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Second update today - it's been a busy one!
I decided that Black Box was perhaps a little flat with just the acoustic and vocals, but that I liked both parts. So I added two guitars and a little retooling and have a new version of the song!
You can go to http://thibault.bandcamp.com, select Where Is Home, and then listen to Black Box (as well as Yperaht, DEFCON 4 and Where Is Home) or you can just go straight to the song by following this link.
That was a nice addition to the song!Quote:
Originally Posted by T-6005
Thanks man, I appreciate the comment. I just felt like the song was too long to survive with just the vocals and guitar, and that a little variety couldn't hurt, as well as another guitar to subtly enhance the dynamics at times.
I'm drawing close to finishing this entire album/collection. Yesterday, I finished up a song I've been working on for a little while called War In The Sky. It's the second to last song that will be added, aside from one called Without My Mind that is still in progress.
This is probably the biggest throwback to my video game music bent thus far. It's one of only two instrumentals on this album, along with Destroy the Suburbs, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I managed to blend guitar, video game-y melodic runs and sort of an orchestral flow as well, as well as elements of dance, techno and lo-fi drumming. The timpani in particular turned out well and add a lot to the orchestral sections.
In any case, here's the link - check it out!
Here is the album page. Here is the track itself.
So here's my first update in more than a year, apparently.
I've begun working on a new 'album' - or more accurately concept-album style independent track compilation - which currently has three songs recorded. I consider these probably the most significant expression of the type of music-writing I've been doing over the last 5-8 years, which is as it should be. I'm happy with all of these songs thus far and plan to add 7-9 more depending on vision, inclination and work ethic.
In any case, enjoy three of the songs on the album, which is titled Dark Water. The concept behind the album remains the same - as ever - and focuses around the theme of human apocalypse. Specifically, I aim for it to be a semi-musical, lyrically esoteric exploration of themes that surround the ideas of apocalypse without necessarily breaching it directly and falling into the oh-so-tedious overblown statements of the end that pervade many modern sensibilities.
Except that despite that entire last paragraph I was hoping for it to not be too pretentious.
So, thus far I have three songs. These are-
Ragnarok - Track 4 of the album, and the first destruction-focused track, with the general theme of endings and interruptions.
Exodus/Shrike - Track 5 of the album, with a general theme of escape and survival, intercut with a very specific and simultaneous sense of nostalgia and the need for survival. This was actually a submission for one of the mixtapes, so some of you have doubtless heard this one before. [I don't have a lot of time to record these days, so instead of a few days it takes me an average of a month and a half to put a song together]
Lyrics below.
The Osiris Myth - Track 8 of the album, wherein the protagonists have, if not come home, then managed to finally go to ground in a place that will allow them a new beginning.Quote:
Turn off telemetry it lies
There is nothing planetside
Only here in vacuumed waste
Is what's left of the human race
Whole species turned back inside
Our orbital exit, satellite out.
The only thing to evacuate
Is what's left on the last ride out.
Part one of exodus
Leave behind all that was bargained for
Part one of exodus
Leave behind all that was bargained for
Don't look back to the ground below
Those behind were the first to go
Being consumed in heat and flame
We can't go home again
No more looking up at night
Steer us away to pinpricks of light
Falling away from the birth of man
I'd steal the moon, ask me if I can
Part one of exodus
Leave behind all that was bargained for
Part one of exodus
Leave behind all that was bargained for
The tree of man is rising
In the tide of setting ground.
The tree of man is rising
And we've got nowhere to run
Enjoy. http://thibault.bandcamp.com/album/dark-waterQuote:
Think once, think twice
Think again if you'd like
Look around at paradise
Flowered trees,
Resurgent dreams
I just know we could be happy here
No more cold shadows in our beds
A space for sunlight in our heads
We can shake off our longest sleep, babe
Welcome the future this is destiny
What matters to you
It matters to me
What matters to you
It matters to me
A riverbank in sunlight and we've got nothing to hide
But we will learn
Bitterest taste of organic red
And no one's here when it's time for bed
Shaking around these troubled dreams
Welcome the future this is destiny
What matters to you
It matters to me
What matters to you
It matters to me
A riverbank in sunlight and we've got nothing to hide
But we will learn
<Bridge>
What matters to you
It matters to me
What matters to you
It matters to me
A riverbank in sunlight and we've got nothing to hide
But we will learn
What matters to you
It matters to me
What matters to you
It matters to me
A riverbank in sunlight and we've got nothing to hide
But we will learn
And, obviously, I would love some feedback if you could spare the time.
I liked the old school Thibault more, you totaly sold out. :D
"Mankind is forced to abandon the earth and left to run and drift, looking for a new home. The exodus begins. But why should a species that destroyed their own world be allowed to even search for a new one?"
When do you predict it's gonna happen? Because it's gonna happen in a billion years for sure, we will have to jump at least to Mars.
