Midnight In Ashram

For Baddie

Unboxed July 2024
Original composition, performance and recording by the outstanding @gigivanstuddiford
Reimagined and embellished by Out of the Box
Cover image : Gigi Van Studdiford
More Out of the Box / Gigi Van Studdiford at @outofthebox3

OUT OF THE BOX / GIGI VAN STUDDIFORD - My Soul

Cast of Characters:

Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)– @josh-clary-1 –Josh – 4-string fretless bass
Mysterious Decibel-- @themysteriousdecibel  --MD—effected vocals
J.J. Terrell-- @j-j-terrell—JJ-- organ, trippy synth
Llanpsych-- @llanpsych -- Tez – electric guitar
TexMex Shaman– @texmex-shaman –Stephen– electric guitar, production, mix, and mastering
K2 and the Three [and the Four]--@k2andthe3, @k2-kara –Ken–drums and seed idea 
Composition – The Eclectic Collective

This song began about half a year ago, as part of a three song set that Ken started with some really cool beats. Josh was first to the trough for here, laying in his fretless bass groove to complete the foundation and give it some tonal direction. Stephen came next and laid in the really trippy textural guitar that you hear throughout. JJ was next with his serious, no joke organ playing, which sets the mood for the whole thing. Last, but not least, Tez joined by adding some really cool accent guitar throughout.
  Of course, every great song needs a great producer, so we tapped Stephen to do the honors on this.
  We had originally made this and the other two song with the intention of having The Mysterious Decibel and his friend Modes About Me sing on them. However, life got in the way, so we sat on them. Finally, MD let us know that he wasn't able to complete the project with us, much to everyone's, including his, disappointment. However, MD did lay down a rough vocal demo for us, which Stephen very ably processed to sound almost like another instrument in there. So, we're releasing this song as a tribute to them both, with gratitude, especially to MD for all the great work he's put in with us. If you're not familiar with either of them, do yourself a favor and check them out. Modes about me is at  @modesaboutme and the link to The Mysterious Decibel can be found in the link in the cast of characters above. 
  This is an example of what it sounds like when the whole band composes a song together. We hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed making it.

Mysterious Modes (Eclectic Collective)

Slo Burn (but Getting Faster)

Recorded in:
Los Angeles, California, USA
Earlsdon, Coventry, UK
Norton Lindsey, Warwickshire, UK
Chelsea & Hornsey, London, UK

Mixed and Mastered in EPG Studios, Chelsea, London, UK.

The Valuable Friends:

@rick-4-1 - Blue Shoe Honey Drums
@janinelevinson - Whitest Cloud Vocals
@loxford-1 - The Amazing Graham Pike on Paint The Moon Brass
@phil-mcwalter - The Other Largest Rock In The Sea Stuff




Count The Steps

Put on your blue shoes honey
Cos only you and I
Count the steps you’ll take
Put on your blue shoes honey
Cos only you and I
Break the codes you’ll make

I don’t want to paint the moon
A hundred shades of blue
I just want to sing this song
Cos it reminds me of you
Put on your best face

I could swim across the bay
To the distant clouds
Count the steps you’ll take
But I just want to be by you
And hold your Beatle’s hand
Put on your best face

Put on your blue shoes honey
Cos only you and I
Rock the fakes you’ll bake

I can’t help but see you
The largest rock in the sea
Painted blue
I know when you’re coming
The whitest cloud in the sky

I could swim across the bay
To the distant clouds
Count the steps you’ll take
But I just want to be by you
And hold your Beatle’s hand
Put on your best face

I could swim across the bay
Cos only you and I
Count the steps you’ll take
I could swim across the bay
To the distant clouds
Cos only you and I
Break the codes you’ll make
I could swim across the bay
Put on your blues shoes honey
Cos only you and I
Rock the fakes you’ll bake

© Phil McWalter September 2024

The rock is a reference to Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte - Mozart)

Release date:
26 September 2024

Count The Steps

20 - 11 - 2024

method: three devices and voice. polyend tracker mini, ingpartner y8, zoom r12. that's it.
narration: heraclitus is one of those 
movers of mental furniture we keep referring to despite knowing next to nothing ..... in the book publication, the poem on him was paired with the one on verdandi, Listen to Verdandi by jo richter on #SoundCloud
https://on.soundcloud.com/c5qCz , see  DIE KINETISCHE KUNST DER LIEBE UNTERSUCHTEN DIE ALTEN AN KÄFERLARVEN UND DUNKLEM GETIER in : CHI
image: the tracker creates crossword grids, copyright jo richter

poem / copyright jo richter:

Galen fand die Säfte innen, Kneipp
aussen und Schauberger liess sie
wirbeln, Hahnemann schütteln: Blut und
Lymphe, Laune und Gemüt. Aus

der inneren Umwelt, der äusseren
Inwelt strömt und färbt sich das
Geschick in den Wassern: Zu deuten
aus Treibgut und gelösten Erden,


die als Schicksal verwirklicht ein
Leben sind. Das war es, was ihnen
zwischen den Fingern zerrann: Ach,
Heraklit wusste um kein Ende
des einzigen Stroms, der in jedem
Dasein mündet - und aus ihm quillt.


[An interlinear translation might be made available in the future]

heraklit

Part of a CD project with Cutts Cook / Ruffcut Studio. Bare bones writing demos were taken into the studio and produced By Karl Cutruff. It was a while ago.. it really was a gift to be able to work with Karl. we were both going through a lot personally at the time. Its a wonder how tracks like this came out of those truly hard times. The record " Always a good Time " was never released... I am thinking about it now... 

