Eighties pop supergroup Asia have announced a new album, their first without founding member Steve Howe. Guess what it’s called?
“Gravitas”.
I wonder if I can sue? Probably not. Nor would I. More power (pop) to them.
The original “Gravitas”, by me, Robert George Daniel, is still available from several sources, including iTunes.
Just a short (one minute) video of the squall-du-jour, looking out onto our back yard. Music is my cover of the Tubular Bells riff by Mike Oldfield.
YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra62wB4bpmc
I’m a PC guy these days. That’s entirely a result of work-related compatibility issues and, since my retirement, budget and… well inertia I suppose.
But recent events got me reminiscing about my own introduction to personal computing. I was not a hugely early adapter to home computing, other than a brief foray into the world of the Texas Instruments TI-99/4a (a Commodore 64 contemporary I think)… but somewhere around the mid 90’s I discovered digital MIDI-based musical instruments, particularly drums and keyboards. Now I could play drums in an apartment! Exciting stuff for a guy who’d sold his soul drum kit in 1977 to go to computer programming school…
Anyway, I soon reached the limits of the built-in sequencer on my TD-7 drum unit, and I asked the guy at Saved By Technology, where I bought the MIDI gear, to advise me on a bigger sequencer. He suggested I just buy a computer, or I’d soon be frustrated by the inherent limitations of any hardware-based sequencer.
So I asked around amongst my colleagues, mainframe computer types like me: “Mac or PC?”
This would be somewhere around Win 95 / OS 7.1 era… Lots of hoopla about Win95… The few people at work with PC’s (most of us were on so-called “dumb terminals” ) were still on Win 3.1. I remember finding it quite interesting that while 2 out of 3 recommended the PC, anyone who had used both types would recommend the Mac. Mind you, none of them were doing MIDI sequencing, so in the end, the Saved By Technology guy’s recommendation carried the most weight, and soon I had my very own Power Mac 7100.
Almost all of what would eventually become my first (and probably only) officially-released CD was written and recorded within a few months of getting up and running on that machine, and getting my gear working with it.
While the whole Mac or PC debate has these days become tiresome and about as interesting as “Coke vs Pepsi”, I did go through a period of Mac evangelism in the Nineties, as a result of my early success and enthusiasm on that platform.
So yeah, thank you Steve Jobs.
related post: Gravitas Studio Setup
Last of these ones I think. There’s a few more, but they’re not ones that I really want out in the world….
Mental Midget (1976)
YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TqSs_d9Cf0
Time For All (1976)
YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBk7fgUu8fY
Voyage / Arrival (1976)
YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKiE996oKoo
R.G. Daniel: percussion, recorders
Monte Horton: keyboard
Steve Vickery: guitar
Recorded in 1976, Videos added June 22, 2011
(based on a Steve Hillage riff)
YouTube video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcgws1cY-BM
Untitled Suite in Four Parts – Early exercises in sound-on-sound recording
Robert George Daniel: percussion, various analog synths
Recorded in 1976
Video added June 22, 2011
YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6L9SXCyKPI
Space Blues (1976)
R.G.Daniel: drums, Roland RE-201 Space Echo
Monte Horton: guitar
Steve Vickery: bass
recorded in 1976
video added June 22, 2011
YouTube video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyE0CXJxLoU
Earth Blues
R.G.Daniel: recorder
Monte Horton: guitar
Recorded in 1976
Video added June 22, 2011
YouTube video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcRf3m0Ld5A
Drone #1
– R.G.Daniel: drone, percussion
– Monte Horton: guitar
Recorded in 1976
Video track created June 21, 2011
YouTube video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9mHnwpeFKM
Here’s a novel little ditty that draws heavily from clips taken from the Fawlty Towers TV show, starring (both the show and this song) John Cleese. I did not include it on the CD so as to avoid running afoul of the copyright police. So mum’s the word. Or tell the world. Either way. I can take it down from here fairly quickly if it comes to that…
I post it now, because it came up in conversation, in the context of “my brain hurts” as a reaction to the rampant cognitive dissonance and, something I learned just today, the widespread Dunning-Kruger Effect in the public discourse these days…
So anyway, enjoy. Don’t hurt your brain.
