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Tech has changed us again. This is the first time we have ever done an intermediate master.

I am a bit wary...ok make that extremely wary...of the idea that I am mastering. Mixing was one thing, but this seems...inadvisable.

AJ is about the only person I'd trust to do both. Maybe Ben. Me? Hmmm....on the other hand, the price is extremyl reasonable and the technology is...remarkable.

I put all the current songs, in their present states, together in one pseudo mastered session. It's a viewpoint we haven't had before. Usually it's mix, hand over, wait, see what you get.

The other thing is that while the songs are unfinished...well a few of them...I am getting to hear the album? (ALBUM??) as a cohesive thing.

Thanks to Ben we did a studio session on Friday which may be the final studio session for this release. Maybe.

I think we've hit 10 or 11 songs, now depending on whether 'Soothesayer' survives, and/or if anything develops before we finish what we have. I am trying to avoid going back to the 'main' studio (ha!) until we're ready with a brand new batch of stuff.



Having embraced Mr Wizards idea of declaring victory with what we have, we may be on a completion glide slope now. Which is nice. As that free's up some brain power to look at the other stuff :)

The tech is influencing what we make and how. It's fascinating.

  folded from one sheet of paper

finding no trace of your maker

and so without belief in nothing

you test the limits of your suffering

to find again that there’s no distance

The world outside’s the one within you

Telling me to mind my place

and kiss the hem of your brocade

while all the world turns around

with you at centre stage

this time

All the kings and queens bow down before you

to venerate the Portion you control

it’s how we’ll keep yourself from ever looking

down to the furthest recess of your soul

go and break my heart

go and break my heart

go and break my heart       

when the wheel turns around and brings me where you lay

this time

and it cursed the eyes that ever saw you

to frame your sacrifice in black and white

with your hands and knees clasped out before you

did they notice that you lay down like a child to die?       

tell me can you finally hear the silence

that’s the sound it makes when giants fall

to see your innocence undone in violence

when the sacred’s stolen from the world

And it’s only when it happens to you

You get to feel like everybody else

Though I’m trying so hard to accept it

All I want is to forget myself

Why do we need any more than X songs?

Mr Wizard said let's call it 10 and declare victory.

I love the idea.

Mind you, we reviewed the greenhouse today and found what's in bloom. There's a lot growing but ...well...some of it's just too introverted and chilled for Basilisk. 

Ah yeah the current working title for this album is Basilisk. All hail!

As my filing technqiue is unstoppable, we reviewed the stuff we have been developing for a while and looked for what will round off this collection.

Plus new stuff.


A couple of the things plain havent worked. We're recycling them for parts and burning the evidence.

Which of the things will emerge to take the spot/s? Can we be sure? What rough beast, its hour now come, lurches towards Bethlehem, waiting to be born? ;P

Good effective work today. It's ok to go NOPE when your best ideas kind of fart like a deflating balloon. We're in pursuit of new and better :) Our greenhouse project includes it's fair share of faceplants :)  ouch. Paul S seems to think he can resurrect at least one of them but I think it's just overworked dough. I can't tell if I love it or hate it anymore. Doing the mixed has altered my thinking. It's also possible to be too close and thus miss the good, for the want to do better.

So lets just move the goalposts and say we meant this yay we win! Hmmm...I have a vox session this friday, it's tempting to aim to conclude this grouping with what I can get done by then. Hmm...

ALL HAIL THE BASILISK!

Self awareness is kinda a pain in the...God bless me and my happy delusions, long may they reign.

Meanwhile - thoughts that have popped into Le Noggin:

- my blogging seems to be a mix of 'OMFG this is taking forever' and/or 'oh we got it done'. As the gig schedule has been light recently, well, fair enough.
- I am at the point of now listening to the current tracks as an 'album'

Man this is weird. You get so caught up in the songs you forget what they sound like as a group.

As each album has generally been about a year's worth of making, it's like marking the passage of time.

I'm pretty sure, as with Signposts, I am about to make the same 'oh yeah this is kinda interesting' cos it is. Once again another mutated mutant.

