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I released an EP a couple months ago, feedback?
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dougmcauliffe View Drop Down
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    Posted: July 03 2023 at 09:44
Hey everyone! I haven't been as active as I once was on this website as life just got exponentially busier over the years, but was able to make some time to record a 3 song EP this year under the silly pseudonym: Crustacean Cremation. It's not meant to be the most self serious music, but I'm really proud with how it came out, especially considering the resources I had at my disposal. The EP is called "Mountain, I Am Spilling Unspeakable Evils From This Pit," a little wordy, yeah. I would describe it as a mix of Heavy Psych, Prog Rock, Acid Rock and a little bit of Noise Rock in the mix. I think fans of King Gizz, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Oh Sees, Primus might dig it! It's on all streaming platforms though I'll post some links here. My personal favorite is the last track "There Are Unspeakable Evils In This World," but many people I've showed it to have really liked "The Pit." I play every instrument and recorded and mixed everything myself, drums unfortunately had to be one mic but considering that, I think they sound good enough! So yeah, give it a spin I would love and welcome any feedback to any sort of constructive degree. Here's the songs in order for youtube:

Spotify:
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Grumpyprogfan View Drop Down
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You are a very talented multi-instrumentalist, Doug. For me "Mountain, I Am Spilling War" stands out. Your mix is well balanced and I love the growl of your bass. What effect did you use on the bass? What gear did you have to record with? Did you intend these songs to be instrumental, because I hear lyrics on these songs?

Anyway if I recall, keyboards were your main instrument. Any reason they weren't used much?

Overall, great grooves and playing. Thanks for sharing.
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moshkito View Drop Down
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Hi,

I enjoyed this ... it was nice to hear.

My ears, for some weird reason, kept hearing some moments that felt like old days Fillmore ... a really good blow out, let's say, and it felt good to hear it.

Interesting comment about keyboards ... I immediately thought ... heck he can add those on top of what he already has, although I am not sure it is necessary, since the stuff you have is pretty nice and stands out.

And yes, that bass is very nice ... need more ... more ... more ... 
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
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dougmcauliffe View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Grumpyprogfan Grumpyprogfan wrote:

You are a very talented multi-instrumentalist, Doug. For me "Mountain, I Am Spilling War" stands out. Your mix is well balanced and I love the growl of your bass. What effect did you use on the bass? What gear did you have to record with? Did you intend these songs to be instrumental, because I hear lyrics on these songs?

Anyway if I recall, keyboards were your main instrument. Any reason they weren't used much?

Overall, great grooves and playing. Thanks for sharing.

Hey man, really appreciate you giving it spin, genuinely. I hold your opinion in high regard (even though you give all my favorite albums 2 stars LOL it's okay, I do the same to you). So yeah these all ended up being instrumentals because all though I can work my way around a few different instruments competently, singer I am not! I tried a lot of things but couldn't get it in a place where I was happy with vocals, Mountain I Am Spilling War is the track I especially set aside places for vocals. I originally started this project with my old roommate from college, he was also all over any instrument you hand him but an especially gifted vocalist. However, he was gone studying abroad in Australia so I decided to just go along with the instrumental jam tracks as is. He's back now and we've talked about going back and recording some vocals for the songs here, but I think we're just gonna make new songs rather then spend too much time looking backwards. 

Yeah so with keyboards, I spent a few years as a real regimented classical pianist and that was my main thing. I started playing guitar 10 years ago and long story short, things just got kinda old for me with piano. Had the epiphany that my passion for music doesn't lay in classical music, and years of 5-7 hour practice days just wore me out on it. So I started playing guitar again all the time, and I decided to put my energy towards that and kick out the jams. Found a real inspiration in artists like Hendrix, Ronald Jones (90s Flaming Lips) and Larry Lalonde of Primus and how they manipulated noise and distortion to be a part of the music. Mountain was the third song I recorded and I figured hey, I still got some chops on keys! I should integrate them even if it's just a supporting instrument. So looking towards the future I def plan to expand on the sound through more keys. Everything was recorded with one mic on a little two channel interface and meticulously mixed together. I kinda dig the sound cause at times it just sounds like a pretty tight live garage sounding band in parts, but on the same token I think it might deter some people from listening, so I'm hoping with future releases I can get a more ironed out sound as far as the mix goes, proper drum mic setup etc. Thanks again man!
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dougmcauliffe View Drop Down
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Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

Hi,

I enjoyed this ... it was nice to hear.

My ears, for some weird reason, kept hearing some moments that felt like old days Fillmore ... a really good blow out, let's say, and it felt good to hear it.

Interesting comment about keyboards ... I immediately thought ... heck he can add those on top of what he already has, although I am not sure it is necessary, since the stuff you have is pretty nice and stands out.

And yes, that bass is very nice ... need more ... more ... more ... 

