PhonoBrainer

Hi Michael! Good luck on your journey! I listened to the "Forever Lament". I'd get to the vocals earlier, and more delay or reverb on the vocals in the verses. Your treatment of the vocals in the chorus, with bgv's and ear candy, is pretty cool. You have a nifty synth echoing and quoting the vocal lines in the chorus in spots - very Thomas Dolby which I totally dig. I liked the arrangement and especially those cool chords in the chorus. As far as posting songs here, one at a time is the trick. Cool stuff! Creative songwriting! cheers, -Tom

Hello travellers. Arrangement is altered, mix is retweaked, piano is rethought . . . many thanks for any comments or suggestions! Or Soundcloud:

This is interesting! Will definitely check in as you develop it. Right now the hi hat in the left side is pretty prominent. nice idea to mosh up things like this! cheers, -Tom

Starise, very well done. You maybe might drop the piano out and let it come back in (on the first piece) - sometimes it's a busy arrangement and you might prefer trying a section with less going on, to increase the chill or let it breathe. Or, not! Really nothing wrong as is. The ending, which is great, shows a more chill mood. thanks for sharing that, it was very nice piece to let the mind meander through. -Tom

Those are some chords. Very nice jazz structures. I liked the vocals, and especially in the chorus where it was effected. For some reason, when I listen your melody choices, I end up picturing your sung lines as if played by a really good trumpet player. I think as an instrumental, with soloing trumpet, it would be great as well. Then I realized your singing style invites this comparison, as you choose a lot of "falls" at the end of your lines. It's a very cool style, but my only qualm is that you might be using those falls just a bit too often in your vocals? That's such a personal thing, a style thing, but for a comment, maybe worth considering. Your melody lines work, and especially, kudos for fitting the melodies to those very solid jazz chords. Impressive. cheers, -Tom

. . . has anyone seen Transcended Dimensions and Bapu in the same room? At the same time?

Did you guys catch the bass lines? Really understated but boy do they fit the piece well. In the first minute or so, I felt like I was fighting to hear the cadence, the rhythm. A lot of guitar timings that didn't seem to mesh or sync. And then I realized, not only did the rhythm get tighter as the song progresses - but great melody, super vocal, and those stringy mellotrons in the background. And the chorus? bgv's were really nice. So I came to see the rhythm as something more live, perhaps not in perfect sync, but very much as if they were all grooving in a room. And I liked it. And, holy crap, there are no drums! That's an ambitious leave-out. I'd say it works a treat. very cool. cheers, -Tom

Love that tele. Bass sits perfectly. Vocals are great, but she is a little forward in the mix for me, certainly right on top of the mic. But pretty much, killer vocal! I love this style of music, and I love this show particularly. Dialogue Shakespeare would be proud of, in the setting of a boom town. Just a great show! Your guitar tones are absolutely awesome, but it's your playing as much as it is Pod Farm. Really great work! I'd just make a little note of some guitar editing choppiness in just a couple of spots. I'm sure you know where they are! Any chance those couple of notes could go from truncated to smoothly decaying away? This is a killer song. Very well done! cheers, -Tom

Thanks, Freddy, appreciate the thoughts. I agree the song is ok but I think it really needs the video to be worth listening to. Weird. cheers, -Tom

It's the Lynn song machine at it again. Really cool tune here. One mix idea would be that open hi-hat, it's getting speared into a swoosh instead of ringing naturally. Are you compressing that thing a ton? And its volume in the left side leaps out of the groove. The rest of the hi-hat sounds nice and controlled. I like the congas. The killer stuff is your vocal and harmonized bgv. Wish I could do that. Do you send both to the same delay? nice mover, Lynn. cheers, -Tom

I agree with James about the full-on start from the get-go. Might build it a little. Vocal clarity needs a bit of help - I think that excellent phaser flangey guitar is masking the vocals. And your vocals have gobs of treatment on them. Might look at some different pannng, or better yet, if you haven't already, cut an eq dip in the guitar where you want to poke the vocal through. Something like that. When the guitar solo comes in, really really sweet!!! Now this is how you groove with a Pict! Loved it. __- - -- the second song, that acoustic guitar is really bright, and the vocals are doubled with delay? I'd knock some upper 6 - 10khz eq out of that guitar and that might help vocal clarity. --- third song, like that groove and the guitar lines. Drums are a little buried on this. Turn 'em up a tad maybe? Very very tasty lead guitar choices. I didn't like how it ended abruptly so the UFO's could come in. Q- why is this a blend of songs, as opposed to giving each one a life of its own? I'm sure you have your reasons . . . just a thought. Overall it's an ambitious collection of seriously good tunes, just needs some mix polish. Your vocals sound good, just maybe less goop on them and turn them up a little. cheers, -Tom

