Okay, I recorded Never On Sunday earlier this year. I decided to extend it into a 3 part suite. For now, it's broken up. Before I add the interludes that segue them together into a 13 minute song, lemme know what you think about Pts 2 & 3.

Part 2 has a bossa nova groove and a few background vocals on the bridge.
Part 3 almost became a song by itself, with an Al Green, Isley Bros, Rufus&Chaka type feel.
But they were all born of the same chords.

I really would like to know if you think these would work well back to back.


Also included is Make It By - A throwaway little pop song cut from the same cloth.
And Grandma's Feets - FUNK.
[This message was edited Thu Jul 8 7:24:32 2004 by psykosoul]

psykosoul said:

I missed this song (it passed me by i didnt c it till 2day). Ima check it out later 2day brutha..

Never On Sunday Suite 1 -
Very Wendy & Lisa inspired. Nice use of all instruments. Are those real drums or a drum machine?

Never On Sunday II - Ur background vocals sound good on this one man, i dont know what u talkin about! . A laid back jazzy type of groove with a nice drum pattern. I thik this one is the best so far.

Never On Sunda III - This one has a more R&B approach...like u said, even a Rufus vibe, and i could just imagine this being some rare b-side from the "Ask Rufus" album lol!

All in all the package is perfect. I would love 2 hear them all placed 2gether in one (tracked) with some ocean / rain sounds going through them. It would be cool for the last 3 songs of an album

Now i gotta get 2 Grammas Feets.....
[This message was edited Thu Jul 8 9:32:39 2004 by paisleypark4]

paisleypark4 said:

Combination of real drums and programming



Thanks for listening... Before I segue it all together, I was wondering which ones should be edited down. Which ones are too repetitive?
Yeah, I need you to get to Grandma's Feets 'cause they need some attention. Callouses, corns and bunyons. On top of that somebody's got to take care of that funk that they're causing

psykosoul said:

If it was me 2 do the eidits. I'd do um.... Probably #3...

Psych – as always, the groove and the feel of your music seems to go into higher levels than what one expects from a home-recording enthusiast. The chords and musical sophistication just seems to ME to be coming from someone who’s been writing soundtracks for movies, or – I don’t know. It’s just my opinion. I’m sure if there were lyrics, the songs would be brought back down to earf.

Which is my number one beef about this collection of musical pieces. Without lyrics or melodic leadership, these all sound as though they’re chordal explorations, and little more… like you came up with some great ideas, and then simply committed them to “Pattern A, Pattern B, repeat” mode.

It COULD be the cold medicine talking.

Part 1:
Like the sitar – this is what I was complaining about in my second paragraph – you definitely need something in these songs to guide the listener around your canvas… and you do that here with the sitar, albeit maybe too subtlely with the sitar solo… but it’s something at least to help the listener remain interested.

Part 2:
This one seems to really sound like an incomplete thought, pushed out to three or four cycles. While pleasant, I feel like the song would benefit greatly from some melodic treatment – even if it were a whole-note solo that at least added some variation to the chord progression. And as always – dynamics, dynamics, dynamics. You start out with the drum pattern by itself, and never bring the song to that level of intimacy again.

Part 3:
I like your constant use of drum machine and real drums on all your songs. It always provides that something extra to keep it from sounding like it’s just a loop frenzy, (which is probably MY biggest flaw these days).

This is another one of those great soundtrack pieces. As long as you’re leaving it open, then this piece would be the part where the girl is wandering through the park, wondering to herself if she really WANTS to commit her life to a man who likes to wear diapers and throw feces at windows. Or something. It could be the cough medicine talking. Er. Typing.

Anyhow. The music is pleasant, the chords are beautiful, the mixing is good, but there’s nothing that comes to the front of the stage and says, “THIS IS MINE!” Everything in the music seems to be a little too afraid to step up to the spotlight and throw down. Not saying it needs a good rawking guitar solo – I’m saying, for 13 minutes, I want SOMETHING to take away with me from the listening experience – a piano melody line that flows through all three pieces, a flutey-reed passage, I dunno something.

Take my ramblings with a grain of “I’m not recording anything myself so I cant say much”, and call me in the morning.

otan said:

Man absolutely not!!!! Your opinions are always 100% honest constructive criticism and I will always welcome it. So far I haven't disagreed with anything you've said. It's just a matter of applying those criticisms to fix what's wrong. Because, I never really took being a musician seriously I'm used to throwing chords togther in "Pattern A, B, repeat" mode. I think the reason I do that is because I always start recording tracks with the instrument I'm not that skilled with (i.e. guitar) From there I build with bass and keys until there's nothing there but chords. I thought that would help me get more comfortable with the instrument. Out of curiosity, when you write which instrument do you record initially?

Man, your music is dope. I agree with Beau. U need to put some melodic stuff up front. Hook up with Marc Deon. He has a great voice and vibe. That is all u are missing. If u were going to stay instrumental, a solo synth or sax would be nice. But true to point, I would highly recommend adding vocals.

psykosoul said:

It's like that age old question - what do old ladies panties taste like?

Depends.

Oh, I kid.

IF you're intelligent to map out your song before you ever sit down at your studio, then the song is 50% already written, you've figured out your structure, melody etc. But who am I kidding - NOBODY does that. MOST of the time, It's a matter of sit down, fire up the creative juices and mess around until something good jumps out at you, and then, you're pretty much locked into using whatever instrument "gave you" the idea.

And then, from there, I'll add the bass next, because we're talking about aural space here. The guitar and keys, and vocals, can take up the same aural space - midrange. So, it's better to build out the rest of the soundscape (bass) and then come back with the secondary midrange instrument to fill in the spaces... and even then, you can back yourself into corners if you dont give the song room to breathe... meaning, if you ARE planning a melody line, or vocal, then do that first instrument, then bass, THEN the melody or vocal line, and THEN the final addition, IF it's even necessary.

