@Grape Ape .. You K.O'd this out of the park. You definately captured some of that Shinohara work ethic, the art of threading the needle to focus one's attention on the artwork at hand. Playing your instruments literally puts skin in the game and which I find much more revealing of intent than using samples. I'm still trying to figure out how you did that trill picking to create that sound! Great changes and a fantastic outpouring of how you describe...how "important the process of creation is in regards to existing in the world. when you can release some of what you experience in the world in a song or whatever, and make something youre proud of, its a very empowering and cleansing thing". Well done!! Also, using Bruce Lee as a narrator is really cool!

@macros mk2 .. Becoming "the Japanese dude" and using cultural correct instruments added gravitas, combat sounds realism and the new distortion device well put to good use in portraying the absolutely felt impact of a punch to the gut. Nice work!

 

so basically, you know like surf guitar; yo idk what the name is for it…but its that type of fast strumming, except on an acoustic guitar and on one string. they do it with like classical and spanish guitar a lot but its usually over a chord. im positive you would know it as long as youve been playing, its that plus sliding at parts

i found a vinyl 45 of this on tour in Nashville this summer that i bought, its become my favorite version of this song. but yo the mandolin is doing exactly what im talking about/did

 

Last edited: Dec 16, 2024

Of course, I do it all the time, l play fast on a single string, though for whatever reason it doesn't sound like the guitar that you're playing but more like an eastern string instrument. The resonance seems to change.

I've always enjoyed The Kentucky Colonels ever since I was a little kid. A one time member was Clarence White. He and his brothers Eric and Roland were on on The Andy Griffith Show and as a pipsqueak was mesmerized by what they all played. Clarence was amazing.

After Clarence died another of my favorite guitarists, Tony Rice got a hold of Clarence's guitar and played it until he too died.

The first video is the performance on television that I mentioned and the second one of my all time favorite live performances ever, of the greatest bluegrass musicians of the day playing with Tony.

 

Last edited: Dec 17, 2024

@Grape Ape @Lois Lane Nashville is a magic place. I drove both Checker and Yellow until they kicked me out. Crazy times.

 

Am I due up to post a picture? I was TOLD when I converted id have more time. That was a lie. Still busy as fuck. But I can probably conjur a picture up and post it if no one else wants to or can. Tonight though posting this from a very wet seattle mail truck

 

This iteration's deadline is on 1-14-2025, but after this is chapter is over it's all your's.

I bet you're stoked that Christmas is a thing of the past...for now at least!

 

Sweet! Things will have died down by then I bet. Good timing. Thanks!

 

ok, I guess I'm mostly satisfied... soundcloud is becoming painful to use. Let's hope 2025 will bring us all a better existence on the planet.

 

Crunchy Punchy Capitan !!!

 

@captain crunch .. I hearby promote you to Admiral, and with it a house of your own now that you'll not be on the high seas most of the year in honor of your wonderful new punchy, crunchy tune.

 

I'll try to keep it short (for me).

Since Ushio Shinohara grew up during WW2 in Japan and the photo in this exercise illicted a sense of violence in my mind, I fantasized a scenario where a young soldier drafted into the Imperial Army was assigned, under the leadership of one General Iwane Matsu (who was later executed for his crimes against humanity) and was part of what has been know as The Rape Of Nanking, that being the then capitol of China. In 1937 over a month long period, the Japanese army massacred perhaps 300,000 civilians, raped tens of thousands of women and brutally dismembered with bayonets and under their boots infants and young children.

The sand that I mention in the first verse was that on the bank of the Yangze River that runs through Nanking. It was said that so many were brutality killed there that the water ran red. The body count I speak of is the minimum quoto per soldier of murdering 100 people. Emperor Hirohito was the ruler of the nation, and of course Matsui was the man directly responsible for giving the orders for the atrocities committed in the name of the Emperor. Shinojin was a derogatory slang that the Japanese called the Chinese which implies something less than human.

There is a book documenting the evil of which I write, The Rape Of Nanking. The author was named Iris Chang. She committed suicide at the age of 32 as she couldn't handle the depraved, perverse and nefarious deeds that she uncovered. Japan to this day hasn't apologized and in fact denies the whole affair ever happened.

