Turn it up for Jesus

Some merriment

Last Christmas by bassling

On the remote chance that you haven't heard my cover version of George Micheal's Last Christmas, here it is.

Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2012.

Ramponi Park

I've cheated a little in this park remix. The train line runs alongside Ramponi Park and I was fortunate to record a train when I visited to collect sounds for this track. The camera was recording from within the Park, of course.

Other than the train, the different sounds heard from the slippery slide are a highlight. It's great the way you can tap across the structure and getting the foundations for chord changes. And everything shares the key of the slide.

Playing a slippery slide

This video shows me tapping harmonics on the slide at Ramponi Park, the site of my next remix. I thought it was a good demonstration of what I wrote about earlier on the variety of sounds produced by a structure.

You can also see I've been trying a new variety of cheap piezo pick-up. It didn't sound too bad but seemed to be broken after visiting the park. Should've guessed it would be crap because it has the word 'professional' in the title on the packet.

Return to Waipukurau Park

It's kinda funny to return to the park down the end of my street where I first tried recording the play equipment and remixing it. The first Waipukurau Park track didn't really meet the process I've established since then though, as it used a couple of VST instruments to complete the sounds.

As you can see, this time I've overcome the limited sonic palette by incorporating bowing a line that resonates on the slippery slide. This was another technique I learned from Alan Lamb when we worked together as part of the Unsound Festival in 2006.

The reverberating fences of the preschool and childcare centres also appear. Last week I mentioned to the director of the Leeton Childcare Centre that I'd been recording the fence and she's invited me to demonstrate it to the kids next Tuesday.

New Abre Ojos

The Solar Angel from abre ojos on Vimeo.

It's worth clicking on the link above to visit the Vimeo page for this clip for an explanation of the imagery.

I've been a fan of Scott's work for about a decade now and he also first taught me to edit video. Then there's the small matter of his decision to invite Alan Lamb to Wagga Wagga in 2004 and build a large-scale aeolian harp at the property I was living at at the time.