen]

09 - Well done, the title illustrates what's it's all about. It sets at ease.
10 - Hmm, this is not my byte. Sounds like the intro of some tv-quiz.
11 - Nice inter-play of different cadences here.
12 - Elegant production. Indeed an atmosphere of the brink into something.
13 - The piano bit in the intro is a bit too dominant in what's going to happen with the other instruments for the rest of time.
14 - Too 'smooth' for me. It's a comforting, safe kind of loneliness.
15 - Joy.
16 - Regarding the title, I can't find it back in this kind of Dinky Toys, sorry.

[uncloned]

Barry 06 starts out so excellent - you gotta make ambient with those types of sounds! I gotta admit when it became techno... sorry.

But I am as always very impressed with your part writing - especially in a tracker.

The intro is a strange little tune!

[Nahkranoth]

It's quite hard fo me to comment on album, you need to listen to it a couple of times to remember every track and I haven't so much time atm. Gladly, Sam_Zen already did it
I can't call this compilation an album, because the tracks are totally different. I would rather call it "collection".
06 - Somehow I don't like it at all. 3 chords or something.
09 - Very pleasant to listen to. The name says it all.
10 - I'm curious to know how you managed to write this track. Quite funny, I never heard something similar from you. Is it some kind of experiment?

[bvanoudtshoorn]

Wow, thanks for the feedback everyone.

@S_Z:
Thanks for going through all the tracks! I really appreciate it. I'll just mention that number 16 is actually a cover of a track called 'Heart and soul', which was (arguably) the track that made the I vi IV V chord progression so cliched. I wanted to make a weird sort of chip/cheese jazz hybrid.

@Clones:
I will try and do more ambient stuff. Actually, a lot of my electronica toys with the idea of being ambient, I think, but I never really go there. But I'm starting to play with the whole idea more and more...

Yes, the intro is strange. And intentionally so! The track was meant to be the kind of infuriating 'elevator music' you used to hear. Just consider it my slightly warped sense of humour.

@Nahkranoth:
Yes, I'd agree with you that to some extent, it's more of a compilation. Think of it as an overview of my electronic and pop/rock side, if you will.

Track 10 was indeed an experiment -- you see, Kontakt 3 comes with all sorts of 'band' sounds, like the fat saxes and 'bones and so on. And, because I love nice new shiny toys, I played with them. Track ten's the result. Its inclusion is because of the same sense of humour that included the intro.

[Nahkranoth]

Forgot to say about Intro: I really like it. Something new from you, Barry. And what's that "elevator music" talk about? Infuriating? No way! We have no music in elevators, if they're working at all

[uncloned]

contemplating dessert is a very pleasant relaxing tune. I especially like the interplay of the leads. works nicely looped too :-)