All the solo stuff I've done since the addition of my pedal board to the rack set-up... the evolution of my sound over the last year or so... 

The 'pedal era' solo tunes

Featuring a long improvised intro, this was the first track from my show at Greenbelt Festival in Cheltenham on August 25th 2013. More from this show to come... :)

(cover photo by John Sargent)

A Year Afloat (with extended intro) - live at Greenbelt Festival 2013

So, I was messing around with this progression yesterday, and looped the chords, some ambient goo and a solo. Was listening to it while reading the news about the UK election stuff that's going on, and it felt like the same sonic story as Grace And Gratitude 10 years ago. An exploration of the sadness around people adopting a politic of fear and distrust, peddled by a party of opportunists and targeted at the most vulnerable. 

The initial thought to playing yesterday was to explore a few new sound possibilities combining the Dunlop Super Bright strings that I've just put on my 6 string, and my MXR, Darkglass and Markbass pedals (see pic). So I'll tag the audio with what's happening there. 

This is probably the most despondent gear demo you'll ever hear ;) 

Lament

I was really sad to hear yesterday that Gerry Goffin - one of half of one of the greatest songwriting duos of all time - had died. With Carole King, he wrote a dizzying number of astonishing pop songs, from the broken tragedy of 'Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow' to the awesome 'You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman, and this - the pure delighted whimsy of I'm Into Something Good. Which, obviously, I've given a bit of a pathos-laden twist to. 

This is one take from earlier today, played while thinking about Gerry and his legacy. RIP. 

"Something Good" For Gerry Goffin

So after a conversation today with Lo about which REM tune we wanted to cover, I came home and had a go at a solo version of this. It was the first one I thought to try, and this is the 2nd time I played it (I missed recording the first). So here it is, and it starts/ends with a different REM song. 

from a technical stand point - the main point of interest is probably the backwards delay from the Kaoss Pad, onto which I also sample 4 different notes/phrases which I mess with as the tune progresses... fun times :) 

The chances of my next album being all covers has gone up by about 80% in the last few days :) 

[update] there's now a 2nd version of this on Youtube, another take, a little shorter, I think... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8D6dHcr2yE&list=UUHlI8xnDnhdcquOZk1QL3zg

Steve Lawson - Orange Crush

Solo bassist (solobasssteve on most of the internets), improvisor, looper, social media experimentalist, lecturer, writer of blogthings. I use Soundcloud less these days, and am uploading new stuff for my Bandcamp subscribers. Check that out :) 

This music is brought to you by the words bass, looping, live, cinematic, ambient, jazz, improvised, electronica.