Heartsease

A pastoral blues...or something like that.

Perhaps not my best song in terms of melodic inventiveness, but I think this kicks all my other uploads to MiFiMu into touch so far as production, arrangement and general sonic clarity are concerned.

It's probably not a blues in formal or cultural/ethnic terms (how could it be?). Does it matter?

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posted by MajorDundee (6 comments total)

There's a lot of good here. For one, I absolutely love the tone (and the playing) of the guitar solos. I also quite enjoy that pensive bass riff. And I think that once I hear this 4-5 times I'll grow fonder of the melody as a whole. It's got a nice mood.
posted by edlundart at 9:27 PM on September 15

I finally figured out what your style is--it's a LITTLE bit Steely Dan, but not as much as others may think. I get a LOT of 801, though you could use a bit more synth. I really want to add a wailing synth bit to duet with the first guitar solo in this.

The bass is really the standout, here. Don't get me wrong, the whole thing's pretty smashing, but that bass just taunts my soul, in the best of ways. I'd definitely like to draw it out and colour it up with a bit of synth, though...
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 9:23 PM on September 18

Well LOOM, old thing, if you want to put some synth on this one I'm perfectly happy for you to take a shot at it. If you can record your bit on a separate track (synched with the original obviously) and then let me have that track as a WAV file I can attempt a remix that includes your contribution.
posted by MajorDundee at 11:27 AM on September 19

Oh and edludart - thanks for the comments dude. For your info the lead parts on this were played on a Gibson ES335 through a Fender SuperChamp with a very modest amount of gain and no effects other than reverb and a bit of EQ. One thing I've learned from experience is that what sounds good in a band setting in terms of gain on an amp doesn't often work that well on record - you only need a fraction of that gain otherwise you'll take up all the headroom in a mix and swamp everything else. It's the "less is more" principle I guess. Seems to work for me anyhow.
posted by MajorDundee at 12:00 PM on September 19

I may very well do that. I have some time off this week, I might give it a shot.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 9:00 PM on September 19

Sounds like John Martyn doesn't it ? Great song, and the guitar work is astounding. Thanks !
posted by nicolin at 9:52 AM on September 22