I’m posting this as a spin-off of the thread on jam bands which now seems like it’s going under. In that thread, we discussed various types of music with “jam” elements like long songs and improvisation, without the silliness and jack-off solos that characterize jam bands like Phish. Post-rock was one genre of music that came up.
I’m currently in a band called Post-Turk. Our goal is to create a new genre of music blending post-rock with Arabic-sounding music. We’ve dubbed this genre “turk rock.” Originally we were strictly post-rock and we played a lot of Explosions In The Sky/Tortoise/Pele/Sea and Cake type stuff. After some experimentation, we began blending in “exotic” sounding scales, initially as a joke - we called it “post-turk” as a riff on the bewildering numbers of often arbitrary musical genres. Then we got more serious about actually developing it into our own sound, and changed our name to Post-Turk. As it stands now, we seem to be the only group around who is playing this kind of stuff.
I thought I would post a link to our eight-minute single, The Shiek, and try to get some feedback on our sound. The song is eight minutes long, but the key section is from the beginning up until the halfway mark. I am playing the bass part (I’m actually playing it on the E and A strings of a guitar, instead of on my bass) - it’s the first line you hear, besides the keyboard. The song gradually builds up in volume and complexity, layering musical lines in the traditional post-rock way. If you’re so inclined, give it a listen and tell me what you think of it.
Please don’t take any comments herein personally. As a musician myself, I know I’d want straightforward critiques, and have occasionally posted my own work to the SDMB for evaluation.
Do you have vocals on any of your songs, or are you primarily concerned with just instrumentation only?
IMHO, from what I hear, I’d put your stuff comfortably in with jam band material. I personally don’t think it’s all that interesting. I have two buddies with whom I’ve been making music off and on for about 20 years now. Unfortunately, we all live in different cities, but still make a point of getting together every now and then. Inevitably, I grab a guitar, JR grabs a bass, and JM jumps behind the kit. We then proceed to renew our musical ties for a while with long, extended, noodly exotic jams. It’s fun, it gets us working together, and it sort of renews our friendships. But we soon get tired of it and toss the jammy stuff, so we can get down to the business of writing songs. No offense intended, but The Sheik sounds like something we’d do as a pointless jam.
That said, I think it has potential. What it really needs (other than tighter production, but I know what it’s like to record a live mix under less-than-ideal circumstances) is a tight, hooky vocal, and some badass lyrics. That, of course, is the hard part.
Again, don’t think I’m being a dick. I don’t always get around to recording lyrics either.
Do you have vocals on any of your songs, or are you primarily concerned with just instrumentation only?**
We’re going to work on bringing in vocals at our next session. We’ve been wanting to do that for some time, and it will probably happen within the next few weeks. Some of us in the band can sing passably, but for The Shiek we’d prefer to use a female singer.
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2) IMHO, from what I hear, I’d put your stuff comfortably in with jam band material. I personally don’t think it’s all that interesting…No offense intended, but The Sheik sounds like something we’d do as a pointless jam.**
The Sheik was a long, pointless jam. We didn’t record it with the intention of distributing it as an actual song (my calling it a “single” is kind of tongue in cheek) - we recorded it as a way of throwing out different musical ideas and then picking out the ones to develop further. I don’t really agree with your calling it “jam band” material since that makes me think of Phish and moe. and Widespread Panic, and I’ll be damned if I ever heard them play anything like our song - but it is indeed a jam.
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3) That said, I think it has potential. What it really needs (other than tighter production, but I know what it’s like to record a live mix under less-than-ideal circumstances) is a tight, hooky vocal, and some badass lyrics. That, of course, is the hard part.
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It was recorded in Audacity (a shareware audio editor) using a laptop’s integrated microphone. Not the most ideal of conditions. We’re working on finding better mics.
Thanks for your comments! I appreciate them. A musician who can’t take some constructive criticism is a shmuck.
By the way, how far into the song did you wind up listening, Ogre?
Oh, I listened to all of it. And I just remembered something: we once did a long, extended Arabic jammy thing we called Leaving Cairo. I think I still remember the main riffs from it, but I don’t think I have a recorded version of it.
Well, while I have the opportunity to get some feedback, I thought I’d also share this cover of Tell Her No by The Zombies. Totally different style, different chords, and different structure (it’s a lot shorter than the original too.) This is just me here, playing all the instruments and doing the vocals (I recorded it track by track in Audacity.) But we’re planning to do a version of it as a full band sometime in the future.
I have no vocal training so keep that in mind if you find the singing to be poor.
It sounds like a cheesy version of “set the controls for the heart of the sun” with inferior drums. Loose the lame cheesy synth lead sound! I would change it and put some delay on it. The song needs production and depth. The bass needs more balls. The drummer needs more interesting fills. The guitar part is boring and the tone is weak. The bass part is the most interesting, if not very original. Listen to some Ozric Tentacles to see a direction.
Peter Murphy’s album Dust is kind of like what you describe, but more post-punk than post-rock. Several Turkish musicians play on it. There are samples on iTunes, but they don’t do the songs justice.
You’ve got some good ideas, but it would work a lot better if the melody were carried by something that doesn’t sound so much like a keyboard. Understanding that this was a jam and not a finished product, I think you could’ve ended it at about the 5:20 mark and ended up with a much tighter song. Speaking of the ending, it definitely needs work (but then, how many songs do end well?). Wispy female vocals could definitely work, and you might consider trying for an Isis/Red Sparowes guitar sound.
I think I still remember the main riffs from it, but I don’t think I have a recorded version of it.