"Chevrolet" (Home-Recording)

Time for a serious flashback? How about one of the old Meander songs then?

In 1989 I started my first band together with Bruno Vanden Broecke. After a few name-changes (one of them being The Knockles --- if the Bangles could rip off the Beatles by changing the first half of their name into a synonym, why couldn't we?), we decided to call ourselves Meander. This is where I learned to play the guitar, write songs, do gigs and everything. The band eventually fell apart in 1997 when I moved to the UK.

The recording I'm serving you today, is not played by Meander, but it was one of the songs we used to do – before we had the native-language-only rule. It's a funny bluesy song written by Bruno Vanden Broecke as a teenager together with his neighbour.
I recorded this off the cuff version some time in 1994 or 95, with a 1960s microphone plugged into the 1970s stereo-system in the living room. That produced a rich ever-so slightly distorted sound, which I've always liked.

I play acoustic guitar and sing, while my brother provides percussion (hitting a tambourine with two pens) and backing vocals. It's a nicely exuberant version.




PS This track is dedicated to scoop and his love for formerly Eastern-European cars :)

"Gett Off (Mace2theO Mix)"

Over the weekend, this splendid 5+ minutes remix of my version of "Gett Off" (posted here last week) reached me!
It was done by the famous Maceo2theO, captain of EMF Radio station (http://emfradio.blogspot.com/) and one of the original EMF All Stars members.

Not only did he use the original multi-tracks to create a whole new mix, he also doubled the song in length and added his own vocals (introducing Violet The Organ Grinder)!

 

"Gett Off" (Home-Recording)

"So what is an Ymaginatif to do with an army of 'Hip-Hop' sounds," I hear you ask ...

Do I listen to hip-hop ... not particularly

Can I rap ... not at all!

So what do I do with it then? Ever since the beginnings of my music-playing in 1989, I have been looking for ways to sound more 'modern'. With my firm groundings in Beatles music and just an acoustic guitar available (not to mention a recorder, a harmonica, and a banjo), all of my songs tended to have a sixties vibe.

With the arrival of the synths and keyboards in the Y-household, I slowly moved up into the seventies, sometimes even managing to hit that eighties feeling by accident. But that seemed to be the limit for a long time, in spite of all the odd drum-tracks I threw together or weird effects I added.

Finally, with the introduction of this ‘new’ sound-card (with its phat loops and beefy basses), I am able to jump a decade, and make it all the way to the 1990s! Even though that’s still 10-20 years off of being actually up to date, it opens the doors for me to a sound I quite like. Yes – the days of wild of Prince! Grinding funk and pounding beats. Sweet!

To prove that point, I plucked up the courage to embark on a bold cover version of ‘Gett Off’ – a pretty raunchy one-chord vamp in the original. Why not ...

After recording the multi-dimensional drumloop (together with a loose guide-vocal), I overdubbed a real bass, two electric guitars, an array of sound-effects, flute (synth), and a distorted vocal (to ensure at least some anonymity). The result was ... relentless.

 
Can you dig it?

Expansion Boards

When I started playing the Roland JV-90 keyboard back in 1995, I always was intrigued by the word 'expandable' written in big lettering on the side. I liked the sound of that: just the feeling that more COULD be done, should I want to ...
However, over the years, my non-technical brain proved to be too inflexible to be wrapped around the idea of what this 'expansion' actually was or, even less, HOW to actually bring it about. So I always left it the way it was.

That is, until about half a year ago, when I was strolling through ebay and actually found the key to that which expands the keyboard! To my delight, I found it was possible to buy 'cards' that, exciting exciting, add new sounds and instruments to the keyboard. They go by the name 'Expansion Boards', and it turns out that there are about two dozen different ones, such as 'orchestral', 'vintage synth' or 'world'.
Evidently, production of these JV-keyboards and of their expansion boards stopped about a decade ago ... Which means shops don't sell these anymore ...

Off to ebay it was again, only to find that there is a blooming market of people selling these second-hand for quite inflated three-figure prices.
Nevertheless, I bided my Ebay-time, and eventually bid on (and won) a more affordable (and less popular) expansion board: 'Hip-Hop Collection'.

The card arrived in the post, and consisted of a mere piece of metal with some funny transistors and sockets sticking out at the back.

This had to be inserted in the inside of the keyboard: yes, I had to unscrew a few back-panels and stick my hand into the inner workings! But if the Roland-manual itself told me to do this ...

Switched it on, and yes: 255 new sounds in the can, including exciting selections such as 'Funky Voxy', 'Freakout Sax', 'Plop Bass', 'Phuzzphat', 'Ya Mon' etc. etc. For a complete list, I refer you to http://www.planet-groove.com/roland/sr-jv80-12.txt

- to be continued