Really dig the vocals and the synth dystopia.

Music: Jan Schonander
Crows from Pixabay
Image generated with OpenAI with a prompt

The anticipation - the standoff - the requiem 

A favorite movie of mine from my younger days is "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" famously ending in a Mexican Standoff between Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef. Directed by Sergio Leone with music by Ennio Morricone I recommend this spaghetti western to anybody who hasn't seen it.  On a whim I thought I would perform a musical reenactment, although in my version there are no survivors.

The experimental part of this has to do with the reverb on the drums in the "shootout" to simulate gunshots.

A Mexican standoff is a confrontation where no strategy exists that allows any party to achieve victory. Any party initiating aggression might trigger everyone's demise. At the same time, the parties are unable to extract themselves from the situation without suffering a loss. [Wikipedia]

Mexican Standoff

"Take The Black" is an epic cinematic symphonic folk metal song that has been inspired from fantasy role play games and medieval music. The pyromancer is back and brought his shady friends. Let's assemble, take the black and bring down a bloodthirsty tyrant! 
After writing "Pyromancer" in 2021, we wanted to create some epic battle music. Everything started with an arpeggio on my acoustic guitar, when I suddenly had the idea to try something with bagpipes. Jordan's comment about medieval villagers wielding forks and shields against a tyrant has been a great lyrical prompt, so we continued on that. The arrangement grew bigger, and bigger, and soon we had to summon the whole band. 

Credits:
Nadine de Macedo: composition, arrangement, classical guitar, clean electric guitar, lyrics, programming (bagpipe, brasses, drums), production
Jordan Hirsch: vocals, lyrics, composition
Stephan Kösters: bass
Simon Ashby: electric rhythm guitars
Tom Slatter: electric lead guitars, solo

Where to find us:
https://soundcloud.com/nadinedemacedo
https://soundcloud.com/tfish77
https://soundcloud.com/sphk
https://soundcloud.com/sdashby
https://tomslatter.bandcamp.com

==== LYRICS ====

High above the castle walls
Lives a tyrant drenched in blood
Drop by drop, we share our strength
Til this trickle is a flood

Cut by cut he bleeds us
Til we are drained and dry
But tonight I'll lead us
Our swords and knives held high

Gathering our strength now
Together we are one
In the black we'll do our work
Until the deed is done

Fighting back for what is ours
Fighting for our lives
In the black we'll find it
In the black we'll thrive

The blackness is where strength takes hold
It's time to save our souls

We are the children of the night
Sellswords, reapers and dark knights
Let us steal the night away
And stay hidden for the day

We are the children of the night
Sellswords, reapers and dark knights
Let's assemble and attack
Take the black, I'll take the black!

(Take the black)
(Take the black)
(Take the, take the black)
(I'll take the black!)

We'll take the hills
We'll take the land 
We'll take his life with our bare hands
We'll take the night
We'll take the day
We'll take the black, take it away

We've given all that we can give
We cannot let this evil live
So we will take a life tonight
We'll take the black, we'll take what's right!

The blackness is where truth unfolds
It is time to save our souls

We are the children of the night
Sellswords, reapers and dark knights
Let us steal the night away
And stay hidden for the day

We are the children of the night
Sellswords, reapers and dark knights
Let's assemble and attack
Take the black, I'll take the black!

(Take the black)
(Take the black)
(Take the, take the black)
(I'll take the black!)

We are brothers in arms
raise swords, prepare spells and charms
Let truth and virtues reign
Our fight won't be in vain
Prepare! Behead the king!

The blackness comes to take our toll
We've sacrificed our souls

We are the children of the night
Sellswords, reapers and dark knights
Let us steal the night away
And stay hidden for the day

We are the children of the night
Sellswords, reapers and dark knights
Let's assemble and attack
Take the black, I'll take the black!

(Take the black)
(Take the black)
(Take the, take the black)
(I'll take the black!)

Take The Black

RELEASE NOTES

A collaborative jam featuring Stonerjazz (@user-911083679) on vocals,
Turab Khan (@turab-khan) on guitar, Zanshin 残真 (@soundsofthekosmos) on
drums & Teth Sin (@teth-sin) on guitars, bass & vocals.
This collaboration started back in 2020. Myrh (@myrhyum) suggested Teth
Sin to track a guitar part on "Mazdoor Funk (loop jam with Raza)" -
Original track by Turab Khan:
https://soundcloud.com/turab-khan/chichora-23. The project was then left
aside for various logistical and technical reasons.
A couple of years later Zanshin 残真 sent Teth Sin a sample of his cool
street drumming, which was synced to Turab Khan's jam. Teth Sin, at that
point, decided to cut out the bass and drums from the original piece,
leaving only Turab Khan's guitar. Then he chopped up his guitar solo and
redistributed it across various tracks. He also added a new bass line,
which helped vary the structure of the song.
In late 2023 Teth Sin asked Stonerjazz to kindly add lyrics and vocals.
He mixed and mastered the song, and the result is this enjoyable
funk-rock jam, featuring a sample of Stonerjazz's exquisite
post-beat/psychedelic poetry.
Please note that every element was recorded in a different continent:
drums in Australia, some guitar in Pakistan, other guitars in Tunisia,
bass in Italy, vocals in the USA. Still this virtual jam sounds so
cohesive, despite a world that seems to be increasingly fragmented and
disjointed. At the end of the day, we should always remember that we all
revolve around That Giant Ball Of Burning Gas...