For the prologue I used a few traditional Chinese instruments from Kong Audio Chinese Orchestra, a cymbal sample, a little string of bells that I have and one of those little frog guiros that I got once as a going away gift from a friend. The low repeating tone is from a copper bottomed cooking pot which I bought for a buck at a thrift store and that I pitched down in two different lower frequencies to try to make a gong sound but it doesn't really. The drum is a frame drum whose skin I substantially slackened so much so that it was hitting the back of my hand holding the cross brace on the hardest hits. I only have one large felt beater. I did all the rolls with one hand.

In the main song for guitars I used my D-18 on the left, the Cedar/Madagascar Roy Noble on the right, my favorite little shaker, that frog guiro, Phase Plant for the one bar interlude and short odd synth lead. I sang the harmonies and of course didn't use pitch correction software. My voice delivered the song in a gruff, odd manner and no matter how I tried it just stubbornly decided to live there. The harmonies are my normal voice, LOL.

I hope that you like it. I'm glad I don't have to obsess over this any more. I understand somewhat how Iris Chang must have felt.

Epilogue...https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/300k...ey=p62v0qfr4mggma1smwtylhw0z&st=2vtcyai3&dl=0

The Rape Of Nanking...https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vwg2...ey=yaz2wgl8uhp0ek8c6v73t0rdx&st=if8oonsq&dl=0

 

Last edited: Jan 9, 2025

Thank you @Lois Lane, for the story and the memory that will not be forgotten. I have heard and kept both of your songs. Truly impressive works. I was particularly pleased with your guitar playing and the reverb. Great quality, lively rhythm and speed. - You are a great songwriter and interpreter.

 

Thanks you @Radio.

 

@Lois Lane quite brilliant in every way!

 

You are too kind, @Aidene!

 

@capitan crunch : great job cap, all your cuts are so underground; like when i think of underground music, its this in its ethos and energy. this is cool, has like a Suicide vibe during the verses i dig. idk if youre getting better at recording or mixing but your vocals sound better quality through the vocoder. i also like how the chorus comes in, its a great transition in the arrangement that creates this cool juxtaposition in energy. my favorite part though is the verse i love the groove and vibe. mad cool overall

@Lois Lane : im definitely into history so i enjoyed that synopsis of events, youll find a a lot of that same brutality in a lot of war stories throughout history

this sounds great though, the mix is very well balanced, good recordings on the main song and the epilogue sounds like it could be in the show Shogun. your vocals also sound good, in the beginning i definitely hear the gruff texture youre talking about, it gets back to normal though from there and only pops up at random phrases, it doesnt sound bad though. when i first started songwriting, i use to wish my voice was more raspy like some of my favorite singers but i have the voice i was meant to have. yours was suppose to be what it was for this song and it sounds great still, great job fam, nice performances and arrangement

 

I hope time can heal my wounds. Great track! It brought tears to my eyes. Thank you.

 

Last edited: Jan 10, 2025

@Grape Ape @Lois Lane Thanks for your insight. I wish I could get your clarity, but I really need to study more. any real mixer could have mixed my track better.

 

@capitan crunch Great tune, really fits the image.

@Lois Lane Best one of yours yet.

 

@capitan crunch .. @FrankPig ..

Thanks you both! And yea, Frankie Pig, I too really like this one a lot. After finding figures in the novel tuning that I created by placing a three string partial capo across the A, D and G strings as well as tuning the high E string down to D# to give me E D# G# C# B D#...the music kind of wrote itself. It was deciding what to focus on what to convey and where to draw graphic boundaries. The photos of the crime are horribly shocking and are the stuff of nightmares.

There is an open air memorial as part of a museum in Nanjing (what the city is now called) that utilizes highly stylized skulptures that are eerily beautiful.

I'm glad that I'm done with the song and having to replay the visions in my mind as I played it and crafted the recording to infuse the gravitas I feel that is called for concerning the foundation of the piece. Tapping into empathy is draining.

 

Last edited: Jan 10, 2025