Peaches En Regalia

Frank Zappa. This simplistic "pop instrumental" is not all that representative of Zappa's work, but it's hard to find examples of Frank Zappa's unique "rhythmic excursions" (ie, Frank was heavily into odd tuplets and poly-rhythms) because it's so difficult to pull off. And Frank was one of the few Americans who actually made sense while other Americans, faced with the horrible consequences of their greed-obsessed, short-sighted lifestyles, shoved their heads up their asses, and for "answers", turned to organized big-business-mentality religions, corrupt major-party politicians with hidden, personal agendas, and right-wing TV mannequins spewing incredibly simplistic political and social dogma inbetween whore-like sales pitches for their rancid paperback novels.

Discipline

King Crimson. This band has gone through at least 4 different "musical periods". The first period was mostly melodic, classically influenced songs. Toward the end of the first line-up, the music tended to degenerate into more improvised, meandering "mood music". A new line-up produced a rather discordant, complex music that many (including myself) consider the best Crimson. Another line-up in the 80's has produced music that, at its best, I consider to be as good as the mid-70's stuff (and its worst sounds like Belew's interpretation of the Beatles). A signature of this period is the interweaving guitar lines, which this MIDI arrangement of a Crimson instrumental adeptly captures. Fripp is more into an African tribal sound, with some Middle Eastern modal guitar solos now. Bruford is "just beating out that rhythm on a drum".

One for the Vine

Genesis. A melodic band with a decidedly symphonic sound and composition style that owes much to western impressionistic classical. (You can spot Tony Bank's classical leanings in his compositions, but so too in his playing. In "Robbery, Assault, and Battery", he launches into a Rachmaninov "crossed hands" technique. How often do you see "rock keyboardists" do something like that? Although he doesn't get the recognition that flashier "spotlight hoggers" like Emerson and Wakeman get, Banks is one fine keyboard player... or at least he used to be back in the old days). This is what the band sounded like before Phil Collins thought that he was Diana Ross, covered Supremes tunes, and ruined the band (and inexplicably Tony started churning out formulaic pop tunes).

Roundabout

Yes. One of their more popular "standards", written well before Trevor Rabin thought that he was Van Halen and ruined the band.

Cogs and Cogs

Gentle Giant. This uptempo tune shows what the band does best; angular interplay between the various instruments. They also do some really nice counterpoint, including vocally. They were so underrated that later on in the 80's. they decided to "dummy up" their music, like many progressive acts did, in order to cash in. Unlike with Genesis and Yes, the more simplistic approach didn't rake in the dough with GG... and it ruined the band.

Tarkus

Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. A rather extensive transcription. Keyboard players should check out Keith Emerson's jazz-influenced hammond organ work. Drummers should find Carl Palmer very interesting. Oh yeah, Greg Lake was in the band too, although most of us would rather forget about Mr. Love Beach. To be fair, all three of them ruined the band together.

In the Dead of Night

U.K. Top notch drummer, bassist, keyboardist/violinist, and guitarist get together and make some really great music. I love the first U.K. recording. Check out Holdsworth's guitar playing. Jobson makes nice use of sequenced loops too. The band self-destructed before anyone ruined the music too much.

High Hopes

Pink Floyd. A really well-done MIDI arrangement (which will tax your module's polyphony if you have less than 32 voices). Check out the use of controllers to liven up the sound with a lot of human inflections.

Joan of Arc

Jeff Glatt. OK, you've read the articles that I've written for this Web Site. Maybe you even used some of the MIDI software that I've written. Now you may want to hear what kind of music I write. This MIDI file may tax your module's polyphony. The tune is missing the guitar parts (particularly the solo which goes over the section where the drummer plays the bell ride, and a solo near the beginning and at the very end). I just haven't gotten around to finishing it yet. It has a vocal, but of course, one can't record human voice via MIDI, so the vocal line is played by a clarinet in this arrangement. The tune was composed, arranged, performed, and recorded (using sequencer software that I wrote) entirely by me. To say that it's a solo project is an understatement. There's no band to be ruined. BTW, I'm a keyboard player. The song? Oh, this is my melodic period -- sort of U.K. like, or a jazzy version of Genesis, with an occasional Zappa tuplet-spasm here and there in the drum part.