Tuesday, May 27, 2008

From Hollywood to Natalie Wood...

On Sunday Jose and I finally got round to David Pascucci's place to listen to the mastered cd. David lives off Beachwood Drive, North of the 101 freeway - an area I'm not too familiar with. However, as you leave the freeway and turn into Beachwood you realise you are right under the Hollywood sign! Somehow a fitting location (don't ask me why!) to finish a cd. Well, despite the celebratory mood (buoyed by French champagne and Italian cheese - all very dignified!) we heard a couple or three things that Jose wanted fixed... 'issues' that were not apparent prior to mastering. I probably would have let two of the three go - intentionally dirty/noisy Reason loops that the mastering brought to the point of sounding like something was distorting. The third, however, was a very bassy note in one song that definitely sounded distorted... So I fixed these Monday...

David has asked me to do a couple of songs for his next cd. One is 'The Big Parade' by Jane Olivor (written by Neil Sedaka) which I can imagine being done a la Momus's 'Hairstyle of the devil'... The other song is 'Daisy' by Andre and Dory Previn from the movie 'Inside Daisy Clover' starring Natalie Wood. The vocal version was never used in the movie (presumably because it's a little dark?) The song in it's original form sounds like 'The Divine Comedy' so that is a useful reference point, although I'll probably take it down the Portishead/Massive Attack/Tricky route...

Laura got back from Shanghai yesterday so it was good to see her... she came back bearing various gifts and brought me a book from the Shanghai MOCA, some Saki and a box of cigarettes... However, any plans for a quiet afternoon were ended by some low-flying helicopter action throughout the afternoon. There was a driveby shooting outside our local Rite Aid on Ave 64 and a 14 year-old girl waiting in a car was hit in the head by a stray bullet. The girl is brain-dead and not expected to survive...

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