I liked how the vocal was out in front of this one. And that was one adventurous vocal performance. Well done. Percolating bass was nice as well. cheers, -Tom

Thank you. I will listen in earnest, but without a doubt, you are my YouTube hero. I like the presentation and may streaming immortality be good to you, and your music! cheers, -Tom

Whoa, great slow one. Vocals and bgv's especially, quite good. Some spots, the foundation chords clash with the melody, maybe 1:25, some synth holdover might not be in line with the melody? I dunno. The drums seem a bit subdued in the mix, maybe somehow make some room for them. But I thought the song itself was killer. Those bgv's particularly add a ton to the vibe. cheers, -Tom

No boredom for you, no walls for you. Lots of groove for you, lots of happenin' bassline for you. And you, and you. cheers, -Tom

Well, when Bob starts doing my job as pointer-outer, you know things are going well! Kudos! Good comments there. I thought the mix and performances were basically good and the vocals quite well mixed, up front, Daryl's voice is high quality and extremely listenable always. If I may be allowed a subjective moment? as for the song itself, perhaps I didn't listen hard enough but the subject and the easy rhymes didn't really engage me that much. That said, I believe the Travelling Wilburys would have sold 10 million copies of this one, which goes to show you, I dunno squat. cheers, -Tom

Gosh, that's good. Guitars are special but I found the drum choices equally cool. The ride hits the right spots perfectly. I'd try some bass if I could find it in this mess! cheers, -Tom

Soundtracky goodness. Your choices with that toy piano/glockenspiel thing were nice. The mellotron had a slightly off-key quality somehow, that kept giving me anxiety. Nice work, very creative! cheers -Tom

I bet most people still listen to the end, which tells us something. As I've said before, just to let it all hang out there without feeling limitations - amazing. It makes conventional critique quite pointless, really. I liked it. cheers, -Tom

It's friggin awesome, great musicianship. I would say the mix balance seemed to tilt away from the bass guitar, and towards the hi-hats. But it's a jazz bass-Geddy sounding kind of thing, and you might not want the bass balls in favor of that nice midrange attack. Pretty cool growl up there. cheers, -Tom

Well, for starters, I wasn't "upset" that you covered H. Cali, just remarked that I wouldn't and commented on your bravery On to this one! I dig it. It's got a cool eighties feel, and your vocal arrangement, with the deeper part coming in, very inventive. I have not heard the original. If anything, I'd bump the vocal up in volume a bit. I like the mix treatments, nice compression and reverb. The snare has that huge 80's rvb sound, which depending on the tune, I think is quite appropriate. It certainly is here. The lead vocal seems dry by comparison - maybe add more delay or rvb, maybe double your lead vocal? Then it would slot in to the mix a bit better, for me, anyway. I kept hearing Psych Furs mix while I was listening to this, as a reference. This is a cool tune and thanks for giving it life! Nice job. -Tom

As singing practice, a good choice I reckon. I love this song, but no power on earth would make me touch a cover of it. It's a most excellent song, possibly criminally overplayed in the 1970's . . . You have talent as many do - I just think there are some songs that probably shouldn't be covered. Right? Wrong? Anyway, kudos on your courage and best of luck with it! Big, big balls! Next up, Stairway to Heaven? cheers, -Tom

nice tune, agreed on piano down a little, vocals up. Maybe a "C" section or a bridge. I dunno. It's a bopper with a nice vocal. cheers, -Tom

Probably your best yet in my opinion. Great mix, particularly the panning choices. Every instrument was in its own lane. Lyrics are great and delivered well. More little drum fills might be a plus - ocassionally the drums sound a bit over compressed? Do you have a "Drum bus" that is slamming both the toms AND the cymbals the same amount? I dunno. This is a very relatable tune. Nice job! -Tom

Thanks Bjorn! No Getty archive, which I will now dutifully go look up. I like your travel videos, you do a great job. Thanks for the kind words. And the credits? Yes, anything for a laugh. Starise! Thanks much . . . It's a bundle of images. I'm glad you are not wasting too much time trying to ferret out a narrative. I think they add up to something about limitations on creativity, external and internal. There is some thread to those images, but I'm damned if I could really tell you what it was. Glad you like the effort! Lynn, thanks a lot. It's just a fun ride for me and hopefully you, too! I appreciate the comments greatly. Thanks, Varorium! Sometimes it's good to keep it weird. I'll say "hi" to Herbie for you! Glad you liked it, thanks for the thoughts . . . Paul, spot on with "my own private exhibition" - it just felt cool to wrap it up with the visual references to the earlier stuff. Probably makes it all seem like something much more meaningful than it really is. I appreciate your comments, thanks!