Thank you so much for listening man! I really appreciate that filmore comparison, I was kinda going for a 'live' sound with how everything was put together! And since both of you mentioned keyboards, rest assured there will be plenty more of that coming in the future on any releases to come. Plenty more of that bass tone will be on the way too, dialed in something pretty punchy there! Thanks again, means a lot to hear this since I've mostly showed this music to friends that either aren't really coming from a musician or super attentive listener standpoint so it's nice to hear input coming from a source like this.
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moshkito View Drop Down
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Points: 17510 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 04 2023 at 15:07
Hi,

Vocals ... voicings, singing ... can I ask why it has to be like that?

Fun stuff that I'm working on in the book about IMPROVISATION I'm working on!

Exercise for fun!!! Take one piece that you might have lyrics to and whisper the lyrics with the song ... as if you were trying to make sure that you can make the kid go to sleep ... something different and unusual.

Pull a Robert Wyatt ... "different every time" ... and you will find a way to use the voice. Who says it has to be "singing"? Heck, for that matter the shower and the mirror are just as good, as long as you don't look at the mirror and think ... who's that monkey? And LAUGH!

Words, are not only to be "sung" ... they can also be spoken, and shown to mean a lot more than one sentence brought us ... take advantage of it ... no one else does it anyway!
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
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moshkito View Drop Down
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Points: 17510 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote moshkito Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 08 2023 at 06:43
Hi,

(sorry ... a bit long ... editorial of sorts!) 

Keyboards ... keyboards ... I don't think I am the only person that thinks that keyboards are not necessary, specially for something to be considered "progressive mulchcrap" ... and I say that because too many things that you hear these days, the keyboards are simply an addon that is not adding a whole lot to the music, which always makes me think ... what is it doing there?

I've come, it could be said, from classical music, and made a film version (for a class on opera directing with Peter Mark of the Virginia Opera) of TOSCA's 2nd act, and seeing a score with 20 some lines for different instruments is a far better for my imagination, than watching a rock band with 5 lines, and were you or I to compare one to the other side by side, many would sound weak, and badly designed or composed ... simply following a beat or a chord or set of notes. To me, that is bad keyboard stuff and very poor band design, meaning that the focus is on something else, be it the lyrics, or the guitar, but the keyboards are superfluous and not necessary for the most part.

I guess that my image, from classical music, is sort of a movie scenario where the symphony or the concerto takes your imagination away, something that rock music can't do without "lyrics", which has a tendency to make me think that most listeners are not well versed in the history of music, and how people came to think of a lot of music ... to the point that they have to be TOLD with lyrics, so you can believe the song.

I love keyboards, but my best and special ones, are not always the ones that most folks like. I suppose that the odd one would be Keith Emerson, however, for me, right from the start he was the wayward student that could not get his professor's attention ... and by the time you LISTEN to Rachel Flowers doing the piano version of TARKUS, you know you had a massive modern composer right there ... and I have felt that from the very first day I got ELP (Pic's at an Exhibition was my 1st btw), which was done because I knew the piece and a lot of classical music by that time, that this was special and that Keith knew music a lot more than we thought ... they were brilliant. But the odd ones are better for me ... the artist and cover designer for Amon Duul 2 also played keyboards, but you would never think that they were not in tune with their music all the way to Vive La Trance. I never thought for one second that what Christian Decamps was doing in Ange with his brother, was not classically minded, specially now in his older days, he is creating very symphonic pieces that are super expressive and mannnnn does it ever need his brother's voice of the old days!

I loved a lot of music that did not have keyboards ... Edgar Broughton Band, Incredible String Band, Guru Guru and many others ... and still think that they were much more progressive than we give them credit for and then some. So, in essence, I don't need something extra to simply add more dust to the material (so to speak !!! sorry!!!) ... I would rather it added "magic" to it ... by making the "scenery" even bigger and stronger ... let's use a movie image ... make the piece of music be a David Lean or a Akira Kurosawa ... no one else was as visually minded, wide, and clean in long shots and imagery and let it live ... and I would love to see rock music do that a lot more ... a lot more. 

To me SF, had a lot of imagery and it wasn't the cheap stuff on the walls from the candles and the this and that in the light shows ... had the music itself not had a LIFE in it, I am not sure that the visuals would have been as valuable or important.



Edited by moshkito - July 11 2023 at 07:31
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
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suitkees View Drop Down
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Points: 9050 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote suitkees Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 08 2023 at 09:28
Originally posted by dougmcauliffe dougmcauliffe wrote:

I would describe it as a mix of Heavy Psych, Prog Rock, Acid Rock and a little bit of Noise Rock in the mix.

Ow, this would not necessarily be a recommendation to me, but I actually very much liked what I heard!
I like the spontaneity of the playing, which gives a very pleasant energy to these tracks (and which - this spontaneity - is often lacking in prog, imho). Like Grumpy, I like that rollicking bass in these pieces, the subtle electric piano touches on Mountain... and an impressive guitar play. I'm maybe less convinced by the - mostly - frenetic drumming (and especially the omnipresence of the cymbals), though this could partly be due to the one mic recording and the mix.
The guitar playing, the spontaneity, that jam-like style make me think a bit of a recent discovery of mine (but more jazzy): La théorie des cordes (you might like their latest album 4U-9525 or their double live Singes électriques.

Congrats and keep the good work coming!

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