Experimental Music – Page 2 – George Blamey-Steeden

SHOPLIFTERS & SIGNWRITERS

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‘The Face of Summer’s Shadow’ photo by Zoolon

No idea who painted the graffiti

A while back, I’d gone into a Poundland store for a carton of milk. Not thinking, I asked the girl at the till how much she wanted for it. She sighed, looked at me like I was an idiot, raised her eyes, shook her head, then lifted up a carrier bag with ‘Poundland’ written on it, ran her finger over the bit that read ‘Pound’, curled a bit of her hair around the same finger, then sighed one last time before saying, “A pound”. She didn’t add ‘twat’ but I sensed she would have if she could have. I never went back to that branch in case I was the talk of the staff. Embarrassing.

However, just this week I’d forgotten to re-order padded envelopes. In a panic I rushed out to Poundland – not the same one as the incident with the milk carton. I got my envelopes then noticed the sign, ‘All Shoplifters Will Be Prosecuted’. So confusing. It was the ‘ALL’ that threw me. The thought hit me that maybe in other stores the policy is that only ‘SOME’ shoplifters get nicked – a bit like shoplifting prosecutions work on a relaxed basis. I decided to research this some more then realized I was drifting toward ‘sado’ territory and gave up.

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I guess it could be worse. I found this sign below on a Google images search. Maybe it’s for the best that dyslexics don’t take up shoplifting or signwriting.

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I was asked to describe myself recently – in a good way as opposed to the usual ‘waste of space’ way. I’d never been asked that before. After a decent think and not wanting to gloss over my faults – loads – I came up with the opening verse to a song, ‘Ants’ I wrote when I was 16. I think these words still cover me. Part of the lyric went like this;

I’m blind to all that’s going on around me

Blind to all the secrets others share

Blind to all the politics of people

To me most things get lost into thin air

Also I would add the words of, – forced on me on most occasions as a kid sat in the back of my parent’s car, playing on a loop – Joni Mitchell’s line, ‘Give me spots on apples but leave me the birds and the bees’.

That just about sums me up. Maybe it would do me no favours on my CV.

Now for some music. My song ‘Hooked’ from the ‘Rainbows End’ album;

Below, my two albums for sale on Bandcamp;

Lastly, a brilliant new number from the weird – also in a good way – Aurora called ‘Queendom’. Here’s the official video. Enjoy.

MENTOS & EXHALATION GIRL

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‘Where it Begins’ by Zoolon

A true story from yesterday. I was in the queue at the Post Office down town when the lady in front of me turned around to ask me if I had the time. It’s one of those loaded questions that can catch you out, so I played it safe and told her it was 3.24pm. She seemed good with that answer.

The problem was that she had bad breathe way beyond any bad breathe I’d ever smelt before. It was that bad I reckon she could strip paint. Really sickening bad breathe that made me urge – ‘urge’ being a word used a lot in Devon where I grew up. So uniquely horrible was her breathe that I figured she can’t be a regular human. Maybe an alien, or – a big ‘or’ I’ll admit – a superhero who’s special power was inflicting death by halitosis on enemies of the Universe. That was it, she’s a super hero called ‘Exhalation Girl’. Then it hit me. In my pocket I had some Mentos that might just help her cut back on the anti-social mouth pong. The random thought arrived that I should politely offer her one of my Mentos. Almost straight away, that random thought was overtaken by another. Was Mentos her equivalent of Kryptonite? Death of a superhero by mint? I never did find out. I bottled on the polite bit. There’s no polite way of telling a superhero her breathe chucks up. I’d hate to be Exhalation Girl’s dentist.

Anyway, words from a while back, still in verse form at the moment, now revisited for a new song I’m working on;

WHAT REMAINS

A song buzzing in my head

A melancholy ring

I know you’ll never listen out

For this pawn who would be king

I sense you couldn’t care less

But I’ll say it all the same

I’ll tell you what I’m thinking

‘Don’t hate the player; hate the game’

Yesterday, tomorrow

Lost and born again

Yesterday, tomorrow

Another tired refrain

I’ve seen the cat that got the cream

And the dogs who hunt in packs

Looks like you’ve got a Royal Flush

And me a pair of Jack’s

I don’t believe in miracles

I don’t believe in luck

Will stage fright grab a hold on me

Leaving me dumbstruck?

