The track to accompany Ella's dance in the hounfo at Dashwood Manor was always going to be tricky mainly because it was meant to have been accompnaied by drums - by rada music. Fortunately Nelli and I had a time when we were really into dub music (the more earthy cousin of reggae) so we'd had mix of one of our songs from Nelli's first album 'Jazz Noir' re-mixed dub style.
So this is 'Struggle Dance (JubDub) Mix' which is one of my favorite of all Nelli's recordings. Hope you like it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=9wIP80Hd8gU
Monday, 12 September 2011
SOUNDTRACK 2: FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN
Second track up on the 'The Demi-Monde:Winter' sountrack is the Marlene Dietrich classic 'Falling In Love Again'. Nelli had included this in her set and it always went down a storm so I had ideas of updating it and releasing it as a single. It didn't come to anything but when I was casting around for a number for Ella to do when she first comes to the Prancing Pig this was an obvious candidate.
The video is one I produced (and did the camera work for). Never quite as sexy as I wanted but still, considering it was made for £400 not too scruffy.
Check the song out on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2J5Phukc8Y
The video is one I produced (and did the camera work for). Never quite as sexy as I wanted but still, considering it was made for £400 not too scruffy.
Check the song out on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2J5Phukc8Y
SOUNDTRACK 1: I DON'T DO GOOD
Okay, prompted by Kimberley at HarperCollins idea for a soundtrack for 'The Demi-Monde: Winter' I dusted off the tracks from Nelli's never-released album that had been tentatively entitled 'Sex&Bile.'
This number 'I Don't Do Good' was written by Nelli and me and was intended to put a bit of 'oomph' in her live shows - nuJazz is all very well but it is a bit cerebral. This is the d'nb mix done by Bob and Paul. I think it would sit wonderfully at the beginning of the book when Norma is trying to escape from Clements thru the back streets of the Rookeries.
Try: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGOnScAqJiY
The link is with YouTube and the rest of the tracks are shown under 'The UnFunDaMentalists featuring Nelli Rees.
This number 'I Don't Do Good' was written by Nelli and me and was intended to put a bit of 'oomph' in her live shows - nuJazz is all very well but it is a bit cerebral. This is the d'nb mix done by Bob and Paul. I think it would sit wonderfully at the beginning of the book when Norma is trying to escape from Clements thru the back streets of the Rookeries.
Try: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGOnScAqJiY
The link is with YouTube and the rest of the tracks are shown under 'The UnFunDaMentalists featuring Nelli Rees.
Sunday, 11 September 2011
TheY WanT uS DumB
Kimberley at HarperCollins is putting a FaceBook page together to support the US launch of 'The Demi-Monde: Winter' at the end of December. One of the ideas she has is putting a soundtrack together and she asked me for suggestions, which persuaded me to dust off some of the tracks that Nelli and I produced for her stillborn 2nd album and I think they stand up bloody well!
I'm going to put them up on YouTube and the first is 'They Want Us Dumb'.
Nelli and I wrote it in protest of the Anglo/US policy in Iraq and Afghanistan and is, unfortunately, still pertinent four years on. I think Nelli does a great job with the Manson-esque vocals (she's more a nuJazz singer).
You can check it out on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q0qfRfKM4k under the name 'The UnFunDaMentalists (feat. Nelli Rees)'. I'll sort out a better video when I get time!
I'm going to put them up on YouTube and the first is 'They Want Us Dumb'.
Nelli and I wrote it in protest of the Anglo/US policy in Iraq and Afghanistan and is, unfortunately, still pertinent four years on. I think Nelli does a great job with the Manson-esque vocals (she's more a nuJazz singer).
You can check it out on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q0qfRfKM4k under the name 'The UnFunDaMentalists (feat. Nelli Rees)'. I'll sort out a better video when I get time!
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
THE DEMI-MONDE:FALL ... PROGRESS ... SLOW PROGRESS
I had hoped to have the beta-version (finished but rough) of the last Demi-Monde book completed by the end of August but things got a little backed up and it's proven to be a bigger (literally) task than I imagined.
As I think I've said I'll be dividing Fall into two books (all contained within the same cover) and the first 'The Battle of the JAD' is now with Nelli for a preliminary reading. It's better than I thought it would be but not as good as I'd like it to be (but isn't that ever the way with writing). I like the denouement and I like some of the new characters but as it weighs in at 100,000 words I think it'll need a little surgery just to inject some pace.