Frinstance - "Private Joy" (I just happen to be listening to that song this minute) has no rhythm guitar in it. But it's from Controversy, which, i SWORE had guitars on every song. And this shows part of the thing that makes a good producer/arranger - knowing WHEN to hold back on the shit. Just because you CAN put every instrument in there, don't mean you have to.

Just my opinion on all this, by the way.

Conversely, the thing i mentioned in the beginning, about doing all the work before you ever sit down to record...

I've got three different songs in my head right now, got the lyrics, got the melody line, but just haven't taken the time to finish the lyrics and record them, I already know how I want the song to flow, how I want it to feel, look, whatever you say when you're describing the total song structure/instrumentation stuff.

So, having that in mind, how do I go about recording it? I'd start from the ground up - drums, bass, then guitar, then vocals, then keys. Except for one song, which is (hopefully) going to have a big band/swing feel. That one I'll do the drums, then the vocals, and THEN try to figure out the chords that I've got in my head - cuz I'll be damned if I have any clue what the real chords are - I'm just hearing them - some kinda Sinatra 50's swing thing.

Anyhow. There you go. That's how I do it, um, WHEN I do it... as far as your recordings - try seeing what the songs are like if you pull out that first inspired instrument - the guitar? try replacing that with a melody. I suggest that, because you were using that instrument as the blueprint for the song... therefore everything else complimented that instrument. So if you then pull it out, the song will (I THINK) have lots of space in there. Might make you uncomfortable how much space at first, but, try coming up with melodies.

The guitar is coming along really well too!

GOD I sound snotty and self impressed. Who am i kidding. I AM self impressed - and I aint recorded nothing in MONTHS!

So, um, today, take everything I said with a grain of "this guy is full of shit"

Psy I love all of these. They all have that emotional Prince feel.

They way I heard them and this is just my opinion.
I would put them in this order.
Part1
Part3
then Part 2

To me Part 3 sounded like a great transitional piece to tie them all together.
It sounded just a lil disjointedgoing from 1-2 i think 1-3 would be smother.

Then I would rock out on the energy of part2

I would love to do a Guitar solo across part 2 let me know if your interested.

over all great vibe and feel on all three!

Littlewing said:

Thanks Littlewing, I'd love it. Lemme know what you need and I'll send it.

talmuzic said:

Thanks Tal. I'm willing to hand over any track except "?" for a collabo. Seems the only one who is willing is Izaiah .I was supposed to hook up with DreZone so he could work on Blues, but I haven't heard from him since he asked me about it. *AHEM* *AHEM* WHERE YOU AT, DRE?!?!?! j/k, I know he, like everyone else is tied up with their own projects.

BTW, I've got a little gospel sounding ditty I'd like to offer to you for some lyrics. This one actually expands beyond Pattern 1 and 2 and it's something that's been in my brain for more than a decade. Lyrically, my stuff just always sounds silly and with this being an inspirational song I could use your help.
[This message was edited Fri Jul 9 16:29:26 2004 by psykosoul]

psykosoul said:

Just send me a high quality CD. Your going to like this! I'll send you a org note with my address.

Littlewing said:

I'll send it this week.

I listened to this suite a couple days ago and then again today. I liked part three the best, probably because of the guitar and it just sounded more organic and fluid if that makes any sense.

"Make it by" has a ton of potential, you should lay down some vocal tracks to that, I like the way it flows. I see you moved it to the bottom of the song list. Grandma's feet is cool...

I really like your tunes, but like others have said you need to think about putting in that third diminsion. That third diminsion involves vocals. Unfortunatly vocals done bad can ruin even the best of music.

Then again I'm cool just listening to your grooves.


Toy
http://www.soundclick.com...nmusic.htm

Psyko, just wanted to let you know that I checked this stuff out, along with 'Grandma's Feets.' I liked part III the best, but Grandma best of all - dope fu*&ing tune, dude! I must agree with what some of the others have said - you need some vox in there. Nice harmonies in part II - I was really feelin' 'em. I feel a collaboration is in order. There's many good singers here! Peace.

Thanks for listening guys. You have really inspired me to work on that third dimension. I'm really gonna try to stop throwing tracks up and really concentrate on developing the third dimension. My first stop has to be the collabo with Izaiah "He Goes Away From Me."

psykosoul said:

Pleeeze! with cheese? U like chesse?

Anyway, I listened 2 Grammas Feets, and they dont seem 2 be as smely as u say, i found them filed with a nice cherry melody. It desperatley hurts me 2 hear these songs though without some singin over em. They ache without.

And what the hell was that in the middle? Was that toe-jam sam?

just my without reading anyones posts about these tunes

Wow, Grandmas Feet. Cool guitar solo and great funk vibe.

"Transition" - cool riff with the smoothness in the change that I love about your stuff

oh wait, this thread is about the never on sunday groove opera

pt 1 - didn't work

pt 2 - is that you singing those harmonies? I love them with that awesome piano line at the end, yeah more of that and less of the loop

pt 3 - is that you on the guitar with this one? Its a beautiful little groove but it needs to go to the next step or a change

now would 2 & 3 go together? sure

great work as usual

Thanks Slave

Dude, your sound is gettin' big.
I'll echo what's already been said about pumping up the melodic component.
The tracks are tight though.

Put down the cigarette and come out of the corner.

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm

theAudience said:

I can't I'm so confused

I like part 2 the best.

Grandma's Feets is great! Dig the bass.

psykosoul said:

Everything's been straightened out.
C'mon...we're puttin' the band back together.



tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...rmusic.htm