Yesterday, tomorrow

Things don’t look the same

Yesterday, tomorrow

There’s nothing to explain

I surrendered to a sleepless night

Waited for the dawn

A blackbird sung his first-light song

Told me you were gone

In the corridors of learning

I trod ancient cobblestones

My hiding place a shadow

You always knew I hunt alone

Yesterday, tomorrow

I count losses, you count gains

Today is not a great place

Today’s just what remains

Next an experimental sound manipulation I composed called ‘World of Shadows’ as a gentle (ish) conclusion to my ‘Liquid Truth’ album. I hope you enjoy;

I had always thought I had a seriously long name, but the master of ambient music beats me by miles. His name? Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, RDI. You’re only going to do well in life or fail badly with a name like that – no in-betweens. It’s good he prefers to be known as just ‘Eno’ – a least he gave dyslexics like me a break.

A short, but excellent number from Eno called ‘By This River’.

AN AFTERMATH & A PHOBIA

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When I discovered it in the fridge I thought, ‘Brilliant, it may look like it’s been in the hands of a sculptor whose polished it a bit, but it’s a proper French croissant and it’s mine all mine’. The first clue that it wasn’t a croissant came when I picked it up and it weighed about what 20 sacks of croissants would weigh. So odd. The thing was, apart from the weight, there was also the smell – nothing like the magical scent of a croissant. I’ve checked it out and it’s called Oscypek (that word reads like it’s a kind of wild bird that has a habit of biting Australians), a surreal smoked cheese made of salted sheep milk from the Tatra Mountains of Poland. As cheese goes I’m sure it’s a really great cheese yet looking at it worries me. It has a certain presence that makes me uncomfortable. Odder, odd. Later a mate told me I must have ‘Taurophobia’. I hadn’t a clue what that was but found out it’s a fear of cheese. I hope not as my dinner tonight is a favourite of mine, macaroni cheese.

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Anyway, I’ve been writing about turning ‘poems into songs’ recently (if you’re interested, see the link at the top of the page). I thought I’d reverse the process and try to convert one of my own lyrics to poetry and give it a new title;

THE AFTERMATH OF THE ‘BIG ONE’

Stars instead of streetlights

Two moons instead of one

Touch the edge of heaven

Give breath to a dying Sun

After the blaze of glory

Comes the flickering light

What’s left has no shadow

No vultures in flight

Take off this mask

See how it burns

In the game of Russian roulette

A weapon now rests at your temple,

Your time on the trigger just drags

Take off this mask

See how it burns

Give breath to a dying Sun

Don’t blink, smile or hide

Please, whatever you are or might have been

Or maybe will be, maybe not, just

Give breath to a dying Sun

Like I’ve always said, writing a poem is harder than writing a lyric! Music time. Here’s a short collection of my songs just posted on ReverbNation. I’m testing ReverbNation out in terms of another promotion source for my stuff. I’ll see how it goes. I hope you enjoy listening.

If you want to buy either of my two latest albums, ‘Rainbows End’ or ‘Dream Rescuer’ the link is via the cover art on this page.

DIRECTION WARS

(a photo I took of the Rebel’s ‘This Way, That Way’ sign a couple of weeks ago)

DIRECTION WARS

Episode V

‘THE DIRECTION SIGN’S FIGHT BACK’

A long, long time ago

far, far away, quite near the cliff edge

just off Folkestone High Street it was a period of civil war

Under the leadership of Daft Tom Tom

The Satnav Empire were hell bent on making

all the crap old Road Directions Signs redundant forever more

The ‘Direction Signs’ Rebels, led by Princess Roadmapeah

were fighting back. Armed with just a few ‘THAT WAY, THIS WAY SIGNS’

their aim was to undermine The Satnav Empire by confusing all Satnav users

thus buying themselves a little time to organize the fight back that might save the day

The only problem with this plan devised by The Rebel’s own young Luke Bicycle Lane Walker?

It’s a load of rubbish!

Enough of that. Time for some music. This one is called ‘Hooked’ and it’s from the new album. I hope you enjoy;

https://soundcloud.com/zoolon/hooked

Also, Zoolon has had a great review on Bandcamp for the Rainbows End album;

“‘Rainbows End’ follows in step with Zoolon’s album, ‘Dream Rescuer’ having a marvelous kaleidoscope of sound. It’s a beautiful blend of music, each track flows brilliantly into the next. The album captures the surreal nature of the past, present and future. While the lyrics are subtle they’re emotionally charged and quite powerful, begging us to look at love and loss of both the person and the planet. Highly recommended. Favorite track: All Winter Long.”

