Common Sense Dancing: My Robot

The last of the pieces with a connexion to KvR monthly competitions. In June 2004 the theme was SciFi Movie Theme, and with most of the entries being fairly bleak dystopian affairs (as was mine, The Amoeba Variations), I wrote this ditty about 'your plastic pal who's fun to be with' as a companion piece for some levity.

I rather like it. And it goes down surprisingly well at gigs with just me, an acoustic guitar, and a glass of water.

Robot voice provided by some text to speech freeware from the early 2000's..!

See you tomorrow for some harmonic adventure!

Common Sense Dancing: A Breakthrough In Sound

I had a gig at Cafe#9 in Sheffield a couple of years ago, and, looking for things to talk about between songs, looked up what had happened in history that day, and chanced upon a bizarre event from 1977 - The Southern Television Broadcast Interruption.

Strange things happen in Hampshire..

I was fascinated. This was clearly an inside job by someone who knew what they were doing - but what of those who witnessed it in their living room? So I wrote what could loosely be described as a song about it from the point of view of one such viewer, and played it at that gig. A Breakthrough In Sound is that song.

Arguably, it's recalling documents of interplanetary laughs.

<rollseyes>Sigh</rollseyes>

Other than the guitar and my voice, all the sounds on the track are Mellotron - the tape-based instrument mentioned in previous posts - including all sound effects (and static!), and sometimes heavily processed.

Whilst it has quasi-science-fiction overtones, the message of the song is a simple one of love, peace, scones and jam.

See you tomorrow for a bit of exercise!