Experimental Music – Page 3 – George Blamey-Steeden

OBSESSION’S NOT A PERFUME

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It’s a logical conclusion

No time for turning back

Obsession’s shut the door on you

That’s a thing they call payback

Obsession’s not a perfume

It’s just a self-centred private curse

An ever-growing cancer

You’re not the cure; you’re not the nurse

You’re in denial about the gathering up

Of all the hearts you led astray

Yet when those broken hearts cried for you

You pinned them on a green hill faraway

You turn sweet dreams into nightmares

You can do it with just a smile

You sold your soul for a lock of my hair

Kept it hidden away in some old file

It’s a logical conclusion?

Is that a window or just a crack?

Obsession’s outside looking in

‘If you want it darker’ paint it black

(a ‘work in progress’ fresh off the pen lyric waiting for a bit of melody magic)

The new album will be on its way soon but for now here’s and old number, the original version of ‘Sunlight & The Dust’ – as opposed to the version on my ‘Dream Rescuer’ album. I hope you enjoy;

https://soundcloud.com/zoolon/sunlight-and-the-dust

ZOOLON’S TAKE ON OPTIMISM

GEORGE BACK

(a photo of me optimistically getting a bit of practice in for when I get to walk the high wire)

‘It ain’t over till the fat lady sings’ is (according to Wiki) ‘a colloquialism which is often used as a proverb. It means that one should not presume to know the outcome of an event which is still in progress. More specifically, the phrase is used when a situation is (or appears to be) nearing its conclusion’. Optimism by any other name.

My random thought on ‘optimism’ is that it’s over-rated and generally ends in tears. Plan for the worst and if the worst doesn’t happen then you’ve got yourself a result.

Example. I’m sat in the stand at a football match. My team is 3-0 down and we’re in the last minute of time added on. Sat behind me is a bloke with his young son. The son asks his dad, “We can still win can’t we?” His dad replies, “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings”. To win we need 4 goals in 60 seconds without conceding. Impossible. Obviously we lost. The kid asks, “Who’s the fat lady?” Dad replies, “Some opera singer I think”. False optimism.

The opera bit of the conversation caused me to think of the operatic singer in the band ‘Within Temptation’. I rate this band. Sharon den Adel is the lead vocalist (what a voice) with this symphonic metal band. If you don’t know them here’s a taster; the nearly optimistic song ‘Our Solemn Hour’;

Staying on subject, I took a photo this morning of this road sign (below). I optimistically presumed she must be the patron saint of dyslexics everywhere. When I checked her out on Google I discovered she isn’t a patron saint of anything. Saint Eanswythe (aka Eanswide) was an Anglo Saxon princess who sometimes turned into a fish. I found it odd that she chose to turn into a fish. Once again ‘optimism’ let me down. I am a fully-fledged (have the certificate) dyslexic, by the way.

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Here’s one of my compositions, ‘Shout at Newsreels’. The title speaks for itself. I hope you enjoy;

https://soundcloud.com/zoolon/shout-at-newsreels

MARIONETTES & SOMERSAULTS

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Sometimes it’s a pain being Zoolon. Monday morning I was down in the kitchen having breakfast (Shreddies with a chopped banana). The news was playing to itself on the TV. I wasn’t taking much of it in. Then, out of the blue I heard the newsreader say, “With police numbers dropping the Metropolitan Police are no longer investigating somersaults.” ‘Do what?’ I thought. The Metropolitan Police look after London, but I had no idea that somersaults were illegal there. It wasn’t until about ½ hour later, with ‘somersaults’ playing on my mind instead of creativity that I checked the story out on Twitter and discovered that for ‘somersaults’ read ‘some assaults’. Like I said, being Zoolon can be a pain.

Anyway, I’ve got a song together that could pass the whistle test and end up on the new album. That is if I still like it after the mixing etc. Here’s the lyric. I’ve had the idea buzzing around in my head since the marionette festival I went to last month in Charleville-Mézières.

THE MARIONETTE’S TALE

The marionette told me her story

Saying “It’s an illusion; I’m not alive

But once I was a human

Before He made me take the dive”

At the Festival of Puppeteers

She spoke of harmonious ceasefire

No war, no bombs, no handguns

No ‘great’ walls and no barbed wire

The Borough of Queens own Orange Man

Answered, “No way, no way girl

But you do look half gropeable

Go on girl, give us a twirl.

Your kind are spreading false news

You realize you’re heading for a fall

And what do non-white females know?

I’ll tell you what, the likes of you, they know f**k all”

The marionette told me her story

Saying “It’s an illusion; I’m not alive

But once I was a human

Before He made me take the dive”

Time for some music. A re-run – in case you missed it last week – of my Scandinavian ‘Noir’ instrumental track, ‘Hidden Beneath’ that will be on the new album.

https://soundcloud.com/zoolon/hidden-beneath

ZOOLON & THE FESTIVAL

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Most likely I will only have time for irregular visits to the blog at best for the next week as I’m going to be at the Festival Mondial des Theatres de Marionnettes in Charleville-Mézières.

