… or how evolution works on a song.

If you read my earlier post about the Global Voices Theme you will see it came about from my original idea of “what would it sound like if Spiritualized covered Boney-M’s Mary’s Boy Child”. It changed a lot from that first track to what it has become this month as the closing theme for the two Global Voices Arab Bloggers Specials. So I thought I would take you on a 3 ½ minute journey down that road, you will hear, in 6 stages, what I would like to think of as musical Darwinism in action.

Part 1 or didn’t this start as a joke ?

This was the original Mary’s Boy Child by Plagerized as it appeared on Uncle Andy’s 2008 Christmas Album, Neverland. You get to hear part of the full thing, unfortunately including my impression of J. Spaceman, vocals.

Part 2 or Snip Snip

Sometime early this year I started listening to the original CuBase project and stripping out the vocals and some of the instruments. This was the version that I sent to Jamillah Knowles when she first put the shout out on twitter for a piece of CC music.

Part 3 or where JK shows us her smoke and mirrors.

This shows just why I respect Jamillah so much, not just as a journalist and a writer but as an editor. She took what was a 6 minute piece of music and distilled it down to a 45 second Theme. She speeded it up about 10% faster than the original, giving it a much better pace and it is constructed from about 4 or 5 edited parts from the original. I have to point out she did this with only a simple stereo version of the song, not the 40+ tracks that are in CuBase, so how she made the transposition’s sound like they had always been there I don’t know, pure skill is all I can put it down to. It wasn’t until I was re-creating her version in CuBase that I even noticed 2 of the edits they were that smooth … and I bloody wrote it.

Part 4 or where things move in an eastern direction.

For the Arab Bloggers Specials I wanted to keep the “feel” of the Theme but to make it more eastern sounding or as near as a western musician, brought up on The Velvet Underground could make it. I got an old friend and fantastic percussionist Russ Cooper to play Djembe from the middle section for me as at this point my idea was to start western and travel easterly as the piece progressed. I also got Simeon Georgiou, who I had met recently while playing in another band, to come and play Violin, I had no idea he would be as good as he was, everything he did was 1^st or 2^nd take.

Part 5 or where I have a slight stumble.

I had stripped nearly all the original guitar parts from the track (something like 10 tracks) and replaced them with various drone parts. This is where I had a slight stumble … I just couldn’t get it right, no matter how I edited it, for example here is one of the many re-mixes I did, this one with the first part cut, I just couldn’t get any of them to “work”. I then turned to the “Golden Ears” that I share my life with, my partner Sarah who not a musician herself, always knows what a piece of music should do. She pointed out that it was all far too busy, Simeon and Russ were just lost in the mix, they didn’t stand out as they should and so it didn’t sound as “eastern” as it could.

Part 6 or the finished product.

I did a final re-mix, doing what Sarah suggested and sent it off to Jamillah who totally agreed with Sarah (is that girl-power?) and we had the end theme for the Arab Bloggers Specials.

So that’s the journey a piece of music can take and in the words of the late/great Bill Hicks “who’d a thunk it”.

You can download the two podcasts along with all the other episodes of The Global Voices Podcast @

http://globalvoicesonline.org/-/special/global-voices-podcast/feed/

Global Voices is a community of more than 300 bloggers and translators around the world who work together to bring you reports from blogs and citizen media everywhere, with emphasis on voices that are not ordinarily heard in international mainstream media. I was more than happy to be involved with what is a great idea, let’s face it the more we all talk and understand each other the better things will be. Jamillah brings to it her fantastic interviewing skills as always and like her work on Outriders a great mix of stories.

If you want to get involved with this great idea then just visit http://globalvoicesonline.org/

The final thing I have to say is some massive thank you’ s, to the lovely people at Global Voices, especially Solana & Ivan for their kind words, to JK who it is an absolute pleasure to work with, to Sarah for her Golden Ears, support and love, but I have to credit all the following people because without them there would have been nothing for you to hear, each of them a stunning musician.

Andy Clark - Slide Guitar’s, Keyboards and backing vocals.

Jaki Apples – Gospel vocals.

Luke Sherwood – Piano and backing vocals.

Mark Print – Bass Guitar.

Russ Cooper – Djembe.

Simeon Georgiou - Violin

Steve Beswick – Drums and percussion.

KoKo

mcfontaine

17/10/2011

A few weeks ago Jamillah Knowles who I’m sure you will all know from http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/outriders/ tweeted that she was looking for some C.C. music for a new project she was doing. I sent her a piece that I was “playing” with and she kindly thought it was good enough to use as the ident for reboot of The Global Voices podcast. Also in episode 2 she asked me voice a translation of an old folktale told to children in Mali. So I have cut the intro, exit and voiceover together here for your pleasure.

Global Voices is a community of more than 300 bloggers and translators around the world who work together to bring you reports from blogs and citizen media everywhere, with emphasis on voices that are not ordinarily heard in international mainstream media. I was more than happy to be involved with what is a great idea, lets face it the more we all talk and understand each other the better things will be. Jamillah brings to it her fantastic interviewing skills as always and like her work on Outriders a great mix of stories so please go and check out the entire 30 minute podcast. http://globalvoicesonline.org/-/special/global-voices-podcast/ 

If you want to get involved with this great idea then just visit http://globalvoicesonline.org/

A little bit of backstory on the track ….

Every year instead of giving Christmas card or presents to people a friend of mind gives a cd of music to his friends and family. It can be covers, either done seriously or as a joke by actual bands or whoever is around at the time. Lots of Northampton based bands have got involved and in the last few years also bands & solo artist’s from LA and the East Coast of the states.  This track actually started life as me thinking “what would it sound like if Spiritualized covered Boney-M’s Mary’s Boy Child. This version is the instrumental with all the vocals stripped off (trust me, it’s so much better without my impression of Jason Pearce). It was originally performed as Plagerized, but here we are The Greenway Players, Steve Beswick, Mark Print, Luke Sherwood, “Uncle” Andy Clarke and me.  

KoKo

mcfontaine

08/08/2011

Last year, a few days before I resigned from my job I bought a new Fender Jazzmaster Classic Player from Merchant City Music

It is a stunning guitar, it’s the one I always reach for now.

So tonight I just found this, that I recorded at the time. It is only a little 1½ minute instrumental, basically to try the guitar out, but I thought I would post it up as I really like it …. And might even do something else with … at some point.

Mark

From the heart of NN1 – The New Barcelona

21/06/2011

The following clip will let you hear how the work I can do can rescue a recording.

Recently while at The Bushcraft Show @Documentally (Social Technologist & Digital Story Maker) had the very rare chance to record a talk given by bush craft legend John ‘Lofty’ Wiseman. Lofty has been a hero of Documentally’s for around 25 years so this was a fantastic opportunity for him. Only later did he discover some “issue’s” with the recording & as Documentally said …

Due to the number of mobile phones in close proximity, the recording was close to inaudible in places. I had @mcfontaine (Mark Cotton – audio wrangler) take a look at it and he has tweaked and restored it so that all three 30 minute parts can be comfortably listened too below. I’m amazed at how well he has cleaned it up.

To hear full 1½ hour talk please go to www.ourmaninside.com/ even if you think are not that interested in bush craft I think you will find it a funny & informative talk, very entertaining.

As you will hear, I have removed the mobile phone buzz, removed the mic pops & also edited any pause’s or stumbles.

This is just a very small example of the work I can carry out on your recordings. So if you think I can help you please get in touch.

Mark

12/06/2011