Tag: low-fi music

Butterfly Decal : Toulouse Street Blues

4th March 2024

A new track by Butterfly Decal, available as a free download on our Bandcamp webpage: https://butterflydecal.bandcamp.com/track/toulouse-street-blues 

Toulouse Street Blues starts with a spoken word poem about living, drinking and dreaming in London, listening to Jazz music. We then segue into a bass and organ Southern, sultry rhythm, interspersed by bursts of Blues guitar.

Over archives photos documenting the people and places of New Orleans, some local musicians share their memories and express their feelings about the magic and power of Jazz.

Niall and I wish to extend our warmest thanks to the following people who responded immediately and graciously to our requests for help.

Jennifer Navarre, Senior Research Associate at The Historic New Orleans Collection

Brittany Silva at the New Orleans Public Library https://nolacityarchives.org/

Eve Abrams for permission to use her audio recordings from Preservation Hall: https://eveabrams.com/audio-documentaries/

Butterfly Decal are Niall Keohane, in Birmingham, UK, and Paul Pacifico, living in Saigon, Vietnam.

Jingo Harleyman: ‘Life in a Korean Movie’, Track No. 6

17th May 2023

The sixth track on the EP ‘Life in a Korean Movie’, We are the Cyborgs, but that’s OK, has been uploaded to YouTube:

All tracks are free to download on the Bandcamp site:  

https://thebutterflydecal.bandcamp.com/album/jingo-harleyman-life-in-a-korean-movie

The most experimental piece on the EP, ‘Cyborg’ uses various synth settings and effects to recreate a robotic, electronic soundscape, mixed with some traditional-sounding patriotic marching songs.

The dichotomy of traditional and futuristic sounds is continued by the use of a Chinese pipa set against a heavy bass drum machine.

The music is non-profit, and I hope to introduce more audiences to Korean cinema and culture. All films are credited in the video. As such, I hope I may claim ‘Fair Use’, the video being for non-commercial artistic and educational purposes.

The next section is just for my own records and will be of no interest to anyone except maybe low-fi recording geeks.

The track is in the Key of C

Tempo 110 4/4 Time

Garageband sequence

Track 1 Tweed Rhythm Guitar amp

Track 2 Echolocation Synth

(Alchemy Synth – Rhythmic – Echolocation Synth)

Track 3 Chinese Kit – Percussion

Track 4 Drum Machine – Trap Door

(More – Electronic – Trap Door)

Track 5 Picked Bass

Track 6 Alchemy Synth – Voices – Female Choir Morph

Track 7 Drum Machine – Crate Digger

(Drum Machine – Electronic – Crate Digger)

Track 8: Alchemy Synth – Voices – Girl’s Choir 1

Track 9: Alchemy Synth – Voices – Moving Voice

Track 10 Alchemy Synth – Sound Effects – Transform Flare

Track 11 Pipa (played on synth Keyboard – Other – Pipa)

Track 12 Melted Transistor Guitar amp – Distorted

Track 13 Spy Tremolo Guitar amp – Processed

Tracks 14 & 15 Film Clips ‘SORI’ & ‘Air Doll’

Track 16 Garageband FX

Audio: Voice, Extreme Tuning

Coming soon … ‘Ice-Cold Angels’

Jingo Harleyman: ‘Life in a Korean Movie’, Track No. 5

10th May 2023

The fifth track on the EP ‘Life in a Korean Movie’, Christmas every August, has been uploaded to YouTube:

All tracks are free to download on the Bandcamp site:  

https://thebutterflydecal.bandcamp.com/album/jingo-harleyman-life-in-a-korean-movie

A two-chord song that builds to add synths, guzheng and a glockenspiel, evoking the melancholy of this love story that never was.

The inspiration for the track, ‘Christmas in August’ (1998), was one of the first films of New Korean Cinema to combine romance with heart-breaking drama. In later years, two young lovers one with a terminal illness, became something of a cliché, but this film remains one of the best; simple, delicate and very moving

The music is non-profit, and I hope to introduce more audiences to Korean cinema and culture. All films are credited in the video. As such, I hope I may claim ‘Fair Use’, the video being for non-commercial artistic and educational purposes.

The next section is just for my own records and will be of no interest to anyone except maybe low-fi recording geeks.

