The Miser’s Will – Parts 1, 2 and 3

I’ve been writing a series of steampunky narrative songs, collectively called The Miser’s Will.

Here are demo recordings of the first three (Of an eventual 5 – Nearly finished!). Rough first drafts, just vocal and acoustic guitar.

The Cartographer’s Tale

What The Orderly Saw

Watermen’s Square

Lyrics are below.

Once I’ve finished it, I’m thinking I’ll do another online gig to share them live with (A tiny section of) the world.

The Miser’s Will I: The Cartographer’s Tale

And I’ll confess, I didn’t know what I would find
I drew these maps, but I didn’t make the marks that you see
Follow, follow said the letter and so I did
And I’ll confess, I didn’t know what I would find

Drawing maps should lead you so far astray

Hello my love look what I foundHidden in a hole in the ground
I dug these metal claws out of the earth and I don’t know why

I’ll confess, it’s strangest tale I have heard
I recieved this map, with instructions to follow and dig.
Dig dig dig, is what it said and so I did,
And now I’m bound to take what I found to London town

Drawing maps shouldn’t lead me so far astray

Hello my love look what I found Hidden in a hole in the ground
They’re brass and gold and leather too Dead yet somehow feel alive
I dug these metal claws out of the ground and I don’t know why

Are you the one who sent for me?
The will’s executer?
Are you the one who wants these claws,
Are you the man I seek?
Put down the gun, I did as you asked Put down the gun please

Drawing maps shouldn’t lead you so far astray

Goodbye my love, cos what I found
Hidden in a hole in the ground
has cost me everything that I hold dear
Has cost me everything that we shared
Goodbye my love
Where I go now is not shown on any map
I return to you if only I could
If only I knew the way
I dug those metal claws out of the ground and I don’t know why.

The Miser’s Will II: What the Orderly Saw

I pushed the trolley,
that killed me dead

I pushed the trolley
that carried the corpse
That killed me dead

I pushed the trolley
That carried the corpse
the doctor cut the brain out of
That killed me dead

He placed it in a jar with chemicals
Electric pulses racing through the flesh

I pushed the trolley that carried the corpse the doctor cut the brain out of,
I watched the doctor meet the man that killed me dead

I pushed the trolley that carried the corpse the doctor cut the brain out of
I watched the doctor meet the man that shot the doctor through the head then killed me dead

Placed it in a jar with chemicals
Electric pulses racing through the flesh
Grey matter revived beyond its time

He thinks death’s an illness to be treated, the doctor said to me
Well even the dead can be cheated the doctor said to me
He asked for more than they agreed, the doctor’s dead
But the man in black spotted me, and so I fled

I’ve seen you have you seen me, have you come to shut me up?
His booted feet upon the floor, come to shut me up
The smoking gun in his hand come to shut me up
I don’t remember my last, Only what I saw

He placed it in a jar with chemicals

The Miser’s Will III: Watermen’s Square

Stories can change, rumours can spread, facts can grow with the telling
But what we pulled up from the depths of the thames, was as dark and strange as they say.
Ribs made of rust and tendons of steel, mishapen and twisted with age.
The toll of years beneath the waves had all but obscured the human shape

In watermen’s square, we sleep with the lights on
In watermen’s square, we all hide away

Beneath greying skies we smuggled it back, back to the watermen’s square.
Gas lamps alight, we studied and starred, but made head nor tail of our find
Five past midnight, a black form appeared, stood at the gates of the square
He said I believe that what you’ve found doesn’t belong to you, I’ll be taking it now

In watermen’s square, we sleep with the lights on
In watermen’s square, we all hide away

We had told no-one, of the structure we pulled up
We had told no-one, yet the stranger still appeared
He produced papers, but we didn’t read them, we just let him take it.

In watermen’s square, we sleep with the lights on
In watermen’s square, we all hide away

How I wrote Spinning the Compass

<a href="http://tomslatter.bandcamp.com/track/spinning-the-compass">Spinning the Compass by Tom Slatter</a>

Spinning the Compass is the title track from my first solo album. It’s another song that’s been very long in the making – the chorus has been hanging around in my head and on scraps of paper for years. The demo below, recorded for FAWM, was the first time I realised the thing and got some verses together.

The lyrics I won’t explain, except to mention that there is an oblique reference to the end of The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester in the verses. The structure of the song is mildly unusual, having two verse together near the beginning of the song and nowhere else. The basic structure of the song goes something like:

Intro Melody
Verse
Verse
Chorus
Melody (But a longer version)
Guitar Solo
Melody (An even longer version)
Chorus
Outro

Each time that instrumental melody comes back you get to hear some more of it – that was the idea anyway.

Musically, the time signatures are all over the place (well, there are three different ones anyway) and the harmony is mostly centred around the E Lydian scale. The title and one of the counter melodies near the end recall material earlier heard in Bad Dreams. The two songs are related in tone and I think are the centrepieces of the album, although other people have had their own ideas about that.