Why should a species be allowed? Why the hell not? We are already finding a lot of planets. I helped a little bit too.
As an artist, are you going for realism or the opposite?
Okay, so I'm listening while I study, and the first thing that really, really struck me is when Ragnarok went all 8-bit on me. I seriously started rocking out, hard; That rhythm behind the guitar solo and, later, the synth part is kickin'. The part before it is interesting and thoughtful, as well, but the rockout is definitely the right place for all the plodding (and plotting) to lead to.
I've just finished Exodus, and I've got to say that I'm a big fan of the song-structures so far; they grow upward, not outward. I don't know how to describe it better than that. I feel like the songs I write can move forward, but have no upward mobility, and that might just be me not putting enough stock in certain melodies or rhythms.
I'm balls deep in Osiris now, and I want to add that the instrumentation is pretty cool, too. I like your use of synths and keys without sounding like a synth or keys band. You show enormous restraint and discipline with your instrumentation at times. It can be so easy to get masturbatory with instruments when you're in a one-man-band. I would know. I get masturbatory.
Anyways, long story short: you've got a nice ear for pop melodies, good harmonies, and cool transitions that don't sound forced or awkward, so I'm impressed and kind of jealous. I don't know if the songs need to be >6 minutes each, but I also am not a kind of person who cares bout that sort of thing, so whatevs, fuck it. The album, to me, reminds me of Pink Floyd's Animals, in its song structures and tones. It just makes me want to start actually contributing music to Your Band again.
Thanks for the feedback, and I suppose I'll answer your questions in reverse order.Quote:
Originally Posted by Degstur Lolland
I am absolutely not going for realism. I think more about the apocalypse as something to think with or perhaps think through than as something which is embedded in the future of the human race. The apocalypse is a signal of the 'end of history,' and thus of its success or failure. Under that definition, the Rapture remains no less a dream of apocalypse. And it's with that idea that I'm thinking through things.
As for sellling out, I'll agree that my recording methods have moved up in budget, but in terms of selling out I'd unfortunately have to disagree. If anything, the music I write now is less accessible than what I did before.
Not every song will be so long or so explicitly multi-layered instrumentally. I just cut a violin and a hammond organ from a track I was working on because the drums and the heavy-bass sound worked just fine.Quote:
Originally Posted by coke_a_holic
I really appreciate the comments, mostly because it sounds mostly like praise, and who doesn't love that. I agree, however, on the song length option - each song is aimed at telling a segment of a story which is meant to be rendered more theoretically (sketched, if you will) than explicitly. And I like to mess around with tonality and song order way more than song structure or the scales that I am using (the odd and for me extremely effective key change in the verse of Exodus, Shrike aside). There is no higher praise than to compare it to Pink Floyd's Animals for me, since despite being the beginning of the end it was also the first exploration into what would become The Wall.
You should contribute to Your Band more. Everyone should. It's literally the only place in the world which will ever hear what I write, and I think it would be incredible if others would consider it as open and unrestricted a forum as I do. Particularly with your each for dynamic and flow, which I might say so seem to be your particular strength as a songwriter.
One last thing - you mention an ear for pop melodies, and I wish I could object to it. I'll just have to admit it as a weakness instead, since I have a lot of trouble coming up with more subtle melodic chains unless I'm experimenting with chromatic key changes (and I've never released any of that because it sounds awful).
A bit more seriously, you seem to be great, but I don't like your music. :D However, I always try to check it out. :d
What Pink Floyd albums do you guys recommend to me? I know they are not my band, but I'm crazy and have to check them out. They are clearly right wing band. :D
That's right, gang, I'm still around. I have a bunch of new tracks, too.
http://thibault.bandcamp.com/album/dark-water-2012 Is the link, and as far as the BBS is concerned, these tracks are new:
Saving The World
Idol Love
Wanderlust
Demons
So to answer your first question, yes, I am still awesome as all get-out. To answer your second, I am indeed still writing music. I still enjoy it and I've only gotten better. I'll be the first to admit that it's not exactly an uncommon occurrence when it comes to music - there are areas of reality where I can admit to being beaten.
All the same, enjoy what I have of the album. There are five more tracks on the way (two in the recent future), with the most recent update bringing us up to a sweet prime seven. The BBS has heard three - The Osiris Myth, Ragnarok, and Exodus Shrike - but is it ready for the other four?
You tell me, ladies and gentletrolls. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed making them. As much as I enjoyed the mixtapes. As much as I enjoyed covering our one and only Randman21's OLE (and believe me, I enjoyed that!)
Cheers, my friends!
I can feel the sexual encounters on the new songs. :D
Wanderlust has some tricky magical music, but honestly I recognize the amateurism in it.
Also, generally, you need to work on vocals.
I will always check good old T out.