Who'da thunk Synth huh? Hmm...

Status is 9 songs now sort of ready is. 4 released, five at 80% completion and climbing.

I'm having some (understandable) self doubt as I continue the mixing. We have had some pretty good mixing engineers along the way. Hmm...same time though can't beat my price! Ah. Ok well also it has thoroughly mutated what we are doing, as I may have referenced 'pet sounds' in my thinking. Cos I am playing with the buttons it is likely to lead to this.

Big ups to Paul S. (Briar Patch!) cos who knew either of us would be fools for synth. Yeah we've collectively lost our minds before so what's new right? 

Talking to Mr Wizard, we're still not sure what an album...thing...is anymore. I reckon we're 10 minutes of recorded sound away from a release as a group of songs but....I know. It's really hard to grasp that it doersn't matter any more. Ouch.

Also big Ups to our mate T in Space Engineer, whose prolific output of really good bloody songs spurs me on to get our stuff done.

This current album is reall...see I said it again. Album. AAAAAAHHH!!!

(Sigh)

This current ...bunch... of songs shares some common elements. We have used all the bits of new tech that suited us, from drum machines, to EQ filters and a virtual Desk emulator, synth strings, harmonica put through a vocoder, all sorts of stuff. 'Signposts' featured 29 guest musicians in total. So far for this one it's probably under 10. So far. By the time we're done it'll climb a bit.

I am now reviewing the Greenhouse to see what will come through to round out the group. That has prompted a little more discussion on how many tracks etc, and what vibes.

Not sure how many of the other tracks we'll do as single...hmmm...

I've still got some time left on Midjourney so maybe even another videoclip or two? Good times my fellow cellar dwellers.

Contribute here:  www.paypal.me/stormcellarband

Self awareness is kinda a pain in the...God bless me and my happy delusions, long may they reign.

Meanwhile - thoughts that have popped into Le Noggin:

- my blogging seems to be a mix of 'OMFG this is taking forever' and/or 'oh we got it done'. As the gig schedule has been light recently, well, fair enough.
- I am at the point of now listening to the current tracks as an 'album'

Man this is weird. You get so caught up in the songs you forget what they sound like as a group.

As each album has generally been about a year's worth of making, it's like marking the passage of time.

I'm pretty sure, as with Signposts, I am about to make the same 'oh yeah this is kinda interesting' cos it is. Once again another mutated mutant.

Who'da thunk Synth huh? Hmm...

Status is 9 songs now sort of ready is. 4 released, five at 80% completion and climbing.

I'm having some (understandable) self doubt as I continue the mixing. We have had some pretty good mixing engineers along the way. Hmm...same time though can't beat my price! Ah. Ok well also it has thoroughly mutated what we are doing, as I may have referenced 'pet sounds' in my thinking. Cos I am playing with the buttons it is likely to lead to this.

Big ups to Paul S. (Briar Patch!) cos who knew either of us would be fools for synth. Yeah we've collectively lost our minds before so what's new right? 

Talking to Mr Wizard, we're still not sure what an album...thing...is anymore. I reckon we're 10 minutes of recorded sound away from a release as a group of songs but....I know. It's really hard to grasp that it doersn't matter any more. Ouch.

Also big Ups to our mate T in Space Engineer, whose prolific output of really good bloody songs spurs me on to get our stuff done.

This current album is reall...see I said it again. Album. AAAAAAHHH!!!

(Sigh)

This current ...bunch... of songs shares some common elements. We have used all the bits of new tech that suited us, from drum machines, to EQ filters and a virtual Desk emulator, synth strings, harmonica put through a vocoder, all sorts of stuff. 'Signposts' featured 29 guest musicians in total. So far for this one it's probably under 10. So far. By the time we're done it'll climb a bit.

I am now reviewing the Greenhouse to see what will come through to round out the group. That has prompted a little more discussion on how many tracks etc, and what vibes.

Not sure how many of the other tracks we'll do as single...hmmm...

I've still got some time left on Midjourney so maybe even another videoclip or two? Good times my fellow cellar dwellers.

Contribute here:  www.paypal.me/stormcellarband