After a fair amount of time away from SAW, Chris comes roaring back with this strange, mostly instrumental composition. Not quite dance music, but not quite the esoteric electronica of some of his past offerings, each percussion-less section of the song is preceded by the word 'Selah', from the Hebrew Psalms, which indicates a place in the reading to 'pause and consider'. Pretentious, non?
Erik favors a stripped-down approach this week, with guitar, bass and vocal, channeling Elvis Costello. Hummable, mid-tempo and pleasant, while being just a little bit acerbic!
Mouth. Hands. Silliness. The result sounds like too much caffeine steeped in a bayou just outside of New Orleans and just this side of insanity. Or, could it merely be the result of Richard having to do two SAWs in row? You decide.
Richard set out to do a song using mainly mouth noises... and failed. But he did succeed in blending many basses, a smattering of guitar, several vocal lines and several... er... mouth noises. Enjoy!
Again a song that results from a challenge! The title came up as a chance phrase in conversation, and Richard challenged Erik to do a song with solely bass accompaniment. Here it is, with four simultaneous bass tracks (so Erik describes them ... how he managed to play them all four at once we can't say!), a drum track and two vocal tracks. Adventurous and tasty!
Following last week's thread of very short and radically different, Chris offers up a first -- SAW's first non-English language track. Consisting of only layered vocals with stomps and claps for percussion, the song is modeled on traditional Scottish mouth music. Any Scottish Gaelic speakers out there will kindly forgive Chris the disgraceful liberties he has taken with a relatively unfamiliar tongue!
This short but (almost literally) sweet concoction grabs you by the ears from the get-go! It's the result of a challenge issued to Richard to write an entirely happy song -- and trust us, for Richard, that IS a challenge. The result is a thickly-layered, frenetic song that features Richard ... um ... well ... rapping! Feast your ears.
For lucky number 13, Erik jumps in feet first with 'Connected'. This also features great looped samples for all the percussion (thanks Jon M.), and some nifty presets from the GSP 21 Legend Guitar Signal Processor. David Byrne influenced lyrics with Elvis Costello influenced production -- could we expect anything less from Mr. H?
Continuing his exploration of the electronic domain, Chris offers this downtempo little number, called 'Interstitial'. Features keyboards, looped samples, guitar and some thickly-layered vocals.
This week, Richard digs down deep for the slow-burning 'Mountain to Mountain', featuring just guitar and vocals.
Continuing a theme of somewhat raw and less polished recordings, Erik offers up 'Inspiration', which arrangement-wise could've been a Haiku Rd. song. Except he plays them all. Some slight echoes of Elton John crop up here and there, along with lots of other long-ago album rockers.
Due to some hardware difficulties and a nasty cold, it took Chris awhile to get around to recording this. As a result, here's the first raw, guitar and vocal only, SAW contribution, a return to his peak songwriting form!
Richard spreads his wings this time around, to try to fly over some new and undiscovered ground! Enjoy this cocktail made with distilled anger. Just in case you're keeping score at home, here are the other ingredients: Electric guitar, bass, vocals, shaker, drum sample, finger snaps, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and The Princess Bride.
It's Erik's turn this time. He gives us a piece of retro commentary called 'So Go the Spoils.' Handclaps, Andrew Sisters harmonies ... even some kazoo! Positively delicious.
With SAW week 6, Chris returns to his acoustic roots with a pleasant slice of love-gone-wrong called 'One-Sided Conversation', mixed with tiny sprinkles of XTC and Spirit of the West. See ya next time!
Richard is back for this week's SAW installment, with a little acoustic guitar/electric guitar/handclaps/layered vocal ditty he likes to call 'Laughing at Myself.' Be good sports and laugh along with him. And enjoy!
With this week's SAW entry, all three members of Haiku Rd. have now contributed. Erik Hendel provides us with four and a half minutes of instrumental madness, proving he ain't half bad with that ee-lectric gee-tar. Actually, he's darn good. Dee-lightful!
And so the SAW keeps buzzing, sharper than ever. Offering number three is from Haiku Roadster Chris Devine. This slice of (mostly) electronic confusion is called 122.3 (Infinite Closure). Enjoy, and we'll see you back here next Monday!
The S.A.W. continues... Presenting Jerry "The Arm" Leach and Herbert Thomas' offering, titled Procrastination. Enjoy! New episodes every Monday, barring the unforeseen. Enjoy!
Behold the first installment of the Song a Week podcast! For the first outing, Richard E. Moore of Haiku Rd. presents this little gem, actually written and recorded in only four days. New episodes will follow every Monday, barring the unforeseen. Enjoy!