The song itself was written during the Bush Bailouts... dastardly deeds by politicians ruining our lives.. still relevant today.

The Dow is sinking..yeah so am I
aint no use for me to sit and cry
Bailin out the big three well thats insanity
give that thirty billion bucks to me
A top executive I may not be..
one step from the skids and poverty
I fire all the fat cats and send em back to school to learn their ABC's

On CNN they got the talking heads
and top advisors from the feds
economic masterminds with empty promises and fat behinds
talkin all slick and scholarly
Now I aint got no college degree
but I attended hard knock university
and if you cant cut the mustard 
its time to call it quits and find a different J.O.B

5 Wrongs dont make a right its pure simplicity
hit the road and dont come back
go find yourself a different J.O.B.

Political solutions they just make me sad
Im sick and tired of being had
uncle sam is dead and seeking retribution but hes haveing trouble gettin through the gates

They say that everyone deserves a second chance
philosophy like that is good and fair
but on that list of SOB's there aint a single first offender there

5 wrongs dont make a right its pure simplicity
hit the road and dont come back go find yourself a different J.O.B.

Always A Good Time

5 Wrongs

A World In Decline

a better day today , let today be a good day

A BETTER DAY

"Magic is what we do. Music is how we do it." -- Jerry Garcia

Welcome to my page, my peers, associates, friends, and musical family. I'm a lifelong, multi-instrumentalist musician who records prolifically and joyfully. You'll hear me play guitar, bass (regular four string, and four and five string fretless), mandolin, banjo, keys (piano, organ, synth), lap slide, sitar, and sing on my recordings here. I've been in a few dozen bands in my life, playing everything from bluegrass, jazz, rock, jam band, reggae, funk, afrobeat, Middle Eastern, traditional Irish, singer/songwriter, pop/covers, to experimental/avant garde. 
  Since I found SoundCloud a couple years ago, I've found many talented, creative people with whom to create music. However, in the summer of '23 I formed a band called The Eclectic Collective with some of my favorite musicians I've met through here. It started as a loose collective of musicians and coalesced into a core group of musicians who find other musicians with whom we'd like to make music, then run their songs through our process, and in effect add a full band. That core of The Eclectic Collective includes Tez (Llanpsych), J.J. Terrel, Ken (K2 and the Three), Stephen (Texmex Shaman), Chris (cgmaness), and Mark (mistermark). A couple of other musicians are frequent collaborators, as well, including Artur of Surfers Like Us, and Steve Vervaet of Steve's World. More recently, we've been joined by Carl of The Beautiful Dark fame. 
  The magic of music is amplified exponentially by each person adding to it. So, we really try to add our sorcery all kinds of music from all kinds of artists. Sometimes, we keep it within the group, but a lot of what we do is collaboration with other artists. Therefore these days, 100% of what I do is collaboration, within the group or with other artists on the side.
  I, and we, are also available for hire if you have a song or lyrics and you really want to add bigger instrumentation or a band and good production to it. 
  A small sampling of the artists whom I consider primary influences, and whom you will hear coming through my fingers include Phish, The Flaming Lips, The Grateful Dead, Radiohead, Rye Cooder, Steve Earle, Miles Davis, Fela Kuti, Arcade Fire, Mikey Dread, Yellowman, Purpleman, The Meditations, Michigan and Smiley, Lee Perry, Dillinger, Django Reinhardt, Impossible Recording Machine, The Allman Bros Band, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Bela Fleck, Les Claypool, Sam Bush, David Grissman, John Prine, Talking Heads, Beastie Boys, MMW, Moe., Morphine, Ween, Steve Lukather, Michael McDonald, John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, John Scofield, Victor Wooten,  Cannonball Adderly, Thelonious Monk, Flea, Parliament Funkadelic,  Frank Zappa, Prince Paul, Pete Rock, Thievery Corporation, Amon Tobin, Chet Baker, Joao Gilberto, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Carol Kaye, Tame Impala, Mumford and Sons, Japanese Breakfast, LCD Soundsystem, Beach House, Sean Lennon, and Billy Strings, but of course there are many more. I also really like and am influenced by traditional Iranian, Palestinian, Indian, Sri Lankan, Sudanese, Mauritian, Somalian, Egyptian, West African, and Syrian music. I welcome anyone who plays non-western music to contact me for a collaboration, too.
 I'm overjoyed to have found my community on SoundCloud. This is a truly unique forum where everyone is sincerely trying to build each other up. The profoundly supportive and positive SoundCloud community has really opened up an exciting new world of collaboration for me. That is the main reason I'm in the Cloud, actually, to connect with other musicians and make music that I enjoy listening to, and hopefully others do, as well. I am ALWAYS looking to collaborate with interesting musicians, mostly though BandLab, which is where I record almost exclusively. It's a solid, free digital audio workstation hub where you can share recording projects, even if it's not where you make your recordings.
  Everything I do is live instrumental, not programmed, and using no computer beyond my phone. That's not to say that I would be opposed to using that kind of tool, it's just not my preferred medium with which to paint. If you like my music, please share it. If you want to collaborate, my BandLab handle is @bingo_pajama. Feel free to contact me at cornbreadband@hotmail.com, as well, even if you aren't on BandLab.
  If your music is primarily AI, please don't come around my page, as I'm not at all interested in complimenting a machine.
  Here's a link to music I've recorded live with a group of musicians here in Pittsburgh called The Northumberland Street Ramblers.
Check out The Northumberland Street Ramblers on #SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/fU4Me