Buena vista - kiss my sista - and then my fista....auauah

Tabasco and Bullets

SALSA DESASTER

some sort of melancholic nocturne to a world that has gonne mad

WELCOME TO THE JEEP

Stan Ridgeway is a musician I really adore. On first view he might just pass your attention as a typical phenomen of a shortlife-glitter-midi-aerobicdresses-awful-haircut-epoche called the 80s. But this guy is much much more. In the 80s I enjoyed most of his hits, but it took about 15 years to really notice the quality - if not genius - of his works. His lyrics. ANd then his music. ..... It was the song "Lonley Town" - its lyrics....which create an claustrophic kind of atmosphere, hiding dark shadows of subtle mayham and fear in it. By realizing this I heard his music in a new context. Basicly his music is of solid steel, earthbound with a slight touch of country-music (yes, I claim, that there exists some great Country Music on earth), amazing hooklines and wonderful melodies, often spiced with powerful bassriffs and drumparts. - and of course - HIS VOICE - with its typical accent (sorry, as I was never in the USA - maybe one of you could help and tell us for which part of America this accent  is typical ? Is this the famous texas-slang? ) 
 You might say , this is not the typical kind of music one would expect for creepy and spookey lyrics. But a good musician doesn´t always need a huge string section, tons of strange percussion effects and earsmashing brass-outbursts for this. And in "Lonely Town" the sparse "orchestration" even staggers this creepy mood.
Camouflage has everything an early 80s hit needed, even for dancefloor use. So I think many people enjoyed the sound, danced, had a good time - and that´s how life should be! But this song hides a dark secret. Hidden in its lyrics. But I leave it to you- if you want to reveal it.
I rarely do covers...but from time to time, it happens...sometimes simply because of beeing cuorious if it will work, sometimes as an tribut and sometimes simply just for learning. Yes, I think, that creating (good) cover versions is a great way to improve your own composing skills. And it can be done on highest level of art . Remember Johnny Cash´s last album. Or - one of my absolut favourite albums: "Hybrid" - a collection of incredible coverversions of incredible Gary Numan songs. Check it out. And did you know: Franz Liszt covered tons of Schubert and Beethoven "tracks". So this isn´t anything new for shure.
 One of my handicaps is, that no matter where i am - if there is played music , no matter at which Volume, and no matter how ugly and shabby, I can´t prevent that a part of my attention automaticly turns to this.  And another probably interesting thing about me : it took me a long time to realize, that most of  music listeners don´t give any attention to the lyrics of a tune - which might be helpful in some cases...but often  they miss a very important part - in some cases even perhaps the best of the tune.  
Anyway, Stan Ridgeway has an incredible talent for creating creepy scenarios, sinister moods. His early 80s hit "Camouflage" was often missinterpreted as an patriotic song, trying to idealize the Vietnam War by telling a dumb propaganda fairytale about an incredible huge , strong and tough Marine who kicked "Charly´s" asses . But that´s wrong. Give it another go and listen to it again - it´s creepy....
I´ve done 8 coverversions of this song til now. Maybe I will add some of them here later.

Hope you like it. All best. W.S.

CAMOUFLAGE

Two Rhythmus or to be more precise, two different tempos join each other through this Track. Not in Chaos....they create some peaceful and interesting Motion . The Drums i played and Recorded in my old Electro Drumkit . I tended to involve some Drum and Bass that are creating some rhythmic counterpoints too.
Enjoy.

Two_Times_I.mp3

Long ago

This track wants you to get into a state of deep relaxation, a half unconcious hearing, taken on a journey from one wonderful view to another. drifting along through a summerday, watch the clouds rising up high...later that day some thunderstorms are announced...but you can watch and dream..and later you go into the house and meet some good friends.. and you re going through a wonderful time....

GOLDIE-THE SUBCONCIOUS GENIUS VERSION.mp3

Another GOLDIE Variation of mine. This one's features a wide open space, the deep blue see and brings along some far away piano clouds. Enjoy.

Goldie-The-Deep-Blue-Sea

a peaceful evening over an imaginary landsape...painted on my beloved piano

enjoy

Pastorale solitaire

Did you know Emil Waldteufel ? Probably not. I also never heard about this french composer, until i stumbled over a nice collection of beautiful piano waltzes - most of them by E. Waldteufel. I sightreaded through this book and was attracted immediately by the elegance of his waltzes. The piano peaces were set rather simple but nevertheless tasteful. Left hand plays the bass and chords, the right hand just the melodie. Don't get me wrong - I really apprechiate it, when nonprofessional piano-lovers get a chance, to play beautiful piano pieces by reducing the difficulties. Of course this will shurely not work with Ravel's "Gaspard de la nuit". But in many other cases. And it needs a lot of taste and musically and instrumental knowledge, to do this job of reducing really well. There can be also found tons of examples that went badly wrong. 
Anyway, i for myself followed the old virtuoso tradition of Liszt, Kalkbrenner & Co. , who performed on soirées in the noble saloons of Paris arround the second half of the 19th century. They were given a theme by someone of the audiences - and then started improvising on this theme. And believe me, they ' ve done a lot with  this few notes. And they knew how to play a piano and how to create a huge frame of rising tension - ending up in a climax of mindblowing brilliance and virtuosity that left the audiences speechless..
No, I' m not Franz Liszt and the other ladykiller.. . I'm just using some of their tricks and licks, but also try to stay on a acceptable level of musically quality.

Enjoy.
Wolfgang Schüler 

3/2023

Improvisation on a Waltz by Emil Waldteufel

the most difficult thing for me is to choose the genre for this rrack
as there are so many different styles and  influences in it. 
the starting point were some polyrhythmic tests on my drumset. i wanted to find a way to combine rather unusual and komplex stuff with a fat beat to create some exitement for the listener without leaving him lost in quintuplets and bizarre accent shiftings. 
later i added some straight forward   jazz stuff on the piano.. underlayed by some typical Alan Holdsworth harmonies - I adore his musicAlan .
enough words, just listen if you like to...

Torpedo Camouflage Fish.mp3

came here to make music.
did it for 40 years.
then the world went crazy.
not much left but I try to keep on.

Wolfgang Schüler

Popular tracks