I’ll catch up when I get back.

Random Thought: Before I sign off I have to say that I was in town a bit earlier this afternoon when I overheard this girl saying to her mate, “My mum don’t believe in The Internet.” I got to wondering what her mum puts on the national census form under the heading, ‘Religion’. Having said that, I’ve got a brother who wrote ‘Jedi’ on his form. Enough people did the same and Jedi is now an accepted religion in these parts.

Regards,

Zoolon aka George

ZOOLON & THE SPIDERS

provins1 (2) (Entrance to The Church of St Guillotine, Patron Saint of The Headless, Provins, France)

It’s been humid and very hot in these parts this week. In my studio, I’ve been boiling alive. Even so, I’ve not been out much. Just working.

Whatever, yesterday my dear mother calls out saying she needs to borrow my car so she can take some garden waste down to the local dump. I give her the keys. Not a problem.

Today, I need to buy some stuff in town. I get to my parking space and notice, as per usual this time of year, around the wing-mirrors of my car there are spiders webs. That’s a bit of a nuisance, because while I generally prefer things from the animal kingdom over humans, I’m not good with spiders. I wouldn’t harm them, but they do freak me out. I always ignore the wing-mirror spiders the best I can.

I open the driver’s door and settle in. What I had overlooked – not even thought about if the truth be told – was that the bags of mum’s garden waste contained an insect type accidental ethnic cleansing. Inside my car, on both the front and back seats, roof, the dashboard, everywhere and – an important bit, this is – also on me, at least 40, maybe 50 spiders of all shapes and sizes. I screamed like a girl, of course. Logically, I should have had my GoPro fixed to my forehead and videoed the whole thing; put it up on my YouTube channel and watch it go viral. But I didn’t do that.

It’s at times like these a handy barge pole would be useful. All I could find was an old dry mop. I used it to chase the spiders away best I could. Still in a state of worry, on the edge of panic I drive off.

Because it’s as hot as the Amazonian Rain Forest inside the car, I’ve got the windows down. The traffic lights turn red. I stop. It is then I notice one of the wing-mirror spiders (an orange one, I was later to name Adolf) is trying to make a break for it into the relative safety of my car. I purse my lips and blow as hard as I can in the hope the spider will get the message and turnabout face. With my lips all pursed up like that, a girl crossing the road thinks I’m blowing her a kiss. She frowns and looks offended. My immediate thought that my day is going horribly wrong. The lights change and I’m off without being able to plead my innocence. I make a note to myself to thank mother dear later – not.

It’s happened again. The North Korea missile thing. Madness. Every time that madness begins again I think of my song Erasing the 38^th written a while back when I first became fully aware the world could end in a flash simply because some lunatic hasn’t thought things through. I’ve posted this song before, yet it’s time for a reprise.

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

By the way, here’s link to my new album, ‘DREAM RESCUER’. It costs not much, and is available worldwide. If you fancy buying it and feel able to post a review on Bandcamp, I’d appreciate it.

A POSTCARD FROM BEFORE

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(me having a laugh with my GoPro)

I’ve been mucking about with new lyrics/melodies lately. Some are working; some I let fly away back where they came from. For random reasons I’ll probably never figure out, history has been on my mind – perhaps the flavour of French history from last week has stayed with me? Anyway, it’s the small pieces of history that never made the history books that fascinates me. The song I’m working on presently, ‘A Postcard from Before’ is themed on the people who never got talked about much from back in the dark days of WW2. Somewhere down the line, when I get my act together this may appear on a new album as a whole song. I hope so.

A POSTCARD FROM BEFORE (extract from a new song)

I found a bent and buckled postcard date-stamped 8^th May 1944,

Sent back home to England to an address that is no more,

I couldn’t make out the signature, just the words, “What are we fighting for?’

I love you, I’ll be back home soon, after this nightmare of a war”

I wondered if he made it home, if he managed to get out alive,

Or in a battle on the frontline some place, maybe he didn’t survive?

And at the house that’s now demolished, did she wait in hope he would arrive,

In hope that come the peacetime, they had a love story to revive

I’ll sing a song of hope for them,

Even though they’re now no longer here,

I’ll sing a song of hope for them,

Won’t let their memory just disappear.

Here’s a piece of music, an older number I wrote a while back, ‘Rebirth’ to accompany the words. A substitute piece of music I know, but the sentiment feels right. Hope you like it;

https://soundcloud.com/zoolon/rebirth

By the way, here’s link to my new album, ‘DREAM RESCUER’. It costs not much, and is available worldwide. If you fancy buying it and feel able to post a review on Bandcamp, I’d appreciate it.

