WOW!!!!
Thank you so much for the review!!! I am happy to you enjoyed it even though it isnt your cup o' tea, musically
I'll answer a few of your unknowns:
- Just like the original concept for Electric Light Orchestra was to pick up where The Beatles ledft off with "I Am The Walrus", so is the concept of Urban Shokker to pick up where Parliament/Funkadelic and Bootsy left off in the late 70s.
- EP ONE is actually coming out on a Label from Indiana called Carbon 12 Records
Carbon12 Records : Music For A New Dark Age . It was supposed to be released last montrh but, for whatever reason, the release date is pushed back to this month
- Although I am a vocalist, my lead vocals weren't right for this project. The lead vocals are from a friend named Jaybee, who was also the drummer for a band I played with a long time ago. His vocal style was perfect for this as he is very "old school" influenced and he totally gets the Parliament/Funkadelic thing. I do many of the backgrounds, harmonies, and most of the vocoder parts
- I play all the bass parts, many of the keyboard parts, some of the guitar parts -- well , I pretty much play or program everything. Even when utilizing programming, I try to program as real as possible -- I am very meticulous about this. For example, the horns: Each horn utilizes actual horn sample one-shots that I edit and re-edit. There can be 10 of these for each horn so a three part brass section can use 30 or more one-shots just for one little phrase...Same thing with the acoustic drums: all meticul;osuly programmed. I use real drum samples with difdferent stick velocities. For a basic 5 piece kit ( I use a Rogers, a Yamaha, and a Sonor sample sets with Paiste Hi-Hats and Zildjian Cymbal sample sets - one Sabian splash). Each drum or cymbal is a set so for a simple 5-piece kit with one crash, one ride, one splash, and a hi-hat can use over 100 one shot samples...I also do not program loops: I make sure that there isnt a hi-hat, tom, and snare all played at the sametime ( no three-armed drummer programming)....
- I am very fluent in music theory and it is most certainly applied when constructing the songs, performing the parts, and the solos -- be it live recording or programmed
- Slap Bass is my forte on bass guitar but I think it gets overdone over the years as many folks already have a pre-conceived notion that "Funk = Slap Bass". The one thing I wanted to do with Urban Shokker was to keep slap bass to a minimum -- This was very very difficult for me to do on purpose. However, I did find MUCH joy in using various effects on the bass guitar for parts. There are many parts throughout the 5 songs that sound like keyboards or guitar that are actually bass ran through various effect chains...at the end of "Starr Dawgg ( Prime Directive)", you mention the keyboard or guitar solo at the end like an engine --- nope, thats bass
Thank You SO much again