Experimental

Experimental Player

Any lyrics and notes for the above tracks can be found below. Scroll down or use the table of contents to navigate.

Lyrics & Notes

Use Of Weapons

No lyrics to this one - the synthesized voice repeating the phrase “Use of weapons is allowed” doesn’t count.

There is a kind of groovy bass line, assorted guitars, synth patterns and noises that sound like weapons being used. The whole is stitched together from ACID samples and other found sounds.

Flap

This was the first piece that I composed using samples and its named for one of the samples used. The one I mean will be pretty obvious when you listen to the track.

Bradley’s Groove

Still no lyrics. Just a collection of nice guitar passages backed with some good old drums and bass.

299792458

The speed of light is 299,792,458 metres per second
No material object can move faster than light

“Nothing in physics prevents you from travelling as close to the speed of light as you like
99.9 percent of the speed of light would be just fine
But no matter how hard you try, you can never gain that last decimal point” ~ Carl Sagan

Light travels almost 9.5 trillion kilometres in the course of a single year
The nearest star to the sun is about 4.5 light-years away
With today’s technology, it would take us almost 20,000 years to get there

It’s a long way to go, but I hope one day we will get there
As long as we don’t wipe ourselves out first

Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared
Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared
Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared
Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared

“Nothing in physics prevents you from travelling as close to the speed of light as you like
99.9 percent of the speed of light would be just fine
But no matter how hard you try you can never gain that last decimal point”
~ Carl Sagan

This one is pretty much about the speed of light and our efforts to travel into space. I had help from such luminaries as Carl Sagan and some bloke called Einstein with this one. Not forgetting Bill Hicks for providing a way in which our dreams of exploring the galaxy could be realised.

Oil On The Water

There’s oil on the water
Oil on the shore
Stealing life from the sea
Poisoning life on the land
Blown by the wind
And drawn by the tide
To where it was not meant to be

There’s oil on the water
Oil on the shore
Spreading like wildfire
Because somebody had to have more

There’s oil on the water
Oil on the shore
Shutting out the sunshine
That warms the ocean floor

Oil on the water
Oil on the shore
Nothing left for anyone

There’s wood on the river
Wood in the floor
Stealing life from the forest
Leaving nothing but sand
Blown by the wind
And drawn from the place
Where it is supposed to be

Oil on the water
Oil on the shore
Nothing left for anyone
Nobody get’s any more

These lyrics have never been permanently set to music though I have made a few failed attempts to find something that worked. Nothing I tried seemed quite right – apart from a keyboard piece that almost captured the feel I wanted. Then when working on this loop, which was initially titled “Drift”, I thought I’d add some words as an experiment. The search for suitable words led me to the lyrics above and I decided to experiment.

To push the bounds of experimentation further I also decided to use a text-to-speech generator to say the words rather than have me singing them. I used the MARY Text-To-Speech System which I think has created a suitable effect. It sounds a little jarring but I feel that works well with the subject matter even if it is quite a departure from the way I originally saw the words being used.

One day I’ll redo it as a piano and vocal only arrangement. But first I’ll need to get a piano.

Cryovolcanic

Scientists say there are ice volcanoes on Titan
Where frozen ammonia, methane and water
Erupt to the surface like lava here on Earth

Not really sure that the above count as lyrics. But the words are difficult to make out when they appear so it seemed worth noting them here.

Otherwise, its samples, samples, samples, all the way down.

Entropy

I was trying to capture a sense of descending into chaos with this track. Hopefully the samples I’ve used succeed in conveying that.

Politicians Lie

politicians lie
to suit their cause
expenses sleaze
tuition fees
politicians lie

left or right
whichever wing
the middle ground
there’s no such thing
black and white
or plain as day
we think it’s clear
but their shade is gray

politicians lie
as a matter of course
budget cutbacks
oil prices tax
politicians lie

left or right
whichever wing
the middle ground
there’s no such thing
black and white
or plain as day
we think it’s clear

politicians lie
when they move their lips
write manifestos
to massage egos
politicians lie

black and white
or plain as day
we think it’s clear
but their shade is gray

This was my reaction to the early days of the Tory/Lib Dem coalition formed in 2010. Though looking back through my lifetime, it applies to pretty much every government I’ve known.

The Tories remain the worst, of course. And that’s even more so now we have that narcissistic, lying buffoon Boris Johnson leading a cabinet of incompetent yes-persons and a party that remain the masters of sleaze.