Also, the Zoolon Audio website it is at www.zoolonaudio.com

ZOOLON’S FRENCH TRIP

Having just returned from a spectacularly hot France I thought I’d share a few random thoughts that hit me while I was there. But first, to set the French scene a bit of music, Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot singing ‘Un Jour Comme Un Autre’. For reasons unknown, I like this number;

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This is a statue in the Palace of Fontainebleau just outside of Paris. I was told that normally you must queue for ages to get in the place. What with the high temperature the day I visited (40 degrees Centigrade; 104 Fahrenheit) very few people/tourists had been stupid enough to go out and about, except me. No queues at all.

While I was standing looking at the statue an older American bloke was stood next to me. We stood together vacantly staring at it. It was then that the American asked me what I thought the statue of the girl with multiple breasts was all about. In my mind, I was guessing it might be a representation of some Greek Goddess, but I didn’t mention that. All I said was, “I think she’s the one who went down in history as the most successful wet-nurse of all time.” He just nodded in agreement then let me know his wife was about three rooms back still reading the notes on what was in each room and that he was bored out of his brains. Nice guy. We got on well.

provins

Monoprix is a French retail chain. Having run nearly out of toilet paper where I was staying I popped into the branch in a town called Provins (a beautiful old medieval town I would strongly recommend to anyone). The place sells pretty much everything yet after looking everywhere and then some, I couldn’t find toilet paper. I discovered that they didn’t sell it. Why? I mean they sold everything else you might need for a bathroom or loo. This could mean only one thing, namely that the residents of Provins are all morbidly constipated.

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French chateaux and palaces major on ceilings like this one from Fontainebleau. I rarely look up. But this one (the photo shows only a little part of it) did catch my eye. The gold plating is the genuine stuff. The sad thing was I didn’t have a ladder, a wallpaper scraper and a bag with ‘SWAG’ written on it with me at the time as there was a small fortune to be made what with the room being empty save for me.

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Here’s another Fontainebleau shot. It shows the last ‘royal throne’ left in all of France. Looking at it the thought struck me that it was a good thing the English King, Henry VIII wasn’t French as likely his larger than average bum wouldn’t have fitted it, and even if some of his servants had shoehorns on them and had manoeuvred him down onto the throne he would have ended up stuck in it. Vive la France!

By the way, here’s link to my new album, ‘DREAM RESCUER’. It costs not much, and is available worldwide. If you fancy buying it and feel able to post a review on Bandcamp, I’d appreciate it.

https://zoolon.bandcamp.com/album/dream-rescuer

Also, the Zoolon Audio website it is at www.zoolonaudio.com

‘REXIE BELIEVES IN MAGIC’

Another song from my new album, ‘DREAM RESCUER’. This one is called ‘REXIE BELIEVES IN MAGIC’. Here’s the lyric in case you fancy singing along. I hope you enjoy;

Rexie believes in magic

Has done all along

Shipwrecked and nowhere else to go

Its time he learns to head back home

Rexie believes in magic

Has done all along

Streetwise, believes in love and fate

Still searching for his only song

Rexie sits alone

Its getting darker…

Shipwrecked and nowhere else to go

He dreams of home

And the girl he loves the most

With the girl he loves the most

Rexie believes in magic

Has done all along

Shipwrecked and nowhere else to go

He dreams of home

And the girl he loves the most

If you like the song, maybe you’d like to buy the album. You can listen to the whole album without charge at;

https://zoolon.bandcamp.com/album/dream-rescuer

It costs just £5 (plus VAT; i.e. £6 in the UK). If you do buy and feel able to post a review on Bandcamp, that would be most helpful.

TRADING INSULTS

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(a statue I spotted along West Cliff, Ramsgate – for reasons unknown, it seems to fit my song posted below)

As I understand it the 38^th parallel is the dividing line between North and South Korea. I think it was about 4 years ago when the North were talking about how close they were to building a missile that could take out cities on the east coast of the US. The news worried me and a lot of others at the time. It was as clear to me then as it is now that if they did that, the US would bomb them flat in retaliation, and if that happened it would be the end of the world as we know it.

Watching the news bulletins right now it seems that it wouldn’t take more than a cross word here and a funny look there for this whole bombing scenario to kick-off WW3. Worrying in the extreme.

I’m a simple pacifist, who understands just one thing. The only peaceful solution to any dispute is to be had when the two sides sit down and talk to each other. Maybe I’m naïve, but as of now that is what I believe they should be doing. Trading insults is pathetic.

I originally posted this song – one I wrote about the North Korean ‘threat’ 4 years ago – around the time I started blogging. It seems relevant again right now – perhaps more so than before. It is an experimental number that doesn’t take sides. It just focuses in a surreal way on how this thing could pan out if the relationship between nations goes pear-shaped. It’s called ‘Erasing the 38^th’. If you’ve not heard it before please have a listen.

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

If you fancy a visit, the Zoolon Audio website it is at www.zoolonaudio.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZoolonAudio?lang=en-gb

YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCtOtegaQCJKBCZWYJDHOTPg

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/zoolon