Here’s the link to Bandcamp if you feel like adding the Rainbows End album to your music collection;

OLDER AND WISER

TURNING A POEM INTO A SONG

I recently had the privilege to be commissioned by the gifted poet, lovely lady and WordPress blogger, Vivian Zems, to turn one of her poems she’d written called ‘Older and Wiser’ into a song. Vivian decided on the genre for the composition and that was all I required. I got to work on this collaboration project and not long after I sent Vivian her completed song. I was well and truly chuffed to bits when she told me just how much she loved the final product. Since then Vivian has produced a brilliant music video to accompany her song (see/hear above vid). Vivian’s blog can be found at https://smellthecoffeeweb.blog/ and I strongly recommend a visit. Thank you for the commission, Vivian.

It was back in August 2017 I posted ‘When a Poem Becomes a Song’. The object of the post was to introduce my new, seriously affordable product. I’d thought for some time that there are some great poets and writers out there on WP who may not be musicians, who would like to see their creations produced as songs. Better still, the songs would become the royalty free property of the writer. I explained in that earlier post (https://zoolonhub.com/2017/08/16/when-a-poem-becomes-a-song/) how the whole process works.

The reason I can produce my material at a cost massively less than others in the market is simply because I handle the whole process myself. I keep my overheads low. There’s no individual fees for a composer, musicians or vocalist hire, studio hire, production, mixing and mastering or other third-party charges involved as I do all the work myself. It is because of this my charges are a tiny fraction of what otherwise would be the case. To back up my credentials I can advise that I have a 1^st Class Degree in Creative Music Technology plus a number of albums (including one of sound art) to my name, plus I play a number of different instruments and work from my own studio – low overheads! The writer gets to approve the final product before parting with any money.

If anyone out there is interested and wants more information, then simply email me at zoolonaudio@gmail.com and I’ll get back to you.

As another example of how words written by another can become a song, one that ended up on my Dream Rescuer album called ‘Sunlight and the Dust’;

If any of you are tempted to see your work become a song you know where I am.

Happy New Year, Vivian; Happy New Year to everyone.

Zoolon aka George

CASTAWAY

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(a photo of a sequined cushion taken with a microscope attachment for a mobile phone – my excuse is that I was bored senseless at the time I took this)

Over what was a good Christmas – even though it mainly comprised of putting the spreadsheet of all spreadsheets in the history of spreadsheets together – my mind did one of its random things and I found myself thinking about some old words I wrote three years ago. They were the words that eventually got changed a bit, jumbled around and became the lyric for the title track of an album entitled ‘Liquid Truth’ I made in the days before Zoolon. They read like this;

All my bridges burnt

No sparkle in the stars

No redness in the sunset

Just the sad song of guitars

You have a version of truth I can’t believe

You’re all wrapped up in lies I’ve got to leave

You tell liquid truth from behind those eyes

But you hide it well behind indifferent sighs

How soon ‘not now’ just becomes ‘never’

And never nearly always means forever

Don’t expect to be loved when you hate yourself

You will find that’s not so good for your health

All I seek is to live by the truth

If I don’t leave right now I’ll surely lose

When will all the pieces come together?

And if I don’t like the picture am I stuck with it forever

My composition, ‘Castaway’ as in the video below, is one of only two instrumental tracks on my ‘Rainbows End’ album. Both the instrumentals are piano pieces. Maybe the music fits the mood of the words from before? I hope you enjoy.

‘Rainbows End’, the album is available to buy and download at Bandcamp. It’s not expensive and has had its first great review. Below takes you to Bandcamp;

ZOOLON’S CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR ONE & ALL

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(the artist looks to be Olbingski – I think)

Since ‘Zoolon’ being on social media I’ve had quite a few requests from people asking if ‘ERASING THE 38TH’ is available to download. I’ve never included it in any of my albums previously. I’ve posted the song on this blog before so some of you will know it already.

It’s an experimental song and it deals with the potential for another stupid war in as surreal a style as I could make it. At the time I composed it that potential was just flexing its muscles a bit. Right now, that potential has grown like a cancer. In this season of traditional worldwide goodwill hopefully the subliminal effect will be that that same potential will at least go into remission.

As of now the song is available to download from my Soundcloud for FREE; no strings attached. All you have to do is simply go to the link below, hit the ‘More’ button (it’s next to ‘Share’ button) and on the drop box you’ll see ‘Download’. Hit that and it’s done. I hope you enjoy.

Finally, whatever your code, creed or take on all things, I wish everyone of you a

HAPPY FESTIVE SEASON

https://soundcloud.com/zoolon/erasing-the-38th

Should anyone need to get a partner or friend a last-minute gift, below is the link to my new album ‘Rainbows End’ on Bandcamp. It’s just got its first great review there. You can listen before you buy. It costs £4 (or equivalent in other currencies) and can be gifted via the recipient’s email address.

