King of Plugins

Hello!

I have just posted my track to the MediaFire site. It's called "King of Pirates," and features a special guest, my sister Maria. She plays Mary Ormond, Blackbeard's teenage wife.

Obviously, I'd like to hear your thoughts on the song, but I'd also like any input on the mix and the technical side of things. There's plenty of time before the deadline and I'm sure I'll have time to remix it, unless that's against the rules.

As I said, there are a LOT of vocal tracks: 18 of them, although not always going at the same time (I think the most at once is 10). So, this thing was basically a nightmare to balance out...and mixing was never my strong point to begin with. My poor computer had to run close to 50 plugins for this song, and it was not very happy towards the end.

Overall though, I really like it, and I had an absolute blast recording it. There are some bum lyrics in there, but you can fix that in mastering, right Tim?

Album Art - sneak preview

I Dream of Jeannie (Baré)

Just posted my completed Oh Jeannie up to the folder. So far, opinion is split - my 6 year old says it's horrible, my 4 year old likes it and my wife was too busy watching Come Dine With Me. Anyway, had great fun doing it with the legendary Don Schwartz at the controls. Thanks Don for popping in with that glockenspiel and bringing the chorus back to life!

Ashanti

Excitement is building faster than a series of strictly come lancing.

We now have the turt signed up to master the album again. A coup, considering the quality of his work on the last one. He's a damn fine man, and once again we will greatly appreciate the time he will put in to make us all sound better and harmonised.

We have all music tracks submitted, 12 in total. I am going to sing over Tim M's track (created with the aid of legendary producer and j-rap star juicy p) which will be about flotsam and how it forms the shanty towns of the ocean. Tim M in turn is going to sing over Dan G's 80s masterpiece. What's more exciting is that all vocals should be done in a week and half (just in time for the immaculate conception) and the whole shebang done and dusted before santa starts wriggling down sooty chimney stacks.

And most exciting of all, a shanty. No, I'm not talking of RnB stars, nor of ethnic peoples in modern day Ghana. I'm talking a dirty, rough, bristley, haggard, weather-beaten, salty old sea song. Many of, if not all of, perhaps even some from outside of, the IML will come together in digital union to render a version of the age old "Windy Old Weather". Hopefully we'll have all sorts of instruments on there and some interesting voicings. It's a new style of composition for the IML and it will be the perfect finishing touch to our album.

Oh Jeannie

Sure has been busy in here. Sounds like the album is (ship)shaping up into something special already. From the feel of the backing tracks there appears to be more of a sonic consistency this time around. Good theme Cap'n Bob. I finished writing my track 2 days after receiving it from Barn - very different to last time around when it took a whole month of editing lyrics and melody. I wonder if others found it different this time around?

My track is on Jeanne Bare, the first woman to sail around the world (while dressed as a man). By that I don't mean the first woman to sail around the world dressed as a man (although she was), but the first woman to sail around the world, and she also happened to be disguised as a man. By that I mean.... . Oh well, the lyrics flowed easier than the blog.

The track is called Oh Jeannie. I thought the other day that this had a pang of familiarity and so typed it into google. No song of this name there. Phew. Then I typed it into Youtube (which I'm reliably informed is now bigger than the web itself) and there it was... a clip entitled Oh Jeannie by some band called U2.

No!!!!!!!!!!!

I played the clip, nervously expecting confirmation that I had simply re-written a famous song (c'mon, we've all done it) and had simply confused subconscious memory with musical originality (again). Anyway, turns out this U2 band are shit. The clip consisted of a ponytailed twat on an aeroplane (called Boner I think - the twat, not the aeroplane) improvising a crap blues about a flight attendant called Jeannie who had just served him some eggs. The grainy footage kept panning to his friend (called 'The Hedge'!) who was constantly giggling. Knobs, but I doubt we'll be hearing from them again.

My Saturday night = IML

Hello everyone...new guy here.

I don't know who Nick and Dicky are, but I've got their track, and I love it. I recorded 90% of my vocals last night, and they sound fantastic...Nick and Dicky, you will be pleased. I took a rather unoriginal path and made it into a love song from Blackbeard to his teenage wife Mary Ormond, but hey, it was a pretty song, and I decided to make it prettier.

Also, I think I'm probably in the running for most vocal tracks: I have 18.

I've tried to reference several of my favorite Blackbeard factoids in the lyrics. Apparently Blackbeard used to...um...light fires in his beard, to scare people. My favorite story though, popped up on several websites:

Having had too much to drink, he said to his crew, "Come, let us make a hell of our own, and try how long we can bear it." Going into the ship's hold, they closed the hatches, filled several pots with brimstone and set it on fire. Soon the men were coughing and gasping for air from the sulphurous fumes. All except Blackbeard scrambled out for fresh air. When Blackbeard emerged, he snarled, "Damn ye, ye yellow-bellied sapsuckers! I'm a better man than all ye milksops put together!"