The track is in the Key of G

Tempo at drum section 133 6/8 Time

Garageband sequence

Track 1 Drum machine: Vintage Kit

Track 2 Clean Stack Guitar amp

Riff: Gm7 (root on the 10th fret, A string) / Cm7 (root on the 3rd fret, A string)

Track 3 Grand Piano

G F# G C / G F# G

Track 4 Alchemy synth – Voices – Girl’s Choir

Chorus selection (Chorus 11 o’clock / Reverb 11)

Track 5 Guzheng

G Am C Em chords

Tracks 6 Film Clips. Audio: Voice, Extreme Tuning

Track 7 Alchemy Synth – Glockenspiel

D G A – E D C

Tracks 8 & 9 Guitar Tones

Track 8: Palace of Mirrors PROCESSED

Track 9: Auditorium CLEAN

Riff: E 15 14 15 B 15 E 14 G 12

E string {C B A} G F# G D F# G {E} [20th – 12th frets)

B string D [15th fret]

G string G [12th fret]

Coming soon … ‘We are the Cyborgs, but that’s OK’

Jingo Harleyman. ‘Life in a Korean Movie’, Track No. 2

25th April 2023

The second track on the new EP ‘Life in a Korean Movie’, Samaria Girl, has been uploaded to YouTube:

All tracks are free to download on the Bandcamp site: https://jingoharleyman.bandcamp.com/album/life-in-a-korean-movie

The track is based around a simple guitar riff, augmented by two chords (Am & Gmaj7). An upright bass (synth) plays a variation of the main riff. The song develops into a conflict between grand piano and fuzz guitar, representing the two conflicting characters in the film.

I added some dreamy synth mallet sounds for atmosphere and colour, as well as including some dialogue between the two girls.

The film stars Kwak Ji-min and Han Yeo-reum

The music is non-profit, and I hope to introduce more audiences to Korean cinema and culture. All films are credited in the video. As such, I hope I may claim ‘Fair Use’, the video being for non-commercial artistic and educational purposes.

The next section is just for my own records and will be of no interest to anyone except maybe low-fi recording geeks.

The track is in the Key of Am

Tempo is 74

Garageband sequence

Track 1 Classic Stack Guitar amp

(Riff D E G E D C A)

Track 2 Clean Combo Guitar amp

Am (5th fret) – G (Ex B3 G4 D4 Ax E3)

Track 3 Upright bass (played on synth)

D E G E G A

Track 4 Grand Piano

Am – G

Track 5 Industrial Overdrive Guitar amp

Am Pentatonic Scale, 2nd position

(D 7 – 10, G 7 – 9, B 8 – 10)

Tracks 6 & 7 film clips

(Beginning of film, and bathhouse scene)

Track 8 Alchemy Synth. Mallet – ‘Dreamy Bells’ Setting: Dark Chimes. Delay 11 o’clock, Reverb 2/3

Coming soon … ‘Lover’s Phobia’

Butterfly Decal: Berlin Suite

8th February 2023

Cover photo by Harald Ansorge

The new EP by Butterfly Decal, available for download on our Bandcamp webpage: https://butterflydecal.bandcamp.com/album/berlin-suite-2

Butterfly Decal are Niall Keohane, in Birmingham, UK, and Paul Pacifico, living in Saigon, Vietnam.

Berlin Suite is a collection of 13 short instrumental pieces inspired by the German capital. A sonic portrait of the city’s history and geography, the music ranging from ambient to klezmer, modern classical to modern dance, evoking memories and images of this enigmatic city.

The suite starts with a Prelude influenced by the raucous cabaret music of the 1920s, then changes to an eastern European style reflecting Berlin’s Jewish population. The famous Kaiser Wilhelm church is depicted in Track 5, ‘Bombed Church’ while Track 11, ‘Memorials’ is a tribute to people of all nations who were killed in the city in the Twentieth Century.

Track 9 ‘Kina Imbiss’ mixes electronic and Asian instruments, and the penultimate Track, ‘Return to Rigaer’ is a Blues Rock portrait of the squatter’s street Rigaer Strasse.

The Suite ends with a slow, melancholic piece, ‘Berlin Requiem.’

Our EP may be downloaded in its entirety for £2

Some videos may be viewed on YouTube:

Thank you for your time. Please feel free to share this with any friends, or on social media.