BECOMING ZOOLON

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This ‘something’ was written in March 2016 following an 18-month drought of creativity, triggered by having discovered the crap reality that having a decent degree doesn’t mean you just walk into a half decent job (or any job). I only stumbled on these words the other day tucked inside an old guitar case I keep under the bed. They read a bit juvenile angsty, but when I wrote them I think I was at odds with the world. It was around that time I decided to beat the unforgiving system and become Zoolon.

THE BEAUTY OF THE CHASE

The mixed-up universe inside my head?

Yeah? What of it? And?

I used to keep it under lock and key

It’s full of bright colours, full of alphabets

I know I’ll never read or see

I remember not so long ago

I bought a season ticket to a dark place

Where I lived in a ring of shadow

Where I went missing leaving no trace

Where words and music were under curfew

Where I had no breathing space

Where I discovered the kill could never match

The beauty of the chase

It feels weird reading that one again, anyway, time for some music. Another one from my new album, ‘Rainbows End’. Each track from the album can be downloaded for £1 or the whole ten track album for just £4 (or equivalent in whatever currency you use). The purchase links follow the song. Anyway, this lively number is called ‘Hooked’. I hope you enjoy;

ALL WINTER LONG

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There’s always something random, surreal even, to be seen if you keep your eyes open. I got up at silly o’clock yesterday to go the cinema to catch the new Star Wars movie. The older, large bloke behind me in the queue to buy tickets got himself a triple scoop strawberry ice cream cone…really! It was 7.30am. I got to wondering how he’d cope with it when the lights went out in the cinema. I needn’t have worried, he scoffed it in just the two major chomps on the way to the screening. Impressive in an unimpressive way. It reminded me that I’d forgotten to eat any breakfast, but I passed on the idea of ‘Ice Cream at Dawn’. Also yesterday, I found my rubbish handwritten notes of some ‘maybe lyric’ words I’d forgotten I wrote. It’s something I wrote two summers ago. I never did get around to a title.

There’s a carnival in the square tonight

Fireworks, a carousel

Clowns, a helter-skelter

A street market where the tortured buy and sell

From the window of a high-rise

We can watch the world go by

And from within our secret hideaway

We’ll watch a tired sun die

We can make up stories

Of what’s going down in the street

The punches and the kisses

The high-flown and deadbeat

Rest with me a minute

Watch the scene unfold

Stay a while, I’ll prove to you

All that’s precious isn’t gold

And all along the riverside

Where the lost and beaten lay

The flap of wings disturbs the quiet

Of the moon and stars at play

Time for some music. Here’s a song, All Winter Long, from my newly released album, ‘Rainbows End’. This one starts out acoustic then builds itself a whole new platform. I hope you like it;

Click here for ‘Rainbows End’ album link if you wish to just listen or buy

(If you would like to reblog this post you can do it only the Reader as I am on the business subscription)

AGED 19

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I’d just started blogging last year when I first posted a piece about The Étaples Military Cemetery in the Pas-de-Calais department of Northern France. The Cemetery stands on the former site of a vast military hospital complex used by the Allies during the First World War. Being away from the frontline trenches the military hospital was relatively safe from enemy land attacks. The hospital could cope with up to 20,000 casualties at any one time.

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Given that we are so close to Remembrance Day I thought a reprise was in order. I was 20 when I visited the Cemetery. There were rows and rows of graves that simply gave a name and an age, ‘Aged 19’. It was food for thought and reflection. The gravestones seem to speak. They told me how lucky I was.

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The song itself remains a demo version, nothing more. Just a simple experiment of possible styles of composition and construction. That’s all. It’s what the song’s about that’s important. Nothing else. I won’t post the whole lyric, although there is a link to the song itself that still sits on my old SoundCloud.

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AGED 19

On that day I saw a thousand graves

They all said ‘Aged 19’

Wall to wall white marble stone

Stood on grass so green

They went on for miles

As far as I could see

Relics of remembrance

A cosmic storm’s debris

Were they just a band of brothers or just a band of lonely ghosts?

What was good is now on the edge of being the most obscene

It’s a lonely road to travel when you are so young

Where did it all go so wrong? Could it have been foreseen?

Guess that it hardly matters now

When the stones say ‘Aged 19’

Battles fought and lives all lost

Or something in between?

This unholy

Heaven’s door

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https://soundcloud.com/george-blamey-steeden/aged-19