Gravitas

I was rooting around in an old music folder, and found this noodly bit of fun with the unlikely title of “d2d-pi2.aiff”. As I (vaguely) recall, I was attempting to recreate the idea of the real-time layering of sounds as in Robert Fripp and Brian Eno’s experiments called “Frippertronics”, but using my late-1990s MIDI setup to do the looping. So there’s about 20-30 seconds to start, of me playing live, then the next 30 seconds is that part played back plus more live stuff recorded on top, then the _next_ 30 seconds is those _two_ layers playing back, with still more live improv on top, and so on. It becomes a train wreck pretty quickly, but in a fun way. Well, it was fun for me.

I’ve not been flogging this, but I figure once a year is not excessive, so here goes.

This holiday season, why not give the gift of quirky, original, mostly-instrumental music by some guy on the internet?

From the “album notes” prepared for CD Baby:

“Something a little different, kind of quirky, mostly instrumental, a true “solo album” where I play all the instruments. Think Tubular Bells meets Bill Bruford. I know, I flatter myself, but it gives you something to go on…”

“These are ten mostly-instrumental songs, created entirely by me from within a Mac-based MIDI recording environment. They are richly layered tracks with full instrumentation. As I am first and foremost a drummer, there may be a certain compositional bias towards rhythmical complexity, which is also in keeping with the progressive rock influence.”

“This is not computer music.”

My album (no vinyl, but yes, it’s still okay to call it an album) is available for download from a variety of sources. Short previews are available at these links as well.

Preferred
CD Baby – http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rgdaniel

You can also get the physical CD (which is a pretty cool package if I do say so myself) from CD Baby.

Other links
Amazon.com – http://goo.gl/t1y6FP
Amazon.co.uk – http://goo.gl/OZ5odA

(Apparently there is no digital music store on Amazon Canada).

iTunes Canada – http://goo.gl/hMkdOl
iTunes USA – http://goo.gl/9yAeZ6
iTunes UK – http://goo.gl/4NxhQ1

Thanks for listening!

Eighties pop supergroup Asia have announced a new album, their first without founding member Steve Howe. Guess what it’s called?

“Gravitas”.

I wonder if I can sue? Probably not. Nor would I. More power (pop) to them.

The original “Gravitas”, by me, Robert George Daniel, is still available from several sources, including iTunes.

More info here.

Just a short (one minute) video of the squall-du-jour, looking out onto our back yard. Music is my cover of the Tubular Bells riff by Mike Oldfield.

YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra62wB4bpmc

I’m a PC guy these days. That’s entirely a result of work-related compatibility issues and, since my retirement, budget and… well inertia I suppose.

But recent events got me reminiscing about my own introduction to personal computing. I was not a hugely early adapter to home computing, other than a brief foray into the world of the Texas Instruments TI-99/4a (a Commodore 64 contemporary I think)… but somewhere around the mid 90’s I discovered digital MIDI-based musical instruments, particularly drums and keyboards. Now I could play drums in an apartment! Exciting stuff for a guy who’d sold his soul drum kit in 1977 to go to computer programming school…

Anyway, I soon reached the limits of the built-in sequencer on my TD-7 drum unit, and I asked the guy at Saved By Technology, where I bought the MIDI gear, to advise me on a bigger sequencer. He suggested I just buy a computer, or I’d soon be frustrated by the inherent limitations of any hardware-based sequencer.

So I asked around amongst my colleagues, mainframe computer types like me: “Mac or PC?”

This would be somewhere around Win 95 / OS 7.1 era… Lots of hoopla about Win95… The few people at work with PC’s (most of us were on so-called “dumb terminals” ) were still on Win 3.1. I remember finding it quite interesting that while 2 out of 3 recommended the PC, anyone who had used both types would recommend the Mac. Mind you, none of them were doing MIDI sequencing, so in the end, the Saved By Technology guy’s recommendation carried the most weight, and soon I had my very own Power Mac 7100.

Almost all of what would eventually become my first (and probably only) officially-released CD was written and recorded within a few months of getting up and running on that machine, and getting my gear working with it.

While the whole Mac or PC debate has these days become tiresome and about as interesting as “Coke vs Pepsi”, I did go through a period of Mac evangelism in the Nineties, as a result of my early success and enthusiasm on that platform.

So yeah, thank you Steve Jobs.

related post: Gravitas Studio Setup

Last of these ones I think. There’s a few more, but they’re not ones that I really want out in the world….

Mental Midget (1976)

YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TqSs_d9Cf0

Time For All (1976)

YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBk7fgUu8fY

Voyage / Arrival (1976)

YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKiE996oKoo

R.G. Daniel: percussion, recorders
Monte Horton: keyboard
Steve Vickery: guitar

Recorded in 1976, Videos added June 22, 2011
(based on a Steve Hillage riff)

YouTube video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcgws1cY-BM

Untitled Suite in Four Parts – Early exercises in sound-on-sound recording

Robert George Daniel: percussion, various analog synths

Recorded in 1976
Video added June 22, 2011

YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6L9SXCyKPI

Space Blues (1976)

R.G.Daniel: drums, Roland RE-201 Space Echo
Monte Horton: guitar
Steve Vickery: bass

recorded in 1976
video added June 22, 2011

YouTube video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyE0CXJxLoU

Earth Blues
R.G.Daniel: recorder
Monte Horton: guitar
Recorded in 1976
Video added June 22, 2011

YouTube video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcRf3m0Ld5A