The P.A.Morbid Song Cycle

This Post is a generally sweeping and possibly wee bit pretentious title for a series of musical projects that began some six or seven years ago with the idea of doing a series of remixes and sort of cover versions of some of my favourite muzak pieces, lyrics and poems. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever done cover versions of these before.

Vocals were recorded on minidisc (remember them) by none other than the great North England poet, P.A. Morbid.  Morb is well known around the local poetry circuit, and has a number of published works.

He is also the voice and guiding force behind his own musical project, Killy Dog Box and Pre Dating the 13th. Perfect dark ambient fodder for a cold winter evening and well worth checking out, and links can be found here:

https://soundcloud.com/killy-dog-box

https://soundcloud.com/pre-dating-the-13th

The four tracks were finally completed  among a series of a number of other projects, although I did not want to put anything up on the blog or Soundcloud until I felt everything was finished, and Morbid had graciously given me the go ahead to use his golden larynx. So now, a mere seven years or so later, here we are:

Magog Hammer Machine

First one from a series of remix cover version projects. Vocals are by none other than P.A.Morbid. The original version is buried somewhere in the title and the supporting image may well be a clue. Suffice to say one of my favourite ever tracks, and a big influence for many things over the years.  It is now far removed now from the original track, with a series of time stretched tones. overlaid samples, loops and general madness.

Archbishop Thunderstorm

The second piece in the series was a classic from one of my favourite 70s Krautrock bands. Amazing lyrics and incredible vocals and beat in the original. No way that it could ever be matched in terms of its lysergic intensity - so this is a completely different and individual take. Vocals are again from the Rev. P.A. Morbid.

Come Again

A cover version born not in a song, but in a poem. But not just any poem of course, but one of the greatest poems ever. Penned by everyone's fave Irish Poet Golden Dawn member, this tells of an apocalyptic vision heralded by spiritual decay and cultural loss. Probably more pertinent even today than when it was written. Loved it ever since I saw a comic version of it in International Times made as a collage cut up by Biff Comics. Vocals again are by the incomparable P.A. Morbid.

All the Ears Round

The final piece from this series of insane cover version projects, this time returning to my favourite 70s Krautrock bands with the a track just showing their just plain amazing and incredible lyrics. I tried to use Morbid's vocals to bring the hypnotic, overwhelming, trancelike, unsettling quality of the lyrics right into the foreground.

Eight Bit Eight Bit - Two Pieces of Eight

Here we have one of two takes of a home made 8 bit/circuit bent synth type thang, fed through a Kaoss Pad for a bit of extra flange together with a bit of Bass Station loop sequencing to help it all gel together.

....and this time we have a remix of the session from the circuit bent 8 bit synth and Kaoss Pad, now just with midi bass sequencers. A more ambient sort of hollowness in the back of the head kind of feel...

Radio under the Sea

This is a complicated beast - two radios, one circuit bent and running through distorted AM frequencies; one running UHF frequencies on white noise shipping forecast airwaves, fed through banks of effects through a Kaoss Pad, and then chopped up, mutilated and lovingly arranged on beds of various drum loops. Who can work out the source of the drum loops? Good Or Great?

Weevils Meetles Again

This all started its merry little journey from an unassuming home made synth noise maker called the Weevil Bugbrand, designed by the DIY electronics wizard, Tom Bugs (have another plug Tom, at www.bugbrand.co.uk/). Then it evolved through being fed through my noise maestro monster, the Powertran digital delay and alongside a Roland Mc303 sequencer - with much editing of the flanges and edges afterwards of course.

Eating Radio

Take one shortwave radio. Feed through Kaoss Pad. Add midi loops. Process through various effects. Simmer with shattered synapses.

Me and My Tubular Droner

The Kaoss Pad still in force here, now running through a series of hand built electronic devices and fed through multiple effects. File somewhere between ambient, noise, and beautifully damaged...

Big Changes in my Lonely Furrow

So when I started this blog idea thing, the original idea was to have a small select group of us putting in various tunes, videos, images and other bits of media on a sort of regular basis, and then interlinking with threads and themes. It started becoming obvious after a short while that this wasn't going to work and it was only myself putting in stuff....

...and that's alright, because after all it's what people want to do. No disappointments, no reproaches. On I go, winding my lonely furrow, putting in new stuff and weird ideas as the fancy takes me.

So, after a long think, and a long long time away from anything, bloglike, here we go again...

KG and the Ultramixes:



While working on a track using samples from the amazing Gristleism box of effects running it through midi sequencers and Kaoss pads for effects, I started finding I was developing one of the most complex tracks I had ever come across - or at least, one of the ones that I found was taking longer and longer and longer to get right. Fourteen takes and remixes later, I was coming away with something that I was happy with. Here is a little oddity that almost feel by the wayside during these sessions, being a track that was made entirely with midi sequencers and much processing of the flanges.





This track now shows the TeeGee samples modulated through Gristleism and the Kaoss Pad and now teamed up with a certain Tee Gee ditty. I can't think what came over me when I was putting this one together...





This is what I was trying to achieve with the track - but at Version 12, it is still something I am not happy with. Maybe I am just being picky but there is a series of clicks throughout that really get on my bits. This is one is the Gristleism Box, the Bass sequence loop, and the Kaoss Pad, all going at it together!



...and then finally from this series, we have the Tee Gee samples and the Kaoss Pad at work again, but this time supported by a solid piece of brain candy in the form of a loop from the PFC. I leave anyone vaguely interested  to figure out what that particular acronym stands for.