LYRICS by Stonerjazz:

Just out here in the middle of the void,
spinning fast around a giant ball of burning gas
that's hurdling thru the deepest darkest space.
Meteors and comets are zooming by at breakneck pace
The situation seems to be a little bit precarious,
some might even say Nefarious,
how can it be that tragedy can sometimes  almost  be  hilarious.
Stupidity it seems to be the order of the day.
But here we are and here we go onward out,
like warriors without a clue,
and everyone will play their part,
of this i'm sure, i know it's true.

That Giant Ball Of Burning Gas - Feat Teth Sin, Turab Khan, Zanshin 残真

Bolero's sands ✞*:･

Wo Bist Du

“A song inspired by global crisis about hope and things getting better; to refrain from singing The Blues. Taking influence from Metallica, Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver.”

DON'T LOAD THE BLUES JUST YET

Don’t load The Blues just yet

Take a drink 
This is life 
It ain’t as worse as you think 
Take a step
Run to the cliff 
Go to the edge and dive right in

It’s time to storm the weather 
The past ain’t cement 
It’s going to get tough
Trouble’s been sent 
Don’t load The Blues just yet 

Spit out the pain and hate
Breathe in what remains 
Bounce forward and step by step
Take that turn and hope for the best

© Heart House Records 2024

Written, performed, recorded, produced and mixed by Heart House Records
Mastered by DOLBY

DON'T LOAD THE BLUES JUST YET

CAST OF CHARACTERS:
J.J. Terrell-- @j-j-terrell—JJ-- electric piano, synth, seed idea
Mistermark-- @user-432503709 -- Mark –  vocals, lyrics, mix, and production
Llanpsych-- @llanpsych -- Tez – guitar
TexMex Shaman– @texmex-shaman –Stephen–banjo, guitar, sitar, and final mastering
K2 and the Three [and the Four]--@k2andthe3, @k2-kara –Ken–drums, seed idea
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)– @josh-clary-1 –Josh – four-string fretless bass

Composition – The Eclectic Collective
This song started in probably the most effective way our group writes them. Ken had a spectacular drum beat that was unused in a previous project, so JJ composed and recorded  a chord arrangement with his magical keys. Once we had a beat and a chord structure, Josh came along and added his foundational bass. 
     Now that the rhythm section was complete and the chord structure was in place, Stephen added his unique melody line that you hear at the beginning and every other verse on his magic banjo. He also plays all the initial guitar until around 1:40, where Tez takes over. Stephen also added some really trippy sitar in the vocal section. Then it was time for Tez to add some spice to the mix with his fiery guitar solos from about 1:40 on, eventually building up to a crescendo towards the end. 
     Once we had all the music down, we realized that we had a big gap in the bridge without much going on in it. So, Mark came through with an old poem he had written on his fridge with word magnets for his daughter more than a decade ago, and expanded on it for this song. (the poem is loosely based on the idea that our dreams exist in a digital environment/universe) The young girl's voice you hear echoing Mark's filtered voice is his daughter, in her first appearance with the EC. 
     The song was now finished, except for Mark using his production skills to trim and move a few things, then mix it. While we usually defer to Tez or Stephen for the mix, Mark did such a great job, we decided to keep his mix. Stephen did, however master and EQ it to make it a finished product. 
     This song was truly put together as a whole band effort, showcasing what the Eclectic Collective can do. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed creating it.  

Original lyrics by Mistermark:  

The moon flickers on
and rises and dances
across a celestial stage
as dreamers paint the pixels of their mind 
like an infinite canvas 

Sleep away tiny egg
and leave a delicate thread 
of memory behind 
but never log out 
you are in the elaborate web
always

-------------------------------------------
here's a photo of the original fridge magnet poem from years ago:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mark_boucher/2257994722/in/album-1495769/

and here's some collections of photos I took over the years:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mark_boucher/albums/

Dancing Moon (The Eclectic Collective)

Maggie Sunrise 1993

På stranden. 1636 ( 1993 ) Margareta Theorin ( Margareta )

Epic Rave Sounds

Mayhem

life is horrible when i see u Feat School

Electronic Rock project - playing with  Murakaru on 3/10/25 at the Catfish Bar in Fitzroy.
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3fthmittCpkgqMsENVDdLo?si=DNippaT9Q_qDjVByilL20g
www.instagram.com/regenmoorband

Wo Bist Du

Regenmoor

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