Not only was Blackbeard apparently the life of a party, he was probably a big sweetheart too: he was big into threatening people, but there is no evidence of him actually killing anyone.

Anyways, this is fun! Can't wait to hear the other tracks!

Dan

The Crow's Nest

Wow it's getting busy on here! Good to ...sea...(ahem). We're now up to 12 tracks for the album now thanks to a last minute submission from the Gresham. I've offered it out to Monsieur Marchand for vocal duties in the first instance as he has not had a track yet.
In other news, Gregor Dean has been commissioned to do some art work for the project. I've told him in the strictest terms that nothing less than a pirate ship with characatures of IML members dotted around on board will do. I have already bagged the crow's nest.

Eternal Drift

Having received my new IML track, I have plunged myself into the amazing world of PLANKTON! It is a world so enthralling that, whenever I read about it, my psyche morphs into a physical analog of a vast aquatic eco-system consisting of billions of primitive but miraculous individual life-forms. My synapses grow double flagellums and elevate & sink, drifting with the tides. Once organised emotion-sensing cortex systems are reassigned to the eternal machine of comprehensive carbon flux. The question now is how am I going to write a song in this altered state? I'm listening over and over Rob's beautiful backing track and it's working perfectly with my new understanding of plankton - and clashing horribly with all the clumsy and bizarre scientific names and descriptions I'm reading! This is going to be a hard one to write - I don't know how, but I think I'll take a cue from the plankton, and go with the flow.

Help please?

Anyone know the collective noun for "Hexabranchidae''?

Collective nouns for fishy friends

I think I've finished writing my lyrics. Though I need to decide on whether I've pushed the comedy boat ... too far out to sea. I found the following website useful for a couple of crucial aspects of my song. Fellow lyricising IML'ers may do as well. Land ahoy!
http://www.rinkworks.com/words/collective.shtml

A bit more on the comedy conundrum. Nemo is so clearly insane, and so full of contradictions it's very difficult to write from his viewpoint without exposing is obvious mental fragility. I was finding it pretty difficult to perform under those difficult conditions and just slipped into what I think has become the Nemo for Superheroes of The Sea. We'll see. My original recording for Galileo was pretty out there and got completely re-recorded at the last minute (thank goodness).

Seconded whole heartedly. Lovely logo, lovely work.

Blubbering Praise

The new sea shadow for the logo looks tremendously spunky ... and spermy, by the way. Magnifique!

Breaking News

A new track is on the way. Early reports indicate it will address the topic of cuttlefish and it is believed to originate from a first time contributor in Japan.


In other Superheroes of the Sea news Jacques Piccard, one of the two first men to visit the deepest point on the globe (Challenger Deep in the Marina Tranch) passed away recently. A worthy topic for this album if ever there was one. It took 5 hours to get down there and they only stayed for 20 minutes before starting back up, amazing stuff.

Freedom of the Sea

Well, I feel incredibly lucky ... and HUGELY excited. Not only have I got a song that is already making me cry (and that, miraculously, has a touch of my favourite song of all time, As The World Falls Down), but I have freedom of theme! I might just have to go for a swim somewhere and think about it. Or maybe I'll try having a bath with a stranger - that might provoke some ideas, or some trouble. This first research aspect of the project - the cogitating part - is one of my favourites ...

Stage 1 - Done

We have now reached the half way point on our voyage across the ocean. The backing tracks are in and have been reassigned to the lyricist vocalisers to do their stuff. The quality is up there with the first IML album in my opinion. It has been a great pleasure to hear these brilliant tracks everyone has been writing and equally a great pleasure in determining good homes for them. I hope my assignments will do them the justice they deserve. We have a nice balanced cross section of themes - 5 humans, 2 creatures, 1 ship, 1 concept and finally a mystery topic yet to be decided. Here are the assignments in full:

Composer (Theme) to Lyricist
Ash (Nemo and the Nautilus) to Barney
Oli (Mary Celeste) to Ash
Juju (Spanish Dancer) to Kip
Greg (Sea Cities) to Eric
Barn (Jeanne Bare) to Greg
Turt (Thor Heyerdahl) to Juju
Nick and Dicky (Blackbeard) to Dan W.
Eric (Odysseus) to Oli
Dan W. (???) to Nick
Rob (Plankton) to Turt
Tim M. (Cuttlefish) to Rob

You may notice we are one track short for vocals. We may possibly get a track in from Tim M. or Dan G. in which case I will assign it to yours truly for vocals. Otherwise I may put out to tender for an extra track if anyone has the capacity and will to knock out a quickie.
Have fun with stage 2 IMLers!