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.