Here’s the demo:

Spinning the Compass Demo

And here are the lyrics:


Been spinning the compass again
Changing the rules while I was looking away
5 paths in the same dial

Like living in a world of your own
all the time shrinking till all the roads meet
white lines dashing past at speed
And up is left, east is west and no-one cares

Spinning the compass again
16 down isn’t making sense
cross purpose and silent days
Like living in a mind not your own
thinking thoughts you don’t understand
white lights shining in the dark

Do you get the feeling we’re running out time?
Have you heard the rumours of war planes in the skies?

With this spinning the end is surely nigh?
Do you get the feeling we’re running.

White lines dashing at speed the windows
They’ve been spinning this compass again.

Musings on the nature of Physicality as it applies to the Commercial Release of Recorded Musical Artforms

A Physical Thing, of a steampunky nature

How should a steampunk album be released? What would you like to get your hands on when buying a physical object? A boring old CD case or something a bit more interesting?

I’ve been reading a blog post on BLDGBLG about the fictional worlds of protocol architecture.

The idea of creating entire fictional worlds has long held a fascination for me (so much so that I have two manuscripts for awful fantasy novels sitting in cupboards, gathering dust) and the artefacts Protocol Architecture created – maps,photographs and notebooks -are a wonderful way of providing windows into those worlds.

This morning I wrote a song: The Miser’s Will II: What the Orderly saw. Here’s a rough demo:

What the Orderly Saw

It’s the second of what will be five narrative songs, and tells the story of the last moments of a hospital orderly who witnessed something he shouldn’t have seen and dies for it.

The first song is about a cartographer who meets a similar fate after following the bizarre instructions he recieves, scrawled onto one of his maps.

The Cartographer’s Tale

There’s a definite narrative here, and there’s the possibility of all sorts of artefacts existing to accompany the story – the map the cartographer recieved, the Miser’s Will itself, and objects the cartographer dug up.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the different ways I could represent my music – CD cases are a little boring after all, and more than a little old hat. There are wonderful steampunk USB cases out there, and more interesting things could be constructed to hold boring old CDs. At some point in the near future I’ll want to start making my music available in a physical format and given the narrative nature of so much of my music, it seems reasonable for it to explore some of these ideas.

After all, Steampunk people do seem to have a real affinity for beautiful things and well made physical objects and it seems appropriate to acknowledge that, even in music.

What do you reckon? Handmade copper CD cases, handmade leather bound CD booklets, maps and metal artefacts. Are those the things that should accompany a Steampunk CD?

I’m not sure yet, but I do know that boring old plastic CD cases are not on the cards.

How I Wrote ‘Ingenious Devices’

<a href="http://tomslatter.bandcamp.com/track/ingenious-devices">Ingenious Devices by Tom Slatter</a>

Ingenious Devices was almost entirely improvised. I was coming to the end of Spinning the Compass, and realised the pacing of the album didn’t quite work – I needed another upbeat song near the beginning. So I sat down one day with a guitar and started to improvise:

Ingenious Devices draft 1

The improv began as a little vamp on an Aminor chord and the title ‘Ingenious Devices’. As you can hear, it’s very very rough. All I’m doing in the recording is playing around with the chords, trying out A minor, C minor, F major, getting a feel for the mood of the song. I’m also using la and ooh sounds, and nonsense half words to try and find melodic ideas.

Ingenious Devices draft 2

This, the end of my little improv jam is a little more refined – I’ve got a verse riff and a descending melody, the F chord, A minor vamp and title have worked themselves into a potential chorus.

This turned itself into the finished verse and chorus. The middle section is actually the verse and chorus from another song I wrote years ago but never used.

Interesting fact – the middle section contains a melody played on a stylophone.

The section before the final chorus has lots of loops, both instrumental and vocal that build on one another. The basic idea here is that the 9 beat bar is broken up in different ways – there are loops based on 3s and 2s cutting across the bar like cogs of different sizes fitting together in interesting ways until it becomes so complex it has to break – which it does by returning to the chorus.

Lyrics:

I’ve seen them, with cracking skin,
Greying hair, yellow teeth
And haunted eyes.

I’ll not be one of them
I’ll fill my lungs with oil and steam
And never die

Ingenious devices
keep me alive in perpetual motion these
Ingenious devices
filled the steam from a thousand pistons

Ingenious Devices Turn

My heart beats by pendulum
I’ve filled grave with cogs and wheels
so there’s no room.

And my lovers have passed me by,
I’ve seen towers pierce the sky
with crystal eyes

Ingenious devices
keep me alive in perpetual motion these
Ingenious devices
filled the steam from a thousand pistons

Ingenious devices turn

My daughters died,
My sons all met their fate
Wouldn’t join me
Couldn’t see till far too late.
The clockwork beating
of my polished heart
Reassures me that I haven’t gone too far

Ingenious devices keep me from the grave
Piston as the master, tendon as the slave

Tick tock tick tick this heart beats
Tick tick tock tock this heart beats

Ingenious devices
keep me alive in perpetual motion these
Ingenious devices
filled the steam from a thousand pistons