I Burned This Song

For this month's LYRIC Challenge. It has a very simple backing track, consisting of three elements: a drone (from my trusty Juno 60 analog synth), little wooden bells (from the 100 yen shop!), and my daughter's plastic ukulele, which has a picture of Maisy Mouse on it.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by flapjax at midnite (9 comments total)

Great stuff as usual, flapjax. I'm always impressed how well you can hold a song together a song. Your singing is strong and confident without hiding inside of a complex arrangement.

That plastic ukelele sounds pretty great here -- almost like an mbira, with the way you're playing it.
posted by danb at 8:30 AM on July 6, 2008

I'm always impressed how well you can hold a song together a song.

I'm also impressed at how well I can mess up a comment.
posted by danb at 8:45 AM on July 6, 2008

That beginning is super ominous, and it really keeps holding that tension. Nice job!
posted by Corduroy at 10:44 AM on July 6, 2008

Very nice instrumentation. Strangely, after seeing Big Trouble in Little China for the first time in years, it kind of reminds me of that film. That's a good thing, by the way, because that film is hilariously wonderful. And, man, this just makes me miss our old Juno 6 yet again. I guess I'll just have to find the VST version.

Good job, f@m.
posted by sleepy pete at 12:23 PM on July 6, 2008

Thanks, guys, for your comments! Much obliged.

...almost like an mbira, with the way you're playing it.

Yes, I was definitely channeling a certain African aesthetic here. I've heard accompaniments with a similar flavor, on various recordings of traditional music from around Africa. And often from string instruments that sound very much like this plastic uke!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:58 PM on July 6, 2008

Lord, I love the way you used that ukulele. It sounds terrific. It proves that no instruments are merely toy instruments. Or maybe that all instruments are toy instruments.
posted by umbú at 7:58 PM on July 6, 2008

Great use of a toy uke. You certainly have a style, a genre, that makes you instantly recognizable even before the vocals come in, which I think is an awesome thing.
posted by ORthey at 1:38 PM on July 7, 2008

I really like this. Listening to it reminds me that less can be much, much more.
posted by loiseau at 9:37 PM on July 7, 2008

Man, you know how to make music that sounds like it belongs to all countries. [**bowing**]
posted by not_on_display at 11:42 AM on July 10, 2008