The second book (section, part, whatever) has the working title 'Battle for the Real World' and is proving to be an absolute bastard. It's very complex and although I've resolved all the multiple threads of the story (I wish, I hope) it's VERY convoluted and some of it's quite demanding. My target is to have it in beta-mode within a fortnight and then to go at it with an axe. It's currently weighing in at 105,000 words - way too long - and there's still a longish chaper to write.
What I've learned from all this is I will NEVER, EVER do a book this sizeable again. It's almost impossible to edit the bloody thing, almost impossible to keep track of all the ins and outs and it drains your will to live.
In future it'll be 120,000 words tops! Frank Herbert must have been a bloody masochist!
As I think I've said I'll be dividing Fall into two books (all contained within the same cover) and the first 'The Battle of the JAD' is now with Nelli for a preliminary reading. It's better than I thought it would be but not as good as I'd like it to be (but isn't that ever the way with writing). I like the denouement and I like some of the new characters but as it weighs in at 100,000 words I think it'll need a little surgery just to inject some pace.
The second book (section, part, whatever) has the working title 'Battle for the Real World' and is proving to be an absolute bastard. It's very complex and although I've resolved all the multiple threads of the story (I wish, I hope) it's VERY convoluted and some of it's quite demanding. My target is to have it in beta-mode within a fortnight and then to go at it with an axe. It's currently weighing in at 105,000 words - way too long - and there's still a longish chaper to write.
What I've learned from all this is I will NEVER, EVER do a book this sizeable again. It's almost impossible to edit the bloody thing, almost impossible to keep track of all the ins and outs and it drains your will to live.
In future it'll be 120,000 words tops! Frank Herbert must have been a bloody masochist!
PUZZLE
I need a puzzle in 'The Demi-Monde: Fall' which turns on deciding what the next number is in a sequence, and I'm trying to decide if the one I've come up with is too hard/easy (delete as applicable). The sequence is:
1 5 2 3 2 7 8 11
This sequece is referenced in the book by a piece of doggerel:
This is the stairway to heaven.
Salute the Trinity that is
The Nothingness …
ABBA …
And the Duality of Being.
So come, embrace ABBAsoluteness.
When consciousness blossoms
And flowers beyond the confines of the mind.
Then, Time will have no meaning,
No relevance.
To progress to the embracing of Ying.
To stand beyond Time
HumanKind must conquer Time
And bring the Column to its resting place.
But to err, is to die.
The clue is in the numbers 1, 2 & 3! THE SWIRL WITH THE DRAGON ON TOO
I was asked by Quercus for cover art for the third book in the Demi-Monde series: 'The Demi-Monde: Summer'. Quite a bit of the action takes place in the Sino-Japanese Sector of the DM - the Coven - when one of my heroines is help captive in the Forbidding City by the dastardly Empress Wu. There she is introduced to the now outlawed philosophy of Confusionism.
Based on the teachings of the mysterious Master as recorded in the two MasterWorks – the iChing and the BiAlects – Confusionism differs from all other religions in the Demi-Monde in that it is refuses to provide a definitive guide to its followers as to what Confusionists should believe and how they should act. This ‘confusion’ inherent in Confusionism is a result of the Master’s teachings being represented by the diametrically opposed views of two mythical opponents and their inability – and, it must be said, unwillingness – to fuse these views into a single teaching. The two Voices of the BiAlects – the Sages Wun Zi and Too Zi – represent contrasting and irreconcilable interpretations of human life and purpose; of the Creation; of the ultimate Fate of the Kosmos; and of the existence and role of ABBA in human affairs. It is the aim of all Confusionists to reconcile the two Voices (‘the Fusion’) and to know the Answers to the five FundaMental Questions posed by the BiAlects. The Master informs us in the Ninth and final Book of the BiAlects that the Fusion will not come until the Time of Enlightenment, when Yin and Yang are merged in the form of Ying, and all knowledge – both Self-Knowledge and Knowledge of the Kosmos – are revealed to HumanKind.
Therefore the idea I had - which Nigel so mastefully interpreted - was that we should take the usual yin/yang emlem, introduce the dragons (the symbol of Empress Wu) but have them spiralling together into Ying. I thing it works pretty good!
Therefore the idea I had - which Nigel so mastefully interpreted - was that we should take the usual yin/yang emlem, introduce the dragons (the symbol of Empress Wu) but have them spiralling together into Ying. I thing it works pretty good!
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