Happy year of the rabbit (or cat)

Jingo Harleyman on Bandcamp … and it’s all FREE !

2nd December 2022

Yesterday, before work, I finally opened a Bandcamp account for my solo project Jingo Harleyman.

I am really not tech-minded, so completing anything online is a minor victory for me. I still need to add a photo and a bio but at least I have uploaded six tracks, and hope to add more today.

The address is: https://jingoharleyman.bandcamp.com/

The music, which I recorded on various phones and iPad apps, is available to download free of charge.

The six tracks are taken from the twenty-four track project ‘Hari Karachi & the Durango 4’, the soundtrack to an underground cult film.

You may watch clips from the film on YouTube:

Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsmo9VDTZXw&ab_channel=Chadav

Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNtSgvvBLLQ&t=284s&ab_channel=Chadav

Part 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RODBAMlmg8o&t=217s&ab_channel=Chadav

Part 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC3p1ChzsUk&t=405s&ab_channel=Chadav

Meanwhile, I need to learn more about Bandcamp and make the dashboard more appealing. Any help, tips or advice will be gratefully appreciated.

Furthermore my band Butterfly Decal also need a Bandcamp page, as we have a number of tracks already completed.

I’m working with my old friend Niall Keohane in this band, and Niall’s technical expertise elevates the low-fi music; he makes it sound professional and epic !

Niall’s also a multi-instrumentalist, and regularly plays gigs and makes recordings.

In case you haven’t heard anything from Butterfly Decal (there are several videos on YouTube), here’s one from Niall, about the love affair between Jazz legend Miles Davis and French singer Juliette Greco:

Thank you all very much for your time

All the best from Sai Gon

Butterfly Decal: ‘Roses for Daisy, daisies for Rosie’ – demo version.

1st December 2022

Butterfly Decal is our band’s name, and the members are Niall Keohane, in Birmingham, UK, and Paul Pacifico in Sai Gon, Vietnam although we are hoping to have a guest vocalist soon.

Here’s a new demo, guitar and clip track only, of a new track with the working title ‘Roses for Daisy, daisies for Rosie.’

The demo was recorded on Apple’s Garageband app, on an iPhone 7, so it’s very low-fi.

The purpose of a demo is to show other band members a possible song structure, and to allow the lyricist to fit words to the chords, and create a melody.

Once the song has been written, we arrange the instrumentation, and Niall makes a professional production in his home studio.

Niall also has an online radio show, ‘Flatwound Sounds.’ In his most recent broadcast, he played a track by Butterfly Decal, and I introduced the concept behind the band. The broadcast may be accessed here:

https://www.mixcloud.com/RachelMayfieldArts/the-family-man-that-can-truth-to-material-takeover-pete-flatwound/

And now, without further ado, the video:

Thank you all for listening.

Shortly we shall be setting up a Bandcamp account where the completed songs may be downloaded.

Butterfly Decal: an introduction

18th November 2022

Niall, my musical partner in Butterfly Decal, will be hosting a radio show in the UK, and playing some of our music. He asked me to write a short introduction, so here is a brief history of Butterfly Decal.

Hello, I’m Paul. Niall and I are in a band called Butterfly Decal. Only, this band is a little different because we live several thousand miles apart; Niall’s in the UK and I’m based in Sai Gon, Viet Nam.

Thanks to modern technology, we are able to make music, create videos and upload online.

Niall and I met in the 80s, played in a few bands, played a few gigs and made a few demos but neither fame nor fortune came knocking.

However, Niall kept playing, I kept moving around yet we always stayed in touch. And we always said that one day, we would play together again. And now we are.

So the band’s name … this is a bit of an in-joke; I love jangly Rickenbackers, and I once made Niall watch ‘The One I Love’ video by R.E.M. over and over, just to see and hear the guitar, so we took the name from an R.E.M. song.

Musically, we both love Jazz and Blues, Classic 60s bands, Bowie and 80s Indie music, but we’re also looking to do something a little different, Post-Rock and Maths Rock … yes, we’re British, we call it Maths Rock. We like playing around with different time signatures, using non-traditional song structures … and mixing spoken word with music, making a musical collage.

We hope you like the track Niall’s going to play … now, I’ll say tạm biệt from Sai Gon.